Zones is a powerful feature that divides the keyboard into areas, aka ‘Zones’. Zones can be one note or the whole keyboard. Zones are customisable: you could, for example, set your drum sounds to play in one octave, bass in another, synth sounds in another etc. This makes this feature ideal for live performance or a personalised production setup.
To enable Zones, hold ‘Shift’ and press the ‘Zones’ button.
A coloured LED above each key represents the Zone and destination Part assigned to it. These lights help understand where your Zones lie along the keyboard. The different colours correlate to the destination Parts. The LEDs only light above the active keys in the Zone range; when using Scale, for example, keys outside of the scale will not light up.
When Zones overlap, the zone with the lowest number takes priority. For example, Zone 1 takes priority over Zone 2, so Zone 1’s range shows on the LEDs, overriding the LEDs of Zone two where there is an overlap.
In Zone’s view, you can customise your Zones according to your needs. To enter Zones view, press the ‘Zones’ button.
While in Zones view, only the LEDs for the selected Zone will light up.
Pressing the up/down arrows to the left of the screens will move between pages one and two of Zone Settings. Between these two pages, there are fourteen adjustable parameters for each Zone.
Enter Zones view (by pushing the Zones button), select a Zone by pressing the soft buttons under their names (‘Zone 1’,’ Zone 2’ etc.). The SL MkIII supports up to eight independent Zones.
After you select a Zone, you can activate it (‘On’) or make it inactive (‘Off’). To do this turn the left-most rotary knob directly above the word ‘Active’.
Set to ‘Off’, all other Zone parameters (from ‘Dest. Part’ to ‘Channel Pressure’) will be greyed out. When moved to ‘On’, however, these parameters will brighten.
In Zones view, the second rotary knob from the left (above ‘Dest. Part’) selects the destination Part for a Zone. This destination can be ‘Selected’ (default) or Parts 1 to 8. Upon choosing a new Part, you will see LED colours change above the keys.
On the 49-key version of the SL MkIII, each Zone’s default range is C1 to C5 (all 49 notes), on the 61-note version of the device the default range is C1 to C6 (all 61 notes).
In Zones view the third and fourth knobs set the range of the Zone from lowest to highest key. This range is inclusive of the low key and high key.
Zones Mode supports overlapping zones. Overlapping is useful if you want to blend sounds, such as a piano with a synth, or an acoustic drum with a synthetic one. Of course, how you layer your Parts is up to you.
In Zones view knobs five to eight select if the Zone will adhere to the overall keyboard Octave and Transpose settings. You can also apply an Offset to the selected Zone with the Octave and Transpose parameters. By default, the Offset values are ‘0’, and both Follow settings are ‘On’.
Turn the knobs above the ‘Follow’ settings to select between ‘On’ and ‘Off’. When ‘On’, the Octave and Transpose buttons influence the Zone’s behaviour, when ‘Off’, Octave and Transpose will not affect the Zone. Turn the knobs above the Offset parameters to set a permanent Octave and Transpose shift for the Zone.
On page two of Zones view, the first, second and third knobs decide whether expression pedal (‘Expr. Pedal’), sustain pedal or footswitch signals will work with the currently selected Zone.
All three options are set to ‘On’ by default. Turn the knobs above these settings to move between on and off states.
On page two of Zones view, the fourth and fifth knobs select whether the ‘Pitch’ (pitch bend) and ‘Modulation’ wheels affect the currently selected Zone.
By default, they are both ‘On’. Rotate the knob above the respective settings for Pitch and Modulation to turn the effect of these wheels on or off.
On page two of Zones view, the sixth knob selects whether the keyboard channel aftertouch (pressure) affects the currently selected Zone. Aftertouch is on by default. Turn the knob above ‘Channel Pressure’ to choose between on and off.
You can also customise the messages aftertouch sends using Components.
Aftertouch parameters:
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Assignment: CC, NPRN, Program Change, Channel Pressure, Poly Aftertouch.
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Range of adjustment: Start (0-127) and End (0-127)
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MIDI Channel - Default, 1-16.