Kurzweil K2500 User Manual

Page 1

2500

erformance Guide

©1996 All rights reserved. Kurzweil is a product line of Young Chang Co.; V. A. S. T. is a registered trademark, and Kurzweil, K2500, and K2000 are trademarks of Young Chang Co. All other products and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Product features and speciﬁcations are subject to change without notice.

Part Number: 910251 Rev. F

Page 2

CAUTION

RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK

DO NOT OPEN

CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK, DO NOT REMOVE THE COVER

NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL

The lightning flash with the arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated

"dangerous voltage" within the product's enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons.

The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of important operating and

maintenance (servicing) instructions in the literature accompanying the product.

IMPORTANT SAFETY & INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCTIONS PERTAINING TO THE RISK OF FIRE, ELECTRIC SHOCK, OR INJURY TO PERSONS

WARNING - When using electric products, basic precautions should always be followed, including the following:

1. Read all of the Safety and Installation Instructions and Explanation of Graphic Symbols before using the product.

2. This product must be grounded. If it should malfunction or breakdown, grounding provides a path of least resistance for electric current to reduce the risk of electric shock. This product is equipped with a power supply cord having an equipment-grounding conductor and a grounding plug. The plug must be plugged into an appropriate outlet which is properly installed and grounded in accordance with all local codes and ordinances.

DANGER - Improper connection of the equipment-grounding conductor can result in a risk of electric shock. Do not modify the plug provided

with the the product - if it will not fit the outlet, have a proper outlet installed by a qualified electrician. Do not use an adaptor which defeats the function of the equipment-grounding conductor. If you are in doubt as to whether the product is properly grounded, check with a qualified serviceman or electrician.

3. WARNING - This product is equipped with an AC input voltage selector. The voltage selector has been factory set for the mains supply voltage in the country where this unit was sold. Changing the voltage selector may require the use of a different power supply cord or attachment plug, or both. To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, refer servicing to qualified maintenance personnel.

4. Do not use this product near water - for example, near a bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, in a wet basement, or near a swimming pool, or the like.

5. This product should only be used with a stand or cart that is recommended by the manufacturer.

6. This product, either alone or in combination with an amplifier and speakers or headphones, may be capable of producing sound levels that could cause permanent hearing loss. Do not operate for a long period of time at a high volume level or at a level that is uncomfortable. If you experience any hearing loss or ringing in the ears, you should consult an audiologist.

7. The product should be located so that its location or position does not interfere with its proper ventilation.

8. The product should be located away from heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, or other products that produce heat.

9. The product should be connected to a power supply only of the type described in the operating instructions or as marked on the product.

10. This product may be equipped with a polarized line plug (one blade wider than the other). This is a safety feature. If you are unable to insert the plug into the outlet, contact an electrician to replace your obsolete outlet. Do not defeat the safety purpose of the plug.

11. The power supply cord of the product should be unplugged from the outlet when left unused for a long period of time. When unplugging the power supply cord, do not pull on the cord, but grasp it by the plug.

12. Care should be taken so that objects do not fall and liquids are not spilled into the enclosure through openings.

13. The product should be serviced by qualified service personnel when: A. The power supply cord or the plug has been damaged; or B. Objects have fallen, or liquid has been spilled into the product; or C. The product has been exposed to rain; or D. The product does not appear to be operating normally or exhibits a marked change in performance; or E. The product has been dropped, or the enclosure damaged.

14. Do not attempt to to service the product beyond that described in the user maintenance instructions. All other servicing should be referred

to qualified service personnel.

15. WARNING - Do not place objects on the product's power supply cord, or place the product in a position where anyone could trip over,

walk on, or roll anything over cords of any type. Do not allow the product to rest on or be installed over cords of any type. Improper installations of this type create the possibility of a fire hazard and/or personal injury.

RADIO AND TELEVISION INTERFERENCE

Warning: Changes or modiﬁcations to this instrument not expressly approved by Y oung Chang could v oid y our authority to operate the instrument. Important: When connecting this product to accessories and/or other equipment use only high quality shielded cables. Note: This instrument has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules.

These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This instrument generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Ho we v er, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this instrument does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the instrument off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the instrument and the receiver.

• Connect the instrument into an outlet on a circuit other than the one to which the receiver is connected.

• If necessary consult your dealer or an experienced radio/television technician for additional suggestions.

NOTICE

This apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions from digital appar atus set out in the Radio Interf erence Regulations of the Canadian Department of Communications.

AVIS

Le present appareil numerique n’emet pas de bruits radioelectriques depassant les limites applicables aux appareils numeriques de la class B prescrites dans le Reglement sur le brouillage radioelectrique edicte par le ministere des Communications du Canada.

SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Page 3

Young Chang Distributors ..................................................................................................x

Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................1-1

Welcome! ........................................................................................................................1-1

For K2500R Owners ...........................................................................................1-1

Overview of the K2500 ................................................................................................... 1-2

What is VAST? ...............................................................................................................1-3

How to use this manual ...................................................................................................1-4

Startup ...................................................................................................................................................2-1

Basic Startup Checklist: .................................................................................................. 2-1

Startup—the Details ........................................................................................................2-2

Before You Start... .............................................................................................. 2-2

Battery Installation ..............................................................................................2-2

Connecting the Power Cable (Line Cord) ........................................................... 2-3

Connecting the Audio Cables. ............................................................................2-3

Connecting MIDI ................................................................................................ 2-3

Connecting SCSI ................................................................................................. 2-4

Switching On the Power .....................................................................................2-4

Playing the Presets ..........................................................................................................2-4

Programs ............................................................................................................. 2-4

Setups ..................................................................................................................2-5

Quick Access ...................................................................................................... 2-6

Performance Controls .....................................................................................................2-7

K2500 Boot Loader .........................................................................................................2-8

Starting the Boot Loader ..................................................................................... 2-8

Boot-loader Main Menu ...................................................................................... 2-8

Install System / Install Objects ........................................................................... 2-8

Run System .........................................................................................................2-9

Hard Reset ......................................................................................................... 2-10

Run Diags ..........................................................................................................2-10

Fixed Diags .......................................................................................................2-10

Software Upgrades ........................................................................................................2-10

User Interface Basics ............................................................................................................................3-1

Mode Selection ............................................................................................................... 3-1

Data Entry .......................................................................................................................3-4

Intuitive Data Entry .........................................................................................................3-6

Search Function .............................................................................................................. 3-7

The Panel Play Feature (Rack Models) .......................................................................... 3-7

The Mixdown and MIDI Faders Pages (Keyboard Models Only) ................................. 3-8

The Operating Modes ........................................................................................................................... 4-1

What the Modes Are .......................................................................................................4-1

Selecting Modes ..............................................................................................................4-1

Using the Modes ............................................................................................................. 4-3

iii

Page 4

Editing Conventions ..............................................................................................................................5-1

Introduction to Editing ....................................................................................................5-1

Object Type and ID .........................................................................................................5-2

Saving and Naming .........................................................................................................5-2

Deleting Objects ..............................................................................................................5-4

Memory Banks ................................................................................................................5-5

Special Button Functions ................................................................................................5-6

Program Mode and the Program Editor ............................................................................................6-1

K2500 Program Structure ...............................................................................................6-2

The Program Mode Page .................................................................................................6-2

What are these programs in parentheses? ...........................................................6-3

Control Setup ......................................................................................................6-3

The Soft Buttons in Program Mode ....................................................................6-4

Using the Program Editor ...............................................................................................6-4

Algorithm Basics .................................................................................................6-5

Common DSP Control Parameters .................................................................................6-6

Program Editor—Algorithm (ALG) Page .....................................................................6-10

Program Editor—LAYER Page ....................................................................................6-11

Program Editor— KEYMAP Page ...............................................................................6-14

Program Editor— PITCH Page .....................................................................................6-17

Program Editor—F1–F3 Pages .....................................................................................6-18

Program Editor—F4 AMP Page ...................................................................................6-19

Program Editor—OUTPUT Page .................................................................................6-21

Program Editor—EFFECT Page ...................................................................................6-24

Program Editor—COMMON Page ...............................................................................6-25

Program Editor—Amplitude Envelope (AMPENV) Page ...........................................6-28

Program Editor—Envelopes 2 and 3 ............................................................................6-31

Program Editor—Envelope Control (ENVCTL) Page .................................................6-32

Program Editor—LFO Page ..........................................................................................6-34

Program Editor—ASR Page .........................................................................................6-36

Program Editor—FUN Page .........................................................................................6-37

Program Editor—VTRIG Page .....................................................................................6-38

Function Soft Buttons ...................................................................................................6-39

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor .......................................................................................................7-1

Setup Mode .....................................................................................................................7-1

K2500 Rack Models Only ...................................................................................7-2

The Control Setup ...............................................................................................7-2

The Setup Editor .............................................................................................................7-4

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page .......................................................................7-4

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page ..............................................................................7-9

The Pan/Volume (PAN/VOL) Page ..............................................................................7-16

The BEND Page ............................................................................................................7-17

Controllers .....................................................................................................................7-19

The MIDI Control Source List ..........................................................................7-21

Continuous Controller Parameters ................................................................................7-24

Page 5

Destination (Dest) .............................................................................................7-24

Scale ..................................................................................................................7-24

Offset (Add) ......................................................................................................7-24

Curve (Curv) .....................................................................................................7-24

Entry (Ent) and Exit Values .............................................................................. 7-25

The SLIDER and SLID/2 Pages ................................................................................... 7-25

The Continuous Control Pedal (CPEDAL) Page ..........................................................7-26

The RIBBON Page ....................................................................................................... 7-27

The WHEEL Page .........................................................................................................7-28

The Pressure (PRESS) Page ..........................................................................................7-29

Switch Controller Parameters ....................................................................................... 7-30

Switch Type (SwType) ..................................................................................... 7-30

Destination ........................................................................................................ 7-30

On Value ...........................................................................................................7-30

Off Value .......................................................................................................... 7-31

Entry (Ent) and Exit States ............................................................................... 7-31

The Footswitch (FOOTSW) Page ................................................................................. 7-31

The SWITCH Page ....................................................................................................... 7-32

The COMMON Page ....................................................................................................7-32

The Arpeggiator (ARPEG) Page .................................................................................. 7-33

The Ribbon Configuration (RIBCFG) Page ................................................................. 7-39

The Utility Soft Buttons ................................................................................................7-41

Editing Hints and Suggestions ...................................................................................... 7-44

Do These Parameters Always Mean Something? ............................................. 7-44

Do I Need All Those Pedals? ............................................................................7-44

Multiple Controllers ..........................................................................................7-44

Editing Programs .............................................................................................. 7-44

Quick Access Mode and the

Quick Access Editor .............................................................................................................................. 8-1

Effects Mode and the Effects Editor ...................................................................................................9-1

The Effects Mode Page ................................................................................................... 9-1

The Soft Buttons on the Effects mode Page .......................................................9-1

Effects Mode Parameters ................................................................................................9-2

Understanding FX Mode and FX Channel .........................................................9-2

Another Use for Effects Mode ............................................................................ 9-5

The Effects Editor ...........................................................................................................9-6

Editing Effects .................................................................................................... 9-6

Configurations and Parameters .......................................................................................9-7

MIDI Mode .......................................................................................................................................... 10-1

The Transmit (XMIT) Page .......................................................................................... 10-1

The Receive (RECV) Page ...........................................................................................10-4

...........................................................................................................................10-6

The Channels Page ........................................................................................................ 10-8

Parameter Locks ................................................................................................10-9

Program Change Formats ........................................................................................... 10-10

Page 6

Extended and Kurzweil Program Change Types ............................................10-11

The Soft Buttons in MIDI Mode .................................................................................10-18

Master Mode ........................................................................................................................................11-1

The Master Mode Page .................................................................................................11-1

The Soft Buttons in Master Mode .................................................................................11-4

Guitar/Wind Controller Mode .......................................................................................11-5

Object Utilities ..............................................................................................................11-6

Move .................................................................................................................11-7

Copy .................................................................................................................. 11-8

Name ................................................................................................................. 11-9

Delete ................................................................................................................ 11-9

Dump ...............................................................................................................11-10

Accessing the Object Utilities from the Editor ...............................................11-10

Song Mode ...........................................................................................................................................12-1

Getting Started with the Sequencer ...............................................................................12-1

A Word about the Local Keyboard Channel .....................................................12-1

Tutorial: Recording a song ................................................................................12-2

MAIN Page .................................................................................................................12-11

Soft Buttons on the MAIN Page .....................................................................12-15

Save this song? Dialog ....................................................................................12-16

Save New song? Dialog ..................................................................................12-17

Erase Track Dialog ..........................................................................................12-17

MISC Page ..................................................................................................................12-18

Soft Buttons on the MISC Page ......................................................................12-22

MIX Page ....................................................................................................................12-23

Soft Buttons on the MIX Page ........................................................................12-24

The Edit Song Pages ...................................................................................................12-25

Edit Song: COMMON Page .......................................................................................12-25

Parameters used with the Arrangement Feature .............................................12-26

Soft Buttons on the Edit Song: COMMON Page ...........................................12-27

Edit Song: EVENT Page .............................................................................................12-28

Soft Buttons on the Edit Song: EVENT Page .................................................12-29

Edit Song: TRACK Page ............................................................................................12-31

Common Parameters for Edit Song: Track Functions ....................................12-32

Region / Criteria Window Parameters ............................................................12-32

Soft Buttons on the Edit Song: Track Page .....................................................12-33

Edit Song: Track Functions – Erase ............................................................................12-34

Edit Song: Track Functions – Copy ............................................................................12-34

Edit Song: Track Functions – Bounce ........................................................................12-35

Edit Song: Track Functions – Insert ...........................................................................12-35

Edit Song: Track Functions – Delete ..........................................................................12-36

Edit Song: Track Functions – Quantize ......................................................................12-36

Edit Song: Track Functions – Reference Quantize .....................................................12-37

Edit Song: Track Functions – Shift .............................................................................12-38

Edit Song: Track Functions – Transpose ....................................................................12-39

Page 7

Edit Song: Track Functions – Change ........................................................................ 12-39

Edit Song: Track Functions – Thin ............................................................................. 12-40

Edit Song: Track Functions – Remap .........................................................................12-41

Edit Song: Track Functions – Grab ............................................................................ 12-41

Edit Song: STEP Page ................................................................................................ 12-43

Recording with the STEP editor ..................................................................... 12-43

Soft Buttons on the Edit Song: STEP Page .................................................... 12-45

Edit Song: ARRANGE Page ...................................................................................... 12-46

Triggering Steps from a Key ...........................................................................12-48

Soft Buttons on the Edit Song: ARRANGE Page .......................................... 12-49

Selecting a Song for Playback ....................................................................................12-49

Effect Selection During Recording and Playback ...................................................... 12-50

Synchronizing Songs ...................................................................................... 12-50

Memory Limits ........................................................................................................... 12-51

Loading Songs From Disk .......................................................................................... 12-51

Recording Multi-timbral Sequences via MIDI ........................................................... 12-52

Disk Mode ............................................................................................................................................ 13-1

Disk Mode Page ............................................................................................................ 13-1

File List Dialog ............................................................................................................. 13-6

Creating Directories ....................................................................................................13-11

Creating a Directory with NewDir .................................................................. 13-11

Creating a Directory with the Save and NewDir Soft Buttons .......................13-12

The Directory Selection Dialog .................................................................................. 13-12

Disk Mode Functions .................................................................................................. 13-13

Loading Files .................................................................................................. 13-13

Loading Individual Objects .............................................................................13-13

Shortcuts when Loading Objects .................................................................... 13-16

Loading Dependents of Selected Objects ....................................................... 13-17

Auditioning Samples from a Disk File ...........................................................13-17

Loading Objects from Floppy Disk Files ........................................................13-18

Load Function Dialog ................................................................................................. 13-18

Bank Status Indicator ...................................................................................... 13-18

Loading Methods ............................................................................................ 13-18

Multiple Selection of Files to Load ................................................................ 13-21

Aborting a Multiple File Load ........................................................................13-21

More Load Function Enhancements ...............................................................13-22

Saving Files ................................................................................................................. 13-22

Saving Individual Objects ...............................................................................13-24

Shortcuts when Saving Objects ...................................................................... 13-24

Auditioning Objects in RAM ..........................................................................13-25

Saving Dependent Objects .............................................................................. 13-26

The Name Table .............................................................................................. 13-27

Working with Relink-by-Name ......................................................................13-28

Not Loading the Name Table .......................................................................... 13-31

Relink-by-Name Processing Time .................................................................. 13-31

vii

Page 8

The Multiple Object Selector Page .............................................................................13-32

Macros .........................................................................................................................13-38

The Macro Page ..............................................................................................13-38

Macro Modes ..................................................................................................13-39

The Macro Table .............................................................................................13-40

How to Make a Macro File .............................................................................13-41

Macro Entries ..................................................................................................13-45

Using the Bank and Mode Fields ....................................................................13-46

Viewing the Object List for a Macro Entry ....................................................13-46

Unspecified Disk Drive ID .............................................................................13-47

The Library Disk .............................................................................................13-47

Loading Selected Entries from a Macro File ..................................................13-49

Editing Macros ................................................................................................13-50

Macro Insert ....................................................................................................13-53

Saving and Loading a Macro Table in a .KRZ file .........................................13-54

Aborting a Macro Load ...................................................................................13-54

Remote Macro Load ........................................................................................13-55

Disk Utilities ...............................................................................................................13-56

Find Files .........................................................................................................13-56

List ..................................................................................................................13-58

Free ..................................................................................................................13-58

Moving Files Between Directories .................................................................13-59

Renaming Files ...............................................................................................13-61

Deleting Files and Directories .........................................................................13-61

Backup and Copy Functions .......................................................................................13-62

File Copy .........................................................................................................13-64

Creating a Startup File ................................................................................................13-65

Deleting Banks in a Startup File .....................................................................13-65

MS-DOS File System Compatibility ..........................................................................13-66

File Name Compatibility .................................................................................13-66

Importing and Exporting Data using Standard File Formats ......................................13-67

AIFF and AIFF-C Files ...................................................................................13-67

WAVE Files ....................................................................................................13-68

Standard MIDI Files (MIDI Type 0 and Type 1 Files) ...................................13-68

DSP Functions .....................................................................................................................................14-1

Introduction to Algorithm Programming ......................................................................14-1

Additional Parameters .......................................................................................14-3

Filters ............................................................................................................................14-5

How to read the graphs .....................................................................................14-6

Equalization (EQ) .......................................................................................................14-22

Pitch / Amplitude / Panner ..........................................................................................14-31

Mixers .........................................................................................................................14-34

Waveforms .................................................................................................................. 14-35

Added Waveforms ......................................................................................................14-38

Non-linear Functions ...................................................................................................14-38

viii

Page 9

Waveforms Combined with Non-linear Functions .....................................................14-48

Mixers with Non-linear Inputs ....................................................................................14-50

Hard Sync Functions ...................................................................................................14-51

Sampling and Sample Editing ........................................................................................................... 15-1

Setting Up For Sampling .............................................................................................. 15-1

Cables and Input Jacks ......................................................................................15-1

Entering The Sampler - Two Different Ways ...............................................................15-2

Sampling Analog Signals .............................................................................................. 15-2

Recording Samples ...........................................................................................15-6

Sampling the K2500’s Output ...................................................................................... 15-8

Using the Sampler to Create Overdubs ......................................................................... 15-8

Sampling Digital Signals ............................................................................................ 15-10

Using the Digital Outputs ........................................................................................... 15-11

Editing Samples .......................................................................................................... 15-12

Crossfade and Volume Adjust Curves ............................................................ 15-33

Reading Samples ......................................................................................................... 15-34

The Keymap Editor .....................................................................................................15-36

Building a Keymap ..................................................................................................... 15-41

Using the Analog Inputs to Trigger Samples .............................................................. 15-42

FUNS .................................................................................................................................................... 16-1

The Mechanics of Control Sources ...............................................................................16-1

Programming the FUNs ................................................................................................16-2

The FUN Equations ...................................................................................................... 16-3

The List of Equations ........................................................................................16-4

Warp Equations ............................................................................................... 16-10

Sawtooth LFOs ............................................................................................... 16-13

Chaotic LFOs .................................................................................................. 16-13

Diode Equations ..............................................................................................16-14

The Order of Evaluation for FUNs .............................................................................16-16

Other Editors ....................................................................................................................................... 17-1

The Intonation Table Editor ..........................................................................................17-1

The Velocity Map Editor .............................................................................................. 17-3

Using the Velocity Map Editor .....................................................................................17-3

The Pressure Map Editor .............................................................................................. 17-6

Audio Outputs .....................................................................................................................................18-1

Audio Configurations ....................................................................................................18-1

Using the MIX Outputs ................................................................................................. 18-1

Using the Separate Outputs ........................................................................................... 18-2

Output Groups and MIDI Channels .............................................................................. 18-4

Programming Examples ..................................................................................................................... 19-1

Example 1 - Trumpet with Delayed Vibrato and Velocity-triggered Fall-offs ............ 19-1

Example 2 - Lowpass Filter, Envelopes ....................................................................... 19-4

Example 3 - Sample and Hold; Using a FUN ...............................................................19-6

Example 4 - SHAPER and PANNER ........................................................................... 19-7

Example 5 - Building a Drum Program; Using the Keymap Editor .............................19-9

Page 10

Young Chang Distributors

Contact the nearest Young Chang ofﬁce listed below to locate your local Young Chang/ Kurzweil representative.

Young Chang America, Inc.

13336 Alondra Blvd. Cerritos, CA 90703-2245 Tel: (310) 926-3200 Fax: (310) 404-0748

Young Chang Co.

Kang Nam P.O.Box 998 Seoul, Korea Tel: 011-82-2-3451-3500 Fax: 011-82-2-3451-3599

Young Chang Akki Europe GmbH

Industriering 45 D-41751 Viersen Germany Tel: 011-49-2162-4491 Fax: 011-49-2162-41744

Young Chang Canada Corp.

395 Cochrane Drive Markham, Ontario L3R 9R5 Tel: (905) 513-6240 Fax: (905) 513-9445

Page 11

Introduction

Welcome!

Chapter 1 Introduction

Welcome!

Congratulations, and thanks for purchasing a Kurzweil/Young Chang K2500 Series instrument. Whether you’ve just gotten a K2500 (illustrated below), the 88-note K2500X, or the rack-mountable K2500R, you’ve got your hands on an extremely capable musical instrument. The K2500 Series instruments are packed with great acoustic, electric, and synth sounds— combined with some of the most advanced synthesis features available, which you can use to create almost any sound imaginable. If you liked the award-winning K2000, you’ll love the K2500!

This manual and the accompanying Reference Guide , as well as the video tutorial, will get you started with your new instrument. You’ll deﬁnitely want to keep the manuals handy as you become an advanced user, too.

eadphones

SW1 SW2

LDRL

aster Volume

olo

ixdown

Faders

MIDI



ontrollers

ssignable

132

LRL

igital OutOptical Out

4756 8

CB D

ptical In

igital In

oZ Right In

oZ Left In

iZ In

rogram

P MIDI

Previous PgMute 1

Zoom -

Gain -

aster

etup

Mute 2

Mark

Zoom +

Gain +

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

FX Bypass

lay/Pause

ecord

han/Bank

ong

Access

Jump Link

Layer/Zone

ffects

isk

Compare

top

dit

MIDI

Select

MIDI

OutOut Thru

SCSI

InOut/Thru

SCSI

ata

ntry

witch Pedals

Thru

xit

Pedals / Breath

213

1 32

ABC

JKL

STU

+/-

UPPER/lower

ancel

2Breath

DEF

MNO

VWX YZ

0 - 9

KDS

Output

GHI

695

PQR

lear

Space

nter

ower

2500

orty-Eight Voices

igital Multi Effects ulti-Track Sequencer

xpandable to 28MB of Sound ROM

E E

xpandable to 128MB of Sample RAM

ynthesisrchitectureariable

echnology

TSAV

udio

uts

For K2500R Owners

echnology

TSAV

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

xit

MIDI

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

Throughout the Performance Guide and Reference Guide we’ve simpliﬁed things by saying just

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

"K2500" any time we’re referring to features that are common to all instruments in the K2500

STU

VWX

CLR

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

Series. Obviously, though, there are some differences between the rack and keyboard models;

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

we’ll point them out where they occur and mark them with a handy K2500R margin symbol such as the one to the left of this paragraph.

1-1

Page 12

Introduction

Overview of the K2500

The K2500 has been designed to be a versatile instrument both for performance, and for multitimbral sequencing and recording. Its Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology lets you build sounds from realistic instrumental samples and sampled synth waveforms—then modify the nature of those sounds through a dazzling array of digital signal processing (DSP) functions. The K2500 also generates its own synth waveforms, which can be combined with the samples or used on their own. The K2500 packs 8 Megabytes of on-board sound ROM, and you can load samples from disk into optional sample RAM.

Before we get into explaining Variable Architecture Synthesis, here are a few of the features that by themselves make the K2500 an impressive stage and studio machine. It’s fully multitimbral—different programs can be played on each MIDI channel. It’s 48-note polyphonic, for a full sound no matter how many chords you play. There’s an on-board digital effects processor, providing up to four simultaneous effects, including realtime effects control, internally or via MIDI.

In addition to the standard stereo audio output pair, there are eight separate outputs that can be conﬁgured as stereo pairs, or as individual mono outputs. You can also use the separate outputs as insert points for outboard gear.

The K2500 offers eight SIMM sockets (single, in-line memory modules) so you can add optional sample RAM, where you can store samples that you’ve loaded from disk. You can add up to 128 megabytes of sample RAM! (Sample RAM is not battery-backed, so RAM samples are erased from memory when you power down.)

For ofﬂine storage, there’s also a ﬂoppy drive and two SCSI ports, so you can store ﬁles on ﬂoppies or on an external hard disk or load them from a CD-ROM drive. The two SCSI ports make it easy to chain multiple SCSI devices together. There’s also provision for an internal SCSI hard disk. You’ll ﬁnd all this storage potential extremely useful for saving and loading samples, which can be transferred to and from the K2500 using the standard MIDI sample transfer format, or the new, faster, parallel SMDI sample transfer format (SCSI Musical Data Interchange). See the Reference Guide for information about MIDI and SMDI sample transfers.

The K2500’s battery-backed RAM will store about 400 of your own programs, or 30,000 notes recorded in the sequencer. This sequencer (Song mode) lets you play back MIDI type 0 sequences, record and play back your own songs, and record multi-timbral sequences received via MIDI. For more onboard storage you can add the P/RAM option, which will increase your battery-backed RAM to about 1250K, enough to store hundreds of additional programs, setups, songs, and other objects .

The Local Keyboard Channel feature enables you to use the K2500’s tri-zone setups even if your MIDI controller can transmit on only one channel. The K2500 will also rechannelize incoming MIDI information and send it to its MIDI Out port, enabling you to control additional synths on three different channels.

An optional sampling feature is available, allowing you to make your own mono or stereo samples using analog or digital inputs.

1-2

And, of course, there’s the incomparable Kurzweil sound. The K2500 comes to you with 200 preset factory programs (called patches, presets, voices, etc. on other synths), as well as 100 multi-zone performance setups. Play them straight from the box, tweak them in any number of ways, or develop your own programs from scratch—which brings us back to the powerful programming capabilities of the K2500.

Page 13

What is VAST?

Variable Architecture Synthesis gives the K2500 its unprecedented ﬂexibility. While many other

synthesizers offer a ﬁxed set of DSP tools (typically ﬁltering, pitch, and amplitude modulation) the K2500’s Variable Architecture lets you arrange a combination of any ﬁve DSP functions from a long list of choices. The functions you choose deﬁne the type of synthesis you use.

Each layer of every program has its own DSP architecture, what we call an algorithm . Within each algorithm, you can select from a variety of DSP functions. Each function can be independently controlled by a variety of sources including LFOs, ASRs, envelopes, a set of unique programmable functions (FUNs), as well as any MIDI control message. The many different DSP functions and the wealth of independent control sources give you an extremely ﬂexible, truly vast collection of tools for sound creation and modiﬁcation.

