>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>> Yamaha A Series Samplers FAQ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>> Online Version: http://ampfea.org/faq/index.php >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This FAQ covers the A3000, A4000 and A5000 samplers from Yamaha. FAQ Maintainers: Aleix aleix@retemail.es cyrille Cyrille.Damez@mpi-sb.mpg.de Last Modified: February 9, 2001 C O N T E N T S 1. About this FAQ 1. FAQ details 2. First steps 3. What has changed here compared to the last FAQ V. 2.0? 4. Where can I get the latest online version of this FAQ? 5. Can I make this FAQ available on my web site? 6. How can I make a contribution to the FAQ, either a Question or an Answer? 7. Where can I get the FAQ as one file for download, offline reading and printing? 8. What is the Quick Guide? 2. About samplers in general 1. Where can I find some more info about samplers in general? 2. What is a sampler? 3. What is looping? 4. What are 'multisamples'? 5. How much RAM does a sampler need? 6. What advantage has a sampler versus a synth? 7. What advantages has a synth versus a sampler? 8. What are velocity-ranges/fadings? 9. What are loop-crossfadings? 10. What are key-ranges/fadings? 11. What is the difference between a 'soundcard as a sampler' and a common sampler? 3. The A3000 mailing list and other Teklab services 1. What is the A3000 mailing list about? 2. How can I (un)subscribe to the A3000 Mailing list? 3. How can I post to the list? 4. Problems with subscribing 5. Empty messages? 6. Is there a List Owner? 7. Some words about the mailing-list and off-topic threads 8. Off-Topic in the a3k-mailing-list: please join the music-bar! 9. The A3k-gimp Pic Archive 10. How to chat with a3k owners? 11. Where can I find the sample archive? 12. Which format should I use for upload? 13. How do I get the native a3k samples if I'm on a Mac? 14. Where can I put my uploads in? 15. How to upload? 16. How can I listen to the .MPG songs I found at ftp teklab done by A3k-users? 17. Where can I find samples despite the native A3k-sample Archive? 4. A3000 sampler compatibility 1. What other sampler formats will the A3000 be able to read? 2. Which format can the A3k save to? 3. Does the A3k import Typhoon-waves? 4. What is the option to load .SBK files? Does the A3000 read Soundfonts? 5. Can the A3000 import .WAV files from PC diskette? 6. The WAV / AIFF format is capable of holding loop point data, does the A3k recognize this? 7. Donīt use the extended Soundforge Wave-Header when importing .WAV into the a3k! 8. Can the A3000 import .WAV files from CD-ROM? 9. Can the A3k read from Akai S1000 and S3000 floppy disks? 10. Is the conversion of the programs of Akai S1000 efficient? 11. HowTo: AKAI Drumkit Import 12. HowTo: Importing Samples from the ESI-32 to the A3k 13. Can the A3k import E4 zip or syquest media? 14. Is the A3k XG-compatible? 15. Is the A3k GM-compatible? 16. Does the Yamaha A3000 support SMDI? 5. A3000 program/sample architecture, specs and midi 1. Introduction 2. Easy Edit Parameters 3. How tight is the timing of the A3000? 4. Tips for improving the A3k-midi-timing 5. Does the A3k have a "mono" and "legato" modes? And portamento? 6. The A3000 handles samples, sample banks and programs - what are the limits of these? 7. About the one-band EQ per sample 8. What about ring-modulation with the A3000? 9. How many LFOs has the A3000? Are midi-syncable? (great feature for dance music!) 10. How can I sync the sample LFO? 11. What MIDI controller data does the A3000 respond to? 12. Can the A3K transmit MIDI controller data with its knobs? 13. I play an electronic wind controller. What about MIDI breath control? 14. What is the "Control Matrix" feature of the A3000? 15. Bug with Level Control 16. Are there polyphony groups for building drum-kits (HH closed/open e.g.)? 17. Is there noticeable stepping or zipper-noise when parameters (cut-off, Q, ...) are changed quickly? 18. Some samples create a small pop or click when you release before the sample has played to the end!? 19. I have been experiencing zipper noise or stepping moise when I try to control a sample bank's volume or the "level" parameter through midi 20. How does the A3000 respond to program change? 21. How fast are the envelopes? 22. Does the filter section have parameters such as keyfollow, envelopes, velocity, etc? 23. What do the filters sound like? 24. How much low end does the filter keep when the resonance is turned up? 25. Can the filter self-oscillate? 26. During controlling the filter via midi, sometimes the filter glitch instead of smoth sweeping? 27. HowTo: Filter Control without glitches 28. Clicking and aliasing problems with short waveforms 29. Conversion of all A3k parameters to the international metric system 30. How is a classic multitimbral-setup created? How can I play a different samples through different midi channels? 31. Official specs and Yamaha manual 32. Is it possible to convert a stereo sample to mono with the A3000? 6. A3000 user interface 1. Does the A3k offer graphical waveform editing? 2. Are the knobs solid and quick to use? 3. The Headphones are very noisy with the a3k? 4. When you import non-a3k-native samples, can you load several files at once? 5. Can you prelisten the samples before loading? 6. Is there a way to save samples and programs larger than 1.44 MB on multiple floppies? 7. Is the timestretching/pitch shifting in realtime? 8. Is it possible to start recording via midi? 9. How can I set the current sample to edit via midi? 10. Is it possible that the A3k starts recording automatically after a specific threshold is reached at the input? 11. HowTo: Usage of SETINT 12. Would duplicating samples be a waste of memory and hard disk space? 13. HowTo: Using Volumes 14. HowTo: Check which Samples are assigned to the program? 15. HowTo: Selecting/Exchanging samples quickly 16. Tip: Creating Wave tables using Loop Remix 17. New+ feature: automatic sequential recording/mapping 7. SCSI and SMDI 1. Supported SCSI-devices 2. Unsupported SCSI-devices 3. Internal or external HD/storage device? 4. Should I buy a SCSI CDROM player or a Regular Audio CD player? 5. Has anyone tried a PD-drive with it yet? Does it work? 6. Which SCSI connector does the A3k have? 7. Which SCSI type (I, II, Fast, Ultra, Wide) does the a3k support? 8. Which versions of SCSI does the A3k work with (SCSI I,II,III , ultra/wide)? 9. What is the difference between SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Fast, Wide, Ultra Wide, and Ultra2? 10. A rule of thumb for maximum SCSI bus/cable length 11. Can I also use IDE Hard drives? 12. Hard Drive full - defragmentation problems 13. Max number of volumes/samples/programs per partition 14. Does the Yamaha A3000 support SMDI? 15. What is SMDI? 16. Sample rate of 44.101 after SMDI dump!? 17. Is it possible to use a 5 1/4" HD inside the A3000? 18. SCSI-Noise 19. Is it usefull to use a fast CD-Rom drive (lets say more than 4 speed) on the a3k? 20. Is the A3000's HD/ZIP format compatible with a PC/MAC? 21. SCSI connection with a MAC 22. SCSI connection with a PC (Win95/98) 23. All about WinASPI 24. HowTo: can I rescan the SCSI bus without restarting Windows? 25. Possible data loss with A3k's ZIP/JAZ and using Windows!? Download Registry Fix!! 26. Data loss? Even after installing the registry fix... IMPORTANT ADVICE 27. Would it be possible to transfer audio data from an audio CD (in your CD-rom player attached to the A3k) digitally into the memory of the Yamaha? 28. HowTo: can I rip CD-Audio digitally? 29. HowTo: accessing a3k partitions with LINUX 30. I am having trouble with the A3k's SCSI. 31. How to read the data track on the sample CD that came with my A3k when I don't have a SCSI CD player? 32. HowTo: troubleshoting SCSI connection with a PC 33. Some advice if you use a HD with an external enclosure 34. HowTo: removing the yellow exclamation icons on Windows Device Manager 8. Software for the A3000 1. Which Software deals with the A3k? 2. Tiny Wave Editor (Twe) 3. SMDIHvm V. 2.0 4. b.Zone 5. WaveSurgeon 6. A3kDiskyPC 7. A3000Rmt 8. aSysexThingy 9. A3000Rompler 10. Music Calculator 11. Does Recycle work with the A3000? 12. HowTo: working with A3k, SoundForge and SMDI 13. Sound Forge sample numbers: receiveing a desired sample from the A3k into Sound Forge 14. HowTo: burn a CD from a3k formatted media 15. HowTo: burn A3k-native CD's with Disky 9. Expansion options for the A3000 (memory, AIEB1, OS2.0 uprgade,... ) 1. Be sure to get SIMMs that work with the a3k! 2. Do I have to install Simms in pairs? 3. Are there any flashram expansions for the A3000 available? 4. Why the a3k doesn't keep the samples in memory after turning it off? 5. Where can I get working SIMMs for the A3k? 6. Certified SIMM list for the A3k from Yamaha 7. How many expansion slots for add-ons does the A3k have? 8. Which expansions are available? 9. Drop in volume when switching samples to the assignable outs!? 10. The analog/digital output level of my a3k is very low compared to other gear I have!? 11. Is the AIEB1 board noisy? 12. Is the digital output assignable or does it only offer the sum-signal? 13. Can I use the A3k as A/D converter? 14. What is the current OS version? 15. What about A3000 Version 2.0? 16. I have got the OS2.0 upgrade packet from Yamaha. How do I proceed? 17. How can I determine which OS version my A3k has? 18. Can the A3000 be upgraded by software/disk? 19. What is Firewire? 10. Looping 1. Can the a3k do loop-crossfading? 2. How many loop points does the A3000 have? 3. What loop modes are availible? 4. Are there forward/backward (in cycle/alternate) loops? 5. Is there any freeware software for editing loop points, etc? 11. Effects and resampling 1. Can you have different effect-sends for every sample (i.e. key)? 2. Can effect-parameters be changed in realtime? 3. Is it possible to resample sounds internally? With effects, too? How? 4. Can I use the a3k as FX processor on external audio signals? 5. Is there some quick way of copying the effect settings from one program to another? 6. Can I record with effects? 7. Record-with-effect isn't active when resampling internally!? 8. HowTo: Resampling and using external gear 9. Can you use the resonant filters of the A3000 on external sound sources? 10. HowTo: use some effects as filters for use with the AD input 11. General info/opinion on the effects quality 12. Effects routing 13. Are the effects mono or stereo? 14. HowTo: get stereo effects with mono effects such Dist, OverDrv,... 15. HowTo: setting up individual FX - Sends for each sample 16. HowTo: resampling with internal effects 12. Extra features (midi player, internal oscillators, test mode,... ) 1. What about the internal sequencer? 2. Is there a way to convert the a3k-midi-sequences (on the demo-disks) to midi files? 3. What does the A3K send to the MIDI out during sequence replay? 4. Realtime Control of an A3000 during SMF replay? 5. How to import a midifile from Cubase into a3k? 6. How to set the machine back to its factory settings? 13. Native A3000 Sampling CD-ROMs 1. Which native CD-ROMs are available for the A3k? 2. Teklab's A3k Wizard Series sample CDs information 3. Reviews of Teklab's SpitzenSynth (EE) 4. Reviews of Teklab's Gourmet Plate 5. Reviews of Teklab's Bucket O' Beats 6. VRSound CDs general info 7. Reviews of VRSound's Drums 8. Reviews of VRSound's Percussion 9. Reviews of VRSound's Electric Keys 10. Reviews of VRSound's HipHop 11. Reviews of VRSound's Pianos 12. Reviews of Yamaha's DJ/Producer Toolkit 13. Rules for making A3k native CDs with samples downloaded from Teklab 14. A3000 Tips & tricks 1. Synthesis: how to create a TB-303 style sound? 2. Synthesis: how to create clean synth pads and ambient sounds? envolving and warm pads? 3. Synthesis: how to achieve PWM-like effects? 4. Synthesis: how to create different wave oscillators? fatten up a synth sound? 5. Synthesis: how to feet a bass sound well in a mix? 6. Synthesis: chop your vocals like a square lfo 7. Synthesis: how to get a rounded square LFO 8. Synthesis: change the playback direction in real time 9. Synthesis: A3k synthesis tricks 10. Synthesis: how to get those big huge warping jungle basses and other pitch bending sounds 11. Synthesis: how to avoid clicks with bass sounds 12. Synthesis: avoid filter zipper noise 13. Synthesis: how to simulate a analogue-sounding filter? 14. Synthesis: how to enhance a bass drum? and general percussion sounds? 15. Synthesis: how to create smooth filter sweeps? Give me some filter tips 16. Synthesis: creating a seashore sound with noise 17. Effects: some nice results with the Jump effect 18. Effects: removing bass drums in drumloops 19. Effects: simulating a Tape-delay 20. Effects: how to sync a delay? and other effect parameters? 21. Effects: reverse reverb 22. Effects: pitch shifting without change the tempo in phrases 23. Effects: some other cool FX settings 24. Effects: creating a jet stream effect 25. Effects: loading and saving only effect settings on disk 26. Effects: getting sounds sounds out the stereo field (Haas effect) 27. Effects: about the Aphex exciter 28. Effects: how to control fx parameters with a LFO 29. Effects: different effect depth per sample (alternative method) 30. Effects: drowning 31. Effects: good reverb params 32. Effects: Machine Magic parts 1 & 2 (instant music on your A3k) 33. Looping: delay on drumloops using AEG release parameter 34. Looping: triggering loops using alternate groups (without holding keys) 35. Looping: a possible way of controlling the end addres of a loop in real time 36. Looping: using loop remix & loop divide 37. Looping: ditry-ing loops 38. Looping: getting the exact BPM of a loop 39. Looping: finding the right loop points 40. Looping: chopping loops 41. Looping: why retrigger loops on each bar? 42. Looping: problems using the LoopXFD command 43. Looping: need a graphical waveform? Read this 44. Looping: some advice for DJ'ing with the A3k 45. Looping: some other tips with loops 46. Advanced user: always connect a bus of your mixer to the input of the A3k 47. Advanced user: internal zip and screwing 48. Advanced user: replacing the floppy drive 49. Advanced user: A3000 cookie 50. Advanced user: why the square LFO produces clics? 51. Advanced user: reset your A3k with an A3000Rmt macro 52. Advanced user: problems with the audition button? use the function buttons 53. Advanced user: backup media larger than 650 Mb with disk2file 54. Advanced user: importing and exporting midi sequences 55. Advanced user: convert Ensoniq EPS sounds to WAV for read with the A3k 56. Advanced user: backup to CD using Linux 57. Advanced user: about the filter types 58. Advanced user: HD & zip backup with Disk2CD, Discjuggler,... 59. Advanced user: how to deal with complex sequences (no enough midi channels) 60. Advanced user: things to do while your A3k is loading and saving 61. Advanced user: improved Akai import 62. Advanced user: choose the correct keys when multisampling 63. Advanced user: how to play samples continously without holding the key 64. Advanced user: disk organization 65. Advanced user: how to audition a lot of samples quickly 66. Advanced user: use the automap feature on Wavesurgeon 67. Advanced user: problems with samples looping continously 68. Advanced user: splitting automatically a sample to play with different start addresses 69. Advanced user: how to delete quickly a lot of samples 70. Advanced user: sample naming 71. Advanced user: syncing A3k sequencer to a live band 72. Advanced user: have you lost the cables for the internal HD? 73. Advanced user: perfect triming of samples 74. Performance: get the better signal-to-noise ratio with the A3k 75. Performance: how to avoid high frequency noises on sounds with very low end (like a tr808 Bassdrum) 76. Performance: solving the problems with knobs and buttons 15. Bugs and wanted features 1. Is the A3k year 2000 compatible? 2. What can I do if I find a bug or if I want a feature? 3. Some WANTFEATURES/BUGFIXES 4. Left-arrow character sometimes causes read/write errors while saving to disk! 5. "MIDI buffer full"-Timing error within OS 1.10 has been solved. 16. Other Yamaha samplers 1. Yamaha A7000 2. Yamaha SU700 3. Yamaha A4000/A5000 4. Yamaha SU200 17. Specs comparison with other samplers, reviews, opinions,... 1. How does the A3000 compare with other samplers? 2. Where can I find reviews of the A3000? 3. I want to buy a sampler. Please give me some user opinions about the A3000! -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- Section 1. About this FAQ -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. FAQ details This FAQ was created and maintained by Frank Winkelmann (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) until version 2.0 (December, 12th 1998). Now, it's maintained by Aleix Tc (aleix@retemail.es) with a web-database driven interface (like samplelibrary.net) programmed by Moron (moron@industrial.org) and Jay Vaughan (jay@teklab.com). Please note that this FAQ was up from the very beginning, so a lof of questions here are stuff that is contained in the manual. Nevertheless, this FAQ has grown very much and you will find a lot of valuable information about the blue beast here. Please, please, please: READ ALL THIS FAQ before asking anything to the a3k-list. *** 2. First steps If you haven't bought a sampler yet, look at the user opinions about the A3000 in this FAQ. Check out the Quick Guide (http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/a3000/s_guide.htm). It contains useful information for the beginner. If you haven't done yet, join the A3k mailing list (http://www.teklab.com/Internet.html). Read the manual (http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/emi/index_e.html) and this FAQ. And be sure to get some free native A3000 samples from samplelibray.net URLS: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/a3000/s_guide.htm http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/a3000/s_guide.htm)). I just wondered if the list could explain. Is it the FX? So what sort of PC do you have your SBLive in? How much did that PC cost you, honestly? Because you cant compare the SBLive to the A3000 until you've put the SBLive in a computer, and so therefore you have to include the price of the computer in your equation... (jay@teklab.com) At then end of the day, the guts of the A3k dont match upto the guts of the Live! (apart from the real time FX). Most of your 12,999 goes on a pretty (12,999 was a lot. I hope you can get them cheaper.) Well, of course it all boils down to personal opinion and taste. If you're satisfied by the Live!, by all means use it and advocate for it. Nothing is better than gear you love and want others to learn about it because it is (IYO) great. *Personally* I found the Creative Labs SB cards not good enough, mostly regarding quality, stability and the ability to manipulate sounds. Maybe it has changed with the Live!, but the specs did not impress me. They don't mention much how to manipulate and modulate sounds. They boasted tech specs more than creative specs. Currently, the A3000 does its job incredibly well, and for *me*, it was worth its price compared to the sampler-on-a-card solutions. I actually had to think and rethink about this before saving up to the sampler, so I'm not just saying this to justify me spending shitloads of money on something that a simple card supposedly does better :) I am quite sure there are some users of the A3000 that would've been better off with the Live!. So to those on the list without a sampler, wondering if to buy the A3k or the Live!, I would recommend the A3k if you can afford it. However - as a first-musical-gear thing, the Live! is probably great. The possibilites are super for a starting musician. And yes, I do have a computer to sequence with, and to do all my pre-production work on samples. (gislemm@reaktor.no) If you're in doubts about buying a stand-alone hardware sampler like the A3000 and a soundcard based sampler, I advice you to get hardware sampler if you're in some sort of electronic music. If you probably want to create orchestal stuff, take a look on Gigasampler and if you want 16.777.216 crappy voices you can buy a sound blaster... ;) But if you're in some sort of techno, there is no doubt that you'll need at least good filters, some effects and also realtime stuff... With the A3000 you get tons of these. I've tried a lot of soundcards, the Guillemot's ISIS, the EMU's APS, the Creamware's Pulsar and some more and I find that they can't be compared with a stand-alone hardware sampler. With a soundcard, you'll need software in order to take the full advantatge of the DSPs. Imo, this is the first reason that I don't like soundcard samplers because the sampler is always limited to software possibilities. I found most of the soundcard that offers a "sampler" concept very distant from a real hardware sampler. Although soundcard samplers can load samples with a very high speed, I found this feature quite useless if after loading the samples, you don't have good filters and modulation possibilities. And I've not found yet any soundcard with same quality than the A3000 in terms of filters, effects, realtime editing and modulation. If you've tried the A3000 and you think that your soundcard is better in these departments, feel free to contact me privately. I'll very interested to check if it's true.... ;) And don't forget that a soundcard needs a computer to run... it's an expansion card, not a musical instrument like a dedicated hardware sampler. So, the statement that soundcard based samplers are cheaper is very relative of your needs. (aleix@retemail.es) -------------------------------------------------- Section 3. The A3000 mailing list and other Teklab services -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. What is the A3000 mailing list about? The a3k-list here at teklab.com has been set up to provide interested parties with a general mail forum for the discussion of the new Yamaha A3000 sampler, and will be expanded to include future Yamaha Sampler products as they are released by Yamaha (such as the SU-700, forthcoming A-series samplers, etc). The purpose of this list is to learn, and to assist other A3000 users. It is not the purpose of the list to sell WonderSpam products or advertise your kid sisters new XXX web site. This sort of thing is *not* looked on very favorably by TekLab. Just don't do it. (jay@teklab.com) *** 2. How can I (un)subscribe to the A3000 Mailing list? The A Series sampler list currently uses Mailman as its list manager so all subscription duties are handled via this webpage. URLS: http://www.teklab.com/mailman/listinfo/a-list *** 3. How can I post to the list? To send a message to the list, simply address it to a3k-list@teklab.com - our mail software will take care of the rest. You *do* need to be a list member in order to post messages - thus preventing spam. Anything sent to the a3k-list@teklab.com address by someone that is not a list member gets sent to the list owner for immediate trashing. Note that this also means that the e-mail address you use to send to the list must be the one that you subscribed to the list - in other words, johnjones@ix.netcom.com is not the same as johnjones@netcom.com, as far as the list processor is concerned. Please make a note of this - if in any way you change your e-mail address, you will need to unsubscribe the old address and re-subscribe the new one. If you need help contact the List Owner. (jay@teklab.com) *** 4. Problems with subscribing I just tried to subscribe to the A3k list and got this message: You must be list operator in order to add new users to the list a3k-list@tl36.teklab.com. What do I do? More than likely what has happened is your mail server changed your mail address from someone@somewhere.com to something like someone@mailserver.somewhere.com on the way out - so my list processor see's you trying to subscribe someone@somewhere.com, thinks you're not who you say you are, and stops you from trying to subscribe someone to the list who may not want it... Check the headers of the message that you send - you will more than likely see a big difference between the Reply-To: and the From: headers. If these addresses are different than the one that you're trying to subscribe, then the list processor thinks you're trying to be tricky... So send a 'subscribe someone@mailserver.somewhere.com' message, and you'll get subscribed...(of course, replacing 'someone@mailserver.somewhere.com' with your address, as per what you find in your From: and Reply-To: headers....) (jay@teklab.com) *** 5. Empty messages? Sometimes there appear empty messages on the mailing list. A solution for Outlook users might be to disable the HTML format. *** 6. Is there a List Owner? Yes, his name is Jay Vaughan, his e-mail address is jay@teklab.com, and he is usually a very busy fellow. Please don't bombard him with questions about the A3000 when that's what the list is for! Also, he tends to be a very skilled flame warrior, as well as being a Yamaha Evangelist, so don't even think about getting into 'My hardware is better than your hardware' wars with him... (jay@teklab.com) ;) *** 7. Some words about the mailing-list and off-topic threads From Jay: As administrator of all teklab lists, I don't mind a bit of off-topic conversation now and then. But there has been a lot of discussion about topic-worthiness on a few TekLab lists, so I figured I'd mention some things on the subject. Typically, I have found that the conversation proves enlightening in the context of the list topic - for example, on the a3k-list, an off topic discussion about mixers can resolve back to the best ways of integrating an A3000 for live sampling, etc. It makes for interesting reading, and occasionally there is a casual bit of knowledge gained from the discussion that forwards the use of the gear being discussed. This proves very valuable - I know that many of the inexperienced and/or newbie list 'lurkers' (people that don't actively contribute, but read every message anyway) learn a lot from these small digressions, and eventually start contributing to the list in some way once their sphere of understanding expands enough to where they feel comfortable about posting to a public forum. (This is the process that creates guru's.) When it goes completely outside the context of the original topic - i.e. we start talking about things like fishing or drugs, or how we hate another list subscriber for being a nerd or something, then I start to get a little antsy about bringing the list back on topic. But members of any TekLab mailing list should definitely recognize that I'm not rigid about off topic conversations, and that there is definitely value to be gained in discussing other related topics that have a contextual connection to the original topic of the list. I have observed over the years that there are various sphere's of relevance on a mailing list: a) Direct relevance - i.e. the topic is directly related to the subject that the list was set up to discuss. 'How do I get my AN1X to sound right?' 'How do I get my AN1X to talk to my PC?' 'Wow, the AN1X sounds so great I'm going to buy one for everyone on this list that doesn't have one, just coz it's cool and I'm rich.' b) Similar relevance - not directly related, but within the same context of the original subject matter. Talking about other samplers on the a3000 mailing list, for example, provides a similar frame of reference for the A3000 Sampler. Discussions about the pro's and con's of similar products from other competitors often prove very insightful. c) Contextual relevance - not direct, not similar, but contextually related - discussing effects processors to use with the AN1X, or how to set up a PC in a studio that uses an AN1X, and the problems associated with setting up a PC, etc. Another example of contextual relevance is on the dirtylist (a mailing list I'm on that discusses the band Underworld) - quite often, some electronic musician will turn the list into a gear discussion frenzy, and this will always come back to a recommendation for a band similar to Underworld, based on the observation of what musical instruments a person uses. d) Completely irrelevant - has nothing to do with the original subject, contextually or otherwise, and is completely useless to the purposes of the list. For example, talking about how bad a certain band is, on the AN1X list, and/or flaming other users on the list. This is not necessarily a bad realm for a list to be in, but it's definitely indicative that the list has gone awry, and too much of this proves to be un-useful - people start unsubscribing. As long as discussions on any of the teklab lists remain within the scope of a), b), and c), I'm perfectly happy as the list administrator. Good mailing lists often venture through a), b) and c) type discussions, and the c)-type's become b)-types, become a)-types, and this is when people really start to feel good about a mailing list, that they're gaining a lot from reading the messages, etc. Certainly, it's up to the individual members of the lists to direct the issues back to focus on the topic of the list as they see fit, as I'm not going to be a "List Fascist" (since I post messages in all realms sometimes anyway), but if you look at a), b), and c), there's a hierarchy to them and eventually the threads can be resolved back down to a more type a) relevance to the list. And in the meantime, the list becomes a useful tool for people to share knowledge with. Which is what it's all about. (jay@teklab.com) *** 8. Off-Topic in the a3k-mailing-list: please join the music-bar! The Music Bar is now open! Resident bar tender and conversation gimp extraordinaire Jay "Half a Beer" Vaughan invites you to pull up a seat, leave the outside world (and topical conversation) behind the door, and join your fellow musicians in non-stop worship of The Great Vacilla, Goddess of the Wandering Topic! If you're interested in talking about general music related topics, the Music Bar is the place to be. Got a question about the latest and greatest compressor, or need some help with the basics behind mixing? Maybe you've got some advice to new musicians, and have the time to answer questions that the average musician has on how to get the best sound - well, the Music Bar mailing list is the place to do it! Also, if you are on one of the other TekLab lists and figure you'd prefer not to annoy people with off topic posts, the Music Bar is the acceptable place to do it! Since anyone that's on the Music Bar list has already agreed to receive wandering topic music-related mail, they're not likely to flame you for it! To subscribe to the list, send mail to majordomo@teklab.com with the following in the message body: subscribe music-bar end You will shortly thereafter receive a confirmation notice, and once you confirm your request you'll be admitted into the all-ages Music Bar! See you there! (jay@teklab.com) Please notice that in the Music Bar, only music related topics are allowed. NOT ALL OFF-TOPIC threads are allowed here. So, don't start flame wars talking about operating systems, social issues,... *** 9. The A3k-gimp Pic Archive Now the picture archive is at: http://www.teklab.com/~a3kpics/ WarBlaydR, jono, tasso and Samus-Aran were/are on IRC and came up with an idea: All A3K listers could upload their pic, then someone (me) would make a page where you could go see everyone else...You could add a .txt - file in the .zip mentioning some info about yourself: name, URL, birthday, country, fave colour, fave music, number of nostril hairs... whatever. (david.demets@skynet.be) At the moment, we are looking for someone who would like to continue to manage the pic archive. Please contact Jay, if you are interested.(jay@teklab.com) URLS: http://www.teklab.com/~a3kpics/ http://www.teklab.com/~a3kpics/When I write the files to a floppy, it is a Mac formatted floppy, and the A3k cannot read it. Can the A3k read DOS-formatted floppies, or am I missing something here?The A3k reads PC formatted disks as long as they include YAMAHA.SYM & A3000_SY.002 files.>I tried unzipping the files directly to the floppy, and also unzipping to hard disk and copying to floppy.You can unzip direct to the floppy disk, just remember to move all the unzipped files out of the folder so they're sitting on the top level directory of the disk. (jason@steamradio.com) *** 14. Where can I put my uploads in? Put your uploads in:ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/incomingThis is not *exclusively* for the A3k-list, so don't try loading those .G01 files that you may occasionally see in there into your A3000 (those are for the SY85 list members). Or if you do try to load a .G01 file and you actually get some kind of result, let us all know on the a3k-list..:) (jay@teklab.com) *** 15. How to upload? You can use any FTP program. It is also possible with Netscape version 3 or later: Go to ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/incoming. Next, choose 'Upload File...' from the file menu. (wind@newhouse.nl) *** 16. How can I listen to the .MPG songs I found at ftp teklab done by A3k-users? For playback try Winamp (free) from http://www.winamp.com. Or Soundforge can open .mp3's and save as wav but that's a bit on the expensive side if all you want is playback :-) (tblair3@csi.com) For the MAC, I'll recommend you get the latest version of SoundApp as it can playback and convert between almost any sound format you're likely to come across. I'm almost sure that for playback of mpeg format audio, you'll need to have a PowerMac, although the 68k version will probably convert mp3 files to other formats. You can download SoundApp from here: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~franke/SoundApp/ (jason@steamradio.com) URLS: http://www.winamp.com http://www.winamp.comMidi/Ctrl page. In that case, the midi channel setting remains at the same sample level but it can be overruled by the Easy Edit setting.Remember always:When the ToPgm setting is OFF, the sample will ignore incoming midi messages, so you can't get sound without setting to ON first.A program on the a3k is a multimbral setup. You will not used more than one program in the same song.Be sure to set the OMNI mode off at the first Utility->Midi page.(aleix@retemail.es) *** 33. Official specs and Yamaha manual For some general specs, look at the following URL: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/d_a3000.htmSee also the introduction of this section. URLS: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/d_a3000.htm http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/html/current/samplers/d_a3000.htmSCSI2 converter.Nomai MCD 540/750Iomega Zip (internal or external)Iomega JAZSyJetMO 128, 230, 540 (The MO disk I had did need the Partition glooping first before the Yam would Physform it).SyQuest EZ-Flyer (230MB)Panasonic LF-1004AB drive which is a combination of PD and CD drive. *** 2. Unsupported SCSI-devices Since most SCSI-devices (CD-ROM/HD) work flawlessly with the a3k, we collect here the not-working devices:non SCSI drives (elemental, so your IDE CD-ROM will not work!)The 'older' Apple CD150 (external single speed cdrom drive =) Sony CDU 8002)NEC CDR-210NEC CDR-25Chinon CDX-431Older ISA-AdvanSys SCSI-Controller Cards (the PCI AdvanSys work fine, though)It appears that the Adaptec 1520B does not work with TWE SMIDItransfers. Other SMDI-programs (SMDIHvm or Sound Forge) do work flawlessly.MO 640 (you can use 230 or 540 catridges within your MO 640, though). *** 3. Internal or external HD/storage device? After months of testing A3kDisky and doing other very strange things with my disks, I have come to this conclusion:Do not install a hard disk inside your A3000.Better instead to buy a good quality hard disk enclosure and use it externally to the A3000.There are a lot of reasons for this, and something I hope to go into more when I have more time. (As it is, I'm late for bed, and I'm exhausted).But here's a few reasons off the top of my head why you should use external disks only with the A3000:a) You can turn it off and still use your A3000.Another practice I recommend: Turn off your disks once you're done loading stuff into your A3000 for playback. This not only has the benefit of speeding up the A3k and reducing noise in your environment, but if you're a Win9x user it appears to be a good strategy in the "don't fuck up my disk, Microsoft" battle.b) It's not as noisy if it's external. The A3k's case actually *amplifies* the sound of an internal hard disk, I have found.c) External disks are less likely to get screwed up by some weird bug in the A3k's SCSI driver code that only seems to happen on the internal bus.I'll give more details on this later, once A3kDisky is released. There's a whole section to be written in the A3kDisky user manual on how to best maintain your A3k disks first though...d) It's easier to replace an external disk if you need to. Think of all those screws on the A3k case you won't have to deal with!FWIW, I have the following successfully in use with my A3k right now: Iomega Jaz (For my music, and A3kDisky testing) Iomega Zip (For messing around with samples and A3kDisky testing) Conner CPF540S SCSI Hard disk (external enclosure, 540Megs for CD mfr) Quantum 4gig SCSI Hard disk (external enclosure, for A3kDisky testing) (All of these are external, on a very well-cabled SCSI bus.)And of course, all of this is hooked up to my PC by way of an additional Adaptec 2940 SCSI card - not my main card (which is an Adaptec 2940UW, and which has all my system and digital audio recording disks on it), but an additional one.I have found that it's also better to not mix and match A3k-specific disks on the same SCSI bus as your PC-specific disks too, if you have any. Although I may just be being overly cautious due to the demands set by my self-imposed sterile A3kDisky development environment... Lets just say that A3kDisky has killed too many of my *other* disks in its infancy, heh heh... (those days are over though, don't worry!)Anyway, point is I would have gone mad by now if I'd had a hard disk inside my A3k all this time.Just my opinion, anyway, but the A3k doesn't make a very good internal hard drive enclosure...(jay@teklab.com) Well, it depens of what you need. I've installed a Quantum Fireball HD inside my A3k since nine months ago and I've not got any problem yet. Even, without installing the reg fix, I've not any data loss (it seems that this only happens with removable media like Zip or Jazz). If you planning to bring your a3k to different places, it will be a way to bring also your samples without more cables and stuff (although, go always with a backup on zip or jazz media!).If you can afford the noise of the hard drive amplified by the A3k enclosure, simply try puting it inside and see if it works for you. Quantum hard disks are pretty quite... (aleix@retemail.es) I'd say that's a bit of an alteration of an idea thats been going on around the a3k-list, and I take responsibility for, which is that having a disk inside your A3k: a) adds noise to your environment, because the a3k's case tends to amplify the sound of a whirring drive (can be solved by liberal use of rubber grommets) b) makes it harder to swap stuff around among your friends - may not be an issue for you. c) for the purposes of A3kDisky, its better to have the drive on the PC's SCSI chain directly, rather than trying to get the PC's SCSI chain to access the internal disk within your A3k (which can be done, but the simpler the better when it comes to SCSI) For my needs, I have my A3k on one of my SCSI chain, my PC on the other, and all of the devices I need in between. Here's my PC setup: Number of Host Adapters : 3 Number of Devices : 9 ------------------------------------- Device : 0:1:0 : Disk Device : 0:2:0 : CD-Rom Device : 0:3:0 : Iomega Jaz Device : 0:5:0 : Iomega Zip Device : 0:7:0 : Yamaha A3000 Sampler Device : 1:0:0 : Hard Disk Device : 1:2:0 : Hard Disk Device : 1:4:0 : CD-Recorder Device : 2:0:0 : CD-Rom 0:1:0 through 0:5:0 are all shared by my PC and A3000. These are my main storage and testing devices for A3kDisky. Everything is external on this SCSI chain. The other 2 SCSI buses are separate from the A3000, and contain my system disks and other disks for my PC... (jay@teklab.com) Why I hate A3000-internal hard disks: a) When mounted to the case of the A3000, any one of the various and sundry old SCSI hard drives that I have here at TekLab will resonate profusely, causing the neighbourhood cats for blocks around to gather around my door with amorous intentions. b) Putting a hard disk inside the A3k case means (in my situation) that it will have to be ID 0, and the A3000 will be ID 1. I want my A3k to *always* be at the low end of the SCSI chain (ID 0) for arbitration priority purposes (see earlier thread), so this is not workable. I'm also anti-scatter ID's on the SCSI bus - every one of my SCSI systems works flawlessly, and it may be voodoo, but I tend to think that the fact that I have devices physically positioned on the SCSI chain in the order of their SCSI ID's has something to do with it. It also makes termination easier. c) The # of times that I have formatted a disk, or botched it, or done something stupid to one with A3kDisky, and then been able to work out whats going on with it by taking that disk and putting it on another machine, means that it would just not be workable to have to cart the A3000 around with me if it were internal, or have to undo all 21 of those damned screws, every time I wanted to put that disk somewhere else. d) I prefer Zip and Jaz for my storage needs - these are external, and I can take them with me in a pinch to my friends studio. Also, media is cheap so I usually put one or two songs on a single Zip disk (so that if anything ever goes wrong, I only lose one or two songs at most), and it's easier to do backups with removable media than with a dedicated hard disk. e) My current operating basis: a single Jaz drive (which I back up) has all of my major samples, stuff that I can't live with out, and Zip disks contain whatever copies of those samples are needed for the one or two songs that I store on them. That way, I'm never running the risk of losing my major samples, (unless I do something stupid to my Jaz drive), and the Zips are very portable. (jay@teklab.com) *** 4. Should I buy a SCSI CDROM player or a Regular Audio CD player? I need to buy a CD player for my A3000. Should I buy a CDROM player or a REgular CD player? Would I be able to use the CDROM player as an audio CD player as well?Most CD-ROM drives can play Audio CDs, but the control is not as detailed as on a HiFi type CD player. If you want to use it primarily in your HiFi, then use a normal CD player. You can always sample from Audio CDs just using the analog in/out of the A3000. If the main use is going to be data CDs for the A3k or your computer - then obviously you need a CD-ROM drive. You can play audio CDs if necessary, and sample from the audio output of the CD-ROM drive into the analog input of the A3000. (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 5. Has anyone tried a PD-drive with it yet? Does it work? I'm using an external Panasonic LF-1004AB drive which is a combination of PD and CD drive. The PD works fine, CD ROM works fine, too, but when I try to start audio CDs using the CD-drive control option of the A3k, my blue darling keeps telling me that there is no audio CD in the drive (even when I use "pure" audio CDs - no mixed-mode CDs). (ChAlkemper@aol.com) *** 6. Which SCSI connector does the A3k have? 50 pin half-pitch (same as most of the external plug of SCSI-Controllers such the Adaptec 2940UA, 2904CD and 1520B). UltraWide SCSI controllers such the Adaptec 2940UW and 2940UW2 have a 68-pin external connector (you can use them with the A3k using the correct cable: 68 pin to 50 pin). (aleix@retemail.es) *** 7. Which SCSI type (I, II, Fast, Ultra, Wide) does the a3k support? The A3k is SCSI I (5 MB/s), and nearly all musical Equipment deals with SCSI I. And SCSI II = FAST SCSI and ULTRA are compatible to SCSI I. Even WIDE if you have an adapter from 68 pin to 50 pin. *** 8. Which versions of SCSI does the A3k work with (SCSI I,II,III , ultra/wide)? It's more ore less irrelevant. The A3k is SCSI I, but communicates well all other SCSI versions. *** 9. What is the difference between SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Fast, Wide, Ultra Wide, and Ultra2? The primary difference is in the command set used in the SCSI standard and the bandwidth, or maximum available speed of the devices.SCSI-1 5MB/Sec 8 bit SCSI busSCSI-2 5MB/Sec 8 bit SCSI busSCSI-2 Fast 10MB/Sec 8 bit SCSI busSCSI-2 Fast Wide 20MB/Sec 16 bit SCSI busSCSI Ultra 20MB/Sec 8 bit SCSI busSCSI Ultra Wide 40MB/Sec 16 bit SCSI busUltra2 Narrow 40MB/Sec 8 bit SCSI busUltra2 Wide 80MB/sec 16 bit SCSI busUltra2 speeds are available only when a Ultra2 host adapter is connected to Low Voltage Differential (LVD) devices on the LVD/SE port. If a single-ended (SE) wide or narrow SCSI-2 device is connected to the LVD/SE port, the performance for all devices reverts to SCSI Ultra.I was told that connecting non-Ultra devices to my card would make all my devices slow down to the speed of the slowest device. If I attach my CD-ROM to the same card I'm using for my Ultra Wide hard drive, will my performance decrease?No. This is a common misconception. Since SCSI is bus structured, the host adapter can communicate with only one device at a time. It will communicate with that device based on the ID (for priority) and the BIOS settings for transfer speed. The transfer speed setting is the maximum speed the adapter will use for I/O with that device. When doing I/O with any SCSI device on the bus, the adapter will do transfer at "up to" the setting in the BIOS. Most operating systems are single tasking and will support one application at a time. If the application calls for a copy operation, for example, from a CD-ROM to a hard drive, the system will access the CD-ROM at it's speed, download the data to memory, then access the hard drive and transfer the data to the hard drive at it's sustained rate. Each device will operate at it's sustained rate until the entire I/O operation is completed.SCSI-type and SCSI-connectorAnother misinterpretation is that the SCSI connector tells what SCSI implementation it is. DEAD WRONG! One is the implementation, the other is a physical connector. Granted that the bulky Centronics parallel connector was considered as a SCSI-I back in the 80s. Today there is a variety of SCSI connectors in the industry and the small 50 pin SCSI connector on the a3k is the de-facto standard of SCSI connectors today (with the benefit of being smaller and not wasting too much space on the back of the unit). *** 10. A rule of thumb for maximum SCSI bus/cable length SCSI-1/2 (5MB/Sec) 6 meters (18ft)SCSI-2 fast (10MB/Sec) 3 meters (9 ft)SCSI-2 fast/wide, ULTRA (20MB/Sec) 3 meters (9 ft)SCSI-2 ULTRA Wide (40MB/Sec) 1.5 meters (>4 devices)SCSI-2 ULTRA Wide (40MB/Sec) 3 meters (SCSI-3 ULTRA2 Narrow (40MB/Sec) 12 meters (>2 devices)SCSI-3 ULTRA2 Wide (80MB/Sec) 12 meters (>2 devices) *** 11. Can I also use IDE Hard drives? No, the A3k won't see IDE drives. You have to connect SCSI gear. (jay@teklab.com) *** 12. Hard Drive full - defragmentation problems After running my hd to within 20 MB of full, i then deleted a HUGE volume i had on the drive. now i have 180MB free again but when i try to make a new volume i get a:! ERROR: Not enough free disk area.which is obviously horseshit. any suggestions? i'd really hate to have to lose all of last night's work.There's sort of a bug in the A3k's File system where it doesn't logically work out when blocks are de-allocated in it's sector bitmap.A3kDisky (Pro Media) has/will-have-when-its-released a feature called 'Defrag', which rearranges everything and re-writes the sector bitmap accordingly.You're probably familiar with the performance degrade you get when a disk on a PC is fragmented - and have probably used a defragger. The reason for the performance decrease is that the PC is having to constantly scan the sector bitmap for each sector, then read each sector, etc. going back and forth.Well, unfortunately, the A3k's management of its file system isn't that sophisticated - it is a sampler first, and a computer second (or third, maybe it's an effects processor second)... so there you have it.I encountered this problem a lot in the early days of A3kDisky, so I've added a 'defrag' feature.In the meantime, the best possible thing you can do (if you have OS2.0 this is pretty easy) is to take another disk of the same size, format it clean, then copy all of your volumes to it. I know, this is a hassle, but it's a workaround for now.I just realized that this is one of the *STRONGEST* arguments for using a Zip/Jaz/Other removable media drive with the A3000 instead of a hard disk, because if you get tons of samples and have a large library, it'll be easier to do a "manual defrag" by copying volumes fresh to a new disk...(jay@teklab.com) *** 13. Max number of volumes/samples/programs per partition I'm about to build a sample archive on my recently purchased HD. I know that 128 is the maximum amount of volumes that can be displayed. What I need to know is if there's a limit of the amount of samples within a volume.I'm not sure about within a Volume.There's a limit on the number of samples within a Partition. ... it's around 2,500 or so.I think it's "objects" rather than samples, so a volume can only contain that number of things, whether they're samples, banks, programs, etc.If you go above that limit you get the "Not enough disk area" error, even tho you see "300 MB free" in the disk page.I partitioned my HD down to 512 meg partitions, and I don't seem to hit the limit. But if you use hundreds of tiny samples, you might consider going even smaller. (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 14. Does the Yamaha A3000 support SMDI? Yes, it does, I have verified this with SoundForge. But it isn't documented in the manual. There was also a recent popular magazine review in Germany that stated that SMDI was not supported on the A3000, but this was based on a cursory review of the Users Manual and in fact SMDI *is* supported by the A3000. It's just very poorly documented by Yamaha at this point in time - we hope they change this fact in the future. (jay@teklab.com) *** 15. What is SMDI? "SCSI MIDI Device Interface (SMDI) is a standardized protocol for music equipment to communicate. Instead of using the slower standard MIDI serial protocol, it uses a SCSI bus for transferring information. Because of its speed, SMDI is often used for sample dumps." - Defn. from Sound Forge Help. (jay@teklab.com) *** 16. Sample rate of 44.101 after SMDI dump!? Problem: the sample rate changed to 44.101 when I transfered the the 44.100 file back to Sound Forge from the A3K via SCSI SMDIThis is because the SMDI standart convert the 44100 samples/sec frequency as a integer period in nanoseconds (stupid idea).Examples: 1e9 nanoseconds/sec / 44100 samples/sec = 22675.7369615 nanoseconds.If the device/software round the period (because its transmitted as an integer):1e9 / 22676 nanoseconds = 44099.48... samples/sec (so rounded or truncated this give 44099)If the device/software truncate the period (because its transmitted as an integer):1e9 / 22675 nanoseconds = 44101.43... samples/sec (so rounded or truncated this give 44101)Its easy to fix in software by adjusting the sample rate to standart rates but most software don't do it.In your software, you don't need to resample the sample, just set the correct sample rate by double-click in the status bar (Soundforge) and put the correct value in the dialog. The samples are at the correct rate, its just the "sample header" that is wrong. (alyne.moisan@sympatico.ca) *** 17. Is it possible to use a 5 1/4" HD inside the A3000? I wouldn't recommend a 5 1/4" HD - for one thing the holes in the chassis are pre-drilled for the 3.5 pattern.. you would have to work around this. For another - drives are pretty cheap - worth getting a new one. (jlang@ptbo.igs.net). *** 18. SCSI-Noise One thing I did notice which annoyed the c**p out of me, was the annoying erk erk noise through my monitors while I had the CDROM switched on. Is this common or am I alone in this????SCSI noise is common (not only to the a3k, but also other samplers), bothers the hell out of me too, but usually I find if I place the SCSI cable slightly different it goes away. (jay@teklab.com) If you don't want to get any SCSI noise, try this:Unmount all SCSI devices on your A3k.Put the SCSI cables far away from the audio cables that goes from A3k to your mixer/amp/recording source.If you have your PC/Mac connected to your A3k via SCSI, turn off the "Auto-insert notification" in all the drives connected in your PC (in Win95 go to Device Manager, double click on all SCSI drives, normally only CDROM drives, and uncheck this option).Pay attention that your computer's monitor is not placed too near to your a3k.If you turn down the volume knob in your A3k and you keep hearing noises, these noises are not produced by any A3k component, it's only an interference between the analog-audio cables and the SCSI cables/devices. (aleix@retemail.es) I also am plagued by the SCSI noise since I connected the A3K. What I've discovered in my case is that it seems to be related to one of the sound cards in my system (in this case it's a Turtle Beach Multisound Classic). When I turn down the input gain from the sound card on my mixer, I don't hear any of the SCSI noise... (kennys@netcom.com) *** 19. Is it usefull to use a fast CD-Rom drive (lets say more than 4 speed) on the a3k? Yes, although it depens of your patience... ;) For example:Time to read the 1st volume of the pro sound lib (AcousticPiano) cd with a 8x toshiba cdrom: 2 min 48 sTime to read the same volume with a pioneer 24x cdrom reader: 2 min 27 sWith larger samples, the diference is bigger:Time to read the last volume of the pro sound lib (SymphonicPhrases, 16 mb) with the 8x reader: 3:15Time to read with the 24x reader: 2:42If you want to buy a scsi cdrom for your a3k, buy one with the fastest seek time (the ??x rate isn't important at all for the a3k). (aleix@retemail.es) *** 20. Is the A3000's HD/ZIP format compatible with a PC/MAC? The A3k has its own disk/HD format (so has the Akai and EMU). The a3k can read DOS floppies, but it doesn't read PC or MAC HDs/ZIPs/JAZs. And vice versa, the PC/MAC cannot read from the a3k's HD or ZIPs/JAZs that are formatted in the a3k-format. Although you can access the a3k-formatted floppies. But you can blind-SCSI copy the A3k's HD with TOAST on a MAC, e.g. for making a backup. See section "Howto burn a native A3k-cdrom". (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) A3kDiskyPC 1.0 allows you to manage all your A3k media and backup data under Windows 95/98. See section 'Software for the A3k'. *** 21. SCSI connection with a MAC You buy an adapter cable to match the scsi ports on your mac and a3k (25pin to 50micro), plug it in, and presto, they're connected.Problems with a3k-Mac connection? Solution 1Just a note to help clarify for mac users, if you are having trouble (a3k->mac scsi xfers)I do as follows: Connect mac to a3k. boot a3k (mine won't completely boot until mac comes on). boot mac. use TWE or what not to do yr xfers. DO NOT attempt to access anything in a3k DISK mode yet. fill er up and then before you save, disconnect scsi cable from back of a3k. accessing DISK mode function now won't lock the a3k. save, etc. as needed. wanna xfer more files? quit TWE, reconnect scsi cable to a3k. relaunch TWE. voila! works fine for me. (martin@c4group.com).Problems with a3k-Mac connection? Solution 2Accessing a3k from mac scsi port:1. Hook up (good) scsi cable.2. Turn on mac first. (I let it boot up completely)3. Turn on a3k (wait for internal hd to mount if you have one installed on the sampler.4. If you haven't yet, MAKE SURE a3k bulk protect is OFF (under Utility - MIDI functions).5. Boot up mac software.I use Digital Performer. It sees the a3k fine this way. If I have to reboot the a3k, I hold down the mouse on a menu, keeping the mac busy while the sampler boots up and I turn off bulk protect. Then I relaese the mouse button.IMPORTANT - Make sure no scsi device has the same ID. Check you a3k under 'disc' to see the id # of any connected cd roms and the internal drive. If the mac drives, cd or peripherals on the same chain repeats that # you will get freezes and crashes.(rixax@vex.net) *** 22. SCSI connection with a PC (Win95/98) My Windows 95 has detected the A3000 as an unknown device and asks me for the device drivers (I don't know what to do here)?I think W95 asks for the driver 8 times, maybe one time for each ID, and after the 9th time windows will start up just fine, and working with a3k. The idea is that you don't need a driver, you just have to convince w95. This is what happened to me, and since then i have been usin TWE, SF and WaveSurgeon without any problems.1. NEVER EVER, for any product, click cancel when windows finds it, just click finish. It can cause all sorts of weird things to happen.Chicken and Egg......The A3k must be powered up for the PC to see it. BUT the PC must be powered up for the A3k to se it. Solution....Power up your PC first. Wait till the memory count is done, and the peripheral check, and the pc says "starting windows 95", THEN power up your A3k, the A3k sees the PC, and settles down, then the pc eventually goes into windows, andt scan the scsi bus, and sees the A3k....3. Yes, the A3k SCSI transfer is slower than full SCSI speed..... about 30 KB/s (SMDI).4. If you encounter problems during the SMDI-Transfer, make sure that Windows Explorer is not to be seen in the background, because each time a file is received, the Explorer window is going to refresh, and this may cause an error (e.g. in SMDIHvm). Safest way to work with SMDIhvm (or similar) = make sure it's the only program you're using. Just do nothing with the puter when receiving/sending samples... To unmount everything on your a3k during SMDI-transfer may help, too.5. Be careful: Win95 writes some bytes into the partition table of removable media! This could lead to data loss on non-DOS partitioned mediums (e.g. ZIP, JAZ). See question "Possible data loss with A3k's ZIP/JAZ and using Win95!?" (in this section).I had a similar problem with a Hewlett Packard DeskScan 4c and a Yamaha CDR 102 CD-Writer using the default Win 95 device driver for my Adaptec 2940. Win 95 reported 8 CD-Writers, or if connected, 8 scanners. Adaptec released updated drivers to fix the problem. The driver can be found at http://www.adaptec.com, something like win95mpd.exe or so. Microsoft also released this fix as well. It's a Windows95 problem, not Adaptec, though they seem to have taken responsibility for it. URLS: http://www.adaptec.com http://www.adaptec.comCONTROL PANEL--->SYSTEM--->DEVICE MANAGER(tab) and hit REFRESH while the COMPUTER option is highlighted. If you now look in the "OTHER DEVICES" option, you will find that the (8 devices:) A3000 is attatched to your SCSI chain. (kloppers@ufrmsa1.olivetti.za) *** 25. Possible data loss with A3k's ZIP/JAZ and using Windows!? Download Registry Fix!! Download from: ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k/Miscellaneous/a3kdiskreg.zipRead the accompanying text file. The fix is easy to install. Note that this will not effect *anything else* in your Windows95 system - it only addresses A3k-formatted disks that Windows95/98 may see on your SCSI chain.The story about this:Some interesting things have come up in my A3kDisky development process on the subject of Win95 and Zip disks. Turns out that Win95 overwrites 12 bytes of information on the boot sector of every disk that ever gets inserted into a removable-medium disk drive such as a Zip or a SyJet, a Jaz, etc. irrespective of what File system is on the disk itself. This is the braindead manner by which Win95 keeps track of disks that are newly inserted in the device, a rather lame hack if you ask me that can sometimes result in corrupted disk file systems. I'm looking into this further, but it appears that the A3000 doesn't like it when the Vendor ID gets overwritten in the boot sector of an A3k formatted disk. (jay@teklab.com) This problem has also been adressed in conjunction with a Rolan VS-880 harddisk recorder. More info/fix (only tested with VS.880!!) can be found at: http://colargol.idb.hist.no/~timh/connect.html#Win95 (hvm@elis.rug.ac.be) URLS: http://colargol.idb.hist.no/~timh/connect.html#Win95 http://colargol.idb.hist.no/~timh/connect.html#Win95 /tmp/zipdisk.img This will create a nice 100 MB image file. You can of course compress this using gzip. Great for backups. Then, to copy this to another Zip disk: # cat /tmp/zipdisk.img > /dev/sdb (peter@vividata.com) *** 30. I am having trouble with the A3k's SCSI. Problems can be related to:1. ID# conflict2. Bad Cable3. Termination4. All of the above5. None of the above :-)(jlang@ptbo.igs.net) *** 31. How to read the data track on the sample CD that came with my A3k when I don't have a SCSI CD player? Some multisamples/samplebanks can be divided into single sample that fit on a floppy. Ask the list, if you need some samples from the CD, we will see if we can rip them of and make floppies out of them. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de). *** 32. HowTo: troubleshoting SCSI connection with a PC All testing has been done on a Adaptec 2940 & Adaptec 2940U. This HowTo will hold true for any Adaptec device (such the 1520 or the 1540).Note: The following HowTo section got compiled after connecting the following equipment:1. |---->a3k<---->PC<----|2. |---->a3k<---->ZIP<---->PC<--|3. |---->a3k<-->ZIP<---->PC<---->CDR<--|4. |---->a3k<-->ZIP<---->PC<---->DISK<---->CDR<----|5. |---->DISK<---->a3k<---->ZIP<---->PC<---->DISK<---->CDR<----|| = Termination<--> = Connection Flow1. Remember, the a3k is a scsi1 device.2. Remember, the a3k is a HOST device.3.The a3k MUST be terminated if there is no internal drive attatched. (Default factory state is ON)4. If a CDWriter is attatched, please note that in your bios scan the "INITIATE Sync Negotiation" must be set to NO. This could be true for SCSI-CD drives as the a3k could also try and do negotiation with this drive.5. If a ZIP drive is attatched, disable "INITIATE Sync Negotiation" in your BIOS SCAN. The reason for disabling the above is due to the fact that the a3k sends sync info to the scsi buss. Win95 will do syncronization every so often and this will cause a lock up if you try to write to (removable)disk from the a3k.6. In WIN95, disable the "Sync data transfer" option for your CDROM in control panel. (control panel/system/device manager/cdrom/MAKE OF CDROM/settings)7. All READ/WRITE errors experienced from the a3k was due to TERMINATION. I can not stress this more!!!! TERMINATE, TERMINATE, TERMINATE. A scsi buss works just like a light shining on a mirror. Everything that passes the mirror is an ERROR. Everything that reflects is data. Now it might be true that a buss might work without propper termination, but this will be only due to some intellegence from one of the HOST(s) attatched on the chain. At some stage (usually after connecting another device) the buss will stop working. Use this as a guide!8. If you use ZIP or other removable media, install the REG HACK fix from Jay. This will stop WIN95 from accessing the boot-block (FAT) of the ZIP drive and causing data-loss. "A3kdiskreg" is to be found at ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k/Miscellaneous/9. Do not switch off any SCSI devices once the chain works! This will cause a hang on the HOST.10. When in doubt, unplug everything and start afresh. This will get you to a point where you can pin-point the problem. Write down every setting and even lay the physical hardware out on your floor to make sure that you have every setting correct. This might sound like a lot of work, but the reward at the end of the rainbow is worth every bit of hassle.11. SUBSCRIBE to the a3k mailinglist. There is a whole lot of (Not always so sober, but very intellegent.) people on this list who will give you help at the drop of a hat. If you don't get an answer, it would only be because there is none.cyber7 (kloppers@ufrmsa1.olivetti.za) *** 33. Some advice if you use a HD with an external enclosure Here's another potential list of things to check: Is the SCSI cable connected to the Hard Drive inside the external case actually connected the right way around? Try switching it and seeing if that makes any difference. Does the external drive bay supply enough power to the disk. Check the requirements of the disk against the power rating of the power supply inside the external case and make sure they're compatible. Sometimes, this is not the case. (No pun intended). Do you have all the factory jumpers installed on that hard disk, such as Parity Check, etc? Check the website for the HD mfr and see what the factory jumpers are - could be that your PC friend had it set slightly differently to cater to his needs (an exotic SCSI card, perhaps), and you might just need to reset the jumpers back to factory default. (jay@teklab.com) *** 34. HowTo: removing the yellow exclamation icons on Windows Device Manager Follow the instruccions. The reg file is on this file: ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k/Miscellaneous/a3000device_v2.zip Please notice that the reg file included only will work if you're using an Adaptec 2940 series SCSI adapter. (aleix@retemail.es) Registry info (version 2) for Windows 95/98 and the A3000 Sampler How to install: 1. Start Win95/98 2. Open the zip-file and doubleclick on "A3000device.reg". Say yes to any questions, such as "Are you sure you want to add the info to your registry?" 