Alesis DG8 manual Layer Mode

Chapter 2: Playing the DG8

Press any one of the Keyboard Bank buttons to select a Keyboard Bank. The last Keyboard Program that was selected from this Bank will be recalled from memory and displayed under the PRIMARY SOUND heading.

Press the ▲ arrow to scroll through the other three Keyboard Programs in the Bank. Use the ▼ arrow to scroll backward through the Programs.

You can think of a Layer as “adding another Keyboard Program to be played simultaneously with the current Primary”. The Keyboard Program that creates the Layer appears in the LAYER segment of the display.

Likewise, a Split is created when “a Bass or Card Program is played with a Primary”. The Bass Program appears in the display as the SPLIT sound and is played from the lower range of keys. (The Layer and Split play modes are described in the following two topics.)

For Primaries, Layers and Splits, the DG8’s memory independently keeps track of the most recently selected programs for each Bank button. This principle is true for the Keyboard, Bass and Card Banks.

Layer Mode

Layer mode takes two Keyboard Programs and puts “one on top of the other” so that notes played on the keyboard – or received MIDI notes – play both sounds at once. Both sounds are layered across the entire keyboard. A Layer can be comprised of two Keyboard Programs from different Keyboard Banks, the same Bank, or even the same Keyboard Program layered with itself.

Tip: Before proceeding, raise the LAYER slider all the way to the top. At this position, the output level of the Layer sound is approximately equal to the Primary Sound. You can then lower the level of the Layer sound relative to the Primary Sound if necessary.

Bear in mind that if the LAYER slider is all the way off (at the bottom), the Layer sound will not be heard when a Layer is created.

36 DG8 REFERENCE MANUAL