volca sample pajen manual (or rather, a memo)

volca sample pajen is a non-official OS for the original volca sample.
The reason this OS is good is that the MIDI control limitations of the original OS are a problem.

The volca sample has 10 parts, which means you can control 10 samples simultaneously, but its MIDI reception specification is:
PART1=CH1, PART2=CH2, ... PART10=CH10
It is designed so that one part uses one MIDI channel.
Even though there are only 16 MIDI channels in total. Using 10 out of 16 for this one device...
It is a massive channel-wasting machine.

pajen Global Mode [No. 10 ON]

So, enter pajen.
By installing the pajen OS and turning on No. 10 in Global Mode,
it becomes possible to play all parts using only one channel, CH11!

In that case, the note numbers are as follows.

However, when using only one channel, it might seem like you cannot apply MIDI CC (Control Change, which changes sound parameters of the receiving device via MIDI information) to each part individually, but it actually supports CC for all parts by changing the CC numbers in detail! See below!

The image skips parts after 5, but of course, they are arranged according to the same rule up to part 10.

pajen Global Mode [No. 10 OFF / No. 9 ON]

And with pajen, if you turn Global Mode No. 10 OFF (+ No. 9 ON = CH1-10 reception enabled), it might seem like nothing has changed from the original, but that is not the case; it is a superior version that demonstrates performance exceeding the original OS.

[Advantage 1: Can play in full chromatic (accurate musical scales)]
The original OS cannot do this. pajen accepts standard MIDI scales and plays them normally. By loading synth loop waveforms, this turns it into a 10-part multitimbral synthesizer!

[Advantage 2: Velocity (MIDI information for level intensity) support]
The original OS cannot do this either. pajen accepts velocity normally, so it fully supports cases where you set velocity for each note in your DAW sequencer!

[Advantage 3: Additional CC]
CC items not present in the original have been added. It is truly a superior version. The items are in the image below.

[Advantage 4: Additional Reverb]
What catches the eye in the CC list above is the "Reverb type added in the pajen version" item. The original only has one type of reverb, but the pajen version has three. Apparently, these were actually dormant inside the unit. Although three types of reverb were prepared internally during development, due to corporate reasons,they were locked so that only one of them (Type 2) could be used. It is an episode that lets you glimpse that product development is not just about adding features, but also about cutting things that are possible.

And those reverb types are as follows.

However, the reverb level cannot be set differently for each part. What can be set for each part is only reverb ON/OFF. Which reverb type to choose and how much reverb to apply are common settings for all parts. (This is done via unit operation. Toggle ON/OFF with the part key after pressing FUNC+REVERB button, and reverb level is controlled by the reverb mix knob)

Chord playing function in Omni mode

By using the settings above, you enter a mode where you can play 3-note chords if set to Py3, or 4-note chords if set to Py4. The mechanism for this is that when you send chord notes from an external MIDI source (while Global 9 is ON and using a channel other than CH 1-11), if the currently selected Part is 5, then for Py3, it plays chords by triggering Parts 5, 6, and 7 simultaneously; for Py4, it plays chords by triggering Parts 5, 6, 7, and 8 simultaneously.

In other words, if you want to play a chord with the same sound, you must set the samples assigned to the parts configured for Py3 or Py4 to be the same, and ensure their settings are also identical.

Also, the behavior when playing these chords uses a "voice allocation" method. For example, a chord sent on CH 12 (e.g., C, E, G) is automatically expanded in a "round-robin" (sequential) fashion toward the subsequent parts, based on the part currently selected on the unit's screen.

Therefore, if you send a chord, they all play at once, and if you send single notes in order (1: C, 2: E, 3: G), it works by playing 1: C on Part 5, 2: E on Part 6, and 3: G on Part 7.

Because of this, if you don't send exactly 3 notes for Py3 or 4 notes for Py4 every time, and you mix chords and single notes, the sequence will get out of sync (e.g., 1-2-3, 1, 2-3-1, 2), and things will get confusing.

By the way, if Global 9 is set to OFF, all channels except CH 11 will react to Py3 or Py4. Therefore, you should use it with Global 9 set to ON and send chords on any channel from CH 12 to CH 16. This means that if you are playing other equipment while using the volca sample with Global 9 OFF and 10 ON for CH 11 control, these Py3 and Py4 modes will react to any channel other than CH 11, making them impractical to use. To avoid this, if you set 9 to ON, the volca sample's parts will then pick up data intended for other equipment on CH 1-10.

CC in Omni mode

As described above, Omni mode requires sending chord notes from CH 12-16 (which behave identically) with Global 9 set to ON, but CC messages must be sent to each part individually. If the currently selected Part is 5, you must send CC to Parts 5, 6, and 7 for Py3. If such a multi-channel structure is cumbersome, it is better to turn Omni mode 10 ON and manage CC transmission to all parts collectively via CH 11 only.

In other words, if you are using only one volca sample and want to push the machine to its limits using external MIDI, the conventional way of thinking is that you don't need to turn Global 10 ON. However, to make full use of CC in these Py3 or Py4 chord modes, I think it is best to turn Global 10 ON and use this CC collective CH 11 management technique.

Dron

This Dron (Drone) function, once turned ON, makes the sound play forever when the sample's LOOP is ON and the AmpEG is set to the maximum of 127. To stop this, you have no choice but to adjust the AmpEG to 126 or lower.

Honestly, I don't know what this function is for, but it has a characteristic not found in the standard LOOP of the actual unit. That is, the unit's standard LOOP loops from the very beginning to the very end, and you cannot play the attack normally and then specify a loop point to loop.

In contrast, with this Dron function, if you set the AmpEG to 127 after the sample's start has played but before the sound fades out, it will loop from that point. In other words, if you use this effectively, you can play the attack of the sound as is and only loop the decay, allowing you to do things like a sampler that lets you set loop points.

Because of this, I incorporated this Dron-based LOOP function into my homemade sequencer.

In short, S is Start Point, E is End Point, and D is Decay. If I recall correctly, this is a function where you send AmpEG 127 using this Start Point value to trigger a drone loop. And the E value is used to tweak the sample length (in other words, the loop length).

By doing this, it really behaves just like a loop point! I added it knowing that it should work in theory, but I was so excited when it actually behaved exactly as intended, haha.

※I will probably add to and revise this as needed.
For now, I think this covers the basic operations...