Akai CD3000i User Manual

INTRODUCTION ................................................................ .......................................................... 1

FEATURES ................................................................ .................................................... 2

ABOUT THIS MANUAL .................................................................................................. 5

FRONT PANEL ................................................................ .............................................. 6

TAKING CARE OF YOUR DISKS ................................................................ ................... 8

REAR PANEL ................................................................ ................................................. 9

SETTING UP THE S3000XL ................................................................ .......................... 11

CONNECTIONS.............................................................................................................. 11

LOADING THE DEMO FLOPPY DISKS.......................................................................... 12

MOUNTING THE S3000XL ................................................................ ............................. 13

GETTING AROUND THE S3000XL ................................................................................ 14

OPERATING MODES ....................................................................................... 14

SOFT KEYS ..................................................................................................... 14

SELECTING PARAMETERS AND ENTERING DATA ........................................ 15

MARK AND JUMP KEYS .................................................................................. 16

NAMING FILES - THE NAME KEY .................................................................... 17

THE ENT/PLAY KEY ........................................................................................ 17

LCD CONTRAST ............................................................................................................ 17

RECORD LEVEL, MAIN VOLUME, HEADPHONE OUTPUT ............................................ 18

HOW THE S3000XL WORKS ........................................................................................ 19

S3000XL FLOWCHART ................................................................................................. 20

SINGLE MODE ........................................................................................................................... 23

MULTI MODE - COMBINING SEVERAL PROGRAMS ................................................................. 37

SELECTING PROGRAMS .............................................................................................. 23

VIEWING PROGRAMS ................................................................ .................................. 24

SETTING PROGRAM LEVELS, PAN, FX SENDS .......................................................... 24

SETTING PROGRAMS’ MIDI PARAMETERS ................................................................. 25

SETTING PROGRAM LOUDNESS AND VELOCITY ....................................................... 26

LOADING FROM FLOPPY DISK ................................................................ .................... 28

LOADING FROM HARD DISK ................................................................ ........................ 28

DELETING PROGRAMS................................................................................................ 30

RENUMBERING PROGRAMS........................................................................................ 32

USING THE S3000XL IN ‘OLD AKAI’ MODE! ................................................................. 33

USING SELECT PROG - PROGRAMS WITH THE SAME NUMBER .................. 33

LAYERING PROGRAMS ................................................................................... 33

CREATING KEYBOARD SPLITS ................................................................ ...... 33

USING RENUMBERING TO CREATE MULTI-TIMBRAL SETUPS ..................... 34

SINGLE VS MULTI ........................................................................................... 35

ASSIGNING PROGRAMS TO PARTS ............................................................................ 38

SETTING A PART’S MIDI CHANNEL .............................................................................. 38

MIXING THE PARTS ................................................................ ...................................... 38

SENDING PARTS TO THE INTERNAL EFFECTS ........................................................... 38

ASSIGNING PARTS TO THE INDIVIDUAL OUTPUTS .................................................... 39

TUNING AND TRANSPOSING PARTS ........................................................................... 39

SETTING A PART’S LOW AND HIGH KEYRANGES ...................................................... 39

SETTING A PART’S PRIORITY ...................................................................................... 40

INITIALISING A PART.................................................................................................... 40

SETTING UP A MULTI ................................................................................................... 41

MODIFYING THE MULTI ................................................................ ................................ 42

NAMING A MULTI .......................................................................................................... 43

SAVING A MULTI .......................................................................................................... 43

LOADING A MULTI ........................................................................................................ 43

RENUMBERING PROGRAMS........................................................................................ 44

USING MULTI MODE FOR LAYERING PROGRAMS ...................................................... 47

USING MULTI MODE TO SET KEYBOARD SPLITS ...................................................... 48

PROGRAM EDITING ................................................................................................................... 50

WHAT IS A KEYGROUP? .............................................................................................. 51

KEYGROUP ZONES ...................................................................................................... 52

OVERLAPPING AND CROSSFADING KEYGROUPS..................................................... 53

ASSIGNABLE PROGRAM MODULATION ...................................................................... 54

EDIT SINGLE................................................................................................................. 58

NAMING PROGRAMS - COPYING AND RENAMING ...................................................... 59

DELETING PROGRAMS................................................................................................ 60

MIDI PAGE .................................................................................................................... 64

OUTPUT LEVELS PAGE................................................................................................ 66

PAN PAGE ................................................................ .................................................... 69

THE TUNE PAGE ........................................................................................................... 71

MODULATION PAGES .................................................................................................. 72

KEYGROUP PARAMETERS - CREATING KEYGROUPS ............................................... 85

ASSIGNING SAMPLES TO KEYGROUPS AND ZONES - SMP1 .................................... 90

THE FILTERS ................................................................................................................. 96

ENV1 - SHAPING AMPLITUDE ...................................................................................... 99

ENV2 - SHAPING THE FILTER................................................................ ....................... 101

THE SECOND FILTERS ................................................................................................. 103

ENV3............................................................................................................................. 111

KEYGROUP PITCH/AMPLITUDE MODULATION ............................................................ 112

PITCH BEND ................................................................ .................................... 72

LFO1................................................................................................................ 74

SETTING LFO1 MODULATION DEPTH ............................................................ 77

LFO2................................................................................................................ 78

SETTING UP THE SOFT PEDAL ................................................................ ...... 81

PORTAMENTO ................................................................................................. 82

MAPPING OUT YOUR KEYGROUPS - SETTING KEYSPAN ............................ 88

SMP2............................................................................................................... 93

SMP3............................................................................................................... 95

USING THE FILTER AND ENVELOPE GENERATORS ..................................... 102

CREATING 24db/8ve 4-POLE LOWPASS FILTER ............................................ 107

THE TONE PAGE ................................................................ ............................. 109

EDIT MULTI ................................................................................................................................. 114

SAMPLE MODE .......................................................................................................................... 116

EDIT SAMPLE ............................................................................................................................ 125

SCREEN DIFFERENCES IN EDIT MULTI ................................................................ ....... 115

WHAT IS SAMPLING? ................................................................................................... 116

RECORD MODE ............................................................................................................ 118

THE MAIN RECORD PAGE ................................................................ ............................ 120

NAMING SAMPLES FOR RECORDING ......................................................................... 120

ADJUSTING THE RECORDING AND THRESHOLD LEVELS .......................................... 122

RECORDING ON THE S3000XL ................................................................ .................... 122

DIGITAL RECORDING................................................................ .................................... 123

NAMING SAMPLES - COPYING AND RENAMING ......................................................... 127

DELETING SAMPLES .................................................................................................... 128

TRIMMING SAMPLES ................................................................ ................................... 129

LOOPING....................................................................................................................... 133

LOOP AUTO FIND AND CROSSFADE LOOPING ........................................................... 134

MAKING A GOOD LOOP ................................................................ .................. 136

LEVEL NORMALISATION ................................................................ .............................. 138

DSP FUNCTIONS - TIMESTRETCH, RE-SAMPLING AND EQ........................................ 139

TIMESTRETCH ................................................................................................. 139

PERFORMING A TIMESTRETCH ................................................................ ...... 142

RE-SAMPLING ................................................................................................. 143

PERFORMING A RE-SAMPLE ......................................................................... 144

EQ.................................................................................................................... 145

EQ’ING A SAMPLE .......................................................................................... 147

USING THE EQ ................................................................................................ 147

FURTHER EDITING FUNCTIONS ................................................................ ................... 148

THE PARAMETER PAGE ................................................................................. 148

REVERSING SAMPLES ................................................................................... 150

SECTIONAL EDITING ....................................................................................... 151

THE JOIN PAGE ................................................................ ............................... 154

SPLICING SAMPLES ....................................................................................... 154

CROSSFADING ................................................................................................ 155

MIXING AND LAYERING SAMPLES ................................................................ 155

SETTING DIGITAL FADES ................................................................ ................ 157

EFFECTS MODE ......................................................................................................................... 159

EFFECTS EDIT ................................................................ ........................................................... 173

ORGANISATION OF EFFECTS FILES ........................................................................... 162

ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO SINGLE PROGRAMS .......................................................... 163

ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO MULTI PARTS ................................................................ ...... 165

ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO INDIVIDUAL KEYGROUPS .................................................. 167

PROCESSING EXTERNAL SOUND SOURCES THROUGH THE EFFECTS .................... 168

ROUTING EXTERNAL SOUNDS THROUGH THE EFFECTS........................................... 169

SELECTING THE EFFECTS OUTPUT ............................................................................ 169

CHAINING EFFECTS ................................................................ ..................................... 170

MUTING EFFECTS ................................................................ ........................................ 172

DISTORTION/RING MODULATION ................................................................ ................ 174

EQ ................................................................................................................................. 175

MODULATION EFFECTS ............................................................................................... 177

CHORUS, PHASE SHIFT AND FLANGING EFFECTS ....................................... 177

ROTARY SPEAKER EFFECTS ......................................................................... 179

AUTOPAN AND FREQUENCY MODULATION EFFECTS .................................. 182

STEREO PITCH SHIFT EFFECTS................................................................ ..... 183

BYPASSING THE MODULATION EFFECTS ..................................................... 185

DELAY AND ECHO EFFECTS ........................................................................................ 186

MONO DELAY/ECHO EFFECTS ................................................................ ....... 188

PING PONG ECHO EFFECTS ................................................................ .......... 189

CROSSOVER DELAY ....................................................................................... 190

STEREO DELAY/ECHO EFFECTS ................................................................. .. 191

REVERB EFFECTS ........................................................................................................ 192

REVERSE REVERB ................................................................ .......................... 195

GATED REVERB .............................................................................................. 196

EFFECTS OUTPUT SECTION ................................................................ ........................ 198

EFFECTS DIRECTION................................................................ .................................... 199

SOLOING THE CURRENT EFFECT ................................................................................ 201

COPYING EFFECTS...................................................................................................... 202

SAVE MODE ............................................................................................................................... 204

LOAD MODE ............................................................................................................................... 216

SELECTING FLOPPY OR HARD DISK ........................................................................... 204

SELECTING THE HARD DISK PARTITION ..................................................................... 204

SELECTING THE HARD DISK VOLUME........................................................................ 204

SELECTING THE TYPE OF SAVE ................................................................ ................. 204

SAVING TO FLOPPY DISK ................................................................ ............................ 206

SAVING TO HARD DISK ................................................................................................ 207

RENAMING FILES......................................................................................................... 209

DELETING ITEMS FROM DISK ................................................................ ..................... 210

HARD DISK CONTROL .................................................................................................. 211

FORMATTING A FLOPPY DISK ..................................................................................... 212

FORMATTING A HARD DISK ......................................................................................... 214

NOTES ON USING EXISTING S1000/S1100 SOUND LIBRARY..................................... 215

SELECTING FLOPPY OR HARD DISK ........................................................................... 216

SELECTING THE HARD DISK PARTITION ..................................................................... 216

SELECTING THE HARD DISK VOLUME........................................................................ 217

SELECTING THE TYPE OF LOAD ................................................................ ................. 217

LOADING FROM FLOPPY DISK ................................................................ .................... 219

LOADING FROM HARD DISK ................................................................ ........................ 220

LOADING S900/S950 SAMPLES AND PROGRAMS ...................................................... 222

LOADING S1000/S1100 DATA ................................................................ ...................... 222

AUTO LOADING FROM DISK ................................................................ ........................ 222

SEARCHING FOR FILES - USING THE FIND FUNCTION ............................................... 223

USING THE TAG DIRECTORY SYSTEM ................................................................ ........ 225

NAMING TAGS................................................................................................. 226

HARD DISK CONTROL .................................................................................................. 228

IMPORTING SOUNDS FROM OTHER MANUFACTURER’S CD-ROMS ........................... 229

NOTES ON USING THE TAGGING SYSTEM .................................................... 227

GLOBAL MODE .......................................................................................................................... 231

TUNING THE S3000XL .................................................................................................. 231

SETTING THE MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL...................................................................... 231

MIDI FUNCTIONS ................................................................ .......................................... 232

MIDI FILTER ..................................................................................................... 232

PPM PAGE - MONITORING MIDI..................................................................... 233

MIDI RECEIVE PAGE - ANALYSING MIDI ........................................................ 233

TRANSMIT TEST PAGE - SETTING THE ENT/PLAY KEY ................................ 234

MIDI SAMPLE DUMPS ..................................................................................... 235

PERFORMING A MIDI SAMPLE DUMP ............................................................ 236

MIDI VIA SCSI .................................................................................................. 237

ME35T DRUM SETTINGS.............................................................................................. 238

DAT BACK-UP AND RESTORE ...................................................................................... 240

PERFORMING A DAT BACK UP....................................................................... 241

PERFORMING A DAT RESTORE ...................................................................... 241

STANDARD MIDI FILE - MIDI SONG FILE PLAY ............................................................ 242

LOADING STANDARD MIDI FILES ................................................................. .. 243

USING THE SMF FUNCTION ............................................................................ 244

HARD DISK RECORDING ................................................................ .............................. 245

APPLICATIONS................................................................................................ 245

FORMATTING THE HARD DISK FOR DISK RECORDING ................................. 246

CREATING NEW TAKES .................................................................................. 251

COPYING TAKES............................................................................................. 251

RENAMING TAKES .......................................................................................... 251

DELETING TAKES FROM DISK ................................................................ ....... 251

RECORDING A TAKE ....................................................................................... 255

EDITING A RECORDING................................................................ ................... 258

PLAYING A TAKE IN THE EDIT PAGE ............................................................. 259

USING THE EDITING FUNCTIONS ................................................................ ... 259

PLAYING TAKES ............................................................................................. 261

USING THE PLAY PAGE ................................................................ .................. 263

EDITING A TAKE FOR SYNCHRONISED PLAYBACK ...................................... 264

NOTES ABOUT SYNCHRONISING TO EXTERNAL AUDIO............................... 264

USING THE SONG MODE ................................................................ ................ 265

CREATING A SONG ......................................................................................... 265

TRIGGERING TAKES FROM MIDI .................................................................... 268

USING MIDI TRIGGERING ................................................................................ 268

USING THE SONG MODE TO CHAIN TAKES................................................... 271

USING THE NUMERIC KEYPAD IN THE SONG MODE..................................... 272

BLOCK EDITING IN SONG MODE ................................................................ .... 273

NAMING SONGS .............................................................................................. 275

SAVING A SONG ................................................................ ............................. 275

LOADING A SONG ................................................................ ........................... 275

BACKING UP TAKES TO DAT .......................................................................... 276

RESTORING TAKES BACK FROM DAT TO DISK ............................................. 277

APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................................... 279

CONNECTING AN EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE ......................................................... 279

NOTES ON USING HARD DISK DRIVES................................................................ ........ 279

SCSI CABLES.................................................................................................. 279

TERMINATION ................................................................................................. 279

SCSI CABLE LENGTH ................................................................ ...................... 280

APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................................... 281

APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................................... 283

APPENDIX 4 ............................................................................................................................... 285

APPENDIX 5 ............................................................................................................................... 301

DATA COMPATIBILITY ISSUES .................................................................................... 281

SOUND DATA................................................................ ................................... 281

EFFECTS FILES ................................................................ ............................... 282

MULTIS............................................................................................................ 282

ME-35T DRUM SETTINGS ................................................................ ................ 282

SONGS AND QLISTS ....................................................................................... 282

INSTALLING THE OPTIONS ................................................................ .......................... 283

INSTALLING MEMORY EXPANSION............................................................... 283

USING THE FXM008 FLASH ROM BOARD(S) ............................................................... 285

APPLICATIONS............................................................................................................. 286

HOW THE FLASHROM WORKS ................................................................ .................... 287

SAVING DATA TO THE FLASHROM .............................................................................. 288

WHAT TO DO NEXT ....................................................................................................... 291

USING THE FLASHROM AS A FAST HARD DISK.......................................................... 292

EDITING SOUNDS ON THE FLASHROM ................................................................ ....... 293

COPYING A FLASHROM SAMPLE TO RAM ................................................................ . 294

FORMATTING AND ARRANGING THE FLASHROM ....................................................... 295

SAVING FLASHROM DATA BACK TO DISK .................................................................. 297

BACKUP/RESTORE OF THE FLASH ROM TO/FROM DAT ............................................ 297

INSTALLING THE FLASHROM ................................................................ ....................... 298

MIDI CONTROLLER LIST ................................................................ .............................. 301

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Akai S3000XL stereo digital sampler and thank you for buying it! The S3000XL features 32-voice polyphony, expandable memory, DSP functions, etc.,

and using the S3000XL’s resonant lowpass filters, multiple LFOs, envelope generators and extensive modulation possibilities, your new sampler can double as a first class synthesiser as well.

Certain new functions are introduced in the S3000XL In software, the new MULTI mode of operation simplifies multi-timbral sequencing and layering whilst hardware options include a multi-effects processor that offers no less than four channels that include two multi-effects channels with distortion, EQ, ring modulation, modulation effects such as chorus, flanging, pitch shifting, auto panning and rotary speaker effects plus delay and reverb. Two ‘spare’ channels of reverb are also available providing a total of four reverbs. Add to this the second bank of optional resonant multi-mode filters and you can see that the S3000XL is a sampler that can grow with your needs.

Bundled with the S3000XL is a software application for the Macintosh™ computer that allows you to operate the sampler from your Macintosh allowing large screen operation of waveform and program editing, sophisticated organisation of your sound library on the Macintosh as well as the ability to integrate your sampler more conveniently with your computer sequencer.

Naturally, all sound library developed for the Akai S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S2000 and the S3000 range of samplers is compatible in the S3000XL giving you access to thousands of sounds on floppy disk, hard disk, removable cartridges, MO disks and CDROM. The ability to read CD ROMs made for other manufacturer's samplers gives access to an even further range of sounds.

All this adds up to a price breakthrough in sampling technology - the new Akai S3000XL.

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 1

INTRODUCTION

FEATURES

• Polyphony 32 voices

• A-D Conversion 16-bit stereo with 64-times oversampling

• Internal processing 28-bit accumulation

• D-A Conversion 18-bit with 8-times oversampling

• Sampling rates 44.1kHz/22.050kHz

• Phase locked stereo sampling and playback

• Internal memory 2Mbytes standard, expandable to 32Mbytes using SIMMs

• Sampling times 2Mbytes 24 seconds mono @ 44.1kHz

• Inputs L/Mono and R jack inputs

• Outputs L/R stereo jack outputs

32Mbytes 5.94 minutes mono @ 44.1kHz (Halve these times for stereo sampling)

8 assignable individual outputs Stereo headphone jack output

• Display 40 x 6 character backlit LCD with graphic waveform editing.

• Digital I/O SPDIF digital audio input/output on RCA phonos.

• Effects Optional 4-channel multi-effects processor offering two channels of simultaneous distortion, three-band EQ, ring modulation, modulation (chorus, phase shift, flanging, pitch shift, autopan or rotary speaker), stereo delay and reverb plus two ‘spare’ channels of reverb (four reverb processors in total).

• DSP Functions Timestretch, re-sampling and digital EQ.

• Filters 2-pole (12dB/Octave) resonant lowpass per voice. Optional IB304F offers a 2nd bank of 2-pole resonant

multi-mode (HP, BP, LP, EQ) filters and tone control.

• Envelopes 1 x ADSR and 1 x multi-stage envelope generator (an extra multi-stage envelope is added with the installation of the IB304F).

• LFOs 2 x multi-wave low frequency oscillators (triangle, square, sawtooth and random waves).

• Legato mode Single trigger playback to emulate old monophonic synths and solo instruments’ playing styles.

• Portamento Polyphonic and monophonic portamento.

• Sound library Fully compatible with Akai S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S2800, S3000, S3200, S2000 and S3200XL samplers.

Page 2 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

The S3000XL can also read CD-ROMs made for other manufacturer's samplers1.

• Data storage A variety of storage devices may be used to store data including floppy disk, hard disk, Syquest™ removable cartridges and Magneto Optical (MO) disks. Hard disk data may be backed up to a normal DAT tape using the digital i/o.

• Flash ROM You may install up to 16Mbytes of FLASH ROM over and above the 32Mbytes of ordinary RAM giving you a total of 48Mbytes of memory. FLASH ROM allows you to keep your favourite sounds in memory even when the sampler is switched off.

