ALESIS M20 REFERENCE MANUAL 1.06 13-1

CHAPTER 13

UTILITY MENU
There are 22 pages of Utility functions. Pressing the Utility button cycles through the pages in
order.
Shortcut: To jump directly to a particular page, hold Utility down and enter the page
number form the keypad, using leading zeroes to access pages 01-09.

13.1 DIGITAL OUT (PAGE 1)

Selects the digital output format and resolution for tapes formatted in 20-bit mode (there is
no choice of digital output with 16-bit tapes).
Procedure: Use the Up/Down buttons (or keypad buttons 0-4) to choose among the following:
20-bit (default). All 20 bits of audio are available at the optical and I/O card outputs.
16-bit dithered. The digital audio optical output from a 20-bit tape or digital input source is
dithered down (using the 4 least-significant bits of the 20-bit signal) to a 16-bit output. This is
the preferred 16-bit mode.
16-bit. This simply truncates the 4 least-significant bits from a 20-bit tape or digital input
source.
Digital Thru. The digital audio input from an optical or I/O card source goes directly to the
optical or I/O card output. The source word length is unchanged.

13.2 ONLINE SOURCE (PAGE 2)

Sets the control source when Online mode (section 13.2a) is enabled.
Procedure: Use the Up/Down buttons (or keypad buttons 0-3) to choose among the following:
ADAT (default). Receives control commands from the ADAT 9-pin Sync In connector.
MIDI. Receives MIDI Machine Control commands from the MIDI In port.
RS-422 (Software version 2.0 and above only). Receives commands from the RS-422 port.
Note: MIDI does not need to be selected to receive Sysex and software dumps (sections 12.5 and 12.7).

13.2A ONLINE BUTTON

The Online button determines whether the M20 will respond to control commands from the
source specified in Online Source (section 13.2). Regardless of the Online status and source,
the machine will continue to monitor and pass commands back and forth on its sync port.
Online cannot be switched off on a lone-M20 system.