3. Now switch on your A3000 (after you have connected it via SCSI with your PC) and press "rescan" in the device-manager or start your Windows twice. If you don't have an Adaptec PCI SCSI adapter, you must do the modifications manually: 1. Open regedit (Start -> Run -> write "regedit" and click OK) 2. Go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEEnumSCSIYAMAHA__SAMPLER_A3000___0 If you've used the reg file mentioned above, remove this key in order to clean the a3k devices added by the reg file and restart windows. When windows asks for a driver for the 8 unknow devices, chose 'Next' and then 'Finish' (don't click on cancel!!). Open regedit again and go to the same key. 3. Under this key, there should be 8 keys. With every key you must replace the following data: Class: MEDIA (rather than 'Unknow') ConfigFlags: 00 00 00 00 (in hex!!, rather than 04 00 00 00) 4. Close regedit and restart windows. Now, if you go to the device manager you should view 8 a3k's under sound devices without any yellow icons (your a3k with their 8 scsi id's). Note: don't be afraid editing these keys. If you remove anything by error, remove the complete "YAMAHA__SAMPLER_A3000___0" key and restart Windows in order to undo all. You should no longer have any problems with 'yellow !' icons in your control panel... Forward all questions to the a3k-list. This reg fix originally created by Tom Lueders (s660716@tfh-berlin.de), with some modifications by Jay Vaughan (jv@teklab.com) and Aleix Tc (aleix@retemail.es) -------------------------------------------------- Section 8. Software for the A3000 -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. Which Software deals with the A3k? Plain SMDI (transfer only):PC:Tiny Wave Editor (TWE Windows)Sound ForgeWavelabSampleWrench (http://www.dissidents.com)MAC:Tiny Wave Editor (TWE MAC)AlchemyPeakAMIGA:SampleWrench (http://www.dissidents.com)SMDI & mapping:PC:SMDIHvm (automapping only in OS 1.2, no more in OS 2, available at www.a3kcentral.com)Wavesurgeon (drumloop recycling Tool, available at http://www.wavesurgeon.com)SysEx:PC:b.Zone, the ultimate SysEx Editor for the A3k (available at www.a3kcentral.com/~bzone)A3000Rmt, a remote controller offering comfortable renaming & macros (available from www.a3kcentral.com)A3kRomp, a small app that allows you to use your A3k as a rompler (available from www.a3kcentral.com)aSysexThingy: allows you to dump all the parameters of all the stuff loaded on your A3k and send them using Sysex. You can save on disk only the raw samples and manage the editing stuff using this little app.Native SCSI:PC:A3kDiskyPC 1.0: disk navigation and administration (with your PC SCSI native speed!!) offering: ISO9660 CD conversion (for burning A3k native CDs), .WAV file import, Yamaha .SYM (floppy disk) import and .A3k import/export (for exchanging A3k stuff without using floppies). Available for purchasing at www.teklab.comDisk2File: allows you to dump image files from any A3k SCSI media for backup purposes (and allowing to create also native A3k CDs if you burn the image as a ISO9660 mode 1 CD if the media is not bigger than 650 Mb). Available from www.a3kcentral.comLINUX patch: allows you to backup A3k partitions (non the entire media) from any SCSI media.MAC:Toast: like Disk2File on PC, allows you to burn (directly) any *entire* A3k SCSI media to a CD. URLS: http://www.dissidents.com http://www.dissidents.comLB1 and LB3-->Midi Out. This means i can set both Cubase and ASysexThingy to input from LB1 and output to LB3.2. Load up ASysexThingy, set ouputs as above, Load up cubase, set outputs. I go to SetupMME and move the LB3 device to the top, so that any tracks that used to use midi out now use this when i load them back in. Load up the two cables. If you have a recent version of Hubi's LB, then you can do "COPY CMD TO CLIPBOARD" to copy the cable setups to a batch file. This is much easier than repeatedly doing it manually. If you reset devices on Cubase, you should now be able to use the midi in/out.3. Load your samples into your A3k from wherever you choose, floppies, volumes, sample input etc.4. Do any dupl's you want, you won't have to save them to disk. Edit the sounds for your track ..reverse them, change the FEG, change the control matrix etc etc...but don't worry about saving to disk (unless you want to make a temporary backup)5. Ok once you've got your track set up, effects and all, go to A3SysexThingy and hit "Get Message".6. Go to the first samplebank or sample with an "E" next to it, meaning that you have edited it since loading.7. Do a bulk dump (related=off for progs and banks; param for samples)8. Repeat steps 6-7 for every object with an "E". You'll need to hit "Get Message" each time (eventually i hope to automate this, but the A3k locks up too much at the moment)9. Ok now finally dump the Program Settings (related=off)10. OK now you have a list of sysex messages in ASysexThingy... reception can be slow... but most of it is actually from converting the data to readable hex (i think you can even edit it).11. Select the items you want from the list (one, some or all) and goto File->Save Banks as... this will save out all strings as one big file. You can later load this in and send it as one big dump. (I suggest calling this file the same as your track!)12. OK, now to test. Turn off your sampler, and turn on again.13. Repeat step 3, loading the samples from whatever sources you want. I have for instance a DRUMS volume, containing a Roland Program that will load in my 808kit samplebank and 909kit samplebank which load in 808 and 909 sounds respectively. Then i have a separate ANALOG BASS Volume with which i load in several basses, and then maybe an FX Volume from where i load individual samples/banks. These are my raw wave data, all the setup for them is in the bulk dump.14. OK, just send that message from ASysexThingy and everything should be set up as it was originally.Note even if you remove samples from a bank, change their settings, fx outputs etc, as long as you bulk dump both the parameters of the (edited) bank and the parameters of the removed samples, then this will all be set up when you do the main dump again. You only need to load in the bank when it comes to loading again, you won't have to manually remove samples from the bank and setup their midi channels etc as this is done from the program dump (which is contained in your bulk dump message)...Please note though that you need to have the program dump as the last one in your main dump message. (step 9)Hope this is of some use, Let me know how you get on, JOE.(jmp909@geocities.com) *** 9. A3000Rompler *** 10. Music Calculator by (johan.lund@capgemini.se)For PC: I have now uploaded the Music Calculator to the incoming folder at Teklab. A3k users must click the checkbox that allow -63,...,63 resolution for Bpm-->Bpm by pitch function to work, since A3k has lower res. on the finetune. Most samplers use -100,...,100. So this could almost candidate as a want feature. "Increased res. on the finetune". Anyway, the program now has the following conversions:SEC - BPMBPM - SECBPM - BPM: BY PITCHBPM - BPM: BY TIMESHIFTBYTES - BPMDIGITAL DELAY CALCULATORBPM - HzMEMORY CALCULATORBYTES - BPMA3k LFO - BPM *** 11. Does Recycle work with the A3000? Currently, Recycle 1.6 (distributed by Steinberg, programmed by Propeller Heads) doesn't support the a3k. Prop. heads told me the next update will definitely include a3k support. The new version is planned for the end of 1998. If you are on Windows, you can also use WaveSurgeon, which does a very good job in cutting/transferring Drumloops. *** 12. HowTo: working with A3k, SoundForge and SMDI How did I do it then? Well like I said I used Sound Forge to do both the transfer to and from the A3k to my PC. Sound Forge is an excellent program, and they just released an XP (economical) version, so for anyone that uses PC's I'd consider it just plain stupid not to own this program for sample editing, etc. I hope that sample manufacturers are going to wise up and start bundling Sound Forge XP in the very near future, since it kicks ass! Okay, anyway, like I said, I used SF. Go to the Tools|Sampler menu option, set up a Generic SMDI configuration, rename it to A3000, and save it. Now, whenever you want to do a sample dump to the A3k, go into this menu option, select the destination sample number, press the "Send Sample" button, and the A3k slurps it up, no problems. To do a transfer back from the A3k, go to the same menu option, select the sample number (that's sample number, not program number) that you want to transfer, and press the "Receive Sample" button, and this time Sound Forge slurps it up, loop points and all. A piece of cake.What effect this will have on other SMDI capable devices, I do not know. For example, I have no clue whatsoever what will happen if you ask an A3000 to SMDI to an Akai S2000, so your mileage may vary. From my position, as a non Akai/Emu/othersampler owner, a dedicated Yamaha evangelist, and the proud owner of tons of audio-related software totalling in the thousands of dollars, the A3000 SMDI functions work flawlessly. Your mileage may vary.(jay@teklab.com) DUMPING A3K SAMPLES TO SOUNDFORGE:First SF only understand SMIDI number to get samples over SMIDI. You need to know the SMIDI number of the sample you what to dump. To do so, go to Program/Sample/Command->SMPDUMP. This screen allows you to search through all samples (turning nob or playing keyboard if you have MIDI-SMP ON) and displays the SMIDI number next to the sample name.Then you can type in this number in the SF Sampler window and press get. If you do that, SF will either retreive the A3K sample with the SMIDI number one less (Offset -1). One gives 0 to N-1 SMIDI numbers and the other 1 to N. Give it a try and you will find it set this offset (-1) in the SF bias offset box of your sampler definition window. From this point you will be able to enter the same SMIDI number as displayed by the A3K. Works great for me.SENDING SOUNDFORGE SAMPLES TO A3K:First, the SMIDI number of the SF send window has no meaning. Whatever number you put there, the A3K will assigned it the next available one. So don't bother. When you open an "unnamed" sample in sound forge, the name of the file name is displayed on top of your sample window. If the sample has a name, it will appear instead of the filename on top of the sample window. How To name a sample? This is done under the File-Properties window. Actually I'm not sure of the exact menu but it's something like that. When you send a an "unamed" sample over SMIDI to the A3K, it gets named something like SMIDIXXXX. When you send a "named" sample to the A3K, it gets the name you assigned in SF. So name it in SF before. A lot easier than working with the A3K front panel.Under the Edit-SampleProperties menu of SF, you can assign the key of your sample. However, here's another offset. A one octaver offset in this case. So if you want your sample to be on G2, you need to set it as G3 in SoundForge. Once again I'm not 100 percent sure of the exact menu but you will find it.(labrie@nortel.ca) *** 13. Sound Forge sample numbers: receiveing a desired sample from the A3k into Sound Forge The receive number is the number you see in the "Dump Sample page" with an offset of 1, which you can save in your SoundForge setup. Set sample bias in SoundForge to -1.To get to the page on your a3000... I think it's 2nd button down, 2nd button across (edit & sample?), then command button, scroll across till you get to the SMPDUMP page and you'll see the SMDI id number on the right. (jmp909@geocities.com) Go the sample page in your A3k. Press the Command button and turn right knob 1 to select the SmpDump command page (sample dump). Use the second or third knob to select the sample that you want to know its number. You will see a number under 'Format' like SDS#X. Then place X-1 in your SMDI software to request this sample (remenber to turn off the bulk protect at Utility/Midi page). (aleix@retemail.es) *** 14. HowTo: burn a CD from a3k formatted media This is possible. For creating an a3k-readable cdrom, you need to use a DAO CD burner. When you use scsi copy to make the cd - the result looks exactly like an HD to the host sampler. If you try this and are having difficulties - i suggest unmounting all other drives before mounting the cd - this works better for me. (jlang@ptbo.igs.net)On MacintoshI succeeded in making a disk image of the A3000's internal on my Mac. I wrote this back to the A3000 and it worked fine (and it wrote to the disk at Mac speed rather than A3k speed!). The A3k didn't even know it was happening. :-) This disk image could also be used to master a CD.Wow! This is interesting. Did you have to make an image of the whole HD, or is it possible to make an image of one partition only?The whole thing. The only way I could get the Mac to do it was to do a blind SCSI Device copy. Because it can't understand the disk format, it won't let you see either the partitions or anything else. The Mac can't even mount it.Which Software?Toast will do it on the Mac (Toast isn't availible for PC). Toast will also do a blind SCSI copy from any SCSI device to a CD directly, without making an image first. It just copies the source disk bit for bit onto the CD. This means that the source disk cannot be bigger than 650MB, since you cannot access partitions, etc. (zebedee@teklab.com)On PCMore Info on this topic, download for a PC blind-copy proggy called "disk2file", useful links etc. can be found at http://www.zicweb.com/cd_recording.html and http://www.zicweb.com/d2file_faq.html. Now both versions of "disk2file" are also availible from the teklab ftp site. You need to do a blind-SCSI-copy (e.g. with Disk2file), since the a3k-format isn't DOS-compatible.If your HD is smaller than 650 MB, you can burn that image to CD-R and the a3k read this CD-R! If it is bigger, you have to keep the image on DOS-media (iso9660 CD-R or HD or whatever), and if needed, you can copy it back to a3k-media (e.g. using Disk2File again).Another solution is using A3kDisky (see http://www.teklab.com/products/) URLS: http://www.zicweb.com/cd_recording.html http://www.zicweb.com/cd_recording.htmlControl function, you can set the controller matrix for tweak the cutoff frequency or the resonance parameters of these effects with any controller (even controllers 74 or 71).Happy mutating. (aleix@retemail.es) *** 11. General info/opinion on the effects quality Overall - 54 Effects. Very transparent, very clean - unless they aren't. Three simultaneous effects in either series, parallel, or combination serial/parallel. Good Stuff - Reverb types - Hall, Room, Plate, Tunnel, Canyooonnnnnooonnnooonn. The hall has pre-delay, early reflection, diffusion, time, dry/wet mix, density? (I should have written this stuff down) Clean, quiet, fade into silence noiselessly. Lots of weird/bizzare effects that re-mixers will love, ie. Scratch (turns input into record scratched version), lo-fi (quantize sample resolution to 1/2, 1/4, ...1/128), Vinyl (adds perodic noise and 'pop's to output). Also old standbys such as multi-tapped delays, chorus, wah (velocity sensitive!), distortion, overdrive, amp simulator w/ noise gate, exciter, rotary speaker... (adrenochrome@earthling.net) *** 12. Effects routing In OS 2 the Effects can be configured as follows: 1/2/3, 1>2/3, 1>2>3, 1/2>3, 1>2<3, and each effect can be routed to any of the assignable outputs. In OS 1.2 or less, the FX are routed to STOut. But you can route the STOut to Digital Out. *** 13. Are the effects mono or stereo? Are they A) mono in mono out, B) mono in stereo out or C) stereo in stereo out? Depends also on the used effect of course, I quess?Most of the effects are stereo out (chorus, leslie, phaser, ...). *** 14. HowTo: get stereo effects with mono effects such Dist, OverDrv,... All distorsion & overdrive fxs are mono in the a3k (Dist, OverDrv, AmpSim, Comp+DS and the following if the drive parameter is greater than 0: AWah+DS, AWah+OD, TWah+DS and TWah+DS).But, if you want to play a stereo sample with some of these fxs in stereo mode, you can use this tip (ok, it isn't a pro solution, but it works):Duplicate the sample.Set the original sample pan to -63 and the duplicate to 63 (this will be play only the right channel of the original sample and the left channel of the duplicate).Set the Main Output for the original sample to Effect1 and Effect3 for the duplicate.Set ToPgm=on on the two samples.At the Effect page, use the same effect for Effect1 and Effect3 (with diferent parameters if you want to get diferencies between the left and right channels). Use 1/2/3 effect configuration or just use 1>2<(3 and use some effect for effect2 to be aplied to the output of the two channels (reverb, delay, whatever you want...)Go to Effect-)In&Out page and set the pan for Effect1 to -63 and +63 for Effect3.Play the sample.(aleix@retemail.es) *** 15. HowTo: setting up individual FX - Sends for each sample Since the A3k doesn't have a Effect Send level for a sample, all samples are using the same DRY/WET ratio within the Main output bus.now here comes a how-to for using individual FX-send, allowing differentDRY/WET ratios for each sample.This is based on the Quick Guide (written by Peter Krischker - Yamaha Europe):You can use the stereo out (Main out) only as FX-RETURN.The Dry/Wet ratio should then assigned to D)W63 for all fx. Now you can use the MAIN OUT LEVEL as FX-send-level.For the dry signal, use the AsgnOutL&R (or another individual out).(You know, you have a two-bus system within the A3k for each sample).The level of the dry signal can be controlled with ASSIGN OUT LEVEL.This even works if you only use two outputs (1 stereo): In UTILITY-MASTER-STOut set "To AsgnOut = ASL&R" and then don't use the MASTER OUT, but the ASSIGNABLE OUT L/R instead. (So this won't work with PHONES connected to the A3k phone jack...).This means:Sample "Main Out" Level = FX SENDOverall Main output Level = FX RETURNSample "Assign Out" Level = Dry signalCONTROLLER #007 (volume) = Level of the whole sample *** 16. HowTo: resampling with internal effects I would like to do this completely in the digital domain within the A3k. What is the exact procedure for processing a snare drum with a reverb and then storing it as a new sample? I don't want to overwrite the original.Set your Snare MainOut to FX, set up the desired effects.Make sure you can trigger your snare via midi or with AUDITION.RECORD-SETUP: Set Input to STOut, Target: New (Name: snare FX, e.g.) Trigger: StartBy ScrIn StopBy ManOnly RECORD-RECORD: Press GO, Press AUDITION (or keyboard), listen to your snare, hit FINISH when it is over.That's it :-) -------------------------------------------------- Section 12. Extra features (midi player, internal oscillators, test mode,... ) -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. What about the internal sequencer? Overall - I spent 10 seconds looking at the manual for this one. Basically it's a scratchpad. 1 track, no editing, no overdubding that I could find. Probably good as a "super audition" for developing programs and effects. Supposedly it's for "DJ phrase sequencing." Whatever it is, it's not an MPC3000. (adrenochrome@earthling.net) The a3k has a internal midi player, not a sequencer. It's only a extra-feature for demo purposes. Download some stuff from samplelibrary.net, you'll find in some A3k native samples a demo song. URLS: http://www.samplelibrary.net *** 2. Is there a way to convert the a3k-midi-sequences (on the demo-disks) to midi files? The Quick Guide says that the sequence format is an special a3k one. You can import SMF-files (type 0). The sequences are also routed to the A3k's midi-out, so you can record the output. A better solution is not known yet. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) *** 3. What does the A3K send to the MIDI out during sequence replay? The whole midi-file is routed to the internal A3k engine and to midi-out. So you have to take care that a connected external synth doesn't get mixed with the midi-channels activated in the A3k. Playback with the A3k gives you 16 channels, though. If you want more multi-timbral voices, you have to deal with key ranges. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) When playing sequences, be aware to disable midi truth in your midi interface if you've the A3k connected with the MIDI-In and MIDI-Outs ports in order to avoid midi loops. *** 4. Realtime Control of an A3000 during SMF replay? You cannot switch to another menu or load something during playback. But the audition key still works (for launching drumloops or other FX) during SMF playback, and the assignible key works also, lets you choose the knobs for realtime control during SMF playback. I can also use external controllers during playback. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) *** 5. How to import a midifile from Cubase into a3k? There are two different types of MIDI file type 0 and type 1. Type 0 has all data on the one track were as the other preserves separate track data. The A3k needs type 0. When exporting MIDI, If there is only one Track in the Song, Cubase creates a file of type 0. If you have more than one Track, Cubase creates a file of type 1, containing all unmuted Tracks in the Arrangement. Try mix-down all your Cubase tracks onto one new track and copy this into a new arrangment. This arrangment must have only one track for exporting type 0! Don't forget to keep the original version of your song for later remix... *** 6. How to set the machine back to its factory settings? Go to the test mode (hold COMMAND & PROGRAM while switching on) and turn knob 1 to get to "18.Factory Set" press "Auto" then Yes and Yes again to exit. (tblair3@csi.com) -------------------------------------------------- Section 13. Native A3000 Sampling CD-ROMs -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. Which native CD-ROMs are available for the A3k? Opium offers the FUEL CD's for the A3000. There are 6 titles released.More info available at: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/pro/scd/index.html URLS: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/pro/scd/index.html http://www.yamaha.co.uk/synth/pro/scd/index.htmlexample kits to learn how the drums are organised. Kicks [c1] [c3]; snares [d1,e1,f1] [d3,e3,f3]; sidestick [d#1][d#3] hats [f#1,g1,g#1,a1,a#1] [f#3,g3,g#3,a3,a#3] toms [c2,d2,e2,f2,g2] [c4,d4,e4,f4,g4] [c5,d5,e5,f5,g5] cymbals [c#2,d#2,f#2,g#2,a2,a#2,b2] [c#4,d#4,f#4,g#4,a4,a#4,b4] ride cymbals [b1] [b3] special sound and effects [c#1] [c#3] [a-1-b0] FX contains full keyboard patches for instant pitching of the samples."This immediately struck me as being inadequate documentation and the more I used the disks the more apparent this became. What You Get... The first volume on CD1 is Stingrays . This contains three programs (three sample kits) and, with the exception of FX, is the only volume on either CD to have any programs. All the subsequent volumes contain only sample banks and their related samples. StudioKicks contains 11 kick drum multisamples arranged in 22 sample banks e.g. the bank "FeltMalletKickC3" is a mulitsample kick drum mapped to the note C3 containing 10 (yes 10!) samples across the velocity range 0-127. The same kick sound (using duplicates) can also be found already mapped to C1 by loading "FeltMalletKickC1". StudioSnares contains 12 different snare sets banks with good descriptive names such as, "OpenBrassSnare" and "MutdSteelSnare". Each of these banks contains three multisampled snare hits mapped to D3, E3 and F3 (some using up to 12 velocity multisamples!) which are duplicated on D1, E1 and F1 to facilitate two handed playing - for rolls, fills flams etc. In addition to these 12 banks there are also sample banks containing the multisamples for each key, e.g. "OpenBrassSnareE3", "MutdSteelSnareF1" etc. This is a nice feature which quickly enables you to load up combinations of different snares. Having the ability to choose whether you load the hits in their individual banks or in the global bank is really useful. Curiously in both the kick drum volumes you can only load the hits individually so that if you want to have the same kick drum on C1 and C3 for playing two handed you have to load the banks separately and thus any changes to the kick sound, e.g. filter settings, have to be done twice. PASnares contains banks for nine more snare sets, presumably recorded through a mic ed up PA, as they tend to have a bigger ambience and heavier feel. The layout and mapping of the banks follows the same pattern as StudioSnares Perspectives contains well over 100 sample banks of snares. There is a real mixture of stuff here, single hits (both single sample and velocity multisamples, snare sets, flams, rolls, fills, phat hip-hop type snares as well as some more esoteric stuff such as velocity multisamples with different panning (hit the key harder and the snare changes channel) and some lovely spacially swirling effects built from snare rolls. PAKicks contains four more kicks in eight banks - same format as StudioKicks The first volume on disk 2 is PAHat Hats are organised in sets like the snares. "PAHat1 3" consists of five hihat hits mapped onto F#3, G3, G#3, A3 and A#3 ranging from completely closed (F#3) to wide open (A #3). As before, each hit contains several velocity switched samples. The bank "PAHat1 1" is the same set but two octaves down. The idea being, once again, that by loading both sets you can play twohanded. As with snares, each hit can also be loaded individually from another bank, e.g. "PAHat1 G#3", to enable you to mix and match. There aren t, however, banks set up, as there are with the snares, to load a set of hats in both low and high octaves, so if you want to play two handed any changes to filters etc have to be done twice. StudioHats is organised in exactly the same way as "PAHats". There are five more sets of hihat hits: Sabian, Zildjian, Tight Zildjian, Paiste and Tight Paiste. StudioToms gives you effectively two sets of toms, open and muted. Each set contains five velocity multisampled hits (6", 8", 10", 12" and 13" drums), mapped to C4, D4, E4, F4 and G4 as well as the same keys two octaves lower so you can play two handed. In addition, for both sets there is a flam hit of each tom on C5, D5, E5, F5 and G5. Disappointingly, though, there are no banks set up to load an entire set or a subset (open flams, for example) in one go - each hit has to be loaded individually, though the lower and higher octaves of each hit are loaded together. This means that if, for example, you wanted to load the full set of five muted toms with flams and have them going to a reverb on Effect3 you have to load 10 sample banks, switch them each on and then switch the output of each one individually to Effect3. ClubToms is another toms set, recorded through a mic ed up PA judging by the names, this time the set contains only four drums: 8", 10", 12" and 14". The banks are mapped and organised in the same way as StudioToms StudioMetal is your cymbals. There are six sets of six cymbal in this volume, not including ride cymbals. Each set is split into 2 banks of three cymbals, C#4, D#4, F#4 and G#4, A4, A#4 (plus duplicate banks mapped 2 octaves down for playing with both hands). Rides, of which there are only two in the volume, are mapped to B1 and B3. This time, strangely, there are no banks for loading individual cymbals, except rides; banks with three cymbals only ClubMetal is two more sets of six cymbals and another ride cymbal, all recorded through a PA. The format and layout of the banks is the same as StudioMetal . FX has four programs of not particularly inspiring effects. Some big, metallic kicks and snares which might be quite nice in an industrial setting or if used texturally, though nothing you couldn t knock up fairly quickly with Sound Forge and lots of the samples from the other volumes. A menacing hell-dog type growling, looped fader noise. A bit of a filler volume really, out of context with the rest of the CD, though one might use bits. The last volume, Carnival , is also rather out of place on this CD set though, unlike FX , I really like it. Basically it is samba loops and fills from a Brazilian ensemble, from single instruments to the whole group mapped across the keyboard. If you ve listened to volume 15 Symphonic on the CD ROM that comes with the A3000 you ll get the idea. Everything is at the same tempo so you can mix and match, playing parts with each other. Even if you re not into Brazilian music, though I love it, the timables or tamborim fills or the ganza or caixa loops would work great in a house track. Besides it s the middle of the World Cup - ya gotta love it! The Sounds... On the whole I am very impressed with the quality of the sample banks on this CD set. All the samples seem to be well recorded with little noise. If you are after the sound of a real drummer, playing a real kit I would think this is about as good as you are going to get without going into a studio with a decent live room and omeone who can play. Given the range of samples on the CDs, combined with the filtering, editing and effects of the A3000, I don t think you would have difficulty in producing convincing music in just about any genre which uses a real drum kit - providing your drum programming is up to it and you are prepared to spend the time on the midi part. There were one or two obvious omissions however. There were no hits (that I could find) using either brushes, which was very surprising, or rods. I would have liked to have seen quite a few snare flams and rolls in the snare volumes for each of the different snare drums used rather than just a few spurious ones mixed up in the Perspectives volume - these, after all, are some of the trickiest things to program convincingly. Programming And Layout... This is a thoughtfully put together collection of sounds. I really like that the different types of drum sound are always mapped to the same keys so creating your own composite kit is very straightforward. The double handed approach throughout is great as well and makes recording realistic hihat lines, ghosted snares, tom fills etc much easier. The flexibility to be able to load individual hits and build diverse kits or load complete sets for easy, "one stop" editing is really powerful - I just wish this had been implemented fully in all the volumes, particularly the toms where you have to load each drum individually. There is also some inconsistency in the way banks are named in different volumes which, combined with the lack of documentation, is confusing initially and makes the learning curve steeper than necessary. There are other, fairly minor and easily correctable, programming discrepancies as well: the stereo placement of sounds is sometimes unconventional and inonsistent (listen for the hihat swapping sides when I changed sounds in the demo I uploaded), sometimes alternate group is used to cut off the same instrument sound and sometimes not, all the snare banks in the Perspectives volume which contain only one sample seem to default to having no sensitivity to velocity, the Carnival bank defaults to midi channel two where everything else on the disks default to midi channel 1. Where there are small programming oversights they are generally quick to sort out but I do feel that this CD set wasn t quite as "load and play" as it could have been. The switching of samples with velocity (remember almost all the hits are velocity multisamples and some contain 10 or 12) is generally smooth and sound great in the context of most drum parts. The switching would, however, become noticeable with a "machinegun" snare roll with a linear increase in velocity, and it is some of the snare drum banks which are less good. Good use of duplicates is made throughout, so that loading double handed banks in both octaves takes up no more memory than just loading in one. I feel it is a shame that there are so few programs and ready made kits. It would be really nice to have several carefully programmed programs such as funk kit , rock kit , trip-hop kit etc making use of appropriate effects, filters, stereo placement and levels etc. And while we re at it, a couple of demo sequences showing off these programs would be a nice introductory showcase. Negatives... I only have two major gripes with this CD ROM set. The first is the size of the sample banks. A typical small kit of one kick, one snare set (three snare hits), one hihats set (five hihat hits), six cymbals, five toms and five tom flams can eat up more than 25 meg!! My A3000 currently only has 32 meg, but it is also the load times involved in these size banks - particularly given that sample banks cannot be auditioned from disk or CD in the way that they can from memory. I think that VRSound really ought to have given more consideration to this issue. I don t think it s too difficult to make an argument for overkill when a kick drum contains 10 separate velocity samples all in stereo! How much better is it going to sound in the context of a mix than 3 mono samples with some judicious use of a velocity sensitive hi-pass filter and maybe 8 cents random pitch shift? The first thing I tried to do was load program 1 from the Stingrays volume. Eight and a half minutes later I got the out of memory message! The second and perhaps more important (and more easily remedied by VRSound) problem with this set is the total lack of proper documentation. It really took me quite a while to get my head around how this CD set worked, how the banks are set up, the naming system used etc. I would have liked to have seen a proper introduction on how the sample banks are organised and named, why the same sound can be loaded both in a set and individually and giving examples of when you might want to use the different loading methods. There should definitely be a section where each sample bank is named, and given it s size and the keys it maps to. Ideally each sample bank should also have a one or two line description of what it sounds like and how it was recorded (it is really frustrating loading large bank after large bank by pure trial and error to find the right sound for your track). As an example: "SabianHat Oct3: F#3,G3,G#3,A3,A#3; 3.4meg; recorded with a crossed pair of AKG-414s. This set has a less cutting attack but more zing than the Paiste sets. Sound great with 70s funk" Summary... A very high quality, on the whole well produced CD ROM set let down by very poor documentation. If you are producing music in any genre that needs a real drum kit, your studio doesn t have a live room and you have an A3000 with LOTS of ram then you will like this product. There is also a vast amount of raw drum material available for sonic mutilation for other types of music. From "jeremy.whitaker" (syncr@ultima.org) VRSound's Drum CDRom1) the basics...2 disc set containing --probably about 1500-2000 individual samples of various *acoustic* drum hits.programs: 3 example drumkits called StingRaysvolumes:disc 1StudioKicksPAKicksStudioSnaresPASnaresPerspectivesdisc 2StudioHatsPAHatsStudioTomsClubTomsStudioMetalClubMetalFXCarnival2) the documentation... the bare minimum. no insert info, no synopsis of what you'll find or what special controllers to try with different banks. what you are told: - what volumes there are... - different note mappings for particular sounds...i.e kicks [c1][c3];snares[d1,e1,f1]; sidestick[d#1][d#3], etc... * an important aspect of the CD is that all sounds have default keys based on how they fit into a kit. this functionality allows the user to easily build his/her own kits. 3) the samples... the strength of this CD is in it's sheer volume of samples and the extensive variation in hit strength, style, positioning, etc. all of the samples are clean, high quality recordings of hits performed and recorded for the CD. the envelopes have been edited to produce accurate representations. -- controller info as far as i could tell, Velocity and PitchBend are the only controllers that affect parameter data. this is disappointing considering the great functionality of the A3k as a synth drum machine. simple edits such as velocity -> cutoff/Q were overlooked as the general goal of this CD seems to only reproduce an accurate *acoustic* drumkit. 