• Disk recording Capable of stereo recording and editing on hard disk.

• SMF capability The S3000XL an play Standard MIDI files (sequences) from the floppy disk drive. This allows you, for example, to play sequenced backing tracks directly from the S3000XL.

• DAT Backup You can backup the hard disk (sound data and/or disk recordings) to an ordinary DAT recorder.

• Real-time digital output This digital audio output can be used to mix down digitally to DAT or any other digital recorder such as DCC, MiniDisk or a hard disk recorder such as the Akai DR4d, DR8 or even the S3000XL’s disk recorder. With the optional EB16 multi-effects processor installed, you may add four channels of effects processing to the mixdown.

• OPERATING MODES

SING LE For playing single programs. MULTI For playing up to 16 programs together for multi-timbral

sequencing, layering and key splits.

SAMPLE For making recordings. EFFECTS For selecting effects. EDIT For editing programs, samples and effects. GLOBAL For setting parameters that affect the sampler as a whole

plus access to utilities such as DAT backup, MIDI song file play and hard disk recording

SAVE For saving programs, samples, multis, effects and

operating systems, etc., to floppy or hard disk.

LOAD For loading programs, samples, multis, effects, operating

systems, etc., from floppy or hard disk and CD-ROM.

1 Some sounds may need adjustment and ‘tweaking’ depending on the sampler they were

originally created on.

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 3

INTRODUCTION

• EDITING FEATURES

EDIT SAMPLE Trim, Loop (with FIND and CROSSFADE functions), Join,

EDIT PROGRAM Resonant lowpass filters, ADSR envelope generator (with

MULTI Part select, program select, MIDI channel, level, pan,

EFFECTS In the two multi-effects channels (with the EB16 effects

Merge, Splice, Chop, Extract, Reverse, Gain normalisation, Timestretch, Re-sample.

templates), multi-stage envelope generator (with templates), 2 x multi-wave LFOs, sample layering, 4-way velocity crossfade and switching, keygroup crossfade, portamento (rate and time modes), monophonic legato triggering, mute group function, panning and autopanning, held pitchbend mode, separate pitchbend up/down ranges, output selection. (With 2nd filter bank installed, a further set of multi-mode filters and a third multi-stage envelope generator are added).

transpose, fine tune, output routing, FX routing, FX send, low key range, high key range, note priority.

processor installed): DISTORTION - distortion, level EQ - low gain, mid gain, high gain, RING MODULATION - frequency, depth MODULATION EFFECTS - chorus, flange, phase shift,

rotary speakers, autopan/frequency mod, pitch shift with parameters as appropriate.

DELAY - effect select (mono, stereo, ping pong), delay times, feedback.

REVERB - effect select (large hall, small hall, large room, small room, gated, reverse, etc.), size, decay time, HF damping, LF damping, pre-delay.

FX DIRECTION: dist/EQ/ring mod > mod/delay + reverb (parallel) dist/EQ/ring mod > mod/delay > reverb (series) dist/EQ/ring mod > reverb > mod/delay (series)

In the two reverb channels: Effect select (large hall, small hall, large room, small room,

reverse, gated, etc.), decay time, HF damping, LF damping, pre-delay, diffusion.

A multi-effects channel may also be routed to its ‘neighbouring’ reverb channel for dual reverb multi-effects.

Page 4 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THIS MANUAL

This manual has been written to allow you to get the most out of your new sampler. Please take the time to read it as a fuller understanding of the instrument will enable you to use the S3000XL’s remarkable facilities to the full. Not only are the controls and screens explained in detail but you will find hints and tips to help you with your sampling and programming. If you are new to sampling or synthesisers, some of the sections explain the basic principles behind the techniques employed in the S3000XL so if words like ”bandpass”, “modulation”, “diffusion”, “multi-timbral” and “sample rates”, etc., are unfamiliar to you, we hope that this manual is not just a boring explanation of functions but something you can refer to for information beyond the scope of the S3000XL. Even if you’re a seasoned programmer, we hope that there is information in this manual that you find useful..

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 5

INTRODUCTION

FRONT PANEL

POWER SWITCH

AKAI

OFF

POWER

PHONES

HEADPHONE

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

professional

SINGLE/ MULTI/BSAMPLE/CEFFECTS/

DISPLAY

CONTRAST

PUSH ON/OFF

EDIT/

GLOBAL/ SAVE/GLOAD/

CONTRAST

DATA ENCODER

LCD

MIDI DIGITAL STEREO SAMPLER

F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8

F1/IF2/JF3/KF4/LF5/MF6/NF7/OF8/

SCREEN FUNCTION

SOFT KEYSDISPLAY

s3000xl

CURSOR KEYSMODE KEYS

RECORD LEVEL

DATA

CURSOR

MAIN VOLUME

REC GAIN

MIN MAX

MARK/#

JUMP/.

NAME

ENT/PLAY

-/+/

NUMERIC KEYPAD

MARK/JUMP,

NAME and ENT/PLAY

MODE KEYS Selects the operating mode for the sampler. ‘SOFT’ KEYS These select functions displayed on the LCD above. They

have no fixed function but change according to the page currently displayed on the screen.

LCD The 40 x 8 character display shows parameters and values

and displays the ‘soft’ keys’ function and graphic display of waveforms for sample editing, etc..

CURSOR KEYS This block of keys moves the cursor up, down and left and

right around the screen.

DATA ENCODER Allow s you to enter data values and for scrolling through

lists, etc..

NUMERIC KEYPAD This is used to enter data numerically. MARK/JUMP These keys allow you to mark two functions and switch

between them using the JUMP key. In this way, it is quick and easy to enter data even across two different screens.

NAME KEY This takes you the ‘naming mode’ where you may name

samples, programs, effects, etc..

ENT/PLAY KEY Allows you to play a sound without the need for a MIDI

controller to be connected.

RECORD LEVEL Sets the record level for the analogue inputs. MAIN VOLUME The MAIN VOLUME control sets the main output level of

the L/R stereo outputs (this control does not affect the level of the signal appearing at the individual outputs or digital output).

POWER SWITCH Applies power to the S3000XL.

Page 6 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

PHONES This stereo jack socket allows you to monitor the L/R

(stereo) output of the S3000XL through stereo headphones. The level is regulated using the MAIN VOLUME control (see below).

DISPLAY CONTRAST Sets the viewing angle for the LCD. You will note that

pressing this control in switches off the LCD’ backlight thus preserving the LCD (think of it like a ‘screen saver’ on a computer.

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE The 3.5 inch floppy disk drive will accept high density and

low density disks. Disks are inserted into the drive thus:

DISK EJECT BUTTONDISK ACTIVITY LED

WRITE PROTECT TAB

HIGH DENSITY DETECTION TAB

The label should be facing upwards when it is inserted (actually, it is physically impossible to insert disks the wrong way round without using an extreme amount of brute force!).

To eject the disk, simply press the DISK EJECT button. When a disk is loading, saving or formatting, the DISK ACTIVITY LED will be lit.

It is important to remember that, unlike a synthesiser, the S3000XL has no means of storing sounds in an internal memory. As a result, it is vital that you save your work to disk before turning the power off otherwise you will lose your work and, unless previously saved, it will be gone for ever. In fact, it is a good idea to regularly save your work as you are working. All good computer users do this and it prevents the accidental loss of data should power be accidentally removed from the instrument. This also serves as a form of ‘undo’ - if you make some kind of mistake in your programming and editing and can’t fix it, you can load the last level of editing back into the sampler. It may be a bit tedious to keep stopping every now and then to save your work but it is better than losing some valuable sounds.

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 7

INTRODUCTION

TAKING CARE OF YOUR DISKS

These floppy disks contain valuable sound data and, as such, should be treated with extreme care. Please observe the following points, therefore:

1 Never slide the metal cover back and touch the disk. Finger marks may render the

disk unreadable.

2 Don’t leave the disk in the drive wherever possible. When the disk is in the drive, the

metal protective cover slides back exposing the actual disk inside - this makes the disk

susceptible to picking up dust which may cause read errors. 3 Do not leave your disks in a hot car. 4 Do not place your disks next to any magnetic sources such as speakers, amplifiers,

televisions, etc.. Also, try to avoid X-ray machines. At airports, it is sometimes possible

to ask for your disks to be inspected by hand at security desks but, with the added

security at airports these days, this may not be possible. Always check with the

security officer though, just in case. Security X-ray machines are generally safe with

disks, though. If in doubt, make backup copies which should be left at home.

NOTE: Some checked in luggage is X-rayed by quite powerful machines that are not as safe as those that check hand luggage. It is probably best to take your disks as hand luggage.

5 Do not leave your disks around when drinking liquids - one accidental spillage could

ruin a lot of work! 6 Always use high quality disks. Whilst cheap ones may be appealing, they are prone to

errors more than good ones. 7 Try to ensure that the write protect tab is switched on (i.e. the tab blocks the hole).

This will prevent accidental erasure, formatting and loss of data. It may be a nuisance

to try to write to the disk and find it write protected but it is less of a nuisance than

accidentally over-writing a set of your favourite samples and programs! 8 Try to get into the habit of labelling your disks - it will pay dividends in the end when

you are searching for something. 9 Invest in a sturdy carrying case for your floppies especially if you are a gigging

musician. Heavy duty metal camera cases are ideal and some flight case

manufacturers now make special heavy duty disk flightcases. 1 0 Even if you are using a hard disk of any sort, please make sure you have backed up

your work to floppy disks. It can be time consuming but it will be worth it if you ever

have a problem with your hard disk!

Page 8 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

REAR PANEL

INTRODUCTION

ANALOGUE AUDIO INPUTS

INPUT

L/MONO R

STEREO OUT

L/MONO R

L/R STEREO OUTPUTS

12345678IN OUT

INDIVIDUAL AUDIO OUTPUTS

OUTPUT

MIDI

IN OUT THRU

MIDI IN/OUT/THRU

DIGITAL IN/OUT

DIGITAL

SCSI

SCSI CONNECTION

AKAI ELECTRIC CO., LTD

S3000XL

POWER CONNECTION

ANALOGUE AUDIO INPUTS You make recordings through these two inputs. You can

record in mono by connecting the audio source to only the L/MONO input.

INDIVIDUAL OUTPUTS The S3000XL has a total of ten analogue audio outputs.

There are the stereo L/R outputs which take a mix output of all programs. If the optional EB16 multi-effects processor is installed, the outputs of the four effects channels are also mixed here. You may also use the eight assignable individual outputs. Programs (or groups of programs) may be assigned to these outputs for mixing on a mixing console. Furthermore, individual keygroups may be assigned to these outputs so that, for example, individual drums could have a separate channel on the mixer for EQ’ing, adding effects, etc..

NOTE: In the case of you only connecting the L/MONO outpput, the S3000XL only outputs the left channel signal and the left/right stereo signals are not mixed at this output. The old S3000 series carried a mix ed output of the left/right channels. In the case of wanting to play some existing sound library in mono using only the L/MONO output, some 'tweaking' may be necessary to /monofy' the program.

DIGITAL I/O The digital input can be used to record digitally from CD or

DAT or any other audio source that has a digital output. The digital output carries a digital clone of the main stereo

outputs so you may also mixdown digitally from the S3000XL to any digital audio recorder such as DAT or a hard disk recorder/editor such as the Akai DR4 or DR8 thereby ensuring the highest quality audio during mixdown.

The digital i/o is also used to back data up to a normal DAT tape.

SCSI This 25-way connector is used to attach hard disks, CD-

ROMs, Magneto Optical (MO) disks and removable cartridges to the S3000XL for data storage and retrieval. You may also connect the S3000XL to a Macintosh™

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 9

INTRODUCTION

MIDI Your MIDI controller (keyboard, drum pads, EWI, etc.)

POWER CONNECTION This should be connected to an AC power source.

BEFORE CONNECTING ANY AC POWER, PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR UNIT IS

DESIGNED FOR YOUR AREA’S POWER SUPPLY. A MISTAKE NOW COULD RUIN

computer for use with the editing software that is bundled with the S3000XL.

should be connected to the MIDI IN. The THRU socket carries a duplicate of the MIDI IN signal ‘thru’ to other modules or MIDI devices that may be connected. The OUT is normally only used to transmit MIDI System Exclusive data to another Akai sampler or to a computer.

** IMPORTANT NOTE **

YOUR WHOLE DAY NOT TO MENTION YOUR S3000XL!!!

Page 10 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

SETTING UP THE S3000XL

This short section tells you how to get ‘up and running’ fast. For full details of operation, please refer to the appropriate section in this manual.

CONNECTIONS

Don’t switch the S3000XL on for the moment.

L/R OUTPUTS

SCSI

HARD DISK, CD-ROM, MO DRIVE, etc..

AKAI

MIDI IN

MIDI OUT

IND OUTS - to mixer

DIGI I/O

DAT

mx1000

Connect the MIDI output of your MIDI controller (in this example, an Akai MX1000 master keyboard) to the MIDI input of the S3000XL. Connect the L/R audio output to a stereo amplifier (or use the L/MONO output of the sampler if you only have a mono amp) or to two channels of a mixer (remembering to pan each channel hard left and right accordingly to take full advantage of the S3000XL’s stereo outputs). The digital i/o can be connected to a DAT machine (or any other digital recording device) or you could leave the digital outputs of a CD player connected to the S3000XL’s digital input for sampling from the many special sampling CDs that are currently available..

Before turning on the sampler, it’s a good idea to turn its volume down or to turn the volume down on the amplifier or the mixer channels as the power up ‘thump’, although very slight, could damage sensitive speakers, especially if the amp is turned up loud. Now turn on the S3000XL. You will see a message in the LCD informing you of what is going on.

After 15 seconds or so, your S3000XL is ready for use. Turn the volume up on the sampler, amplifier and/or mixer.

Making sure that the MIDI controller is sending data on MIDI channel 1, play a few notes. You will hear the oh so impressive test tone! Hardly inspiring is it? We want something a bit more interesting than that.

NOTE: If no sound appears, check your MIDI connections and check that your MIDI controller is sending MIDI channel 1. If, after this, you still hear no sound, try pressing the ENT/PLAY key on the S3000XL’s front panel. If you hear a sound, then at least your audio connections are o.k. and it’s the MIDI that needs attention. If you still don’t hear a sound when you press the ENT/PLAY key, check your audio connections, volume controls, etc..

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 11

INTRODUCTION

LOADING THE DEMO FLOPPY DISKS

To get you started, some sounds are provided on floppy disk. To load the sound library disk, insert it into the drive and press the LOAD key. Now simply press F7 - CLR. You will receive a prompt asking you if you want to clear the entire memory. Respond by pressing F8 - YES

The library disk supplied comes with several programs. In SINGLE mode, these may be selected from the S3000XL’s front panel using the DATA wheel or alternatively, you may use MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE commands from your MIDI controller to select new programs.

You will also note that they are laid out in a MULTI for multi-timbral sequencing. You may use this to play the demo sequence that is also supplied on floppy disk with the S3000XL.

To play the demo sequence on the S3000XL, assuming the sound data disk has been loaded, follow the procedure below.

1 Insert the DEMO SEQUENCE floppy disk into the disk drive. 2 In GLOBAL mode, press (F5) to get to the MIDI SONG PLAY page and press

(F2) to get to the LOAD page for song files.

3 Select and load a MIDI song file from the file list. You can load as many files as you

like as long as there is enough memory space. 4 Once the files are loaded, press (F1) to return to the MIDI SONG PLAY page.

Select the file you wish to play and press (F7) to play the selected MIDI song

file. Press (F8) to stop playback.

If you have owned an Akai sampler before, you may also have other sounds on CD-ROM or hard disk. Operation is virtually identical to the S3000 series and the S1000/S1100. To load sounds from hard disk, press the LOAD key and select HARD at the top of the screen. Move the cursor to the volume name field and select the volume you wish to load. Press F7 - CLR - followed by F8 - YES - to clear the current contents of memory and load the entire hard disk volume. If you have not used an Akai sampler before and you need more detailed information on loading from hard disk or CD-ROM, please see the section LOAD MODE.

However you load sounds, whether it’s from floppy disk, hard disk, cartridge or CD-ROM, just load them and enjoy playing with your new sampler. Although we suggest you read the operator’s manual thoroughly, of course, at this stage, you don’t want be bothered with that so just experiment and get a feel for the S3000XL. As long as you don’t press the SAVE key and accidentally overwrite your floppy disk or hard disk volume, you can’t damage your sounds permanently or come to any harm (you can’t damage a CD-ROM as it’s a read only device). If you do start messing with the samples and programs and don’t like the results, simply re-load the sounds in or load another bunch of sounds to play with.

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INTRODUCTION

MOUNTING THE S3000XL

If you plan to rack mount the S3000XL, try to leave some ‘breathing space’ around it to prevent overheating. It is recommended you leave 1U of rack space above and below the sampler.

If you are placing the sampler on a table, make sure that the table is sturdy and that the sampler is not positioned precariously.

If you are using the S3000XL with a hard disk device of any kind, the disk drive MUST be mounted horizontally. If the disk drive is at an angle, even a slight one, you may have unreliability problems and even data corruption.

If you are planning to rack mount the hard disk with the sampler, it is recommended you use the ‘padded’ type of rack mount adapter available from most manufacturers of rack and flight cases especially if you are likely to be travelling a lot with the set-up. The padding will help protect the disk drive’s delicate head mechanism against shock and excessive vibration.

It goes without saying that the S3000XL and the disk drive are delicate pieces of precision electronics and they don’t take kindly to being thrown around however sturdy your flight case might be!

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 13

INTRODUCTION

GETTING AROUND THE S3000XL

The S3000XL is pretty straightforward to use. Basically, it operates in different ‘modes’ which are selected according to what it is you want to do. In these modes, you navigate your way around the functions using the soft keys. You move around the screens using the CURSOR keys and data is entered either using the DATA wheel or numerically from the numeric keypad.

OPERATING MODES

The S3000XL has various modes in which it works and these are selected using the eight large mode keys found beneath the floppy disk drive. Each key is illuminated to indicate the sampler’s current status.

These modes are: SINGLE For playing single programs. This mode is best suited for ‘playing’ the

sampler (i.e. performing a piano solo or whatever) although it can also be used when sequencing a single sound from the S3000XL.

SINGLE/ MULTI/BSAMPLE/CEFFECTS/

EDIT/

GLOBAL/ SAVE/GLOAD/

MULTI For playing up to sixteen programs together. Typically, this mode would be

used for multi-timbral sequencing by setting each ‘part’ to a different MIDI channel but it can also used for layering and creating key splits by setting

two or more parts to the same MIDI channel. SAMPLE For making recordings. EFFECTS For selecting effects to assign to single programs or to parts in a multi if

the optional EB16 multi-effects processor board is installed. EDIT Puts the sampler into edit mode for any of the four modes described

above. For example, EDIT SINGLE allows you to edit single programs;

EDIT MULTI allows you to edit the program in the currently selected part;

EDIT SAMPLE allows you to edit the recording you have just made (or

samples currently in memory, of course); EDIT EFFECTS allows you to edit

the parameters of the optional effects processor (if fitted). GLOBAL Allows you to set certain ‘global’ settings that affect the S3000XL as a

whole such as MIDI channel, SCSI ID, output level, overall tuning, etc.. It

also gives access to utilities such as disk recording, MIDI song file

playback, importing ‘foreign’ CD-ROMs from other manufacturers, etc.. SAVE For saving data to floppy or hard disk. LOAD For loading data into the sampler.

SOFT KEYS

The SOFT KEYS directly under the LCD call up various functions and pages within each mode - these vary from mode to mode and have no pre-defined function. As such, they cannot be easily explained here!

F1/IF2/JF3/KF4/LF5/MF6/NF7/OF8/

Page 14 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

There are many common keys in many of the functions, however, such as, for example, COPY, RENAME and DELETE which are always on F6, F7 and F8 in those pages where they appear. Commands such as GO, and ABORT always appear on F7 and F8. There is also a convention to the type of functions available which is worth noting.

If a key has this highlighted type of display: then this signifies that pressing this key will take you to another page. If the key has this type of display: (i.e. the function simply has a box around it and is unhighlighted) then this signifies that the key is an ‘do it’ key and will instigate some kind action such as SAVE, LOAD, DELETE, GO, ABORT, etc..

