# How to control which instrument plays in a multi instrument group with a parameter?

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-control-which-instrument-plays-in-a-multi-instrument-group-with-a-parameter/19218>\
**Category:** FMOD Studio\
**Created:** [August 31, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-control-which-instrument-plays-in-a-multi-instrument-group-with-a-parameter/19218 "2022-08-31T20:07:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fractanimal](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/fractanimal/32/3897_2.png) [@fractanimal](https://qa.fmod.com/u/fractanimal)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-control-which-instrument-plays-in-a-multi-instrument-group-with-a-parameter/19218/1 "2022-08-31T20:07:24Z")

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I have 40 audio tracks with parameters controlling volume automation of each combination. All up there is about 1700 combinations.

This setup is obviously not very optimized, because all the muted tracks are still playing when they aren’t needed.

I thought of putting each instrument type (bass/drums etc) into multi instruments, then control them with parameters so the only one that is necessary plays

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**Author:** ![joseph](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/joseph/32/264_2.png) [@joseph](https://qa.fmod.com/u/joseph)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-control-which-instrument-plays-in-a-multi-instrument-group-with-a-parameter/19218/2 "2022-08-31T23:21:08Z")

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Multi instruments are not the tool for this task. There is no way to use them for it.

If you want to control which instrument plays with parameters, the appropriate tool is parameter sheets. Nested or referenced event instruments may also help, if you want a way of setting a parameter to multiple different values in a single event instance.