Introduction

What is VAST?

Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology

How the K2500 Works

The K2500 integrates two MIDI-driven components: a sound engine, and a global effects processor. The sound engine responds to the MIDI events generated by your MIDI controller and turns them into sounds that are processed within the variable architecture of the algorithms. The resulting sound can then be routed through the effects processor and to the MIX or separate audio outputs.

1-3

Page 14

Introduction

How to use this manual

This manual includes the following:

•

how to connect and power up your K2500, getting around the front panel, and a brief

description of the operating modes.

•

basic editing, including the normal operations of each operating mode.

•

the advanced programming features that make the K2500 so powerful—a number of

familiar synthesis tools and quite a few new ones.

Even if you’re a complete techie, you should read Chapter 3, User Interface Basics. Here you’ll get a tour of the K2500’s front panel and learn how to navigate through the major functions.

Chapter 4 describes the concept and operation of the K2500’s eight operating modes, with a brief description of each. Chapters 6 through 13 describe each mode in detail, including the editors contained within them. Chapters 14 through 17 discuss the advanced editing features. Chapter 18 shows you how to use the multiple audio outputs to suit your needs. Chapter 19 is a programming tutorial, giving you speciﬁc examples of many of the K2500’s programming functions. Some are basic, some are advanced. By working through the tutorials, you’ll become familiar with many synthesis techniques, and you’ll get a ﬁrst-hand look at how to unleash the power of the K2500.

When manual text appears in boldface italic ( like this ), you’ll ﬁnd it described in the Glossary in the Reference Guide . Only the ﬁrst one or two occurrences of these words are highlighted.

The best way to read this manual is with your K2500 in front of you. By trying the examples we give to illustrate various functions, you can get a quick understanding of the basics, then move on to the more advanced features.

If you like to ﬁgure out your equipment for yourself, and normally use manuals only as reference sources, you’ll probably get the most use out of the Reference Guide that accompanies this manual, which contains brief descriptions of the K2500’s major operating features, and all sorts of useful lists— programs , keymaps , algorithms , effects, control sources , and more. A glossary and complete speciﬁcations for the K2500 are also included in the Reference Guide.

1-4

Page 15

Startup

Basic Startup Checklist:

Chapter 2 Startup

If hooking up new gear is familiar to you, and you just want to get going, here’s a quick description of all the basic things you need to cover to get started with your K2500. The procedure is pretty much the same whether you have a rack or a keyboard model. If you need more information, thorough descriptions of each step follow. In either case, check out “Playing the Presets,” later in this chapter.

Basic Startup Checklist:

•

Install the supplied batteries (if they are packaged separately). See "Battery Installation"

on page 2-2.

•

Mount your K2500R securely in a standard 19-inch MIDI rack, or set it on a hard ﬂat

surface. Keyboard models should either be placed on a sturdy keyboard stand or table. In

either case, make sure to leave plenty of room for ventilation.

•

Connect the power cable.

•

Make sure your sound system is at a safe volume level.

•

Plug in a pair of stereo headphones or run standard (1/4-inch) audio cables from your

ampliﬁer or mixer to the MIX audio outputs on the K2500 (Use the MIX L out for mono).

It’s good practice to make the cable connection to the K2500 (or any instrument) last, since

this will reduce the chance of creating static electricity that can cause an audible "pop"

(and, in extreme cases, cause equipment damage).

K2500R Only

•

echnology

TSAV

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

STU

VWX

xit

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

CLR

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

IMPORTANT: If you will be transporting the rack containing the K2500R, you must

support the back of the unit. It’s fairly heavy, and you don’t want your K2500R to get

damaged when you move the rack around.

•

Most likely, you will connect a MIDI controller to your K2500R. Connect a MIDI cable

from the MIDI Out port of your MIDI controller to the MIDI In port of the K2500R.

•

If your MIDI controller can transmit on more than one MIDI channel, check out Setup

mode by pressing the Setup mode button. Then use the Alpha Wheel to select tri-zone

setups with independent programs, MIDI channels and controller assignments in each

zone.

Start Jamming!

•

Power up your K2500 and begin making some music.

•

If you hear distortion, reduce the gain on your mixing board, or use the pad if it has one.

•

Scroll through the Program list with the Alpha Wheel (the large knob to the right of the

display).

•

Press the Quick Access mode button and use the numeric keys to select from

programmable banks of ten programs or setups.

•

If you don’t hear anything, review these steps, or check the Troubleshooting section in the

Reference Guide .

2-1

Page 16

Startup

Startup—the Details

This section will walk you through the hookup of your K2500. We’ll take a look at the rear panel, then describe the power, audio, and other cable connections.

Before Y ou Start...

Don’t connect anything until you make sure your K2500 is properly and safely situated. Also, if your K2500 has been out in the cold, give the unit a little time to warm up to room temperature before starting it, since condensation may have formed inside the K2500.

You’ll probably be mounting a K2500R in a standard 19-inch MIDI rack (it takes up three rack

echnology

TSAV

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

spaces). If you will be transporting the rack containing the K2500R, be sure to support the back

STU

VWX

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

CLR

xit

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

of the K2500R within the rack. If you’re not installing the K2500R in a rack, it should rest on a hard ﬂat surface. In this case, it must rest on its rubber feet (supplied in the packing carton), and

NOT on the bottom panel. NEVER block the ventilation openings on the bottom or rear panels; doing so can cause

overheating and serious damage. To provide adequate ventilation, the rear panel should be at least four inches from any vertical surface. There are no user-serviceable parts in the K2500 . Under no circumstances should you attempt to remove any panels (except for battery installation or replacement). If you attempt to open your K2500, you’ll risk electric shock, and you’ll void your product warranty.

Battery Installation

We’ve included three AA batteries for your K2500’s battery-backed RAM. Depending on when your K2500 was shipped, we may not have installed the batteries at the factory because they would drain during shipping. If you’ve found three batteries shipped in the box with your unit, you should install the batteries before you start up your K2500. Otherwise, continue on to the next section.

Locate the battery compartment in the lower right-hand corner of the rear panel of the K2500R (refer the illustration on the following page) or the small door on the bottom of the K2500 keyboard models, as shown below.

Battery Compartment



han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

etup

Mute 2

Mute 1

Zoom +

Zoom -

ower

2-2

2500RS

QS E MIDI

Mute 3 Samp/Sec

Sampler

ffects

Access

FX Bypass

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

then turning it counterclockwise until it pops out. Slide the three batteries, all positive side out,

STU

VWX

aster

ong

isk

Previous Pg

Jump

Mark

Compare

Gain -

Link

Gain +

CLR

xit

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

into the compartment. Install the battery compartment cover by lining up the tabs, pushing the cap inward, then turning it 90

Remove the battery compartment cover by inserting a ﬂat-head screwdriver or coin into its slot,

echnology

TSAV

When you start up your unit for the ﬁrst time after installing the batteries, it will take a few minutes to initialize all of its memory. This will not happen on every power up.

Page 17

Connecting the Power Cable (Line Cord)

The K2500 runs on 100-, 120-, 220-, or 240-Volt AC power at 50—60 Hz. Your dealer will set the voltage switch to match the voltage in your area. The voltage level is set with a selector on the rear panel of the keyboard models of the K2500. On the K2500R, however, the voltage setting can only be changed by an authorized Kurzweil service center.

When you’ve connected the cable at the K2500 end, plug it into a grounded outlet. If your power source does not have the standard three-hole outlet, you should take the time to install a proper grounding system. This will assure you of avoiding problems with audio hum, and will reduce the risk of a shock hazard.

witch Pedals12S

Pedals / Breath

Output

KDS

100/120V F 2.0A 250V slow-blow 230/240V F 1.0A 250V slow-blow

100/120/230/240V AC

1.5/.75 A 50-60 Hz

ATTENTION

WARNING

FOR CONTINUED PROTECTION AGAINST THE RISK OF FIRE, REPLACE ONLY WITH THE SAME TYPE AND RATING OF FUSE. UTILISER UN FUSIBLE DE RECHANGE DE MEME TYPE.

reath

SCSI

Disable Enable

SCSI

Thru

SCSI

MIDI

Select

Termination

MIDI

Thru OutOut

Thru/Out

Connecting the Audio Cables

Did you turn down the level on your PA yet?!

After you’ve turned down the level on your sound system, you can rig the K2500’s audio connections using a pair of mono audio cables. You’ll ﬁnd ten 1/4-inch jacks near the top of the rear panel. For now, connect one end of each audio cable to your mixing board or PA system inputs, and connect the other end to the jacks marked MIX L and R on the rear panel of the K2500. If you have only one input available, use the K2500’s MIX L output to get the full signal in mono.

It’s always a good idea to make the cable connection to the K2500 (or any instrument) after you’ve made your other audio connections, since this will reduce the chance of creating static electricity that can cause an audible "pop" (and, in extreme cases, cause equipment damage). Turn to Chapter 18 for more detailed information about the K2500’s audio conﬁguration.

050

iZ In oZ Right In

Ring=Right Tip=Left

oZ Left In

ptical InOigital InDigital OutDptical Out

Startup—the Details

uts

udio

LARLRBL

R RL

(mono)

ixMeadphones

Startup

Connecting MIDI

The simplest MIDI conﬁguration uses a single MIDI cable, from the MIDI Out port of your MIDI controller to the MIDI In port of the K2500. There are all sorts of possible conﬁgurations, including additional synths, personal computers, MIDI effects processors, and MIDI patch bays. Depending on your system, you may want to use the K2500’s MIDI Thru port to pass MIDI information from your MIDI controller to the K2500 and on to the next device in your system. You can also connect MIDI devices to the K2500’s MIDI Out port, which can send channelized MIDI information from your MIDI controller. See the discussion of the Local Keyboard Channel parameter in Chapter 10.

NOTE: You can perform a quick check of the K2500R and your audio system without a MIDI controller connected to the K2500R. Hold down the CANCEL button on the alphanumeric pad and press any other alphanumeric button, and you should hear notes. See "The Panel Play Feature" in Chapter 3 for more information about this feature.

SCSI Thru

SCSI Term.

Disable / Enable

THIS DEVICE COMPLIES WITH PART 15 OF THE FCC RULES. OPERATION IS SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING TWO CONDITIONS: (1) THIS DEVICE MAY NOT CAUSE HARMFUL INTERFERENCE, AND (2) THIS DEVICE MUST ACCEPT ANY INTERFERENCE RECEIVED, INCLUDING INTERFERENCE THAT MAY CAUSE UNDESIRED OPERATION.

Digital

CAUTION

DO NOT OPEN

RLLR

Mix

Made in KoreaYoung Chang Akki, Co., LTD

FOR CONTINUED PROTECTION

WARNING:

AGAINST THE RISK OF FIRE, REPLACE ONLY WITH SAME TYPE AND RATING OF FUSE.

ATTENTION:

UTILISER UN FUSIBLE DE

RECHANGE DE MEME TYPE.

100/120V ~ T 2.00A 250V SLOW-BLOW 220/240V ~ T 1.00A 250V SLOW-BLOW

100/120/220/240V ~ AC

1.5/0.75A 48-65HZ

KDS Output

Optical Out

OutIn

MIDI

RLLR

Audio Outs

MIDI Select

Thru / OutOutThru / OutInSCSI

Mfr: Serial No.

ATTENTION:

WARNING:

SHOCK, DO NOT EXPOSE THIS PRODUCT TO RAIN OR MOISTURE.

RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK

RISQUE DE CHOC ELECTRIQUE NE PAS OUVRIR

TO REDUCE RISK OF FIRE OF ELECTRIC

Battery Compartment

2-3

Page 18

Startup

Playing the Presets

Connecting SCSI

Switching On the Power

You may not have a hard disk or other SCSI device to connect to your K2500 right away, but if you do, you can connect it to either of the SCSI ports. Please read the following information carefully; it’s very important. Also, there’s a collection of SCSI tips in Chapter 10 of the Reference

Guide.

CAUTION: If you plan to connect more than one SCSI device to the K2500 (including an Apple

Macintosh®), you must terminate your SCSI chain properly. Turn to Chapter 13 and read the section called “SCSI Termination.” You can lose data, and possibly damage your K2500 and SCSI devices if they’re not terminated properly.

The power switch is located at the lower left of the front panel. When you power up, the display will brieﬂy say “Welcome to the K2500!” The Program Mode display will then appear. It looks like the diagram below (the programs shown in the diagram don’t necessarily exist):

ProgramMode||||Xpose:0ST|||<>Channel:1||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|198|James|Jams|||||| KeyMap|Info|||||||#|199|Default|Program| |Grand|Piano||||||#| ||1|Righteous|Piano| ||||||||||||||||||#|||2|Mondo|Bass|||||| ||||||||||||||||||#|||3|Killer|Drums|||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|||4|Weeping|Guitar|| Octav-| Octav+| Panic|| Sample| Chan-|| Chan+

Set the volume at a comfortable level. You’ll get the best signal-to-noise ratio if you keep the K2500 at full volume (turn the volume knob fully clockwise), and adjust the level from your mixing board. You may also want to adjust the display contrast. This is done with the Contrast parameter in Master mode. See Chapter 11. As you trigger notes from your MIDI controller, you’ll see the MIDI LED ﬂash. If it doesn’t ﬂash, check your MIDI cables and connections.

Playing the Presets

There are three things you’ll want to check out right away: programs, setups and Quick Access banks. In performance situations, you’ll be selecting your sounds using one of these three methods.

Programs

The K2500 powers up in Program mode, where you can select and play programs stored in

ROM or RAM . Programs are preset sounds composed of one to three layers of samples or

waveforms—they’re called patches, voices, and presets on other instruments. If you’ve left Program mode, just press the Program mode button to return.

2-4

Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the Program mode display. It gives you some helpful basic information, like the MIDI transposition, what MIDI channel you’re on, and which program is currently selected. The box at the left of the display tells you which keymap is used by each layer of the current program (a keymap is a collection of samples). The line under each keymap name gives a rough indication of the keyboard range of the layer. In the ﬁgure below, the Grand Piano keymap covers the full range from C 0 to C 8. You can change MIDI channels with the Chan- and Chan+ buttons under the display. You can transpose by octaves by pressing the Octav buttons under the display (if the LocalKbdCh parameter on the RECV page in MIDI mode matches the transmitting channel of your MIDI controller—see Chapter 10). The bottom line of the display identiﬁes the function of each of the buttons beneath the display.

Page 19

Startup

Playing the Presets

ProgramMode||||Xpose:0ST|||<>Channel:1||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|199|Default|Program| KeyMap|Info|||||||#|200*Crystal|Horn|||| |Grand|Piano||||||#|||1|Righteous|Piano| ||||||||||||||||||#|||2|Mondo|Bass|||||| ||||||||||||||||||#|||3|Killer|Drums|||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|||4|Weeping|Guitar|| Octav-|Octav+|Panic||Sample|Chan-||Chan+

When you want to change programs, you have several options. The K2500 has six different settings for responding to MIDI program change commands. These are explained in Chapter 10, so we won’t go into them here. You should be able to change programs by sending program change commands from your MIDI controller. Of course, you can always change programs from the K2500’s front panel using the Alpha Wheel. Turning it left or right will scroll through the program list. You can also change programs using the cursor buttons, or the Plus/Minus buttons under the Alpha Wheel. You can also use the CHAN/BANK buttons or the cursor buttons while in Program mode.

Setups

Be sure to try whatever performance controls your MIDI controller has: the Pitch Wheel, Mod Wheel, and switch or control pedals—different programs respond to them in different ways. Attack velocity and aftertouch also have varying effects. Check the tear-out sheets at the back of this manual for lists of factory programs and setups. There’s also a list of programs in the Reference Guide, describing how each program responds to speciﬁc MIDI control messages.

If you don’t hear anything, see the troubleshooting section in the Reference Guide.

Setups are preset combinations of programs. Starting with V2 software, setups can have up to eight zones, each of which can be assigned to any range of the keyboard (overlapping or split). Each zone can have its own program, MIDI channel, and MIDI control assignments. You can make use of setups even if your MIDI controller can transmit on only one MIDI channel at a time. See the parameter called Local Keyboard Channel in Chapter 10.

Press the Setup mode button to the left of the display. Its LED will light, telling you that you’re in Setup mode. Notice that the Setup mode display is similar to the Program mode display. If the setup has three or fewer zones, the box at the left shows you the programs assigned to each of the setup’s three zones, and which MIDI channel is used for each program. If the setup is composed of more than three zones, then the box displays a series of horizontal lines illustrating the approximate key ranges of the zones.

SetupMode||||||Xpose:0ST||||||||||||||||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|201*Friday|Gig|||||| Chan/Program|Info|#|202*Bop|Rock|Reggae| 1||||9|Cool|Traps|#|||1|Jazz|Trio||||||| 2|||18|Sly|Acoust|#|||2|All|Percussion|| 3|||22*Izit|Jimmy|#|||3|Heavy|Metal||||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|||4|To|Sequencer|||| Octav-|Octav+|Panic||Sample|||||||||||||

2-5

Page 20

Startup

Playing the Presets

Quick Access

A really convenient way to select programs and setups is to use Quick Access mode, where you select a Quick Access bank from a list of factory preset or user-programmed banks. Each bank contains ten memory slots, or entries, where you can store any combination of programs or setups. While you’re in Quick Access mode, any program or setup can be selected with the numeric buttons 0 through 9.

The K2500 comes with a few Quick Access banks already programmed so you can get an idea of how they work. You’ll probably create your own Quick Access banks to help you select programs and setups with a minimum of searching. Press the Quick Access mode button to the left of the display. Its LED lights, to tell you you’re in Quick Access mode. You’ll see a display that looks like this:

QuickAccessMode|||<>Bank:1|For|Show|1|||

Silk|Rhodes|||POLY|TOUCH||||Voice+String NastyTrombone|SINK|MONSTA|||Waterflute|| Soon||||||||||Jazz|Trio|2|||Fretless|Bas ||||||||||||||VELVETEEN|||||||||||||||||

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

|Xpose:0ST|||SINK|MONSTA||||||||Chan:1|| Octav-|Octav+|Panic||Sample|Chan-||Chan+

The top line of the display tells you which Quick Access bank is selected. Use the CHAN/ BANK buttons (to the left of the display) to scroll through the banks. The names of each of the ten entries in the bank are listed in the center of the display. Many of their names will be abbreviated. The currently selected entry’s full name is shown near the bottom of the display. The amount of transposition is displayed to the left of the entry name. If the current entry is a program, you’ll see the current keyboard (MIDI) channel displayed to the right of the entry’s name. If it’s a setup, you’ll see the word “Setup.”

The entries on the Quick Access page are arranged to correspond to the layout of the numeric buttons on the alphanumeric pad. On the page above, for example, the program “SINK MONSTA” is entry 5, and can be selected by pressing 5 on the alphanumeric pad.

The Panic button (the button below the word “Panic” in the bottom line of the display) will send an All Notes Off and an All Controllers Off message to the K2500, and over all 16 MIDI channels. Press the View button to show the currently selected bank entry in large type. Press it again to return to the normal view.

When you’re ready to create your own Quick Access banks, turn to Chapter 8 to learn about the Quick Access Editor.

2-6

Page 21

Performance Controls

From your MIDI controller

The K2500 responds to attack velocity and release velocity, as well as mono and poly pressure (aftertouch) messages. It will also respond to most standard MIDI control parameters; see “MIDI and Setup Control Parameters" below.

Volume knob

The Volume knob controls the volume at the MIX (stereo) audio outputs and at the headphone jack. The individual outputs and MIDI volume are not affected by this knob.

MIDI and Setup Control Parameters

The K2500 responds to most standard MIDI control messages, including Pitch Wheel, Mod Wheel, switch pedals, control pedals, and control sliders. The K2500’s response to these controls is set on the XMIT (Transmit) page in MIDI mode, and works in conjunction with the Local Keyboard Channel parameter on the RECV (Receive) page in MIDI mode. This is described fully in Chapter 10. For now, you’ll probably ﬁnd that the K2500 responds predictably to most of these controls. If you want to change its response, turn to Chapter 10 and read the section covering the Local Keyboard Channel parameter.

Startup

Performance Controls

You can also use the K2500 to relay control messages from your MIDI controller to other MIDI devices connected to the K2500’s MIDI Out port. This is also controlled by the Local Keyboard Channel parameter (MIDI RECV page) in combination with the settings for the control parameters on the MIDI XMIT (transmit) page or the Setup mode page.

2-7

Page 22

Startup

K2500 Boot Loader

The Boot Loader lets you install a new K2500 operating system and/or new K2500 ROM objects, from a SCSI device or the ﬂoppy drive into ﬂash ROM. The Boot Loader also provides hard reset and diagnostics options.

Note: Your K2500 comes from the factory with the operating system and ROM objects already installed. You do not need to run the K2500 Boot Loader to start up a new K2500.

Starting the Boot Loader

When you start the K2500, it displays a "Please wait..." message and waits for approximately 2 seconds. Press and release the Exit key while the "Please wait..." message is displayed to start the boot loader. Otherwise, the K2500 will start up normally.

The Boot Loader’s Menus resemble K2500 dialog boxes. That is, they consist of a series of labels and a highlight bar that is used to select one of the labels. You can use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar up, down, right, and left. Press the OK soft button to invoke the highlighted menu option. Additionally, the data wheel and Enter key may be used to move the highlight bar and invoke the selected action.

Boot-loader Main Menu

When the boot loader is ﬁrst invoked, its main menu is displayed, as shown below.

-------|K2500|Boot|Loader|v1.01|------||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||Install|System|||||Hard|Reset||||||| |||Install|Objects||||Run|Diags|||||||| |||Run|System|||||||||Fixed|Diags|||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||OK|||

Initially, the "Install System" option is highlighted. After invoking various actions, however, other options may be selected by default, as the context suggests, upon returning to this menu.

Install System / Install Objects

Use "Install System" to install the K2500 operating system and diagnostics by loading them from a ﬂoppy or from a SCSI device and programming them into Flash ROM. Use "Install Objects" to install ROM objects into Flash ROM. After either option is invoked, a dialog box such as the following will be displayed.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||Device|to|install|from:||floppy|||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||SCSI|ID|of|this|unit:||N/A||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||Cancel|||OK|

2-8

From this dialog box, you can select which device contains the system or ROM-objects ﬁle. This is done using the alpha wheel, the + and - keys, and the cursor control keys in the same way that the K2500 engine software does. If you choose to install from a SCSI device, the SCSI ID of this unit will change from "N/A" to "SCSI 6." If there is another device on your SCSI bus with

Page 23

Startup

K2500 Boot Loader

an ID of 6, you will need to change the SCSI ID of this unit to a free SCSI ID. At this point you can continue by hitting the OK soft-button or abort the operation by pressing the one labeled Cancel. Canceling the operation will return you to the Boot Loader menu, and the "Run System" option will be highlighted.

When you press OK, the K2500 will try to access the drive in question and scan it for ﬁles. If it is successful, a screen such as the following will then appear:

|||||||||||||||||||||||FILE1.KOS||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||DIR1||||<DIR>||| |||||||||||||||||||||||FILE1.K25||||||| |||||File|to|Install:||FILE1.KRZ||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||VLABEL|||<VOL>|| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||NewDrv|Root|Parent||Cancel|||OK|

While this screen is displayed, you can use the up and down cursor keys, the alpha wheel, or the + and - keys to highlight different items in the ﬁle list. Names that have "<DIR>" displayed to their right are sub-directories. If the disk has a volume label, it will be displayed in the list, marked with "<VOL>." Operating system ﬁles typically have a ".KOS" extension, while ROM object ﬁles have a ".KRZ" extension. The OK soft-button selects the highlighted ﬁle for loading, or changes to the highlighted directory. The Cancel button aborts the installation and returns to the menu. Parent changes to the current directory's parent directory, while Root changes to the disk's root directory. The NewDrv button returns to the previous screen, allowing you to choose a different drive from which to install.

After you select a ﬁle by pressing the OK button, you will be asked to conﬁrm the installation. The K2500 will display a message of the form "Ready to install operating system from ﬁlename on device" or "Ready to install ROM objects from ﬁlename on device." When it displays this message, it will ﬁll in ﬁlename and device with the name of the ﬁle and device you have selected. To conﬁrm that you want to proceed, press the OK soft-button. If you do so, you will not be able to interrupt the installation. Alternatively, the Cancel button will return you to the menu, or the Choose button will allow you to select a different device or ﬁle from which to install.

While the K2500 is installing the ﬁle into Flash ROM, the top line of the display will gradually ﬁll to indicate the progress of the operation. Note that operating system ﬁles and ROM object ﬁles are of different formats. If you try to install a ﬁle using the incorrect menu option, the K2500 will think the ﬁle is corrupt and will refuse to install it into Flash ROM. If this happens, simply choose the correct menu option from the Boot Loader's main menu, and repeat the installation.

If there is a problem accessing the drive or installing the ﬁle, an error message will be displayed. At this point, you can (1) abort the operation with the Abort soft button and return to the menu, (2) press the Retry button to try the operation again, or (3) choose another device or ﬁle by pressing the Choose button.

Run System

The "Run System" option executes the engine software. When this option is invoked, the operating system and ROM setups are checked for integrity. If either does not appear to be installed, a message will be displayed explaining this. If this happens, you can (1) double press the Run Anyhow soft buttons and be given a chance to try to run the system anyhow, knowing that the machine might crash, (2) install the uninstalled portion with the Instal button, or (3) return to the menu by using the Menu button. If you do the latter, the menu will be displayed with the "Load System" or "Load Setups" option highlighted as appropriate.

2-9

Page 24

Startup

Software Upgrades

Hard Reset

Run Diags

The "Hard Reset" option causes all user RAM to be erased. When you select this option, a strict warning message is displayed. You must press the up and down cursor keys simultaneously to actually erase the RAM. If you push any other button or turn the data wheel, the operation is aborted, and the menu is displayed with the "Run System" option highlighted. Otherwise, the RAM will be marked for re-initialization, and a message declaring this fact will appear prior to return to the menu. When the menu reappears, it will have the "Run System" option highlighted.

The "Run Diags" option executes the diagnostics that are loaded with the system. When you choose "Run Diags", the K2500 checks its operating system for integrity. If it does not appear to be installed, a message will be displayed explaining this. If this happens, you can (1) double press the Run Anyhow soft buttons and be given a chance to try to run the diagnostics anyhow, knowing that the machine might crash, (2) install the operating system with the Instal button, or (3) return to the menu by using the Menu button. If you do the latter, the menu will be displayed with the "Load System" or "Load Setups" option highlighted as appropriate. Some diagnostic tests erase the non-volatile user RAM, and you will be warned of this fact before continuing.

Restart your K2500 to leave the diagnostics and return to regular operation.

Fixed Diags

The "Fixed Diags" option executes the diagnostics that are contained in the boot block. Some diagnostic tests erase the non-volatile user RAM, and you will be warned of this fact before continuing.

Restart your K2500 to leave the diagnostics and return to regular operation.

Software Upgrades

Part of the beauty of the K2500 is the ease with which you can upgrade its operating system and objects (programs, setup, etc.) using the boot loader. Kurzweil and Young Chang have a long history of support for our instruments; the K250, K1000, and K2000 were continuously being improved, and these improvements were always made available to instrument owners in the form of software upgrades. Upgrades to these instruments, however, usually required replacing ROM chips, which had to be done at a service center. Even though this was usually inexpensive, it did involve some costs.

Upgrading your K2500’s software is simple, painless, and – generally – free! As upgraded software becomes available, you can either get new disks from your Young Chang dealer or download the new stuff from a network bulletin board. For example, V2 software, released concurrently with the K2500 keyboards, offers a greatly enhanced Setup mode – valuable for racks as well as keyboards.

To stay in touch, check out our World Wide Web site:

2-10

http://www.youngchang.com/kurzweil/

Page 25

User Interface Basics

Mode Selection

Chapter 3 User Interface Basics

Chapter 3 will show you how to get around the front panel of your K2500. Your interactions can be divided into three primary operations: mode selection, navigation, and data entry.