If the key has no form of box around it and is not highlighted - i.e: , then this indicates the page you are currently in although this is always shown in the top left corner of the display as well. This type of key switches between two types of display - pressing it once displays note names, pressing it again displays notes as MIDI note numbers.

SELECTING PARAMETERS AND ENTERING DATA

You move around the screen using the CURSOR KEYS and data is input either from the DATA ENTRY ENCODER or from the NUMERIC KEYPAD. You may move around within digit fields using the +/< and -/> keys found on the numeric keypad.

DATA

-/+/

CURSOR

On simple fields like filter cutoff, attack time, MIDI channel, etc., that have two digits, you may simply type in a two digit number - i.e. 23, 45, etc.. On such fields, you will find that the DATA ENTRY ENCODER will cover the whole range quite quickly so you may find that more convenient. The same is true of three digit fields. Turning it clockwise increases numeric values, and turning it counter-clockwise decreases these values. You may also use the +/< and -/> keys to position the cursor on the ‘tens’ or ‘hundreds’ field to make more rapid changes. For non-numeric values (i.e. sample rates, sample type, loop type, etc.), turning the encoder will display all the options in order. Normally, there is no other entry procedure required; simply displaying the correct value of a parameter using the DATA encoder selects and stores it into the S3000XL’s memory. Our sound programmers at Akai usually use a combination of the numeric keypad and the DATA WHEEL for speedy input of parameter values.

When editing numeric parameters, some of the values can be quite large, and it would be necessary to turn the DATA WHEEL thousands of times (literally!) in order to go through the whole range if the value was only changed by 1 for every click of the DATA control. There is an alternative to turning the control thousands of times, though. When you press the CURSOR keys, you move from one parameter to another and, using the +/< and -/> keys, you may move around within a large numeric field.

If a number such as 123456.78 is displayed, and the +/< key is pressed so that only the first three digits are highlighted thus:

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 15

INTRODUCTION

Turning the DATA ENTRY ENCODER clockwise by one step now will increase the value of the last highlighted digit, so:

Now if the -/> key is pressed once, the first four digits will be highlighted:

and turning the DATA ENTRY ENCODER one click clockwise will produce:

If you turn the DATA control more than ten clicks, of course, the value of the whole parameter will be incremented or decremented by the number of clicks. In this way, with very little effort, fast accurate editing of numbers can be achieved using only the +/< and

-/> keys and the DATA ENTRY ENCODER. The best way to learn how this works is to practise; after a short time, it should become second nature.

On ‘signed’ fields (that is, fields that have a + or a - before them), the +/< and -/> will do two things. Pressing the +/< key will move the cursor left within the field and, when it reaches the furthermost left digit, you may use it to switch between + and - depending on the selection you wish to make. The -/> key will move the cursor right and, when it reaches the furthermost right digit you may toggle between + and - again.

As mentioned above, as an alternative to turning the DATA control, you can also use the numeric keypad for direct entry of data. When you know the exact number you want to enter, this can be faster than using the DATA control, but when experimenting (for example, when setting loop points or sample start and end times), the DATA control may be faster than the numeric keypad. You’ll probably discover quickly what method works best for you in each situation.

NOTE: The cursor always stays on the last currently selected field in any screen. For example, if you are in, say, the filter pages and are setting envelope 2’s depth and then go to the ENV2 page to make an adjustment there, when you return to the filter page, the cursor will still be on envelope 2’s depth parameter.

MARK AND JUMP KEYS

These two grey buttons to the right of the number keypad are used in conjunction with each other.

MARK/#

JUMP/.

If you are carrying out editing operations which require changing display pages a lot, these can save a lot of time and effort. Pressing the MARK/# button when the cursor is on a field will cause the S3000XL to remember the position of the cursor, and pressing JUMP/. will take the cursor back to the MARK(ed) position from any other page. Pressing JUMP/. again will take you back to the page and function you were at before you JUMP(ed).

You can reset the MARK position at any time. This position is lost when the power is turned off. At power-on, this position defaults to the program select field in the initial SINGLE mode.

Page 16 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

NAMING FILES - THE NAME KEY

When samples, programs, effects or drum input settings are changed, they should be given a name for easy reference.

NAME

Pressing the NAME button in certain pages will enable you to name the data and you will notice that each button has a letter following its primary function (i.e. EDIT PROG/K, F4/D, HELP/P). Up to 12 characters (uppercase only) are entered by pressing the front panel buttons (although you may also scroll through letters and numbers using the DATA control). When actually entering names, pressing the NAME button will switch the function of the numeric keypad between letters and numbers. The CURSOR keys moves the cursor around inside the name field when naming a sample or program.

When entering names in letter mode, the +/< and -/> buttons work as backspace and space-bar buttons respectively (when in number mode, they enter the “+” and “-” characters), and the MARK/# and JUMP/. keys enter “#” and “.” respectively. The last button, ENT/PLAY, enters and confirms the name and the S3000XL prompts you to either copy or rename the item.

THE ENT/PLAY KEY

Underneath the NAME key, you will see the ENT/PLAY key:

ENT/PLAY

This is a dual-purpose button. When naming samples, programs, etc., pressing this button will end the naming process in conjunction with COPY and REN(ame) as described above. In other modes of operation, this key will play the sound at a pitch, velocity and MIDI channel as set in the GLOBAL mode. The default may be freely set as you wish.

NOTE: When editing samples in EDIT SAMPLE, pressing this button will play back the sample at its correct pitch and not necessarily the one set in the GLOBAL pages.

LCD CONTRAST

Underneath the floppy disk drive, you will find the DISPLAY CONTRAST CONTROL:

DISPLAY

CONTRAST

PUSH ON/OFF

You may adjust the viewing angle for the screen using the DISPLAY CONTRAST control.

NOTE: To preserve the life of your LCD, this control also has a switch which you can use to turn the backlight of the LCD on or off. At times when you are not actively using the S3000XL’s front panel for programming (i.e. when actually sequencing or recording to tape, for example, or when using the sampler live on stage), you might like to switch this off. All LCD’s of this type progressively get dimmer with age and this switch can help prevent this. The switch should be pushed in to switch the backlight off and pushed in again to switch it back on.

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 17

INTRODUCTION

RECORD LEVEL, MAIN VOLUME, HEADPHONE OUTPUT

Above the numeric keypad, you will find the RECORD LEVEL and MAIN VOLUME controls:

REC GAIN

MIN MAX

MAIN VOLUME

MIN MAX

Input level for sampling is regulated using the RECORD LEVEL control and the S3000XL’s overall output level is controlled, not surprisingly, by the MAIN VOLUME control. This also governs the level of the sound appearing at the HEADPHONE OUTPUT.

NOTE: The MAIN VOLUME control does not affect the level appearing at the individual outputs or the real-time digital audio output.

Page 18 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

HOW THE S3000XL WORKS

Despite its versatility, the S3000XL is very straightforward and once you have a basic grasp of the flowcharts shown on the next pages, things will make more sense.

Basically, you can have SAMPLES. These are the pieces of raw digital audio that are always the basis of any sound in the S3000XL. These may be derived from floppy disk, hard disk (including Magneto Optical (MO) Disks, removable cartridge types), CD ROM or, of course, you may sample your own sounds via the analogue or the digital inputs.

Once you have a raw sample, there are many things you can do with it within EDIT SAMPLE. You may TRIM it - that is, remove any unwanted audio from the start or end. You may CHOP it - that is, remove a section in the middle and splice the two remaining sections together or you may CUT it - that is, remove a section in the middle and keep the gap thus created. You may also EXTRACT part of the sound - that is isolate a section (such as one snare drum in a breakbeat) and extract that snare hit from the original. You may also TUNE and/or REVERSE the sample.

Of course, one problem always associated with sampling is LOOPING. Because any given sample is only a few seconds long, if you want to sustain that sample longer than its original length, some method has to be sought to do this. This is LOOPING. A loop is a section of the sound that repeats as long as you hold your finger on the key and is set by setting a start and end point for the loop. This is something of an art and a science and something we won’t delve into here in great detail. To make looping as easy as possible, the S3000XL has FIND and CROSSFADE functions to help you set good loops.

Other sample editing functions include TIMESTRETCH which allows you to lengthen or shorten a sample without changing its pitch (again, we will look at this in more detail later in this manual) and RE-SAMPLING, a technique that allows you to squeeze the optimum performance out of available memory space. On the S3000XL, you may also NORMALISE a sample’s level for optimum signal to noise performance.

Once you have edited a sample you place it into a PROGRAM. A PROGRAM is where you assemble your sample(s) for playback. In a program, you

allocate a sample to a KEYGROUP (in fact, you can allocate 4 samples to one keygroup for layering, velocity switching and velocity crossfading but more on that later!). A program may have as little as one keygroup spanning the entire keyboard or as many as one keygroup for every key each with four samples in them! To overcome the abrupt tonal discrepancies sometimes experienced when two different samples are placed ‘side by side’ on the keyboard, positional keygroup crossfading can be used for a smoother transition.

Once in a keygroup, the sample may be passed through resonant filters for tonal modification, through amplifiers for amplitude control and through a pan section for stereo placement. Keygroups may be freely assigned to the individual outputs for external processing on a mixing console.

On top of this, you may apply modulation from 2 x Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs) for vibrato and other effects. A SINGLE TRIGGER LEGATO mode allows you to emulate solo instruments such as woodwind and brass more realistically and to allow for greater expression when playing synth bass parts or lead sounds.

One powerful feature of the S3000XL is the flexible ASSIGNABLE PROGRAM MODULATION known as APM for short) in EDIT PROGRAM. Using this, any modulation source may be routed to virtually any control input. In this way, the S3000XL is a powerful synthesiser as well, except that you may use almost any sampled sound (of your own or from a sound library) as the basis of your own powerful and expressive sounds.

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 19

INTRODUCTION

Once you have placed your sample(s) into a program, you may play them from a MIDI controller in SINGLE mode. If the optional effects processor is fitted in your S3000XL, you may add powerful multi-effects such as simultaneous distortion, EQ, chorus/flange, delay and reverb to these programs.

Once you have several programs in memory, you may use the MULTI mode to combine them together. Typically, this will be to set different programs to different MIDI channels for multi-timbral sequencing but you may also use the MULTI mode for layering programs and for key splits. In MULTI mode, the four channels of the optional effects processor may be used so that different programs may have different effects applied to them. Furthermore, the MULTI’s internal mixer allows you to mix the level and pan of each program as well as set its effects send level. With the individual output board fitted, these programs may be assigned to their own output for mixing on an external mixing console.

Once you are happy with everything, the whole thing may be saved to disk for recall at a later date.

One of the beauties of the Akai samplers is that there are no restrictions on what you do with samples - any sample can be placed into any keygroup in any program. One sample may be placed into a variety of different programs, each of which impose different envelope or filter settings to create a wide range of possibilities from very little. One or more samples may be used in any other programs even on other disks and/or one program can be used as the basis for processing other samples.

S3000XL FLOWCHART

The following flowcharts will help your understanding of the S3000XL.

EFFECTS (optional)

PROGRAM(S)SAMPLE(S)

Here, samples are made and edited, placed into programs (which can be played singly if you wish) and these programs can be placed into a multi (where several programs my be played together). Programs and multis can use the optional effects processor if fitted.

EFFECTS

(optional)

MULTI

Page 20 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

SAMPLE(S)

EDIT SAMPLE

KEYGROUP(S)

EDIT PROGRAM

PER KEYGROUP

MODULATION SOURCES

MASTER PROGRAM OUTPUT

INTRODUCTION

ANALOGUE INPUTS DIGITAL INPUTS FLOPPY DISK HARD DISK/CARTRIDGE CD ROM

TUNE

TRIM CHOP CUT

LOOP (X4) JOIN

NORMALISE/RE-SCALE

XFADE

FADE

TIMESTRETCH RESAMPLE

SAMPLE 1

SAMPLE 2

SAMPLE 3

SAMPLE 4

12dB/8ve LOWPASS RESONANT FILTER

AMP

PAN

EXTRACT

TUNE

REVERSE

FX SEND

MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL

IND. OUT 1 - 8

IND. OUTPUT ASSIGN

AUTO PANNING

KG PITCH

VEL SW/XFD

ENV 2 ENV 1

KEYSPAN

MOD.WHL P.BEND AFTERTOUCH VELOCITY EXT.MIDIKBD

ENVELOPE TEMPLATES

ENV 1 ENV 2 LFO 1 LFO 2

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 21

INTRODUCTION

PARTS 1-16

PER PART

MULTI-MODE

FX SEND LEVEL

4-CHANNEL EFFECTS PROCESSOR

MULTI-EFFECTS CHANNEL x 2

DISTORTION EQ RING MOD

TUNEPROGRAM SELECT OCTAVE LEVEL PAN FX BUSS

OUTPUT ASSIGN

MOD/DELAY EFFECTS REVERBDISTORTION/EQ

CHORUS

FLANGE

PHASE

PITCH SHIFT

PAN/FMOD

DELAY REVERB

PRIORITYMIDI CH

REVERB ONLY CHANNEL x 2

REVERB

Page 22 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

SINGLE MODE

SINGLE is where you may select and play programs. Pressing SINGLE gives this screen display.

NOTES REGARDING THE S3000XL’S SINGLE MODE

Before we look at the functions in this mode, please bear the following in mind. SINGLE mode, as the name suggests, is essentially designed to play single programs.

However, for historical reasons, in order to be compatible with sound disks created on Akai S1000, S1100 and the S3000 series, you can, in fact, play several programs at once. This is done by setting two or more programs to the same program number (see below RENUMBERING PROGRAMS). Furthermore, you may have several programs active at any one time and each of these may have a different MIDI channel so that they play multi-timbrally. However, as mentioned, this is included here so that such disks created on earlier Akai samplers can be used without tedious re-programming or conversion.

NOTES FOR EXISTING AKAI SAMPLER USERS

If you have used an Akai S1000, S1100 or any of the S3000 series samplers and are familiar with the concept of several programs sharing the same program number, you may continue to work in this way if you wish but we feel sure you will appreciate the speed and convenience of the MULTI mode for layering and multi-timbral sequencing once you give it a try as it has many advantages over the way earlier Akai samplers dealt with multitimbral applications. However, retaining the old method as well gives you the best of both worlds in that any setups you may have using the older method can still be used plus you can avail yourself of the new functions as and when you like. You may like to convert existing S1000/1100/3000 multi-timbral setups into new MULTI files if you wish.

NOTE FOR NEW USERS

If you are new to Akai samplers but have had some experience of other sound modules, you will probably feel more at home setting up multi-timbral data, layered programs and key splits in the MULTI mode as this is more in keeping with how other sound modules work these days. You can use the SINGLE mode for playing single programs. With that in mind, you may like to skip a lot of this section as it really refers to the ‘old method’ of using earlier Akai samplers.

SELECTING PROGRAMS

Selecting sound to play can be done in several ways: 1 In the main SELECT PROG screen as shown above, turning the DATA

control will select different programs for playback. 2 In the main SELECT PROG screen, use the numeric keypad to select

sounds by number. To do this, press the </+ key twice followed by a three

digit number. I.e. to select program 25, press </+ and 025. To then select

program 26, simply press 6. To then select program number 1, press </+

once followed by 01 or twice followed by 001. 3 Send MIDI program change commands from your keyboard, synthesiser,

sequencer or whatever MIDI controller you are using. You will note that the

S3000XL uses ‘actual’ program numbers 1-128 - if your keyboard sends

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 23

SINGLE MODE

Whichever method you use for selecting programs, when the program is selected, an asterisk appears alongside it number and the program number is indicated. One useful feature of the S3000XL is that it is possible to be playing one program whilst another is being selected. For example, whilst holding down a low string note you could select, say, a brass sound. The strings will continue to sound and you may now play the brass part. Please note, however, that if you are using the internal effects on either or both of these sounds, there may be a noticeable change as only one effect can be used at once. In this case, the brass program’s effects would take priority.

VIEWING PROGRAMS

The LCD can display 5 programs at any one time. There may be occasions when you have more than this and so you may use the CURSOR keys to scroll through your program list. Pressing the CURSOR LEFT or RIGHT keys will scroll though the list one at a time and pressing the CURSOR DOWN or UP keys will increment through the list in steps of five programs. This can be helpful if you are searching for a particular sound and need to see what is loaded in the S3000XL. The display will tell you how many programs are loaded and in the above example, we can see that there are actually 8 programs in memory even though only the first five are displayed. It is possible to be viewing other programs whilst playing another.

out 0-127, please bear this in mind as you will have to offset all program

change commands you issue by 1.

SETTING PROGRAM LEVELS, PAN, FX SENDS

In the MIX page of SINGLE, you may view the programs in memory and set their level, pan, etc.. This is a convenient and quick way to adjust the levels of single programs

masse

press and you will receive the following display:

On this page you may set, from left to right across the screen:

without having to edit each one individually in EDIT PROGRAM. To access this,

This shows the number of the program selected in the main SINGLE page

although you may select another program or group of programs in this

field.

This sets the level of the program as it appears at the left/right stereo

outputs of the S3000XL. This would normally be used to mix the levels of

different programs and is the equivalent of a mixers fader control. It is

possible to send programs to individual outputs but, by mixing them out of

the stereo outputs by setting this parameter to 00, you remove them from

the main mix. In this way, for example, you could send individual drums to

separate channels of an external mixer for more elaborate level and tonal

control whilst other instruments appear only at the stereo outputs of the

S3000XL. In this way, very complex mixes can be set up. Another method

may be to send, say, snare and kick to individual outputs (but take them

out of the stereo mix) and just have toms and percussion in a stereo

image coming out of the main stereo mix. In this way, you save on

channels on your external mixer.

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This sets the pan position of the program in the stereo outputs and the

range is L50 through MID (00) to R50.

This allows you to assign any program to one of the 8 individual outputs

should you wish to mix the program using an external mixer. The range is

OFF, 1-8.

NOTE: It is possible to send individual keygroups to these outputs so the results you get may sometimes be a little unpredictable if you are not sure of the keygroup assignments.

This sets the level of the audio appearing at the individual outputs.

This allows you to route the program to one of the four effects channels,

FX1, FX2, RV3 or RV4. You may also switch the effects routing to OFF.

This sets the effect send level. The range is 0-99.

NOTE 1: The and the parameters only function when the optional EB16 multi- effects processor is installed.

NOTE 2: In any of the SINGLE mode’s pages, if the EB16 is installed, you may conveniently mute them using F8 - . This will turn off all four effects channels so that you can hear the program(s) in isolation.

SETTING PROGRAMS’ MIDI PARAMETERS

Pressing F3 - - will display the following screen:

This could be regarded as a ‘MIDI mixer’ as it follows a similar layout to the MIX page described above. This page allows you to set various MIDI parameters for each program. The parameters are:

This shows the number of the program 1-128 selected in the main

SINGLE page although you may select another program or group of

programs in this field.

This allows you to set the MIDI channel for any program and the range is

OM (omni) through 1-16. This parameter allows you to layer programs

together by setting two or more programs to the same program number

and setting their MIDI channels the same in this field. It also allows you to

set up sophisticated multi-timbral configurations (i.e. set several programs

to the same program number and assign different MIDI channels to each

program). You may also layer two or more programs within a multi-timbral

configuration of course.

When two programs are given the same program number, it is possible to

set up keyboard splits by setting the note range of the programs. This

parameter ignores each programs keygroup ranges and simply imposes a

range on the whole program. In this way, you can quickly set up very

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complex keyboard splits and layers without having to concern yourself with

the intricacies of setting keygroups within a program itself. Please note

that this parameter has no effect on single programs, it is only when two or

more programs have the same program number that it is effective.

This is an abbreviation of POLYPHONY and allows you to limit the

polyphony of a program.

This is an abbreviation of PRIORITY and allows you to set how notes will

be ‘stolen’ by other programs if the 32 voice polyphony is exceeded.

There are four settings: LOW, NORM, HIGH and HOLD. If the program is

set to LOW priority, then notes from this program will be stolen first. If set

to HIGH, then notes from other programs with lower priority will be stolen

first before they are stolen from this program. NORM is, of course, normal

priority and sets standard dynamic voice allocation and note stealing will

take place with no particular priority. If a program’s priority is set to HOLD,

then notes can only be stolen from this program by the same program.