4) the volumes... the volumes contain both banks and samples. no FX are used, which IMO is a good thing because it leaves more flexibility for sound design. some of my favorites: PAsnares -- 26 megs good crisp snares, excellant variety of realistic, "it's a real drummer!", sounds. some reverbs. lots of banks. solid -- one of the best reasons to have this CD Perspectives -- 23 megs great alternative snare sounds(Piccolo, Steel), rolls, flams, and other motion drum sounds realistic velocitys, pitch bends lots of banks. high points...StudioHats contains specific Hat sounds from different manufacturers(Zildjan, Sabian, Paiste), good variety of kicks(reverbs, thuds, pan modulation, etc) low points...StudioSnares wouldn't load because my machine ran out of parameter memory, FX sounds pretty weak, sample names like 4204KIFEM 5) the programs... only 3 kits have been built for you. a relatively good smattering of samples that use all 3 FX slots. not very functional for song construction, unless you remove the dependancy on the FX and use the kit for mapping only... personally and IMO... this is a very different CD than i would expect to be manufactured for the a3k. with it's strong leanings toward the electronic producer, the a3k marketing and design leans toward younger, more experimental musicians, or kids who just like to tweak the knobs. as one can tell from the conversation on this list the average user is under 30, makes techno, dnb, (tr / h)iphop, or some other electronica. on a disk for such an audience, i would expect to find your typical smattering of 808/909/Linn/ acoustic/blurps/arp kicks/Q pops/etc. an even better mixture would include ethnic sample and percussive synth sounds that can be used as drums. basically a wide variety containing, but not limited, to acoustics. for the Emu crowd, this CD seems perfect, but for the a3k it seems foreign. like the thought of producing rock and roll on your sampler... now, don't get me wrong. the CD is chock full of good samples and if are looking for a CD to use as a building block for amazing triphop/DnB kits, this disc would make your work easy. i will no doubt find it extremely useful material for building further samples and constructing kits, but my general conception of this disk is blurred by the fact that i haven't found a single electronic sample on the thing. even more disappointing, not a single african or asian drum can be found. no djembe, no conga, no clave, no tambura, no gong... the only ethnic drums are the carnaval kit, which is brazilian. with that said, i do need to tip my cap to Franz for the sheer number of samples, their quality, and the amount of time it must have taken to create and organize such a task. also, i'd like to thank him for making this product available to his peers for their consideration. not to mention building CDs for the a3k, a sampler with far too liitle representation in the CDRom market... hopefully, in the future, VRSound will build a CD more aimed @ the A3k market. knowing the standard set by this CD, i will no-doubt strongly consider buying it. *** 8. Reviews of VRSound's Percussion From Joosten Kuypers (joosten@celefex.com) The vrsound.percussion sample CD contains 390 MB of sounds, consisting of 1546 samples of 68 instruments. These are grouped into five categories as High Drums, Mid Drums, Low Drums, Shakers& Metal and Wood & More. As Christian Stonehouse did an excellent job of listing and describing each instrument, I won't repeat his work, and instead I'll refer to the instruments that highlight specific points in my review. You can get a full list of all the instruments showing the size in MB of the sample banks, and the number of samples here: http://www.vrsound.com/vrsound_percussion_manual/p1_percussionE.html So first a bit about where I'm coming from. I'm not involved in music professionally, but I've been playing music for about 12 years now, and 6 of those years I played drums and percussion. I made the move to electronic music production about 2 years ago, partly to spare my neighbors, and mostly because I was getting heavily into techno, industrial, electro and d&b. I've had the a3k for about 9 months now. I'd say I'm pretty much new to the world of sample CD's, as this percussion CD now expands my collection to two, the other one being the CD that came with the sampler. I have previously gotten most of my samples from the internet, with the excellent sample library (props to Jay and Moron) usually being the first stop. But while I don't have a lot of experience to draw on in terms of other sample CD's I do have experience with "live" percussion and have played many of the instruments on this CD. I'm going to break this review down into four parts, starting with recording/sound quality, then move on to usability/inspiration factor. I'll talk about the diversity of sounds, and finally I'll wrap it up in a summary. Recording/Sound Quality- In a word, excellent. Yes, there is some noise in many of the samples, but I feel the fantastic dynamic range portrayed by all the instruments more than makes up for it. Percussion is all about transients, and these samples have that in spades. You wouldn't even really notice the noise on most samples, except that there are nice natural fade outs to the samples, where some noise becomes apparent as some of the samples fade out. The only instrument that had samples I felt were very noisy was the Pakhavaj, but I don't feel like its unusable, in fact this one makes great mangling fodder. Also, I had some problems with the Bass Drum instrument. While the first sample bank sounds great, the second sample bank had some *serious* frame buzzing (this has nothing to do with the recording by the way). Call me a Bass Drum purist, but I think on this one, the buzzing takes away from the impact of the low frequency sounds. On the flip side some of the instruments that I think are recorded beautifully, are the Bongos, Clay drum, Metal Riq, Frame Drum, Oil Drum (The best sounding one I've ever heard- fantastic low end), Cajon, Conga, Dumbac, Tabla (again great sounding, and perfectly in tune), Talking Drum, Bead Pot, Cabasa, Metal Shaker, Metal Shoes, Sleigh Bells, Triangle, Blocks/Sticks, Quika (Great recording and great technique by the percussionist. Just a quick word on Brad Dutz the percussionist on this CD. He is a big part of the reason many of these instruments are as interesting and as usable as they are. He is obviously adept at playing many styles of music, and plays many great little "mini sequences". More on this later...), Spinners, and Woodlog. In fact all the instruments sound great and to my ear sound like the instruments are supposed to, with the one exception of the Tambourine, which sounded a little thin and it didn't have a nice chunky metallic sound to the metal discs. The Riq (A Middle Eastern Tambourine) however, sounded just like I think a tambourine should sound, so not too big a deal. I listened to these samples through a Mackie 1402 VLZ mixer, with Acoustic Research Powered Speakers, AKG K 240 studio headphones, and an expensive hi-fi setup with a very flat response curve. I can say that these samples are definitely a big step up from any drum/percussion samples I have heard, even the Yamaha Sound Library samples sound dull and noisy (yes these samples are about twice as noisy as the vrsound samples, with about half the impact) in comparison (once you switch off the 3 band EQ, and reverb, which hides many of the shortcomings of those samples). The vrsound samples sit well in a mix, and I found it was pretty easy to get a nice mix with traditional and even electronic drum samples. Many of the instruments on this disc have a lot of high end "sizzle" which made them punch out in my mixes. Many times this is what I wanted, and I used no EQ at all on them. When I wanted the more metallic rattly instruments to "play well with others", a little cut around 10k usually did the trick. In short, aside from the exceptions mentioned above, I wouldn't hesitate to use any of these instruments as *solo* instruments, much less buried in a drum mix. They sound great. Usability/Inspiration Factor- No doubt about it, these instruments are FUN. Many I played around with for hours on end. Playing the samples unaltered, pitching the sounds up and/or down, using the filters, and probably the most fun- running them through effects. It seem that using Autosyn with one of the AutoWah effects is a surefire recipe for funky chemical beats- the janglier the sound the better it works. There's great material on this disc, even if you have no intention of using any percussion sounds in your track. These sounds are ripe for the mangling! Of course these sounds are great unaltered too, and some of the stranger sounding instruments, wouldn't be out of place "as is" in any electronic piece. Spinners, Mrdangum, Oildrum, Fish, and Metalmosheres quickly come to mind as complex, ethereal sounds that would be great in any trippy dance track. But to my mind the factor that makes many of these instruments so inspiring and usable, is the great playing by Brad Dutz. Loading up the Bongos volume, is an eye-opener. There's 75 samples, and most of those are little phrases of 2-6 notes, that act as a kind of loop or extended phrase "construction kit". Listening to the bongo sequence I knew I was going to be jamming on this one for a while. You might think that using these mini phrases to put together loops and such, you would be locked into the tempo that they were played at. However, most of them are so short, or smoothly retrigger, that I was able to make some loops at tempos ranging from 90 bpm to 160 bpm with little trouble. I didn't try tempos higher or lower than that, but I imagine you would only run into problems at very slow tempos. I spent lots of time using these instruments not only as "spice" for traditional drum sounds, but I also made complete rhythm sections using only instruments on this disc. I was often using the Oil Drum or Frame drum as the bass drum, the Cajon or Sakara as snare, and using something like Metal Shoes (very industrial sounding), Dead Metal Shaker or Triangle as the hi-hat. Very cool stuff! My biggest problem was keeping the lines simple enough so the instruments weren't fighting for space in the track. I was constantly fighting the urge to just "go off" with each instrument. Also as I started using starnger sounds, the more it seemed that the rhythm section "came alive". I started out using mostly the familiar sounds like Bongos, Congas, Maracas, etc., but ended up using Mrdangum, Talking Drum, Saw Sounding, Triple Shake, Frame Drum and other instruments that are probably not heard very often accompanied by synth tones. Curiously, it didn't make my music sound particularly ethnic at all. I think the instruments blend well into whatever kind of music they are stuck into, and being able to play almost any rhythmic style with these instruments I think is the key. You're not locked into African rhythms with the African instruments, but you still have the ability to quickly put together phrases of you own devising that sound like they're being played by a live musician (and then mangle the hell out of it with the a3k!) I found the sounds on this disc both inspiring and musically useful to me. Even though I didn't think I needed these kinds of sounds before, now I don't want to live without them! Diversity of Sounds- Surprisingly, this is the one area where I felt a little let down. Now make no mistake, there are a *lot* of different types of instruments and sounds on this disc, but I think there are some percussion instruments missing that are "standards". Most of these are on the disc (bongos, conga, maraca-shaker-like thing, tambourine, triangle, etc.), but in my opinion there are some omissions. For instance, there is no Timbale, Timpani, Gong(s), Marimba/Xylophone/Vibraphone, or Udu drum instruments. ( Oh well, I guess my techno remake of "Oye Como Va" will have to wait.) I also feel that these instruments could have been added without increasing the number of instruments on the disc. Not that any instruments sound bad, but the differences between some instruments are subtle, some very subtle. Chinese Tambourine and Riq (a Middle Eastern tambourine) are pretty similar. Also the Marrocan Bongos could be pretty well simulated by pitching up the regular bongo samples. There are eight or so shaker instruments, and some like the Maraca and Metal Maraca I thought sounded very similar. I would also gladly give up some of these similar instruments, in order to get more of the great flams, triplet figures, paradiddles and other little phrases that Brad plays on many of these instruments. As I said before, these loop "construction kits" are to me the great strength of this disc, and could added even more instruments. With that said, I think there are a lot of great sounds on this disc, and most cultures are represented well, with Latin, African, Asian, and the Middle Eastern percussion all being represented. Something else I was hoping for, but not expecting, was a nod to the electronic/dance nature of the a3k. I thought it would have been cool to have vinyl scratching- single "hits" as well as some little scratched phrases. Something to bring out the turntablist in all of us. Maybe some nice industrial and Autchere-like percussion sounds too. vrsound.percussion vol.2 perhaps? Knowing the quality and effort that Franz put into this offering, I'd buy it, that's for sure. Summary- Well, its probably no surprise that I like this disc. The misgivings I have don't distract from what's there, and there's plenty to keep all kinds of music producers satisfied. I would definitely recommend this disc to those of you who are creating world/ethnic flavored music, and indeed anyone who likes new, interesting and complex sounds, and likes creating even stranger, and more complex sounds using the great effects, filters, envelopes, and lfo's of the A3k. Despite the inclusion of some similar sounds, and the exclusion of some one's I would have liked (Who gets everything they want anyway?), I think this CD offers excellent value. A winner. URLS: http://www.vrsound.com/vrsound_percussion_manual/p1_percussionE.html *** 9. Reviews of VRSound's Electric Keys From Scott Whitman (swhitman@topaztech.com) What You Get - 64 programs: Fender Rhodes Electric - 3 programs Hammond Organ - 3 programs Misc Organ - 2 programs Stringed - 2 programs Metal (bells) - 2 programs Vibes/Marimba - 4 programs Moog - 15 programs Polymoog - 17 programs Pads - 16 programs There is not much documentation. All the programs are named on the back of the CD case but that is all you get. I don't have time to go into depth about every sound... The first Rhodes piano is a big file. It has more character than I'm used to. I grew up on clean and simple DX7 type Rhodes. This one has some grunge, especially down low, presumably like the real instrument. It also had a built in vibrato, (like the real rhodes?) which I didn't like. Why not let me add it with the mod wheel? The next two Rhodes sound good-you hear the hammers striking the metal. (Hey-and only a little vibrato on number three! :) The organ patches sounded very good, deep and full-bodied. I especially liked the third one called "LeslieSteady". The lower register is deep and the upper register cuts through the mix like well oiled saber. Call some friends over and jam on the Doors 'til you Break on Through to the Other Side. The Moog sounds essentially are all sound effects, falling bells, rising bells, laser blast, and my personal favorite one that goes "crackle-crackle". Nothing musical jumped to my mind immediately but someone would find one or more of these useful, I'm sure. Metal - How about a good set of bells that ring forever (and even bounce around in stereo space)? That's just the first patch. The next two only sound good (imo) in the upper register, but they sound really good up there. Patch two is a bell chord called "Campanile Chord" and would make a good stab. The third patch is a wind chime. A strum of the chimes is played on each key. I liked that. You don't have to play a convincing strum, you just hit a key. (If you really want to do it yourself, I suppose you could chop up the sample. But you'd probably just want to get single chimes from somewhere else.) My first impression of the first in the Vibes Volume, was "wait-that's not what a vibes patch sounds like" Every synth I've ever owned has a vibes patch and they all sound like poo compared to these samples. Real, live vibes and marimbas, all good and all useful-that about sums it up. My favorite volume by far was the PolyMoog. It contained a number of excellent and useable sounds: "BigCombo" is a big, drippy, bassy sound that changes character with different key velocities. I had a pattern that I liked grooving with this sound, then I was playing around in Cakewalk and bumped up the velocity and got a completely different feel. I then layered "Marshall"; a screaming distorted electric guitar sound on top. That project is coming along nicely-I'll post the Mpeg if I ever finish it...Other standouts in this volume are "Polywave" a bright synth sound with a soft metallic quality, "Talker" is reminiscent of Peter Frampton Live mouthing guitar sounds through a Golden Throat effect, "OpenIt" a lead/arpeggio sound that sounds good across the entire keyboard. (I guess this is because the initial sample is analog and the filter and envelopes are done with the A3000.) I really found a lot of good stuff in this volume. Then the Pads. A lot of great usable analog stuff here. Some bright, some soft, String pads, Brassy pads, Breathy pads, Vocal etc...They all hearken to vintage synth so don't expect to find the kind of movement and complexity you would find in the average Korg Z1 preset. I know the focus of the disk is on vintage stuff, but since I know what's out there, I was hoping to find some pads that would blow me away. On the other hand there is a lot of useable stuff here and pads with less character probably fit into song creation better (they'll lay back and form a basis or a 'pad'-yeah that's it- for the rest of the music ;) The pads sound clean and clear when they need to be and for the most part are looped very well. Would I buy this disk? Sure. I loved about 85 percent of it. As I said before the Polymoog sounds a great, that alone would convince me to buy it, but then you throw in the vibes/marimba, bells, my favorite organ sound, all those pads and it adds up to a pretty good buy. *** 10. Reviews of VRSound's HipHop From Moogie (moogie@nildram.co.uk)Produced by Dorian Wright, 'Hiphop' is one CD from a range of four ROMS available from the vrsound studios. The first thing I notice about this CD is the presentation. For a professional CDROM, the inlay seems cheaply designed and cheaply printed. The same can be said for the actual CD.Having removed the inlay I proceeded to open it out hoping to find a comprehensive track listing. Instead I found nothing. The only place I could find any content information was on the back cover of the case. Here you are told the Volume name, and the names and numbers of the Programs within the Volume. This in my opinion is something that can easily be improved with very little effort on behalf of the publishers.My next task was to upgrade my A3000. Yes that's right; to fully load some of the volumes on this CD, you are going to need 64Mb of RAM. I thought to myself 'that's quite a lot but maybe there are some really impressive multisampled instruments that need all this memory'. In retrospect, quite simply there aren't. It would have been easy to split some of the larger volumes, thus opening the market for the CD to the vast number of users running with less than 64Mb. Again another point for vrsound to think about. So having been initially disappointed with the presentation of the CD and, I put these first impressions to the back of my head and loaded the CD into the caddy. Simply, this CD is a collection of loops, individual drum sounds, electric and acoustic guitars, bass samples and a few sound FX thrown in for good luck. So firstly the loops. Not having an informative inlay to work from I found the loops the only really intuitively named samples on this CD, each one being named by its tempo value. The loops themselves were of a good overall quality, using nice drum sounds, although the actual rhythm programming of them made a few of them sound very similar. Not enough variation here for my liking. The loop points on all the loops were set very well, if you use this functionality. For me, the individual drum sounds are this CDs finest point. There are literally hundreds of different bass drums, snare drums, hi-hats and cymbal for you to choose from, some being completely different sounds, whilst some being minute but useful variations on sounds. Speaking as a drum and bass producer, I will find this CD a highly useful resource for these drum sounds alone. The electric guitar samples give this CD the funk element that every CD calling itself a hip-hop CD needs to have. There are many multi-samples and individual samples here, some of which immediately grab you and inspire you to get funky with your composition. Having said that, as with the loops, many of the samples sound too samey and some extra variation would be welcome. Onto the Acoustic guitars. This was one of my favourite sections, although I'm not sure how well they fit on a hip-hop CDROM. I can see they have great potential in musical genres such as 'intelligent d&b' but the samples provided here are not the sort of sounds that get hip-hop crowds jumping up and down. But as I have mentioned I am a junglist, and a lot of the chord strums here would glue perfectly in a Bukem style track. I loaded the 'DaBass' volume with great anticipation, but was disappointed. I expected some huge bass samples, particularly having read the back cover saying 'Beware of excessive low end!'. Instead what you get is a collection of primarily bass guitar sounds, and although they will fit well in many hip-hop tracks, they did not inspire me. Personally I believe that too many hip-hop tunes are based on a formula using similar sounds which in all fairness does work, but I prefer individuality. The few sound FX that are again OK, but the key problem here is the word 'few'. There simply aren't enough of them. Hip-hop contains a lot of fill sounds to provide the variation, and having a good resource of them is important, and something that sample CD manufacturers should not overlook. In general, the samples and multi-samples are of a high quality, despite finding some with slight clicks at the end of them. However this was easily be remedied by playing with the release time. I think anyone purchasing this CD would be well advised to follow the tips provided by vrsound on the back cover of the case: 'We would like to encourage you to twist those knobs and customise the patches for your performance. We can only offer a small glimpse of all the possible variations of filter, fx, ...parameters and realtime control.' It seems to me that this is the only way to get real value for money from this CD, since at $99.95 US I would expect more. Mind you, with a 30 percent discount available to list members, it seems a more attractive option. Having said that, this CD is one of very few available for the A3000, and as represents a brave move on behalf of vrsound for supporting a relatively new format in a market dominated by AKAI. *** 11. Reviews of VRSound's Pianos From Jonathan Grant (jono@teklab.com) First of all, I would like to thank Franz for being so patient with the sending of this review..... When I opened the package, I was disappointed with the quality of the packaging, and the CD wasn't a glass mastered disc, but a "home grown" mitsumi CDr disc. This could possibly cause problems with some older CD readers, but in my case everything loaded fine. There was a distinct lack of documentation, but this wouldn't be important on a pianos disc in my opinion. Before I start the review, I should also mention that there appeared to be very little fragmentation of the data on this CD, and the programs loaded probably as quickly possible - important for live use - nice one Franz. Until now I have been unable to try the full plethora of programs on the disc, due to problems obtaining memory, but thanks to list member Simon Pietroni, who supplied me with an A3k stuffed with 64 juicy Megs, I have at last got to play these pianos! There are 22 programs in total on this disc, covering a variety of verions of the Yamaha C7 and a Bosendorfer. 12 of the programs are PianoFX, and the other 10 traditional pianos - variations of the Yamaha & Bosendorfer. Of the first 8 programs, which I will call the "full programs", 6 cover the bosendorfer, and I feel this was a wise choice as I prefered the warmer tone of the Bosendorfer to the C7 on this disc. Vrsound have chosen to include sustained samples of the pianos (ie samples using the sustain pedal) which is very nice, as anyone who plays the piano will know that there is a definite change in tone when the sustain pedal is depressed. Half of the full bosendorfer programs (the 64Mb ones) feature this (the VR"X" programs), leaving the other 3 (48Mb each) as normal versions of the same piano multi-samples. The sustaining effect works well, really opening up the sound on the piano, increasing the resonances, particularly on the higher samples of the Bosendofer-sing program. The effect does sound a little artificial if you try stamping away on the pedal too much, but this is being picky as you would never do this on a real piano. The VRX programs are a welcome addition to the disc. The sound quality of the samples is generally very good, and the pianos have a rich bottom end, and the area just above middle C doesn't suffer like on many synth-workstation multi samples (listen to the Korg M1's piano). It's clear that good quality condensor mics have been used. There is a small amount of noise on some of the pianissimo samples when you play the raw waves, but this is not very noticeable, and not really much worse than the piano on the Yamaha Pro Sound Lib CDROM. One other thing I should mention about the sound quality, is that the pianos on this disc have a definite sound quality which ultimately comes down to personal taste. If you listen to the Yamaha PRO SOUND LIB piano, it has a certain 'close miked' quality to it. Whilst I wouldn't deny that the VRSOUND pianos are close miked, the sound of the source samples was definitely more 'room influenced', and possibly more natural, though I also really like dry samples in certain situations. As far as sustain is concerned, 64Mbs should provide enough for some convincing sustains, unlike the normal limitations with PCM ROM pianos. The sustain on the pianos was reasonably convicing overall, though if you listen for it, you can hear the crossfaded loops of the notes cycling as the a3k's envelope decays but this is only really noticeable when listening chords decay right down to 0. Of course, by slightly increasing the envelope's decay value, you can improve on this. The extent to which you will notice the looping in the sustain area is obviously determined by how you play - if you play fast and percussively, you will not notice it. I should add that there were no really obvious changes in sample on any of the pianos on this disc (the samples seemed to be taken every minor 3rd, or 4 semitones), except for the velocity switching. I found the velocity switching a little obivous in the upper velocity layers. I suppose the user could tweak this. Not only does this disc provide 8 Hi-RAM piano programs, but also 2 Lo-ram - 1 Yamaha & 1 Bosendorfer, and sustained pianos respectively. I felt that the Lo-Ram pianos lacked sustain in the higher samples, and I prefered playing the Yamaha Pro Sound Lib one - strange considering the VRSound Programs were 13.8 Mb bigger. All I can say is at least they are there for those who can't allocate the RAM to the bigger programs. The 2 sustained pianos on offer are, I assume, some of the samples from the sustained layers from the VRX programs. As with the Lo-ram pianos, they also occupy 16 Mb of memory. I don't think I would have a use for these programs, but someone else might. The final 12 programs cover PianoFX - John Cage anyone? The first program has a nice percussive loop on key C1 that would even work well in techno with a bit of filtering! There are other scrapes, plucks, twangs etc - enough for an entire horror movie. The program 'Space Piano' (PFX5) is particularly nice. A standard piano with muting. Franz is to be congratulated on adding these to the disc, as they separate it from similar libraries on other sampler platforms. Sampling pianos is no easy task, and overall this disc is good. However I can't help but feel that the market for a dics of piano samples will be limited on the A3000 sampler platform as most people who buy A3000s will be interested in creating dance music, and the natural ambience of these pianos isn't ideally suited for this application. What would make this disc a lot more creditable would be a price drop. Whilst i understand that *a lot* of time and effort would have gone into the production of this disc, I feel that a price drop would be a good move to make it more saleable. At $200 I feel that it has a limited market, especially given the above comment, a price of $100 would, I feel, vastly improve sales and offer better value for money. $200 may be the going rate, but if I am right in thinking that Franz is the sole distributor of his CDs, then I'm sure he could consider a drop. That said, you could look at it that you are getting samples of expensive pianos here, so the cost might seem small. One final thing I should mention is that I had fairly limited time with this disc, so hopefully I will be able to amend a few things in the future, and upload some demos. *** 12. Reviews of Yamaha's DJ/Producer Toolkit From Aleix (aleix@retemail.es)This is a short review of the sample library "DJ / Producer Toolkit" produced by Yamaha for the A3k and the EX5 workstation. I've not received any special discount or whatever you think for doing this review: some people is interested reading an opinion of this library.I ordered this library through the Yamaha's virtual shop at www.yamaha.co.uk and I received the two CD's after five days (very fast, I admit). Only opening the package, I realised the first bad thing: this library is shipped with two sampler formats, the A3k "standard ISO" format (you can view a lot of files with a computer) and the EX5 format. For me, this is a bad point because demonstrates that Yamaha have been unable to create a compatible format for the two platforms. At least, Yamaha should ship the two formats in different packages.Looking at the booklet, there is the second bad point: a poor documentation. There is only a sorrowful list of the volumes without explaining what are on every volume. Only a list like this: "Kit 3 - Play kits: Play kit 130 bpm / Play kit 135 bpm / Play kit 142 bpm". This is totally useless because it's the same that you can view at the A3k's display. I would rather to have a list of every program from each volume with a short description of the sound and the effect setting of the modulation wheel.But let's talk about the sounds: the samples are structured into programs using a lot of effects. Imo, this is another bad point of this library because most of the "presets" are based on duplicated samples using different effect settings of the A3k. The result is that this library is only suitable for playing a program as a performance or "multi" and it's very difficult to manage different samples in order to make a complete so= ng. Although you can ignore the effects loading only the samples, you will find a lot of duplicated samples without using different settings at the sample level (the same EG and filter parameters). However, the quality of the samples is excellent: all the sounds are sampled at 44,1 khz or 48 khz and they are clean without any noise (there is not a sample with noise). The modulation wheel has nice effects on a lot of programs and since there is not any information about this controller on the booklet, you will be surprised sometimes.Another bad point of this library is the amount of fragmentation of the CD. If you try to save a whole volume on a ZIP disk or your A3k native HD, then you will load it very faster than the CD. This is quite annoying because there are volumes that take around 4 minutes to load from the CD.- Kit 1: SynthesizersThis first partition of the A3k CD contains 9 volumes containing a lot of (imo) strange synths suitable for every kind of music (synths, synth basses and pads). There is no analog sounds or something like this and imo, all the sounds could be considered as SFX rather than synthesizers. The synth basses are a bit disappointing considering the amount of sample memory that you need in order to hear them. There are two volumes containing pads but I find them cold.- Kit 2: SFXThis partition contains *a lot* of one shot samples containing short and strange noises than you can use in order to fill your productions with them. These are structured on kits (a different sample for every key). But also, there is some interesting drum kits that they can't be considered special FX. Some of the volumes take a lot of time to load (even more than 5 minutes with a 24x cdrom reader). These drumkits are very, very original.- Kit 3: Play kitsFor me, this is the useless partition of the disk. There is a *lot* of drumloops mapped over the keyboard in 3 different tempos (130, 135 and 142 bpm) only suitable for live situations for dance and house sessions with a bit of influence from Japan. However, you can tweak some effects and filters in order to get interesting breakbeats.- Kit 4: Drum'n'Bass KitThis is the better part of the CD: you will find three volumes with d&b drumloops (160, 164 and 170 bpm) and two volumes for each of these volumes containing the one shot samples mapped as drumkits (9 volumes). The samples are really *cool* although the one shot samples contains more than one bar, for example: two hi hats or two bass drums. Despite this, I find these one shot samples very useful.