Mode Selection

The K2500 is always in one of eight operating modes. The modes are selected by pressing one of the eight buttons beneath the display—the ones with LEDs to their right. Selecting a mode gives you access to a large set of related parameters. Only one mode can be selected at a time. The modes are:

•

PROGRAM MODE: Select and play programs, and modify them with the Program

Editor . Rearrange and modify samples in the Keymap and Sample Editors.

•

SETUP MODE: Select and play setups (eight keyboard zones with independent MIDI

channel, program and control assignments), and modify them with the Setup Editor.

•

QUICK ACCESS MODE: Select from a list of preset banks, each containing a list of ten

programs and/or setups that can be viewed in the display for easy selection. Modify the

preset banks and create your own with the Quick Access Editor.

•

EFFECTS MODE: Deﬁne the behavior of the on-board global effects processor. Modify

the preset effects and create your own with the Effects Editor.

•

MIDI MODE: Deﬁne how your K2500 sends and receives MIDI information, and

conﬁgure each channel to receive independent program, volume, and pan messages that

override the normal Program mode settings.

•

MASTER MODE: Deﬁne performance and control characteristics for the entire K2500.

•

SONG MODE: Use the K2500’s sequencer to record and play back your keyboard

performance, play type 0 MIDI sequences, and record multi-timbral sequences received

via MIDI.

•

DISK MODE: Interface with the K2500’s ﬂoppy disk drive, an external SCSI device, or an

optional internal SCSI disk to load and save programs, setups, samples, and more.

Mode Buttons

The mode buttons are labeled in white. When you press a mode button, the LED to its right lights up to indicate that the mode has been selected. If pressing a mode button does not light its LED, press the EXIT button one or more times, then try again.

The green labeling under each mode button indicates special functions that relate to some of the K2500’s editors. These functions are described in Chapter 5.

Navigation

The navigation section of the front panel consists of the display and the buttons surrounding it. These navigation buttons will take you to every one of the K2500’s programming parameters.

The Display

Your primary interface with the K2500 is its backlit graphic display. As you press various buttons, this ﬂuorescent display reﬂects the commands you enter and the editing changes you make. The ample size of the display (240-by-64 pixels ) enables you to view lots of information at one time.

3-1

Page 26

User Interface Basics

Mode Selection

Pages

ProgramMode||||Xpose:0ST|||<>Channel:1||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|200*Analog|Jam|||||| KeyMap|Info|||||||#|202*Heart|Strings||| |Grand|Piano||||||#| ||1|Righteous|Piano| ||||||||||||||||||#|||2|Mondo|Bass|||||| ||||||||||||||||||#|||3|Killer|Drums|||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|||4|Weeping|Guitar|| Octav-| Octav+| Panic|| Sample| Chan-|| Chan+

Within each mode, the functions and parameters are organized into smaller, related groups that appear together in the display. Each one of these single-screen groups of parameters is called a

page . Each mode has what we call an entry level page; it’s the page that appears when you

select that mode with one of the mode buttons. Within each mode and its editor(s), the various pages are selected with the navigation buttons. There are many pages, but there are a few features common to each page. The diagram below shows the entry level page for Program mode.

The T op Line

On the top line of most pages, there’s a reminder of which mode you’re in and which page you’re on. Many pages display additional information in the top line, as well. The Program mode page above, for example, shows you the current amount of MIDI transposition and the currently selected MIDI channel. The top line is almost always “reversed”—that is, it has a white background with blue characters.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is divided into six (sometimes fewer) sets of reversed characters that serve as labels for the six buttons directly beneath the display. These labels—and the functions of the buttons—change depending on the currently selected page. Consequently the buttons that select these functions are called “soft” buttons.

The Soft Buttons

The soft buttons are called “soft” because their functions change depending on the currently selected mode. Sometimes they perform speciﬁc functions, like changing MIDI channels in Program mode. In the Program Editor, they’re also used to move to different pages of programming parameters.

The Cursor Buttons

To the right of the display are four buttons arranged in a diamond fashion. These are called the cursor buttons. They move the cursor around the currently selected page, in the direction indicated by their labels. The cursor is is a highlighted (reversed) rectangle (sometimes it’s an underscore). It marks the value of the currently selected parameter.

3-2

Programming the K2500 involves selecting various parameters and changing their values. Parameters are selected by highlighting their values with the cursor. The highlighted value can be changed with any of the data entry methods described in the data entry section below.

Page 27

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

ower

dit

rogram

Mute 1 Zoom -

2500RS

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

Sampler

FX Bypass

Navigation Data Entry

echnology

TSAV

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ffects

Previous Pg

Gain -

Mark

Gain +

aster

Jump

Link

xit

ong

isk

Compare

MIDI

UPPER/lower

User Interface Basics

Mode Selection

ptical In

DEF

MNO

VWX

0-9

eadphone

CLR

Space

nter

PQR

GHI

ABC

JKL

STU

ancel

olume

Right

Tip=Left

Ring=Right

Left

Mode Selection

The MIDI LED

Below the cursor buttons is a red LED labeled MIDI. This LED will ﬂash whenever the K2500 receives MIDI information from your MIDI controller.

The CHAN/BANK Buttons

To the left of the display are two buttons labeled “CHAN/BANK.” Their function is related to the two small arrows— <|> —that appear in the top line of many different pages. When you see these arrows, you can use the CHAN/BANK buttons to scroll the values of the parameter that appears to the right of the arrows. The arrows don’t have to appear in the top line, however, for the CHAN/BANK buttons to have an effect. In Program mode, for example, they shift through the MIDI channels, showing the program assigned to each channel.

When you’re in the Program editor, the CHAN/BANK buttons let you view each layer in the program. You can see the corresponding parameters in each layer by scrolling through the layers with these buttons. In the Setup editor, the CHAN/BANK buttons scroll through the zones in the current setup. In Quick Access mode, they scroll through the Quick Access banks, and in Song mode they scroll through record tracks.

We’ll let you know, when applicable, what the CHAN/BANK buttons do.

The EDIT Button

The EDIT button activates each of the K2500’s editors, and acts as a shortcut to many pages within the Program Editor. Pressing the EDIT button tells the K2500 that you want to change some aspect of the object marked by the cursor. For example, when a program is selected and you press EDIT, you enter the Program Editor. If a setup is selected, you enter the Setup Editor.

There are editors accessible from every mode except Disk mode. To enter an editor, choose one of the modes (mode selection), and press EDIT. An editing page for that mode will appear. You can then select parameters (navigation) and change their values (data entry). If the value of the selected parameter has its own editing page, pressing the EDIT button will take you to that

3-3

Page 28

User Interface Basics

Data Entry

page. For example, in the Program Editor, on the PITCH page, you might see LFO1 assigned as the value for Pitch Control Source 1. If you select this parameter (the cursor will highlight its value—LFO1 in this case), then press the EDIT button, you’ll jump to the page where you can edit the parameters of LFO1. Naturally, you can ﬁnd every page in the current editor by using the soft buttons, but often it’s easier to use the EDIT button shortcut.

The EXIT Button

Press EXIT to leave the current editor. If you’ve changed the value of any parameter while in that editor, the K2500 will ask you whether you want to save your changes before you can leave the editor. See Chapter 5 for information on saving and naming. The EXIT button also takes you to Program mode if you’re on the entry level page of one of the other modes. If at some point you can’t seem to get where you want to go, press EXIT one or more times to return to Program mode, then try again.

The data entry section of the front panel includes the Alpha wheel, the Plus/Minus buttons, and the 14-button alphanumeric pad.

The Alpha Wheel

The Alpha Wheel is especially useful because it can quickly enter large or small changes in value. If you turn the Alpha Wheel one click to the right, you’ll increase the value of the currently selected parameter by one increment. One click to the left decreases the value by one increment. If you turn it rapidly, you’ll jump by several increments.

The Plus/Minus Buttons

These buttons are located just under the Alpha Wheel. The Plus button increases the value of the currently selected parameter by one, and the Minus button decreases it by one. These buttons are most useful when you’re scrolling through a short list of values, or when you want to be sure you’re changing the value by one increment at a time. One press of the Plus or Minus button corresponds to one click to the right or left with the Alpha Wheel. These buttons will repeat if pressed and held.

Pressing the Plus and Minus buttons simultaneously will move you through the current list of values in large chunks instead of one by one. Often this is in even increments (10, 100, etc.). Don’t confuse these buttons with the +/- button on the alphanumeric pad. This button is used primarily for entering negative numeric values and switching from uppercase to lowercase letters (and vice versa).

The Alphanumeric Pad

As its name implies, this set of 14 buttons lets you enter numeric values, and to enter names one character at a time. Depending on where you are, the K2500 automatically enters letters or numerals as appropriate (you don’t have to select between alphabetic or numeric entry).

3-4

When you’re entering numeric values, press the corresponding numeric buttons, ignoring decimal places if any (to enter 1.16, for example, press 1, 1, 6, ENTER). The display will reﬂect your entries, but the value won’t actually change until you press ENTER. Before pressing ENTER, you can return to the original value by pressing CANCEL. Pressing CLEAR is the same as pressing 0 without pressing ENTER.

When entering names, you’ll use the left/right cursor buttons or the <<< / >>> soft buttons to move the cursor to the character you want to change. Use the labels under the alphanumeric buttons as a guide to character entry. Press the corresponding button one or more times to insert the desired character above the cursor. The CANCEL button is equivalent to the >>> soft button, and ENTER is the same as OK. The CLEAR button replaces the currently selected character with a space. The “+/-” button toggles between uppercase and lowercase letters.

Page 29

User Interface Basics

Data Entry

Double Button Presses

Pressing two or more related buttons simultaneously executes a number of special functions depending on the currently selected mode. Make sure to press them at exactly the same time.

In This Mode: These Buttons: Will Do This:

(Pressed simultaneously)

PROGRAM MODE

MASTER MODE SONG MODE

DISK MODE

PROGRAM EDITOR CHAN/BANK Select Layer 1. KEYMAP EDITOR Plus/Minus With cursor on the Coarse Tune parameter, tog-

SAMPLE EDITOR 2 leftmost soft buttons Toggle between default zoom setting and current

ANY EDITOR Plus/Minus Scroll through the currently selected parameter’s

Octav-, Octav+

Chan-, Chan+ Plus/Minus CHAN/BANK left/right cursor buttons Toggle between Play and Stop. up/down cursor buttons Toggle between Play and Pause. Plus/Minus

CHAN/BANK 2 leftmost soft buttons

CHAN/BANK

left/right cursor buttons

up/down cursor buttons Clear all selections in a list. Move cursor to begin-

Plus/Minus Set the value of the currently selected parameter

2 leftmost soft buttons Reset MIDI transposition to 0 semitones. Double-

Center soft buttons Select Utilities menu (MIDIScope, Stealer, etc.). 2 rightmost soft buttons Sends all notes/controllers off message on all 16

left/right cursor buttons Toggle between Play and Stop of current song. up/down cursor buttons Toggle between Play and Pause of current song.

Reset MIDI transposition to 0 semitones. Doublepress again to go to previous transposition.

Set current MIDI channel to 1. Step to next Program bank (100, 200, etc.) Enables Guitar/Wind Controller Mode.

Select Quantize Grid values on MISC page and Edit Song:TRACK Quantize page. Select duration for a step on Edit Song:STEP page. Increment GateTime by 20% intervals on Edit Song: STEP page.

Select all tracks on any Edit Song:TRACK page. Issue SCSI Eject command to currently selected

SCSI device. Hard format SCSI device. List selected objects

when saving objects. Select all items in a list. Move cursor to end of

name in naming dialog.

ning of name in naming dialog.

gles between default Coarse Tune of sample root and transposition of sample root.

zoom setting.

at the next zero crossing.

list of values in regular or logical increments (varies with each parameter).

press again to go to previous transposition.

channels (same as Panic soft button).

SAVE DIALOG Plus/Minus Toggle between next free ID and original ID.

3-5

Page 30

User Interface Basics

Intuitive Data Entry

Many parameters have values that correspond to the standard physical controls present on most MIDI controllers (primarily keyboards). In many cases, you can select these values “intuitively,” rather than having to scroll through the Control Source list. This is done by selecting the desired parameter, then holding the ENTER button while moving the desired physical control.

For example, on the LAYER page in the Program Editor, you can set the range of the currently selected layer as follows: use the cursor buttons to move the cursor to the value for the “LoKey” parameter, press (and hold) the ENTER button, then use your MIDI controller to trigger the note you wish to be the lowest note for the currently displayed layer. The note you triggered (it has to be between C 0—C 8) will appear as the value for the LoKey parameter. Repeat the process for the HiKey parameter.

Another example: select Program 199 while in Program mode. Press EDIT to enter the Program Editor. Press the PITCH soft button to select the PITCH page. Move the cursor to the Src1 parameter. Hold the ENTER button, and move your controller’s Pitch Wheel. PWheel will be selected as the value for Src1.

You can also use the keyboard of your MIDI controller to choose control sources, since most key numbers correspond to a value on the control source list. If you have a certain control source that you use over and over (for example, LFO1), this can be the quickest way to enter its value. To do this: highlight a parameter which uses a value from the control source list, hold down ENTER, then strike the key corresponding to the control source you want to choose. LFO1, for example, is assigned to B5. You’ll ﬁnd a complete chart of these keyboard shortcuts in Chapter 6 of the Reference Guide.

Also, for almost every parameter, holding the ENTER button links the K2500 to your MIDI controller’s Data slider, if it has one. Moving the Data Slider will run through the range of values for the currently selected parameter. This is not as precise as the Alpha Wheel, but much faster.

Changing the Current Layer in Multi-Layer Programs

When editing a multi-layer program (including drum programs), you can quickly switch between layers by holding the ENTER button, then striking a key. The K2500 will change the current layer to that key’s layer. If the key is part of more than one layer, subsequent key strikes will cycle through each layer that has that key in its range.

Note: This method for changing the current layer in a multi-layer program will NOT work if the currently highlighted parameter has a note number or control source for its value. In this case, the key you strike will function as described in "Intuitive Data Entry," above.

3-6

Page 31

Search Function

There’s a convenient way to ﬁnd any alphabetic or numeric string of characters within the currently selected list, or range of values. Hold the ENTER button and press any of the numeric keys. A dialog such as the one shown below will appear.

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Search|string:||Soul|Rebels||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Delete|Insert||<<<||||>>>||||OK|||Cancel

Type in the string of characters you want to ﬁnd. For example, if you’re looking at the Program list and you want to ﬁnd all programs containing the word “Horn,” you would type h-o-r-n. This function is not case sensitive; it will ﬁnd upper and lower case characters regardless of what you type.

User Interface Basics

The Panel Play Feature (Rack Models)

When you’ve typed the string of characters you want to ﬁnd, press ENTER. The K2500 searches through the current list of values and ﬁnds all values that match the string of characters you typed. Hold ENTER and press one of the Plus/Minus buttons to search for the next higher- or lower-numbered object that contains the string of characters.

The string you select will remain in memory. You can store and select a string of characters with each of the numeric buttons. Hold ENTER and press one of the numeric buttons at any time to select that string for a search. When the string appears, you can change it, or just press ENTER to ﬁnd that string.

The Panel Play Feature (Rack Models)

You can play notes on the K2500R even if you don’t have a MIDI controller connected to its MIDI In port. Using the alphanumeric pad, you can play the octave from C 4 to C 5 and send the notes to the MIX and Headphone outputs.

echnology

TSAV

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

xit

MIDI

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

While in any mode, press and hold the CANCEL button on the alphanumeric pad. Press one of

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

the other alphanumeric buttons to play various notes: 1 is C 4, 2 is C# 4, and so on up to

STU

VWX

CLR

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

ENTER, which plays C 5. Notes are sent to the K2500’s sound engine on the current MIDI

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

channel.

Pressing the Up or Down cursor buttons while holding CANCEL will transpose up or down an octave while using this feature. This transposition will be remembered the next time you use this feature, but does not affect the K2500’s normal MIDI transposition.

Notes are played at approximately the mf velocity level. You can adjust the attack velocity of the notes using the Plus/Minus buttons while holding down the CANCEL button. The velocity values will continue to change if you hold the buttons down.

You can press the Right cursor button while holding CANCEL to sustain notes (if this doesn’t work, set a value of Sustain for the FtSw1 parameter on the MIDI mode XMIT page). The Left cursor button will release notes.

3-7

Page 32

User Interface Basics

The Mixdown and MIDI Faders Pages (Keyboard Models Only)

There are two buttons below the SOLO button, labeled MIXDOWN and MIDI Faders. These call up pages which are not Setup mode speciﬁc, but which can be used with setups.

The Mixdown Page

This page temporarily turns the K2500’s 8 sliders into MIDI pan and volume controls. You can access this page from any mode by pressing the MIXDOWN button, located below the SOLO button. Press MIXDOWN, and the screen looks similar to what you see on the Song mode MIXER page. However, there are a few differences. On the Mixdown page, the sliders relate to MIDI Channels instead of Tracks. If you highlight 1-8 for instance, moving slider D will always affect volume or pan for MIDI channel 4.

Shows whether physical sliders control pan or volume.

Mixdown||||<>Prog:|36|DuckWalk||||||||||

|||WXWXWXWX|WXWXWXWX|WXWXWXWX|WXWXWXWX|| |||wxwxC{wx|wxwxwxwx|wxwxwxwx|wxwxwxwx|| >>||z|z}~|z||z|z|z|z||z|z|z|z||z|z|z|z|| ||||_|_|_|_||_|_|_|_||_|_|_|_||_|_|_|_||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||*****************|||||||||||||||||||| |Pan|||Volume|Ch|1-8|Ch9-16|||||||||Done

Shows which channels are affected by physical sliders.

On the Mixdown page , pan and volume messages are sent to the internal K2500 sounds, to MIDI Out, or both. All Mixdown page channels have the same destination, which is determined by the Control parameter on the MIDI Transmit page. You can assign either volume or pan to the sliders. The soft buttons at the bottom of the Mixdown page let you select Pan or Volume control, on channels 1-8 or 9-16, allowing you to temporarily use the 8 sliders as pan or volume faders. Keep in mind that MIDI volume is a channel-speciﬁc message. Therefore, if you have more than one Zone assigned to the same channel, moving any one of the associated sliders will affect all those Zones.

The MIDI Faders Page

The button just below Mixdown is called MIDI Faders. This page allows you to create a preset conﬁguration of any controller number assignment for each slider, along with an initial preset value for that controller. For each slider, you assign the MIDI channel, MIDI Controller number, and a value. You can enter the value using any normal data entry method, or by moving the slider. You can also assign several sliders to the same channel, but assign each one to a different controller number. There are four different conﬁgurations, which you select with the soft buttons. Each conﬁguration remembers the last value you set for each slider. If you want to send those values without moving the slider, press the Send button.

Soft buttons for indicating which channels are affected by physical sliders.

3-8

MIDI|Faders:Page1|||||||||||||||||||||||

Chan|:|9|||10||11||12||13||14||15||16||| Ctl||:|6|||6|||6|||6|||6|||6|||6|||6|||| Value:|50||0|||50||0|||50||0|||50||0|||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||\]||}~||\]||}~||\]||}~||\]||}~|||| |||||||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||| Page1||Page2||Page3||Page4|||Send||Done|

You can save the settings on the four MIDI Faders pages to disk in a Master ﬁle. For more on saving Master ﬁles, see "Saving Master and Everything Files" in Chapter 13.

Page 33

The Operating Modes

Selecting Modes

Chapter 4 The Operating Modes

In this chapter we’ll discuss the theory behind the mode system, and describe the basic operating features of each mode.

What the Modes Are

The modes exist to make the K2500 logical to work with. With as many performance and programming features as the K2500 has, it’s helpful to break them into groups. These groups are called modes. There are eight of them; they’re described brieﬂy in the section called “Using the Modes,” below. Chapters 6 through 13 are dedicated to explaining each mode in turn.

Each mode is named for the kind of operations you perform while in that mode, and each mode’s editor (if any) contains all of the parameters related to editing the type of object found in that mode. In Setup mode, for example, you select setups (and only setups) for performance or editing. All of the setup-editing parameters are grouped together on the Setup Editor page, which is accessible through Setup mode.

Selecting Modes

When the K2500 is on, it’s always operating in one of the eight modes represented by the LEDhighlighted buttons beneath the display. Pressing one of the mode buttons selects that mode. This is the mode’s entry level. At the entry level, the LED of the selected mode is lit. Only one mode can be selected at a time.

At the entry level, you can exit any mode simply by pressing one of the other mode buttons. If you enter the mode’s editor, however, you must press EXIT to return to the mode’s entry level before selecting another mode.

All of the modes except Disk mode give you access to one or more editors for changing the values of the parameters within that mode. Press the EDIT button to enter the editor of the currently selected mode. When you do this, the mode LED goes out.

It’s possible to enter another mode’s editor without leaving the currently selected mode. For example, if you press EDIT while in Setup mode, you’ll enter the Setup Editor. The Setup editor page will appear, and one of the programs in the setup will be highlighted by the cursor. If you press EDIT again, you’ll enter the Program Editor, where you can edit the currently selected program. While you can edit and save programs as you normally would, you’re still in Setup mode, and you can’t select another mode at this point. When you exit the Program Editor, you’ll return to the Setup Editor page. Press EXIT again, and you’ll leave the Setup Editor, returning to the Setup mode page.

4-1

Page 34

The Operating Modes

Selecting Modes

PROGRAM

MODE

SETUP

MODE

SETUP

EDITOR

PROGRAM

EDITOR

KEYMAP

EDITOR

SAMPLE

EDITOR

QUICK

ACCESS

MODE

QUICK

ACCESS

EDITOR

EFFECTS

MODE

EFFECTS

EDITOR

MIDI

MODE

VELOC.

MAP

EDITOR

MASTER

MODE

PRESS.

MAP

EDITOR

SONG MODE

SONG

EDITOR

DISK

MODE

INT.

TABLE

EDITOR

4-2

Nested Editors

Starting at the Program mode level, there are three “nested” editors, each related to the parameters that make up different components of a program. The ﬁrst is the Program Editor, which you enter when you press EDIT while in Program mode. Programs consist, among other things, of keymaps ; they determine which samples play on which keys. Keymaps can be edited as well. The Keymap Editor is entered from within the Program Editor, by selecting the KEYMAP page with the soft buttons, then pressing EDIT.

Similarly, keymaps consist of samples , which also can be edited. The Sample Editor is entered from the Keymap Editor, by selecting the Sample parameter and pressing EDIT. When you enter the Sample Editor, you’ve worked through three nested levels of editors, all related to the components that make up a program. And in fact, you’re still in Program mode (if that’s where you started from). Pressing EXIT while in the Sample Editor will return you to the Keymap Editor. Pressing EXIT again will return you to the KEYMAP page of the Program Editor. Once more, and you’re back to Program mode’s entry level.

Page 35

Finding Square One

If, at any time, you don’t know where you are, and the mode LEDs are all unlit, press EXIT one or more times. This will return you to the entry level of whatever mode you were in, and if you press EXIT enough times, you will always return to Program Mode, the startup mode. If you’ve made any changes, you’ll be asked whether you want to save before leaving any editor. Press the No soft button or the EXIT button if you don’t want to save. If you want to save, press the Rename or Yes soft button, and you’ll see the Save dialog, which is described in Chapter 5, in the section called “Saving and Naming.”

Using the Modes

You can play your K2500 regardless of the mode you’re in. In fact, the only times you can’t play it are when you’re in the middle of a disk operation (loading, saving, formatting) or a SMDI sample transfer. With these two exceptions, the K2500’s MIDI response is almost always active. Even so there are three modes that are more performance-oriented than the others. These are Program, Setup, and Quick Access modes. We’ll describe each of the eight modes brieﬂy in this section.

The Operating Modes

Using the Modes

Program Mode

The K2500 starts up in Program mode, where you can select, play and edit programs. The Program mode entry level page shows the currently selected program, as well as a small segment of the program list.

The Program, Keymap, and Sample Editors are nested within Program mode. They take you to the core of the K2500’s sound editing parameters. We’ll discuss them in Chapters 6 and 15.

Setup Mode

Setup mode lets you select, play, and edit setups. Setups consist of up to eight separate zones, split or overlapping, each having its own program, MIDI channel, and control parameters. Setups are great for performance situations, whether you’re playing multiple K2500 programs or controlling additional synths connected to the K2500’s MIDI Out port. Chapter 7 describes Setup mode and the Setup Editor in detail. You can make use of Setup mode even if your MIDI controller can transmit on only one MIDI channel at a time. To do this, go to the RECV page in MIDI mode (by pressing the RECV soft button while in MIDI mode), and set the Local Keyboard Channel parameter to a value that matches the transmit channel of your MIDI controller. When you select Setup mode, the K2500 will interpret incoming MIDI information according to the settings for the currently selected setup. See the discussion of the Local Keyboard Channel parameter in Chapter 10 for details.

Quick Access Mode

Another feature for live performance, Quick Access mode enables you to combine programs and setups into banks of ten entries. Each of these programs or setups can be selected with a single alphanumeric button. Different banks are selected with the CHAN/BANK buttons. There’s a selection of factory preset banks, and you can use the Quick Access Editor to create your own banks and store them in RAM. There’s a full description in Chapter 8.

Effects Mode

Effects mode sets the behavior of the K2500’s global effects processor. The Effects mode page lets you tell the K2500 how to select preset effects when you change programs or setups, and lets you choose a preset effect and mix level that’s applied to every K2500 program. (There’s also an EFFECT page in the Program Editor, where you can select a preset effect and mix level

4-3

Page 36

The Operating Modes

Using the Modes

for each program individually.) The Effects Editor allows you to tweak the preset effects, and create your own. Chapter 9 shows you how. You can also listen to the sounds of various effects while in Effects mode, without selecting different programs.

MIDI Mode

You’ll use MIDI mode to conﬁgure the K2500’s interaction with other MIDI instruments, by setting parameters for transmitting and receiving MIDI. You’ll also use it to conﬁgure your K2500 for multi-timbral sequencing. On the CHANLS page, you can assign a program to each channel, and enable or disable each channel’s response to three types of MIDI control messages: program change, volume and pan. See Chapter 10.

Master Mode

Master mode, described in Chapter 11, contains the parameters that control the entire K2500. Global settings for tuning, transposition, velocity and aftertouch sensitivity, and audio mix are adjusted here, as well as the contrast of the backlit display. You can also access the Sample page from here.

Song Mode

Song mode enables you to play MIDI type 0 sequences stored in the K2500’s RAM. It provides a fully featured sequencer that you can use to record from the keyboard. You can also record multi-timbrally via MIDI. See Chapter 12.

Disk Mode

Finally, Disk mode is used to load and save programs and other objects using the K2500’s internal ﬂoppy disk drive, an optional internal SCSI disk, or an external SCSI disk (or CD-ROM drive) connected to either of the K2500’s SCSI ports. Chapter 13 has the details.

4-4

Page 37

Editing Conventions

Introduction to Editing

Chapter 5 Editing Conventions

Introduction to Editing

Programming (editing) the K2500 always involves three basic operations: mode selection, navigation, and data entry.

First, select the mode that relates to the object you want to edit—a program, a setup, etc. Then select the object you want to edit, and press the EDIT button to enter the editor within that mode. An editor contains all the parameters that deﬁne the object you’re programming.

Next, you navigate around the editor’s page(s) with the soft buttons, and select parameters with the cursor buttons. When you’ve selected a parameter (its value is highlighted by the cursor), you can change its value with one of the data entry methods. When you change a value, you’ll normally hear its effect on the object you’re editing. The K2500 doesn’t actually write your editing changes to memory until you save the object you’re working on. It then allows you to choose between writing over the original object, or storing the newly edited version in a new memory location.

What’s an Object?

If you’ve been wondering what we mean by the term “object,” it’s an expression we use for anything that can be named, saved, deleted, or edited. Here’s a list of all the types of objects:

•

Samples —digital recordings of instrumental sounds or waveforms. Samples actually

have two separate parts: the actual sample data and the sample header information,

which contains start, alternative start, loop, and end points, as well as the information on

the MISC page.

