Sectional performances: Multipart string, brass and woodwind sections over remarkable expressiveness and range. The Super Knob can change the size of the ensemble and impart swells that alter both the volume and timbre for dramatic effect:

The defines what it's getting at with "sectional". Like or mixed instrument families taking multiple Parts that can (sometimes) have the size controlled with superknob.

"Swell" - I do not believe is an indicator of this. Swell, to me, indicates something about the amplitude and associated tonal variation that happens when instruments get louder.

You see above "multipart" is a key property here. When you look at Trombone Swell or others and see one-Part Performances ... that's not it.

Seattle Strings is a sectional Performance. Super Knob doesn't have to change the size of the ensemble which is why "Orch Brass Swell" qualifies - multipart instrument family meant to be played together.

String Sect Swell ...

FrenchHornSection3 ...

There are lots of single-Part Performances with "Sect[ion]" in the name. These wouldn't fit that description.

I'm not aware there's a way to generate a sorted list of these types.

Sectional performances: Multipart string, brass and woodwind sections over remarkable expressiveness and range. The Super Knob can change the size of the ensemble and impart swells that alter both the volume and timbre for dramatic effect:

The defines what it's getting at with "sectional". Like or mixed instrument families taking multiple Parts that can (sometimes) have the size controlled with superknob.

Or impart swells, yes.

Swell, to me, indicates something about the amplitude and associated tonal variation that happens when instruments get louder.

I agree, but didn't rule out the possibility that Yamaha reserved such performance names for ones that had the sectional characteristics you quoted. After all, it's already not true that every performance that has a swell has that word in its name, e.g. see sforzando brass.

You see above "multipart" is a key property here. When you look at Trombone Swell or others and see one-Part Performances ... that's not it.

Good point that there are single part performances with "swell" in the name, I hadn't noticed that. So much for my naming theory!

I'm not aware there's a way to generate a sorted list of these types.

I hope there is some way to tell whether something is a sectional performance or not, because I'd specifically like to check those out. It would surprise me that there would be no way to locate them because it's listed in that article as one of the five general types of Performances, and all the others (except maybe arpeggios?) have some way to find them in a search or filter. I see you listed a number of examples... Is there a list somewhere?

I didn't use a list. I know Seattle Strings is a classic example of this type of Performance. It gets lots of press as one you can change the size of the family of instruments and is a larger multi-Part Performance.

The others I searched for "sect" and pulled out the ones with multiple Parts that followed what the article was getting at.

There are others buried in there. I don't see a list.

How do I locate sectional performances? The sample in that article is called "Orch Brass Swell" and a search in the data list shows quite a few performances with the word "Swell" in the name. I assume all performances with "swell" in the name are sectional performances, yes?

The word swell does not necessarily denote a kind of “Sectional Performance” — the Orch Brass Swell is made up of three orchestral brass ensembles (sections), true: Trombones, Trumpets, and French Horns. Each Section is available as a Single Part Performance, they are “merged” here into one Sectional Performance, featuring three horn ensembles... available separately.

A better way to find your “sectional” Performances is to think about which instruments benefit from playing in ensemble groupings. Use the Performance HOME, View #2... this gives you a split screen. On the right side you can see the 8 possible KBD CTRL Parts, and their horizontal mapping (key ranges) and Part Names/Type.

Like the article says, horns and woodwinds (pop horns/Orch horns), strings, are good candidates for this type of grouping.

Not all Galleries are officially named “Gallery”... “8 Amps and a TC” is a gallery of telecasters with 8 different amplifier and effect setups. The naming rules are not near so restrictive...

“Swell” is used here to describe a Motion Control function that allows different Elements to sound via Super Knob morphing/crossfading... typically, to vary the timbre of a brass section or instrument each sample, soft/mellow through big/full needed to be activated by re-triggering notes... it was not possible to smoothly move between these radically different timbre’d samples on a single attack.... to change sounding samples you needed to use velocity - which meant a new note-on... but because each Element can be given its own response curve (to Element Level), musical swells where the horn actually changes timbre by moving through the different sampled waveforms. It just happens to be used to great effect in the “Orch Brass Swell” Performance.

This is far more organic than a pre-recorded swell, or one that is accomplished with a low pass filter. The Trombones, Trumpets and French Horns are 4 and 5 Elements each — the samples are p, mp, mf, ff and fff.... you get to control the speed of the swell as you crossfade between them via Super Knob. See separate article on “Orch Brass Swell” for all the details...
Link — Mastering MONTAGE: Orchestral Brass Swell

You are applying control that mimics blowing more air through the instruments... it “feels” better than a filter opening. A hard blown Trombone has a tremendous amount of chaotic harmonic content, and just applying a filter does not turn it into a mellow Trombone note.

Not all Galleries are officially named “Gallery”... “8 Amps and a TC” is a gallery of telecasters with 8 different amplifier and effect setups.

Thanks for pointing that out.

An enhancement to the Data List that specially indicated the Gallery and Sectional performance would be nice (along with, as mentioned elsewhere, some legend to what the various abbreviations in waveform names are, and descriptions of the particular different sounds gathered together within a Gallery). Maybe a job for Ideascale!

“Swell” is used here to describe a Motion Control function that allows different Elements to sound via Super Knob morphing/crossfading... typically, to vary the timbre of a brass section or instrument each sample, soft/mellow through big/full needed to be activated by re-triggering notes... it was not possible to smoothly move between these radically different timbre’d samples on a single attack.... to change sounding samples you needed to use velocity - which meant a new note-on... but because each Element can be given its own response curve (to Element Level), musical swells where the horn actually changes timbre by moving through the different sampled waveforms. It just happens to be used to great effect in the “Orch Brass Swell” Performance.

This is far more organic than a pre-recorded swell, or one that is accomplished with a low pass filter.

Thanks for that really nice conceptual explanation. I have been somewhat skeptical of the value of "Motion Control" for my pretty traditional needs (things like motion sequences and envelope follower don't seem relevant to what I do), but this is a great example of something more musically "conservative" that I don't think there is any way to do on anything other than a MODX or Montage.