If you are playing a complex piece of music using many programs in a

multi-timbral configuration, it is a good idea to set important programs to

HIGH or HOLD and less important, background programs to LOW. If the

piece of music is not overly complicated and polyphony is not going to be

exceeded, you may prefer just to leave the priority at the default setting of

NORM.

This is an abbreviation of TRANSPOSE and sets the basic octave range

for the program. The range is +/- 50 semitones. You will note that this is

not a pitch shift function as such but a MIDI transpose function - this

overcomes the problem of playing back samples out of their range. What

this function does is introduce an offset so that, even if you play C3 on the

keyboard, this is offset to play the samples on C4 (with a +12 setting) - it is

not playing the samples on C3 an octave higher.

NOTE: It must be said that this page is really an inheritance from earlier Akai samplers when using multi-timbral setups. We strongly recommend that for such purposes, you use the MULTI mode but retaining these functions ensures compatibility with data created on earlier models. If you have used Akai samplers before, you may continue to work in this way, of course, but, as mentioned, the new MULTI mode may be more convenient

SETTING PROGRAM LOUDNESS AND VELOCITY

In the page, you may set the program’s overall loudness and velocity sensitivity:

The parameters are:

This sets the overall loudness for the program and affects the level

appearing at the main left/right outputs, the individual outputs and the

real-time digital audio output. It will also affect the level going to the

internal effects.

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NOTE: You will note that at a setting of 99, the program is at maximum level but you will

not have any velocity sensitivity.

This sets the program’s sensitivity to velocity. As mentioned, with

set to 99, this parameter will have no effect.

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LOADING FROM FLOPPY DISK

The next key along, F5, gives you access to some basic disk functions for loading sounds into the S3000XL. Pressing in the SELECT PROG mode gives you this screen:

Here, you have a choice of two options: loading a particular program and its associated samples ( ) or loading the entire contents of the disk ( ).

If you have inserted a disk, pressing will bring up a list of all programs stored on that disk. If you have inserted the wrong disk or wish to change it, insert a new disk and press the key again. If you want to wipe out all programs and samples in memory and load the contents of the disk, press . You will be asked if this is what you really want to do. Make sure that you either do not want the programs and samples in memory, or that they are saved to disk before you proceed. As the disk is loading, you will receive this display

indicating the loading progress. The other option, , allows you to load a program and all associated samples (free

memory permitting). To do this, highlight a program using the CURSOR keys, and press

. The program, and its associated samples, will be loaded into memory. If the samples required by this program already exist in memory, they will be loaded anyway, but they will overwrite the samples currently in memory. If there is not enough memory to load a program and its samples, the message

will be displayed. In this case, you will have to delete some existing programs and/or samples to free up some memory space.

LOADING FROM HARD DISK

If you have a hard disk of any description connected via SCSI for loading sounds, you will receive the following display when F5 is pressed:

This is almost the same as for floppy except that you can see it tells you that it is a hard disk. You may select from different volumes by moving the cursor to the field and scrolling through the volumes on the disk. By moving the cursor to where it says ‘ ’ after

, you may select different partitions to choose other volumes. Loading is done in

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the manner described above - press to load the entire volume and to load a particular program and its associated samples.

NOTE: There is more to using a hard disk than that, unfortunately, such as matching SCSI ID’s, formatting, etc.. For details on using the S3000XL with a hard disk, please refer to the section HARD DISK CONTROL in the DISK section.

Other disk operations, like saving and formatting disks, are performed in the DISK mode, not from this page. This page is intended purely for quick access to loading from disk.

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DELETING PROGRAMS

Programs and their associated samples may be deleted from memory in this page, which is accessed by pressing the key. Pressing this key displays this screen:

When this page is displayed, the cursor will highlight a program. Highlight the program you want to delete using the CURSOR keys. There are three soft key actions that you can take, all concerned with deleting programs:

NOTE: If you delete a program from memory, make sure that you really do not need that program in the future or that you have saved it to disk first. In some cases, as explained below, deleting a program will also delete samples. Make sure these really are unwanted or have been saved to disk before proceeding.

The three ‘action’ keys are as follows:

Pressing this will display this prompt:

and you should press GO or ABORT as necessary. If the program is the only one in memory using a particular set of samples,

you will receive the following prompt:

Press the appropriate soft key if you are sure that you want to delete the program and its associated samples.

If the samples contained in the program are used elsewhere in other programs, you will not receive this prompt as it is assumed you don’t want to lose these samples.

This will delete all programs which have the same number as the highlighted program. You will be asked if you want to proceed with the bulk program delete. If these programs are the only ones using particular samples, you will be asked if you want to delete the samples as well.

This, of course, is the most drastic of these three options. If you answer GO and YES to the questions regarding released samples, then all programs, (except for an S3000XL generated program - TEST PROGRAM) and samples will be deleted. Deleting samples and rearranging memory space may take a little time, so be patient while this takes place.

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NOTE: Obviously, is an option to be used with some caution. If the programs and

samples in memory have not been saved to disk, deleting programs and/or samples at this point will be fatal - YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETRIEVE THEM. Please be careful.

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RENUMBERING PROGRAMS

On the S3000XL, program numbers correspond to patch numbers on a synthesiser. When a MIDI Program Change message is received, the appropriate program is selected. However, to match S3000XL programs with the patch numbers on your synthesiser, you may want to renumber the programs, so that selecting a brass sound on the S3000XL will call up a similar (or complementary) patch on a remote synthesiser module. To do this, press the key.

You will receive something like this screen display:

As the screen informs you on this page, you select the program to be renumbered using the CURSOR keys and alter the current number to the new number using the DATA control. You can also use the numeric keypad for this, setting the program number to a value of between 1 and 128 (these are MIDI specification limits). When you have altered the number, you have several options to choose from on soft keys 6, 7 and 8. These are:

This will set all programs to the same number as that set in the currently selected program. For example, placing the cursor on 3 - BASS and setting that to 1 would renumber all the programs to program number 1. This is useful when you have loaded in a variety of sounds from different disks or hard disk volumes and wish to sequence them multi-timbrally (see later).

This causes all subsequent programs to be renumbered with an offset to the currently selected program. For example, if you renumbered program 4 to 10, all subsequent programs (i.e. SYN BASS and others off the screen) will be renumbered 11, 12, 13, etc.. whilst programs 1, 2 and 3 would be unaffected.

This will only renumber the currently selected program. All other programs will be unaffected. You may also use this to renumber several programs in one go. For example, change the programs accordingly (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) and then press (although the would be more appropriate for this).

This will renumber all programs sequentially 1-? depending on how many programs are in memory.

Once you are happy with the result of your renumbering, press to return you to the main SINGLE screen display. Also, if you change your mind and do not wish to renumber something now, simply leave the RNUM page without pressing F3, F4, F5 or F6.

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USING THE S3000XL IN ‘OLD AKAI’ MODE!

The next group of explanations deal with using the SINGLE mode like the SELECT PROG mode on earlier Akai samplers such as the S1000, S1100 and S3000 series. As mentioned, these functions have been retained in order to preserve compatibility with data created on these samplers. In keeping with other sound modules, the S3000XL sees the introduction of a new MULTI mode. This is a quick and easy way of combining several programs together for multi-timbral sequencing, layering and key splits. However, progress brings with it certain compatibility issues and the fact remains that, as THE industry standard sampler the world over, there is a lot of data out there that was created on Akai samplers. For compatibility (and to be considerate to our customers!), the ‘old Akai’ way of working is retained. The following explanations, therefore, refer to this method of operation should you wish to work in this way or if you have existing sound library that uses this method. If you have used Akai samplers before, you may well wish to continue working in this way but, if you are new to our samplers (welcome!), you may prefer to skip this section and refer to the section that explains MULTI mode and all it advantages.

USING SELECT PROG - PROGRAMS WITH THE SAME NUMBER

Most of the time, you will probably want to load in the sounds you need and these will be single programs for playing from the keyboard (or whichever MIDI instrument you play). As we have seen, this is easy enough - simply scroll through using the DATA control or select them via MIDI program change. There are occasions when you want to play several programs together, however, and this is where the renumbering becomes useful.

LAYERING PROGRAMS

Although it is possible to layer sounds within one program or within MULTI mode, it is useful to be able to call up several programs together.

For example, let’s say you have a string program and brass program you want to combine. As mentioned, you could make up a program that combined all of these samples but an easier way is to simply give them the same program number - for example, renumber them both to, say, program 1. When you select program 1 you will then select the combined programs with the strings and brass layered together. You may also set the balance and pan positions between these sounds in the MIX page.

You may prefer to layer sounds using RNUM rather than creating one program with the required sample(s) in it because there are certain aspects to creating a program that affect all things the same. For example, the auto-panning and effects send would affect all samples equally - when using the RNUM function, one sound in the layer could be panning slowly left to right routed to FX1 whilst another stays central through RV3. You also have easier control of the respective levels of the programs in the layers.

Of course, you are not limited to layering just two sounds - you could layer up to 32 programs for a monster monophonic lead line or bass sound!

CREATING KEYBOARD SPLITS

As for layering, it is easy to set key splits in EDIT PROGRAM or in MULTI mode but, again, it may be more convenient to create the split using the RNUM function.

Let us say you have two programs - UPRIGHT BASS and VIBES - and you want to create a split so that you can perform a walking bass line with your left hand and a jazzy vibes solo with the right. By setting the RANGE parameter in the MIDI page (F4) accordingly, the bass can be set to finish at B2 and the vibes set to start at C3. Even though both these programs originally spanned the entire keyboard, this function allows you to impose limits on the programs’ keyranges. Now, assuming that both programs have the same program number (i.e. both are renumbered 1 or something), then you can play both programs with the keyboard split.

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USING RENUMBERING TO CREATE MULTI-TIMBRAL SETUPS

One of the most appealing things about MIDI is its multi-channel ability. Originally, synth modules could be set to a specific MIDI channel number so that several modules could be set to play several musical parts from a sequencer. Of course, as technology advanced, it became possible to do this within one module and such a module is known as ‘multi-timbral’ - i.e. ‘many sounds’. The S3000XL is no exception and has powerful multi-timbral capabilities.

Multi-timbral setups are more easily created in the new MULTI mode but, if you want to use old method, read on.

To set up a multi-timbral assignment in SINGLE, we use the renumbering function again. Assuming you have loaded in a pile of programs you wish to sequence, give them all the same program number. This is done in the RNUM page and you simply give the same number to all programs using the function. You should receive a display something like this when you return to the main SELECT PROG screen:

Here, all programs are number 1. Of course, you will need to assign each program to have different MIDI channels:

You can also use the MIX page to set the levels, pan position, output assignment and effects send for each program:

Remember, also, that you may use a combination of all of these techniques and you can, of course, have a mix of split and layered programs within a multi-timbral assignment.

Using the S3000XL live, you may have several multi-timbral setups in memory at any time (memory allowing, of course!). In this way, you may have sets of programs for each song recalled from a MIDI program change from your sequencer (this is one advantage of using this method over MULTI - you may only have one multi file in memory at any one time).

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SINGLE VS MULTI

As mentioned, you may avhieve similar results in the MULTI mode where you can create multi-timbral setups, key splits, layered programs (and combinations of these) very quickly and easily. The advantages MULTI has over the ‘old Akai’ methods are

• Selection of programs for a part is quick and easy.

• You can try out different sounds very easily and is therefore ideal for loading in, say, a

few pianos, a few basses, a few drum kits, etc., and experimenting with different combinations of sounds. Equally, when layering, choosing and experimenting with combinations is extremely quick.

• When changing sounds, any mixer parameters, effects assignments, etc., you may

have set in the MULTI remain constant so you do not have to reset everything every time you change a sound.

• You can use the same program several times in a MULTI. For example, you may

layer a strings program (or whatever) on top of itself with some detune for a richer sound simply by applying the same program to two (or more) parts, giving those parts the same MIDI channel and setting a FINE TUNE value for each as appropriate (to achieve the same result in SINGLE requires that you make a copy of the program).

• In the case where a program is layered on top of itself for detuning, editing one of

them will affect both so that you can make changes to the whole sound with one sionple action (for example, layering a string pad on top of itself with some detune and editing the attack of one of the parts will cause both parts to be affected).

• You may select different programs independently on different MIDI channels (i.e.

send a program change on channel 5 to select a new string sound in part 5).

• You can save the multi file with a meaningful name (i.e. BACK TRACK 3 or the name

of the song, whatever).

• If you are new to samplers, the MULTI mode corresponds more with most other

sound module’s implementation that you may be more familiar with.

The disadvantages of MULTI is that only one multi file may reside in memory at once (although any number may be saved to disk) and you can’t have more than sixteen programs active at any one time.

The advantages of using the ‘old Akai’ method are:

• You can have several multi-timbral setups or layers in memory at any one time and

recall them with a single MIDI program change (ideal for live work where you may have the backing tracks for all your songs in memory).

• You may have more than sixteen programs active at once (although there are not

more than sixteen MIDI channels, you may have layered programs in a multi-timbral setup).

The disadvantages, however, are:

• Changing sounds in a multi-timbral setup and experimenting with different

combinations of sounds can be awkward.

• You cannot select a new program for one of the parts using MIDI program change

commands (you can’t send a MIDI program change on MIDI channel 5 to select a new string sound for that part, for example).

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• When you assign a new program to the setup, its level, pan, effects routings are

recalled with it. This may be an advantage for some users but it does mean you have to reset the mix every time you replace one sound with another. Furthermore, even though a program’s effects channel is recalled when you assign a new program to the multi-timbral setup, the effects preset associated with that effects channel may be different and so cause unpredictable results.

• You can’t name a set up and so you can’t see the multi-timbral setup referred to by

name when you come to load it.

Basically, there are pros and cons to both methods - it’s up to you to decide which you want to use depending on your application. At least you have the flexibility to use either. The big advantage is that you may load older sound library material and use it with no conversion process or editing required. As mentioned, whether you choose to convert older Akai sound data into S3000XL ‘format’ using the MULTI mode is up to you depending on your application.

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MULTI MODE - COMBINING SEVERAL PROGRAMS

Multi mode is where you can combine up to sixteen programs together so that they may be played in combination. The MULTI mode has 16 ‘parts’ - slots into which up to 16 programs may be assigned and typically, this is used to sequence several programs multitimbrally2 by setting each part to be on a different MIDI channel.

However, it is also possible to set parts to the same MIDI channel so that you can layer programs for a rich, expansive (expensive?) sound. Furthermore, you may set low and high keyboard ranges for each part so that sophisticated keyboard splits may be created.

With the optional multi-effects processor fitted, each part may be routed to one of the four effects channels and you have a total of four effects that can be applied to the parts in the multi. More than one part may be routed to any one of the effects channels so that parts may share effects and each part has its own effects send level.

However, you may prefer to use the S3000XL with external effects processors using a mixing console. To accommodate this, each part may be routed to one of the 8 individual outputs. By doing this, each part may have its own mixer channel where it can be EQ’d, mixed, panned and effected using your favourite outboard effects processors.

Of course, a combination of these is possible. In one multi, some parts may be on unique MIDI channels whilst others share the same channels for layering and/or key splits and some parts may be routed to the internal effects processor in the S3000XL whilst others are sent out via the individual outputs for processing on the mixing console.

As you can see, the MULTI mode is very flexible.

NOTE: Strange though it may seem, you may also use SINGLE mode to set up multitimbral setups, program layering and key splits. Although it may seem a contradiction in terms to use the SINGLE mode for ‘multi’ applications, this is to maintain compatibility with data created on earlier Akai samplers. If you are an experienced Akai sampler user, you can continue to work this way but we do recommend you use the new MULTI mode as it does offer certain advantages in terms of ease and speed of use and convenience. Please refer to the section SINGLE mode for details on this.

2 The S3000XL can respond to all 16 MIDI channels simultaneously in the MULTI mode.

‘MULTI-TIMBRAL’ literally means ‘many sounds’. In the early days of synthesisers, you needed a separate synthesiser for every part you wanted to play but, with the advent of MIDI, a synthesiser or sampler could be coaxed into playing several different sounds together so that only one synth/sampler was required to play several parts. With the S2000’s 32-voice polyphony, complex multi-part arrangements can be performed using the MULTI mode.

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Pressing MULTI will give you this screen:

ASSIGNING PROGRAMS TO PARTS

To assign a program to a part, simply move the cursor to the program name field and use the DATA wheel to scroll through the programs in memory. Once you’e done that, move the cursor to the next part and select the program for that and so on.The other parts show a “?” indicating that no programs are assigned (the “?” would also show if a program was assigned to a part but that program wasn’t currently in memory). All the MULTI screens show the parts in a vertical list and on each screen, you can see the program name and the MIDI channel it is assigned to.

SETTING A PART’S MIDI CHANNEL

Simply move the cursor to the column and set the MIDI channel as appropriate. For multi-timbral sequencing, you would normally set each part to a different MIDI channel but for layering and/or key splits, you can set two or more parts to the same MIDI channel so that they will play together.

MIXING THE PARTS

Once you have several parts being played, you need to balance their levels and pan position. To do this, simply move the cursor to the field to set the part’s level and to the field to set its pan position. You will note that even if you change the program assigned to that part, the level and pan values weill stay the same.

SENDING PARTS TO THE INTERNAL EFFECTS

Each part may be sent to one of the internal effects if the optional EB-16 is fitted. Because the EB16 offers no less than four channels of effects processing, you can have up to four completely separate reverbs at once (two channels also offer multi-effects). More than one part may be sent to the same effects channel.

To assign the part to an effects channel, move the cursor to the column and select the effect (FX1, FX2, RV3, RV4) and set the effects send level using the parameter.

NOTE 1: The and the parameters only function when the optional EB16 multi- effects processor is installed.

NOTE 2: In any of the MULTI mode’s pages, if the EB16 is installed, you may conveniently mute them using F8 - . This will turn off all four effects channels so that you can hear the program(s) in isolation.

These are the most commonly used MULTI parameters. Less commonly used ones are accessed via the soft keys.

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ASSIGNING PARTS TO THE INDIVIDUAL OUTPUTS

Pressing F2 - - will take you to the output assignment page:

Here, you can set which of the 8 individual outputs each part will appear through. You may also set the level of the sound appearing at any of the outputs.

TUNING AND TRANSPOSING PARTS

To tune the parts, press F3 - :

The column allows you to tune the part in semi-tone steps and the column allows you to fine tune parts.

NOTE: The range of the TRANSPOSE parameter is +/- 50 semitones. You will note that this is not a pitch shift function as such but a MIDI transpose function - this overcomes the problem of playing back samples out of their range. What this function does is introduce an offset so that with a +12 setting, if you play C3 on the keyboard, this is offset to play the samples on C4 - it is not playing the samples on C3 an octave higher and hence introducing transposition distortion of any kind.

SETTING A PART’S LOW AND HIGH KEYRANGES

When setting key splits, you need to set a low and high note limit for each of the programs used. This is done on the RNGE (range) screen:

Here, you may set the and for the parts. To create a keysplit, you would normally assign two programs to two parts, assign them to the same MIDI channel and then set an appropriate keysplit (i.e. Part 1: C0-B2 and Part 2: C3-G8). More details on setting up key splits is given later in this section.

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SETTING A PART’S PRIORITY

When sequencing multi-timbrally, you may need to give certain parts higher or lower priority to prevent ‘note stealing’ when the 32-voice limit is exceeded. This is done in the PRIO(rity) page:

The choices available are: LO W If the program is set to LOW priority, then notes from this program will be

stolen first.

HIGH If set to HIGH, then notes from other programs with lower priority will be

stolen first before they are stolen from this program.

NORM NORM is, of course, normal priority and sets standard dynamic voice

allocation and note stealing will take place with no particular priority.

HOLD If a program’s priority is set to HOLD, then notes can only be stolen from

this program by the same program.

If you are playing a complex piece of music using many programs in a multi-timbral configuration, it is a good idea to set important programs to HIGH or HOLD and less important, background programs to LOW. If the piece of music is not overly complicated and polyphony is not going to be exceeded, you may prefer just to leave the priority at the default setting of NORM.