•

Keymaps —collections of samples assigned to speciﬁc velocity ranges and/or keys.

•

Programs —factory preset or user-programmed sounds stored in ROM or RAM. A

program is one or more layers of sound, with programmable DSP functions applied to the

keymaps within each layer.

•

Setups —factory preset or user-programmed MIDI performance presets consisting of up

to eight zones, each with its own program, MIDI channel, and controller assignments.

•

Songs —Type 0 MIDI sequence ﬁles loaded into RAM, or MIDI data recorded in Song

mode.

•

Effects —factory preset or user-programmed conﬁgurations of the K2500’s onboard digital

audio effects processor.

•

Quick access banks —factory preset or user-programmed banks of ten entries each, that

store programs and setups for single-button access in Quick Access mode.

•

Velocity maps —factory preset or user-programmed curves that affect the K2500’s

response to, and MIDI transmission of, attack velocity values.

•

Pressure maps —factory preset or user-programmed curves that affect the K2500’s

response to, and MIDI transmission of, pressure (aftertouch) values.

•

Intonation tables —factory preset or user-programmed tables that affect the intervals

between the twelve notes of each octave.

•

Master table —the values that are set for the global control parameters on the Master

mode page, as well as the settings for the parameters on the CHANLS page in MIDI

mode, and the programs currently assigned to each MIDI channel.

•

Name table —contains a list of dependent objects needed by the other objects in a ﬁle at

the time the ﬁle was saved.

•

Macro —list of disk ﬁles to be loaded into the K2500’s memory at start-up time.

5-1

Page 38

Editing Conventions

Object Type and ID

The K2500 stores its objects in RAM using a system of ID numbers that are generally organized into banks of 100. Each object is identiﬁed by its object type and object ID; these make it unique. An object’s type is simply the kind of object it is, whether it’s a program, setup, song, or whatever. The object ID is a number from 1 to 999 that distinguishes each object from other objects of the same type. For example, within the 200s bank, you can have a setup, a program, and a preset effect, all with ID 201; their object types distinguish them. You can’t, however, have two programs with ID 201.

OBJECT TYPE OBJECT ID OBJECT NAME Program 201 Hot Keys

Setup 404 Silicon Bebop Velocity Map 1 Linear Sample 3 Hey Moe

ROM (factory preset) objects have ID numbers from 1 to 199. When you save objects that you’ve edited, the K2500 will ask you to assign an ID. If the original object was a ROM object, the K2500 will suggest the ﬁrst available ID, starting with 200. If the original object was a RAM object, you’ll have the option of saving to an unused ID, or replacing the original object.

Objects of different types can have the same ID, but objects of the same type must have different IDs to be kept separate. When you’re saving an object that you’ve edited, you can assign the same ID to an existing object of the same type, but if you do, the new one will be written over the old one. For example, if you assign an ID of 1 to a program you’ve edited, the K2500 will ask you if you want to “replace” the ROM program currently stored with that ID. We’ll discuss this further in “Saving and Naming,” later in this chapter.

Many parameters have objects as their values—the VelTouch parameter on the Master mode page, for example. In this case, the object’s ID appears in the value ﬁeld along with the object’s name. You can enter objects as values by entering their IDs with the alphanumeric pad. This is especially convenient for programs, since their ID numbers are the same as their MIDI program change numbers (when you’re using the Extended or Kurzweil Program Change format—see “Program Change Formats” in Chapter 10).

The object type and ID enable you to store hundreds of objects without losing track of them, and also to load ﬁles from disk without having to replace ﬁles you’ve already loaded. See “Memory Banks” later in this chapter for more information on object type and ID.

Saving and Naming

When you’ve edited an object to your satisfaction, you’ll want to store it in RAM. There’s a standard procedure for saving and naming, which applies to all objects.

You can press the Save soft button, of course, but it’s easier to press the EXIT button, which means “I want to leave the current editor.” If you haven’t actually changed anything while in the editor, you’ll simply exit to the mode you started from. If you have made changes, however, the K2500 will ask you if you want to save those changes. This is the ﬁrst Save dialog. A dialog is any display that asks a question that you need to answer before the K2500 can proceed.

5-2

Page 39

Editing Conventions

Saving and Naming

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Save|Righteous|Piano|before|exiting?|||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| Rename| Cancel| Yes|||| No|||

The best way through this process is to press the Rename soft button. This takes you immediately to the naming dialog, where you assign a name to the object you’re saving. You haven’t saved yet, but you’ll be able to after you’ve named the program.

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Program|Name:|||Righteous|Piano||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Delete| Insert| |<<<||| |>>>||| |OK||| Cancel

The cursor underlines the currently selected character. Press the <<< or >>> soft buttons to move the cursor without changing characters. Press an alphanumeric button one or more times to enter a character above the cursor. The characters that correspond to the alphanumeric buttons are labeled under each button. If the character that appears is not the one you want, press the button again. Press the +/- button on the alphanumeric pad to switch between upper and lower case characters.

Press 0 one or more times to enter the numerals 0 through 9. Press CLEAR (on the alphanumeric pad) to erase the selected character without moving any other characters. Press the Delete soft button to erase the selected character. All characters to the right of the cursor will move one space left. Press the Insert soft button to insert a space above the cursor, moving all characters to the right of the cursor one space to the right.

Press the Cancel soft button if you decide not to name the object. Press OK when the name is set the way you want to save it.

In addition to the letters and numerals, there are three sets of punctuation characters. The easiest way to get to them is to press one of the alphanumeric buttons to select a character close to the one you want, then scroll to it with the Alpha Wheel. Here’s the whole list:

! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

: ; < = > ? @ A through Z

[ \ ] ^ _ ‘ a through z. (space).

Pressing the Plus/Minus buttons simultaneously will select 0, A, a and (space).

If you’re wondering how we came up with this sequence of characters, it’s composed of ASCII characters 33 through 122.

When you press OK , the ﬁnal Save dialog appears, where you assign an ID to the edited object. If you change your mind about the name, press the Rename soft button for another try.

5-3

Page 40

Editing Conventions

Deleting Objects

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Save|Righteous|Piano|as: |ID#200||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Object||||||||||||||Rename|Save|||Cancel

ROM Objects

If the object you started from was a ROM (factory preset) object, the K2500 will automatically suggest the next available (unused) ID as the ID for the edited object. If that’s the ID you want, press the Save soft button, and the object will be stored in RAM with that ID. Otherwise, you can select any ID from 1 to 999. This screen also gives you the opportunity to return to the naming dialog (as described in the previous section) or, by pressing the Object soft button, to access the Object Utilities (described in Chapter 13 of this manual).

If you select an ID that’s already in use, the K2500 will tell you that you’re going to replace the ROM object that’s already been assigned that ID. If you don’t want to do that, you can select a different ID. Or you can press the Plus/Minus buttons simultaneously to toggle between the ID that the K2500 suggested and the original ID. Or press the Cancel soft button to cancel the operation.

If you decide not to cancel or change the ID, and you press the Replace soft button, the K2500 will write your newly edited object over the existing ROM object. Actually, it only appears that way, since you can’t truly write to ROM. The ROM object will reappear if you delete the newly edited object (there are soft buttons in each editor for deleting objects).

RAM Objects

If the original object was a RAM object, the K2500 will assume you want to replace it, and will suggest the same ID as the original object (if it has an asterisk—*—between its ID and its name, it’s a RAM object. As with ROM objects, you can cancel, replace, or change the ID and save to an unused ID. If you replace a RAM object, however, it’s deﬁnitely gone!

Deleting Objects

Within most editors, there are soft buttons for deleting objects. When you want to delete an object, press the Delete soft button, and the K2500 will ask you if you want to delete the object. Press OK if you want to delete it, or press Cancel if you don’t. Although it seems that you can delete ROM objects, you can’t actually do it. The K2500 will behave as if it’s deleting the ROM object, but it will still be there the next time you select it. (What actually happens is that the ROM object is copied to RAM as soon as you press EDIT, and when you “delete” the ROM object, you’re actually deleting the RAM copy. The original ROM object remains in memory.)

5-4

RAM objects, on the other hand, are gone when you delete them! If you’ve “replaced” a ROM object by saving a RAM object with the same ID, the ROM object is invisible, but still there. Deleting the RAM object stored at the same ID will restore the ROM object.

You can use the Delete function to delete any object from the current list of objects. After you press the Delete soft button, use one of the data entry methods to select any other object in the current list of objects. Then press Delete again. You’ll often delete objects to gain RAM space, or to organize the memory banks before saving objects to disk. To delete multiple objects, use the Delete Objects utility available in Master mode. It’s described on page 11--9.

Page 41

Memory Banks

To help organize the storage of your edited objects, the K2500’s memory is divided into ten banks, each of which stores objects having IDs within a certain range. Objects within the same range of IDs are stored in the same memory bank, regardless of their types. The banks are in increments of 100, that is, objects with IDs from 1 through 99 are stored in the ﬁrst bank, IDs from 100 to 199 in the second bank, and so on. We refer to them simply as the “Zeros bank,” “100s bank,” “200s bank,” etc. If you save an object as ID 203, for example, it’s in the 200s bank.

You can store up to 100 objects of each type in each memory bank, The number of objects of a given type that can be saved in a memory bank depends on its type. For example, you can store 20 Quick Access banks in each memory bank. As you begin to save objects that you’ve edited, you’ll notice that the IDs suggested by the K2500 sometimes increase in large chunks—from 219 to 300, for example. This is due to the limit to the number of objects of a given type that can be stored in a single memory bank. This limit can be important in terms of organizing your objects for storing to disk. Check out the section called “Storing Objects in the Memory Banks” in Chapter 2 of the Reference Guide for lists of how many objects of each type can ﬁt into each memory bank.

You’ll want to think about organizing your edited objects in the memory banks when you start using the ﬂoppy disk drive or a SCSI device to store your programs, samples, and other objects. Objects that are stored in the same memory banks are automatically stored in the same ﬁle on disk. You can also store all the banks to one ﬁle by selecting “Everything” in the Disk mode Bank dialog.

Editing Conventions

Memory Banks

The memory banks work automatically, that is, you don’t have to select the different banks to gain access to the objects stored in them. The K2500 selects the appropriate bank when you enter the object ID you want to work with. To select Program 201 while in Program Mode, for example, just press 2, 0, 1, ENTER on the alphanumeric pad. The 200s bank is automatically selected, and the program list will show programs numbered in the 200s. If your MIDI controller can send program change commands from 0 to 127 or 1 to 128 only, you’ll probably want to adjust the way the K2500 responds to program change commands. See the discussion of the Program Change Type parameter (ProgChgType) in Chapter 10.

When you do a save operation in Disk mode, you’re creating a ﬁle to be saved to disk. This will save either individually selected objects or an entire bank of objects from the K2500’s RAM. If you choose to save a complete bank, then all objects with IDs in the range of the selected bank, regardless of type, are saved as part of the ﬁle. For example, if you save the 200s bank (objects with IDs from 200 - 299), then every object with an ID from 200 to 299 will be saved to the ﬁle.

This system makes it easy for you to keep track of everything you save. The ﬁrst program you save, for example, will have an ID of 200 (unless you specify another ID). The ﬁrst setup you create will also have an ID of 200 (since they’re different types of objects, the IDs can be the same). If you were to save the 200s bank, both your program and your setup would be saved to the same ﬁle.

Saving and Loading Files—Disk Mode

Saving to disk simply involves selecting objects or a complete bank of objects to be stored as a single ﬁle. All objects with IDs within that range will be saved to the ﬁle. When you load a ﬁle, the K2500 asks you which bank will receive the ﬁle. You can load a ﬁle into any of the ten banks, regardless of the bank it was saved from. The K2500 will automatically reassign the object IDs. A ﬁle saved from the 200s bank, for example will be stored on disk with its objects numbered from 200–299. If you load it back into the 300s bank, its objects will be renumbered from 300–399.

See Chapter 13 for more information on loading and saving ﬁles.

5-5

Page 42

Editing Conventions

Special Button Functions

The mode buttons, as well as few of the other buttons, have additional functions, as described below:

Program

Q Access

Effects

/ Mute 1 When you’re in the Program Editor, this button will mute Layer 1 of the current

program or the currently displayed layer for drum programs. While in the Setup Editor, it will mute Zone 1 of the current setup, if the setup has three or fewer zones; mutes current zone in setups with more than three zones. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 1 or 9.

Setup

/ Mute 2 When you’re in the Program Editor, this button will mute Layer 2 of the current

program, if any. For drum programs, solos currently displayed layer. While in the Setup Editor, it will mute Zone 2 of the current setup, if the setup has three or fewer zones; solos current zone in setups with more than three zones. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 2 or 10.

/ Mute 3 When you’re in the Program Editor, this button will mute Layer 3 of the current

program, if any. For drum programs, solos currently displayed layer. While in the Setup Editor, it will mute Zone 3 of the current setup, if the setup has three or fewer zones; solos current zone in setups with more than three zones. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 3 or 11.

/ FX Bypass When you’re in the Program Editor, pressing this button will bypass (mute) the preset

effect assigned to the current program, letting you hear just the sound of the layer(s) you want to hear. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 4 or 12.

MIDI

/ Prev pg In the Program Editor, pressing this button will take you to the previously selected

editing page. The K2500 remembers the four most recently selected pages, so you can press this button up to four times to backtrack through the pages you’ve viewed. Pressing it a ﬁfth time will take you back to the ALG page. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 5 or 13.

Master

Disk

Chan/Bank

/ Mark This is handy for marking Program Editor pages that you use frequently. Pressing this

button will mark the currently selected page. You can mark as many pages as you like. Then you can use the Jump button to select the marked pages in the order you marked them. Marked pages will show an asterisk in the top line of the display, just before the name of the page. A marked page can be unmarked by pressing the Mark button while the page is visible. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 6 or 14.

Song

/ Jump Use this button to jump to pages in the Program Editor that you’ve marked with the

Mark button. This will cycle through all the currently marked pages in the order they were marked. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 7 or 15.

/ Compare This button works in most editors, and lets you compare your edits with the original

version of the object you’re editing. When you press the Compare button, the display changes to remind you that you’re listening to the original version. Press any button to return to the currently selected page of whatever editor you’re in. On MIXER page of Song mode, mutes either track 8 or 16.

/ Layer/Zone In the Program Editor, these buttons let you scroll through the layers in the currently

selected program. In the Setup Editor, you can scroll through the zones. In the Effects Editor, you can scroll through the effect conﬁgurations. In the Quick Access Editor, they scroll through the entries in the currently selected Quick Access bank. In the Keymap Editor, they scroll through the velocity levels of multi-velocity keymaps. In Song mode, switches record track.

Edit

Whenever the selected parameter’s value is an editable object or a programmable parameter, pressing the EDIT button will take you to that object’s editor, or to the parameter’s programming page.

5-6

Page 43

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Chapter 6 Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program mode is the heart of the K2500, where you select programs for performance and editing. The K2500 is packed with great sounds, but it’s also a synthesizer of truly amazing depth and ﬂexibility. When you’re ready to start tweaking sounds, the Program Editor is the place to start. But ﬁrst there’s a bit more general information about Program mode that wasn’t covered in Chapter 2. Refer to the illustration below as you read the sections that follow.

K2500 Program Structure

Setup

Program

Layer

ZONE 1 ZONE 2 ZONE 3

KEYMAP

LFO ASR FUN ENV LFO

PITCH SINE+ SHAPER LOPASS AMP

ALGORITHM

LAYER 3

LAYER 2

LAYER 1

3 keyboard zones; each with independent program, MIDI channel, and control assignments

Selected for performance and editing in Program mode; up to 3 layers per program (up to 32 on the

Drum Channels)

Drum Channel)

A keymap processed through an algorithm, modulated by control sources

C2 - B2 C3 - D4 D#4 - D5 D#5 - C6 C#6 - C7

Keymap

Sample Roots

Up to 61 sample roots, assigned to play at programmable key and velocity ranges

Individual digital sound recordings stored in ROM or RAM

6-1

Page 44

Program Mode and the Program Editor

K2500 Program Structure

Programs are the K2500’s performance-level sound objects. They’re preset sounds that can be played on any of the 16 MIDI channels. Other synths refer to them as patches, presets, voices, multis, etc. Each program consists of from one to three layers (or up to 32 layers for a drum program - see below), each of which in turn consists of a keymap and an algorithm for processing the samples that make up the keymap. Samples are stored in the K2500’s ROM, or loaded into optional RAM via Disk mode, MIDI standard sample transfer, SMDI sample transfer, or by your own sampling efforts. Each sample is a separate digital recording of an instrumental note, a drum, a waveform or a sound effect. The individual samples are assigned to speciﬁc key ranges and are assigned to be triggered at speciﬁc attack velocities. These assignments constitute the keymap.

When you trigger a note, the K2500 looks to the keymap of each layer of the currently active program(s) to determine which samples to play. The sound engine then fetches the requested samples and generates a digital signal that represents the timbres of the samples. This signal ﬁrst passes through the ﬁve DSP functions that make up the algorithm, then through the global effects processor (if assigned to an audio output pair that uses effects), then ﬁnally appears at one or more of the audio outputs.

The layer is the K2500’s basic unit of polyphony, that is, each layer constitutes one of the 48 voice channels the K2500 can activate at any time. If you have a program that consists of two layers covering the note range from C 0 to C 8, each note you trigger will trigger two voice channels.

The Program Mode Page

ProgramMode||||Xpose:0ST|||<>Channel:1||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|199|Default||||||||| KeyMap|Info|||||||#|209*Dig|it|al||||||| |Grand|Piano||||||#| ||1|Righteous|Piano| ||||||||||||||||||#|||2|Mondo|Bass|||||| ||||||||||||||||||#|||3|Killer|Drums|||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|||4|Weeping|Guitar|| Octav-| Octav+| Panic|| Sample| Chan-|| Chan+

The top line of the Program mode entry level page shows your location, the present MIDI transposition, and the current MIDI channel.

The box at the left of the Program mode page tells you which keymap is assigned to each layer. Layer 1 is at the top. Layers 2 and 3, if any, are listed below layer 1. If a drum program is selected, the box tells you how many layers it has. If a drum program is selected, and the current MIDI channel is not a drum channel, the program’s name will appear in parentheses in the display, and the program will not play (more on this in the next section). The box at the left of the display will tell you which channels are drum channels. (See the Drum Channel parameter in Chapter 11).

6-2

The line beneath the name of the keymap indicates the keyboard range of the layer. On the Program mode page above, for example, the layer extends from C 0 to C 8—the default range. The representation of these layer ranges is approximate; they’re intended to let you know if you have a layered keyboard (lines overlapping) or a split keyboard (lines not overlapping).

Page 45

Program Mode and the Program Editor

What are these programs in parentheses?

While you are scrolling through different programs on various MIDI channels, you may occasionally see a program that is in parentheses and doesn’t make any sound. The parentheses tell you that you have selected a drum program without being on one of the drum channels. Unlike normal programs on the K2500, which can contain up to 3 layers, drum programs can have as many as 32 layers.

Current drum channels are 1-7 and 12.

ProgramMode||||Xpose:0ST|||<>Channel:9||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|141|Slo|Ensemble|||| Drum|Program||||||#|142|W|Tell|Orchestra |11|layers||||||||#|143|(Jazz|Band)||||| ||||||||||||||||||#|144|(Rock|Quartet)|| DrumChans:|1-7,|12#|145|Gargantuanism||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|146|Weeping|Guitar|| Octav-|Octav+|Panic||Sample|Chan-||Chan+

The Program Mode Page

Even though drum programs don’t have to have drum sounds assigned to them, we use the name drum program because that is the most likely purpose for a program with 32 layers. The only limitation for a drum program is that it must be played on a MIDI channel that has been designated as a drum channel. A drum channel can play any program - it does not have to play a drum program, but a drum program must be played on a drum channel.

You can have up to 8 drum channels on the 2500. Channels 1 through 8 are drum channels by default, but you can change this to be channels 1 through 7 plus the channel of your choice. To set that channel, go to the Master page and set the Drum Channel parameter to any value between 9 and 16 to select that channel plus 1 through 7. In the example above, DrumChan on the Master page has been set to 12.

Control Setup

Version 2 of the K2500 software provides a new control setup feature. You specify the control setup in the CtlSetup parameter on the MIDI XMIT page; by default it’s 99 DefaultSetup. Zone 1 of the control setup (which can be any available setup) deﬁnes the functions of the various controllers on the K2500 for all programs. This is especially important on keyboard models of the K2500, since they have eight programmable sliders, two ribbon controllers, and a number of assignable buttons. So for example, if you want to reprogram the long ribbon to send to a destination other than AuxBend2, you would either change the control setup or edit the current control setup.

Current MIDI channel is 9. Parentheses around drum program names show that they won’t sound on this channel.

Two important things to remember about the control setup are:

The current control setup will be used by all programs. You cannot change the control

•

setup from within program mode.

The control setup does not affect the sound of a program. Samples and keymaps are still

•

assigned within the program editor. The local program(s) assigned to a setup are ignored

by programs that use the setup as a control setup.

Complete information on setups is in Chapter 7 of this manual.

6-3

Page 46

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Using the Program Editor

The Soft Buttons in Program Mode

If the value of the Local Keyboard Channel parameter (on the RECV page in MIDI mode) matches the transmission channel of your MIDI controller, you can use the Octav- or Octav+ soft buttons for quick transposition. The top line will reﬂect the change. This will transpose the K2500 as well as any MIDI devices connected to the K2500’s MIDI Out port. Press both Octave soft buttons simultaneously to reset the transposition to zero. Changing the transposition with the soft buttons will also change the corresponding setting on the MIDI XMIT page. If the Local Keyboard Channel parameter is not set to match the transmission channel of your MIDI controller, the Octave soft buttons will have no effect.

Pressing the Panic soft button will send an All Notes Off message and an All Controllers Off message on all 16 MIDI channels.

Press the Sample soft button to enter the K2500’s sampler. Refer to Chapter 15 for complete information on the sampler.

Use the Chan- and Chan+ soft buttons to change the current MIDI channel. This changes the MIDI channel the K2500 uses internally, as well as the channel you’re using to send information to other synths connected to the K2500’s MIDI Out port (MIDI slaves). Changing the current MIDI channel with the soft buttons also changes the corresponding setting on the MIDI XMIT page.

Using the Program Editor

The Program Editor is where you begin to modify the K2500’s resident sounds, and to build your own sounds around samples (ROM or RAM) and/or waveforms. There’s virtually no limit to the sounds you can create using the tools in the Program Editor.

To enter the Program Editor, start in Program mode and press EDIT. The Program mode LED will go out, and the ALG (Algorithm) page will appear.

EditProg:ALG|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Algorithm:1|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

errR®rrte11231111112311111123114errR®rt| dPITCH|gkNONE||||||||||||||||||0kAMP||gh CVVVVVVBCVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVBCVVVVVB|

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

<more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

The top line of the display gives you the usual reminder of your location. It also tells you which layer you’re viewing, and how many layers there are in the program. You can use the CHAN/ BANK buttons to scroll through the layers, if the program has more than one.

Here’s a method for jumping quickly to a speciﬁc layer in a program that is especially useful in multi-layered drum programs. Hold the ENTER button and strike a key on your controller. The display will change to the layer assigned to that key. If more than one layer is assigned to the same key, repeatedly striking the key (while continuing to hold the ENTER button) will cycle through all layers assigned to that key. This method will work in most places within the Program Editor, but there is an exception: if the parameter you have highlighted has a note number or control source as its value, then holding ENTER and striking a note will call up that note or control source (as described in the "Intuitive Entry" section on page 3-6). For all other parameters, however, this method will switch between layers.

6-4

Page 47

The Soft Buttons in the Program Editor

The Program Editor’s soft buttons are labeled by the words that appear in the bottom line of the display. These buttons have two important jobs in the Program Editor: selecting pages, and selecting speciﬁc functions. If a soft button is labeled in all uppercase letters, pressing it will take you to the page it describes. If the button is labeled in mixed uppercase and lowercase letters, pressing it will execute the software function described by the label. Pressing the PITCH soft button, for example, will select the PITCH page, while pressing the Save soft button will initiate the process for saving the currently selected program.

There are more pages and functions in the Program Editor than there are soft buttons. Therefore, two of the soft buttons are dedicated to scrolling through the list of pages and functions. If you don’t see the button for the page or function you want to select, press one of the soft buttons labeled <more>, and the labels will change. This doesn’t change the currently selected page, it merely changes the selection of available soft buttons.

Five of the soft buttons in the Program Editor are special cases. They’re the soft buttons that select the editing pages for the ﬁve control input pages for the DSP functions. One of these soft buttons is always labeled “PITCH,” since the ﬁrst DSP function in every algorithm is the pitch control. The remaining four vary somewhat depending on the DSP functions you choose for the currently selected algorithm, but they always have the preﬁxes F1, F2, F3, and F4, and they always take you to the pages for the four DSP functions that follow the pitch control function.

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Using the Program Editor

Algorithm Basics

The basic deﬁnition: an algorithm is the “wiring” (signal path) of a sample to the audio outputs, through a series of digital signal processing (DSP) functions that you select. The K2500’s algorithms are the core of Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology. The DSP functions are synthesis tools (ﬁlters, oscillators, etc.) that you assign to the various stages of the algorithm. The DSP functions you choose determine the type of synthesis you use.

Each of the 31 available algorithms represents a preset signal path. You can’t change the path of the algorithms, but you can select different algorithms, and assign a wide variety of DSP functions to the individual stages of each algorithm’s signal path. Take a look at Algorithm 1 in the diagram below. It’s one of the simplest algorithms.

Algorithm|1|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

errR®rrterrR®rrrrrrR®rrrrrrR®rrterrR®rrt| dPITCH|gkHIFREQ|STIMULATOR|||||gkAMP|||gh cvvvvvvbcvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvbcvvvvvvb|

The DSP functions are represented by the rectangular blocks. The horizontal arrows indicate the ﬂow of the digital signal from left to right. They represent what we call the “wire” of the algorithm, the actual physical path that the signal follows through the algorithm. Selecting different algorithms can be compared to connecting different DSP functions with different wiring diagrams.

Think of the left side of each block as its input, and the right side as its output. Depending on the algorithm, the signal may split into two wires, enabling part of the signal to bypass certain portions of the algorithm. Split wires may rejoin within the algorithm, or they may pass all the way through as split signals. If the last block has two wires at its output, we call it a doubleoutput algorithm. If it has one wire, it’s a single-output algorithm, even if there are two wires in earlier portions of the algorithm.

The ﬁve downward-pointing arrows indicate the ﬁve realtime control inputs to the DSP functions. There are usually ﬁve inputs, each of which has its own page within the Program

6-5

Page 48

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Common DSP Control Parameters

Editor. (Algorithms 26-31, which use hard sync oscillation, have only four inputs; you can read about hard sync functions on page 14-51.) Each of these pages has several parameters that can modulate its related DSP function. Often a single DSP function will have more than one input. That’s why some blocks are larger, and have more than one arrow pointing to them. Each function can be independently controlled by a variety of sources (the Control Source list), including LFOs, ASRs, envelopes, programmable functions, and external MIDI.

In Algorithm 1, the signal ﬂows ﬁrst through a one-stage DSP function that controls the pitch of the samples in the keymap. In fact, the ﬁrst DSP function in each algorithm always controls pitch, even though it doesn’t apply in every instance. Similarly, the last DSP function always controls the ﬁnal amplitude of the signal. It can be a one-stage or two-stage function. In Algorithm 1, it’s a one-stage function.

The second, larger block indicates a single three-stage DSP function, meaning that it has three control inputs that can be adjusted to modulate the signal.

Once again, you can’t change the wiring path of an algorithm—you can simply select a different algorithm to get a different path. And within each algorithm, you can assign a large number of different DSP functions to each of the ﬁve control inputs. The diagram below, for example, shows Algorithm 1 with all the possible values for each DSP function lined up under the blocks that represent the DSP functions.

