Alesis K2661 specifications 12-14, Arrangement Parameters the Common, Timing Issues

Song Mode

Tutorial: Arrangements

Arrangement Parameters: the COMMON page

Start Step

This determines the step number where the song will start. Normally this is 1, but it can be any step in the arrangement.

Tempo Control

You can choose whether the tempo is controlled by the arrangement song itself or by each song in the arrangement. When set to Song it will use the tempo and time signature set in the arrangement song itself. When set to Arrange, it will use the various tempos and time signatures used in the arrangement’s constituent songs.

Timing Issues

You might encounter timing problems when using the Arrangement Editor; notes can be delayed when the arrangement switches from step to step. Here’s how to avoid the problem.

Each time you record a track for the first time, the K2661 places four events right at the beginning of the track: Bank Change, Program Change, Volume, and Pan. If you go into the Event Editor, you’ll see these four messages appearing at 1:1:000. Normally they’ll be the first four events you will see.

By the time you have recorded several tracks, these events start to become a large number of events all occurring at the exact same point in time. The K2661 processes these events sequentially, and if enough events happen at the same time, some of them get delayed. For example, if you have 10 tracks, then you will have 40 of those initial events, in addition to any note and controller info that also exist at 1:1:000 in a track.

To prevent the delays caused by too many events, you can delete unneeded events. Typically, you are probably not changing the Program, Volume, and Pan settings for each track when you switch from step to step. For example, quite often you might have the same program on a MIDI channel for all the steps. In this case, all of the program and bank change messages after the first step are not needed, and can be deleted. You can edit each step in the arrangement this way (don’t remove these events from the first step, however).

There are two different methods you can use to get rid of these messages in a track. The simplest way is to go into the Event Editor. Use the Chan/Bank buttons to select the track whose events you want to edit—you can select each track individually, or select All to view the events from every track in the step. To remove an event, highlight it and press Cut.

The second way is to use the Erase function in the Track Editor. Again, choose the track with the Chan/Bank buttons. Set the From parameter to 1:1 and the To parameter also to 1:1. Of course, you won’t want to have Events set to All, or you’ll eras any note events that occur at 1:1, as well as the unwanted events. If you set Events to Program Change and press Go, you’ll erase the Program and Bank change events. You can then set it to Controllers. At this point, if you leave Ctl set to All, you can delete both the Pan and Volume events with one operation. But if you have other controller info that occurs at 1:1 (such as Mod Wheel or sustain pedal) then you would also be erasing those events. So you can use the Ctl parameter to select just Volume and just Pan, pressing Go after each selection.

In general, the Event-editor method is quicker if you are working on one track at a time. But if you have many tracks and know that you want to erase these events from all of them, using the Track Editor with all tracks selected is faster.

Of course, if you are changing the program changes, pan, or volume in a track when the song changes from step to step, you need to leave those events in, but typically you might be doing that in only one track, while six or seven other tracks stay the same.

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