Parts and Multis
78
Kyra Manual
Parts and Multis
Overview
A Part is one of the eight fundamental resource units on
Kyra. A simple way of thinking of a Part is that it is a com-
plete synthesizer in itself; it has a MIDI channel, a sound
configuration (a Patch), effects and an output. In that
respect, Parts are completely independent and can be
considered self-contained synthesizers. Instruments with
multiple Parts are referred to as being multitimbral as they
can play different sounds at the same time.
At its most basic level, a Part is simply a loaded Patch.
Without any additional features that would be useful but
impractical as to play more than one Patch at a time, you
would most likely want to adjust a few things to get them
to sound right together. For example, you may want to
adjust the levels, stereo positioning etc. You could do that
by editing the Patches but that would be tedious. The solu-
tion to that is the provision of another set of parameters
outside of the Patch and they are the Part Parameters.
On Kyra, a Part does not exist in isolation, it always has
seven siblings giving a total of eight. Together, the family of
eight Parts is referred to as a Multi and represent the com-
plete performance configuration of the synthesizer. Kyra
supports storing 128 Multis. Changing the Multi reconfigu-
res the eight Parts simultaneously thus completely recon-
figuring the synthesizer ready for performance (whether
live or from a DAW).
So, think of a Part as a Patch combined with some additio-
nal Parameters that together, make a playable configurati-
on. It's worth remembering a Part has a reference to a
Patch but does not contain it (i.e. it does not take a copy of
it). So when using Patches in various Multis, it makes sense
to make a note of where the Patches are used so that if you
change the Patches later, you are not making unintentional
changes to another Multi; you can always copy a Patch if
you think you may need to share it across Multis with later
variations.
Multis are useful for both live and studio applications. For
live performance, Multis are useful for layers and splits.
Layering is the technique of placing two or more Patches
together on the same MIDI channel to achieve truly won-
derful sounds. Splitting is the technique of placing two or
more Patches split such that one Patch sounds for a given
range of keys on the keyboard, for example, a bass sound
for the left hand and a lead sound for the right hand.
For studio applications, Multis are useful for grouping
Patches together for instant recall for a song. A song can
consist of just one Multi with different Parts sounding in
various passages of the song or it can consist of more than
Summary of Contents for KYRA
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