User manual M-AUDIO DANCE STATION

[. . . ] Dance Station Help Manual Quick Overview:Evolution Dance StationTM is a realtime dance music-production package which allows the user to mix their own tunes, live, using a 25 note keyboard to trigger high quality audio dance loops. Audio Dance loops can be imported into the program from CD-ROM, Hard Disk or Floppy disk. The Dance Station CD-ROM includes 1000 "ready-to-mix" professionally looped samples which will transform your PC into your very own "Hit Factory"!Each sample may be assigned to one of 25 keys on a graphical screen keyboard. [. . . ] This is great for cutting up vocal loops and create that "Na na na na Nineteen" effect!The Glue tool joins two samples on the same key together to create a new longer sample. Click anywhere on the sample and if there's another one on the same key further into the track, the two will be joined. If there is a space between the two samples, the newly formed sample will span it creating a sample the combined length of both existing samples and the gap. This tool is only really useful when loop mode is enabled for that key. If you're not confident enough to make a live recording of your mix, or if you just want to insert samples in your own time, you can enable the Step Time Switch. When Step mode is activated, single or multiple samples triggered from your MIDI keyboard or the screen keyboard are recorded at the current Play Position with a length determined by the Grid Setting. When you release a key on your keyboard, the play position automatically advances. Samples are recorded with the Velocity generated when you played them. (Velocity button must be enabled for each key for this to take effect). You can advance the Play Position without entering a sample - to create rests (silent sections), for example - by pressing the Space Bar. You can also enter samples by clicking on the Vertical Keyboard in the edit window. The play position does not advance automatically in order to allow you to enter multiple samples. Samples entered using the Screen Keyboard have their velocities determined by the Velocity setting in the Preferences menu. 12 The Sample Window The sample window is the database for all dance loops you can load into the software. This screen displays the filenames of all the sampled loops found on your Dance Station CD-ROM. Although all file names would normally have a . WAV extension, in this window they are displayed without the extension. Not only will the Sample Window display the contents of your Dance Station CD-ROM, but will also allow you to look at the wave files on any hard disk or CD-ROM drive recognised by your system. Th Sample List window allows you to select a sample, listen to it in audition mode and assign it to any of the 25 keys on the screen keyboard. Dance Station Loops The Dance Station CD contains over 1000 professionally looped samples in various categories such as House, Techno, Hip Hop and Ambient. The samples are grouped according to the loop type, such as drums, basslines, synth or vocal samples. The samples are also grouped according to their BPM values (Beats Per Minute). You'll find samples ranging from 100 BPM all the way up to 160 BPM. [. . . ] Play the keyboard and check the Screen Keyboard to see if the notes turn red. If the notes turn red but no sound is heard, this is good news, as are 50% of the way there. All you now need to do now is to make sure your speakers are turned up. If no input signal is observed or heard, either install the soundcard again, or try installing the Microsoft MPU401 driver. [. . . ]