INITIALISING A PART

There will be times when you want to reset a part to its default values. To do this, move the cursor to the part you wish to initialise (any filed will do) and press F6 ( ) in any of the MULTI pages. This will reset all the parameters described above to their default values and will clear the program name field, leaving it blank.

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SETTING UP A MULTI

Assigning programs to a multi is simplicity itself. You simply move the cursor to the appropriate part and selecting the program using the DATA control. To set parameters such as level, pan, etc., move the cursor to the appropriate column and adjust the value for the selected part. The MULTI mode is always active for modifying with no special edit mode to enter. Let’s now see how to make up a simple multi.

Firstly, you need to load in a few sounds. Referring to the section that explains the LOAD mode, load a few programs.

NOTE: It is suggested you use the IND P+S (individual programs and samples) selection. For the first program and samples you load, use the CLEAR option to clear out any junk that may be in memory. After you have loaded the first program and its associated samples, just use LOAD so that the new programs you load are added to the programs in memory. Load in something sensible. For example, load in a drum kit, a few acoustic and electric pianos, a few bass sounds and some string and/or pad sounds. We will use these sounds as the basis for this tutorial.

Assuming that you now have some programs in memory (you can check this in SINGLE mode by scrolling through them with the DATA wheel), press MULTI. You should see something like this screen:

This is showing us that the multi currently in memory is called MULTI FILE 1, the default name given to a multi when you power up the S3000XL (you can rename it to something more suitable as we shall see later). It is also showing us that PART 1 has the default TEST PROGRAM assigned to it. Now, let’s imagine we want to arrange our multi as follows:

Part 1 Drums Part 2 Piano Part 3 Bass Part 4 Strings

After you have loaded some suitable programs and assigned them, you should end up with something like this:

On your sequencer, record a basic rhythm intousing the drums program so that you have a rhythm to play the other parts to and then overdub some piano chords, a bass part and

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string part. It was suggested that you have a few pianos, basses and string/pad sounds this is so that we have a choice of alternative sounds for each part.

MODIFYING THE MULTI

The beauty of the S3000XL’s MULTI mode is that, as the sequencer is playing back your sequence, you can interact with the parts, assigning different programs to parts ‘on the fly’ within the context of the sequence (you can also edit program parameters such as envelope and filter settings, etc., within the context of your tune as we shall see later).

The MULTI mode has no separate edit mode (the EDIT key is used to edit the actual programs in the parts) so, as the song is playing from the sequencer, you can make changes immediately if needs be. For example, you might like to see how PART 2 sounds with different piano sounds - move the cursor to PART 2 and, as the sequencer is running, scroll through the different piano programs you loaded using the DATA wheel. You can try alternative piano sounds and hear how they sound. Do the same for the basses. For example, you may have loaded some acoustic basses, an electric bass, a slap bass and some synth basses - as the sequence plays, scroll through them, trying out different ones till you find one that suits the track. The same, of course, can be done with the string part.

HINT: When loading the programs from disk, try to load certain types together. For example, load all the piano sounds you think you may need one after another so that they are all grouped together in memory. Similarly, load all your basses one after another so that these are all grouped together. This is suggested as it will make selection and comparison of different sounds in any given part easier.

If you forget to load them in order, don’t worry as you can renumber each program to something more suitable as we shall see in a moment.

You may decide that you want the strings to play the same part in unison with the piano. To achieve this, simply set part 4 to MIDI channel 2, the same as the piano.

You may also decide you want to add some percussion from the DRUMS+PERC program. You could do that in part 1 on MIDI channel 1 but, if you prefer, you may like to separate the drums and percussion so, in part 5, assign the DRUMS+PERC program. You will see this:

Even though the same drums program is used twice in different parts, you may record sequence data on a separate MIDI channel (giving you more flexibility for editing the part on your sequencer) plus, the DRUMS+PERC program assigned to part 5 may have its own independent mix settings, effects sends, etc..

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MULTI MODE

NAMING A MULTI

You may wish to name the multi file to something more suitable. Simply press the NAME key and enter a name of up to 12 characters from the front panel keys. You will receive the usual naming prompts:

Pressing the NAME key again switches the numeric keypad from letters to numbers and you will receive this prompt:

You may press NAME again to access the numeric keypad’s letters. When in the ‘numbers’ mode, the +/< and -/> keys input ‘+’ and “-’ to a name. Pressing NAME again reverts you to entering letters from the numeric keypad.

Alternatively, in conjunction with the CURSOR keys which can be used to move the cursor around within the name, you can use the DATA control to scroll through characters.

Once you have completed the name, press ENT/PLAY to finish the naming process.

NOTE: Because only one MULTI can exist in memory at any one time, you cannot copy the multi file, only rename it. As such, the COPY REN EXIT prompt we have seen elsewhere is not shown.

SAVING A MULTI

You may save a multi to disk and this will save the multi and all its associated programs very simply in the SAVE mode. You may then load this multi (and its associated programs) with one simple operation in the LOAD mode. Please see SAVE and LOAD for details on this.

LOADING A MULTI

To load a MULTI, press LOAD and select MULTI+PROGS+SAMPS as the type of load. Now move the cursor to the multi-file stored on the floppy disk/hard disk volume and press F8 and/or F7. This will load the selected multi and any programs associated with it plus the samples used in those programs.

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MULTI MODE

RENUMBERING PROGRAMS

There will often be occasions when you load in several programs, maybe from different disks or hard disk volumes and the programs you have loaded have the same program numbers or the numbers of the programs you have loaded are not well ordered, etc.. To overcome this, F7 in the MULTI screen ( ) takes you to the RENUMBER page:

In this example, you have loaded a variety of programs some of which have the same program number, others of which are non-sequential. Ordinarily, this is not a problem and you can set up a multi very easily without even having to think about program numbers. However, in the MULTI mode, you can send program change commands over MIDI on selected channels to select new programs within one part (for example, send a MIDI program change command on MIDI channel 5 to select a new program in Part 5). If programs share the same program number, you will have a conflict (for example, send a MIDI program change command 1 where two programs share the program number 1 as in the above example, and only the first of the programs - i.e. BIG STRINGS - would be selected).

To overcome this, use the RNUM page to renumber programs so that they are better organised for your use.

Select the program to be renumbered using the CURSOR keys and alter the current number to the new number using the DATA control. You can also use the numeric keypad for this, setting the program number to a value of between 1 and 128 (these are MIDI specification limits). When you have altered the number, you have several options to choose from on soft keys 1, 2 and 3. These are:

This will set all programs to the same number as that set in the currently selected program. For example, placing the cursor on, say, 4 - SYNTH BASS and setting that to 1 would renumber all the programs to program number 1.

NOTE: There is little benefit to be had doing this in MULTI mode.

This causes all subsequent programs to be renumbered with an offset to the currently selected program. In the example given above, if you moved the cursor to program 4 (SYNTH BASS) and renumbered it to 10, SYNTH BASS will be renumbered to 10 and all subsequent programs (i.e. SLAP BASS and any others off the screen) will be renumbered 11, 12, 13, etc.. The programs lower than 10 would be unaffected.

This will only renumber the currently selected program. To specifically renumber a program, use the CURSOR UP/DOWN keys to select the program you wish to renumber, set the new number using the DATA wheel or the numeric keypad and press . Only that program will be renumbered.

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MULTI MODE

This is probably the best selection as it will simply renumber the programs 1-? sequentially regardless of the programs’ original numbers. I.e.:

Once you are happy with the result of your renumbering, press F7 to return you to the main MULTI screen display.

If you change your mind and do not wish to renumber any programs, simply press without pressing F3, F4, F5 or F6.

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MULTI MODE

The parameters in the multi such as level, pan, tuning, etc., are unique to the multi and override any similar parameters in the program assigned to any part.

For example, it is possible to set a pan position within a program. You may load a sound, the pan position of which is set to L50. However, when you first assign that sound to a part, the part will be set to MID, the MULTI’s PAN setting.

This has another implication. If you assign a sound to a part and set the part’s pan position to R50, for example, if you then assign a new program to that part later on, the new program will also be panned to R50 within the multi. The same would be true of any of the other multi parameters such as level, FX send, tuning, output assign, etc..

The reason for this is that, if you have assigned a sound to a part and set that part’s parameters in a particular way, it is assumed that this is because you want it to sound that way. To use the example of panning again, let’s say you assign a piano sound to a part and set the pan position to R25 - you might back the level off a bit as well. If you then feel that the piano sound is not the right one and want to try a different one, the new sound will be in exactly the same position and at the same level in the mix. If the multi always adopted the program’s parameters when a sound is assigned to a part, selecting a new piano sound in this example would reset the part’s pan and level parameters and you would then have to adjust these parameters. Then when you assign another new piano sound, you would have to reset the parameters all over again. If you have set many parameters like level, output assignment, FX routing and send levels, etc., all of these would need to be reset manually every time you assign a new sound to a part.

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT MULTI PARAMETERS

The way the multi works means that once you have set the parameters for any of the parts, they remain constant regardless of which sound you place in them and you do not have to keep resetting them manually all the time.

You will note that the above does not apply when setting up a multi-timbral set of programs in the SINGLE mode (i.e. using the ‘old Akai’ method). In SINGLE mode, as you select new programs and renumber them, so the program’s parameters will be used. This may or may not be an inconvenience depending on the way you want to work.

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USING MULTI MODE FOR LAYERING PROGRAMS

So far we have seen how to use the MULTI mode for creating multi-timbral set-ups for sequencing. For this, you set each of the sixteen parts to a unique MIDI channel so that can they may all be played from a sequencer outputting a complex arrangement with each element of the arrangement playing on a different MIDI channel.

It is also possible, however, to use the MULTI mode to layer programs. By setting more than one part to the same MIDI channel as another, sending MIDI data on that channel will cause both parts to play simultaneously. For example...

You have a string sound and a piano sound that you want to play together. Place the string sound into one part and the piano into another and set the same MIDI channel for both parts. Now, when you send MIDI data on that channel, you will play piano and strings together. Use the LEVEL parameter to set the balance of the two parts.

Another use for this is to fatten up sounds. Let’s imagine you have a synth bass in memory that you think could do with fattening up.

Assign the sound to, say, PART 1 and also to PART 2. Now set those two parts to the same MIDI channel (for example, MIDI channel 1). When you send MIDI data on that channel, both parts will play. To add the ‘fattening’, go down to the TUNE page and detune the two parts against each other using the CENTS parameter (you could either set one part to +10 but a better idea is to set one to -05 and the other to +05). Now play them. In this example, one program has been layered on top of itself and detuned so that it sounds fatter and warmer. Experiment with the FINE TUNE settings of each part to achieve the sound you want. You may also like to experiment with the PAN settings of each part so as to achieve a ‘pseudo stereo’ effect.

Another example may be to create a 12-string guitar out of an ordinary acoustic guitar program. Place the guitar program into two parts and set the same MIDI channel for those parts. Now go to the TUNE page and set one of the programs an octave up (set a transpose value of +12) and try a bit of fine tuning to create the characteristic chorus effect.

Of course, the same can be done with any sound from synths to strings or brass or vocal sounds - anything in fact!

But why stop there! You can layer three parts if you wish. For example, layer two string sounds in the same way by assigning one strings program to two parts, giving them the same MIDI channel and detuning them. Now take a bell sound and place that in a part and assign the same MIDI channel as the strings. Now when you send MIDI data on that channel you will have detuned strings and bell. Experiment with tuning and panning too (for example send one strings sound left, the other right and keep the bell sound in the centre).

You might like to try layering more parts. For a really killer sound, why not try layering 16 programs on top of each other!

NOTE: When layering programs in this way, please note that polyphony is reduced. In the example of layering strings and piano or the bass synth program, total polyphony will be halved. In the case of layering three sounds, polyphony will be cut to around ten voices. If you’re mad enough to try layering 16 programs, polyphony will be reduced to one voice!

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USING MULTI MODE TO SET KEYBOARD SPLITS

Using the same techniques for layering programs described above, you may also set key splits. For example, you may have an acoustic bass sample and a piano which you want to set up so that the bottom two octaves play the bass the sound and the upper three octaves the piano.

Assign the bass to one part and the piano to another and set both parts to the same MIDI channel. Now go to the RANGE page and in the bass part, set the to C 0 and the to B2 and in the piano part, set the to C 3 and the to G 8. You will now have the following keysplit:

C 3 G 8

BASS

C 0 B 2

PIANO PART 1

PART 2

MIDI Ch 1

You could take this a stage further and add strings to the whole things. I.e.:

PIANO PART 1

C 3 G 8

BASS

C 0 B 2

STRINGS PART 3 MIDI Ch 1

C 0 G 8

PART 2

MIDI Ch 1

You could create an even more sophisticated split:

C 3

PIANO

B 4

PART 1

MIDI Ch 1

BASS

C 0 B 2

BRASS

C 5

PART 2

PART 3 MIDI Ch 1

G 8

MIDI Ch 1

In this example, we have bass on the bottom octaves, piano between C3 and B4 with some brass on the very top octaves.

There are even more possibilities. For example, by putting the piano into PART 4 as well on the same MIDI channel and detuning it against PART 1, you could create a ‘honky tonk’ piano effect on MIDI channel 1. Similarly, if the bass part is a synth bass instead of acoustic bass, you could also assign that same bass sound into PART 5, set the same MIDI channel and LO/HI key ranges as PART 2, detune it and pan it hard left and hard right to create a pseudo stereo detuned synth bass sound in the bottom octaves.

The possibilities are almost endless (up to the 16 part limit in fact)!

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And don’t forget... If you have the multi-effects processor installed, layers and splits may be sent to different

effects in varying amounts to create even more variation. In the case of layering one program on top of itself, you might find sending parts to same effects processor is sufficient but, in the case of layering different sounds on top of each other (for example, bells and strings), the strings could be sent to one effects processor and the bell to another. In the case of key splits (let’s use the above as a good example) the bass could be routed to a small room, the piano to a large hall and the brass to a chorus/delay/small hall multi-effects channel.

Alternatively... Each of the elements in a layered or split multi could be assigned to separate outputs

where they may be mixed and processed on an external mixing console.

COMBINING THESE TECHNIQUES

The S3000XL’s MULTI mode is so flexible that it can accommodate all of these techniques simultaneously. For example, PARTs 1, 2 and 3 could have layered programs on one MIDI channel whilst 4, 5 and 6 have parts on separate channels. PARTs 7 and 8 could be set to the same MIDI channel but have key splits set whilst PARTs 9-11 could have parts on separate channels. For example:

PART

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

MIDI CH FINE TUNE PAN FX BUSS FX SEND OUTPUTTRANSPOSE LO HI

G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8 B 2 G 8 G 8 G 8 G 8

C 0 C 0 C O C O C O C O C 0 C 3 C 0 C 0 C 0

1 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8

+12 +00 +00 +00

-12 +00 +00 +12 +00 +00 +00

+00 +05

-05 +00 +00 +00 +00 +03 +00 +00 +00

MID

L50

R50

MID

L23

R45

MID MID MID MID MID

A A A

OFF

C A A

OFF

12 23 34 00 45 56 17 17 23 45 00

OFF OFF OFF

OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF

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EDIT PROGRAM - SINGLE

PROGRAM EDITING

Once you have a few programs in memory, it may be that you need to edit them to make them more suitable for your application. They may need simple tweaking such as altering the attack times or the filter cutoff or adding a bit of vibrato. You may want to totally reprogram the sound or create a new program for the latest batch of samples you have made. Whatever it is you want to do with a program, all this is done in EDIT PROGRAM. But before we look at the program editing functions, let’s first look at what a program is.

A program is where you assemble your raw, edited samples for playback. In the EDIT SAMPLE mode, the samples are unprocessed by envelopes, vibrato, etc.. If they have been looped, it is quite possible they have lost all their dynamics - this can be overcome in a program. Furthermore, because of powerful synthesiser functions, the S3000XL can be used to play and process samples much like an analogue synth. With 2 low frequency oscillators (LFOs), ADSR and multi-stage envelope generators, resonant filters, panning and more, the S3000XL can radically transform any sound offering the creative musician and programmer endless possibilities. In short, what it means is that as well as owning a superb sampler, you also have a very excellent and versatile analogue style synthesiser.

On top of this, you may set sophisticated keyboard splits and layers, set velocity switching and crossfading, assign samples to individual outputs and/or pan them in the stereo outputs as well as tune and transpose your samples. You may also set MIDI parameters for your sample(s).

“But”, you may be asking “why have programs? Why not just play samples from EDIT SAMPLE?” A good question. The reason we have programs is because raw samples, however much you may have trimmed, looped, crossfaded, stretched, etc., are only half the story. In EDIT SAMPLE, you can only play one sample at a time spanning the entire keyboard range whereas in a program, you can assign them to different areas of the keyboard for playback. This is known as ‘multi-sampling’.

Multi-sampling is the technique where you take several samples of one instrument across its range or where you take several samples of different instruments (such as drums, for example). Aside from all the fun things you can do with envelope shaping, filtering and so forth, it is in a program that you map all these multi-samples across the keyboard. To do this, we place the samples into what we call KEYGROUPS.

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WHAT IS A KEYGROUP?

A KEYGROUP is precisely that - a group of keys which have a particular note range on the keyboard. The simplest program you can have is with one keygroup in it that spans the entire MIDI range on C0-G8. The TEST PROGRAM that always boots up into the S3000XL is just such a program. I.e:

KEYGROUP 1

Perhaps the next level up is to have a program with two keygroups. One covers the range C0-B2, the other C3-G8 - this would be a simple keyboard split. I.e:

KEYGROUP 1 KEYGROUP 2

The next level may be a program which has five keygroups - one for each octave on a normal synth keyboard. Such a program may be useful for something like piano or strings which have been sampled on the G of every octave. I.e:

KG1 KG2 KG3 KG4 KG5

After that, of course, it’s anyone’s guess what the next level may be but it could be something like this:

Here we have 17 keygroups in one program - some are assigned to individual keys whilst some span an octave or so. Hopefully, you can now get a feel for how flexible the keygroup assignment can be. But there can be more to it than that.

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KEYGROUP ZONES

Within each keygroup, you may assign up to four samples in what are referred to as ZONES. These can be used for a number of things that include velocity switching and crossfading, playback of stereo samples and layering.

To playback stereo samples or to layer sounds or just to do a simple velocity switch/xfade, you could have something like this:

Here we have five keygroups, each with two zones being used. You could use this type of assignment for playing back stereo samples where the left and right samples are assigned to their own zones (1 and 2 respectively) in one keygroup and each zone is panned hard left and hard right. As an example, you could have five stereo string samples each sampled at G on every octave which could be assigned into such a program.

KG1 KG2 KG3 KG4 KG5

This kind of program is also suitable for layering sounds on top of each other. In the above example, four synth samples could be mapped out on the keyboard (one for each octave, perhaps) and zone 2 of each keygroup could also contain the same sample as zone 1 and these could be panned and detuned for a fat, pseudo stereo layered synth sound. Of course, each zone could have different synth sounds in them.

This type of program is also suitable for a two way velocity switch - by setting zone 1 of each keygroup to a velocity range of 0-90 and setting zone 2 to 91-127, you could, for example switch between a thumbed bass and a slapped bass or a normal snare hit and a rim shot using velocity.

To round things off, each keygroup has no less than four zones and a program may ‘look’ something like this:

KG1 KG2 KG3 KG4 KG5

Here, we have five keygroups, each using the four zones. This may be for a four way velocity switch or for velocity switching between two stereo samples or for layering four samples together.

The ultimate program, would be for each key to have its own keygroup with each keygroup containing four samples using a four way velocity switch!

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OVERLAPPING AND CROSSFADING KEYGROUPS

So far we have seen keygroups side by side. This is usually fine for most applications but there are sometimes occasions where the abrupt transition between one keygroup and another can be a bit obvious. For example, in a strings program where you have five string samples each at the G of every octave, the transition between B2 and C3 may sound a little strange.

The reason for this will normally be that the G2 sample is transposed up by four semitones at B2 and so sounds a little brighter whilst the G3 sample is being played 7 semitones down so it may sound a little duller and so, next to each other, especially when playing a scale, the crossover point is not even.

