Stop Volume Adjustment

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It is usually possible to raise or lower the volume of a stop by changing a single numerical entry

in the disposition. Imitative pipe sounds usually make no use of velocity data from the MIDI encoder.

Sounds meant to respond to how hard the playing keys are pressed require that data, and such stops

are not suitable for this "Stop Volume Adjustment" method. The main alternative in this case is to edit

the soundfont, using a program such as the excellent "Polyphone".

Keep in mind that a stop is controlling whether or not the sounds of a rank are going to be produced,

and in what manner (i.e. at what pitch - unison or at some other). Traditionally, one stop is assigned

to controlling one rank. A modern exception is a stop derived by extension, where one rank

is providing the sounds of more than one stop, with the stops sounding at differing pitches.

What this means is that changing the volume of a stop is really changing the volume of the rank

with which it is associated. If a number of stops is associated with a single rank, then any change made

to the volume of that rank will occur in all of those stops.

1. Open the disposition in jOrgan and click on the "Construct" icon. This icon is located in the top

left-hand corner of the screen, directly below the "V" of "View". (Clicking on it again restores

the screen to Play mode.) In Construct mode, changes can be made to the disposition, and those changes

can be saved (click File > Save). The user is always free to change any entry and save that change,

regardless of the "history" of that entry. Note that no sounds are possible when in Construct mode.

2. The Elements View is likely to be visible in most dispositions when in Construct mode (if not visible,

click View > Elements). In recent dispositions, that View will show a list of Groups of Elements.

The simplest way to identify the Group you need, is to click on the particular Stop, in the Console View.

This will open the Group in the Elements List, and will highlight the Stop.

3. The next task is to identify which rank you need to alter. The ranks are listed above the stops. Note the

difference in their icons. Usually but not always, the name of the rank will correspond to the name of its stop.

jOrgan connects related Elements by means of "References". A Stop is said to be "referenced to" the rank

it is controlling. To determine the rank, you need to examine the stop's "References to". For this

you need its References View (if not visible, click View > References). The one which appears

will be the References View of the high-lighted (i.e. selected) stop. Its "References to" icon is shown

to the left of its "References from" icon (hover the mouse cursor over them if you wish to make sure).

(When adding References as part of creating a new or modifed disposition, it is valuable to remember

that if you add to a stop its "Reference to", you don't have to add to its rank's References a corresponding

" Reference from"; jOrgan does this for you.)

If its "References to" show only one rank, then that is the one you need. If it shows more than one,

(a very uncommon experience), and assuming the disposition-creator has not made a mistake, then

you will probably have to make the same volume change to all the ranks listed for that stop's

"References to", but done separately. If the names assigned to the ranks do not make it clear

which ranks belong to particular stops (hopefully a very uncommon occurrence), examining the ranks'

"References from" carefully should clear up the mystery.

4. Click on the rank you have identified, in the Elements List. You now need to refer to its

"Messages View" (if not visible, click on View > Messages).

It should look like this:

Engaged set 176, set 121,

Engaged set 176, set 0, set 0

Engaged set 192, set 2,

Note played set 144, set pitch, set 80

Note muted set 128, set pitch,

Disengaged set 176, set 123,

The number printed in bold above is the number we are concerned with. It will often be 100 instead of

80. It can range from 0 (no sound) to 127 (loudest). If instead of a number you see "velocity", it means

that the sound volume is being set by what velocity message is being sent from the MIDI encoder. In this

case, there is no harm in changing it to some numeral to find out whether you prefer the volume

that can be achieved this way.

As Paragraph 1 above suggests, if you wish to save any change you have made, you need to save

the disposition (click File > Save) before you exit jOrgan (click File > Exit). Before making that exit,

you are free to return to Play mode by clicking once more on the Construct icon, if you wish to.

This table shows how volume varies in dB compared to the Number "80" setting:

120	7
110	6
100	4
90	2
80	0
70	-2
60	-5
50	-8
40	-12
30	-17
20	-24
10	-28

This test was performed using Fluidsynth version 2.

A change in volume of about 2 dB is only just discernible by most people.