Algorithm|1|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

errR®rrterrR®rrrrrrR®rrrrrrR®rrterrR®rrt| d||||||gk||||||||||||||||||||||gk||||||gh cvvvvvvbcvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvbcvvvvvvb|

PITCH HIFREQ STIMULATOR

PARAMETRIC EQ STEEP RESONANT BASS 4POLE LOPASS W/SEP 4POLE HIPASS W/SEP TWIN PEAKS BANDPASS DOUBLE NOTCH W/SEP NONE

Notice that PITCH is the only value available for the ﬁrst block, and AMP is the only value available for the last block. The center, three-stage block, however, allows you to choose from seven DSP functions. An eighth value, NONE, deactivates the block.

Common DSP Control Parameters

The type of DSP function available for any function block depends on the algorithm. Some of the specialized functions like the PANNER are always located just before the ﬁnal AMP function. Others, like the three-input functions, appear only in algorithms that are structured for three-input functions.

AMP

6-6

You can change the nature of each layer of a program simply by assigning different DSP functions to the layer’s algorithm. Your level of control goes much deeper than that, however. Each DSP function has one or more inputs to which you can patch a variety of control sources to modify the behavior of the DSP functions themselves. These control inputs are represented by the arrows pointing down at the blocks that make up the algorithm. For each input arrow, there’s a corresponding control input page that you can select with the ﬁve special soft buttons

Page 49

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Common DSP Control Parameters

we mentioned above (PITCH, and F1–F4). All of the DSP functions have at least one control input, but many of them have two or even three inputs.

The parameters on the various control input pages are very similar; in fact, there are six parameters that appear on almost every page. Consequently we refer to them as the common DSP control parameters. Although the parameters on the control input pages differ slightly from function to function, you can expect to see some or all of the common DSP control parameters whenever you select the control input page for any of the DSP functions. They are:

Initial Setting Parameters

These have no input, but set the overall level for the function, the starting point from which the other parameters modulate the function.

Coarse adjust (abbreviated “Coarse”) Fine adjust (Fine)

Hard-wired Parameters

These always take their input from your MIDI controller; the note number and the attack velocity values of each Note On event.

Key tracking (KeyTrk) Velocity tracking (VelTrk)

Programmable Parameters

These can accept any control source as their input, and have related parameters for further control.

Source 1 (Src1) Source 2 (Src2)

Take a look at the PITCH page, as an example—we’ll look at how these six control parameters are used in the pitch control function. If you’re not already on the PITCH page, you can get there by pressing the soft button labeled PITCH. If you don’t see PITCH on the bottom line of the display, press one of the <more> buttons until it appears.

EditProg:PITCH||||||||||||||>Layer:1/1||

Coarse:0ST|||||||||Src1||:OFF||||||||||| Fine||:0ct|||||||||Depth|:0ct||||||||||| FineHz:|0.00Hz|||||Src2||:OFF||||||||||| KeyTrk:0ct/key|||||DptCtl:MWheel|||||||| VelTrk:0ct|||||||||MinDpt:0ct||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||MaxDpt:0ct||||||||||| <more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

You’ll recognize the common DSP control parameters, along with several other parameters. Keep in mind that there’s a set of common control parameters for each of the DSP functions; in this case we’re describing them only as they apply to the pitch control function.

Coarse Adjust

The Adjust parameter (sometimes coarse and ﬁne adjust) is the ﬁxed amount of adjustment you add to any DSP function. On the PITCH page, the Coarse Adjust parameter will change the pitch in semitone increments. Use this as a starting point to set the pitch where you want it to be normally. This will shift the pitch of the currently selected layer, and will affect the playback rate of sampled sounds. Sampled sounds have an upper limit on pitch adjustment. It’s normal for the pitches of sampled sounds to “pin” (stop getting higher) when you adjust the pitch

6-7

Page 50

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Common DSP Control Parameters

upward in large amounts. The oscillator waveforms can be pitched higher. Any sound can be pitched downward without limit.

The primary use of the Adjust parameters (Coarse and Fine) is to offset the cumulative effects of the other parameters on the control input pages. For example, you might set a high value for key tracking (deﬁned below) for a dramatic change in effect across the keyboard. The effect might be too much at one end of the keyboard, however, so you could use one of the Adjust parameters to reduce the initial amount of that effect.

The K2500 always uses real values of measurement, rather than just arbitrary numbers, for adjustable parameters. This means that you specify pitch in semi-tones and cents, amplitude in dB, and ﬁlter cutoff frequency in hertz.

Remember that the parameters on the control input pages are cumulative—they can add to or subtract from the effects of the other parameters on the page, depending on their values. For example, even if you’ve adjusted the pitch of a sample so high that it pins, the effects of the other parameters may bring the pitch back down to a workable range.

Fine Adjust

You can add slight detuning to the pitch by changing the ﬁne adjust parameter. Notice that there are actually two ﬁne adjust parameters on the PITCH page: one that changes the pitch in cents (100ths of a semitone), and one that changes it according to its frequency (in increments of Hertz—cycles per second). Since we’re discussing the universal control sources here, and not speciﬁcally pitch, we’ll move on for now, as the “Fine Hz” parameter applies only to pitchrelated functions. See “The PITCH Page,” later in this chapter, which describes Fine Hz more thoroughly.

Key T racking

This is a quick way to get additional control based on the MIDI note number of each note you trigger. Key tracking applies a different control signal value for each note number. In the case of pitch, key tracking enables you to change the tuning of each note relative to its normal pitch.

Middle C is the zero point. Regardless of the key tracking value, there is no effect on Middle C. If you set a non-zero value for key tracking, the effect increases for each note above or below Middle C. In the case of pitch, for example, say you assign a value of 5 cents per key for the key tracking parameter. Triggering Middle C (C 4 on the K2500) will play a normal C 4. Triggering C# 4 will play a note 5 cents higher than C# 4. Triggering D 4 will play a note 10 cents higher than D 4, and so on. Notes below Middle C will be tuned lower than their normal pitches. If you set a negative value for key tracking, notes above Middle C will be tuned lower than their normal pitches.

Keep in mind that key tracking on the PITCH page works in conjunction with the key tracking parameter on the KEYMAP page. This is why you can set the KeyTrk parameter on the PITCH page to 0ct/key, and the K2500 will still increases in pitch by 100 cents/key as you go up the keyboard. It’s because the KeyTrk parameter on the KEYMAP page is already set at 100 cents/ key.

Velocity T racking

A positive value for velocity tracking will raise the pitch as you trigger notes with higher attack velocities. This is great for getting a trace of detuning based on your attack velocity, especially in drum programs, where you can make the pitch of the drum samples rise slightly with higher-velocity Note Ons, just as drums do when you strike them harder. Negative values will lower the pitch as you increase the attack velocity.

6-8

Page 51

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Common DSP Control Parameters

Source 1

This parameter takes its value from a long list of control sources (you can ﬁnd it in the Reference Guide—it’s called the Control Source list) including every MIDI control number, a host of LFOs,

ASRs, envelopes and other programmable sources.

Src1 works in tandem with the parameter beneath it on the page: Depth. Choose a control source from the list for Src1, then set a value for Depth. When the control source assigned to Src1 is at its maximum, the pitch will be altered to the full depth you set. For example, if you set Src1 to “MWheel,” and set Depth to 1200 ct, the pitch will rise as you push the Mod Wheel up on your MIDI controller, reaching a maximum of 1200 ct (12 semitones, or one octave).

Source 2

This one’s even cooler. Like Src1, you choose a control source from the list. But instead of setting a ﬁxed depth, you can set a minimum and maximum depth, then assign another control source to determine how much depth you get. Try this example. (Make sure Src1 is set to OFF ﬁrst, so the two sources don’t interact). Start with Program 199, and press EDIT. Press the PITCH soft button to select the PITCH page. Set the Src2 parameter to a value of LFO1, then set the Minimum Depth parameter to 100 ct, and Maximum Depth to 1200 ct. Then set the Depth Control parameter to MWheel. This lets you use your MIDI controller’s Mod Wheel to vary the depth of the oscillation in pitch generated by the LFO.

Now, when the Mod Wheel is down, the pitch will oscillate between a semitone (100 ct) up and a semitone down (the default waveform for LFO1 is a sine wave, which goes positive and negative—if this perplexes you, see the Reference Guide, where there’s an explanation of how the K2500 generates and interprets control source signals). With the Mod Wheel up, the pitch will oscillate between an octave up and an octave down.

Since the Mod Wheel is a continuous control, you can achieve any amount of depth control between the minimum and maximum. If you had set the Depth Control to Sustain, for example, then you’d get only two levels of depth control: the maximum (1200 cents) with your MIDI controller’s sustain pedal down, or the minimum (100 cents) with the sustain pedal up.

Summary of Common DSP Control Parameters

These six control source parameters are just a few of the control sources available throughout the Program Editor. We’ve given them special attention because they appear on all the pages relating to the DSP functions, not just on the PITCH page.

As with the PITCH parameters, you can go to each of the DSP functions’ control input pages, and set a similar set of parameters to control each of those functions as well. The units of measurement may differ, but you’ll almost always ﬁnd one or two adjustment parameters, key and velocity tracking, and two programmable control sources. And remember, we’ve been talking about one layer in one program here. You can add one or two more layers to your program, and start all over with another identical set of control sources for each layer, each of which can be programmed independently.

On any given page, the settings for the control parameters are added to each other before the signal leaves the DSP function. Depending on the values you set, they may cancel each other out, or they may add up to huge amounts of modulation. If things get out of control, the easiest way to get a handle on the situation is to set some of the parameters to values of 0 or OFF. Adjust the value for one parameter at a time to hear the effect of that one parameter.

6-9

Page 52

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Algorithm (ALG) Page

The ALG page is the ﬁrst page you see when you enter the Program Editor. It enables you to select from among the 31 possible algorithms, and assign the DSP functions within the current algorithm.

EditProg:ALG|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Algorithm:1|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

errR®rrte11231111112311111123114errR®rt| dPITCH|gkNONE||||||||||||||||||0kAMP||gh CVVVVVVBCVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVBCVVVVVB|

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

<more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

The top line of the display gives you the usual mode reminder, and tells you which layer you’re looking at, as well as how many layers are in the current program (in the diagram above, it’s the ﬁrst layer of a one-layer program). You can view the ALG pages of any other layers in the program by using the CHAN/BANK buttons.

The central portion of the page shows the algorithm for the currently selected layer. You see the number of the algorithm (from 1 to 31) and a graphic representation of the signal path, as well as the currently selected DSP functions within the signal path.

To use a different algorithm, select the Algorithm parameter and use any data entry method to select a different one. To change the DSP function within an algorithm, move the cursor to the block you want to change, then use the Alpha Wheel or Plus/Minus buttons. There’s a staggering number of combinations of algorithms and DSP functions alone, not to mention the numerous controls that can be used to modify the DSP functions. the Reference Guide contains a list of all 31 algorithms and the DSP functions available for each one.

NOTE: Changing a layer’s algorithm can affect the layer’s sound drastically. It’s a good idea to bring down the volume of your K2500 or your sound system before changing algorithms.

The ﬁve downward-pointing arrows represent inputs to the DSP functions that are available for the current algorithm. Each input arrow has its corresponding page. The ﬁrst arrow points to the PITCH function. The soft button for the PITCH page is already visible. Press it to view the parameters affecting pitch for the currently selected layer. The buttons for the other four DSP functions are not visible when you ﬁrst enter the Program Editor. To see them, press the more> soft button (on the right side of the page). You’re still on the same page, but the soft buttons’ labels change to let you select a different set of pages, as the diagram below shows.

6-10

PITCH

CONTROL

PARAMETERS

FREQUENCY

CONTROL

PARAMETERS

DRIVE

CONTROL

PARAMETERS

AMP

CONTROL

PARAMETERS

FINAL AMP

CONTROL

PARAMETERS

EditProg:ALG|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

errR®rrte11231111112311111123114errR®rt| dPITCH|gkHIFREQ|STIMULATOR|||||0kAMP||gh CVVVVVVBCVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVBCVVVVVB|

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

<more||F1|FRQ|F2|DRV|F3|AMP|F4|AMP|more>

The pages (F1–F4) that control the DSP functions are described later in this chapter. “Algorithm Basics” on page 6-5 gives general information on algorithms, while Chapter 14 gives a thorough description of each the DSP functions and the parameters found on their editing pages.

Page 53

Program Editor—LAYER Page

Press the LAYER soft button to call up the LAYER page. Here you’ll set a number of parameters that affect the current layer’s keyboard range, attack and release characteristics, and response to various controls.

EditProg:LAYER|||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

LoKey|:C|0||DlyCtl:OFF|||||||SusPdl:On|| HiKey|:C|8||MinDly:0.000s||||SosPdl:On|| LoVel|:ppp||MaxDly:0.000s||||FrzPdl:On|| HiVel|:fff||Enable:ON||||||||IgnRel:Off| PBMode:All||S:Norm|64||127|||ThrAtt:Off| Trig||:Norm|Opaque:Off|||||||TilDec:Off| <more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT LOW KEY C -1 to G 9 C 0

HIGH KEY C -1 to G 9 C 8 LOW VELOCITY ppp to fff ppp HIGH VELOCITY ppp to fff fff PITCH BEND MODE Off, Key, All All TRIG Normal, Reversed Normal DELAY CONTROL Control Source list OFF MINIMUM DELAY 0 to 25 seconds 0 MAXIMUM DELAY 0 to 25 seconds 0 LAYER ENABLE Control Source list ON ENABLE SENSE Normal, Reversed / Min. / Max. Normal / 64 / 127 OPAQUE LAYER Off, On Off SUSTAIN PEDAL Off, On, On2 On SOSTENUTO PEDAL Off, On On FREEZE PEDAL Off, On On IGNORE RELEASE Off, On Off HOLD THROUGH ATTACK Off, On Off HOLD UNTIL SUSTAIN Off, On Off

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—LAYER Page

Low Key (LoKey)

This sets the lowest active note for the current layer. This parameter’s value cannot be set higher than the value for HiKey. The standard MIDI key range is C -1—G 9 (0-127). Middle C is C 4 (ISP).

High Key (HiKey)

Here you set the highest active note for the current layer. This parameter’s value cannot be set lower than the value for LoKey.

Low V elocity (LoVel)

With this parameter you deﬁne the lowest attack velocity at which the layer will be enabled (generate a sound). The values for this parameter and the next are expressed in the standard musical dynamics markings, similar to the values available for the velocity maps. Attack velocities that are below this velocity threshold will not trigger notes. If you set this parameter’s value higher than the HiVel value, the layer will not play at all.

High Velocity (HiVel)

Similarly, this will set the highest attack velocity at which the layer will be enabled. Attack velocities above this velocity will not trigger notes in this layer.

6-11

Page 54

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—LAYER Page

Pitch Bend Mode (PBMode)

This determines how Pitch bend control messages will affect the current layer. A value of “All” bends all notes that are on when the Pitch bend message is generated. A value of “Key” bends only those notes whose triggers are physically on when the Pitch bend message is generated (notes held with the sustain pedal, for example, won’t bend). This is great for playing guitar solos on top of chords—play a chord, hold it with the Sustain pedal, then play your licks and bend them all you want; the chord won’t bend with it. A value of “Off” disables Pitch bend for the current layer.

Trigger (Trig)

Set Trig to "Rvrs" to have notes triggered on key-up. The initial velocities of notes triggered this way are determined by the release velocities of the keys that trigger them. The default setting is "Norm"

Delay Control (DlyCtl)

Here you select, from the Control Source list, a control source that will delay the start of all notes in the current layer. The length of the delay is determined by the following two parameters. You’ll assign a continuous control like MWheel for the DlyCtl parameter when you want to vary the delay time, and a switch control if you want the delay to either be its minimum value (switch off), or its maximum (switch on). The delay control will affect only those notes triggered after the delay control source is moved; the delay time is calculated at each note start, based on the status of the delay control source at that time.

Minimum Delay (MinDly), Maximum Delay (MaxDly)

The length of the delay is determined by these two parameters. When the control source assigned to DlyCtl is at its minimum, the delay will be equal to the value of MinDly. The delay will be equal to the value of MaxDly when the control source is at its maximum. If DlyCtl is set to OFF, you get the minimum delay. If it’s set to ON, you get the maximum delay. This doesn’t change the note’s attack time, just the time interval between the Note On message and the start of the attack. The delay is measured in seconds.

Enable

This selects a control source to activate or deactivate the layer. When the assigned control source is on (or above the midpoint of 64 for continuous controls) the layer will be active. The layer will not sound when the control source is off or below its midpoint. For example, if you wanted to create an octave doubler that would kick in on demand, you could create a program with a second layer, transpose it up or down an octave, and set its Enable parameter to any control source, like MWheel. Then whenever your MIDI controller’s Mod Wheel is above its midpoint, you’ll hear the second layer. Some local control sources (e.g., KeyNum and AttVel) are not valid for the Enable parameter. In these cases, you should use the global equivalent (e.g., GKeyNum and GAttVel).

Enable Sense (S)

This lets you reverse the orientation of the MIDI control you’ve assigned to enable the layer. A value of Normal has no effect on the Enable parameter, while Reversed will activate the layer when the Enable control source is off or below its midpoint, and deactivate the layer when the Enable control source is on or above its midpoint. You could use this parameter to set up a twolayer program that would let you use a MIDI control to switch between layers, say a guitar sound and a distorted guitar. Both layers would have their Enable parameters set to the same control source, say MWheel. One would have its Enable Sense parameter set to Normal, and the other would have it set to Reverse. Then the ﬁrst layer would play when your MIDI controller’s Mod Wheel was above its midpoint, and the second layer would play when the Mod Wheel was below its midpoint.

This is also the place to set the minimum and maximum values at which the layer will be enabled. The two numbers to the right of the Enable Sense parameter are the Minimum and

6-12

Page 55

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—LAYER Page

Maximum values for the Enable parameter. .The range for each is -128-127. When the controller is at a value between the Minimum and Maximum amount, the layer will be activated or deactivated, (depending on the setting of the Enable Sense parameter). For example, you could create a program with several layers, assign Mod Wheel for the Enable parameter on each layer, and set different Minimum and Maximum amounts for each layer. Then as you move the Mod wheel, you could trigger the different layers

Opaque

An opaque layer blocks all higher-numbered layers in its range, allowing only the opaque layer to play. This is an easy way to change a small range of notes in a program, leaving the original sound playing above and below the new sound. Just create a new layer (Layer 2), set its range (say, C 3 to D 3), assign it the keymap you want, and set its Opaque parameter to On. Then duplicate the original layer, so its number is higher than that of the new layer (the duplicate layer is Layer 3). You’ll now have a three-layer program. Delete Layer 1 (the original layer), and the new Layer will become Layer 1, while the duplicated original layer becomes Layer 2. Now the new layer will block out the original layer at the notes C 3–D 3.

Sustain Pedal (SusPdl)

When this parameter is on, the layer will respond to all sustain messages (MIDI 64) received by the K2500. When off, the current layer will ignore sustain messages. On2 means that the sustain pedal will not catch the release of a note that is still sounding when the sustain message is received; this can be very useful in a program that uses amplitude envelopes with a long release time.

Sostenuto Pedal (SosPdl)

When Sostenuto is on, the layer will respond to all sostenuto messages (MIDI 66) received by the K2500. When off, sostenuto messages are ignored by the layer.

Freeze Pedal (FrzPdl)

Activate or deactivate the layer’s response to Freeze pedal messages (MIDI 69). The Freeze pedal control causes all notes that are on to sustain without decay until the Freeze pedal control goes off. If a note is already decaying, it will freeze at that level.

Ignore Release (IgnRel)

When on, the layer will ignore all Note Off messages received by the K2500. This should be used only with sounds that decay naturally, otherwise the sounds will sustain forever. When IgnRel is off, the layer responds normally to Note Off messages. This parameter can come in handy when your K2500 is slaved to a drum machine or sequencer, which sometimes generates Note Ons and Note Offs so close together that the envelope doesn’t have time to play before the note is released. You’ll also want to use this parameter when you’re playing staccato, and the sound you’re playing has a long amplitude envelope. This parameter should be used only with notes that eventually decay to silence. Sustaining sounds will sustain forever.

Hold Through Attack (ThrAtt)

When on, this parameter causes all notes in the layer to sustain through the entire ﬁrst attack segment of their amplitude envelopes, even if the notes have been released. If you have a sound with a slow attack, or an attack that’s delayed with the delay control, setting this parameter to On will make sure your notes reach full amplitude even if you’re playing fast. When set to Off, notes will release as soon as you release the note (generate a Note Off). If the ﬁrst attack segment of the layer’s amplitude envelope is very short, you probably won’t notice a difference between values of On and Off.

Hold Until Decay (TilDec)

When on, this parameter causes all notes in the layer to sustain through all three attack segments in their amplitude envelopes even if the notes have been released. Looped amplitude envelopes will not loop, however, if the notes are released before reaching the end of the ﬁnal attack segment. Notes will go into their normal releases if they are released after the envelope has looped. When set to Off, notes will release as soon as a Note Off message is generated.

6-13

Page 56

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor— KEYMAP Page

Press the KEYMAP soft button to call up the KEYMAP page. The parameters on this page affect sample root selection—which samples are played on which keys.

EditProg:KEYMAP||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| KeyMap:1|Grand|Piano|||||||||Stereo:Off| Xpose|:0ST||||||||TimbreShift|:0ST|||||| KeyTrk:100ct/key||PlayBackMode:Normal||| VelTrk:0ct||||||||AltControl||:MIDI70||| SmpSkp:Auto|||||||AltMethod|||:Switched| <more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT KEYMAP Keymap list 1 Grand Piano

TRANSPOSE ± 60 semitones 0 KEY TRACKING ± 2400 cents per key 100 VELOCITY TRACKING ± 7200 cents per key 0 SAMPLE SKIPPING Auto, Off, On Auto STEREO Off, On Off TIMBRE SHIFT ± 60 semitones 0 PLAYBACK MODE Norm, Rvrs, Bidirectional, Noise Normal ALT CONTROL Control Source list OFF ALT METHOD Switched, Continuous Switched

Keymap

Assign a ROM or RAM keymap to the current layer. Keymaps are collections of samples assigned to note and velocity ranges. There are nearly 200 ROM keymaps to choose from. You’ll ﬁnd a list of them in the Reference Guide.

Transpose (Xpose)

Transpose the current keymap up or down as much as 60 semitones (5 octaves).

Key T racking (KeyT rk)

This is one of the six common DSP control parameters. On the KEYMAP page, key tracking affects the interval between notes. The default value of 100 cents (hundredths of a semitone) gives you the normal semitone interval between each note. Higher values increase the interval; lower values decrease it. Negative values will cause the pitch to decrease as you play higher notes. You can create a mirror-image piano by setting the key tracking to –100 and transposing the layer up 4 semitones. When you make changes to this parameter, you’ll need to keep in mind that KeyTrk on the KEYMAP page works in conjunction with KeyTrk on the PITCH page. Therefore, you’ll need to check the KeyTrk value on both pages to see how key tracking works within a program.

Velocity T racking (VelT rk)

This is another common DSP control parameter. As with the other parameters on the KEYMAP page, this shifts the position of the keymap. Different attack velocities will play different pitch shifts of the sample root assigned to that note range. If the shift is great enough, the next higher or lower sample root will be played, which in some cases (like the drum programs) will play an entirely different sound. Positive values will play higher pitches of the sample root when you use hard attack velocities (they shift the keymap downward), while negative values will play lower pitches.

6-14

Page 57

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor— KEYMAP Page

Sample Skipping (SmpSkp)

Sample skipping is a new feature in V2 K2500 software that allows for increased upward transposition of samples. By using a new sample playback algorithm, the K2500 increases the maximum playback rate of a sample from 96 Khz to a maximum of 192 Khz. Needless to say, though, there is a tradeoff. Unwanted artifacts may be added to a note’s sound as the result of sample skipping. Therefore, the Auto value for this parameter is usually the best choice. Auto means that the keymap in this layer will only employ sample skipping for those notes whose upward transposition can be increased. Notes below a certain point would not beneﬁt from sample skipping and, therefore, Auto ensures that these notes will not use the feature unnecessarily. The only disadvantage to using Auto sample skipping is that you cannot pitchbend a note from below the cutoff point into the range of the sample skipped notes.

On means that sample skipping will be employed throughout the range of the keymap. This eliminates the pitchbend limitation described above, but may add some artifacts to the sound. Creative types may appreciate this form of distortion, however, so we’ve made it available.

Off means that sample skipping will not be used at all. Essentially, this means that sample fetching will be done the same way it was done in pre-V2 software.

Stereo

You’ll use this parameter when you’re working with stereo samples. When you use the optional stereo piano programs (included with the RMB-2 daughter board) or load stereo samples from disk, the K2500 views both sides of the sample as a single sample object. When you select a stereo sample as the value for the Sample parameter, you’ll see the letter “S” as part of the sample name (for example, “204*StratoBlaster E3 S”.

When you set this parameter to On, the KEYMAP page changes slightly:

EditProg:KEYMAP||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

KeyMap1:1|Grand|Piano||||||||||||||||||| KeyMap2:None|||||||||||||||||Stereo:On|| Xpose|:0ST||||||||TimbreShift|:0ST|||||| KeyTrk:100ct/key||AltAttackCtl:OFF|||||| VelTrk:0ct||||||||PlayBackMode:Normal||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||ALG||||LAYER||KEYMAP|PITCH||more>

An additional Keymap parameter appears. The two keymap parameters are distinguished as Keymap 1 and Keymap 2. The KEYMAP page parameters will affect both keymaps. When the Stereo parameter is on, the OUTPUT page for the current layer will show an additional pair of Pan parameters.

To get the samples to play together, set the Stereo parameter to On, and select the keymap as the value for both the Keymap 1 and Keymap 2 parameters. The K2500 automatically uses the left side for Keymap 1, and the right side for Keymap 2. Then go to the OUTPUT page and set the panning for each sample as desired. Keep in mind that using stereo keymaps reduces the polyphony of the program. For example, if you had a two-layer program with stereo keymaps in each layer, each note you play would use 4 of your 48 voices, allowing a total of 12 notes before all the voices have been used.

This parameter is unnecessary if you’re not using stereo samples, and should be set to Off in that case.

Timbre Shift

This parameter works only on multi-sample keymaps, and changes the root selection for each key you play. With this parameter you can radically alter the current layer’s timbre (basic

6-15

Page 58

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor— KEYMAP Page

sound characteristics). The nature of the change depends on the timbre itself, so this parameter calls for experimentation. Basically, timbre shifting changes a note’s timbre by imposing different harmonic qualities onto the note. A timbre-shifted note retains its original pitch, but its harmonics are those of the same timbre at a higher or lower pitch. Positive values for this parameter tend to brighten a sound, while negative values darken.

Here’s an example. If you shift the timbre up 4 semitones, then playing C 4 will result in the pitch C 4, but will actually play the sample normally assigned to G# 3, and shift its pitch up 4 semitones. This will increase the playback rate of the sample, so although the pitch remains normal, the timbre is brighter. You’d get the same effect by setting the Xpose parameter on the Keymap page to -4 semitones, then setting the Adjust on the PITCH page to + 4 semitones. For multi-sample layers with narrow key ranges, large amounts of timbre shifting will cause different sample roots to be played back.

Playback Mode

This gives you four options for manipulating the samples in the current layer as you trigger them. Normal leaves the samples unaffected, while Reverse plays them in reverse. At a value of Reverse, the samples will continue to loop as long as notes are sustained. To play them just once in reverse, you would adjust the length of the layer’s amplitude envelope (explained later in this chapter). BiDirect (bidirectional) causes the samples to loop inﬁnitely, alternating between normal and reversed playback. Finally, Noise replaces the samples with a white noise generator.

Alternative Switch (AltControl and AltMethod)

You can assign a control source to change the sound by using an alternate start point or alternate end point for the current keymap. Whether or not it is an alternate start or alternate end depends on the position of the Alt parameter for the sample (set in the Sample Editor). When set before the end point, it is used as an alternate start (the Alt point can be before or after the normal Start point). When set after the end it is used as an alt end.

