Samplers can map multiple sounds to MIDI notes in contiguous (melodic) or interleaved (drum-pad) layouts

When a sampler holds several distinct sounds, there are two natural ways to spread them across a MIDI keyboard. In contiguous mode each sound gets a consecutive block of keys: notes C1–B1 play sound A at different pitches, notes C2–B2 play sound B, etc. This is melodic — the player can tune and transpose each sound independently across a range. In interleaved mode consecutive keys cycle through the loaded sounds: with 3 sounds, C1 = sound A, C#1 = sound B, D1 = sound C, D#1 = sound A again, and so on. This packs every sound into a small region and makes the keyboard behave like a drum pad where adjacent keys trigger different timbres at a fixed pitch. SOURCE exposes both via the /reapply_layout action (layout type 0 = contiguous, 1 = interleaved). The choice fundamentally changes the instrument’s playability: contiguous suits melodic or harmonic use; interleaved suits percussive or one-shot triggering.

Examples

With 3 Freesound nature sounds in SOURCE: contiguous gives each sound its own contiguous block of keys for pitched playback; interleaved places all 3 on adjacent keys C1(A), C#1(B), D1(C), D#1(A)… at root pitch. A drummer-style performer prefers interleaved; a keys player prefers contiguous.

Assessment

You load 3 sounds into a sampler supporting contiguous and interleaved layouts. Draw the key–sound mapping for each. Which layout would you choose to play a melodic line using a single sound? Which for a beat using all three sounds triggered from adjacent keys?