group

Exclusive group number for this region.

ARIA adds also the polyphony_group alias to reduce the confusion between the group opcode and the ‹group› header.

Examples #

group=3

group=334

The group opcode is used together with off_by to make something monophonic.

For example, the flute is by nature a monophonic instrument, so if a flute were recorded with one microphone and had one set of samples, it would make sense to set all its samples to have one group. A guitar is polyphonic, but each string is monophonic, so a six-string guitar would naturally be split into six groups - one per string. In these cases, the group number will be equal to the off_by number.

This is also commonly used with hi-hats - this is an example of where things can get more sophisticated with a large number of groups involved, as it’s possible to set more closed hi-hat sounds mute more open ones, but not vice-versa, and it’s also quite possible that there are separate close mic, overhead and room samples.

group and off_by can also be used in other contexts where one sound should cause another to stop but enforcing monophony is not the goal - for example, a crash cymbal doesn’t need to be monophonic, as allowing the sound to build up is reasonably natural, but if we wanted to implement a cymbal choke, then the crash sounds would be in one group, the choke samples in another.

Practical Considerations #

The actual minimum and maximum values are not currently known. Some players will treat numbers outside a certain range as equivalent to group=0, and ARIA/Sforzando will also do this with text strings. The behavior of non-integer numbers is also currently unknown. This makes it possible to use an extremely large number for one group, but it’s obviously not recommended.

Category: Instrument Settings, Voice Lifecycle