User manual ALESIS NANOBASS

[. . . ] Nanobass REFERENCE MANUAL by Connor Freff Cochran © 1997 Alesis Corporation ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 1 Unpacking and Inspection Your Shipping Carton Should Contain The Following Items: 1 NanoBass 1 AC power adapter 1 rackmounting screw 1 Alesis warranty card 1 Reference Manual 1 Program Chart If anything is missing, please contact your dealer or Alesis immediately. We'll be able to take better care of you now, and serve you better in the future, if you fill it out and send it in. ALESIS CONTACT INFO: Alesis Corporation 3630 Holdredge Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90016 phone: 1-800-5-ALESIS (800-525-3747) e-mail: alecorp@alesis1. usa. com website: www. alesis. com © 1997 Alesis Corporation All Trademarks property of their respective holders. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ 2 NanoBass Reference Manual Welcome! Musician jokes are legion, but the one that comes to mind right now runs as follows: Stanley and Livingstone, on trek through the jungles of darkest Africa, are awakened one night by the distant, maniacal pulsing of tribal drums. Unable to return to sleep, they leave their tent and make themselves a cup of tea at the campfire. At noon that day, while taking a break from hacking a path through the thick vegetation, the two British explorers finally get to ask one of the bearers about the drums. [. . . ] You'll also find a reference section listing all of the sounds in the on-board ROM and all 256 programs (with room to take some notes of your own). ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 23 The Specs Sound Generation Method: sample playback 16 bit Linear 48kHz Sample ROM Synthesis: QS Composite SynthesisTM Voices: 64, each with sweepable lowpass filter, 3 envelope generators, 3 LFOs, programmable effects send and QS Modulation Matrix, dynamic voice allocation Waveform Memory: 4 Megabytes, 264 samples Program Memory: 256 presets Effects: QS Parallel Matrix EffectsTM (4 independent stereo multieffect processing busses) MIDI Connections: MIDI In, MIDI Out/Thru Audio Outputs: Stereo Left and Right outputs, 1/4" unbalanced Power Requirements: 9 VAC, 5 Volt Amps external Transformer, UL and CSA Approved Dimensions: (WxHxD) 5. 5" x 1. 5" x 4. 5" Weight: 1. 25 lbs. What They Mean When They Say "64 Voices" Once upon a time it was simple. A "voice, " in synth parlance, meant a single note of polyphony. A five voice instrument like the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5TM could play five simultaneous notes. Then things got complicated, when synth programmers got deep into digital design and figured out how to create even more complicated and interesting ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ 24 NanoBass Reference Manual sonic textures by stacking voices together in combination. Suddenly the "number of voices = polyphony" equation didn't directly apply anymore. In one program on an instrument, for example, playing a single key might trigger a flute voice and a choir voice simultaneously: one note, two voices. Another program in the same instrument might stack another two voices into the mix: one note, four voices. If such an instrument had 16 voices to start with, playing just four notes would max it out. With those programs, you'll have 64 notes of available polyphony. Other programs trigger two voices per note, giving you 32 voices of available polyphony. Still others trigger four voices per note, allowing you 16 notes of polyphony. Why In The World Would I Want 64 Voices Of Bass? Excellent question. The answer, of course, is that making the NanoBass capable of generating 64 simultaneous voices is a severe case of technical overkill. But since Alesis had to design one basic Nano hardware package for all the products in the line, and the others did need 64 voices, the engineers figured "What the heck!Somebody out there might just feel like pushing the envelope. " Off the top of my head, I can think of one definite benefit that having 64 available voices provides, and three experiments you ought to consider trying. The definite benefit: Some of the programs use multiple voices per note, making for a fatter, richer sound. Experiment #1: Along that line, you might try sending the same Note On message repeatedly, at increments only a few MIDI ticks apart. Depending on how many Note Ons you send, you can thicken the sound (or blur its attack) in interesting ways. Yamaha DX7 owners use to do this deliberately by routing the DX7's MIDI OUT jack directly into the instrument's MIDI IN jack, which caused voices to automatically double up on playing. Just because a program is useful for bass lines doesn't mean it is automatically devoid of useful ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 25 high notes. Play around with the full range of the clavinet programs, for example, and you'll see what I mean. They worked for Chris Squire and Jaco Pastorius, didn't they? ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ 26 NanoBass Reference Manual The Front The front of the NanoBass has two indicator LEDs and five knobs. POWER: This indicator will glow whenever the NanoBass is hooked up to a live electrical outlet. [. . . ] * If it doesn't work the first time, do it again (brevity may be the soul of wit, but repetition is the soul of recognition). You are a guest in your audience's head, and the adage about fish and visitors applies. * Harmony is what happens when "words" in your sentences have two meanings. * Structure is what happens when other people think you know what you're doing, whether you really do or not. [. . . ]