Yamaha manual A3000 Professional Sampler Power User Introduction, Basic A3000 Terminology

yA3000 Professional Sampler: Power User

Introduction

The A3000 signals Yamaha’s re-entry into the professional sampler market. It is a very powerful, very easy to use sampler. The first part of this power user will address many of the important features available with the Version 1.2 software. The second part will address features introduced with Version 2 software.

This article will address each particular screen via its mode, function and page as follows: [MODE]: [FUNCTION]: [Page]. This means you can navigate to the very page or screen by pressing the MODE button first, followed by the FUNCTION Key, then via turning Knob #1 you can navigate to the particular screen in question. Knob 1 is the navigation knob, and turning it will take you through the various pages of a particular Function. Each page is identified in the lower left corner of the screen.

When the up/down arrows appear in the lower left of the screen just above the first knob it means that Knob 1 can be turned to select additional pages. A single down arrow indicates that you are at the top of the list and you can turn the knob clockwise to see the other pages; a single up arrow indicates the bottom of the list and a counterclockwise turn is available to take you back up the list; both an up and down arrow indicate pages in both directions. Alternatively, successive presses of the selected Function key (red LED is lit) can navigate forward through the pages, while pressing the green Mode LED in question, will take you backward through the pages. Unlike Knob 1, both the Function key and the Mode LED will wrap around as they scroll through the page screens.

The Knobs will increment if you turn them one click and will travel a further distance with speed. You will find that the longer you are in contact with the Knob during a turn, the farther it goes. If you use a technique of short and very fast turns, you will no doubt frustrate yourself (spinning your wheels, so to speak). Maintain contact through your turn and you will be more efficient.

Basic A3000 Terminology

The basic A3000 recording is called a Sample. On most conventional samplers, a “sample’ is waveform data only. An A3000 ‘sample’ contains information like its key mapping, MIDI channel, filter, envelope, LFO and MIDI channel. In addition, each sample has its own sweepable parametric EQ (32Hz-16kHz). Samples can be (if it is convenient) grouped into objects called sample banks. Samples in the same bank can be treated as a single sample. This is great for multisampled instruments like pianos, drum kits or a map of beats where you want to treat a group of samples all together instead of repeating the same operation to each sample. If you need to edit samples within a sample bank the A3000 provides for a method to do this, easily. (See “Editing Samples Within a Sample Bank” section below).

Next up the food chain is a Program. A Program is an organization of samples and related settings into a playable sound or set of sounds. In fact, you do not play samples directly—you play samples that have been placed into a Program. In a Program you can make any number of the samples (or sample banks) active by simply turning on the “ToPgm” (To Program) switch for that sample (or sample bank). When you select [PLAY]: