SLIDE XP is an expander for Slide. Place it to the right of Slide and each of the eight strings gets its own jack: an output, a gate in, a velocity in, and a level trimpot. SLIDE XP is 12 HP.
Slide carries its strings on a polyphonic output, which is right when eight channels are one voice played polyphonically. It is the wrong shape when you want the eight strings of a single instrument to go to eight different places: separate amps, a per-string filter, a mixer with its own pan. Splitting a poly cable back out costs a module and a row of cables anyway, so the jacks belong on the instrument.
Two things it changes
- The gates address strings. On Slide’s own poly GATE, channel N is the Nth note and the bar solver decides which string it lands on, because on a real steel you don’t choose. Here a jack labelled 3 plays string 3.
- The velocity trimpots double as a picking balance. With nothing patched, each trimpot is that string’s velocity, so the eight together set the picking balance: quieter bass, a leaning inner voice. Patch a jack and the same trimpot scales it.
Inputs and outputs
- Inputs: 8 x gate, 8 x velocity (0-10V).
- Controls: 8 x velocity / attenuator trimpot.
- Outputs: 8 x string audio, each with an activity LED.