If you place the Alt point after the initial attack transients of the sample, then you can use the Alt Switch to emulate legato playing in an acoustic instrument. As an example, set the Keymap to "#14 Flute". Now set the AltControl parameter to Chan St (Channel State). Now if you play notes separately, the initial breathy chiff will be heard. But if you play the notes legato (connecting them smoothly), the Alt point is used and you do not hear the chiff. This is because the Chan St is turned on as long as any note is being held. Most of the K2500’s ROM samples have their Alt points set for purposes of legato play. In most cases the difference in attacks is subtle, but for some sounds, like drums, the difference can be more noticeable.

The AltMethod parameter lets you choose between continuous or switched interpolation. Continuous interpolation will set the alternate start or end point based on the value (0-127) of the control source. Switched means that the control source will simply switch between using the alternate or normal start or end point, depending on whether the control source transmits a value greater or less than 64.

For more information, refer to the discussion of the TRIM page’s Alt point on page 15-17.

6-16

Page 59

Program Editor— PITCH Page

Press the PITCH soft button, and the PITCH page will appear. These parameters adjust the pitch (playback rate) of the samples after the root has been selected by the keymap.

EditProg:PITCH|||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT COARSE ADJUST –120 to 60 ST (semitones) 0

FINE ADJUST (cts) ± 100 cents 0 FINE ADJUST (Hz) ± 6 Hz 0 KEY TRACKING ± 2400 cents per key 0 VELOCITY TRACKING ± 7200 cents per key 0 SOURCE 1 Control Source list OFF DEPTH ± 7200 cents 0 SOURCE 2 Control Source list OFF DEPTH CONTROL Control Source list MWheel MINIMUM DEPTH ± 7200 cents 0 MAXIMUM DEPTH ± 7200 cents 0

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor— PITCH Page

These parameters were described in the section on common DSP control parameters earlier in this chapter, so we won’t repeat them here, but a word about the Fine Hz parameter is in order.

Fine Hz

This measures pitch adjustment by the relative frequency (in Hertz) of each note. This is useful for controlling the beat frequency between layers in a multi-layered program. Using this parameter to detune chorusing layers will keep the beat frequency constant across much of the keyboard. Although the ratio of frequencies between each layer remains constant, the detuning will increase at lower pitches, and can become extreme. The K2500 automatically limits the amount of detuning when it becomes extreme, so you’ll notice the beat frequencies moving out of sync when you play low pitches.

6-17

Page 60

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—F1–F3 Pages

These pages are reached by pressing the F1, F2, and F3 soft buttons, respectively. They contain the parameters governing the three variable DSP functions in each algorithm. The pages vary depending on the DSP functions selected for the three middle DSP control inputs, represented by the downward-pointing arrows on the ALG page. See the Reference Guide for a complete list of the algorithms and their available DSP functions.

6-18

Page 61

Program Editor—F4 AMP Page

Press the F4 AMP soft button to call up this page, which features ﬁve of the six common DSP control parameters, in this case controlling the ﬁnal amplitude of the current layer before it reaches the audio outputs. There’s also a parameter that enables you to pad (attenuate) the current layer’s signal before its ﬁnal ampliﬁcation.

EditProg:F4|AMP(FINAL|AMP)|<>Layer:1/1||

Adjust:6dB||||||||||Src1||:OFF|||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||Depth|:0dB|||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||Src2||:OFF|||||||||| KeyTrk:|0.00dB/key||DptCtl:MWheel||||||| VelTrk:20dB|||||||||MinDpt:0dB|||||||||| Pad|||:0dB||||||||||MaxDpt:0dB|||||||||| <more||F1|||||F2|||||F3|||||F4|AMP|more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT ADJUST –96 to 48 dB 6

KEY TRACKING ± 2 dB 0 VELOCITY TRACKING ± 96 dB 20 PAD 0, 6, 12, 18 dB 0 SOURCE 1 Control Source list OFF DEPTH ± 96 dB 0 SOURCE 2 Control Source list OFF DEPTH CONTROL Control Source list MWheel MINIMUM DEPTH ± 96 dB 0 MAXIMUM DEPTH ± 96 dB 0

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—F4 AMP Page

Adjust

Adjust the overall amplitude (gain) of the currently selected layer. In multi-layer programs, this parameter adjusts the amplitude of the layers relative to each other. This is the ﬁnal output control for the layer (Post-amp pad). Be careful not to set this too high! If one of your layers is too loud, it’s generally better to cut its level than to boost the others. This will keep distortion to a minimum.

Key T racking

This uses the MIDI note numbers of the notes you play as a control source affecting the individual amplitudes of each note in the current layer. Positive values increase the amplitude as you play higher-pitched notes. For example, if the key tracking is .20 dB/key, then C#4 will be .20 dB louder than C 4 if triggered with the same attack velocity. If the value for this parameter were negative, C#4 would have less amplitude than C 4. A word of caution here: values above 0.30 dB/key (or below –0.30) can generate extremely high amplitude levels. If you set this parameter that high without lowering the value of the Adjust parameter to -12 dB or lower, your sound may clip, which can be useful, but it isn’t necessarily what you want.

Velocity T racking

This uses the MIDI attack velocity value of the notes you play as a control source affecting the individual amplitudes of each note in the current layer. This is the primary parameter to use for adjusting the dynamics of a layer. At a value of 0, every note in the current layer would have the same amplitude, regardless of its attack velocity. When the value is positive, note amplitude increases as attack velocity increases. When the value is negative, note amplitude decreases as attack velocity increases. Larger values increase the range between minimum and maximum

6-19

Page 62

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—F4 AMP Page

amplitude, so with a large positive value, the amplitude will be low when you play softly. Small values decrease the range between min and max, so with a small positive value, you’ll get nearly full amplitude even with light attack velocities.

Pad

Select one of four attenuation levels for cutting the amplitude of the current layer before the ﬁnal amp stage (Pre-amp pad). Use the pad if the layer’s sound distorts when played. Note: clipping can occur in earlier algorithm blocks as well. If this is the case, you’ll probably want to try to remove the clipping in the earlier block, if possible.

Sources 1 and 2, Depth Controls

These are common DSP control parameters, which in this case let you assign control sources to affect the amplitude of the current layer. The functions of common DSP control parameters are explained in their own section earlier in this chapter.

6-20

Page 63

Program Editor—OUTPUT Page

This page is reached by pressing the OUTPUT soft button. This is where you route the signal to the eight separate outs, and to the MIX outputs, with or without passing through the effects processor on the way. If you’re using the MIX outputs, select Output Group A if you want the layer to appear at the MIX outputs with effects, or Output Group B, C, or D if you want the layer to appear dry at the MIX outputs.

Before we look at the OUTPUT page, we’ll take a quick look at the K2500’s audio outs. You will see there are ten, conﬁgured as pairs labeled Mix, A, B, C, & D. It is important to understand that even though there are ten jacks, there are only 8 routable outs. Here is the way it works: When you route a signal, you choose the A, B, C, or D pairs and the appropriate panning position. But all audio signals come out of the Mix pair, until you physically plug a cable into a separate out. At that point, any signal routed to that out is removed from the Mix and comes out of that particular out. So if you plug cables into all of the separate outs, there will be no signal coming from the Mix outs.

To route something through the standard effects processor in your 2500, you need to set the output to A. But the effects actually only come out of the MIX outs. So if you plug cables into the A outs then, you will not be able to use the effects. For this reason, a typical way users will wire their units is to plug into the MIX, B, C, and D pairs.

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—OUTPUT Page

The OUTPUT page gives you broad control over the audio signal. You can adjust the output routings of every layer in every program, enabling you to take maximum advantage of the K2500’s ﬂexible audio output capabilities.

There are actually four different conﬁgurations of the OUTPUT page. The one you see depends on whether the current layer uses a stereo keymap, and whether it uses a double-output algorithm. A double-output algorithm is one whose signal path is split into two parts before ﬁnal ampliﬁcation.

Regardless of the page’s conﬁguration, there are parameters for adjusting the Output Group, the Pan position, the Output Mode, the Gain, the Crossfade control, and the Crossfade sense. Layers that use stereo keymaps, or that use double-output algorithms, have additional sets of Output Group and Pan parameters on their OUTPUT pages.

The following page is for a layer with one keymap and a single-path algorithm.

EditProg:OUTPUT||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Pair:A(FX)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Pan|:L|||||||*|||||||R|||||||||||||||||| Mode:+MIDI|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Gain:6dB|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CrossFade|:OFF||||||XFadeSense:Norm||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT PAIR A(FX), B(DRY), C(DRY), D(DRY) A(FX)

PAN Left to Right (15 positions) Center MODE Fixed, +MIDI, Auto, Reverse +MIDI GAIN –12 to 30 dB (6 dB increments) 6 dB CROSSFADE CONTROL Control Source list OFF CROSSFADE SENSE Normal, Reversed Normal

6-21

Page 64

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—OUTPUT Page

Pair

This parameter deﬁnes the Output Group of the current layer—that is, which group of audio outputs the layer uses. If the layer is assigned to Pair A, for example, its audio signal will appear at the Group A outputs. The signal will also appear at the mixed outputs, with effects applied, if there are no cables inserted into the Group A outputs.

Pan

Use this parameter to position the current layer’s audio signal between the left and right outputs of whichever Output Group they’re assigned to.

Mode

When the mode is Fixed the pan position remains as deﬁned with the Pan parameter, ignoring MIDI pan messages. When the mode is +MIDI, MIDI pan messages (MIDI 10) will shift the sound to the left or right of the Pan parameter setting. Message values below 64 shift it left, while those above 64 shift it right. A setting of Auto assigns the pan setting of each note based on its MIDI note number. In this case, Middle C (MIDI note number 60) is equivalent to the Pan parameter’s setting. Lower notes shift increasingly left, while higher notes shift increasingly right. A setting of Reverse shifts low notes right, and high notes left. MIDI pan messages will also affect the pan position when values of Auto and Reverse are selected.

NOTE: If you’re using the PANNER DSP function in the algorithm for any of the layers in a program, that layer will respond to MIDI pan messages even if the Mode parameter is set to a value of Fixed. That’s just the way it is.

Gain

Boost (or cut) the amplitude of the current layer. For layers using double-output algorithms, the gain is divided evenly between the two signal paths. Since this gain is not affected by the layer’s amplitude envelope, you can use it to add a constant amount of gain to a layer.

Crossfade, Crossfade Sense (XFadeSense)

The Crossfade parameter lets you select a control source to fade the current layer’s amplitude from zero to maximum. When Crossfade Sense is Normal, the layer is at full amplitude when the Crossfade control is at minimum. With Crossfade Sense set to Reverse, the layer is at zero amplitude when the Crossfade control is at minimum.

This parameter is similar to the Src1 and Depth parameters on the F4 AMP page, but the attenuation curve for the Crossfade parameter is optimized speciﬁcally for crossfades.

To crossfade two layers in the same program, assign the same control source for the CrossFade parameters in both layers, then set one of their XFadeSense parameters to a value of Norm, and the other’s to Rvrs.

6-22

Page 65

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—OUTPUT Page

Other OUTPUT Page Conﬁgurations

The following page is for a layer with one keymap and a double-output algorithm. The U and L stand for the upper and lower wires (signal paths). You have independent control of the output parameters for each wire.

EditProg:OUTPUT||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||Pair:||Pan:||||||||||||||Mode:||Gain:| U:A(FX)||L||||||||||||||*R|+MIDI||6dB||| L:A(FX)||L*||||||||||||||R|+MIDI||6dB||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CrossFade|:OFF||||||XFadeSense:Norm||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

Next are the two page conﬁgurations for layers with stereo keymaps: the ﬁrst one uses a singleoutput algorithm, and the second uses a double-output algorithm.

With a single-output algorithm, stereo keymap layers let you adjust the pan position of each keymap, but all other parameters are identical for both keymaps.

EditProg:OUTPUT||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

Pair:A(FX)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Pan1:L*||||||||||||||R|||||||||||||||||| Pan2:L||||||||||||||*R|||||||||||||||||| Mode:+MIDI|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Gain:6dB|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CrossFade|:OFF||||||XFadeSense:Norm||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

When a stereo keymap layer uses a double-output algorithm, both keymaps are split between the upper and lower wires. In other words, both wires carry the signal from each of the keymaps. The Output Group (Pair), Output mode, and Gain level of Keymap 1 are mimicked by Keymap 2 (that’s why these parameters aren’t displayed for Keymap 2 on the OUTPUT page). You can, however, set the pan positions independently for the upper and lower wires of both keymaps.

EditProg:OUTPUT||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||Pair:||Pan:||||||||||||||Mode:|Gain:| U1:A(FX)||L*||||||||||||||R|+MIDI|6dB||| L1:A(FX)||L||||||||||||||*R|+MIDI|6dB||| U2:|||||||L||||||||||||||*R||||||||||||| L2:|||||||L*||||||||||||||R||||||||||||| CrossFade|:OFF||||||XFadeSense:Norm||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

6-23

Page 66

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—EFFECT Page

On the EFFECT page you’ll adjust the parameters that control the preset effect that the global effects processor applies to the currently selected program. Whether or not you will hear the effect that you assign on this page is determined by the settings of the FX Mode and FX Chan parameters, found in the Effects Mode; they’re described on page 9-2.

Press the EFFECT soft button and the EFFECT page appears:

EditProg:EFFECT||||||||||||||All|Layers|

EffectPreset:1|Sweet|Hall|2||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||Adjust:||Source:||Depth:||| Wet/Dry|Mix|:45%Wet|||OFF||||||0|||||||| (Realtime|1):0||||||||OFF||||||0|||||||| (Realtime|2):0||||||||OFF||||||0|||||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

The top line of the page gives you the usual mode reminder, and shows that the preset effect you select will apply to all layers of the program. Keep in mind that these parameters are global—that is, they affect every part of the program’s sound that goes through the global effects processor. The display reminds you of this by showing “All Layers” in the top line.

The Effect Preset parameter determines which preset effect will be selected when you select the program in Program mode.

The remaining three parameters—Adjust, Source, and Depth—apply to three inputs that can be used to modify the preset effect in real time, using any of the control sources. The inputs are the Wet/Dry Mix, and two other realtime inputs that vary with the preset effect—chorus delay, reverb time, and other similar multi-effects DSP functions.

The Adjust parameter sets the initial level for the three inputs. This deﬁnes the status of the effect when no control source signal is applied to the inputs. For the Wet/Dry Mix, the range of levels is 0 to 100%. For the two variable inputs, the ranges are –128 to 127.

This Source parameter lets you deﬁne which control source is used to modify each of the inputs. The values are taken from the Control Source list.

The Depth parameter deﬁnes how much you can modify each input with its assigned control source. The range for each input is –128 to 127.

Wet/Dry Mix

The Wet/Dry Mix parameter determines how much of the preset effect is applied to the program. A value of 0% leaves the program dry; no effect is heard. A value of 100% removes all of the dry signal, and you hear a full effect level on the sound. For best results, start with values of near 50%, and tweak them from there.

Realtime 1 and 2

These two inputs differ with each preset effect. When you select different preset effects, the names of these two inputs will change to reﬂect the effect parameter that can be modiﬁed via the control source you’ve assigned with the Source parameter.

6-24

When you’re recording sequences and including realtime effects changes in the sequence, be sure that the realtime effects messages occur at least 200 milliseconds after program or setup changes. It takes the K2500 approximately 200 milliseconds to switch preset effects, and realtime effects events can interfere with the selection of the new effect. The most likely result is that the realtime effects messages will be ignored.

Page 67

Program Editor—COMMON Page

Here’s where you ﬁnd six frequently-used parameters that affect the entire current program, not just the current layer. The COMMON page is reached by pressing the COMMON soft button in the Program Editor.

EditProg:COMMON||||||||||||||All|Layers|

Pitch|Bend|Range:200ct||||Globals:Off||| Monophonic||||||:Off|||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

Notice that when the Monophonic parameter is set to its default value of Off, the four monophonic parameters do not appear on the page.

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—COMMON Page

PITCH BEND RANGE ± 7200 cents 200 cents MONOPHONIC Off, On Off (LEGATO PLAY) Off, On Off (PORTAMENTO) Off, On Off (PORTAMENTO RATE) 1 to 3000 keys per second 70 (ATTACK PORTAMENTO) Off, On On GLOBALS Off, On Off

Pitch Bend Range

Use this parameter to deﬁne how much the pitch will change when you move your MIDI controller’s Pitch Wheel. Positive values will cause the pitch to bend up when the Pitch Wheel is pushed up, while negative values will cause the inverse. Large positive values can cause samples to bend to their maximum upward pitch shift before the Pitch Wheel is fully up. This will not happen when bending pitch down.

Monophonic

When off, the program is polyphonic—it can play up to 48 notes at a time. Notice that when the Mono Mode parameter is off, the three Portamento parameters do not appear on the COMMON page. This is because only monophonic programs can use portamento.

When On, the program will play only one note at a time. This makes it possible to use portamento, so the remaining parameters appear.

EditProg:COMMON||||||||||||||All|Layers|

Pitch|Bend|Range:200ct||||Globals:Off||| Monophonic||||||:On||||||||||||||||||||| Legato|Play|||||:On||||||||||||||||||||| Portamento||||||:Off|||||||||||||||||||| Portamento|Rate|:70.0key/s|||||||||||||| AttackPortamento:Off|||||||||||||||||||| <more||OUTPUT|EFFECT|COMMON|SetRng|more>

6-25

Page 68

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—COMMON Page

Legato Play

When Legato Play is on, a note will play its attack only when all other notes have been released. This is useful for realistic instrumental sounds.

Portamento

This parameter is either on or off. The default value of Off means that portamento is disabled for the current program.

Portamento is a glide between pitches. On actual acoustic instruments like violin and bass, it’s achieved by sliding a ﬁnger along a vibrating string. On most keyboards that offer portamento, it’s achieved by holding down a key that triggers the starting note, then striking and releasing other keys. The pitch glides toward the most recently triggered note, and remains at that pitch as long as the note remains on. The K2500 gives you two ways to get portamento. See the Attack Portamento parameter below.

When you’re applying large amounts of portamento to multi-sampled sounds (Acoustic Guitar, for example), the K2500 will play more than one sample root as the pitch glides from the starting pitch to the ending pitch. This may cause a small click at each sample root transition. You can reduce the number of clicks you’ll hear by entering the Program Editor and adjusting the KeyTrk parameter on both the KEYMAP and PITCH pages. The quickest way is to set the KeyTrk value on the KEYMAP page to 0, and to 100 on the PITCH page. This will stretch the sample root that plays at C 4 across the entire keyboard. Now any amount of portamento will play only one sample root, and the clicks will disappear.

There’s a tradeoff here, since many sounds will change in timbre as these single sample roots are pitch-shifted during the portamento. This will be most noticeable for acoustic instrument sounds, and may not be noticeable at all for single-cycle waveforms like sawtooth waves. Furthermore, some samples will not glide all the way up to the highest notes—there’s a limit to the amount of upward pitch-shifting that can be applied to samples. If this doesn’t work for you, you can compromise between the number of clicks and the amount of timbre change by further adjusting the KeyTrk parameters on the KEYMAP and PITCH pages.

As long as the combined values of the KeyTrk parameters on both pages add up to 100, you’ll have normal semitone intervals between keys. If you set both parameters to values of 50, for example, the sound will still play normally, and you’ll have several sample roots (about half the number of the original sound) stretched evenly across the keyboard, instead of just one. This will give you fewer clicks than in the original sound, but not as much change in timbre as setting the KEYMAP KeyTrk value all the way to 0. Set the KEYMAP KeyTrk parameter higher to reduce the change in timbre, or set the PITCH KeyTrk value higher to reduce the number of clicks. Just make sure the combined values add up to 100, to preserve the normal intervals between notes.

Portamento Rate

The setting for Portamento rate determines how fast the current note glides from starting pitch to ending pitch. The value of this parameter tells you how many seconds the note takes to glide one semitone toward the ending pitch. At a setting of 12 keys/second, for example, the pitch would glide an octave every second. The list of values is non-linear; that is, the increments get larger as you scroll to higher values.

Attack Portamento

This parameter toggles between two types of portamento. When set to On, the K2500 remembers the starting pitch so you don’t have to hold a note on to achieve portamento. The pitch always glides to each new note from the previously triggered note. When set to Off, the pitch will glide to the most recently triggered note only when the previous note is still on (in other words, you must use legato ﬁngering).

6-26

Page 69

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—COMMON Page

Globals

This is another toggle, which affects LFO2, ASR2, and FUNs 2 and 4. When off, these four control sources are local; they affect each individual note in the layers that use them as a control source. They begin operating each time a note in that layer is triggered.

When the Globals parameter is set to On, these control sources become global, that is they affect every note in every layer of the current program, not just the one to which they’re applied. When these control sources are global, they begin operating as soon as the program is selected. When Globals are on, LFO2, ASR2, and FUNs 2 and 4 will appear on their respective pages preceded by the letter “G” to indicate that they’re global.

You’ll use global control sources when you want to affect each note in a given layer uniformly, and local control sources when you want to affect each layer’s note independently. For example, you’d use a global LFO controlling pitch to create a Leslie effect on an organ sound, since you want the affect applied to all the notes you play. You’d use a local LFO controlling pitch to create a vibrato for a solo violin, since you want to be able to vary the rate and depth of the vibrato for each note.

6-27

Page 70

Program Mode and the Program Editor

User

Program Editor—Amplitude Envelope (AMPENV) Page

Amplitude envelopes have three sections: attack, decay, and release. The attack section determines how long each note takes to reach its assigned amplitude level after you trigger a Note On event. The decay section determines how quickly and how much a sustained sound fades before a Note Off is triggered. The release section determines how quickly a sound fades to silence after a Note Off is triggered.

Press the AMPENV soft button to reach the Amplitude Envelope page. For many programs, it will look like the diagram below, which tells you that the amplitude for the current layer is the default, “natural” ROM amplitude envelope that’s applied to each sample and waveform during its original development process. You’ll leave the amplitude envelope in Natural mode when you don’t want to change the way the current layer’s loudness develops.

EditProg:AMPENV||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||Mode:Natural||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||AMPENV|ENV2|||ENV3|||ENVCTL|more>

If you want to build your own amplitude envelope, just turn the Alpha Wheel a click. The word “Natural” will change to “User,” and a set of AMPENV parameters will appear. The sound will change when you do this, because the default settings for the User envelope, as shown in the diagram below, take effect as soon as you leave Natural mode. Returning to Natural mode applies the original amplitude envelope once again.

EditProg:AMPENV|||||[1/1]||<>Layer:1/1||

Att1:Att2:Att3:Dec1:Rel1:Rel2:Rel3:Loop:

0s|||0s|||0s|||0s|||0s|||0s|||0s|||Off|| 100%|0%|||0%|||100%|0%|||0%|||0%|||Inf|| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||AMPENV|ENV2|||ENV3|||ENVCTL|more>

You’ll tweak the parameters on the AMPENV page when you want to shape the amplitude characteristics of your sounds. A graphic view of the amplitude envelope will appear on the display to give you a visual sense of the envelope’s characteristics. The dots along the envelope graphic indicate the breakpoints between the envelope’s various segments. The small horizontal arrow represents the end of the decay section. The small downward-pointing arrow represents the beginning of the release section.

6-28

Because the K2500’s ROM samples are stored in a compressed format, applying an altered amplitude envelope can change more than just the amplitude of your sound, since it also changes the rate at which the samples are decompressed for playback. When the samples are made to play back with altered envelopes, the timbres can evolve in new and interesting ways.

The AMPENV page’s top line gives you the usual location reminder, points out the currently selected layer, and tells you the relative scale of the envelope’s graphic view. The envelope

Page 71

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Amplitude Envelope (AMPENV) Page

graphic shrinks in scale as the segment times get longer. This auto-zoom feature maximizes the available display space. Try lengthening one of the segment times. The envelope graphic will stretch to ﬁll the display from left to right. When it ﬁlls the display, it will shrink to half its size, and the top line will indicate that the scale has changed (from [1/1] to [1/2], for example).

Each parameter on this page has two values, as listed below. For the envelope segments, the ﬁrst (upper) value is the duration of the segment, and the second is the amplitude level at the completion of the segment. For the Loop parameter, the values deﬁne how the envelope loops, and how many times the loop cycles.

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES ATTACK SEGMENT 1, 2, 3 TIME 0 to 60 seconds

LEVEL 0 to 100 %

DECAY SEGMENT TIME 0 to 60 seconds

LEVEL 0 to 100 %

RELEASE SEGMENT 1, 2, 3 TIME 0 to 60 seconds

LEVEL 0 to 100 %

LOOP TYPE Off, Forward, Bidirectional

# OF LOOPS Infinite, 1 to 31 times

Attack Segment Times

These indicate how long it takes for the current layer’s amplitude to reach its ﬁnal level from its starting level.

Attack Segment Levels

These are the ﬁnal levels that each segment achieves at completion. The levels are expressed as percentages of the maximum possible amplitude for the current layer. Attack segment 1 always starts at zero amplitude, and moves to its assigned level in the time speciﬁed by its time value. So the default settings of 0 seconds and 100% mean that the ﬁrst segment of the attack section moves instantly from zero amplitude to 100% amplitude. Increase the time of Attack segment 1 if you want the sound to ramp up more slowly.

Attack segments 2 and 3 affect the sound only when you set a non-zero value for time. They will then move to their assigned levels in the time speciﬁed. Their starting levels are equal to the ﬁnal levels of the preceding segment.

Decay Segment

The decay section has only one segment. It has values for time and level, just as for the attack section. The decay section begins as soon as the attack section has been completed. It starts at the same amplitude level as the attack segment preceding it, and moves to its assigned level in the time speciﬁed. You’ll hear a note’s decay section only when the attack section is completed before a Note Off message is generated for that note.

To create a sustaining envelope, simply set the Decay segment to a non-zero value.

Release Segments

Like the attack and decay sections, each of the three segments in the release section has values for time and level. Each segment reaches its assigned level in the time speciﬁed for that segment. Release segment 1 starts at the Note Off event for each note, at the current amplitude level of that note—whether it’s in the attack section or the decay section. It then moves to its assigned level in the time speciﬁed. Release segments 2 and 3 start at the ﬁnal levels of the segments before them. Release segments 1 and 2 can be set to any level from 0 to 100%. Release segment 3 always has a level of 0%, so you can’t adjust its level. In place of its Level parameter

6-29

Page 72

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Amplitude Envelope (AMPENV) Page

you see a parameter that lets you toggle between User envelopes and the sound’s preprogrammed “natural” envelope.

Loop Type

There are seven different values for Loop type.

A value of Off disables looping for the current layer’s amplitude envelope.

Values of seg1F, seg2F, and seg3F are forward loops. In each case, the amplitude envelope plays through the attack and decay sections, then loops back to the beginning of the ﬁrst, second, or third attack segments, respectively.

Values of seg1B, seg2B, and seg3B, are bidirectional loops. The amplitude envelope plays through the attack and decay sections, then reverses and plays backward to the beginning of the ﬁrst, second, or third attack segment, respectively. When it reaches the beginning of the assigned attack segment, it reverses again, playing forward to the end of the decay section, and so on.

Number of Loops

A value of Inf makes the amplitude envelope loop until a Note Off is generated. Values of 1 through 31 indicate how many times the loop will repeat after the amplitude envelope has played once through its normal cycle.

Regardless of the loop type and the number of loops, each note goes into its release section as soon as its Note State goes off (that is, when a Note Off is generated). The envelope will continue to loop as long as Note State remains on, whether it’s held on by a pedal, by the IgnRel parameter (described in the section entitled “The LAYER Page”), or whatever.

6-30

Page 73

Program Editor—Envelopes 2 and 3

The K2500 offers two envelopes in addition to the amplitude envelope. Like the amplitude envelope, Envelopes 2 and 3 can be assigned like any other control source. The only difference between these two envelopes and the amplitude envelope is that Envelopes 2 and 3 can be bipolar. This means that you can set negative values for them. (Obviously, you can’t have an amplitude less than zero, so the amplitude envelope is unipolar—the values range from 0 to 100%). A bipolar envelope controlling pitch, for example, could modulate the pitch both above and below its original level.