- Kit 5: SFXIn this partition, there are 13 volumes containing some special FX as instruments, not as one shot samples on every key as the second partition. There is only one program for each volume, so it could be better to find all the programs fitted into a volume on the second partition of this CD. The samples are very strange in general: wind, noises, jets, etc.In general, you will find on this CD a lot of fresh material (more than 450 Mb on 40 volumes), specially drums and special FX samples. But I think that there is a lack of some analogue textures (basses and pads) very necessary for the kind of music that this library tries to follow (dance, drum & bass, etc). The samples of this library can't be considered "indispensable" (you will need more warm material, imo) as the rear cover tries to convince.Finally, the price is very interesting considering that this is a native A3k library: around 75 us dollars (look at the yamaha's virtual shop at www.yamaha.co.uk). However, I expected more considering the amount of analogue and great gear that Yamaha has been made until today (for example: some pads from the yammi's CS80 ... really a great synth... hehehe). *** 13. Rules for making A3k native CDs with samples downloaded from Teklab First-draft rules for making CD's out of the TekLab ftp site:All Samples stored on the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive (ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k) remain the property of the individual authors (Sample Contributors). TekLab acts solely as a edistribution point for these authors, and the service that TekLab provides is free to those that would use it to distribute their works, and those that would use it to retrieve samples for their own individual use.The TekLab A3000 Sample Archive will always remain a free service to users of the Yamaha A3000 (and compatible) Samplers. It's purpose is to promote shared creativity amongst the artists that have chosen this instrument for their works, and to act as a stored collection of art for the A3000 User Community to refer to as needed.By creating a CD of any portion of the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive, in either plain ISO9660 or in A3k-specific or other format, you are making it possible to easily redistribute and use the individual samples, and you must follow these rules in order to protect the individual authors of those samples.By forwarding a sample or derivative work to the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive, individual authors are automatically granting TekLab the right to re-distribute and control the free, not-for-profit re-distribution of their products obtained by others from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive. This service is provided free by TekLab, and we will continue to do so.To make it fair to contributors as well as consumers of the samples on the TekLab A3k site, we have established these guidelines for anyone that wishes to take the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive material or portions thereof for redistribution.You are free to make CD's out of any part of the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive for re-distribution purposes only if every one of these rules is followed:1. The following URL must be placed in a prominent position in your packaging:ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k2. The following text must be inserted in a fully readable manner somewhere in your packaging (liner notes, CD label, etc):"Some (or all) samples contained on this CD were obtained from the A3000 User Community-supported TekLab A3000 Sample Archive on the Internet. This is a free service provided by TekLab, and if you have access to the Internet, you can use this service by going to the following web site:http://www.teklab.com/~a3kThe creator of this CD does not own these samples -- they remain the individual property of the A3000 Sample Archive Contributors - please contact them individually for more information on the use and redistribution of their property."3. Samples on the TekLab ftp site include a .txt file with author information. If you use a sample from the TekLab ftp site, you *MUST* include it's .txt file somewhere in your package -- either on the CD itself (multi-format disk), or in fully printed, readable form.(Sample contributors: This is why its *very* important to have a good .txt file with your uploads that provides your contact information and any usage guidelines you wish to impose on your contribution.) 4. A copy of the CD must be sent (at no cost to TekLab) to TekLab Archives for historical archiving purposes. Contact jay@teklab.com for full details on the TekLab mailing address, or get it from http://www.teklab.com - TekLab must receive it's archive copy within 15 days of full distribution of your product, or your right to use samples obtained from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive will be rendered invalid.5. You cannot charge an equivalent fee of more than US$0.25 (25 cents) per individual sample *file* that you obtained from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive, unless the author (original owner) of each sample obtained from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive grants you individual permission to do otherwise.6. Details of any agreements made between you and the original sample author to charge more for redistributing their works must be forwarded to TekLab (by e-mail or by regular printed mail) for archival purposes.(Sample contributors: This means you can work out arrangements to get in on the CD deal. It also means that the more samples we get on the FTP site, the more likely it is that CD-makers can make a profit, which means the FTP site itself grows, and thus we all win...)6. By downloading *any* sample from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive and including it on a CD for redistribution (commercial or otherwise), you imply your agreement to follow these rules, and you agree that you have no legal rights to the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive material unless every one of these rules can be demonstrated as having been followed in respectable manner by yourself.7. Material obtained from the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive may not be included on the same media with other material for which a condition of disputable copyright exists. In other words, you may not bundle any portion of the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive with other "pirated" or illegal copies of other material obtained wrongly from other sources.TekLab reserves the right to render any re-distribution agreement null and invalid in the event that it finds one of these rules broken by you, the re-distributor.TekLab reserves the right to alter or modify these rules at any time, based on it's stated overt intentions of keeping the contents of the TekLab A3000 Sample Archive free to all A3000 users. Prior re-distribution arrangements that were proven to have followed these rules at the time of re-distribution may not however be rendered invalid by future modifications of these rules by TekLab.Jay Vaughan (jay@teklab.com) URLS: http://www.teklab.com/~a3k or else the sample offset will not work. At the program level let the Program LFO to be a S/H with period set as short as possible (the quarter note I think), synced to MIDI. If you now set up a sequence with the same quantization but only triggering the one note your sample is on you get something close to the random beat setting I miss from the SP. Definitely nowhere near as clean but with the right source material you can get some weird random feels. . .You can download a silly example via:ftp://ftp.industrial.org/Deterrent/Gear/A3K/random.wavNot amazing but fun.(moron@industrial.org) Here's one I've been using with great satisfaction Take a simple sample (I've found it works well with a short vocal sample - just say anything that comes to mind into the mike - and also with the "bog-standard" waveforms in the box). Sweep a filter across it using the sample LFO. Stick it through the AutoSyn (low modulation setting) or Noise Delay effect. Resample it as it now sounds. Make sure it's mapped to more than one key, and find a note it sounds good on. Set a loop to your taste Pitch-shift the resample down if you like. Apply a filter (HiPass2 with high Q, low threshold is nice for boosting the bass) Instant random techno loop... Putting the final result through the Exciter can be good. The Compressor is useful. 3-band EQ is good for tweaking the final result Sweep the HPF threshold setting on the Exciter for more fun... seb@thirlway.demon.co.uk) The A3K can create some really energetic waves, rich in harmonics that sound great when used in trance music. Take an unlikely source sound such as a 909 kick drum, set the sample to -->O then set the loop length to about 250 bytes. Lock the loop and move it across the sample, playing as you go to get the most harmonically rich sound. Experiment with detuning to get a HUGE fat sound. For some reason percussion sounds work the best. I've also found some interesting organic sounds using this method. Oh, when you find a wave you like try cutting away the excess sample and then remix it. Who needs an Access Virus? (jon.thompson@clara.net) The reason Percussion works better (in my experience) is due to the nature of a percussion sample you have a very loud 'hit' part followed by a decay. This type of synthesis is best suited to finding the areas of a sample that use the full amplitude. it just so happens that with percussion samples this is near the beginning of the sample itself. I have actually gotten some very rich pads by doing this technique with vocal samples that have been compressed. take 2 completely different vocal samples and do what you describe. then tune the resulting small bits to the internal sine wave (or if you have a guitar tuner lying around use this). from here I usually duplicate the samples and pan the duplicates hard left and right. do a bit of detuning and some slow filter sweeps (and now with the peavey some slow sample sweeps) and bam sweet ass pad. (matthew@lith.com) I found an interesting way to make a simple effect the other day. Using Sound Forge I generated a single cycle of a waveform at say 440Hz. On the end of this I attached a single waveform at a slightly different pitch, like 441Hz. Then loading this into the sampler and looping it gives a sort of phasing sweeping effect type thing for a very small sample. The interaction between the two sounds a bit like detune or dephase but doesn't use up any polyphony. It also sounds like the samples a second long (based on the above figures) when in fact its very short (two cycles of the waveform). It's cheap - try it! (jbrookes@bluebear.freeserve.co.uk) I'll start noting stuff about the OS 2 now as it finally arrived, hat off to Jay. One of the nicer things is the random setting on the filters. Put your favourite drum loop through one of the dual filters (Pg 32) with the Rnd setting on both Cutoff and Q/Width (Pg 32)(I ended up on 5 and 3, respectively) and then route the Program LFO (Pg 26 - 27) through the CutoffDistance (Pg 31 - 32). I simply put a two bar loop on the sequencer, the second bar I divided in two, and the second half of that bar in two (I hope you're all getting this). I programmed a fairly random sequence on the Prophecy arp. and stuck a slowed down, LoopRmx-ed (Pg 30) voice loop on top and let it go (via the audition button, to make sure it hardly ever went in time). A light topping of reverb on top and here's one I prepared earlier. I have to admit I listened to the result for about an hour on headphones (I didn't want to drive my girlfiend (oopps) girlfriend up the wall) whilst reading the OS 2 update manual. If what Mr James is saying about quiting the music biz (again) is true I don't think I'll be too upset, loop remixing beats is very nice and almost too easy. Even if you program your own beats it is worth while sampling a bar or two just to mix up a couple of breaks. Other interesting things about the upgrade (I figure there are a few of you still waiting, or have just swapped your chip, or maybe didn't read the updated manual). You can export sample banks, handy if you are exporting drum kits or similar (Pg 22). When you're sampling you can directly record a series of samples into a new sample bank (Pg 34). The new Effect type page (Pg 24) means you can have two different effects running and put a reverb / delay / whatever on both without having them all together. (coresect@tiscalinet.it) For anyone who has red Sarah's excellent piece on 3D sound, you can actually do the phase-difference trick on the A3k. I tried it and it works! Take a *mono* sample, a vocal line is great. Set the pan to -48 and listen to it. Now set dephase to +1 and listen again. Do you notice how the sound seems to have shifted a lot more to the left and how is sounds more natural? (you might also want to listen to it when wearing headphones) (t.vossen@mail1.remote.uva.nl) *** 10. Synthesis: how to get those big huge warping jungle basses and other pitch bending sounds Well you've pretty much answered it yourself. It's all to do with pitch....Take a basic 'boomy' kick drum from an 808/909 kit and mess around with a sustain loop until it sounds smooth.Add a pitch envelope, with oh, a fast attack and a slow decay, and have the pitch go way down slowly. (nigel@cofa.unsw.edu.au) Take the nice saw oscillator created internally in the A3000. Go to filter page. Turn filter type to LowPass2. Set filter to hmm... approx 40. Resonance approx 2.If you have a midi controller with CC knobs, skip til the part where I mumble about modulation matrix.Go to envelope page. Amp envelope settings: attack 127 decay 127 sustain 127 release 40Filter attack eg settings: attack 50 decay 127 sustain 127 release 45Filter amount settings: argh can't remember the screen in my head. basically, there are three or four settings that go from -127 to 0 to +127. point is, that the sound shall start on 0, go to 127 in half a second when you press the key, and when you release it drop to 0 again. so probably: 0 +127 +127 0 // or: // +127 +127 +127 0If you have a MIDI controller with a knob or fader, you can set in the matrix, CC 74 to change filter cutoff, amount +28 or something. then you can play it the same way as you do with your minimoog. this will override your conviniently statically programmed sound, but will *sound* much cooler, especially if you are good at "riding knobs" (gislemm@reaktor.no) I saw someone had written in with the old 'falling sine' bass (a classic), but if you're looking more for a 'dred bass' sort of thing, the best way is to start with a square wave (if you want a nice 'hollow' sound) or a sawtooth if you want a richer sound. Does anyone have a jen sx1000? That's got the classic jungle squarewave on it.Then slap a low-pass filter on it with medium resonance. You'll probably also want to change the sample to to 'mono'(phonic) and switch portamento on, with a nice lazy glide. Easy!Now the hard part. Lay down your bassline, and go mental :) Overlap notes that you want to slide into each other, then dive into the edit page, and lay down enough filter cutoff controller data to sculpt into a nice set of curves. Pitch bend might also come in handy here.It sound best if you go from the fundamental frequency up to something like the 8th harmonic, and keep it within that range. Make sure you just make the filter rise up from the start of each phrase - er, sort of thing - how shit am I at describing this stuff?For a phatter sound, layer up a couple of square waves and detune them a little, fire in a triangle an octave above, and a sine for general reinforcement an octave below. Pan the two squares hard and left, and prepare to kick cheekies. Those two stage filters in v2.0 sound wicked on this sort of stuff.Remember - keep it *moving*. (ninja@peachworld.com) Start from one of the pulse built in wavesDecrease original key to make lowerTo get that warpy tail, you should use the PEG I think. In your example, the pitch goes a bit up in the end.Use a lowpass filter, not too low, or the increasing pitch tail will fall offTry adding some modest overdriveMaybe some slight LFO to make it wobblierUse b.Zone ;-) The PEG graph might make things easier. (pego@telindus.be) *** 11. Synthesis: how to avoid clicks with bass sounds If you mean that when the bass cuts out, you get a loud clicking noise, then I also get this, but I think it's nothing to do with the A3000, just the manner in which bass affects your speakers...Try doing a fast fade on the bass note instead of an immediate cut off, and your spekers have time to flex back to their original position, thus lessening the "pop".... (COPrestige@aol.com) *** 12. Synthesis: avoid filter zipper noise You can avoid this crackling noises most time by the way you programm your modulation... in A3k's Mod-Matrix you'll find several ways of getting the desired effect: for example : if you have extreme Filter-Envelope Settings (FEG) in use, a parallel Cutoff-Frequency Control from the ModWheel will irritate this flow (what really is everything else than nice, I must admit) but as a workaround there also is the possibilty to Control the FEG-Amount with the ModWheel which won't start to crackle then... also it is possible to Control the "main" Cutoff-Freq. by Velocity, which won't cause these annoying noises - But anyway, if the thing you want to achieve is "Manual Filter Modulation While Playing A Certain Sound", you should try to use FEG-Amount instead of the base Cutoff-Freq. as Modulation- Destination (sorry - I'm not in reach of my A3000 here, so I might be wrong with the Matrix-Parameter name... but it's something like "FEG......") If you don't use any FEG-Stuff and you are just doing pure ModWheel/Cutoff Controlls, there should be no noises, though. So always rather try to control those Parameters that actually are already tweaking the Filter (LFO/FEG/...-Params) than the Filter-Sections original "main" Cutoff (A3000 will always try to force the Filter to the Amount that is set there as far as I experienced this... so we'll all get these shitty noises then...) For example imagine a Filter-Cutoff-Parameter set to #060 whilst the LFO is modulating the "really used" Filter-Setting +40 to a Level of #100 - just at this moment, someone changes the Filter-Cutoff-Parameter with the ModWheel to #010 - in the next Cycle of the A3k-Calculations the "really used" Filter- Setting would make a (since it's all so damn digital fast) tremendous jump to #010 +40(LFO) = #060 - no time for any "curvy or aliased" way down to this new level... all done in nonoseconds or whatever... This is what I guess to be the cause of those "Filter-FlipOvers"... if I'm wrong please correct me... (STOETEN@aol.com) *** 13. Synthesis: how to simulate a analogue-sounding filter? You can simulate a analogue-sounding filter more or less on the A3k using the filter-boost and the 1-band EQ.....if you do a high filter-boost the sound will distort a little into the filter.....and use the EQ to roll off some of the high-end....make it sound more analogue... oh yeah, LP3 on OS2 is the most analogueish sounding Lowpass-type on the A3k.... (olaf@linkit.nl *** 14. Synthesis: how to enhance a bass drum? and general percussion sounds? Forget sub-bass sines. Put your kick drum through a HIGH PASS filter, turn the cut off down to 1 and push the Q up to about 16. Set the EQ to +12db at 32Hz. Fat as f**k. Prepare to blow your monitors! (jon.thompson@clara.net) for yr. kicks do yr. eq-ing in the 60-80hz range. for basslines, 100-150hz range, perhaps even higher for a punchy mid tone.that's my preferred method... (martin@c4group.com) Keep the decay and the release times of your basssounds short. Don t use them with long reverbtimes and add some compression. EQ @ 70 - 150 Hz. (StompIt2@aol.com) Yes it is, with the a3000 you effectively have a sampler + an excellent FX unit + an exellent mixing desk.. The thing about creating a good kick is it's something you will pick up given time.. Just keep experimenting and comparing your kicks to stuff on records etc.. write a track and create a few kick drums. now as the track is playing have each kick play in turn for about 4 bars. The one you like the most, have a look at the eq and fx etc and save! it! Certain eq's make different kickdrums.. play around with the one band eq and find the points in the sound that make different styles of dance kicks. Also use the filter to get that subdued bass heavy kick. I could go on all night! Dont use reverb -- well not often, in the right place with the right kind it works but you want to keep the bass end of the kick right in its own place in the audible spectrum, try experimenting with the overdrive, remember sometimes less is more... phew.You don't have to layer kicks, but it helps sometimes. Sample from records if you want, but the thing is if you do manage to create a killer kick from scratch, you get a mutch greater sense of satisfaction when you hear it. BTW. sampling them is a great way to learn.There is no proper sound really.. different tracks have different kicks.. I usually start my tracks with my standard kick drum. but once I have developed the rest of the track the kick drum is usually replaced with a more suitable one.try this.. sample a standard 909 -- tune full, long decay, tone full, attack full. (If your sampling from a novation drumstation then set the drive to about 4-5). go to the one band eq and cut about 5-7db at the 300-400 mark.. what you've done is to take some of the punch out of the kick. This might sound the wrong thing to do but crank it up to compensate and you have a basic meaty kick.(richie3k@hotmail.com) normalize your kick-drumsgenerate them on the computer, modify them in your sampler (stomper can make very hard kicking drums), or the other way around ;-)distort a copy of the kickdrum, and layer the distorted one with the clean one...use a seperate mixer-channel for the kick-drumuse a dedicated compressor for the kickdrumEQ the kickdrum, not in the low but more against the middle, mid EQ gives people the sensation that they are kicked in the head ;-) low EQ is more for bass which has no direction....but gives a foundation to the sound...mid EQ sounds the most agressive(olaf@linkit.nl) try this.. sample a standard 909 -- tune full, long decay, tone full, attack full. (If your sampling from a novation drumstation then set the drive to about 4-5). go to the one band eq and cut about 5-7db at the 300-400 mark.. (richie3k@hotmail.com) Yes it is. Pass the bass drum through a >highTry it. Does that sound about right? The Q setting controls the amount of "boom" while the cutoff controls the fatness. The EQ controls how much skin sound you get. Watch your monitors!There's a set of really nice 909 kicks on the FTP site to get you started.jon.thompson@clara.net) Leave all your compressing until the end. Run all of your rhythm elements through a seperate compressor and then mix everything else on top of this stereo rhythm track. Don't be afraid to hammer the ratio up and the threshold down. (neb-eliven@home.com) How to get realistic and dymanic hi-hats? My tips are to set velocity to slightly increase Q as well as volume, and to have two open hats playing against eachother (bottom and top). Downtune the bottom very slightly and roll off its EQ a bit. (dys@bonesaw.com) It's aimed to new users --as myself-- who may find it difficult when dealing with sampled drums. I bought my A3k two months ago, and I found that some features worked specially well with drums. I have dealt with several drum machines in the past and I am used to hard programming on the search of some groove; so here are some basic Tips: Always put drumkits into sampleBanks and name your samples logically; you may want to re-arrange something in the future. Remember to check the kind of trigger mode (--->, will be of use if you want to stop the sample in the middle by sequencing. Check also "VEL->START", it may show really useful too when messing with Ride Cymbals, tiny snares and such things. Use the RANDOM PITCH feature. It's absolutely necessary for realitic programming and also recommended for more techno sounds, because it adds some irregularity. Try with different levels for each sound; some will already sound mechanical under 10 and other will stand up to 20 or more. On the other hand, set it very high to get imposible breaks. You may find that some samples --often cymbals-- get a flanging effect when triggered one after the other; you'll avoid this by assigning it to an alternate group, to avoid the mix of same sample at a different pitch. PAN, please!!! Sounds stupid but even a minimalist house track needs panning. If you don't know where to place a sample, RANDOM again. This is also good to catch listener's attention when not much is going on and for some percusive-tuned-instruments as well. FXs: without entering the Reverb discussion I'd suggest to try to place elements in the virtual 2-dim space --or three if you have the guts and the equipment!!! A snare with lots of reverb will naturally sound less crunchy --be aware. Some cool results can be obtained when playing with feedback. Set it high and you'll get instant spacey feeling. I found this really useful to introduce some easy variations on the drums in the middle of a song. FXs like "Twah" allow you a severe transformation of your drum track. Without messing with sequenced filtering, you get similar atmosphere. Play in real-time with sens. and cutoff, rez and drive and experiment. That way I got something quite similar to Radiohead's Karma Police's end, and the fun is served. COMP!!! In some cases comp and resample would a nice idea. Don't quantize every single piece of kit, try to play some looser patterns or add a self-recorded-bean-box-acting-as-a-shaker loop. (spacecadet25@hotmail.com) *** 15. Synthesis: how to create smooth filter sweeps? Give me some filter tips 1. Adjust the filter cut-off (in filter section) to a lower overall level, say 50.2. Set the FEG attact-RATE (FEG RATE view) somewhere 10...50.3. Set init-LEVEL (FEG LEVEL view) well below zero.(matti.jarventausta@valkeala.fi) The FEG and a controller going to Cutoff Freq interupt each other and create havoc... Cutoff Freq is only useful as a destination if you're not using the FEG.If you're using the FEG, but want to change the Cutoff, route the controller to FEG Depth... the result is very similar (better in my opinion) and then they sum rather than replace each other.Someone on the list also found that if you set the LFO to Cutoff, speed to 0, and modulate the depth the LFO to Cutoff, you can get good results.. (zebedee@teklab.com) First setup your filter type.. Lowpass1 for e.g.Next set the position to 64.Now go to your FEGRate screen. Set the rate to around 50-60, go to the next screen which is FEGLevel and set your levels. You'll have to mess around with the levels until you hear something.. But this should get you going..This is not very intuitive I know but you really need to play around with it until you get results.. Also, if your filter type is set to bypass the filter EG won't do anything. (richie3k@hotmail.com) Jup..........cutoff-frequency emphasis is i believe the same as filter resonance....amount of countour is the amount of FEG...filterattack, decay and sustain are all in the FEG-menu....i believe the mini has lowpassfilter....you should try lowpass 2 (or 3 if you have OS2)make sure you have turned the filter on, and the cuttoff to a setting that is low enough to do something with the FEG.... i.e. if you want to do a filter-sweep downwards....put the filtercutoff to max (i.e. 127)..maybe some resonance (20) for a more distinctive sweep-sound.......go to the FEG menu.....and now you can put the decay-time to f.e. 60 (medium sweep time) and put decay-level to f.e. 60 (this means the filter-cutofff will change after the attack from 127 to 60 during a timeperiod of 60 (don't know how much time this exactly is in second, but you get the feeling)...with B.zone you get a very nice graphical interface of the envelopes, so you can see how the sound changes... hope this helps.... (olaf@linkit.nl) For the long time synthesists and owners of the A3K, ignore this as you will have done it already. For newer folks (both to the A3K and synths/samplers in general) this stuff may be useful for you. I've been sampling up a storm lately so I've needed to do a lot of sound editing. One thing with the A3K is that the filters tend to skronk out at high resonance settings, and not in a terribly musical way (unless through distorition or a lot of compression). One trick if you want to do a really resonant sweep with sounding like a massive fart towards the bottom of the sweep is to tie the filter cutoff to say the mod wheel but then add a second mapping also to the mod wheel that controlls Filter Q but with a negative value so as you get towards the throatier fart frequencies it backs off on the resonance and gives you a warm phat sound instead. For pumping kicks, use a high pass filter with the cutoff in the 9 - 16 area. Crank up the resonance a bit and it will give you a nice thump. For nasty blips use the filter envelope - the A3k has wicked fast envelopes that let you do dramatic sweeps. If you set the "init" value either far above or far below your current filter cutoff and then adjust the filter attack rate down into the 70-80 range, and crank up the resonance a bit you will have the perfect laser blip. If you find that some of your sounds are bit static, you can set the filter cutoff to one of 5 random settings in the Filter menu. This is a dead simple way to make a sound dynamic (especially for step sequence industrial stooges like myself). The lowpass filter set to a high cutoff (107 or above) with the resonance cranked up adds a lot of "air" and presence to many samples. If you have a sample that gets noisy as it fades out you can mask it by using a filter envelope on a low pass filter that lowers the cutoff as the note decays. Set the decayand release to something lowish (10 - 30) and the sustain to -127, the release to -127 and then the sound will get "duller" as it fades out masking the hiss (which tends to stay at the same volume). Use no resonance (i.e. 0) to avoid the "sweep" sound. Always try playing with the 1 band EQ at the top of the filter menu. This EQ is one of the A3K's best features and can really differentiate sounds. Basic stuff but useful none the less. (moron@industrial.org) *** 16. Synthesis: creating a seashore sound with noise Well, the ad-inputs really seem to be noisy. But how to change it? So let's be creative and use this fact (?) for makeing some nice sounds. Set the REC VOL knob to max, chose your desired smp freq (I'd recommend 44.1 mono) and sample a few seconds without any instrument or mic plugged to the inputs. Then normalize the sample (uh, what a mess!), choose loop type --->0 and set LFO (triangle) speed to 1-3 (edit -> lfo) and fltmod depth to 40-127 (try out differnet values) After that chose lowpass1/2 and try also out different values for cutoff and Q. Press Audition and I guess you'll here a slow breeze or maybe a hurricane. Change Filtertype to Bandpass and you could create a kind of seashore sound... (saschas@cityweb.de) *** 17. Effects: some nice results with the Jump effect Makes your beat warble a bit, there's a delay at the start so you'll want to just use it for resamplingJump EffectSample typeBreakBeatTempo116Depth5Speed77DirectionLRTypeAJumpWaveTypeAResolution1/1(jmp909@geocities.com) Why are all you guys always making fun of the "jump" effect, huh? It's great! It's my favorite effect for screwing up drum loops.Try it like this:Depth 7 or 8, ie. pretty lowSpeed above 100, ie. pretty highDirection LRType AJump Wave Type DResolution 1/1LPF 2.2 kHzHPF 1.2 kHzYou get some mad screechy sounds, especially if you start modulating the Depth parameter. It features prominently on my latest two records. They're called "In a Jump Effect Stylee" and "Jump Up Effect". My next one is called "Makes You Wanna Jump Effect!"(zebedee@teklab.com) Micro Loop SynthesisThis is actually a really amazing technique if you get it right (though Id never taken it to this extreme before!!).Lets face it though the A3000 can do LOADS and LOADS of things many other samplers cant touch and there are ways to get similar effects with some of the A3000 f/x...EG...Try messing about with the Jump effect and out of time 3xdelays with a looped vocal sample. Really ACE ..you can get some amazing cut up random voices seemingly coming from all corners of the room(d.griffiths@unl.ac.uk) *** 18. Effects: removing bass drums in drumloops Also, the voice canceller effect (VceCncl) is very useful. Play a drumploop thru this effect and set the two parameters (Low Adjust and High Adjust) to 0, you will remove only the lowest frequencies and you will only hear the cymbals, claps and hats. For better result, you can route the output signal of this effect to the 3BandEQ fx and use these parameters (VceCncl->3BandEQ): 1:EQ Low Frequency: 160 Hz 2:EQ Low Gain: -12dB 4,7: Mid and High gains: +0dB 8: Input Mode: stereo (or play a mono breakbeat panned to one channel and set this to mono... ;) Then, use resampling to get a new breakbeat. (aleix@retemail.es) *** 19. Effects: simulating a Tape-delay Try this if you want a kind of dub-like delay! 1:Set eff-1 to a delay and turn the feedback up to +60(or +63 if you like).Put the delay time to around,hmmmm...500,or synk to a tempo. 2:Set eff-2 to Auto-wah.Set LFO-freq real low.Try diffrent settings to the A-wah to suit your taste. 