User manual AKAI S900

[. . . ] 1 professional i MIDI DIGITAL SAMPLER 'I I To prevent fire or shock hazard, do not expose this appliance to rain or moisture. Operator's Manual CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION WELCOME! Welcome to the Akai S900 Sampler. This versatile sampler provides the flexibility associated with more expensive machines. It took many months of intensive development to produce the S900, and it will take you some time and practice to master this advanced instrument. [. . . ] (We will describe how to use the other outputs later in the manual. ) Speakers M~xer/ To personal computer To other MlDl equ~pment MlDl OUT 1 MlDl Master Keyboard Player. &a'lg&aa;-. . Microphone CHANGING PARAMETERS Now practice changing parameters. Parameters can usually be changed in two ways: Scroll by turning theCONTROL through the available options. If the value is a number, use the 0-9 keys (remember that numbers must have leading zeroes - e. g. Some parameters expect a yes/no answer, or a positive/negative indication; for these, use the ON/+ and OFF/- buttons. , . >portant: If the LCD asks you t o press ENT after altering " 3 parameter, d o so. , DEFINITIONS 1. A velocity keyboard is a type of keyboard that measures the time it takes for a key to go from the up to down position. you have hit the key hard and want a loud sound; if this time period is longer, you have hit the key softly and want a soft sound. Therefore, even though velocity is measuring the speed at which a key goes from key up to key down, we will consider it as an indication of how hard or soft you hit the key. To cover more than one key on a keyboard, the sample may be transposed over up to a six-octave range. Playing a velocity keyboard harder increases the level of one of the samples and decreases the level of the other (or, switches over from one of the samples to the other at a certain velocity threshold) Thus, with a bass sound you can have a normally plucked string at lower levels and a slap bass effect at higher levels The sample meant to be heard at higher velocity levels is called the Loud sample and the sample meant to be heard at lower velocity levels is called the Soft sample. Trying to transpose a sample over too wide a range leads to an unnatural sound. Using multiple samples means that individual samples need npt be transposed very far. A Program (also called preset) is a set of keygroups, and can consist of up to 32 different keygroups (or individual samples) assigned across the keyboard. For example, with a five-octave keyboard you could take five samples and assign one to eacb octave. Samples may be edited in a number of ways, as can programs These will be described fully later. [. . . ] we need to cover some basic definitions. THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING S900 MEMORY DATA TO DlSK PLEASE NOTE: The S900 has no permanent memory. If you load a disk into the S900 and alter it, the altered parameters MUST BE SAVED TO DlSK or your work will be lost if you turv off the power. This is described fully in the section of the DlSK function. ERROR MESSAGES If all eight function lights flash, there is a usually not-too-seriour problem. [. . . ]