The QChord's chord accompaniment actually consists of several professionally produced tracks: the chord accompaniment track, the chord plus track, and the bass track. Here are two things having to do with Volume; 1. Each track can be silenced, and 2. The volumes of these tracks can be adjusted individually.
1. Silencing Various Tracks
There may be times, when playing a song, that you will want to silence one or more of the chord accompaniment tracks. The autochord button provides the method for doing this. I will be using the march rhythm for this demonstration, because it has very clearly distinguishable chord accompaniment tracks. To select the march rhythm, turn the instrument off and back on again to return it to its power-on defaults. Press the rhythm select down button 5 times. Press a chord. The march rhythm should now be playing. This is the complete chord accompaniment. You will notice a flute part, a bass part, drums, and what sounds like a brass section at the end of each repetition of the accompaniment cycle. Now press the autochord button once. Note that the flute part disappears. Press the autochord button a second time. Observe that the flute part has returned, but the brass section at the end is now gone. Press the autochord button again. This time, you will hear only bass and drums. If you are having trouble hearing the bass part, use the rhythm volume control to turn the drums down. The bass part sounds rather like a tuba. Pressing the autochord button again brings back the complete chord accompaniment.
Although you will probably not be able to see the LED's, understanding what they are doing each time the autochord button is pressed will help you know which tracks are playing. When the unit is first turned on, both the chord accompaniment and chord plus LED's are lit. This is a complete chord accompaniment (position 1). When the autochord button is pressed once (position 2), the chord accompaniment light turns off, while the chord plus LED remains lit. When pressed again (position 3), the chord plus LED is off and the chord accompaniment LED lights up. When pressed a third time (position 4), both the chord accompaniment and the chord plus LED's are off. In summary:
Position 1. Chord plus & chord accompaniment on; Position 2. Chord plus on, chord accompaniment off; Position 3. Chord plus off, chord accompaniment on; and Position 4. Chord plus and chord accompaniment off.
2. Adjusting the Volume of Individual Tracks
You use the chord volume control to adjust the volume of an individual track. Once you select the track you wish to adjust by means of the autochord button, immediately press the chord volume control up or down button to increase or decrease the volume. You have a window of two seconds, so it's best to keep your finger on the chord volume up or down button in order to adjust it immediately after you've selected the track.
An example will illustrate how this works. I will again use the march rhythm for this illustration, so if it is not already selected, reset the instrument to its power-on defaults and press the rhythm select down button 5 times to engage it. The objective is to decrease the volume of the flute, or chord plus, track.
Press a chord to hear what the march rhythm sounds like. Place your finger on the chord volume down button and press the autochord button twice. This selects the chord plus track. Immediately press the chord volume down button until the flute part is just barely audible. Now push the autochord button twice to return to a complete accompaniment. You should observe that the flute part is quite soft now compared to its original setting. Increasing the volume of a track works in exactly the same way, except, of course, that the chord volume up button is pressed.