To overcome this, we can overlap keygroups simply by setting their key ranges accordingly:

It may be, however, that this does still not overcome the problem and so there is a facility to crossfade keygroups for an even smoother transition where one keygroup gradually fades down through the overlap whilst the other fades up thereby giving a smooth transition. I.e:

Of course, you can use a combination of any of the above techniques and have crossfading, velocity switched keygroups in programs alongside layered and split keyboard assignments. The above diagram examples represent only part of the flexible program editing and multi-sampling potential of the S3000XL.

If all this seems very confusing, don’t worry for the moment. There are many easy routines in EDIT PROG that allow you to edit all keygroups simultaneously or to copy keygroups. Key ranges can be conveniently set by playing your MIDI keyboard if you wish and, within a short time, you will be making programs very quickly and easily.

If you have already owned an Akai sampler, then you will probably be familiar with a lot of what we have just seen but, if this is your first time with an Akai sampler, it is worth taking the time to get a fairly good understanding of these principles and the concept of keygroups if you are going to get the best out your sampler.

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ASSIGNABLE PROGRAM MODULATION

First introduced on the Akai S2800, S3000 and S3200, the S3000XL has Assignable Program Modulation (or APM for short) and this allows you to route virtually any controller (such as the LFOs, envelope generators, MIDI controllers such as modwheel, pitchbend, etc.) to a number of destinations (pitch, amplitude, tone, etc.). Many synthesisers have had such facilities before but it is uncommon on samplers and APM turns the S3000XL into a powerful synthesiser as well as offering a great deal of flexibility in the manipulation of acoustic samples.

In the early days of synthesisers, each building block of sound was referred to as a ‘module’ and it was possible to route any module to any other using patch cords. This was called ‘modular synthesis’. On the S3000XL, each ‘module’ (i.e. the filters, amplifiers, pitch inputs, LFOs, envelope generators, etc.), has several control inputs and, although we don’t use patch cords, controllers may be freely assigned to these modules. On other samplers (and indeed even some synthesisers), these control inputs are fixed - that is, you have no choice as what you can send to them. Whilst acceptable a lot of the time, this can be a bit frustrating when there is some specific sound you want to make or musical effect you want to achieve.

Here are some examples:

• You may route the mod wheel to open the filter in a brass program for swells and growls. You could use aftertouch for the same effect.

• You could route aftertouch to control the panning’s LFO speed to emulate the sound of a rotary speaker speeding up and slowing down in a classic rock organ sound.

• The multi-stage envelope generator ENV2 could be routed to pitch for special effects whilst, at the same time LFO1 (whose rate may separately be being controlled by the modwheel) is being routed to a resonant filter cutoff.

• You could use ENV2 to control LFO1 depth for ‘shaped’ vibrato that fades in, fades out and fades back in again.

• To reduce the ‘cyclicness’ of normal vibrato, you could modulate LFO1’s rate very slightly with LFO2.

• It is possible to ‘trigger’ the RANDOM wave from the keyboard so, if LFO2 is applied to filter, each note can have a totally random tone. With LFO2 applied to panning, each note will appear at a randomly different position in the L/R stereo field (great when sequencing or arpeggiating percussive sounds)

All sorts of things are possible from the subtle to the ridiculous! We are the first to admit that this kind of modulation is not that useful when trying to accurately recreate the sound of a Gamelan orchestra but, when the need arises to create that special sound or when your synthesiser just isn’t up to it, the S3000XL will oblige you willingly - in fact, you may get so used to the S3000XL’s versatility as a synthesiser that some of your current synth(s) may be in the classifieds sooner than you think!

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KEYGROUP(S)

EDIT PROGRAM

PER KEYGROUP

MODULATION SOURCES

MASTER PROGRAM OUTPUT

This block diagram may help you to understand the concept of APM.

TUNE

KG PITCH

KEYSPAN

SAMPLE 1

SAMPLE 2

SAMPLE 3

SAMPLE 4

VEL SW/XFD

12dB/8ve LOWPASS RESONANT FILTER

ENV 2 ENV 1

ENVELOPE TEMPLATES

ENV 1 ENV 2 LFO 1 LFO 2

AMP

MOD.WHL P.BEND AFTERTOUCH VELOCITY EXT.MIDIKBD

PAN

FX SEND

IND. OUT 1 - 8

IND. OUTPUT ASSIGN

MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL

AUTO PANNING

KEY = SIGNAL FLOW = CONTROL INPUT

The sources you have at your disposal are: No source It seems almost pointless explaining this one! It means no modulation

source is routed! Modwheel This selects the modulation wheel as the control source. Bend This selects the pitchbend wheel or lever as the modulation source Pressure This selects aftertouch as the control source. This is channel aftertouch

and not polyphonic aftertouch. External This selects the MIDI controller set in the external control field of the main

GLOBAL - MIDI page. This can be BREATH (cntl#2), FOOT (cntl#04) or

VOLUME (cntl#07). Using a MIDI merger on your keyboard would allow

you to merge a breath controller with your keyboard and users of the Akai

S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 55

EDIT PROGRAM - SINGLE

EWI MIDI wind synthesiser will no doubt be able to use this function to

great effect when playing the S3000XL directly from the EWI and

selecting BREATH. Velocity This selects velocity as the controller. Key This selects keyboard position as the modulation control source. Lfo1 This selects LFO 1 as the modulation source. LFO1 may also be a

modulation destination and it is possible to modulate its rate, depth and

delay. Lfo2 No prizes for guessing that this selects LFO 2 as the modulation source. Env1 This selects the ADSR amplitude envelope, ENV1, as the modulation

source. Env2 This selects the multi-stage ENV 2 as the controller. ! Modwheel This selects the current position of the modwheel at the time of note-on as

the current controller. Moving it whilst the note is held will have no effect - it

is only its position at the point of note-on that has the effect. ! Bend As above, this selects the current position of the bend wheel at note-on as

the controller. ! External This selects the current position of an external MIDI controller at the point

of note-on as the modulation source. The choices you have for external

MIDI control are breath (cntrl#2), footpedal (cntrl#4) and volume (cntrl#7).

These are selected in the MIDI mode. All of these are available to be routed in any amount to virtually any source which include

filter cutoff, LFO 1 rate, depth and delay, overall program amplitude and keygroup amplitude, pitch and pan position. To select them, you simply move the cursor to the modulation input field found on every module and scroll through the list.

All of these are available to be routed in any amount to virtually any source which include filter cutoff, LFO1 rate, depth and delay, overall program amplitude and keygroup amplitude, pitch and pan position. Modulation sources may be mixed at each ‘modules’ input to further expand the possibilities available and each control input may be inverted for even more flexibility. These modulation sources are routed to their destinations in a group of pages at the end of the program

Each keygroup has these modulation facilities available separately allowing an enormous amount of flexibility and this, combined with the all the other PROGRAM EDIT functions should keep you happy for a long time!

At first, the modulation system may seem a little difficult and maybe even confusing. Don’t worry - if you are not into programming you can largely forget about it and just use the defaults. Similarly, if you do not like synthesisers and prefer instead to use the S3000XL for the reproduction of high quality samples of acoustic instruments again, you need not concern yourself with these functions. If, however, you are one those who likes to experiment with sound and tweak those knobs, we feel sure you will appreciate the flexibility of this method.

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NOTES ABOUT ASSIGNABLE PROGRAM MODULATION

1. When loading S1000 or S1100 library disks (which do not have APM), the S3000XL

loads the assignments of the S1000/S1100 - i.e. the fixed assignments. Again, as a result, you need not worry about having to set these assignments yourself. On library disks developed for the S3000XL, you will see the assignments made by our sound programmers. Please study these and see if you can learn from them.

2. It is possible to route the same controller twice (or three times in some cases) to the

same destination. This is not an oversight but simply a way to keep things simple and open ended. If you were, for example to route LFO1 to filter cutoff three times at a value of +50 you would simply get three times more LFO sweep.

3. As just mentioned, you can route the same controller to the same destination several

times. Please be aware that if you assign, for example, LFO2 to filter cutoff twice and set a value of +50 and -50 respectively, you will get no effect as the two cancel each other out.

4. You will note that assigning a particular controller to a destination WILL ROUTE THAT

CONTROLLER TO ALL KEYGROUPS. The control inputs at any destination are not keygroup specific but affect all keygroups the same.

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EDIT SINGLE

EDIT SINGLE is used to create programs. In the S3000XL, we always use another program as the basis for a new one. There are several ways you can work this.

You can use an existing program from your sound library that closely resembles the one you wish to create. In the main PROGRAM EDIT page, copy this to a new program. This may be edited accordingly with new sample(s) assigned, envelopes changed, filter cutoff altered, etc..

Alternatively, let us say you have just taken five samples - you can create a program from scratch using the default TEST PROGRAM. Using this single keygroup program you could work three ways - you could just have the one keygroup and set that up with one of the samples and then, when your happy with that, copy that keygroup four times and set the appropriate key span. Each individual keygroup may then be refined according to the sample assigned to it. Alternatively, you could simply copy keygroup 1 four times and, by selecting ALL, edit them together. The third method is where you copy keygroup 1 four times and work on each keygroup separately.

Our sound library programmers have several ways in which they work and the fact that you can combine all methods makes the S3000XL very quick and convenient.

In SINGLE mode, when you press EDIT, you will see something like this screen display:

In EDIT SINGLE, you may select other programs for editing as well as rename, copy and delete programs.

In this way, EDIT SINGLE is used to edit programs in isolation. It is the ideal mode for creating new programs from scratch or for creating and/or editing programs prior to placing them into a MULTI.

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NAMING PROGRAMS - COPYING AND RENAMING

If you have already recorded your own samples, then this procedure should be familiar as it follows the same conventions.

To copy or rename a program, press the NAME key - this turns the front panel keys into letter entry keys and you may type in a name of up to 12 characters (upper case only). The +/< and -/> keys on the numeric keypad may be used to input backspace and spaces respectively. When naming, you will see this prompt:

Pressing the NAME key again switches the numeric keypad from letters to numbers and you will receive this prompt:

Alternatively, in conjunction with the CURSOR keys which can be used to move the cursor around within the name, you can use the DATA control to scroll through characters.

When you have entered your name, press ENT and you will get this prompt:

Pressing will copy the original program - use this to create a new program. If the program name is an existing one, the boxed area in the bottom right of the screen

will show:

You will receive the following prompt:

You must enter a unique new name. Pressing will simply rename the currently selected program with the name just

entered. If the name exists, you will be prompted as above and you must re-enter a unique name.

Pressing will exit the naming process altogether with no action taking place. Should you press this by mistake, you will see that the boxed area in the lower right of the screen still retains the new name you entered so press NAME immediately followed by ENT and make your choice again.

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DELETING PROGRAMS

It is possible to delete programs using the key - F8. Pressing this will give you the following prompt:

You should press F7 or F8 accordingly. If you press GO, you may receive the prompt:

This is asking if you want to delete the samples contained within that program as well. If the samples are used in other programs, then you will not receive this prompt. If you wish to lose the samples, press F7 - YES but if you need to keep them, press F8 - NO.

NOTE: Deleting samples and programs is ultimately destructive. Please ensure that you have saved them to disk before deleting in case you want to come back to them at a later date.

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The fields on the main EDIT SINGLE page are:

This shows the selected program name. Different programs may be selected for editing by scrolling with the DATA control. You may also select them using MIDI program change.

This field is not accessible but shows the number of keygroups used in the selected program.

This field is also not accessible and shows the number of samples used in the selected program. Please note that, because each keygroup has four zones, it is possible for there to be more samples in a program than there are keygroups. For example, a stereo program with 5 keygroups would typically show 10 samples (5 x L and R).

This allows you to set crossfades for keygroups that overlap. As described above, this can be used to smooth out abrupt transitions between keygroups. You will note that this is a ‘global’ parameter that affects the whole program and so any keygroups that overlap will be subject to crossfading.

This special function turns the program into a monophonic program with single triggering. The effect of single triggering is that if you hold one note and play another, the pitch changes to the new note but the attack of the new note is not re-triggered. For example:

EDIT PROGRAM - SINGLE

Even when is ON, playing each note separately will cause the attack of each note to be re-triggered.

This function is extremely useful for emulating the playing styles and phrasing of solo instruments such as flutes, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, etc.. It can also be effectively used on solo and ensemble strings and brass. It is almost essential when playing synth bass sounds as it emulates the classic monophonic synth keyboard. You will find it useful too, when playing leadlines of any kind. Owners of the Akai EWI wind synthesiser will find this function invaluable in obtaining better expression and phrasing.

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IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING MONO LEGATO ON/OFF

Because this function is playing a single sample (or group of samples when playing stereo or layered sounds) through the sustain or loop, if you were, for example, to do a long legato run from the top of the keyboard to the bottom, you would be transposing the original sample you started with several octaves down. For example, in a 7 keygroup flute program, if you were to start your run on C5 and finish at C2, the sound played on the last note would, in fact, be the C5 sample transposed 3 octaves down - the samples in the other keygroups would not be re-triggered as you cross the keygroup boundaries. As a result, if you sustained that last note, it may sound very strange indeed! Similarly, if you ‘trilled’ between C2 and C5, it would also sound quite odd (but then, so would a trill between C2 and C5!). This is brought to your attention so that you may make allowances when playing legato across keygroups. If you bear this in mind, you will find this function very useful and expressive.

There is a way around this using the KEYGROUP MUTE function (see below).

This field is not accessible and shows you how many other programs are in memory at the time.

This field allows you to select whether you wish to listen to other programs that have the same program number as you edit the currently selected program. The selection is ON or OFF. When

is switched to ON, you will only hear the currently selected program and when it is OFF, you will be able to monitor any other programs that share the same number.

NOTE: This function is only really of relevance of you are using the ‘old Akai’ method to sequence programs sharing the same program number.

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The soft keys along the bottom of the PROGRAM EDIT main screen are:

This shows the currently selected MAIN PROGRAM EDIT page. This takes you to the parameters concerned with individual

keygroups. These include the keyboard spanning, filters, envelopes, sample assignments, pitch and level adjustments, individual output assignment, etc., for individual keygroups.

This takes you to the pages where you may set program modulation parameters such as pitch bend ranges, LFO 1 and LFO 2 parameters and parameters for the sostenuto pedal functions.

This takes you to the MIDI page where you may set the program’s MIDI channel, polyphony, transpose and other functions.

This takes you to the OUTPUT page where you may set the program’s overall level, individual output assignment, effects send level, pan position and other parameters.

This takes you to the AUTO PAN section where you may set parameters that affect the program’s auto pan functions.

This takes you to the TUNE pages where you may set the program’s overall tuning as well as select and create alternative tunings and temperaments.

This is not a page key but an ‘action’ key for deleting programs. Its function is described above.

We will now look at the functions of these pages. We will skip and for the moment and look at the function of , , and first as these affect the program as a whole.

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MIDI PAGE

Pressing displays this screen:

The top line of this page contains a field which allows you to change the program currently being edited. You may select different programs for editing here if you wish.

The parameters on this page are as follows:

This field allows you to set the program number of the program. This is the number which will be called up on receipt of a MIDI Program Change message and corresponds to a patch number on a synthesiser.

This parameter selects the program's MIDI channel! The choice is OM (omni) and 1 to 16.

This allows you to select how many notes (1 to 32) can be played at a time by this particular program. This should normally be left at the default, 32.

NOTE: This parameter should normally be set to the default of 32. Its inclusion here is mostly for historical purposes. On the S1000/S1100 (and early versions of software for the S2800, S3000 and S3200), it was common to use this parameter for hi-hats and the like layered over a drums program (i.e. the hi-hats would be set to a polyphony of 1 voice so that the closed hi-hat shut off the open hi-hat). With the MUTE GROUP function, however (see later in this section), this parameter is not used so much but is retained should you load an old S1000/S1100 or early S2800, S3000 or S3200 sound library disk.

See below for a description of the MUTE GROUP function.

This allows you to specify how notes will be 'stolen' by other programs if this is necessary. There are four settings: LOW, NORM, HIGH and HOLD. If a program is set to LOW priority, then notes from this program will be stolen first. If set to HIGH, then notes from other programs with lower priority will be stolen before they are stolen from this program. NORM is, of course, normal priority and, if any note stealing has to take place, this program will be affected no more or less than others with NORM assignment.

If you are playing a complex piece of music using many programs, it is a good idea to set important, lead-line sounds to HIGH, and less important background programs to LOW.

HOLD is a special priority. If a program’s priority is set to HOLD, notes from this program can only be stolen by the same program.

The notes which will be stolen are determined by this parameter either the OLDEST note will stop playing when a note is stolen or the QUIETEST one.

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This allows you to set the overall keyboard range C0-G8 of the program and this will override any keygroup range settings made in the keygroup SPAN page. For example, even though your program's keygroups may extend up to G8, if you set, say, C4 as the high extreme in this field, no sound will be heard above C4. You may use this function to create keyboard splits with other programs of the same program number.

This allows you to transpose the program +/-50 semi-tones in semi-tone increments. You will note that this is not a pitch shift function as such but a MIDI transpose function - this overcomes the problem of playing back samples out of their range. What this function does is introduce an offset so that, with a +12 setting, even if you play C3 on the keyboard, this is offset to play the samples on C4 - it is not playing the samples on C3 an octave higher.

NOTE: Most of the parameters in this page are retained for compatibility with data created on earlier Akai samplers. When editing a program in MULTI mode, the MIDI channel, priority, play range and transpose functions are not shown here as these parameters are irrelevant, being overridden by the MULTI’s parameters.

However, if you are using the ‘old Akai’ method for multi-timbral sequencing, you will want to set the parameters shown above (although they may be more easily set in the SINGLE mode on the MIDI page).

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OUTPUT LEVELS PAGE

Pressing the button takes you to the OUTPUT LEVELS page where you can control the audio output of the program from the S3000XL. You will receive this screen display:

At the top right of the screen is the currently selected program name - in EDIT SINGLE, this may be changed and another selected for editing by scrolling with the DATA control.

The parameters on the left of the screen set parameters concerned with output routing and levels, etc.. They are as follows:

This sets the level 0-99 of the program as it appears at the L/R stereo outputs. Adjusting this has no effect on the level of the signal appearing at the individual outputs or the real-time digital outputs.

By setting this field to 00, you may use this parameter to mix a program out of the L/R mix completely if you are sending it to an individual output (see above). In this way, you may have some programs appearing only at the L/R outputs with other programs appearing only at the individual outputs.

This sets the overall pan position of the program. You can set the parameter L50-MID-R50. You will note that this may be affected by other pan settings elsewhere in the program such as when the auto pan facilities are used or when individual keygroups are panned.

You will note that this parameter also affects the level of the signal appearing at the individual outputs (see below) and at the realtime digital audio output.

This allows you to select which of the 8 individual outputs the whole program will appear at. The default is OFF and you may select 1-8. You will note that these outputs are polyphonic and can use the full 32-voice polyphony of the S3000XL.

NOTE: This parameter works in conjunction with a field found in SMP2 (see below) where it is possible to route single keygroups to the individual outputs

This sets the level 0-99 of the signal appearing at the output selected above. If OFF is selected, then this control has no effect.

This sets the FX channel the program is routed to. You may select OFF, FX1, FX2, RV3, RV4

This sets the effects send level 0-99 going to the selected effects channel

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The parameters down the right of the screen allow you to affect the overall loudness of the program.

Here you may set the overall output level 0-99 for the program. This also affects the program’s sensitivity to velocity and you will note that if this parameter is set to 99, the program will be quite loud but will have no velocity sensitivity.

The default for this parameter is 80. This offers the optimum range for velocity and other dynamics. Setting it higher than this will, of course, turn the overall level up but it will reduce the amount of overhead for dynamics. Reducing this parameter will give greater extremes of velocity range although please note that you will not be using the full resolution of the sampler’s dynamic range.

There are three loudness modulation inputs and each one has a default controller selected. If you wish, these need not be changed - it is only in more specialised applications that you may wish to set something other than these defaults. The defaults are:

This is a fixed assignment and sets how much velocity will affect the overall loudness of the program. You may set a value of ±50. The default is +20 which gives a sensible dynamic range although this may be changed if you wish. A setting of +50 will give you a very wide dynamic range where soft key presses will produce virtually no sound and hard key presses will output a very loud sound. A setting of -50 will give the opposite effect - a hard key press will produce virtually nothing whilst a soft key press will give a loud output. At first, this may seem a bit strange to allow this but this does enable you to crossfade between programs using velocity - i.e. set one program to +50 and the other to -50.