EditProg:ENV2|||||||[1/1]||<>Layer:1/1||

Att1:Att2:Att3:Dec1:Rel1:Rel2:Rel3:Loop:

2.00|2.00|2.00|0s|||0s|||0s|||0s|||Off|| 100%|-100|100%|100%|0%|||0%|||0%|||Inf|| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||AMPENV|ENV2|||ENV3|||ENVCTL|more>

The pages for Envelopes 2 and 3 are reached with the soft buttons ENV2 and ENV3. When you select these pages, you’ll ﬁnd a display that looks very much like the AMPENV page. The only differences are that you can program an amount for Rel3, and in the envelope graphic, which has a dotted line running horizontally across the display. This is the zero level line; negative level values for the various envelope segments will cause the envelope graphic to dip below this line.

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Envelopes 2 and 3

6-31

Page 74

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Envelope Control (ENVCTL) Page

Envelopes are control sources with outputs that evolve over time without repeating (unless you want them to). You can make the envelopes even more powerful by using envelope control. This gives you realtime control over the rates of each section of the envelopes. Press the ENVCTL soft button to reach the ENVCTL page.

EditProg:ENVCTL||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||Adjust:KeyTrk:VelTrk:Source:Depth:| Att:|1.000x|1.000x|1.000x|MIDI73|1.000x| Dec:|1.000x|1.000x||||||||MIDI72|1.000x| Rel:|1.000x|1.000x||||||||MIDI72|1.000x| Imp:|0.0dB|||0.00d|0.0dB||OFF||||0.0dB|| <more||AMPENV|ENV2|||ENV3|||ENVCTL|more>

The display’s top line reminds you of the current layer. The ﬁrst line of text in the center of the display shows ﬁve of the common DSP control parameters: Adjust, Key tracking, Velocity tracking, and Source/Depth.

This page is a table showing the ﬁve envelope control parameters, and their values for each of the three sections of the envelopes. Additionally, the line above the soft buttons lets you make use of the Impact feature, which adds an amplitude overshoot to the ﬁrst 20 milliseconds of a note’s attack. It’s important to keep in mind that if you set up an envelope control source, it affects Envelopes 2 and 3, as well as the amplitude envelope (Natural or User). Furthermore, the values for the various parameters are cumulative. With the exception of Impact, though, ENVCTL does not affect the attack sections of natural envelopes.

The parameters and values in the following list apply to each of the three envelope sections— attack, decay, and release. We’ll describe them only once, since their functions are largely the same for each envelope section. The only difference is with velocity tracking, which is hardwired to control only the attack sections of the envelopes (you can assign attack velocity as the value for the Source parameter in each of the sections, however).

The values of each of these parameters multiply the rates of the envelope sections they control. Values greater than 1.000x make the envelope sections run faster (they increase the rate), while values less than 1.000x make the envelope sections run slower. Say for example that on the current layer’s AMPENV page you had set the Decay section’s time at 2.00 seconds, and its level at 0%. This sets the layer’s amplitude to fade to silence two seconds after the completion of the last attack segment. The decay time is two seconds; the decay rate is 50% per second. Now if you select the ENVCTL page and set the Decay Adjust parameter to a value of 2.000x, you’ve increased the decay rate by a factor of two. The rate increases to 100% per second, and the decay time is now one second instead of two.

6-32

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES

(Att, Dec, Rel)

ADJUST 0.018 to 50.000x KEY TRACKING 0.018 to 50.000x VELOCITY TRACKING 0.018 to 50.000x SOURCE Control Source list DEPTH 0.018 to 50.000x

Adjust

This is the familiar Coarse adjust found on many other pages. Use it here to change the rate of one of the envelope sections without reprogramming the envelope itself. This parameter doesn’t give

Page 75

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—Envelope Control (ENVCTL) Page

you realtime control over the envelope. It is, however, a good way to adjust the natural envelopes without switching to a User envelope and trying to approximate the Natural envelope.

Key T racking

This uses the MIDI note number of each key as the control input for the current layer’s corresponding envelope section. When the value of this parameter is greater than 1.000x, notes above C 4 will make the envelope section run faster, while notes below C 4 will make it run slower. When the value of this parameter is less than 1.000x, notes above C 4 will make the envelope section run slower, and notes below C 4 will make it run faster. This gives you realtime envelope control right from your MIDI controller. You might use it, for example, to cause an acoustic guitar sound to decay quicker at the high end (set the key tracking to a positive value).

Velocity T racking

Use your attack velocity as the control input for the current layer’s attack section (this parameter doesn’t apply to decay or release). When the value of this parameter is greater than

1.000x, attack velocities greater than 64 make the attack section run faster, and attack velocities below 64 make it run slower. This gives you realtime attack control over the envelope.

Source, Depth

These two parameters work together to let you assign a control like the Mod Wheel to affect the current layer’s envelopes in realtime. The value of the Source parameter deﬁnes which control affects the envelope section, and the value of the Depth parameter deﬁnes how much the rate is multiplied when the control is at its maximum.

Impact

Impact punches the volume during the ﬁrst 20 milliseconds of the attack of an envelope. Use this feature to get maximum "thump" from your bass and drum sounds. Programs you create that use Impact will not work on a K2000.

6-33

Page 76

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—LFO Page

These are low-frequency oscillators. You’ll use the LFO page to deﬁne the behavior of the two LFOs available to each layer. LFOs are periodic (repeating) control sources. The basic elements are the rate and shape, which deﬁne how frequently the LFO repeats, and the waveform of the modulation signal it generates.

With the K2500, you can set upper and lower limits on each LFO’s rate, and assign a control source to change the LFO’s rate in realtime, if you wish.

Because of its periodic nature, the LFO is perfect for creating effects like vibrato (cyclic variation in pitch) and tremolo (cyclic variation in amplitude). When you’re editing LFOs, or any control source, remember that it must be assigned to control some parameter before you’ll hear the effects of your edits.

LFO1 is always local, meaning that it’s triggered with each Note On event, and runs independently for each note in the layer. LFO2 is local by default, but can be made global. This is done on the COMMON page, by setting the Globals parameter to On, which causes LFO2, ASR2, FUN2 and FUN4 all to become global. Global controls uniformly affect every note in each layer.

EditProg:LFO|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||MnRate:MxRate:RateCt:Shape:|Phase: LFO1:||2.00H||0.00H|OFF||||Sine|||Odeg|| LFO2:||OFF||||0.00H|OFF||||Sine|||Odeg|| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||LFO||||ASR||||FUN||||VTRIG||more>

The top line of this page gives the usual mode reminder and tells you which layer you’re looking at. There are ﬁve parameters for each of the LFOs.

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT MINIMUM RATE 0 to 24 Hz 2.00 (OFF for LFO2)

MAXIMUM RATE 0 to 24 Hz 0.00 RATE CONTROL Control Source list OFF LFO SHAPE LFO Shape list (Ref. Guide) Sine LFO START PHASE 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees 0

Minimum Rate

This is the slowest rate at which the LFO will run. When its Rate control is set to OFF, or when the control source assigned to it is at its minimum, the LFO runs at its minimum rate.

Maximum Rate

This is the fastest possible rate for the LFO. When its Rate control is set to ON, or when the control source assigned to it is at its maximum, the LFO runs at its maximum rate.

Rate Control

Assign any control source in the list to modulate the LFO’s rate between its minimum and maximum. A continuous control like the Mod Wheel is a natural choice, enabling you to get just about any rate between min and max. But you can use a switch control too, to get just the min or max with nothing in between. Assigning MPress as the rate control for an LFO vibrato

6-34

Page 77

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—LFO Page

gives you an easy way to increase the vibrato rate in realtime, as you can on many acoustic instruments.

LFO Shape

The shape of the LFO waveform determines the nature of its effect on the signal its modulating. There are diagrams of each LFO shape in the Reference Guide; these will give you an idea of how each LFO shape affects the signal. An easy way to check the effects of the different LFO shapes is to set LFO1 as the value for the Src1 parameter on the PITCH page, and set the Depth for Src1 to 400 cents or so. Then go to the LFO page, set the Min and Max rates for LFO1 at 0.00 Hz and

4.00 Hz or so, and set the Rate control to MWheel. Now play your MIDI controller and you’ll hear the LFO’s rate change when you move its Mod Wheel. Select different LFO Shapes and check out the effect on the pitch.

LFO Phase

Use this parameter to determine the starting point of the LFO’s cycle. One complete cycle of the LFO is 360 degrees. 0 degrees phase corresponds to a control signal value of 0, becoming positive. Each 90-degree increment in the phase represents a quarter-cycle of the LFO.

When an LFO is local, the phase parameter gives you control over the starting point of the LFO for each note (for example, you could make sure every vibrato started below the pitch you played instead of at the pitch you played). The LFO’s phase also affects global LFOs, although it’s often indistinguishable, since global LFOs start running as soon as the program containing them is selected, even if you don’t play any notes.

6-35

Page 78

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—ASR Page

ASRs are three-section unipolar envelopes—attack, sustain, and release. The K2500’s ASRs can be triggered by a programmable control source, and can be delayed. ASR1 is always a local control. ASR2 is local by default, but becomes global if the Globals parameter on the COMMON page is set to On. ASRs are frequently used to ramp the depth of pitch or amplitude in a vibrato or tremolo, enabling delays in those effects. Chapter 19 gives an example of creating a delayed vibrato. The ASR page consists of two rows of ﬁve parameters, one row for each of the ASRs.

EditProg:ASR|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||Trig:||Mode:|Delay:|Attack:Releas: ASR1:|ON|||||Hold||1.00s||1.00s||1.00s|| ASR2:|ON|||||Rept||1.00s||1.00s||1.00s|| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||LFO||||ASR||||FUN||||VTRIG||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES TRIGGER Control Source list

MODE Normal, Hold, Repeat DELAY 0 to 60 seconds ATTACK 0 to 60 seconds RELEASE 0 to 60 seconds

Trigger

This deﬁnes the control source that starts the current layer’s ASRs. The ASR starts when the trigger switches from off to on. If the Trigger parameter is set to ON, global ASRs will run as soon as the program containing it is selected. Switch controls are better suited for ASR triggers because of their binary (on/off) nature. A continuous control will trigger the ASRs when its signal value is above its midpoint.

Mode

This parameter sets the sustain section of the ASR. The ASR’s mode determines what the ASR does when it ﬁnishes its attack section. If the Mode parameter is set to Normal, the ASR will run directly from its attack section to its release section (no sustain). At a setting of Repeat, the ASR will cycle through the attack and release sections, then loop forward and cycle through again until the ASR’s trigger switches off. If the mode is set to Hold, the ASR maintains its position at the end of the attack section until the ASR’s trigger switches off. The ASR then goes into its release section. If the ASR’s trigger switches off before the attack section is complete, the ASR goes directly to its release section.

Delay

When the ASR’s trigger switches on, the ASR will start immediately if this parameter is set to zero. Non-zero values will cause a corresponding delay between the ASR trigger and the start of the ASR.

Attack

This deﬁnes how long the ASR takes to ramp up from minimum to maximum effect on whatever it’s patched to.

6-36

Release

This deﬁnes how long the ASR takes to fade to minimum from its maximum. If the ASR’s trigger switches off before the ASR has reached maximum, the ASR releases from that level.

Page 79

Program Editor—FUN Page

“FUN” is short for “function.” The K2500’s four FUNs greatly extend the ﬂexibility of the control sources. Each FUN accepts input from any two control sources, performs a selectable function on the two input signals, and sends the result as its output, which can be assigned like any other control source. Using the FUNs involves deﬁning them on the FUN page, then assigning one or more of them as control sources. The FUN page looks like this:

EditProg:FUN|||||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||Input|a:|Input|b:|Function:||||||| FUN1:|OFF||||||OFF||||||a+b||||||||||||| FUN2:|OFF||||||OFF||||||a-b||||||||||||| FUN3:|OFF||||||OFF||||||(a+b)/2||||||||| FUN4:|OFF||||||OFF||||||a/2+b||||||||||| <more||LFO||||ASR||||FUN||||VTRIG||more>

There are three parameters for each FUN. Inputs a and b can be any control source from the Control Source list. The control sources you want to combine are the ones you’ll assign as the values for these parameters.

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—FUN Page

The Function parameter determines what mathematical function is applied to the two inputs. When a FUN has been assigned as a control source, the K2500 reads the values of the two control sources deﬁned as Inputs a and b. It then processes them according to the setting for the Function parameter, and the resulting value is the FUN’s output.

Chapter 16 describes each of these functions, and provides a few diagrams to give you a hint of the immense control (as well as some chaos) that these functions make possible.

6-37

Page 80

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Program Editor—VTRIG Page

The velocity triggers base their operation on the attack velocity of each note you play. To use a VTRIG, you simply set its velocity level (threshold), then set it to switch on or off when your attack velocities exceed that threshold. Then assign it as a control source for some other parameter. They’re handy for triggering ASRs, for example.

EditProg:VTRIG|||||||||||||<>Layer:1/1||

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| VTrig1|Level:ppp|||||||||||||||||||||||| VTrig1|Sense:Norm||||||||||||||||||||||| VTrig2|Level:ppp|||||||||||||||||||||||| VTrig2|Sense:Norm||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||LFO||||ASR||||FUN||||VTRIG||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT VEL. TRIGGER LEVEL ppp to fff ppp

VEL. TRIGGER SENSE Normal, Reversed Normal

The velocity trigger’s level is expressed in terms of the standard dynamic markings of western music—ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff. The K2500 converts each attack velocity value it receives into one of these eight levels. When a velocity trigger has been assigned as a control source, the K2500 compares the velocity trigger’s level and sense with the attack velocity values it receives. If the sense is Normal and the attack velocity value is greater than the velocity trigger’s level, the trigger switches on. When the velocity trigger’s sense is reversed, the trigger switches on when the attack velocities it receives are lower than the velocity trigger’s level. Keep in mind that you won’t hear the effect of editing the VTRIG page until you’ve assigned a VTRIG as a control source for some other parameter.

6-38

Page 81

Function Soft Buttons

The remainder of this chapter describes the soft buttons that perform speciﬁc functions, as opposed to selecting programming pages. The descriptions below are arranged in the order in which you would see the soft buttons if you pressed the more> button repeatedly. You can always get to these buttons, regardless of which page is currently selected.

Set Range (SetRng)

The SetRng soft button gives you a quick way to set the lowest and highest notes in the currently selected layer. Press this button, and the K2500 will prompt you to trigger the note you want to set as the low note for the layer. Press the Cancel soft button if you change your mind. Otherwise, trigger the desired note on your MIDI controller. When you trigger a note, the K2500 prompts you to trigger the note you want to be the highest in the layer. When you trigger another note, the previously selected page returns, and the notes you triggered will be recorded as the new values for the LoKey and HiKey parameters on the LAYER page. You’ll notice that the higher of the two notes you triggered is entered as the HiKey value, regardless of the order in which you triggered the two notes.

Name

Call up the page that enables you to change the name of the current program.

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Function Soft Buttons

Save

Start the process of saving the current program.

Delete

Delete the current program from RAM. You can also delete any other RAM program by scrolling through the list that appears when you press the Delete soft button, then pressing Delete again when the desired program is selected. If you attempt to delete a ROM program, the K2500 will say it’s deleting the program, but it doesn’t actually do it.

Dump

Send a MIDI System Exclusive dump of the current program’s settings. See the Reference Guide for more information about System Exclusive messages.

New Layer (NewLyr)

Create a new layer, numbered one above the highest existing layer. The new layer’s parameters are those of the single layer in Program 199, called “Default Program.” When you press this button, the K2500 will tell you that it is creating a new layer, then will return to the page you were on. The new layer becomes the current layer. If the current program already has its maximum number of layers, the K2500 will tell you that you can’t add any more. If the current keyboard channel is a drum channel, you can add up to 31 additional layers, for a total of 32. Otherwise, the maximum is a total of three.

Program 199 makes a good template for programs that you build from the algorithm up. You might want to edit Program 199 to adjust one or more parameters to values you want to use in your template program. If you like the settings of the default layer as they are, however, remember not to make any permanent changes to Program 199.

Duplicate Layer (DupLyr)

Create a copy of the current layer, duplicating the settings of all its parameters. The copy becomes the current layer, and is numbered one higher than the original.

6-39

Page 82

Program Mode and the Program Editor

Function Soft Buttons

Import Layer (ImpLyr)

Copy a speciﬁc layer from another program into the current program. This button brings up a dialog that prompts you to select a layer number and a program number. The dialog tells you the currently selected layer, and the total number of layers in the program. Use one of the two leftmost soft buttons (or the up/down cursor buttons) to change the layer number. If the current program has only one layer, pressing these buttons will have no effect. Use one of the two center soft buttons (or the left/right cursor buttons) to change the program number.

While you are on this screen, you can listen to the layer you are selecting to import, along with all other layers in the current program. If you want to hear the layer to be imported by itself, you must mute the other layers.

When you have selected the desired layer from the desired program, press the Import soft button, and the selected layer will be copied from the selected program, becoming the current layer. Importing layers is a convenient alternative to creating layers from scratch. If you have a favorite string sound, for example, and you want to use it in other programs, just import its layer(s) into the program you’re building. This will preserve the envelopes and all the control settings so you don’t have to reprogram them.

Delete Layer (DelLyr)

Delete the current layer. When you press this button, the K2500 asks you if you want to delete the layer; press the Yes soft button to start the deletion process, or the No soft button to cancel it. This prompt prevents you from accidentally deleting a layer.

6-40

Page 83

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

Setup Mode

Chapter 7 Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

Setup Mode

In Setup Mode, the K2500 can take on the identity of eight distinct instruments and eight distinct MIDI transmitters, each of which can use the same set of physical controllers, or any subset of those controllers. For example, you can create a keyboard which is split into eight different regions, each of which has its own instrument (say, drums, bass, piano, sax, guitar, percussion, violin, and organ), and each of which also transmits on its own MIDI channel, so that eight different internal programs and external MIDI instruments can be played individually on different parts of the K2500 keyboard.

Selecting setups in Setup mode is much like selecting programs in Program mode—just use one of the normal data entry methods to scroll through the list of setups. Standard program changes select the correspondingly numbered setups while the K2500 is in Setup mode.

echnology

TSAV

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

If you’re using a K2500R, or any K2500 receiving MIDI program changes, you must set the

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

STU

VWX

xit

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

CLR

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

LocalKbdCh parameter on the MIDI RECV page to match the transmit channel of your MIDI

Tip=Left

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

controller.

There are some important differences between a program and a setup . A program comprises several layers, but plays on only one keyboard region, called a “Zone”, and only one MIDI channel. A setup enables you to use up to eight keyboard (or MIDI controller) Zones, each of which can have its own program, MIDI channel, and control assignments. The parameters you deﬁne for each setup only affect programs while you are in Setup Mode . The only exception to this is the Control Setup, which we’ll cover shortly.

SetupMode||||||Xpose:0ST||||||||||||||||

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@|221|Friday|Gig|||||| Chan/Program|Info|#|222|Bop|Rock|Reggae| 1||||9|Cool|Traps|#| 301|Jazz|Trio||||||| 2|||18|Sly|Acoust|#|302|All|Percussion|| 3|||22|Izit|Jimmy|#|303|Heavy|Metal||||| %%%%%%^%%%%%%^%%%%$|304|To|Sequencer|||| Octav-| Octav+| Panic|| Sample|||||||||||||

Press the Setup mode button to enter Setup mode. You’ll see a list of setups that you can select with any data entry method. For setups containing three or fewer Zones, the box at the left side of the display shows you the programs assigned to each Zone in the currently selected setup, and the MIDI channels on which they’re being transmitted. An “L” or an “M” next to the channel number indicates that the Zone transmits only to Local or MIDI programs, respectively. “Off” indicates that the Zone has been turned off completely.

The lines beneath the program names represent the approximate key range of each Zone, and let you know whether any of the Zones overlap. For setups with four or more Zones, the box displays only the lines representing key range information.

You can transpose the entire setup up or down with the two Octav soft buttons. Press them simultaneously to set the transposition back to zero. When you transpose a setup, the split points between Zones remain in place; each program is transposed within its respective Zone.

7-1

Page 84

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

Setup Mode

The Panic soft button sends “all notes off” and “reset all Controllers” messages to all Zones. The

Sample soft button provides convenient access to the K2500’s sampler. Refer to Chapter 15 for

complete information on the sampler. When you select a setup in Setup mode, the K2500 sends a number of MIDI messages, on each

of the MIDI channels used by the setup. Some of these include: Program Change commands, MIDI Bank Select messages, Pan and Volume messages, and Entry Values for physical controllers. The values of all these messages depend on the parameters you deﬁne in the Setup Editor.

Loading Older Setup Versions

You can load K2000 setups, or setups which used a previous version of the K2500’s software, into the Version 2 Setup mode. You can then edit your older setups to take advantage of the K2500’s expanded features. Keep in mind though that once you save these setups in the new version of Setup mode, you won’t be able to play them on a K2000, or on a K2500 with preVersion 2 software.

K2500 Rack Models Only

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

splitting and layering capabilities as the keyboard version. Even if your MIDI controller can

STU

VWX

xit

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

CLR

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

transmit on only one MIDI channel at a time, you can use the K2500’s setups by setting the

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

With software version 2.0 or higher installed, the rack version of the K2500 offers the same

echnology

TSAV

Local Keyboard Channel parameter on the MIDI mode RECV page to match the channel you’re using to transmit from your MIDI controller. This will enable you to play the setup’s eight Zones, and send the MIDI information from your MIDI controller to the K2500R’s MIDI Out port, on the channels used by the current setup.

Once you have properly set the Local Keyboard Channel, the K2500R will remap Controller messages from your MIDI controller. Some examples of these Controller messages include: Modulation (01), Foot (04), Data (06), Mono Pressure (32), Sustain (64), and Sostenuto (66). By sending preset controller numbers, you can remap them to the controllers assigned within the Setup Editor. For these preset numbers, along with more on using a MIDI controller with the K2500R, see the discussion of the Local Keyboard Channel in Chapter 10.

If you send data on a channel other than the Local Keyboard Channel, no remapping will occur. You will only hear the program assigned to the channel your MIDI controller is transmitting on.

For the remainder of the chapter, we’ll cover topics that apply to both the rack and keyboard versions of the K2500. However, any references to the sliders, ribbons, wheels, buttons, or other physical controllers are intended primarily for K2500 keyboard owners.

The Control Setup

In addition to Zone splitting and layering, Setup Mode is a powerful way to take advantage of the K2500’s programmable sliders, ribbon controllers, and assignable buttons. However, you may wish to modify the behavior of those controllers in Program mode as well. The Control Setup deﬁnes the controller assignments for programs in Program Mode.

7-2

In previous versions of the K2500 operating system, the MIDI mode XMIT page contained several parameters for controller assignments. However, with the large number of features newly available on the K2500, it has been necessary to put physical controller parameters in the Control Setup.

The default Control Setup is "97 Control Setup", but you can choose any Control Setup you want. To do this, enter the MIDI mode XMIT page and use any normal data entry method to change the CtlSetup parameter. When you re-enter Program Mode, all programs will now

Page 85

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

Setup Mode

respond to the controller assignments deﬁned in Zone 1 of the Control Setup (Zones 2–8 are not relevant in Program mode, because a Program can only occupy one MIDI channel).

To edit the Control Setup, press the EDIT button while the CtlSetup parameter is highlighted on the MIDI XMIT page. This brings you to the Setup Editor, which is described in the following sections. The table below shows which Control Setup Parameters will affect programs in Program mode.

Control Setup–Setup

Editor Page, Zone 1

Parameters Affecting

Program Mode

Parameters

Program Mode

Not

Affecting

CH/PROG ZoneArpeg LocalPrg, Channel, MIDIBank,

MIDIProg, Status, Destination, MIDIBankMode, EntryProgChg,

KEY/VEL V elScale, VelOffset, VelCurve LoKey/HiKey , Transpose,

NoteMap, LoVel/HiVel PAN/VOL None BEND All COMMON None ARPEG All RIBCFG All Continuous Controller

Dest, Scale, Add, Curv Ent and Exit assignment pages (SLIDER, SLID/2, CPEDAL, RIBBON, WHEEL, PRESS

Switch Controller assign-

SwType, Dest, On, Off Ent and Exit ment Pages (FOOTSW, SWITCH)

In summary, physical controller destinations, their curves and states, and the Arpeggiator parameters all deﬁne controller assignments for programs in Program Mode. The other parameters have no effect; this keeps Program mode from being too complex. Program mode lets you change values for transposition, MIDI Channels, and programs independently of the Control Setup.

Once you save changes to the Control Setup, those changes will affect all programs when you are in Program mode. For example, programming the Large Ribbon in the Control Setup to have three sections will mean that in every program in Program mode, you will have a threesection Large Ribbon.

You may ﬁnd that it’s a good idea to program several different Control Setups, and switch among them for different applications.

7-3

Page 86

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Setup Editor

From Setup mode, press the EDIT button to enter the Setup Editor, and you can make changes to the currently selected setup. The Setup Editor consists of pages that you access by using the K2500’s soft buttons. The upper line of each page displays the usual mode reminder, the current Setup Editor page, and the current Zone. Use the CHAN/BANK buttons to select one of up to eight different Zones, each having its own Setup Editor page.

The parameters on the Setup Editor’s pages deﬁne what each of a setup’s Zones sends, both to internal programs and to the MIDI Out port. They also determine how the K2500 responds to MIDI signals received from a MIDI controller connected to the K2500’s MIDI In port (when the Local Keyboard Channel matches the transmit channel of your MIDI controller).

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page

This is the ﬁrst page you see when you enter the Setup Editor. Here, you can select programs, MIDI channels, and MIDI bank numbers for each of the setup’s eight Zones. You can also solo or mute each Zone, and assign Zones to be controlled by the K2500’s Arpeggiator.

EditSetup:CH/PROG||||||||||||||<>Zone1/1

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| LocalPrg: 1|Acoustic|Piano||||||||||||||| Channel|:1||||||Destination|:Local+MIDI| MIDIBank:0||||||MIDIBankMode:Ctl|32||||| MIDIProg:1||||||EntryProgChg:On||||||||| Status||:Active|Arpeggiator:Off||||||||| <more|| CH/PRG| KEYVEL| PANVOL| BEND||| more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT LOCAL PROGRAM Program list 1 Acoustic Piano

CHANNEL 1-16 1 DESTINATION Destination list Local+MIDI MIDI BANK None, 0-127 0 MIDI BANK MODE MIDI Bank Mode list Ctl 32 MIDI PROGRAM None, 0-127 1 ENTRY PROGRAM CHANGE On/Off On STATUS Status list Active ZONE ARPEGGIATION On/Off On

Local Program (LocalPrg)

This selects an internal program to play on each Zone. As you change the Local Program, notice that MIDI Program and MIDI Bank match the Local Program and Bank numbers. If want to transmit different program and bank numbers over MIDI, highlight either MIDI Program or MIDI Bank and select a new value. Note that changing the Local Program parameter again will reset both the MIDI Program local program and bank numbers.

and MIDI Bank parameters to match the

7-4

Channel

The Channel parameter deﬁnes the MIDI transmit channel for the currently selected Zone. You can set it to any of the 16 MIDI channels. Normally, you will want each Zone on a separate MIDI channel. This is necessary if you want to combine different programs in the setup.

Page 87

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page

If two Zones have the same MIDI channel (and destination), but they have different Program settings, there will be conﬂicts: no MIDI device, including the K2500, can respond correctly to two different simultaneous Program Change commands on one channel. The result will be that only one Program Change will be recognized, and every note played will sound double (if Note Maps are on). This can create unpredictable odd timing effects, and will reduce polyphony by 50%.

There will, however, be occasions when “stacking” Zones on the same MIDI channel might come in handy. Suppose you want a physical controller on the K2500 to send data out for two different numbered MIDI Controllers on the same channel. In this case, you must create two Zones assigned to the same channel, but with different controller assignments.

