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Task Guide: Arranging and Mixing a Woodwind Quintet Score with Virtual Instruments

These guides describe the documented upstream workflow. XiAudio integration and installers are still in development; Alpha is free. Availability in a XiKey release has not yet been verified.

Scenario

You are arranging and mixing a woodwind quintet piece (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, French Horn) using MIDI instrument tracks, importing recorded solo overdubs, aligning acoustic timing with Beat Detective, automating concert-hall reverb sends, and printing a MusicXML score for the performers.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Edit and Quantize MIDI Parts in the Piano Roll and Score Editor

  1. Create five Instrument Tracks (Track ▸ New…), set the main ruler to Bars|Beats, and configure a 6/8 meter and 92 BPM tempo map in Tempo Operations.
  2. Open Window ▸ MIDI Editor and draw the five instrument parts. Adjust note velocities for phrasing. Live MIDI hardware input/output and audition from the on-screen keyboard are not implemented.
  3. Open MIDI Operations to quantize note starts with 65% strength so the phrasing retains human feel, then open the Score Editor (Window ▸ Score Editor, Cmd+Ctrl+= on macOS) to inspect staff notation and export a MusicXML part file.

2. Align Live Acoustic Overdubs with Beat Detective and Elastic Audio

  1. Import a recorded flute overdub onto an audio track. Check its timing against the MIDI arrangement.
  2. Open Beat Detective to detect phrase transients on the live flute recording, or enable Elastic Audio (Polyphonic / Rhythmic / Monophonic / Varispeed) to nudge slightly late grace notes into alignment with the oboe ostinato.

3. Route Aux Reverb Sends, Group VCA Masters, and Export Stems

  1. In the Mix Window (Ctrl+= / Cmd+=), create a stereo Aux Input track named Concert Hall Verb with the built-in Room Reverb processor inserted.
  2. Route Send A from all five woodwind tracks to Bus 1–2 (Hall), setting higher send levels on the French Horn (-8 dB) and drier send levels on the Flute (-14 dB) to stage front-to-back concert depth.
  3. Assign all five tracks to a Mix Group controlled by a VCA Master fader, draw a gentle crescendo on the VCA automation lane (Ctrl+4 opens the Automation window), and bounce stereo stems to WAV, AIFF or FLAC.

Sources

Upstream version checked on 2026-10-14.