3:Now put the two effects together(eff1->eff2/eff3)and you have a real cool delay. (jmonell@hotmail.com) *** 20. Effects: how to sync a delay? and other effect parameters? Umm... you've confused me now. Unless I'm overlooking something about the A3k you've made a blunder. Where do you get 24000 from? The delays on the A3000 work in milliseconds, like most delay units, so to calculate your delay times: each beat has a duration of 60000/tempo. So when the tempo is 60 b.p.m. each beat lasts 1000ms (1 second) and thus quavers are 500ms, semi-quavers 250ms and triplets 333ms. If you want a delay to sound on the triplet before each beat the initial delay is 2/3 of a beat, i.e. 60000*2/tempo*3, (e.g. 667 ms at a tempo of 60 b.p.m) and the feedback delays are every beat, i.e. 60000/tempo (e.g. 1000 ms at a tempo of 60 b.p.m.) If you want a late triplet you are looking at a multiplying factor of somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of 60000/tempo for your initial delay whilst the feedback delays are still every beat (e.g. ~710 ms and 1000 ms at 60 b.p.m.) If you want to get an exact feel from a groove quantise put a note on your sequencer (I don't know how you'ld do this in Logic so I'll explain in Cubasese and you'll have to interpret.) Open list edit (or whatever your equivalent is) and find out the position of the swung beat in ticks. Dividing this by the sequencer's note resolution (384 for Cubase) is your multiplying factor. Example: tempo is 60 bpm. A note landing exactly on the quaver triplet before beat 2, bar 1 has the position: 0001.01.256. The formula for the initial delay is, therefore, 256*60000/384*60 = 667 ms, as you would expect. I hope this is clear, it helps and that I haven't totally misunderstood you. Mail me if not. (dan@danselby.demon.co.uk) Yes, on the PLAY-CONTROL pages, sync Program LFO 1 to midi clock as normal, then on the PgmCtl1 page, scroll up past the midi controllers to select "ProgramLFO" as your source and set the relevant effect parameter as the destination. to calculate the delay time from the BPM; millisecs per quarter note = 60,000 / tempo in BPM which for straight delay effects is adequate to get sync'd delays (not phase locked effects however), without having to use the Program LFO. (scot@systemx.autonomous.org) *** 21. Effects: reverse reverb Some of you may know that classical trick done in the past with an analog multitrack recorder and a reverb unit. To obtain a true reverse reverb (ie the reverb tail comes first then the dry sound), sound engineers used to reverse the tape reel to play it backward, send a track to a reverb unit (most frequently a vocal track), and record the reverb output on an other track (while running the tape backward). When the tape was played forward again, a nice fading-in reversed reverb was preceeding the vocals themselves. This trick is very easy to do with the A3k : take a sample set the playback parameter to play it backward apply reverb to it resample with effect play the resampled sound backward Et voil ! (Oops, sorry, this is not the french mailing list :) This works great with single-word sung or spoken vocals, single snare shots, (slow tempo or not too busy) drumloops ... Try different reverb pre delay settings to separate effect from dry sound if you want to keep clarity. Try tempo-matched pre-delay values with drumloops This also works with any effect or combination of effects with a "tail" (delay, pitch shift with feedback ...) (eric.payrot@sagem.fr) *** 22. Effects: pitch shifting without change the tempo in phrases Remember my mail some months ago about pitch-shifting (symphonic) phrases, because otherwise the tempo is being altered when chaning the key?With OS 2.0, you can use Note-Number as source for the Program controler Matrix. 1. Set up the sample Pitch-Fixed to ON. 2. Set Sample out to FX 1 3. Choose FX 1 as BeatChg 4. Set Pitch Range to 12 (max. Value). Pitch Change will be controlled by Program Controller: 5. Set up e.g. Program Control Matrix#1 Device to "NoteNumber", Funtion to EF1- 3: PitchCh 6. Set up ProgramCtl Matrix#1 Type to "-/+offeset" and Range to +63 7. Since this doesn't give the right tuning, you have to use another Matrix Control for correction: Set Up Matrix#2 just as Matrix#1, but chose Range as +20 Voila, you have different tunings on your phrase with same tempo on several keys. Works OK about +/- 8 semitones or so, which is enough to get a full octave of your sample. Perhaps you have to adjust Pitch Coarse/Key Range Shift for tuning. One could resample the output and map (with automapping :-) ) to individual keys to get the same result. This is more effort and costs a lot of memory, but you save an FX slot. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) *** 23. Effects: some other cool FX settings Take a drum loop (i'm using the 808 beat that comes with rubberduck)AutoSyn: Mod Speed: 127 Wave Type: B Depth:1 All other settings:0 (ie delays etc) Try adding a stack amp as well after this. (jmp909@geocities.com) "Amp Sim", set to the "tube" amp setting, also works a treat for techno drum sounds! The sweet warm valve overdrive adds punch'n'crunch and makes an excellent addition to your drum sounds for that 'harder' feel. (scot@systemx.autonomous.org) Next I took a vocal sample and stretched it to 400%. Then I stretched it back to 25% (i.e the original length). Both times I used rhythm 4 as the setting. Interestingly enough, the sound compressed back down relatively okay but all the pitches seem to have been removed. It sounds like a cross between Techmod and a vocoder. Very interesting effect. (jthompson@protek.co.uk) Yeah, this FX is GGGRRRREEEEEAAAAATTTTT !!!!! But up to now I ve also just used it with voice-samples. Crazy.... My way to get monster-voices: Play with timestretch/compression (perhaps 400% than directly to 25%[remember TopTips]) Play with "dephase" & "detune" . No (+0) (stereo-) width and dephasing +1 - +4 gives you something like a phaser with shut down LFO... Set up pitchbend (--> edit/ midictrl) to this record like pitch-wheel-mode (think it was "slow&reversed") and a pitchbend-range of 12 Perhaps choose some other FX ( perhaps TWah+Disto-->delay-->hall), make filter-settings. Then duplicate this sample and make some different/opposite settings (dephasing: instead of positiv values make negative values) Instead of say a lopass take a hipass filter and so on. Don t forget re-sampling: Could save some FX-unit... And now play on the keyboard and turn the wheel.......... (rp42004@online-club.de) This is just and idea, i have not tried it: Plug your guitar into AD in. Setup ADout to go first thru a limiter (don't know if the a3k's got one, if not use the noise gate.) then to a delay. Setup a synth pad so it's output is the same. Make the synth pad play (loop it forever or play it in a sequncer or hold the pedal). Here comes the tricky thing: Make sure the synth pad is BELOW THE "noise" limit in the limiter/noise gate. Nauw, for the cool part. When you play your guitar, the signal going INTO the noise gate is raised, and everything is let thru. Then you will hear your beautiful guitar together with a delicious synthpad. This might not work, and its not exactly what you meant, but it might be cool and its worth a try! (gislemm@reaktor.no) Resample scratch and autosynth as a source of basic waveforms. (jthompson@protek.co.uk) Take a breakbeat(or anything else, but with beats it's extra cool, on Vocals it's so terrific) Goto to the loop page (here you can also find out what the Bpm of the sample is) and reverse the sample. Goto the out page and select Effect1. Select a nice delay fx for Effect1. Calculate a rhytmic DDL(you can do that using a little calculator program called musicalc, in this program you can calculate a rhytmic delay by just entering your BPM) Set the delay time to the value you calculated, expirement a bit with the feedback settings. Now you have reversed sample with a nice rhytmic delay over it. Resample this sample.(Record settings=> INPUT==STDout) Now reverse the newly made sample. Now you have a breakbeat with a reversed rhytmic delay, but the delay is always ahead of the real signal. This Sounds SSSSoooooo KOOL. (j.schouten@viewpoint.nl I took a break that I made on my mc303, and using the MC303's internal effects, FLANGED the fuck out of it, so that the break itself was only bearly recognizable. However, you could pretty much do this with any sound, and probably with the A3k's flange. Second, I ran the thing through 2 flangers on the A3K, and a compressor. Both flangers had an extremely deep LFO, and extremely fast (25-29Hz) Just kinda toyed with the thing. Sampled the result. Took that sample, Ran it through ANOTHER flanger, and an echo to smooth it out and turn it into a pretty steady noise, and again, through another compressor. (someone mentioned the technique to stretch out a sound with a good echo and compressor, good on ya!). Boosted the EQ around +12 for 450 Hz, (to make it less "noisy" and boost the frequencies around the 440 Hz range so that it almost sounds like a real instrument.) Resampled it. Loop it, And Loop Xfade it 50% and than Loop Xfade again 75%. While not removing the obvious loop point completely, it did smooth it out a bit more. PHAT! and spooky. Try it out.. It was pretty fun. shaman@home.net I've been doing some feedback stuff like that myself. Here's a tip: Use a compressor at the end of the effects chain. Then you don't need a limiter. Also the sound gets a little bit more metallic and sorta sci-fi like. Great for pads in Drum and Bass. Also if you want to get a specific pitch, try to put a delay into the loop with very short delay and no feedback. This is actually how physical modelling works in principle. ( Prophecy, Yammy VL-1 and VL70 ) Play with the delay, longer delay = lower pitch. If the delay is longer than 100 ms then it stops being a pitch and becomes a usual delay, which is cool for rythm stuff. Also it's very cool to play with the EQ on the mixer where the effects come in. Especially if the EQ is sweep-able. (jonth@rhi.hi.is) Whenever I am doing a shoutcast (plug plug plug) I do all sortsa nifty live effects... My Effects usually look like: NoiseGt --> (random effect) --> Comp I usually have an insane threshold for the NoiseGate.. something like -33db... (as high as she goes) with a 3 attack and 140 release. For random effects, i use that stuff that everyone doesn't use, NoiseDly, Jump, AutoSyn, etc. etc. Keep in mind this is for my announcements on the shoutcast. When i am feeling very chris-slater'esque i use beatchange and turn the pitch down on my voice. If i'm feeling alone, i toss on the canyon reverb...(or when i am ranting about space) For the compressor .. well it depends... (shaman@home.net) Of course you have a limiter, you have an A3000 with a decent compressor that can be set to a limiter. Try the following set up effect one: pitch effect, up or down one semitone effect two: delay with much feedback effect three: compressor with low threshold and high ratio then take a signal from the aux send on your desk to the input on the A3000. This will give you a feedback loop with positive and negative feedback that cancels out, but gives cool feedback. Then try playing with the EQ on the desk or on the overall eq on the A3000, which will give you feedback at different frequencies, hey presto you have a magical new sound!!! (aleekolist@hotmail.com) Making 'dirty' sounds: There are loads of ways to do this, but the key element is adding noise to the sound. You can do this in a number of ways. Some ideas are: 1. Use the AttackLoFi, Ambient Noise and Turntable effect on the A3K. 2. Change the sample rate of the sample down, and then upsample it again. eg. convert a sample from 44Khz to 22Khz and then raise it back to 44Khz. This loses some information but prevents the sound from losing too much info as most software performs some interpolation when upsampling. 3. Add some noise to the sample (I know cool edit pro can do this) 4. Detune a sample up a couple of octaves, and then play it two octaves lower. 5. Distortion works particularly well with most drum beats. 6. .... keep experimenting along these lines! (james.world@eyretel.com) Run a break thru the beatchange effect with the program fo modulating the speed of the change in the matrix... Using a sawtooth, really slowly, is great... (toby.boudreaux@gte.net) *** 24. Effects: creating a jet stream effect Oh, yeah... To get the effect "live" using lots of equipment try this: Noise-waveform going through a filter (lowpass or bandpass, maybe) with a healthy amount of resonance of preferably a ringmodulator of a vocoder to get some tonality to the noise. then use a Flanger (a slow one) and a tight reverb (Plate or spring emulation) with a lot of feedback to get some more "ringing"/metallic sound. I would try putting the reverb before the flanger so that everything moves with the flanging. Noise -> filter -> Ringmod/Vocoder(sweeping) -> PlateRev -> Flanger -> softening You get a diffrent sound by syncing or not syncing the Ringmod/vocoder sweep with the flanger sweep. To make things simpler you can remove any of the effects between the noise and the flanger. It depends on the kind of sound you want. To make it sound more natural you need to put some nice ambience and some eq after the flanger to soften the sound. On the A3k by itself, try this o: Techmod or Autosyn -> Plate or Room -> Flanger Did I make sence at all?? (Martin.Westin@eden.grace.se) *** 25. Effects: loading and saving only effect settings on disk Yes, they are only parameters, but I'm thinking you could create a new volume of just these parameters (no samples), let's call it "Reverbs", as follows: After creating the new volume "Reverbs", go in and set the 1st effect in Program 1 to the stock "Hall" reverb. Copy this to program 2, go in and tweak the parameters, call it "Dark Hall" or whatever, Copy this to program 3, tweak some more parameters, call it "Cavern" etc. etc. Save the volume. Now, if you're working on a program in a Volume that has samples, and want to try out a bunch of reverbs, load the programs off of volume "Reverbs" into a range of unused programs on the volume your working on and use the selective copy feature to copy in these different variations. (hennacy.1@osu.edu) If the program has associated samples (with ToPgm=ON), the only way is loading the program into a free program slot. Just go to Disk->Program and load the desired program into Pgm002 or another free program. When the a3k start loading samples, just press 'Abort'. Then use the Copy command at program level (go to Program mode and press command) in order to copy the effects data to the desired program. Use only the Effect1->Effect1, Effect2->Effect2, etc... method. Don't use another option or your will loss the ToPgm setting of the original program. (aleix@retemail.es) *** 26. Effects: getting sounds sounds out the stereo field (Haas effect) Set the delay time to its minimum and play with a combination of delay time, feedback, stereo position of the left and right return channels, their EQ, and the aux 1 and 2 send levels. If you adjust the controls correctly it seems to make certain aspects of the sound stand out in 3D. *** 27. Effects: about the Aphex exciter Like a 'real' Aphex, the effect works best when applied to a particular track, making it jump out from the mix. If you put it across the whole mix, the results are often fatiguing on the ears. I quite like it on 'plingy' sounds that have a sharp attack with lots of harmonics that then die away, such as some synth sounds, acoustic guitars, etc. They can also work well on vocals, especially if you have a cheap vocal mike like an SM58 or something similar. To cut a long story short, if you have a sound that sounds dull, but EQ makes it sound wrong, the Aphex process can restore some edge to the sound. Otherwise, leave it well alone. (sarah@telergy.com) Yes. Try putting the frequency right down and only have a tiny amount of the treated sound in the mix. The bottom end will fatten out and the top will clear a bit. If you can tell there's an Exciter in there you've over done it. Try it before and after the compressor. I prefer it after but there you go. jon.thompson@clara.net *** 28. Effects: how to control fx parameters with a LFO Program Control matrix (Play->Control->PgmCtl1&2) set the "device" to ProgramLFO (last one on the list?) and the function to any of the FX values (like "EF1-Depth" etc. etc.) It's great! A nice trick in tandem with this is to map the mod wheel to program LFO depth. I don't know a way to control the program LFO depth other than by an external controller. *** 29. Effects: different effect depth per sample (alternative method) I asked the question about having different amounts of the same effect per sample, and this is one way it can be done with say reverbs and delay type effects : Setup the effect (e.g. delay), and set the Wet level up to full... Get the sample you want to effect setup, then duplicate it so its the same, plays on the same channel, and on the same keys (it should sound phased at this point). Now setup 1 of the samples to use the effect, since its a 100% wet its acts as the effect, so you can alter the level of this sample to control the amount of the effect ! You can also do some other cool stuff like do a low pass filter only on the Effect sample, so the echos do not contain as much high end as the original (different colour echo / reverb!) Cool eh ? Mark (nullaqua@hotmail.com) *** 30. Effects: drowning Here's a suggestion for drowning: 1: Firstly, use a low-pass filter with a rather high resonance. This will give insta-underwater feel. 2: Run that through a subtle Auto-Wah. This give you some modulations. 3. Run that through a short delay with one repeat, for a 'slap-back', or in this case, a bubbly feel. You may even want to try a pitch-shift delay for a more comical 'bubbles-floating-to-the-surface' feel. This can cloud your sound, so assign the effect level to a controller of some kind. 4. Assigning your pitch to an LFO at a slight amount will also give an underwater groove. (jsilver@interlog.com) A set of quite mild chorus and symphony effects set up as 1>2>3 should do it. Alter the modulation frequencies to get a shifting effect. I had to do this a while ago and found a lot of interesting shifting pads. (jon.thompson@clara.net) *** 31. Effects: good reverb params I'm dealing with the params of the reverb effects in order to get a better 'hall' effect. In fact, I've tweaking the settings in order to reach the factory 'Hall' reverb of my 01v and the results are really better. The 01v reverbs sounds a bit less metallic and with more density. The a3k can make a better 'Hall' (or 'Stage') effect with these params: 1:Dry/Wet balance: D 2:Reverb time: 3.2s 3:Diffusion: 10 4:Initial delay: 36.3ms 5:HPF cutoff freq: thru 6:LPF cutoff freq: 5.6kHz 7:Reverb delay: 1.7ms 8:Density: 4 9:ER/Rev Balance: E14/R 10:Feedback high damp: 0.6 11:Feedback level: +0 (aleix@retemail.es) *** 32. Effects: Machine Magic parts 1 & 2 (instant music on your A3k) If you've got 10 minutes and you want to abuse your a3k here's an experimental minimal track for y'all! : Turn On a3k! (PLAY-EFFECT) Connect 1>2>3 1 NoisDly D 2 Flanger D 3 Plate DR : 0.5 : +0 (PLAY-CONTROL) PgmCt1 Matrix# 1: ProgramLFO EF1- 4:ModDpth 2: ProgramLFO EF1- 2:Mod Spd 3: ProgramLFO EF3- 1:Dry/Wet 4: ProgramLFO EF2- 3:Depth PgmCt2 Matrix# 1: -/+offset +63 2: -/+offset -63 3: -/+offset +41 4: +offset -52 PgmLFO1 S/H : manual : 45 : quaver set "triangle" built-in sample to MainOut Ef1-NoisDly (EDIT-MAP/OUT Output) set AUDITION button to Effect on TrigMode toggle (UTILITY-SYSTEM Audition) Hit Audition on "triangle"!!!!! (I recommend a good 10 mins on headphones!!!) The results of these settings may offend some people!! (don't blame me - you didn't have to do it :))) If all goes well you should hear 'Machine Magic 1' (mail@mark-hadley.freeserve.co.uk) Cheers!, i'm glad some of you enjoyed my machine magic!?!??!!? :))) And thanks Jay for uploading it to the sample library (btw. i haven't managed to listen to your Magic Machine yet! I put the URL into Winamp but it said ERROR: unable to connect to server! Probably something to do with my dodgy dial-up!! i'll try again later.) Here's another 'prototype fx/track' for y'all. A sort of ambient electronic bubbling stream!!! (NB: i haven't really tested these effects setups with other sounds going through them, so i'm not sure what they'll do, you'll have to let me know!!) I've put this one up at www.samplelibrary.net and it's also got No.1 in it aswell for good luck!! I think I got it right but just in case here's the settings for those who prefer : (PLAY-EFFECT) Connect 1>2>3 1 FlngPan D 2 Jump 91 : 72 : LR : typeB : typeD : 1/1 : thru : 100Hz : D 3 Tunnel D (PLAY-CONTROL) PgmCt1 Matrix# 1: ProgramLFO EF2- 2:Speed 2: ProgramLFO EF2- 1:Depth 3: ProgramLFO EF3- 1:Dry/Wet 4: -------- PgmCt2 Matrix# 1: -/+offset -17 2: -/+offset +38 3: -/+offset -17 4: -------- PgmLFO1 S/H : manual : 25 : quaver x 3 set "sine wave" built-in sample to MainOut Ef1-FlngPan (EDIT-MAP/OUT Output) set AUDITION button to Effect on TrigMode toggle (UTILITY-SYSTEM Audition) Hit Audition on "sine wave"!!!!! (I still recommend a good 10 mins on headphones!!!) If all goes well you should hear 'Machine Magic 2' Hope you like it! (mail@mark-hadley.freeserve.co.uk) *** 33. Looping: delay on drumloops using AEG release parameter AEG Rate tip: When U trigger a loop from seqencer (I mean drum-type loop), lower the Release and U have perfectly synchronised digital delay. Twiddle /this knob to change feedback level. (torcik@yahoo.com) I came upon a trick that will be old hat to those of you who are sampler veterans; it was an epiphany for me. I recorded a percussion loop into the sampler and set the loop points very precisely at the proper length. I then set the AEG release to a low number, somewhere between 6 and 14. The sample was set to loop like this: ----->O , so when the audition button is pressed and released the sample keeps playing and slowly fades out. Then I set a triangle LFO (at a speed of about 17) to alter the filter cutoff. I used a bandpass filter, and set the Q quite narrowly. You can get some neat effects happening when you use these samples in a sequence. I you set the sequencer to trigger them at regular intervals they'll start to overlap, and some of the filtering can be pretty cool. (nevileb@towers.com) *** 34. Looping: triggering loops using alternate groups (without holding keys) Go to the EDIT->EG page and set the release time for 0 (pretty much infinite looping). Next, set the sample to one of the 16 exclusive channels. Next create a dummy sample (a short burst of silence) and map that to an adjacent note and the same exclusive channel. Now you have a toggle. If you have a some beats that can cut each other off as well then you can effectively have more than 16 to timbres to choose from. The other way to squeeze out a little more is to set up looping sounds with a controller adjusting their relative volume (i.e. the modwheel). Set it up so that one has a positive offset and the other a negative offset and that way you can quickly fade between them. The only gotcha is that you will have to wiggle the controller at the beginning of the note to kick it in (not so bad with a sequencer and long sustaining loops). And don't forget to use the audition button on toggle for that one extra note. (moron@industrial.org) *** 35. Looping: a possible way of controlling the end addres of a loop in real time im not sure if this has been disscussed at all ... but this weekend i figured out a way to control the end point of a loop (if there is an easier way to do this just put me out of my misery) ... as to why one would want to do this ... i was trying to get a sorta ping pong echo (when you get the sound and the echo gradually speeds up until all you have is a pitch) effect and i found myself trying a whole bunch of stuff ... while playing with my loop points right off the bat i discovered if i moved my end point cloer to the start point in a linear fashion (as linear as you can get with the knobs on the blue beast) i got the effect i was looking for ... well the A3K allows you to control start point of adress but not end point ... so i figured a work around: sample your sound reverse the sample assign the pitchbend to your sample (the one that reverse's the sample at -63) play your sample with the pitch bend set to -63 (this will give you your original sample now the cool part ... the start adress is currently acting as the end adress of your loop ... you can assign a controller to the start adress and you are off to the races ... like i said if there is a better way to control the end adress of a loop bring it on .. (annwn@zipcon.net) You can't adjust the loop points in real time, as I've said a few hundred times. You can adjust the start time of a sample only. For breakbeats and so on, this is fine, because you don't usually use sustain loops, you retrigger. If you retrigger, then Start Time offset is effective (ie. break beat in point) and Note Length is always effective (ie. break beat out point). (zebedee@teklab.com) You can't adjust the loop points in real time, but you can adjust the start point in real time. So, rather than "sustaining" a loop, I retrigger the loop each bar (which is usually tighter anyway), then on the other sample I route mod wheel to start address, and you can experiment with different attack points in real time. It's great fun. (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 36. Looping: using loop remix & loop divide Right, I've got the hang of the remix button properly now so here's the definitive guide to recycling loops. First catch your loop... 1. Trim the start of the loop until it is EXACTLY at the start of the first beat. 2. Extract the waveform. 3. Ensure the start of the loop is the same as the start of the sample. 4. Set the audition mode to toggle 5. Set the loop mode to --->O 6. Audition the sample (it will start looping) and bring back the loop end until there is absolutely no glitch as the loop goes round. I have found the following technique works really well; it's called a binary split: a. Trim down in 1000's until the glitch is quite small. b. When trimming by another 1000 makes the loop glitch in the opposite direction switch to 100's c. Trim back by 500, then 250 then 125...and so on. If you do this for the first 4 beats it makes the process quite efficient and means that you can then double the length of the loop to get 8 beats perfectly and so on. 7. Bingo! now extract the loop. 8. Now go to the remix page. There are 5 types and 4 variations making a total of 20 modes. The type controls the width of the sub-samples to be moved and the variation controls how much they are remixed by (including duplicates). Variations A and B take sub-samples and try to fit them into other parts of the sample, variations C and D do the same but randomly reverse the sub-sample too. Types 1-3 and Variations A and B are best for 4/4 beats though the other types are quite interesting if you really want to mess with people's minds (the results will also be in perfect 4/4 time too). If you press audition the remixed loop will now start looping. I've found that becuse Type 5 is fond of repeating single beats it makes great loops to be used in a bridge phrase before a chorus when the crash cymbals are going ape. 9. Create EVERYTHING you get out of the remix page and cut out the good bits of all of them to create even more variations. What would be great here is a method of glueing two samples together from a buffer. Don't anyone suggest Wave Surgeon or I'll tell everyone how wonderful my Xmas presents are (Behringer Composer Pro compressor and Aphex 104 Exciter with Big Bottom controls) :-) (jthompson@protek.co.uk) A nice tip. Divide any loop using loop divide function and use your arpeggiator (I do it using Cubase) for producing brand new breakbeats. (torcik@yahoo.com) I've found it very useful to use the loop remix functions on breaks. You could just cut out all the sounds you want in your break, put them in a reasonable 4/4 time loop (about 4 bars) and set loop remix to about Type 3 variation A. The A on all remix types seems to ensure that the remix starts with the downbeat, B seems to go off the beat, with C and D doing the same but with reversed elements. The Type seems to be the complexity of the remix (type 5 feels fractal for some reason...). Play about with a simple break you've made yourself and I think you'll be surprised at the complexity and professionalism that can come out of the other end. I tend to take those generated breaks (about 50 at a time!) and select the best for further remixing. Perhaps that's why my musical output has been so sluggish... The other thing is: has anyone tried using 95bpm RnB breaks and speeding them up? Some are very interesting... Loop Remix is an interesting effect to use on vocals. I'm doing a, er, "private" remix of the Todd Terry remix of "Missing" and I've prepared some cut-ups of Tracy Thorn's vocal using this. Some interesting stuff in there. (jon.thompson@clara.net) I use the Loop Remix as an arrpegiator as well as for cutting up beats. It's fairly simple, set the click going in record page to be sure you keep your timing neat and play in say, a four note arpeggio. (I use a guitar or keyboard through the FX) Get it looping nicely and then use the remix function to re-arrange it. Obviously you haven't got the same level of control as you would with a standard arpeggiator, but trust me, it does some mad shit to your loops. Repeats notes, plays some backwards, halves stuff (and plays it backwards etc), reverses phrases, stutters attacks, triplitises stuff. I particularly like layering lots of different remixes over each other, building up huge walls of constantly morphing arps, with differnt FEGs Panning, EGs etc. (if you've recorded everything in time - sync to program LFO to MIDI to control an effect - wicked) all the mad stuff you can do with the a3k. The great thing is, once you've got a massive psychadelic wall of noise thing, you can sample it up and use it as a pad sound, and, it'll loop perfectly! Chord changes are easy as all you need to do is sample in another arp and away you go again! Similarly, playing the same chord higher up or with extra fifths can add sparkle and melodic interest - hmmmm, that was a bit music tutor wasn't it. I have to admit I've kept this to myself for a while, there isn't much talk of loop remix on this list (do most of you have os1?) but it is possibly my favourite function. Loop remix lovers, show yourselves, this could be a good thread, no? (jbrack@essex.ac.uk) Just some simple tips for fast creation of some cool drum 'n bass rythms.....I know it's a little cheating this way instead of telling everyone you needed 5 days to come up with this advanced breakbeat-patterns, but in the end all that counts is the funky results ;-) 1) grab a cool breakbeat you're going to use as a base..make sure it loops good.... 2) use the remix-function with type A, number 1 to create some subtile variations, also use other settings for more warped versions... 3) create a new samplebank, and put all the breaks into this bank 4) use arrange-samplebank to put each break under a dedicated key... 5) use easy-edit to adjust pitch, add filter and controllers etc. to all the breaks... And now play the breaks on your keyboard in time, don't be afraid to use filter-cutoff and stuff on the breaks...and notice the funky breaks you can create! instant drum 'n bass advanced breakbeats.... who needs recycle anyway? ;-) (olaf@linkit.nl) *** 37. Looping: ditry-ing loops another tip for dirty-ing your loops Try timestretching up 200% and then back to the original tempo. (Developer.Dummy@wfp.org) *** 38. Looping: getting the exact BPM of a loop The way I get the BPM of a sample is to playback one bar continuously using my sequencer and adjust the BPM until it loops perfectly. (keving@ncs-plc.co.uk) Get the sample so that it's looping perfectly, and count the number of 'beats' per loop. It'll be 4 if you have a one bar loop, 8 if you have two etc. Then you need the exact time of the loop. Divide the number of beats by the time and multimply by 60 to give you the BPM. Assume you have a 1 bar sample (4 beats) that 2.012 seconds. No. of beats / Time 4/2.012=1.998 Result x 60 1.998*60=119.28 So you can round your BPM to 119. i.e. First sample is 100 BPM and I want it to be 130 BPM. Percentage change is Start/Finish * 100 100/130=0.769 You must adjust the sample length to 76.9% A 100 BPM loop will be about 2.4 seconds long, to get it to 130 multiply it by the percentage change. 2.4*0.769=1.846 Your new sample must be adjusted till it's 1.846 seconds long. (jeff@citec.net) the formula for a 4/4 sample is as follows: s = r * 240 / BPM where: s = Samples per bar. r = sample rate in Hertz (not kHz). e.g. at 120 BPM and 44.1Khz (i.e. r = 44100) sample rate, there are 88,200 samples per bar. To work backwards (ie get the BPM when the sample rate & length are known): BPM = r x 240 / s To outline a working methodology: Loop the sample until it loops correctly, i.e. smoothly. Be careful you do this properly. Once its done, then calculate the number of samples in the sample. To do this, make sure you calculate the DIFFERENCE between the start and end times of the LOOP, not the sample start and end. Then, divide the number of samples by how many bars you have in the sample. Take this number, use it as value "s" in the formula above, and the sample rate as value "r". With the sample rate, you must use the full Hertz (Hz) rate, not the abbreviated kHz rate. Voila! you have calculated the BPM of the original sample. Then, here's what I do: I edit the START and END times of the SAMPLE to match the LOOP, and take loop mode off. In my sequencer, I match the tempo to the calculated rate. Then I draw a long single note which will match the length of the actual sample (e.g. 2 bars). I loop the sequencer, then I check to see the sample is still "looping" correctly. If it is not I may have to slightly adjust one or both of: A) The Tempo, B) the start and end times of the sample. I do this step to make sure I've got the smoothest looping points I can get. I also usually program a basic drum pattern down to see if there are any slight timing variations in the course of the sample itself (frequently, there is, if it's been played by a human). Once that's all done I know I've got the sample loop points set correctly and I know what the BPM is. Then, I frequently look back at the sample length and re-calculate the BPM to double-check everything. Once that's done I often put the sample into 'single shot' mode. Unless I have some need to vary how much of the sample plays back, I find single-shot makes life easier by only requiring short notes to trigger the sample. If you then subsequently need to transpose/timestretch/pitch-shift the sample, I heartily recommend a music calculator as suggested below. however, the above steps will get you to basic, solid, starting ground from which you can mess with it as much as you like with comfort. Personally, I think tools which do all this for you cause you to lose understanding of what it is you are doing, and hence stop you from really "getting inside" the components which make up your music. (yes, I DO use the registered version of WaveSurgeon, but I usually employ it AFTER these basic steps). (scot@systemx.autonomous.org) Record the loop into the A3K. Set Loop mode to -->O. Set the loop start and loop end points to right positions by adjusting them while listening to the loop. When the points are in place look at the loop size (in millisecs view). Use the following formula to find out the BPM for the loop: BPM = beats per bar * 60000 / millisecs Example. Here we have the usual 4 beats in a bar (4/4) and the length of the loop is 2100 millisecs (= 2.1 secs). The BPM calculated is appr. 114. 