NOTE: You cannot select any other modulation source in this field. This is one of only two fixed assignments in the APM system.

This sets how much key position will affect the overall loudness of the program. You may set a value of ±50. When set to positive value, the sound will be louder in the upper reaches of the keyboard and by setting it to a negative value, the sound will be louder on lower notes. You may use this function to balance the program level across the keyboard.

You may change the default modulation source from to anything you like simply by placing the cursor where it says and scrolling through the modulation options.

This sets how much pressure or aftertouch will affect loudness after a note has been played. You may set a value of ±50. Positive values will cause the sound to get louder as you press harder on the keyboard and negative values will, of course, have the opposite effect. You may use this function for expressive phrasing of such instruments as strings, vocal, wind and other such instruments to great effect.

By layering two programs and setting opposite values (i.e. + 50 on one program and - 50 on the other), you may use this function to crossfade between them using pressure. As an example, you

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The effect the loudness modulation parameters have on the overall loudness of the program depends on the modulation source you select. Here are some suggestions:

LFO 1 or 2 This will impart a tremolo effect on the sound and so is useful for

Modwheel Use this, perhaps, instead of pressure.

could layer a distorted guitar program and a distorted feedback program and introduce the feedback element of the sound using pressure to create a powerful heavy metal guitar.

You can, of course, change the default selection from to anything you like simply by placing the cursor where it says

and scrolling through the modulation options.

simulating old rock and roll guitars where this effect was common in amplifiers. This may also be useful in simulating the tremolo effect found on organs. It may also be used to simulate the tremolo effect of woodwind on sustained notes. Using a triangle wave for modulation, it is particularly good for vibes sounds, especially those with a static loop. It is probably not suitable to simulate tremolando strings, however, using LFO modulation. Of course, it may be used for special effects.

Bend Use this instead of pressure or modwheel. External Depending on the selection made in the GLOBAL MIDI page’s

main page, you could apply footpedal, volume or breath control to control the program’s overall loudness. The breath option will be very popular with owners of the Akai EWI MIDI wind controller.

These three modulation input sources may be combined and mixed together. When layering programs in MULTI, identical mod sources in other programs may be inverted for crossfade effects.

NOTE 1: You will note that if the parameter is set to full (i.e. 99) the output level of the S3000XL is at maximum and so you will not hear any effect if one or more modulation sources are applied.

NOTE 2: In some cases it is possible to overload the S3000XL and cause distortion. This will normally only happen with particularly loud samples recorded at full level when excessive modulation is applied. Increasing the filter resonance may also lead to distortion in some cases. If this happens, back off the

parameter.

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PAN PAGE

In this page you may set the characteristics of the auto panning functions. Pressing will display this screen:

As usual, the program name of the program currently selected for editing is shown here which you may change if you like. As in the OUTPUT page, we have three modulation inputs which can control panning. The defaults for these three control inputs are:

This will produce the classic auto panner effect with the sound gradually moving between left and right at a rate set by LFO 2. You can use this for special effects, of course, but one popular application is to use it to simulate a rotary speaker effect. You may set a value of ±50.

This selects that key position will affect overall loudness. You may set a value of ±50. With positive setting (i.e. +50) the sound will pan from left to right across the keyboard and, if set to a negative value (i.e. -50), will pan the sound from right to left across the keyboard. You may use this parameter to create pseudo stereo samples out of mono ones. For example, with samples such as piano or marimba or vibes, you could create the stereo effect of microphones being placed at either end of their keyboards to produce a panning effect.

This allows you to control pan position using the modulation wheel. This could be put to good effect in a solo line, perhaps, where, every time you introduce vibrato via the wheel, the sound pans around the stereo image. You may set a value of ±50.

NOTE: Due to limitations with the panning hardware, whilst slow sweeps work well, fast sweeps may, on some sounds, introduce some ‘zipper noise’. Please be aware of this when setting pan modulation.

As with all control inputs on the S3000XL, any combination of controllers can be mixed together. Here are a few suggestions:

Bend Use this instead of modwheel perhaps. Pressure Use this instead of modwheel or bend. External Use maybe a footpedal to pan the sound around. EWI players

may use breath control.

Velocity You can use your keyboard dynamics to pan the sound around

with loud sounds appearing at one output and soft sounds at the other.

LFO1 Use this as an alternative to LFO2. This LFO’s extra facilities allow

some very odd things to be done. Try applying this and

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ENV1/ENV2 These may be put to good effect to pan the sound around

! Modwheel Use this (and ! Bend or ! External) to reposition each new note

And don’t forget that layering samples in zones and panning them to extreme hard left and right will cause the two samples to crossover in the stereo image when these effects are applied. Layering two programs and setting the modulation amounts to opposite values can also yield some interesting panning effects.

modulating LFO1’s rate with LFO2 so that the pan from side to side gradually speeds up and down or modulate LFO1’s rate with the modwheel to emulate the slowing down and speeding up of a rotary speaker in an organ program.

according to the envelope of the sound. Perhaps ENV2 is the most interesting with its multiple rates and levels.

according to the position of these controller.

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THE TUNE PAGE

The next soft key is the key and this takes us, not surprisingly, to the main program tuning page. Pressing will give you this display:

As usual, the program name is displayed at the top right of the screen - a different one may be selected if you wish.

In this page, you set up different tuning temperaments for each program, if desired. If you are playing a percussive sample (for example, congas) in one program, which you do not want to correspond to standard Western chromatic equal temperament tuning, this is where you can alter things. Select the program whose temperament is to be altered on the top line of this screen. Use the CURSOR keys to select the note on the keyboard octave which will be re-tuned, and use the DATA control to alter the tuning away from equal temperament by ±25 cents (one quarter-tone). If you are re-tuning the C# key, for example, all notes played with the C# keys on the keyboard will be detuned by the amount you have set. You may tune the scale to anything you want which can be very useful for enriching orchestral sounds and also for setting your own special scales

To help you with this, there are also some alternative tuning templates which are selected in the field . These offer preset tunings which you can apply to the program.

The other parameter in this page is the function. This transposes the program +/-50 semitones. This may be adjusted in very fine steps (100ths of a tone) for fine tuning the program.

Those, then, are the master pages for the program where you can set parameters that affect the program as a whole. In any of the pages described, you may always directly access another from the soft keys.

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MODULATION PAGES

The next group of pages we will look at also affects the program as a whole but also has a direct influence on individual keygroups. These are the modulation pages where you may set the parameters for the two low frequency oscillators and the pitch bend. You may also set the parameters for the sostenuto pedal. These modulation sources may be applied to the filter, loudness, pitch and panning for a wide range of the usual modulation effects such as vibrato or for more outrageous synthesiser effects. These pages are accessed by pressing the key.

Pressing the key displays this screen:

PITCH BEND

The first page we encounter is the PITCH page where you may set the parameters associated with pitch bend. As usual, you may select a program for editing at the top right hand of the corner.

The pitch bend on the S3000XL allows you to set a different range for bend up and down as well as use pressure and a special mode is also available to make it more flexible. The parameters are:

This sets the range for bending pitch up with the pitchbend wheel or lever. The range is 0-24 semitones. The default is 2 semitones.

This sets the range for bending pitch down and, again, the range is 0-24 semitones. The default is 2 semitones.

As well as using the pitchbend wheel or lever, you may also use pressure to bend notes. The range is -12 to +12. You may only bend up or down depending on the selection made - unlike the bend wheel/lever, you cannot pitchbend both ways.

This is a mode select option that allows you to choose whether the pitchbend will happen on all notes or only on held notes. This is particularly useful on sounds with long releases. The options are NORMAL and HELD.

Let us say, for example, that you have a sound that has a long release and you are performing a solo that uses a lot of pitchbend. Using NORMAL, when you pitchbend the note, all the notes currently in the release stage of their envelope will also bend. Sometimes this is what you want but there can be times when this spoils the effect you are trying to create.

By selecting the HELD mode of pitchbend, ONLY THE KEY(S) YOU ARE CURRENTLY HOLDING DOWN WILL BEND and all those notes you are not playing but which are fading through their release stage will remain unchanged. If you release your finger from the key with the pitchbend up (or down), as the note dies away, if you let the pitchbend return to zero, that last note’s pitch will not change. If you release just one note of a chord with

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pitchbend up or down, if you let the wheel or lever settle at zero, only the notes you are holding will bend.

The pitchbend options on the S3000XL allow some very interesting performance techniques. By setting the pitch to UP: 2 and DOWN:12, with a heavy metal guitar sample, you can emulate string bending up and an octave ‘whammy bar dive bomb’ down. Many things are possible.

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LFO1

Pressing will give you this screen display:

This is the page used for setting up LFO1. Again, the program name is shown at the top right of the screen and other programs may be selected for editing if you wish. The parameters for LFO1 are as follows:

This allows you to select from three waveforms. They are: TRIANGLE ( ) - This gives a rising and falling effect. At around a setting

of 75, this would normally be used for vibrato but can be assigned anywhere you like and can be used for filter sweeps, panning, amplitude modulation and slow pitch sweeps. This is a ‘bi-polar’ modulation waveform that ‘rotates’ around the note you are playing to give a natural vibrato effect.

SQUARE ( ) - This gives stepped ‘up and down’ effect. When applied to pitch it can be set to give trills or large octave jumps. This is a ‘uni-polar’ waveform that jumps between the held note and the modulation level set at the destination.

RANDOM ( ) - This gives a totally random, stepped waveform and is suitable for special effects. The effect that immediately springs to mind, of course, is the classic ‘sample and hold’ effect found on analogue synthesisers - by routing this to pitch you can create random pitch effects suitable for, say, creating computer effects, especially when the LFO speed is set quite fast. When applied to the filter(s), you can create many interesting random tone change effects. You can even use this wave to control LFO1’s rate so that not only will pitch, tone or whatever modulation input this LFO is assigned to be random but the speed of modulation will change randomly.

This selects whether the LFO’s (all 32 of them!) are synchronised or not. With ON, all the LFO’s are not synchronised and so give a

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rich texture to ensemble sounds when being used for vibrato. When

is set to OFF, all LFO’s are in sync. This latter option is probably more suited to use with synthesiser effects. You will find that slower LFO speeds are possible with set to off.

The three fixed parameters for setting up LFO1 are:

This sets the rate of LFO1. This is variable between very slow (01) for such effects as auto panning and filter sweeps and fast (99) for vibrato and other effects.

This sets the output level of LFO1. This acts as a master LFO modulation control for all destinations that have LFO1 routed to them. In this way, if you wish to change the modulation level going to simply change this parameter. The range is 0-99.

NOTE: You may find that nothing happens when you route LFO1 to a destination and set a modulation level at the destination’s input. This will be because LFO1’s depth is set to

00. This may seem a strange default at first but the reason is to do with the use of the modwheel for vibrato. In order to be able to have the modwheel for vibrato as an immediate effect, the LFO depth needs to be at 00 otherwise, there will be constant LFO modulation of pitch. It is only when you are using LFO1 to apply a constant vibrato or for something other than vibrato in specialist applications that you will need to specifically set the depth control here.

all

destinations easily,

This parameter sets the time it takes for the LFO1 effect to take place after a note-on. At 00, the effect will be instantaneous but at 99 the effect of LFO1 to take effect will be delayed. I.e:

NOTE ON

The three ‘VARIABLE’ fields apply to the modulation inputs of LFO1. Although not specifically named, they relate to the parameters directly to their left - i.e. , and . The default for these parameters is so that you may affect speed, depth and delay according to keyboard position, thereby emulating the fact that, for example, high violins’ vibrato is often slightly faster, deeper and less delayed than low cellos or contrabasses. These parameters allow you to create quite rich orchestral textures where vibrato is never constant across the keyboard range.

Of course, you may select other modulation options for these inputs. Here are a few ideas:

• Using LFO1 as an assignment to control its own rate will change the symmetry of the waveform and you can use this to create new modulation waveforms (i.e. using a square wave to modulate itself will create an asymmetric pulse wave). Using LFO1 to modulate its own output level does create an effect but this can best be described as subtle! Applying LFO1 to modulate its own delay is also very subtle to the point that, with the exception of very slow sweeps, you probably won’t hear anything!

• Applying a slow LFO2 to speed will give a gradual speed up and slow down of LFO1 rate. This can be used for special effects, especially in synth sounds - for example,

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apply a slow LFO1 mod to the filter cutoff and assign a slow LFO2 to control LFO1’s speed, setting a value of + 50. Assigning it to depth will cause the effect of LFO1 to whatever destination it is applied to increase and decrease at a rate set by LFO2. Applying LFO2 to delay will only have an effect at the point of note-on.

• Selecting ENV1 or ENV2 to control speed will give changes in speed according to the shape of the envelope. Applying it to depth allows you to ‘shape’ the output of LFO1. Applying it to delay will have no effect.

• Selecting any of the continuous controllers will allow to change the parameters in realtime as you play. For example, routing modwheel to speed will let you change the modulation rate as you introduce vibrato (note that routing modwheel to control depth is not really worthwhile as this is a fixed assignment anyway in the EXTRA parameters described below). Assigning any of the continuous controllers to delay is not going to produce much effect except at the point of note on (pressure will have no effect on delay at all, by the way).

• Any of the ‘!’ continuous controllers will only have an effect at the point of note on as well - you may use these to set speed, depth and delay in real-time as you play.

The parameters allow you to introduce more modulation and these have fixed assignments which are:

This allows you to set the level of modulation that will be introduced via the modwheel. This works in conjunction with the parameter. Even with set to 00, you may still use the modwheel for vibrato and other modulation. With set at anything other than 00, this will set a basic level of modulation that will be present in the sound all the time and the modwheel will introduce more again. With the LFO set at 99, the modwheel will have no effect because the LFO output is now at maximum. The default for this parameter is 30 so that modwheel is instantly available for vibrato without you having to do anything.

As with , this selects that pressure can be used to introduce modulation. The same principles apply that even with set to 00, you may still use pressure for vibrato and other modulation. With the depth set at anything other than 00, this will set a basic level of modulation and pressure will introduce more. With depth set at 99, pressure will have no effect because the LFO output is now at maximum.

This allows you to use note-on velocity to introduce LFO1 modulation. With a positive value set here, playing a note hard will introduce a level of modulation which may be augmented using the modwheel or pressure.

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SETTING LFO1 MODULATION DEPTH

The master output of the LFO is set using the control and this has to be set to something other than 00 for there to be any effect unless the modwheel is moved - you may assign the LFO to a destination and set that destinations modulation level to maximum only to find that there is no effect. The reason for this is that the control in this page is not set or the modwheel is not up.

A useful function of this master depth control is that in the case where you have applied LFO1 to several destinations and you wish to increase or reduce the level of modulation going to all the destinations, you may change the modulation level to all destinations with just the one control instead of having to individually adjust every destinations’ modulation input level.

NOTE: Because it is felt that LFO1 will mostly be used for vibrato effects, the default in the PTCH page (see later) is set so that simply setting a value in the vibrato. If you intend to use LFO1 for something other than vibrato (i.e. slow filter sweeps, panning, amplitude modulation, etc.), then be sure to set the LFO1 parameter in the PTCH page to 00 unless you really want the sound of an American police siren!

Once you have set the LFO1 parameters, you may return to the main program edit page by pressing .

field will apply

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LFO2

Pressing the key will take you to the second LFO page:

This is a simpler LFO for auxiliary modulation purposes. Whilst LFO1 is normally used for vibrato via the modwheel or pressure, LFO2 can be used for secondary modulation purposes such as filter sweeps, amplitude modulation, panning, etc.. As usual, the program name is displayed in the top right hand corner. The parameters are as follows:

This selects the modulation waveform. The choices are: TRIANGLE ( ) - This gives a rising and falling effect. At around a setting

of 75, this can be used for vibrato but can be assigned anywhere you like and can be used for filter sweeps, panning, amplitude modulation and slow pitch sweeps. This is a ‘bi-polar’ modulation waveform that ‘rotates’ around the note you are playing to give a natural vibrato effect.

SAWTOOTH ( ) - This waveform is used mostly for special effects. It rises slowly and falls abruptly. This is a ‘uni-polar’ waveform that jumps between the held note and the modulation level set at the destination. It can be inverted at the modulation input stages of each destination to give downward sweeps.

RANDOM ( ) - This gives a totally random stepped waveform and is suitable for special effects. Like LFO1’s RANDOM waveform, it can be used to create the classic ‘sample and hold’ effect found on analogue synthesisers.

However, the random waveform provided by LFO2 has some other possibilities.

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When the parameter is set to 00, the random steps will only change when a new note-on is received and will sustain at that level until a new note-on is received. I.e:

MIDI NOTE ONS

By applying this LFO in this way to, say, FILTER 1, each note you play may have a different tonal colour and this can be made into quite a dramatic synth effect by setting quite high modulation amounts and high resonance. With percussive sounds, this can be a very interesting rhythmic backing for tightly sequenced arpeggios and riffs and the like. By applying this to panning, each note will be in a different position in the stereo image. On single note, you will get a dramatic panning effect as the sound bounces all over the stereo image and in chords, each note will position itself in different positions giving the impression of great depth and spread to the sound.

However, this facility can be also used more subtly! By applying a tiny amount of the RANDOM waveform to pitch (try a depth setting of 01), each note may have a very tiny pitch discrepancy. In a layered string or vocal ensemble, by applying this to just one of the layers, you can create interesting chorus effects as each note has a slightly different detune amount.

Similarly, when applied in small amounts, this can also be used effectively on ‘ethnic’ sounds such as pan pipes as the ‘real thing’ is rarely perfectly in tune from one note to the next. On a rich analogue synth sound, you can also emulate the fact that these old synths’ tuning left a lot to be desired!

There are many possibilities which you will no doubt find for yourself. This sets the rate of LFO1. This is variable between very slow for such

effects as auto panning and filter sweeps and fast for vibrato and other effects. The default here is slow as it is assumed you will want to use this LFO for such things as filter sweeps and slow panning effects, etc..

This sets the master output level for LFO2. Unlike LFO1, its default is 99 so you will instantly hear the effect of LFO2’s modulation as soon as you apply it at any destination.

This sets the delay between a note-on occurring and the effect being introduced. At 00 the effect will be instantaneous and at 99 the effect will take some 5 or 6 seconds to be introduced. I.e.

NOTE ON

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Here, you can set whether or not LFO2 will re-trigger with every new noteon or not. With set to ON, each note you play will reset the cycle of the selected waveform to its leading edge. For example, with the triangle wave selected, you would get this result:

This is useful for certain types of modulation effects where you want the effect to start at the same point in the modulation waveform for every note you play. For example, if you are using the square wave, you may want it to always start on the rising edge with each note you play. The same may apply for the sawtooth and random waveforms.

However, there are occasions when you want the LFO to be free running in the background. For example, on filter or panning sweeps where you want the effect to be gradual as you play, you will want to switch to OFF to get this result:

MIDI NOTE ON

Here, the modulation waveform will ignore incoming note-on messages and will be rising and falling giving you a gradual sweep through whatever it is applied to. This is particularly useful when triangle is selected and applied to the filter(s) as you can re-create the old filter sweep effects of

analogue synths. There are no modulation inputs to LFO2. You may use LFO2 for a number of things. As mentioned above, when LFO1 is tied up

doing vibrato via the modwheel, LFO2 may be used to affect things such as panning, filter sweep and amplitude modulation. Of course, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use LFO2 for vibrato either and mixing it with LFO1 as a source of vibrato can create some rich ensemble textures. Many interesting things are possible when modulating LFO1 with this LFO - at extreme settings you can make LFO1’s modulation speed up and slow down for special sound effects or synth sounds but, if you’re trying to breathe some life into some dead string samples, for example, you may like to use LFO2 to LFO1 thereby affecting the vibrato very subtly so as to eliminate the inherent ‘cyclicness’ of LFO modulation. No doubt you will find variations of your own.

slightly

modulate

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SETTING UP THE SOFT PEDAL

Pressing will display this screen:

This final page in the modulation section allows you to set the response of the S3000XL to the soft pedal (MIDI controller 67). This can be very useful in obtaining better expression for piano sounds. The parameters are very simple and are as follows.

