Global controls

Global controls affect the overall output signal of your synthesizer.

Common global controls

Level or Volume: Sets the overall loudness of your sound. This control is the master output volume control of your synthesizer.
Tune: Sets the overall pitch of your sound—typically in semitone steps. Many MainStage instruments provide additional fine-tuning in cents; a hundredth of a semitone.
Glide (portamento): Sets the amount of time that it takes for one note pitch to slide up or down to another note pitch. This control is useful for emulating wind instruments that slide from note to note, rather than move directly to another clear and distinct pitch.
Bender/bend range: Bends the pitch—the oscillator frequency—up or down. This control is generally hard-wired to a pitch bend wheel on a keyboard. As the name suggests, moving the wheel up or down from its centered position bends the pitch up or down. The Bender/Bend Range parameter usually has an upper and lower limit of one octave but is typically set to around three semitones up or down. This setting is ideal for emulating small (or extreme) pitch fluctuations that occur in some instruments—such as when moving between notes with a trumpet, or bending the strings during a guitar solo.
Voices: Sets an upper limit to the number of notes that can be played at a given time. Producing notes simultaneously is known as the polyphony—literally, “many voices”—of the instrument. The Voices parameter sets an upper limit to the number of notes that can be produced simultaneously.
Unison: Used to “stack” voices—with the unison voice being heard one octave above the frequency of the played note. Because two voices are being used when you play a note, unison has two effects—it makes the sound richer and fuller, and it halves the polyphony.
Trigger mode: Determines how the polyphony of the instrument is handled when the number of notes played exceeds the number of available voices. Trigger mode also allows you to assign legato mode. Essentially, this control changes the way the synthesizer responds to your playing technique. It is invaluable when you are emulating monophonic instruments, such as flutes, clarinets, and trumpets. When you use the trigger mode control and assign a last note priority, the played note is cut off by playing another note.
- Last note priority: When new notes are triggered while all voices are playing, the synthesizer frees up polyphony (voices) by ending the notes played earliest. This is the default trigger mode of MainStage synthesizers when in a monophonic mode.
- First note priority: Notes played earlier are not stopped. In this mode you need to stop playing notes in order to play a new one after you have reached the limit of the polyphony (voices) of the instrument.

Note: The trigger mode parameter can also allow you to set priorities for lower- or higher-pitched notes when playing monophonically (one voice at a time) in some synthesizers, such as Alchemy.

There are many other global controls found on different synthesizer models that have an impact on your overall sound.

Download the guides:

MainStage User Guide: Apple Books | PDF

MainStage Instruments: Apple Books | PDF

MainStage Effects: Apple Books | PDF

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