114,2857142857 = 4 * 60000 / 2100 OR YOU could set the loop start point to the right position by listening. Then adjust the length of the loop by setting the time signature (ex.4/4) and adjust the BPM setting (ex. ->BMP 114) until you hear a smoothly looping sample. Now the BPM is straight at hand and no calculation is needed. (matti.jarventausta@valkeala.fi>) Cut the loop exactly with the loop mode set to --->0, as previously posted. Then flip to the top of the loop edit menu and switch the address to beat. Then go back down to the loop and push the knob (I think it's 5, farthest right) that says 90.00 BPM and it will calculate the BPM of that loop, assuming it's 4/4 time. Sorry, the A3K assumes 4/4 and you can't change that. If you want to tune it to a certain speed, why not pass the loop through the changebeat effect and tune it in by hand while listening to the desired beat being pumped out somewhere else, like your sequencer putting out a steady kick or closed hi-hat. I use this method quite a bit and it works pretty well. There are 2 main problems I found with this. One, tuning is a bit tedious but I enjoy it because I DJ. Second, if there is reverb in the loop, things start to sound bad as the loop plays on and on. However, by all means, play around and teach us a new way! (lindquif@Colorado.EDU) *** 39. Looping: finding the right loop points You do it like this... 1. Sample the 'Oh' 2. Turn on looping for the sample. It will then sound like 'OhOhOhOhOhOh' 3. Move the loop start and end points so that the loop operates over a shorter period within the Oh. 4. You'll then get something like 'Ohh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh-ckoh', that is, there will be a click at the start of each loop. This is caused because the end of the waveform and the start of the waveform don't quite match properly. You might want this sound, in which case keep it (some of Fatboy Slim's tracks, and Pitchshifter for that matter used this). But if you want a smooth Ohhhhhhhhh, you'll need to very carefully fiddle around with the loop points until the click goes away. It is a bit of an art form, but with practice you can do it. One *extemely important* tip is that if you want an effected (i.e. chorus, reverb, whatever) sample, loop an *uneffected*, clean version, then add the effects afterwards. This makes finding the loop a lot easier, and gives a much more natural result. One other thing - compress the hell out of the signal as you sample it. This also makes loops much easier to find. (sarah@telergy.com) This is harder. U will have to rely on your ears and the only way I know to get it right is to get it very near and then decrease/increase the loop end point in very small increments. If you are using your sequencer to loop the loop (as it were) which is the better method IMO set the BPM rate as close as you can so that say a 4 bar break is looping as near to the beat as possible. Then use the Fine tune knob on the sampler as the loop is playing to get it just right. Again...your ears will be the judge of this. Try fiddling with the attack and decay. It gets rid of a lot of pops by fading in and out instead of abruptly starting and stopping. (nevileb@towers.com) Method 1: Make a 1-sample-long loop in the beginning of the sample. If there is silence, there is no sample :) Move it up along the sample until you start hearing a high- pitched nasal sound. (The looping of one sample) There's your samples start point. Method 2: Pitch sample as far down as possible. When you play it, it is sooooo slooooow. Now it is MUCH easier to locate the starting point exactly by ear. Remember to pitch back up when finished :) Method 3: Get WaveSurgeon. Retrieve sample from A3k. Graphically locate start point. Trim sample. Send sample to A3k. Method 1 & 2 gives a result that sounds good. (you get it right by ear). Method 3 gives a technical correct result. (gislemm@reaktor.no) *** 40. Looping: chopping loops A good majority of the loops i get from a place called Weazle World.. (dont remember the URL, sorry), and all of them are at 160 BPM, the sample Lengths are usually in the 65536 byte length(give or take).. and 4 bars long.. therefore, its really easy to chop up and mess with... eg ... Drum loop: (O = bass drum, X =3D Hard snare, x = light snare, + = closed hat, 3D = open hat, _ = empty, | = quarter note) |O _ + + |X + + x |+ x O +|X + =3D + The Bass beat is at 0-16000 (roughly) The first snare is at 16000-32000 The snare-Bass is at 32000-48000 and the second snare is at 48000-64000 So editing becomes a snap, than, by doing this, i usually get a good number of the elements of the break, and mix them up, you can easily turn the break into: |O _ |O _ |X + |+ x O + |X + =3D +|+ x Chopped break reformed | | | | | Real time. (shaman@net-500.com) Ingredients: *1 A3k *a hand full of breakbeats (my latest discovery: a really dreamy dreamy part of You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette) around 2.30; Pitch it up +6 and you have a smooth drum 'n' bass riff) ---> Try sampling at different frequencies. Chop the breakbeat the way you like it to be. Mostly you'll start from a slow beat and you'll pitch it up. To keep the basses pumpin: set EQ on 100 Hz, gain +12 and width something around 5.0. Then set up lowpass 2 with cutoff around 100 and resonance around 8 to keep the snares rockin. Add some compression to give it a nice crust. (Jabo@mail.dma.be) This reminds me of a method i sometimes use... If yer freakin ANAL as hell, it can totally work for you.. specially if you like to chop up breaks.. Assuming that you take a breakbeat, (1 bar for the sake of experiment) call the full loop L.... Grab the first beat (bass kick) call it O Grab the second beat (first snare) call it X Take that midsection (snare roll, hihat funk, more bass kick?) call it T Grab that last beat (second snare) call it X2 or x. O, X, T, X2 should revieve on channel 10 L should recieve on (arbitrarily) channel 11 Heres the dig, set up a pattern sequence in your sequencer of choice... |---|---|---|---(repeat) L--------------- Channel 10 O---X---T---X2-- Channel 11 What you are going to hear is the beat either totally popcorning, or flanging/phasing. What you want to do is get the phasing down to a minimum... so that it sounds like a phase with a very quick delay (like 0.1 ms).. if you are hyper anal, you could muck around with your sequencer BPM, and the start and end length of the samples till you got it right down to a science. Anyways, Sometimes i use that method, and as long as your loop begin point is good, its pretty easy from there.. Which brings me to tip numba 2. The best way i found to get a loop right at the beguining is use the Zero function, start with an insanely huge multiplier, like 1000, and nudge forward one.. if you jump from 0 to 1523 than you are going too far, go back to 0, switch to X100, and try again, if you make it to 100, than its still silence, so bump it forward, repeat untill you get a weird number, (like say a jump from 200 - 325) and go back to 200, and switch to X10, repeat untill you get tired of doing that, or decide to become less anal. 8) Btw.. If you are totally confused by my notation, Its an old system i developed when i was cuttin breaks on the amiga. You kids might find it useful in naming chopped up samples... O bass kick X Snare + closed hat = open hat t hat break o bongos/toms / crashes its kinda a visual system.. really good for you visual learners out there.. 8) Bah, hope that this helps, and its not just insane sleep deprived ranting. (shaman@home.net) *** 41. Looping: why retrigger loops on each bar? There is an advantage of using a loop made up with delay & reverb effected drums as well. The reverb tail sometimes extends to the next measure if I use a "loop" which is actually longer than the measure itself. The consequent loops overlap and there is no sudden hickup sometimes caused by the too short loop end. Naturally all this overlapping uses polyphony of two instead of one but there is plenty of it in the A3K. If someone argues about "the awfull burden" of the midi note-on messages in the very beginning of each measure, you can always insert a little silent head start into the loop and trigger it before the beginning of the measure. The advantage number two is this. When the loop is re-triggered, the note-on velocity compound of the midi information can be used ... for frequency cut-off or resonance (Q) control and others... well, only once in a measure but truly looping sample can use this information only once, that is, during the note-on time of the entire loop sequence. It would really be interesting to read about a truly looping (drum) samples and their advantages when using A3K and other samplers, because I feel there are those, just don't know them yet. Is there something that can be done with true looping but cannot be accomplished by triggering the loops all over again? (matti.jarventausta@valkeala.fi) I think this is the best way to deal with drumloops and similar stuff (at least it is what I do with drum-, guitar-, bass-, fx- and vocal-"loops"; maybe it's better to call them "patterns"). One-shot triggering is the only way to do this stuff in time (but it is better not to use SHOT but ----> actually - so you can stop the pattern at any time). Okay - I do use sampler-internal-looping for sketching: I set a drum loop to ----0>, hit audition (set to "toggle"), grab a guitar and play with it. Since there is only one loop there are no timing problems. But I switch over to one shot triggering the moment I start to build a song seriously. Internal looping is good for something completely different: sustaining loops. That's what samplers were made for in the days of 512kB RAM... All the different settings and utilities (--0-->, ----0>, loopxf etc.) were invented for that purpose. Today - with 120 MB RAM - you could even use -----> for "sustaining" pads sampled from analogue gear; just sample them long enough - we got plenty of space ,-) This is especially a good idea if you don't want to loose a lot of the feel of the original sound. I sampled some string sounds i programmed on an old Roland JX3P years ago. One of the important parts of these sounds is the internal chorus of the JX3P in combination with a slight detune of the 2 oscillators. Well - loop that! It won't work. And if you manage to loop it (with loopxf or using a VERY short loop), the nice moving structure is gone. So i sampled LONG notes that work nicely as long as I don't need ENDLESS notes. But for other sounds looping can't be avoided. A decent grand piano would use much more than 120 MB without looping (I guess it would need a GB or more). (a8608983@unet.univie.ac.at) *** 42. Looping: problems using the LoopXFD command The sample needs some spare fat at each end. The further you set the loop start point inwards, the more spare sample there is left hanging out the ends. This is used to create the crossfade. Increase the sample start point figure in small steps say 10% forexample thenwhen you try to crossfade you'll be given a chance of a higher % for the crossfade. (liam@mc-guinness.com) *** 43. Looping: need a graphical waveform? Read this I always cut samples in sound forge anyway. The sequence is: 1) Cut the sample in sound forge (status format in samples) 2) Record over s/pdif (i don't have scsi to my a3k yet!) 3) TRIM/LOOP end mode to 'length' 4) adjust the length (of loop or wave as appropriate) to match the number of samples shown in sound forge 5) lock length (and switch to 'graph' display if you like) 6) move the start point (of loop/wave) until the attack is correct (use Audition for wave, 'LpMon' for loop point (I set preroll to 0 for this). If it is going to be a simple loop (--->O) and/or you don't want the initial attack anyway, I like to save time by adjusting only the loop here, and trim the wave later as in step (8) 7) set loop mode (---->, --->O, whatever) 8) if desired: unlock length, reduce the 'wave' area to match the 'loop' area and extract I have gotten pretty quick with this little routine. The only step with any guesswork (aka "listening") is (6). Even that could probably be eliminated (I set PreTrig to 0, but SrcIn level to 1 (maybe 0 would be a better choice?)). I don't see how a little screen on the Akai is going to make this any much better. It is about 50% as cheesy anyway, n'est-ce pas? Can it zoom in to 1:1 like sound forge? I have never actually used an Akai. One hitch with the above: you can't record a mono sample over s/pdif, so I end up doing a least-worst kind of thing: record in stereo, and resample from StOut in Mono. Maybe I should be using a midi sample dump instead, for mono, but so far I haven't figured that one out. S/PDIF has another very great advantage: you can, in effect, overcome the silly 4-voice limitation when resampling, by recording your program over s/pdif into Cubase or whatever (set 'To AsgnOut' to DIG&OPT in the StOut page under Utility/Master), with full polyphony, then sample it back again. In theory, there should also be no generation loss (not sure about that since perhaps the A3K is doing a/d to send the StOut signal out the s/pdif jack, but not if it's clever--anybody know for sure?). (korpen@intouch.bc.ca) There is no waveform display. There are a couple of tricks to cut the sample right before the onset of the first hit. 1- use the END point to locate it, then slide the in point up, and open the loop again. 2- pitch it down, and use your ears. 3- use auto-zero 4- use a software editor I don't find this a problem in day to day use of the machine at all. (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 44. Looping: some advice for DJ'ing with the A3k If I was to use the a3k in a DJ set I'd probably use it in one of two ways. I'd load a pile of wicked and interesting drum loops, maybe some loops just drums, others with sfx and bass sounds too....... I'd make them all a standard format like 4 bars long for example. I'd then set the audition key to be one press so the light stays on when you let go i.e. you use the audition button to trigger the start of the loop - easy enought to release it on the down beat..............set the loop type so the drums loop continuously............I'd set all the outputs of the loops to go through the beatchange effect so I can alter the speed of the loop in realtime. Once i'd got the loop in time with the record, I'd probably make as good use of the assignable knobs as possible to alter the filters etc...... Once you have the loop playing on its own you can either beatmix a new record in, or do stuff like use the beatchange effect to slow the loop right down and mix in a track with an atmospheric intro for example. I'd probably also use the a3k to trigger loads of cool swooshy noises over tracks. Probably not your hairy fairy swooshy noises but the harsh ones that build up so for example you can use them on the last 2 bars of a 16 bar segment of a track before say a bass drops, to give that extra 'build up' energy. Just be creative, you can do loads of stuff. Also another thing you could do is use the a3k as an external fx box. I've never actually tried this so I don't know how well it works but give it a go. (moogie@nildram.co.uk) *** 45. Looping: some other tips with loops while i'm a bit reluctant to tell all my little a3k tricks in full, here is one to start off the archive... it's nothing special really, but it is fun- take a drum loop, timestretch it to like 200%, keeping the importance on rhythm... now, EQ it so you like the way it sounds, sort of... timestretch it like 75 or 100 %. with the emphasis on SOUND. there's "damage" done to it in stretching it out so far, and when you bring it back it's totally different... i do this alot for my drum and bass project (NailByter) breaks and it really gives you a nice cohesion to all your different beats, makes them fit together well... it's great for loopdivided sections also, doing it to some (high hats) but not others... (toby.boudreaux@gte.net) I don't know if this is helpfull to anyone, but with some creativity of your own I think this can produce some weird sounds. Everyone who once said 'hello 1 2 3' in a mic knows what happens if you point the mic straight into the speakers (those trough which you just said something I mean). This idea is based on the idea to use this 'loop'-thing usefully. Just put your mic trough your A3k and go to rec mode there set it up and make sure that the last effect your signal passes trough is 2delay (effect 1 and 2 you can choose freely and create all sort of weird things with, altough to start with you might just want to try only a Flanger or so). Then you set the 2delay to fully wet and set 'Time R' and 'Time S' both to at least 1sec (thats 1000ms) Set 'FBTime1' and 'FBTime2' both to 0.1ms No say something in the mic and point your mic straight in to the speaker, after 1sec you should hear what you said (Flangered) out of the speaker this is recorded in the A3000, Flangered and delayed and yes after another second you hear version2 of what you said, and so on. I tought about this when I was in bed last night and it worked this morning, so I just wanted to share this with you. I also would like to say I currently I have a rather strange early digital synth called Keytek CTS-2000 from a friend at home and plan to sample some of its preset sounds and put it up the A3k-FTP. (kjvwulpen@village.uunet.be) *** 46. Advanced user: always connect a bus of your mixer to the input of the A3k probably everyone knows this... maybe. but if you have a multi-bus mixer, always have an extra cable or two from unused bus(ses) routed (or very nearby & ready) to the front inputs of the sampler. that way when cool accidents strike, you need only pop the appropriate buttons on the mixer and hit record on the sampler. last night we were working on a new track and i hit stop in logic, but a vocoder plug-in i was running must've got overloaded and started making the coolest mistake noise ever. simply muted the other channels to find the offending sound, bussed it out to the sampler and hit record before it could stop doing it, or worse yet crash the mac... once in the a3k it ended up being icing on the proverbial cake. (martin@c4group.com) *** 47. Advanced user: internal zip and screwing Hail all. A few months ago when I joined this list I asked if you wanted to know how to replace Her floppy drive with internal zip drive. I didn't get much response so I thought nobody gives a shit. Anyway, I started to get private mails from some interested and promised to return with some further information. It's not so big deal if you know something about astrology... just kidding. First a BIIIIIIG warning!: This operation cancels the warranty, disables the floppy drive and the internal HD you may have installed (who needs HD if you have zip). In the worst case you'll blow Her in pieces and hate me forever for that. I can live with that, can you? First of all you should know some about static electricity, grounds, magnetic screwdrivers and so on... I dont get into that 'cos I'm not an engineer, but if you ever managed to install some simms this should be easy. Refer the purplish book. At last: Disconnect the power cord and open Her wide. Disconnect the floppy drive's cords and start screwing. (The floppy drive, stupid, not your mum) Get the fd out. As you may notice that mounting thing that comes with zip fits right in Her holes. (The holes where the srews just came out) God bless standards. Now you may notice that the zip drive is deeper than fd. Damn! Two choises: to do some drilling and leave the zd half an inch out of Her or not to? I choose not to. Don't like Her look like him... Trick here is to put something under the rear mounting screws, so the back of the zd fits above the power board. Excuse my bad english I'm not sure what those little thigs are you use between nuts and bolts. Spacers? Washers? Anyway a few of those little things should do the trick. Just raise the back of zd, not the front. The zd is no longer in horisontal position, but that doesn't affect it's operation and isn't too visible on Her front panel either. (I have quite an old scsi zd so I'm not sure if the measures are same on newer models. If it fits right away just ignore that procedure) Now connect the zd's power cord and scsi cable where the int HD should be connected. Refer the purplish book for that. Same goes with scsi id's, terminating, mounting etc. Read the book. Treat the zd like int HD. Now you're in a hurry to give Her a test drive? Too bad She doesn't like Her fd missing. You gotta put that fd back in Her. Since you can't have int HD you can use its space for fd. At least two holes fit so you don't have to do extra drilling. Tighten the fd in the HD's free space, and connect its cables as they were. You may have to buy some extra cables if the originals aren't long enough. Insert a blank disk in the fd, close Her and you're done. Of course you can use the fd but its not very practical to keep Her open all the time or open Her every time you want to use floppies... Unfortunately you have to consider if this sacrifice is something you can live with. I sure can 'cos I'm using mostly my original sounds and don't need to import anything. And it's still possible to use all the external scsi-devices you want to. That's about it. Happy screwing... And dont blame me if something goes wrong, but please inform if some of you have the guts to do it. I'll soon be back with a small list of gear to clear. Including some analogues. Happy easter to everybody and dont forget to eat eggs... or whatever your easter traditions include anyway. Mine includes some screwing at least.... And lots of weird noises. :-) Petja Katajamaki and MASKOBALO performing arts: strange noises from places you only dream of. (petja.katajamaki@turkuamk.fi) *** 48. Advanced user: replacing the floppy drive Hey there folks, I thought I'd share my experience with some floppy drive problems I had on the A3k: I recently began having problems with my floppy, it would give me errors during reading and would fail to format properly. I tried a head cleaner, but to no avail. I ended up pulling a floppy drive out of an old PC, and guess what, it worked fine! One thing you need to be careful with is the cable is backwards w/ regard to the tabs that they put on the floppy end. Just remember that pin 1 should go towards the power supply end. I also tried a standard pc floppy cable and it also worked, although the drive light remains on at all times. So now I'm the proud owner of the only A3K with a white drive! (Its actually a pretty nice Sony drive which seems to be a little better built than the standard A3k floppy) (troshink@yahoo.com) *** 49. Advanced user: A3000 cookie Don't know if anyone knows this already but, hold down play & utility and turn the machine on for a special surprise. i'd like to look these guys up for a chat! *** 50. Advanced user: why the square LFO produces clics? The square wave which is digital drops or raises the volume so fast that our ears perceive this as a click. It goes from one volume to the other in 0.0226 miliseconds (44.1 KHz sampling rate). The Neve VR console we use in school has a attack time for the gate of 0.03 ms and you hear it click as well. This is not a design mistake, it's just the imperfection of human hearing. (bart@eburonic.demon.co.uk) *** 51. Advanced user: reset your A3k with an A3000Rmt macro Hi Richard: can you implement the following macro (in other words, can you use switch remote to push three buttons at the same time?) in your A3000Rmt utility?? A macro for restart your a3k: press the first function key (f1, program, trim/loop, record, etc), the command button and the sixth function key (control, midi/ctrl, monitor, etc) at the same time for about 1 second. wait 3 seconds turn knob1 to the right 19 times press knob4 or knob5 press knob4 Your a3k is restarted. However, if you can't implement this with switch remote, I'm sure you can do this alternative macro: Go to PgmSel page (press play mode, press f1) press the command button wait 3-5 seconds (if some disk drive is mounted) turn the knob1 5 times to the left (go to the first page) wait another 3-5 seconds (if the case that the initial page in the command mode was not the 'SAVE' page) turn the knob1 1 time to the right turn the knob2 1 time to the right press knob1 press knob5 wait 3-5 seconds go to Play Mode -> Sample function (press f2) press the command button again wait 3-5 seconds (if some disk drive is mounted) turn the knob1 12 times to the left (go to the first page) wait another 3-5 seconds (if the case that the initial page in the command mode was not the 'SAVE' page) turn the knob1 4 times to the right (select the 'DELETE' command) turn the knob2 2 times to the right (select 'FreeSmp') press knob1 press knob5 Your a3k is "reinitialized". definitely, the switch remote culture is changing my live... hehehe... ;) (aleix@retemail.es) *** 52. Advanced user: problems with the audition button? use the function buttons Hi All, You've probably already thought along these lines but if you set up the Function Keys in Panel Play to play the same note as your audition button C3 or whatever and have each of the 6 buttons set to a different MIDI channel say 1 to 6 then you can set the assignable button to FKey Play on/off and you've got a six channel audition strip!!! :) You can still use knobs 2-4 to tweak parameters on whatever page you're on before you hit the assignable button while you audition that sound. It's a bit clonky I know but might help if you're audition button is nearly dead. *** 53. Advanced user: backup media larger than 650 Mb with disk2file Use disk2file to copy the *entire* 1 GB harddisk to your PC hard drive. The only limitation is how much disk space you've got. Of course, once that ISO file is on your hard disk, it will compress very well. Backup the whole 1GB drive to a local ISO file, turn it into a Zip and put that Zip on CD-R. I doubt very much that the compressed zip will be >= 640MB, but if it is, then split the Zip disk up or use ARJ instead to make multiple archive volume files. Though, it *is* a very tricky program to use - there is a definite order that you have to use when you want to do a transfer. If you want to go from Zip -> file.iso, select "Disk to File" first, then select the disk SCSI ID in the drop-downs, then select a file to save it to, and then press "Select all sectors". It should work. (jay@teklab.com To share some other experience, i burn my first A3k CD-rom (important to do backup for the hard work going on ...) : I make 3 partition on may JAZ (may be 2 must be better because OS2 can= manage 512 partition) I use "DiskToFile" to make a ISO file from the first 500 MB of the JAZ I burn CD-ROM (type 1) with the ISO file it works... I get access to the 3 partition on the CD but only the first is safe (the= CD can't get the whole 1G disk) (rthibert@francenet.fr) *** 54. Advanced user: importing and exporting midi sequences Has anybody imported a midi sequence created with Cubase in the A3k? Yup, done it a couple of times. In Cubase, make sure to delete all tracks but the one with the "mixed down" track on before exporting the MIDI file. (tim-blair@hempseed.com) How to export an A3k sequence to a standard midi file? First, plug into your a3k the midi-in and midi-out ports connected to your computer. Then, select these midi ports on your software sequencer. Click on 'Record' and in your a3k, play the sequence. The a3k will sent the midi stream to the output while you're listening and it will be recorded into your computer. (aleix@retemail.es) *** 55. Advanced user: convert Ensoniq EPS sounds to WAV for read with the A3k First set the disktype of Your eps disk (dd-standard for eps) (I don't have to do this but try it too), then go to x)tract ... type in: NAMEOFTHEINSTRUMENT as source and then = while on c: type the destination file (Only the file not the path 'cause you will ALWAYS find the destination file in the EPSDISK directory) , You don't need .gkh because you have only copied an INSTRUMENT so the extension is .INS (use AWAVE to convert all the wavesamples inside the instrument to WAV). rovargas@retemail.es *** 56. Advanced user: backup to CD using Linux There's probably something or other for sequencing in Linux ... I just haven't bothered to check it out since I doubt it can compete with the big guns in the Mac/Windows world. However, there is certainly midi support in the operating system. I was referring to the relative ease of performing a SCSI device-to-device copy in Linux. You don't need any special software to read the disk, just do dd if=/dev/sda of=hdimage (or something similar, mutatis mutandis). Then, to master the CD: cdwrite [blah blah blah some options] hdimage (alright, so cdwrite is "special software", but it's free and simple to compile). The cdwrite program doesn't care what format the filesystem image is in particularly, A3000, ISO9660 or whatever. I have not actually done this but only because my A3000 HD is 1040Mb, and so too large to master onto one CD, unfortunately. It would be cool to have a really basic filesystem driver for the A3000, that could just read the partition table and allocate devices for each partition (/dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc.) without even trying to understand the bits contained inside. Then at least I could make 2 partitions on my HD and master either of them onto a CD ... (korpen@intouch.bc.ca) *** 57. Advanced user: about the filter types A low pass filter cuts off high frequencies in the signal (or lets the low ones pass), however the filtering is not drastic (brickwall), instead some higher frequencies make it through the cut off point and gradually decrease to 0. The db of cut (-12 -18 -24) represent the slope with which the higher frequency are attenuated, -24 being the most drastic one. Why I need to know it... Once you know the qualities of the filter, you can pretty much guess their effect before actually sending a signal through it. This allows me to set up SETINIT templates when importing samples from other sources... (example drum kit: for me a -24db wouldn't sound good on cymbals, but I might set up the kit starting from the kick for which a -24db works ok... knowing which one is which I can build my SETINIT templates for importing [and sampling] without going through too much trial and error [or worse having to change all the parameters in all the samples]) (Developer.Dummy@wfp.org) *** 58. Advanced user: HD & zip backup with Disk2CD, Discjuggler,... Golden Hawk technologies have got some freeware DOS software that can do allsorts of cd-wrting the one that I've used to back up zip disks and most recently my 540mb hard drive is DISK2CD. golden hawk 's site is here: http://www.goldenhawk.com/products/freeware.htm What you do is open a dos window in win95 change directory to wherever you've got DISK2CD located, type.........disk2cd you should get something like this displayed.............. C:CDCOPY>disk2cd Disk device found... HA #0 - SCSI ID #1 - DEC DSP3053LS 441C CD-Recorder device found... HA #0 - SCSI ID #3 - YAMAHA CRW4260 1.0h Disk contains 512Mb of data (1046532 blocks). Approximate recording time at 4x speed is 15 minutes. Hit to begin recording (or CTRL/C to exit)... There are a couple of other commands that you can add, for a full list of them type " /?" after the disk2cd command. For your first attempt I would suggest a couple of extras 1. " /test " and it will do a test copy to make sure everything is OK, 2. " /speed= 2x" This will change the speed of the burn , I had to lower the default of my writer from 4x to 2x because on the test runs I was getting errors, this could just be something to do with my cd-r though? So all you should have to do is type .......... C:CDCOPY>disk2cd /test /speed=2x and very soon you should a perfect back up copy of you A3K disk. Hope you get it to work. (thisalmightypop@dial.pipex.com) URLS: http://www.goldenhawk.com/products/freeware.htm http://www.goldenhawk.com/products/freeware.htmFilter Freq, a little AEG rel, and of course level to 110 or so. Not to forget a nice matrix-controller setup. At least this parameter-copy might be a job for A3kRemote, too. Ah, before I forget: sometimes stereo samples are made out of two mono-samples with panning in AKAI: "example-L", "example-R" or so are typical sample names. This only imports well when using VOICE-import. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) *** 62. Advanced user: choose the correct keys when multisampling It depends very much on the data, but the best place to start is dividing the difference... ie. C2 sample goes from C-2 - F2 (lowest one all the way down) C3 sample goes from F#2 - F3 C4 sample goes from F#3 - F4 etc. samples often tend to transpose down easier than up, so sometimes you may find it works better to go: C3 sample goes from E2 - D#3 C4 sample goes from E3 - F#4 etc. Generally, move the points around until you hear the least difference at the zone change. There are no rules for this stuff. Making a good set of samples or a good sound is a kind of art as well... (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 63. Advanced user: how to play samples continously without holding the key Set the samples to have infinite release time (i.e. release=0). Then set each of them to be on a different exclusive channel. Then, map one or more keys to the sample but also have a 0 volume, short decay sample using the same exclusive channel on another key. This will then allow you to trigger a sample with one key, have it loop indefinitely and then be silenced by another key. You have 16 exclusive channels so you can't use more than 16 independent samples but that is probably more than enough. You can also achieve this with controllers by adjusting the release time but you did say you didn't want to grab a PC1600 (buy me one too please). (moron@industrial.org) *** 64. Advanced user: disk organization Well, I don't know is this the best way to do it, but I think partition and volumes as folders. I got my a3k last friday so I'm not an expert yet but this seems to be the best way: My HD looks like this at the moment: Partition 1: Percussion Volumes:BreakbeatTechno/House Partition 2: Stabs Volumes:XP50 Stabs Techno Stabs When I start to make a track, I'll load some samples and when I need more I'll just load some from different partions and volumes. When I'm finished I'll save it all to Partition 8: Track Volume. The best way would be to save all song volumes to Zip drive and keep just the samples on harddisk. I think. (a3klista@hotmail.com) Personally, my system of organization from a "song writing hat" goes like this: (I have basically designed A3kDisky around this plan as well) a) Each "Project" (or "Album") gets its own Volume on a Jaz or Zip disk. I have two "Projects" that are related to the A3k right now - my music, tentatively called "Superhistorian" (the name of my album when/if I ever get it done), and music I write with my friend Doug ("D&J Tracks") when/if ever we get together and jam. (Of course, A3kDisky is a project too, but it has its own complete set of disks (Jaz/Zip/External HD) which I try not to mix up with my musical work). These Volumes are on separate Zip disks, and I may have other volumes on the same disk for messing about with, but not very often. Usually, I just have a single work Volume per Zip disk. Zips work very well for me. b) Each Volume contains all of the samples/sample banks that I'll ever use for that project. c) Each track (or song) gets its own Program. I have a standard 909-ish drum kit that I like to use, that just gets put in the Volume, and I assemble a Program for any track that uses it, along with whatever else I might want to use. d) Samples/Sample Banks are (to me), essentially the same thing. The idea of this is that the Volume = "Album" (or "Project"), and that Program = "Song" (or "Track"). To the A3k, a "Volume" is actually equivalent to a directory (in PC speak) or a Folder (in Mac speak). So it's usually a good way to collect things together that are specifically related, like a collection of songs for an album. The only problem I have with this really (assuming I'm just using the A3k instead of having access to A3kDisky, such as when I'm at Dougs house) is when I want to move stuff over from, say, an A3k Wizard CD, and use it in a song, I have to make sure I get all of the Samples/SampleBanks copied for the voice that I want to use, and that gets tedious at times. (A3kDisky helps out with this...) Anyway, maybe this gives you some idea's - but please, if you get the chance try and list what the *problems* are with your current method of operation, as it's likely to provide some insight. (jay@teklab.com) Partition: Nursery - Synths, Noizes, etc. Volumes: AA Sets - The current Live set i am working on (its mostly for ease of loading) Atmospheres - Long drawn out weird sounds Bass - Jungle, Trance, and 80's Bass's FX - Non atmospheric effects Leads - 303's, synths, etc Live Raw - Raw and unedited samples of Live musicans Orchistra - duh Pads - duh Raw - Raw waveforms, just basicly me palyin around with soundforge like its fotoshop or something Partition: Nursery Sk00l - Drums Volumes: 4/4 - four on the floor loops Ethnic - Ethnic drum loops Hip Hop - Hip Hop Breaks, and Breaks under 120 BPM Hits - Percussive Synths Jungle - Breaks over 120 BPM Kits - 606's, 808's, 909's and any self made kits. Partition: Nursery Rhyme - Vocals Volumes: Horror - horror samples for hardcore/ruff jungle) Humor - Humor samples (like, "HEEEEERRREEEESS JONNY!") Jen - (my vocalist) Psyche - Psychadellic techno samples (Terrence McKenna, etc.) Steve - (vocalist for industrail side project) Thats how i got it set up.. (shaman@home.net) This is pretty much what I do except that, with a 4 gig drive, I have partitions named for the types of volumes they contain. So for me it looks like this: PartitionVolume & Contents PercussionKicks Snares Snare Groups - Multi-sampled snares. Percussion - Tamborines, clappers, etc. Cymbals Hats - Multi-sampled hats in banks Toms - Multi-sampled toms in banks NoiseNoise - Sound effects, strange noises, etcNoise2Loops Synth(currenty all volumes from Spitzensynth) SongsSongs - Stuff I'm working onSongs2Songs3Exp - Experimental stuff I don't want mixed in with the songs The GOOD thing about this arrangement is that it allows me to use tools like A3KRemote to write big honkin' macros to go through every sample in a (new) volume and set it up for my standard kit. Then I can just load a sample and know that it will always trigger on the correct note. I have a standard kit layout put together in Cubase and I've decided that all percussion always triggers on channel 1. I can construct kits fairly easily this way except for.. the BAD thing about this arrangment, which is that it's difficult to audition things from disk, especially synth samples. I wind up loading a bunch of samples into memory and then using the "delete unused samples" function to clean things up. (dys@home.com) *** 65. Advanced user: how to audition a lot of samples quickly What I do is load all the options, let's say 100 snare drums. Put them all in a SampleBank called "Snares" or something. Hit Auto Map (so they all get assigned one key at original pitch). Then I use transpose to try them all out. You can then save the sample bank into the snares volume for next time. Once I've chosen the best sample, I remove it from the bank and delete the rest. It's different from the Akai way of thinking, but once you get used to it, is pretty fast. It also opens up a lot of other possibilities, since you can change the envelopes/filters/pitch of each possibility without affecting the rest of them. (zebedee@teklab.com) *** 66. Advanced user: use the automap feature on Wavesurgeon Check that: your midi out is correct (ie map command gets sent to the a3k)no program has locked the midi port (logic audio does) (gislemm@reaktor.no) *** 67. Advanced user: problems with samples looping continously Since we all have this looping problem with this set-up,I have just one advice,use the command button as panic button(just assign damp to the command button). It's the fastest way to stop the loops. (jmonell@hotmail.com) *** 68. Advanced user: splitting automatically a sample to play with different start addresses Um - Attack your sample with the Loop Divide function. Chop it into the necessary number of pieces, and then adjust the start positions by hand, so they're all bang on target. It will also automatically map them up the keyboard for you - easy! (ninja@peachworld.com) Just use NoteNumber as source and StartAddress as destination on the controller matrix. At Edit->Level turn on the fix pitch in oder to play the sample with the original pitch on the entire keyboard.(aleix@retemail.es) *** 69. Advanced user: how to delete quickly a lot of samples Make a new SmpBank, add all the samples you want to delete to it, and then delete the bank and the included samples. Or you could have turned all the samples you wanted to delete off in the program and deleted all free samples. (Griporg@aol.com) *** 70. Advanced user: sample naming Either that, or name your Samples well enough so that when the time comes to switch them, other samples of the same variety are right there in the list. For example, have names like this: BA - Bad ass Bass BA - Fretless BA - Synthy ST - String Pad ST - FatMan Strings ST - Choirish LD - Lead one LD - Nord hack etc. Which means it's very easy to scroll through all the samples of a particular variety for that MIDI channel. Okay, so this means a little of that horrible stuff that musicians hate... what do they call it? Oh yeah... "organization" ... but then, a little pain never hurt anybod...erm... never mind. (jay@teklab.com) *** 71. Advanced user: syncing A3k sequencer to a live band The following story is about solving timing problems when using a pre-programmed A3k-sequence together with a live band. There can be problems with timing the start of a song (for example if it is to start with an acoustic *real* instrument only, eg guitar, and the A3k sequence is to come in later). To syncronize this, let one click sample be sent to some assignable output, eg AssLR. Set Main Out to off. Then let this click go to the guitarist via some kind of ear phone amp and an earplug. Of course the MIDI file has to have a definite, known number of blank "only click" bars (for example 1 bar count in +8 guitar intro bars) before the programmed music kicks in exactly in beat and the audience will notice nothing of how you timed this so good! What can be useful is to sample oneself saying "one" "two" "three" "four" and using those samples for a count in instead of just a click). Other information such as "guitar solo now", "last refrain" might be fun or even useful to have if one's memory isn't the best ;) Using "monitor click" is extra cool if you have a drummer. Let the click go to him and you've synced the whole band to the A3k via your drummer (he always has to demonstrate the beat, eg by hitting the drumsticks against each other or verbally counting in "two..three...four". "Monitor click" is also crucial when the A3k is used just in parts of a song and the A3k is silent in between those parts. To end this story, I will just mention the possibility of using the A3k as a totally automated effects processor, at the same time as it plays a sequence and you play it via a MIDI controller . Just use a mixer send to feed eg the vocals to the A3k input and then you can process the AD input with the A3k effects and send it out the console via A3k outputs of your choice. You program the effects automation in your computer sequencer along with the rest of the song (eg tempo-delay, different reverb levels, special effects and so on). Have much fun with your blue monster! (davidortoft@hotmail.com) *** 72. Advanced user: have you lost the cables for the internal HD? Special note: The A3k comes with one power cable and one data calbe (SCSI2) for connecting a internal hard disk. If you've lost the power cable, follow these instruccions in order to build it by yourself. If you've lost the data cable, use an SCSI2 standard cable for internal SCSI devices. Hi all, Thanks all for your help on my HD power cable help. If you ever need to create one for you, try to build one like this: A3K Hard Disk red (1) yellow (1) white black (2) white black (3) white (4) red (4) It works perfectly !!! (negative@arnet.com.ar) *** 73. Advanced user: perfect triming of samples I have a tip concerning sample trimming, more specific trimming a sample on the A3k exactly to it's start position. (Maybe more experienced people already know this simple trick, but I didn't and I would like to share it with those who don't). Take your sample, trim it as good as possible to the start. Once you feel you're really close to the start point, set the pitch of the sample to -12 or -24. This goes quickly and results in a very low playback of the sample (push the audition button). The slower playback of the sample allows you to easily find the starting point of the sample.... That's all : simple, but fast and effective. (ronny.webers@pandora.be) *** 74. Performance: get the better signal-to-noise ratio with the A3k Some hints on noise cancelling for the A3000 - Source #1: Fan Exchange the fan with a Papst (www.papst.de) model 412 fan (very high voltage inside the power supply!). This is 2 cm deep instead of 1 cm and can pump a lot more air with less noise. It's a bit tricky to build in, because it doesn't fit easily. You will have to twiddle a bit. It's also a good idea not to use the grid outside the fan, because it disturbs the air flow and produces (little) additional noise. The Papst 412 is a 12 V model but it's a good idea to use a series resistor of 110 Ohm (0.5 Watts) to slow it down a bit. You get enough air flow through your A3000 with VERY low noise by the fan. Without the resistor this will even be louder than the original, but can also be used as a hair dryer. You need two or three long M3 screws to mount the fan. The fourth screw doesn't fit with the 412 type. Cost is about $15 for the fan. Very effective! Finally: take the original fan, lay it on something very hard (concrete or alike), take a large or better huge hammer, see if you can get the fan less noisy by flattening it even more than the initial 1 cm. - Source #2: Switching Power Supply The power supply of the A3000 is a switching type which are known for a high frequency noise (instead of 50/60 Hz Humm). The supply of the A3000 also produces such noise. Even if the frequency of this noise is high enough that you don't "hear" the tone it get's me the feeling of a kind of presure on my ears. No solution for this by now. VERY disappointing about the A3000! - Source #3: HD-Noise a) Change the floppy to the place for the internal HD and build in a JAZ (fits perfectly!) or a ZIP drive instead. Eject the medium if the noise of the drive disturbs you. b) Build the HD into the computer connected to the SCSI chain anyway (if it is less noisy in there). c) Get Symbios SCIS-Tools at ftp://ftp.symbios.com/pub/symchip/scsi/drivers/Windows_Drivers/Windows95/Tools/symtools.exe With this tool you send all SCSI-HDs on the chain to sleep. This works only under Win95 (and Win98?). For NT you will have to get .../Windows_Drivers/WindowsNT/I386/Tools/ntaspi.exe in addition. d) Go and force Yamaha to build in a sleep feature ("active for xx minutes", "send to sleep") for every device on the SCSI chain. (Best solution!) (pfaff@riic.at) on the week end i was mucking around with my a3k and i took particular notice of the noise floor of the main sterio out. i found that if i turned up the gain of the sterio output level to +24db and put the 22db pan "on" on the desk the signal from the a3k was muuuuuuuch cleaner (ross@cuttingedge.com.au) I found my solution of the low-output-on-assignable-outs problem. As i wrote before, modifying the outputs is nothing that a good mixer could also do. I want a digital gain. My solution is to use the 'filter gain' on (almost) every sample. As long as you don't use the filter (bypass) this is only a level increase, and does no distortion. But be careful: if you use MANY voices, the output could clip (that's exactly why the A3000 has such a low output level @ single voice) this also can happen if you use the output gain for the stereo outs if you use the filter at high resonance, filter gain will do distortion. that's what filter gain was made for, i think. Nice thing to increase filter gain for a drum sample bank. (stef@netwhere.com) If someone knows the basics of grounding and how to properly ground and shut up a system, please enlighten me! I had a little grounding problem the other week. I took some old speaker cable and attached it the metal casing on my synth and stuck the other end to a nearby radiator and hey presto I buzz no more! (james@occam-dm.com) I solved a similar mains hum by attaching the cases of my A3k and amp together. (glenn.johnson@btinternet.com) This evening the fan in teh back of my a3000 started making a horrible noise. Just blow the dust off. There's probably a bit of crud built up there ... Actually the S/N ratio stays the same (apart from any extra noise added = by the mixer - this would *reduce* the S/N ratio). As an example, if the = (music) signal is at -10dB and the noise at -90dB you have a S/N ratio = of 80dB. Boosting the signal by 10dB (with no added noise - impossible = in practice) so the music is now 0dB and the noise -80dB - still gives = you 80dB signal to noise. The real outcome is that the noise floor is = now at -80dB which may seem high compared to other instruments or the = main outputs. Add to the fact that the mixer or channel that you're = using to raise the signal is going to add a few dBs of noise and you've = got a high background noise unfortunately. The main outputs allow you to = add 24dB of gain in the digital domain which is noise free. At the end of the day, the AIEB1 outputs are too quiet and require some = analogue gain to make them useful. This amplification adds analogue = noise (so go for the best quality possible in terms of = cables/mixers/pre-amps/channel/etc.) (bluebear@enterprise.net) Has anyone succeded in filtering out this noise because its really coming across loud in the mix even though it only registers 2 bars above 0 on my mixer (Behringer 32/8/2A Eurodesk). I think its because of that human ear registering certain frequencies louder than others and so its sounds like its drowning out other instruments just from being there in 'silence'. So, would a parametric EQ fix this? Anyone tried it? This will destroy the brilliance of your signal. The noise isn't small-bandwidth, no narrow filter can remove it, only a Lowpass. Try improving S/N ratio by using Filter GAIN. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) What's the best setting to keep the 'global db' boost at? Your mix should sound really hot, but not overboiled... Play your mix and raise the gain from +6 dB, +12 dB ... and listen at what gain value you get audible digital distortion (it is not hard). Then decrease the gain one step and carefully check (again) that the sound is not audibly distorted. The more voices that play simultaneously in your mix, the more you will feed the A3000's digital main mix bus. Since the "global db" boosts the main mix bus (still in the digital domain) before going to the D/A converter, you have to turn the "global dB" to lower values (typically 12 or 6 dB) when working with complex arrangements. If you are just going to use the A3000 monophonically, 18 dB will work fine most of the time. But, even though you only have a single sample that is normalized, and you turn all gain stages to the max and play some with a steep filter, you will get distortion. It all depends on loudness of the samples you use, their settings, how hard you play (velocity) and how many voices you use simultaneously. Use your ears. I only use the +24 dB setting in extreme cases. I say "usually" because I suppose there could be certain circumstances (ie when feeding the signal to something other than a typical mixing console) where you *might* distort the input of whatever you're plugging the sampler into. That's not the best way to avoid distorting another device's input! The digital mix bus should ALWAYS be running as hot as possible, no matter what analogue level you want from the A3000. If you distort the other device, reduce the analogue gain (volume knob) on the A3000, not the digital gain! Very important :) (davidortoft@hotmail.com) This was my first experience with the expansion board, too. But the problem is much (if not totally) related to the low output level of the expansion board. For comparing S/N of exp. outs and Main Outs, I have tried this: 1. set Main Out to 0 dB 2. choose a simple sample A (without filter usage, see below) and set it to OUTPUT-STDOUT 3. copy it (B), and route the copy to OUTPUT-ASSGN (any of your exp. board) 4. keep all channels/AUX returns of your mixer down 5. now play the sample A, trim the input of your mixer so it displays 0 dB (or any other certain level) at the levelmeter 6. now set your mixer channel for sample B exactly up as sample A 7. play sample B and try to get the same output level by using FILTER GAIN +31 or so Now, don't play anything, but crank your mixer MAIN out and/or amp up MUTE either channel A or B and compare the noise. Simple test for no-signal-carrying connection: Plug in STDOUT and EXPOUT, crank up, mute either A or B. Compare the noise. My result: Noise is the same (have used a cheap mixer, though). I could get better S/N by turning the monitor away, getting my power supply cables arranged somewhere else and so on. Conclusion: Either you need excellent outboard gear (preamps) for adjusting the levels without noise, or you must rely on FILTER GAIN, but this doesn't work for samples which make heavy use of the filters (because then you'll get distortion). But it works for drum sounds, which are my main candidate for individual outs, anyway. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) I have Audio Technica 4033a mic which is fr. what I know considered as "upper middle class" - so I reckon it's not the mic. You are connecting the Mic directly into the a3k? This gives you noise of course, because the input amplifier of the a3k isn't very good. Best S/N is with a REC VOL at 9 o'clock. Use preamps. (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) It's a good idea to normalize all your samples unless there is some internal level relationship between a group of samples that you want to maintain. There is already a lot of headroom in the A3k, so you won't clip a normalized sample unless you add gain in another place (ie. Filter Gain). If the sample level is 100, the output level is 127, and the filter gain is at 0, then a normalized sample won't clip. (zebedee@teklab.com) I want to sample a synth with the best signal-to-noise ratio possible Yes. First of all make sure you adjust the output of the synth and the recording level on the A3K to get the loudest sound with the least noise. Secondly, put a noise gate on the input and adjust the controls until you get as little "break up" at the end of the sound as possible. Next EQ the input to tweak the gated sound to reduce the hiss and maybe boost or cut other frequencies. I'd like to suggest another way of working . . . Balance the majority of your samples volumes internally (via MIDI) and output the mix to SPDIF. Then output *only * the samples you must - say KICK and SNARE, etc. - to the additional outputs for additional effects processing, while STILL outputing them on the MASTER to SPDIF. Then return the sounds from your FX processor only to the A/D inputs on the front of the sampler and adjust their level on the A/D input level page. Once again your whole mix stays on SPDIF. By the way, anybody else notice some sort of limiting function on the SPDIF outputs to prevent you from breaking up ? I thought that was an interesting detail I haven't seen any official mention of. (mweiser@idirect.com) *** 75. Performance: how to avoid high frequency noises on sounds with very low end (like a tr808 Bassdrum) I get this sometimes. I think it's caused by anti-aliasing, but I might be wrong. Go to filter EQ, find the frequency at which it occurs and turn the gain down. Adjust the width so as not to loose too much else. If the sound is a split second after the bass drum fades away then decrease the decay time, set the sustain level a lot lower and increase the resonance on the hi-pass filter you are surely putting the drum through (with VERY low cut-off) to compensate. (jon.thompson@clara.net) *** 76. Performance: solving the problems with knobs and buttons The A3k knobs are removable, you can take out them and clean the rotary encoders if you take it with care and draw to you without fear (you will not break them, sure).Then, blow into them with energy and you with clean them. If you are not satisfied, you can also remove all the a3k front panel: open your a3k remove the three screws under the front panel take out the 7 knobs drawing them to you (don't be afraid). remove the front panel. clean the knobs with high pressure air. put again the front panel with care. put the knobs (pay attention to the master and rec vol knobs, turn them to the max in order to check the right position). put the three screws. close your a3k. If you're not satisfied again, contact with yamaha and order a XS548 part and replace it.... ;) I've made those steps and my a3k knobs respond a bit better now. (use this information with your own risk, i'm not responsible of your a3k... you know). (aleix@retemail.es) After feeling pretty pissed by the response of the 5th knob for the push action (sometimes, I pushed even three times and the a3k didn't make anything), last Sunday, I decided to open my a3k and clean the knobs *in depth*. These are all the steps I made and the results were great: I removed the a3k from my 19" rack (pretty difficult operation with only two hands, imo). I opened the a3k removing the 14 screws like the normal procedure. I removed the 5 data entry knobs and the 'master vol' and 'rec vol' knobs holding and bringing them to me with some pressure. I removed the 3 screws under the front panel. I removed the entire front panel... ops! my a3k is not blue inside... ;) Then, there is the part #A0278-XS548 under the display with the five encoders... +-------------------------------------------+ |     DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD  -------------P | |     DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD  -            P | | M R *       *    *      *  -      fffffff | |      E1  E2   E3   E4  E5  -      fffffff | +-------------------------------------------+   ^                  ^                     ^ M  = 'master vol' knob R  = 'rec vol' knob D  = display Ex = encoder x f  = floppy drive P  = power button ^  = screws of the front panel (under) *  = screws of the encoder part I removed the 4 screws of the encoder part (those marked with * in the picture) I removed the encoder part from the front panel unplugging the two connectors (firstly, removed it a few in order to unplug the connectors easily). +-----------------------+ C  E1  E2   E3   E4  E5 C +-----------------------+ Ex = encoder x C  = connector Then, I got a small brush and for every encoder, I cleaned the small slot between the base of the encoder and the metal axis where the plastic knob is attached. There was tons of shit!!! +--+ |  +-+ |    |===== |  +-+ +--+       ^       |       |     clean with a brush here (side view of an a3k encoder without the plastic knob) Attach the encoder part and plug the connectors again (each connector with the correct socket). Put all the screws / front panel / knobs and all again to the initial place. (end of process, it took me around one hour) Statistics: Before cleaning, every 100 push actions on the 5th knob, the a3k only detected around 60. After cleaning, every 100 push actions on the 5th knob, the a3k detected 98. Also, I had problems with the 'turn-to-right' action on the 2nd knob. After cleaning, it also responds very better... almost like the first day I had my a3k. PLEASE: be aware with this information. I'm not responsible of damage in your A3k. I don't know if is the correct way cleaning the knobs as it's explained above. I personally used alcohol for cleaning the mentioned parts but I don't know if it's correct. Because I wanted to replace the entire encoder part with a new one from Yamaha, I decided to explore a bit the a3k and check if there are some procedure in order to improve the situation before ordering the part. And yes, it was improved... a lot! (aleix@retemail.es) -------------------------------------------------- Section 15. Bugs and wanted features -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. Is the A3k year 2000 compatible? So what happens when we get to the millenium, does the file system use dates (I didn't think it does but I'm not sure), I'm just in the middle of testing some RPG programs for our millenium!No. The A3k ignores the date fields in all files stored on disk.One for the FAQ: The A3k is Y2k compatible. (jay@teklab.com) *** 2. What can I do if I find a bug or if I want a feature? Send messages to the mailing-list with the Subject header set like this:"WANTBUGFIX: blah blah blah"Where "blah blah blah" is a brief description of the bug. Make yourmessage as descriptive and as detailed as possible, and post it toa3k-list. I will make sure that these are known about and that they get tothe right people at Yamaha. If you see a WANTBUGFIX message that you want to add to, then follow it up, and leave the Subject line intact. This will help us to organize the messages for presentation to Yamaha. The same for wanted features, just set the Subject header like this:"WANTFEATURE: blah blah wish wish"You can look at the mail archieve for such headers so you can see what hasbeen discussed already. (jay@teklab.com) *** 3. Some WANTFEATURES/BUGFIXES Faster SCSI/Floppy (the old Akais/Emus are much faster loading from CD-ROM/SMDI transfer) (improved with OS 2.0)Controller for Filter/Envelopes as Offset, not absolute (work-around within OS 2: use Filter Envelope Depth as Controller-destination instead of Cutoff Bias)Better AKAI/EMU Import (Velocity XFade/Filter envelopes) (improved with OS 2.0)Support more than 8 partitions (some AKAI CD-ROMs have more!) (fixed in OS 2.0)Load ALL command when importingAlternate LoopingAutotrimCopy/PasteFilters on AD-InputMidi-Clock on LFOs (in OS 2.0, LFO2 is midi-syncable)Knob turnaround (from 127 to -127, e.g.)Adjustable Level Offsets also for Assign and Digital Outputs Panning controllable via LFO (currently only Program-LFO on PAN-FX works as work-around) Bugfix for the annoying muting of all the sound when the a3k starts loading samples and finishig the load. With this bug, the a3k is not 100 percent suitable for live situations because you must load samples all your samples before the show.Bugfix for the annoying muting of all the sound when you change the receive midi channel of a sample. Although, only the selected sample should be muted.Bugfix for the annoying muting of all the sound when you change the filter type / expand & detune/ effect out / controller matrix / etc of the selected sample. Also, only the edited sample should be muted.Bugfix for the 2.500 objets per partition limitation. With a 4 Gb hard drive (supported by the a3k), the smallest partition size should be 512 Mb (8 partitions) and using this size, it's a lot possible to fill it with more than 2.500 samples.Bugfix for the 127 volumes 'at display'. Yes, although you can create more than 127 volumes per partition, the a3k only shows the first 127.Bugfix for the program lfo not used on the internal midi player.Bugfix for export/smdi send feature not working properly with stereo samples (with the stereo Grand Piano of the supplied CD, for example).Bugfix for the sysex implementation: can't rename samples with sysex, can't select the current program with sysex, can't set the filter gain with sysex, can't access to the a3k disks with sysex, etc.As wanted features:6 levels controller matrix at program level.Edge amount for LFOs.Delay for EG's.Play&Save = off.Loop points controllable via midi controlers.Playing direction controllable via midi controlers and possibility to change in real time.Feg Depth in real time.Filter type controllable via midi controlers (there are 16 and it's a multiply of 128). EasyEdit swap with four knob push action at the first sample page.mLAN expansion.aleix@retemail.es *** 4. Left-arrow character sometimes causes read/write errors while saving to disk! Reported on OS 1.2. If you get a disk read/write error while saving to disk, check if one of the samples contains a left-arrow character in its name (looks like <- but is encoded in a single character). When I tried to save a large volume, the saving process allways stopped at such a sample. After renaming the sample so that it does not contain the character anymore, the volume could be saved successfully. (rwilms@kottan.ruhr.de) *** 5. "MIDI buffer full"-Timing error within OS 1.10 has been solved. Yamaha has fixed this with OS Version 1.20. This update should be free. If you use a lot of controllers during the song playback, you canrun into this bug. You can work around it by reducing/quantizingthe controller data. BTW, before the A3k is getting into trouble withthe midi input, my PC midi-interface is going to have some problems.If you want to see what this is all about, you can download a midi-timingtest file "Mayhem" from the a3k-FTP-site ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/a3k/ the so-called "Midi File Of Death". This file is also going beyond the midi transfer rate (34 Kbit) (Winkelmf@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de) -------------------------------------------------- Section 16. Other Yamaha samplers -------------------------------------------------- *** 1. Yamaha A7000 The A7000 is another Yamaha sampler, but it's only available here in Japan - I asked the Yamaha reps if it was planned for release outside of Japan, and they said "No - never!", and laughed at me. (jay@teklab.com).A picture of it can be found here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bq5n-ubkt/Inst/Mdls.htm URLS: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bq5n-ubkt/Inst/Mdls.htm http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bq5n-ubkt/Inst/Mdls.htm