Here’s one example: if a receiving synth is using Controller #1 for modulation depth and Controller #13 for modulation speed, you can increase both the depth and the speed with Slider A. Start by assigning that slider in Zone 1 to MWheel and in Zone 2 to MIDI 13; then assign both Zones to the same MIDI channel. (You may want to make sure you aren’t sending doubled notes. Use the Note Map parameter on the KEY/VEL page to set one Zone’s Note Map to "Linear" and the other Zone’s Note Map to "Off").

Another example: create two or more Zones that are identical except for their transposition settings. Now you can play parallel intervals (or chords) with single keystrokes.

MIDI Bank

The K2500’s programs are divided into ten MIDI banks, numbered 0-9. Program 22 in Bank 1, for example, is 122 "Treble Flute". The MIDI Bank parameter displays which Bank the current program is assigned to, and automatically changes to match the Local Program value you set.

You can send Bank Select messages to external MIDI devices as well, by setting Destination to MIDI or Local + MIDI, then changing MIDI Bank. Some instruments may have more than ten banks; the MIDI Speciﬁcation says a device can have up to 16,384(!) banks, and the K2500 gives you access to every single one of them. Bank switching over MIDI makes it easy for the K2500 user to select sounds on external instruments, no matter how many banks they might have.

If you select an empty Bank (like Bank 16, 383), the Zone will still produce sound on the K2500, provided that Destination is set to Local or Local + MIDI. The LocalPrg parameter will display whatever internal program you set, but the bank number transmitted over the MIDI Out port will be different from the internal program’s bank number.

MIDI Program (MIDIProg)

MIDI Program deﬁnes which program number is transmitted out the MIDI Out port on the current Zone’s MIDI channel.

Status

This parameter deﬁnes whether the current Zone is Active (sends and receives normally over MIDI), Muted (sends and receives program changes but doesn’t play notes), Soloed (all other Zones are muted, but the current Zone plays), or Solo/M (the current Zone is both soloed and muted; when the Zone isn’t soloed, it won’t produce sound).

The K2500 features a set of eight buttons, located above the programmable sliders. Each button mutes, un-mutes, or solos its correspondingly numbered Zone. A green light means the Zone is active; press a Zone’s button once to mute it, and the light turns orange. Unlighted buttons indicate empty Zones.

To solo the current Zone, ﬁrst press the "SOLO" button, located to the left of the eight sliders. The SOLO button will turn red and the current Zone’s button will turn red, indicating that the Zone is soloed; all other Zone buttons will remain green. While the SOLO button is lighted, you

7-5

Page 88

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page

can solo any other Zone by pressing its button. Press the SOLO button again to un-mute all Zones.

You can change Status by using any normal data entry method; buttons 1–8 will light to correspond with the values you select.

2500RS

Sampler

han/Bank

Layer/Zone

dit

rogram

ffects

Access

etup

QS E MIDI

Mute 1

FX Bypass

Mute 2

Mute 3

Zoom -

Zoom +

Samp/Sec

ower

ynthesisrchitectureariable

ptical In

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

Left

PROGRAM (Mute 1), SETUP (Mute 2) , and QACCESS (Mute 3). For setups containing up to

STU

VWX

xit

aster

ong

isk

Mark

Compare

Previous Pg

Jump

Gain +

Gain -

Link

CLR

MIDI

UPPER/lower

0-9

Space

ancel

nter

Right

Tip=Left

three Zones, pressing each button mutes or un-mutes Zone 1, 2, or 3. For setups containing

olume

eadphone

Ring=Right

K2500R owners can mute and un-mute Zones by using the ﬁrst three mode select buttons:

echnology

TSAV

four or more Zones, pressing Mute 1 will mute the current Zone; pressing Mute 2 or Mute 3 will solo the current Zone. You can then press the CHAN/BANK buttons to solo each Zone.

On the K2500R, each button turns only one color (red); a system of lighted/unlighted buttons lets you know that certain Zones are soloed or muted. When you use the CHAN/BANK buttons to scroll to other Zones, the buttons will light according to each Zone’s status. The illustration below explains how to interpret this system.

Setups containing 3 or fewer Zones

All Zones Active.

rogram

Mute 1

Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

Setups containing 4 or more Zones

Press Mute 1, and the current Zone is Muted.

rogram

Mute 1 Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Current Zone Active–some other  Zones Muted. 

rogram

Mute 1 Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

Press Mute 1, Mute 2, or Mute 3 to  Mute each Zone.

rogram

Mute 1 Zoom -

etup

Mute 2 Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

Press Mute 2 or Mute 3, and the current Zone is Soloed; press  CHAN/BANK buttons to solo each Zone.

rogram

Mute 1 Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

Some Zones Muted, including  Current Zone.



rogram

Mute 1

Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

7-6



All Zones Active.

rogram

Mute 1

Zoom -

etup

Mute 2

Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec

All Zones Muted.

rogram

Mute 1

Zoom -

etup

Mute 2 Zoom +

Access

Mute 3

Samp/Sec



The K2500 keyboard’s mode select buttons also light as shown above. However, buttons 1–8 provide a more convenient and useful way to mute, un-mute, and solo Zones.

Page 89

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page

I Don’t Hear a Zone: Is It Active (But Not Soloed), Muted, or Empty?

There are important differences between a Zone that is silent because a different Zone has been soloed (green light, when another Zone is red); a Zone that is muted (orange light); and one that is empty (no light).

A Zone not soloed (but otherwise active) doesn’t send notes or controllers, but will send exit and entry values for its programs and controllers when you enter or leave the Setup.

A Zone that is muted behaves just like a Zone that is not soloed; notes and controllers are not sent to internal programs or to MIDI. A muted Zone does have a program number and a MIDI channel, as well as a complete set of other parameters, all of which come into play when the Zone is un-muted.

A Zone that is empty has no MIDI channel. It generates no data until you create it by pressing the NewZn soft button (see the New Zone section on page 7-41).

Color:

State: Active Active

Data Generated:

Notes √√

Controllers √√

Program number √√√√

Entry and Exit values √√√√

You can quickly disable and enable an individual sound or a MIDI instrument by changing a Zone’s status from active to muted. This can be very useful for live performance, to bring layers of sound in and out quickly. When you save a Setup, the mute and solo statuses of the Zones are stored along with the rest of the parameters, and when you recall the Setup, those statuses are automatically enabled. So, you could call up a Setup that has one Zone Soloed, and instantly add instruments by turning off Solo. Or you can select a Setup that has one or more muted Zones, and un-mute them as you play.

Green Green

(but another is Red)

(not Soloed)

Red Orange None

Soloed Muted Empty (no

Zone Present)

Destination

This determines whether the currently selected Zone transmits only to the K2500 (Local), gets sent only via MIDI (MIDI), controls both the K2500 and connected MIDI instruments (Local+MIDI), or is disabled (Off). Setting Destination to "Off" turns the Zone off completely; no MIDI data will be sent and no local program will sound.

MIDI Bank Mode

The MIDI Bank Mode you choose determines how bank numbers will be sent over MIDI when the Setup is selected, and in what format. It also affects how many MIDI banks you can choose.

None means no bank number is sent, just the program number. Ctl 0 means that the bank number is sent as a MIDI Controller #0 message. Ctl 32 means it is sent as MIDI Controller #32. Ctl 0/32 means it is sent as a dual-controller (two-byte) message, with the MSB of the bank number sent as Controller #0 and the LSB as Controller #32. Single-byte Bank Select messages (either 0 or 32) allow you to specify banks numbered 0-127. Two-byte messages allow you to specify banks numbered 0-

7-7

Page 90

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Channel/Program (CH/PROG) Page

16,383. With 128 programs per bank, this allows you to access 2,097,152 different programs on one instrument.

The MIDI Speciﬁcation is a little ambiguous when it comes to Bank Select messages, as to whether they should be only Controller 0, only Controller 32, or both Controllers sent as a pair. Different manufacturers design their instruments to respond to different schemes, and if you send Bank Select in a form an instrument doesn’t like, it may ignore it or interpret it incorrectly. This K2500 parameter is designed to allow the greatest ﬂexibility in addressing other MIDI instruments. Usually you can look on the MIDI Implementation chart in the user’s manual of an instrument to determine how it likes to receive Bank Select messages, and then set this parameter for each Zone to suit the instrument that is receiving data from it. The default setting, which will work with the largest number of other instruments, is Ctl 32.

There are two other options, which will be of special interest to owners of other Kurzweil instruments. The K2000 Bank mode is designed to work with the K2000 or the K2500. The Bank Select message is sent as Controller #32, with a value between 0 and 9. Remember, the K2000 and K2500 only support 10 banks and 99 programs per bank, so Program Changes 100 or higher are sent as Bank Select 1, followed by the last two digits as a Program Change. For example, if Program 124 is assigned to the Zone, this will be sent out the MIDI jack as Bank Select (Controller #32) 1, and then Program Change 24.

K1000 is used with any of the 1200-series keyboards or modules, or any of the 1000-series instruments that have version 5 software installed. Those instruments pre-date the adoption of standard Bank Select messages; instead, they use Program Changes 100-109 as Bank Selects. If you select Bank 5: Program 42 for a K2500 Zone, for example, it will send out Program Change 105 followed by Program Change 42. K2500 program numbers over 99 are not sent.

Entry Program Change (EntryProgChg)

This enables or disables bank and program change commands sent to internal programs or to the MIDI Out jack when you select setups. If it’s set to On, then the program numbers for the programs in the eight Zones will be sent via MIDI when a setup is selected. By setting this parameter to Off, you can select a setup on the K2500, without changing the internal programs or those on MIDI devices receiving from the K2500. This is useful if you want to send only controller data to the K2500 or to MIDI devices, without changing program assignments.

Zone Arpeggiation (ZoneArpeg)

Zone Arpeggiation determines whether the Arpeggiator will play notes in the selected Zone. Turning some Zones On and not others means that some programs will be Arpeggiated and some will not. If all Zone Enables are Off, then the Arpeggiator won’t transmit to the current Zone.

The notes that are generated by the Arpeggiator are restricted in each Zone to that Zone’s Key Range. If the Arpeggiator, for example, tries to play a C#4 in a Zone, but that Zone’s Key Range ends at C4, the note will not sound. However, another Zone whose Key Range ends at C5 will be able to play the C#4 from the Arpeggiator. Therefore, setting a Zone’s Key Range can be important in deciding how it will respond to the Arpeggiator. (A separate Key Range, found on the ARPEG page, deﬁnes which notes the Arpeggiator will recognize.)

7-8

Page 91

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

The Key/Velocity page allows you to set key range, velocity range, transposition, and Note Maps for each Zone.

EditSetup:KEY/VEL||||||||||||||<>Zone1/1

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| LoKey:C|-1||Transpose:0ST||||||||||||||| HiKey:G|9|||Notemap||:Linear|||||||||||| ||||||||||||VelScale|:100%|||||||||||||| LoVel:1|||||VelOffset:0||||||||||||||||| HiVel:127|||VelCurve|:Linear|||||||||||| <more||CH/PRG|KEYVEL|PANVOL|BEND|||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT LOW KEY C –1 to G9 C –1

HIGH KEY C –1 to G9 G9 TRANSPOSE -128 to +127 semitones 0 semitones NOTE MAP Note Map list Linear LOW VELOCITY 1-127 1 HIGH VELOCITY 1-127 127 VELOCITY SCALE ±300% 100% VELOCITY OFFSET -128 to +127 0 VELOCITY CURVE Velocity Curve List Linear

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

Low Key (LoKey), High Key (HiKey)

The LoKey and HiKey parameters deﬁne the note range of the currently selected Zone. The easiest way to change these values is to press the SetRng soft button, which you can access by pressing either of the more soft buttons. You’ll be prompted to trigger the notes you want to be the lowest and highest notes for the Zone. When you do, you’ll return to the Setup Editor page, and the notes you triggered will be reﬂected in the values for LoKey and HiKey. They’ll also be represented by the lines beneath the program names in the box at the left of the Setup mode page. You can set these values with normal data entry methods as well.

You can create “negative” ranges as well. To do this, select the HiKey parameter and set its limit lower than the LoKey limit. This results in the Zone being active at the top and bottom of the keyboard, but being silent in the range between the two limits. This lets you create a layer with a “hole” in the middle, which you can then ﬁll with a different sound on another Zone (either an internal or on an external program).

Note that using the SetRng soft button won’t allow you to create a negative range, since it always deﬁnes the higher keystrike as the HiKey value. If you want to set HiKey lower than LoKey (or vice versa), use a normal data entry method. Unfortunately Intuitive Entry is not a good way to set note ranges (see the discussion on Intuitive Entry in Chapter 3).

The limits of MIDI are C-1 to G9. The untransposed 88-key range is A0 to C8. The untransposed 76-key range is E1 to G7.

Transpose

This changes the pitch of the Zone, without changing its position on the keyboard. It changes the MIDI note numbers generated by the keys in the Zone, without physically shifting the Zone. The range is ±127 semitones. Since there are 12 semitones (or half steps) to an octave, you can transpose up or down over ten octaves. If you transpose out of the range of the active voice, however, no notes will sound; MIDI note numbers will transmit, but notes will not.

7-9

Page 92

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

Note Map

Note Map lets you change the way notes are sent from the K2500. The default setting is Linear: all notes go out as played. Moving decrementally takes you to Off: no notes are sent, but controllers and other non-note data are.

Next comes Inverse, which turns the keyboard upside-down, with the highest key being A 0 and the lowest C 9. If you set Note Map to Constant, all of the keys on the keyboard will play the same note. The note defaults to C4, but you can change this with the Transpose parameter. This comes in handy when you’re laying a ride cymbal over a bass, or a wood block over a ﬂute.

Next are the alternating Note Maps, which let you divide the keyboard up in some unique ways. If you are using two or more MIDI devices (including the K2500), you can expand polyphony by assigning each Zone to a different alternating Note Map. For example, if you have two K2500s, you can assign two Zones to each play the same program on a different K2500, thereby doubling polyphony.

To split a Zone into one of two alternating Note Maps, set Note Map to "1 of 2"; now the Zone plays on every second key, starting on C, but won’t play on any other keys. Set another Zone to "2 of 2", and this Zone will play on every second key, starting on C#, thus covering the remaining keys.

Three- and four-zone alternating Note Maps work the same way, but cause each Zone to play only on every third and every fourth key, respectively.

White and Black allow you to compensate for the differing velocity responses of white versus black keys on some keyboards. By choosing White for one Zone and Black for another, you can modify velocity curves and limits independently for the white and black keys.

7-10

Page 93

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

Velocity Scale (VelScale)

This lets you amplify or diminish velocity response. Normal response is “100%”. Higher values make the keyboard more sensitive (you don’t need to play as hard to get higher MIDI velocities) while lower values make it less sensitive (playing harder doesn’t change MIDI velocity as much). You can also set the scale to a negative number, in which case the velocity response is turned upside-down: playing harder produces a softer sound and vice versa. See the following section on Velocity Offset for ideas about negative scaling. A neat thing to try is to set up two Zones with opposite scale factors so that key velocity acts as a crossfade between the two sounds. Maximum scale values are +300% and -300%.

The illustration that follows shows what happens when you change Velocity Scale. Note that Velocity Scale is the only parameter changed in this example; the other parameters are set to their defaults (offset = 0, curve = linear, min = 1, max = 127).

127

Velocity Scale: 100%

as you strike the keys harder (increase the velocity) MIDI velocity increases proportionally

Velocity Scale: 200%

MIDI velocity reaches maximum on medium strike velocity

Velocity Scale: 50%

MIDI V elocity

127

MIDI velocity never reaches maximum, even on maximum strike velocity

Strike V elocity

Velocity Offset

VelOffset also changes the response, but in a more direct way, by adding or subtracting a constant to the key velocity. For example, if this is set to 25 (assuming a scale of 100%), then 25 is added to the velocity of every keystroke, usually making the sound that much louder. The softest possible keystroke will have a value of 25, while a keystroke with velocity of 102 will produce the same sound as a note with velocity 127 (102+25=127). Negative values diminish the response: a setting of -25 means the loudest velocity available will be 102, while any keystroke 25 or below will produce a velocity of 1 (a velocity value of zero has a special meaning in MIDI and cannot be used for note-ons).

7-11

Page 94

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

You can think of Scale as being a proportional change to the velocity, while Offset is a linear change. The maximum values for Offset are ±127. The illustration below shows the effects of Velocity Offset. Note that Velocity Offset is the only parameter changed in this example; the other parameters are set to their defaults (scale = 100%, curve = linear, min = 1, max = 127).

127

MIDI V elocity

Velocity Offset: +64

low velocity keystrikes produce medium MIDI velocity and greater

Velocity Offset: -64

low velocity keystrikes result in MIDI velocity of 1; maximum MIDI velocity reduced

127

Strike V elocity

Offset and Scale work together. If scaling takes the velocity out of the ballpark — for example, you want to set it to 300% but that puts all of your notes at maximum velocity — using a negative offset, say around -60, can make it possible to still play at different volumes, although your curve will still be a lot steeper than normal. If you use a negative scaling, then you must use an offset: otherwise all of your velocities will end up as zeroes (well, ones actually, since a MIDI note-on with velocity zero is something else). So to get true inverse scaling (that is, minus 100%), you must set an offset of 127 to get the full range of velocities. Setting the offset to 127 and the scale to -100% produces a slope like this:

127

MIDI V elocity

7-12

127

Strike V elocity

Note that Offset and Scale only affect MIDI velocities; that is, these parameters don’t change Velocity Tracking in the programs themselves. Therefore, some programs (such as organ sounds, which often have low VelTrk values) may respond only subtly to Offset and Scale, or not at all.

Page 95

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

Velocity Curve (VelCurve)

VelCurve lets you taper the velocity response. The default setting is Linear, which means that the output velocity changes directly proportionally to the played velocity. Expand sets the taper such that a “dip” occurs as the velocity increases from 1 to 64: the change in response is slower than normal as you approach the velocity midpoint, and then increases faster than normal as you play harder.

Compress sets the taper such that there is a “bulge” as the velocity increases from 1 to 64. If you start playing softly, and then progressively louder, the response will increase more quickly than normal until you reach the middle of the velocity range. If you keep playing harder, the sound will continue to get louder, but the increase will be less than it would be normally.

Crossfade (Xfade) is designed to be used in tandem with the Reverse Crossfade curve, enabling you to perform smooth crossfades between different programs.

Bump tapers velocity response to resemble a bell-curve, making its response greatest at medium strike velocity, and progressively weaker as strike velocity increases or diminishes. If you start playing softly, then progressively louder, the response will increase from 1 to 64; if you keep playing harder, the sound will get softer.

127

Velocity Curve: Linear

as you hit the keys harder (increase the velocity) MIDI velocity increases proportionally

MIDI V elocity

Strike V elocity

127

Velocity Curve: Compress

MIDI velocity is greater at medium strike velocity than with Linear curve

Velocity Curve: Expand

MIDI velocity is less at medium strike velocity than with Linear curve

7-13

Page 96

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

127

Velocity Curve: Linear

as you hit the keys harder (increase the velocity) MIDI velocity increases proportionally

Velocity Curve: Bump

MIDI velocity is greatest at medium strike velocity

Velocity Curve: Crossfade

MIDI V elocity

127

Below medium strike velocity, MIDI velocity is less than with Linear curve; above medium strike velocity, MIDI velocity is greater than with Linear curve

Strike V elocity

The next ﬁve velocity curves are Reverse Linear (revrsLin), Reverse Expand (revrsExp), Reverse Compress (revrsCmp), Reverse Crossfade (revrsXfd), and Reverse Bump (revrsBmp). These taper velocity in reverse of the ﬁve curves we just covered. For example,

Reverse Linear’s response is such that striking a key harder will produce a lower volume, striking it softer will produce a higher volume, and so on. This provides a convenient way to achieve negative scaling, by letting you set one parameter instead of two.

127

Velocity Curve: Reverse Linear

as you hit the keys harder (increase the velocity) MIDI velocity decreases proportionally

MIDI V elocity

Strike V elocity

127

Velocity Curve: Reverse Bump

MIDI velocity is lowest at medium strike velocity

Velocity Curve: Reverse Crossfade

Below medium strike velocity, MIDI velocity is greater than with Reverse Linear curve; above medium strike velocity, MIDI velocity is less than with Reverse Linear curve

7-14

Page 97

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Key/Velocity (KEY/VEL) Page

Low Velocity (LoVel), HighVelocity (HiVel)

LoVel and HiVel set minimum and maximum velocity limits that the Zone will transmit.. A keystroke whose velocity — after it has been scaled and offset — is below the minimum will not make a sound in the Zone. Similarly, a keystroke whose velocity after processing is above the maximum will not play the Zone. These parameters are useful for “velocity switching” — having a note play different sounds depending on how hard you strike it.

The values can be anywhere from 1 to 127. As with other parameters, Zones can overlap or be totally discrete, or be identical. Usually, LoVel will have a smaller value than HiVel, but as with LoKey and HiKey, you may also create a gap in velocity response, by setting negative ranges for velocity.

127

Velocity Min: 1, Max: 64

no MIDI velocity is transmitted when you strike keys with medium velocity or greater

MIDI V elocity

127

MIDI V elocity

Strike V elocity

127

Velocity Min: 64, Max: 127

MIDI velocity isn’t produced unless you strike keys with velocity of medium or greater

7-15

Page 98

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The Pan/Volume (PAN/VOL) Page

By changing the parameters on this page, you can deﬁne how each Zone sends MIDI volume and pan messages.

EditSetup*PAN/VOL||||||||||||||<>Zone1/1

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| EntryVolume:127|||EntryPan:None||||||||| ExitVolume|:None||ExitPan|:64||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||CH/PRG|KEYVEL|PANVOL|BEND|||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT ENTRY VOLUME None, 0-127 127

EXIT VOLUME None, 0-127 None ENTRY PAN None, 0-127 None EXIT PAN None, 0-127 64

Entry V olume, Exit Volume

Entry Volume enables you to control the initial MIDI volume setting for each Zone of the current setup. When you select a setup in Setup mode, the K2500 sends MIDI volume control (MIDI Controller 07) messages on each of the setup’s MIDI channels, according to the value of Entry Volume. This sets the starting volume level for each Zone, for any value other than "None". Subsequent MIDI volume control signals sent to the setup’s MIDI channels will affect the volume normally.

When you exit the current setup, Exit Volume sends another MIDI Controller 07 message.

The setting of the "Volume Lock" parameter on the MIDI mode CHANNELS page (see Chapter

10) determines whether this parameter will have any effect.

Entry Pan, Exit Pan

You can set entry and exit values for Pan as well. When you select a setup, the K2500 sends a MIDI pan control (MIDI Controller 10) message on each MIDI Channel in each Zone; another MIDI pan control message is sent when you exit the setup. The Entry and Exit values for Pan are the same as those for Volume. There is also a "Pan Lock" parameter on the MIDI mode CHANNELS page, which overrides the Setup Editor’s Pan settings.

If you are trying to set the Pan and the program doesn't seem to be responding, you should check the Mode parameter, found on the Output page in the Program editor. If it is set to Fixed, then it is ignoring the MIDI Pan message; setting Mode to "+MIDI" will allow you to control the program’s panning from the Setup Editor.

Most programs will respond to pan messages on the next keystrike. This means that if you hold a note and change the pan, the note will stay at its current position until you strike it again. However, a K2500 program that uses the PANNER algorithm will respond to real-time pan adjustments as well.

7-16

Page 99

The BEND Page

The parameters on the BEND page deﬁne the bend ranges for each of the three types of pitch bend messages the K2500 can respond to.

EditSetup:BEND|||||||||||||||||<>Zone1/6

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| BendRange(ST):0ST||AuxBend1Up|:12ST||||| BendRange(ct):0ct||AuxBend1Dwn:12ST||||| |||||||||||||||||||AuxBend2Rng:2ST|||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <more||CH/PRG|KEYVEL|PANVOL|BEND|||more>

PARAMETER RANGE OF VALUES DEFAULT BEND RANGE (semitones) Prog, 0–60 semitones Prog

BEND RANGE (cents) ±100 cents 0 cents AUX BEND 1 UP 0–60 semitones 12 semitones AUX BEND 1 DOWN 0–60 semitones 12 semitones AUX BEND 2 RANGE 0–60 semitones 2 semitones

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The BEND Page

Bend Range (semitones) and Bend Range (cents)

Bend Range (semitones) sends a bend range message to an internal program or a MIDI device, telling it how to deﬁne subsequent pitch bend messages. Some programs may behave strangely when you change the Bend Range value, because they use FUNs (see Chapter 16) or DSP Functions (see Chapter 14) to affect the pitch wheel. You should either set the value of Bend Range to "Prog", or edit the program itself.

Bend Range (cents) lets you ﬁne-tune the value for Bend Range (semitones). 100 cents equals one semitone, or one half-step; you can set this parameter anywhere between ±100 cents.

Bend Range, in both semitones and cents, affects the "BendUp" Destination for physical controllers. Physical controllers assigned to "BendDwn" will use the same range, but will bend notes in the opposite direction. You can assign the Destination of any physical controller to BendUp or BendDwn. To keep things simple though, you will normally want to use BendUp as a Pitch Wheel destination and use Aux Bend 1 and Aux Bend 2 for other controllers, such as the Large and Small Ribbons.

Keep in mind that not all MIDI devices respond to Bend Range messages. The K2500 and the PC88 do support these messages, but with many older MIDI instruments (like the K2000 and K1000), you must set bend ranges on the devices themselves.

Aux Bend 1Up and Aux Bend 1 Down

Like Bend Range, Aux Bend 1 deﬁnes the range for Pitch Bend messages, but does so for those physical controllers sent to MIDI Controller 21. You deﬁne both an upward value (Aux Bend 1 Up) and a downward value (Aux Bend 1 Down). This means that you can set different values for upward and downward pitch-shifting. For example, by setting AuxBend1 Up to 2ST and AuxBend1Dwn to -12ST, you can assign the Pitch Wheel in a guitar sound to Aux Bend 1, then use the wheel to create both vibrato and whammy bar effects, depending on the Pitch Wheel’s position.

In most factory setups, Aux Bend 1 is assigned to the Large Ribbon.

7-17

Page 100

Setup Mode and the Setup Editor

The BEND Page

Aux Bend 2 Range

The K2500 allows you to specify a third pitch bend range; this is called Aux Bend 2, and it deﬁnes the range for MIDI Controller 15 messages. You can only set one range for both upward and downward pitch bending.

In most factory setups, Aux Bend 2 is assigned to the Small Ribbon.

7-18

Kurzweil K2500 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

RADIO AND TELEVISION INTERFERENCE

NOTICE

AVIS

Table of Contents

Young Chang Distributors

Introduction

Welcome!

For K2500R Owners

Overview of the K2500

What is VAST?

How the K2500 Works

How to use this manual

Startup

Basic Startup Checklist:

K2500R Only

Start Jamming!

Startup—the Details

Before Y ou Start...

Battery Installation

Connecting the Power Cable (Line Cord)

Connecting the Audio Cables

Connecting MIDI

Playing the Presets

Connecting SCSI

Switching On the Power

Programs

Setups

Quick Access

Performance Controls

From your MIDI controller

Volume knob

MIDI and Setup Control Parameters

K2500 Boot Loader

Starting the Boot Loader

Boot-loader Main Menu

Install System / Install Objects

Run System

Software Upgrades

Hard Reset

Run Diags

Fixed Diags

User Interface Basics

Mode Selection

Mode Buttons

Navigation

The Display

Pages

The T op Line

The Bottom Line

The Soft Buttons

The Cursor Buttons

The MIDI LED

The CHAN/BANK Buttons

The EDIT Button

Data Entry

The EXIT Button

The Alpha Wheel

The Plus/Minus Buttons

The Alphanumeric Pad

Double Button Presses

Intuitive Data Entry

Search Function

The Panel Play Feature (Rack Models)

The Mixdown Page

The MIDI Faders Page

The Operating Modes

Selecting Modes

What the Modes Are

Nested Editors

Finding Square One

Using the Modes

Program Mode

Setup Mode

Quick Access Mode

Effects Mode

MIDI Mode