The parameter determines how the volume of the sound will be affected when the pedal is pressed. The higher the number, the greater the amount of volume reduction.

The parameter allows you to soften the attack of the sound and affects the attack times of the envelope generators. Again, the higher the value, the greater the effect. For many acoustic instruments, especially string and woodwind sounds, when played quietly, their attack times also change slightly so this parameter can be put to good use.

The final parameter, , determines by how much the filter cutoff frequency will be reduced when the pedal is pressed thereby simulating the effect that acoustic instruments generally lose some upper harmonics when played quietly.

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PORTAMENTO

Portamento is a function that allows you to ‘glide’ from one note to another instead of moving in steps as is normally the case.

As you can see, when portamento is on, each note ‘slides’ to the next and the speed with which it slides is set by the portamento’s RATE parameter.

I T C

TIME

NORMAL PLAYBACK (NO PORTAMENTO)

I T C

TIME

WITH PORTAMENTO SWITCHED ON

The portamento effect is useful when playing acoustic sounds such as stringed instruments that have no frets (violins, violas, etc., fretless bass) and instruments such as trombone, penny whistle, etc.. It is also effective on vocal sounds as few, if any, singers hit the note dead on - most slide into it. Of course, portamento was also a standard feature on older analogue synths, particularly monophonic ones (where it was often called GLIDE) and was responsible for the creation of some highly distinctive (although often over-used!) synth effects.

Pressing F6 - - in any of the MOD pages will display this screen:

The parameters are:

This can be switched ON or OFF. When it is switched ON you will hear the portamento effect as you play.

You will note that this parameter responds to the MIDI PORTAMENTO pedal (controller #65). This pedal is like the sustain pedal - when depressed, portamento will be switched on; when released, the effect will be switched off. When the parameter is ON, pressing the portamento pedal will have no effect - portamento will be on permanently. When this parameter is set to OFF, the portamento pedal will allow you to switch it on or off as you please. This may be useful when you wish to play a sound normally but only apply portamento to a few notes. For example, when playing a trombone sample, you may play normally and then switch

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portamento on to create the slide effect. Similarly, with fretless bass, the portamento pedal may be used to slide notes whenever you please.

This sets the speed of the portamento. It is difficult to specify its range as this depends on the setting of the parameter described below but the longest portamento effect you can have is over 30 seconds. You will note that if this parameter is set high but you play notes quickly, the portamento effect may be so slow that your notes never hit the right pitches! If you anticipate playing a particular sound quickly, set lower portamento rates.

Here you may select two different portamento types, TIME and RATE. TIME sets the portamento effect so that the speed of the effect is

constant regardless of the interval played. For example, if the rate is set to give a glide of 1 second, it will take one second to glide up a semi-tone or seven octaves. For example:

1 sec

When TIME is selected

When set to RATE, the speed the effect takes depends on the interval. For example, if it takes one second to cover an octave, it will take two seconds to cover two octaves, four seconds to cover three octaves, eight seconds to cover four octaves, etc.. For example:

1 sec

2 secs

4 secs

8 secs

16 secs

When RATE is selected

You may use these two portamento modes to create a range of different musical effects.

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NOTES ON USING PORTAMENTO

The portamento effect can be used when playing polyphonically or monophonically. When playing polyphonically, notes in a chord will slide up or down to the next chord

accordingly at a speed set by the and parameter. If one note in a chord is held when a new chord is played, it will not be affected.

When playing monophonically (i.e. with MONO LEGATO switched ON), the effect is just like that found on an old analogue monosynth and many exciting synth sounds can be created using the portamento function that fit in perfectly with the current fashion for using analogue synths.

Of course, when playing monophonically, the effect can be applied equally as effectively to samples of acoustic instruments and the effect can be switched in and out using the MIDI PORTAMENTO pedal for expressive phrasing.

The portamento effect is a PROGRAM parameter - that is, it will affect all keygroups equally. When layering sounds in a multi, to apply portamento to some sounds and not to others, create a program with portamento and another program without portamento and place the programs into separate parts, assigning the same MIDI channel to those parts. When you play, one program will hit new notes immediately whilst the other lags behind. Of course, you may stack more than two programs on top of each other in the multi.

Alternatively, you may layer programs in this way and set different portamento rates for each one so that they all slide around at different speeds!

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KEYGROUP PARAMETERS - CREATING KEYGROUPS

All the previous parameter descriptions have so far been concerned with global or master changes to the program - i.e. not keygroup specific. This next section delves deeper into PROGRAM EDIT and examines the individual keygroup parameters. These include keyboard mapping, sample assignment and, of course, the filters and envelope generators.

In the main PROGRAM EDIT screen, pressing will display this screen:

This gives you access to the keygroup pages. The primary function of this page is to create and copy keygroups although it is also

possible to set key ranges (although this is possibly best done in the SPAN page - see later).

The parameter, , shows you how many keygroups currently exist in the selected program. To copy keygroups, simply move the cursor to this field and press the +/< key on the numeric keypad as many times as you need keygroups. The amount you have copied will be shown in this field. To delete keygroups, simply press the

-/> key on the numeric keypad. If you already have some keygroups in the program and you specifically want to copy, say, keygroup 5, move the cursor to the

field and select 5. You may also set the keygroups note range in the field but you may prefer to use the graphically assisted SPAN page for that.

The and parameters allow you to send individual keygroups to the effects by overriding the main program’s effects routing. The default will be PRG (i.e. the routing is using the program’s effects buss selection) but you may also select OFF (i.e. the selected keygroup is not routed to the effects), FX1, FX2, RV3 or RV4. The parameter allows you to set the amount of effect for each keygroup. In this way, you can, for example, send individual drums in different amounts to the effects. Furthermore, each drum could be routed to a different effect (i.e. bass drum to a tight gated reverb, snare to a large hall, toms to a medium hall, etc.).

To set this, select the keygroup in the field (or press and hold the EDIT key and play the appropriate note) and route that keygroup as appropriate and set a suitable level.

The function allows you to group several keygroups together so that they are essentially monophonic. The main reason for this is for drums where sometimes you want a sample to stop playing when another is played.

For example, you would want a closed hi-hat to stop an open hi-hat. Similarly, you may want an open triangle to be cut off by a closed triangle. To do this, simply assign all the relevant keygroups to the same Mute Group. For example, if all your hi-hats are in keygroups 3-6, assign those keygroups to, say, Mute Group 1. All other keygroups will be unaffected but all those in mute group 1 will be mutually exclusive - that is, if one is sounding when another is played, it will be cut.

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For example:

OPEN HI-HAT

(or triangle, etc)

OPEN AND CLOSED HI-HAT WITH MUTE GROUP OFF

CLOSED HI-HAT

(or triangle, etc)

Here, you can see that the open hi-hat continues to play even though the closed hi-hat is triggered.

OPEN HI-HAT

(or triangle, etc)

OPEN AND CLOSED HI-HAT WITH MUTE GROUP ON

CLOSED HI-HAT

(or triangle, etc)

In this example, however, the open hi-hat is shut off by the closed hi-hat thereby creating a more natural effect.

This function may also be used to emulate the characteristics of older drum machines. On these early drum machines, whilst they offered maybe 8 voice polyphony, each individual drum sound was sometimes monophonic. This only became apparent when you tried to perform a snare roll or something similar. Instead of the snare’s natural decay being allowed to sound, the next hit would cut the previous one dead resulting in a rather unnatural staccato effect. Of course, at the time, this was undesirable but the dictates of musical fashion now say that this effect is quite popular in some music styles!! By assigning your snare drum into a mute group, you may re-create this effect. For example:

SNARE DRUM ROLL WITH MUTE GROUP OFF

In this example, each snare hit is allowed to decay naturally.

SNARE DRUM ROLL WITH MUTE GROUP ON

In this example, each hit is cut short by the next one.

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On the S1000 and S1000 and in early versions of S2800, S3000 and S3200 software, you needed to create a separate program, make it 1 voice polyphonic and assign it the same program number as the rest of your drums. Now, you may do all this within one program which you may find more convenient.

Another application for this function is when using the MONO LEGATO mode. When the MONO LEGATO mode is switched ON, the program becomes monophonic. The limitation of this, however, is when you play a mono legato run across a program that has several multi-samples in different keygroups. For example, in a multi-sampled flute program, as you play across the keygroups, those keygroup’s samples will not play and you may end up with a situation where, in an extensive run downwards, you are playing a C5 flute sample on C2. This would probably result in an unnatural timbre due to extreme transposition of the sample.

To overcome this, by assigning all the keygroups to the same mute group, although the program is monophonic, as you play across each keygroup, so those keygroup’s samples will play in turn and, in the above example, you would be correctly playing the C2 sample on C2. The downside to this, however, is that as you cross into each keygroup, so the samples’ attack will be re-triggered. If the attack of the samples is fairly pronounced, you may hear this but, depending on the setting of the envelope generators, this may not be too noticeable. If, however, the samples have no pronounced attack (i.e. in the case of raw, sampled synth waveforms), then the transition across the keygroups will be smooth.

It is up to you to decide which is best. If accurate transposition is more important than the samples re-triggering, then you should use the mute group function in conjunction with the MONO LEGATO mode. If, however, the samples re-triggering every time you cross into a new keygroup not acceptable, then maybe you should use the mono legato mode without the mute group function although you may run into problems associated with extreme transposition of samples. If, as mentioned, the samples do not have a pronounced attack, then a combination of mono legato and the mute group function will give you a smooth transition across the keygroups.

The final field on this page is . This may be switched between ONE and ALL and allows you to edit only the keygroup selected in the field (ONE) or all keygroups (ALL).

You may select the keygroup you want to edit in the if you wish but you may also select the keygroup in any of the keygroup pages.

TIP: A very quick way of selecting keygroups on the S3000XL is to press and hold the EDIT key and play a note on the keygroup. This will select that note’s keygroup. For example, in a program with five keygroups spanning C0-B1, C2-B2, C3-B3, C4-B4, C5-G8, playing G3 will select keygroup 3 - i.e. the one spanning C3-B3. In the case where keygroups are layered or overlap, pressing and holding EDIT and repeatedly playing the note will select each keygroup in turn. This is a very fast way of selecting keygroups.

Pressing the key will take you back to the main PROGRAM EDIT screen and give you access to the other global pages.

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MAPPING OUT YOUR KEYGROUPS - SETTING KEYSPAN

Pressing will display this screen:

This is where you can set up the note ranges for the keygroup. You can see a graphic representation of the keyboard to the left of the screen. As you adjust the LOW and HIGH parameters for a keygroup, you will see its range depicted in the graphic representation of the keyboard to the screen’s left. The notes may be represented by name or as note number simply by pressing the SPAN soft key again.

The above screen display shows a simple program with one keygroup in it. This next screen shows a typical program with several keygroups side by side.

The parameters are as follows:

This toggles between ONE and ALL and allows you to choose between editing either one single keygroup or all keygroups simultaneously. You will find this function of every keygroup page and it can be invaluable in making up and editing programs quickly. In a complex program, you may select ALL to do all the basic work and then switch to ONE to individually fine tune the keygroups.

Below this field are the keygroups and their note ranges can be seen alongside them. You may move the cursor directly down this line using the cursor keys for quick access to a particular keygroup.

Below these two fields are shown the lowest and highest notes for the keygroups. These may be set by moving the cursor to them and using the DATA control to input notes or, when displaying the notes numerically, you may type in a number from the numeric keypad. Another way to input notes is directly from the keyboard.

By setting the soft key to ON and placing the cursor on the low note of keygroup 1, as you play the keyboard, so the notes will be entered. The cursor will jump to each low and high note in the list eventually ‘wrapping round’ to rest on KG1. This is a very fast way to set up keygroup note spans and a whole program can be set up in seconds!

NOTE: If ALL is selected in the

field, changing a value in the low or high fields will affect ALL notes equally. Pay attention because you could seriously affect your program’s keyspan with one slip. You will note that this does not apply when inputting notes from the keyboard and

is on.

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This allows you to tune the keygroup up or down in semitones and cents. The range is ±50.00.

This introduces a fixed tuning offset and can be used when layering samples to provide a chorus effect. Unlike the TUNE parameter, this offset is constant no matter what the played pitch of the sample is. The range is ±50.

This soft key switches on or off the facility to input notes from the keyboard. At first, with the function being so fast and convenient, it may seem a bit strange to want to disable it but there may be times when you need to be able to change note ranges whilst receiving data from a sequencer that is playing. If was on permanently, in the situation, the sequencer would completely re-program the key ranges! This on/off function should guard against that.

To exit this page and to access other pages, press - this will give you access to other keygroup functions - or press to return you to the main PROGRAM EDIT page and the master program functions.

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ASSIGNING SAMPLES TO KEYGROUPS AND ZONES - SMP1

Samples are assigned to keygroups in the SMPL page. Pressing gives this display:

This is SMP1 (the first page to do with assigning samples - there are three in total). Here, for the first time, we catch a glimpse of the zones mentioned at the start of this section. In this example, the test program has one sample in it in zone 1. This has a velocity range of 1-127 and so will play across the entire keyboard. Compare that with this screen which shows a typical three way velocity switch for a bass program:

Here you should be able to get a feel for the concept of ‘zones’. We have three separate samples SOFT BASS, HARD BASS and PULL BASS and their velocity ranges are split 065, 66-95 and 96-127. You will also note the nice graphic depiction alongside it for each of the three zones! Playing within those velocity ranges will play each sample accordingly allowing you to emulate the many tones available from just one note of a real bass guitar.

If the velocity ranges overlapped (i.e. 0-70, 63-100 and 93-127) and (seen to the left of the graphic display) is switched to ON, then the velocity zones will crossfade giving a

smoother response in some cases.

NOTE: If you play between two overlapping ranges (i.e. in the above example, if you play at a velocity of 96), you will actually be playing two voices out of the possible 32. With such generous polyphony, this shouldn’t be a problem unless you are driving the S3000XL particularly hard.

Another way to use the zones is for stereo samples and for layering sounds. For example:

This shows the assignment for a stereo piano sample. The left and right samples are assigned to zones 1 and 2 respectively and both given a range of 0-127. These two zones would be panned hard left and hard right in SMP2 (see below) to give stereo reproduction through the L/R outputs.

NOTE: For stereo samples to play in stereo, they must be in the same keygroup and set up as shown above.

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For layering sounds, you might like to set something like the following:

Here we have assigned two identical synth samples to zones 1 and 2 and, as in the stereo program above, both have a velocity range of 0-127. In the SMP2 page, these can be detuned against each other and panned hard left and right to create a fat, warm, pseudo-stereo synth sound. This is a quick way of achieving this kind of sound. Of course, they don’t have to be identical samples - anything will do. The trick with this method is that both samples share the same processing with the filters and envelope generators making adjustment and editing very simple.

If you want to be more adventurous, you could use totally separate keygroups for layering synth sound (or acoustic sounds, for that matter) and each could have different envelope and filter characteristics.

The parameters in this page are:

This shows the current keygroup’s key range as set in the SPAN page. It can be altered here if you wish.

This shows the currently selected keygroup and allows you to select others using the DATA control. As always in PROGRAM EDIT, you may quickly select a keygroup by holding the EDIT PROG select key and playing an appropriate note on the keyboard.

Here you can select to edit ONE or aALL keygroups.

NOTE: Selecting ALL doesn’t apply to assigning samples when using the DATA control. Only one sample is assigned and the other keygroups remain unchanged even if ALL is selected.

Of course, as usual, the name of the current program is shown at the top right hand of the screen.

This shows the four zones in the column below. You will notice that in all SMP pages, as you play, a small dot appears alongside the field to signify which zone is playing - this is useful in identifying which sample is playing in a complex velocity switched program.

This shows the sample(s) currently assigned to the zone(s). If a sample name is assigned but it does not exist in the S3000XL’s memory, a “?” will appear alongside it to indicate that it is missing. To assign a sample, simply move the cursor to this field and scroll through the available samples in memory with the DATA control.

To delete a sample from a zone, simply move the cursor to it, press NAME and replace the name with blanks. To erase a group of samples in the same zone in different keygroups, do the same but with ALL selected.

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USEFUL HINT FOR ASSIGNING SAMPLES! Assuming you have a lot of samples to

assign and you have made up a program with sufficient keygroups, go to keygroup 1 and press MARK/#. Now move the cursor to the sample assign field below and select the first sample. NOW PRESS JUMP/. - this will take you to the KG field again and select another keygroup. Now press JUMP again to toggle you back to the sample assign field and select your next sample, press jump, new keygroup, jump, new sample, etc.. Once you get some practice, you can assign the samples to quite a complex program in no time at all.

Another quick method for selecting keygroups method is to press and hold the EDIT key and play a note on the keyboard. This will select the keygroup for that note.

Please note, that for either method, if you record (or load) you samples in the order they are to be assigned, then the process is even quicker.

This sets the low velocity range for the zones. This sets the high velocity range for the zones. This allows you to select between TRACK and CONST. When TRACK is

selected, then the sample can be played across the keyboard range as normal. When CONST is selected, then the sample(s) will play at a constant pitch of C3.

USEFUL TIP TO DRUM SAMPLISTS! Sample all your drums on C3 in EDIT SAMPLE, assign them to any key you like in the program and simply switch on CONST for all keygroups. They will now play back at exactly the pitch they were sampled at. In this way, you don’t have to worry about setting notes when sampling and then trying to match them up in EDIT PROGRAM. Other non-pitched samples such as sound effects, breakbeats, drum loops, etc., can be treated the same way.

As mentioned before, there is a small box to the left of the screen that displays graphically the status of the four zones’ velocity ranges

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SMP2

Once you have assigned your samples, you may go to the next sample page by pressing

. Here you may tune and pan your samples. You will get this screen:

The top line of the screen is exactly as in SMP1 and displays the currently selected keygroup’s note range and keygroup, whether you are editing one individual keygroup or all of them as well as the program name. The other fields are:

Again, this shows the zone number in the column below. This column allows you to tune each sample in each zone separately. You

may tune the sample in semi tones and cents over a very wide range (±50.00).

You can fine tune the loudness for each zone in each keygroup to balance them up against each other. You will note that if the master loudness parameter in the OUT page of the main PROGRAM EDIT screen is set to 99, this control will only have effect downwards (i.e. when setting a

-value). The range is ±50. This parameter allows you to fine tune the filter cutoff slightly to maintain a

consistent tone between keygroups. The range is ±50. This allows you to pan each zone in each keygroup between the main L/R

outputs. The range is L50-MID-R50.. This allows you to assign each zone in each keygroup to its own output 1-

8 for separate processing on an external mixing console if you wish. This has a relationship with field found in the OUTPUT LEVELS page.

If the whole program is assigned to an individual output, that output will be shown here - i.e. if the program is set to appear at output 1, then 1 will be shown for every keygroup here. You may change this per keygroup so that some sounds come out of 1 and other keygroups appear at other outputs. This is particularly useful on drums where you often need to mix drums through an external mixer to add EQ, reverb, compression, etc..

Even if the main program field is set to OFF in the OUTPUT LEVELS page, you may still route individual keygroups to separate outputs. This may be useful in a drum program where things like toms, cymbals and some percussion appear at the S3000XL’s stereo outputs whilst important drums like bass drum and snare are assigned to appear at individual outputs.

You will note that whatever the output assignment is here, the level is taken from the master OUTPUT LEVELS page and is set at the field.

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This allows you to change the loop and playback characteristics of the sample. Normally, these are set in EDIT SAMPLE but they may be changed here if you wish. This will not affect the ‘raw’ samples’ loop and playback characteristics but can be used within the context of particular programs. This eliminates the need for copying the same sample several times (and hence wasting memory) to achieve the same effect. The options available to you are:

AS SAMPLE plays back the sample exactly as set up in the MORE page in SAMPLE EDIT.

LP in R is the same as the LOOP IN RELEASE mode of the MORE page in SAMPLE EDIT.

LP til R is the same as LOOP UNTIL RELEASE. NO LOOPS is self-explanatory! TO END is the same as the PLAY TO SAMPLE END selection in the

MORE page in SAMPLE EDIT. The ability to reset the playback parameters of a sample allows you a lot

of flexibility - the same sample can be used in different ways in different programs.

Page 94 S3000XL Operator’s Manual

Akai CD3000i User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual