Song Mode

Using Song Mode

K2661 will eventually create a new program for the sample, and that program must be on its own MIDI channel. Press OK when you’ve selected a track.

9.The K2661 creates a program, and shows you the new program’s ID. It then prompts you to strike a key to specify a note for triggering the sample during the playback of the song. It can be any key; the K2661 automatically handles the transposition required to ensure that the sample plays back at the right pitch.

10.Go to the MAIN page in Song mode, and on the recording track you set in Step 3, you’ll see the new program. The program assigned to this track has the same name you gave the sample when you saved it. If you look at the events on this track (on the EVENT page in the Song Editor), you’ll see a PCHG event that selects your new program, and a note event corresponding to the key you struck to set the sample trigger.

11.Repeat Steps 5 through 9 to create additional samples and insert them into the song. You can use the same track, or a different, empty track. For this example, we’ll use the same track. In this case, when you press OK, the K2661 asks you if you want to add the sample to the program that’s already being used for the track (the program you created when you pressed OK in Step 8. Press Yes. The K2661 prompts you to strike a key, as in Step 9. If you strike a key that’s already being used by one of the samples in the program, the K2661 alerts you, and lets you to assign a different key (press No) or the same key (press Yes— although if you do this, then the song will trigger all samples that share the same trigger key, every time the trigger key gets played).

12.If you use the same track, the K2661 creates another layer in the program on that track, and assigns the sample to it. You can record up to 32 samples on this track, since a VAST program can contain up to 32 layers. If you use a different track, the K2661 creates another new program when you place the sample into the song.

When you’ve recorded all the tracks you want, you can edit the programs assigned to those tracks, using all the features available for VAST synthesis.

Note: There’s no way to synchronize sample playback exactly to MIDI. While the K2661 handles the synchronization extremely accurately, it’s possible for the sample to drift away from the song playback, at a rate of up to .5 milliseconds per minute of playback. That’s a minuscule amount, but it might matter to you. If you need to be more precise, we recommend that you keep your sample time short, and record a relatively large number of short samples, as opposed to a small number of long samples. This will virtually eliminate the risk of your samples drifting out of sync with the song playback.

Using Song Mode

Selecting a Song for Playback

Select the Song parameter with the cursor buttons, then use any data entry method to scroll through the list of songs. Press the Play soft button, and the song will begin playing. Press the Stop soft button, and the song will stop and “rewind” to the beginning. If you press Play while the song is playing, the song will stop and the play pointer will revert to the Locate parameter, and will show your current location in the song. At this point you have two options. If you press the Play button again, the song will continue from its current location. If you press the Stop soft button, the song will return to 0:0.

The K2661 automatically selects programs for playback based on the MIDI channel(s) and the programs assigned to them at the time the song was recorded. When you start playback, the

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Alesis K2661 specifications Using Song Mode, Selecting a Song for Playback, 12-19