Alesis K2661 Structure of Kurzweil Digital Effects Kdfx, Gain Staging in Effects Chains

Basic Effects Mode

The Structure of Kurzweil Digital Effects (KDFX)

Use the left and right cursor buttons to select each block. When a block is selected, move the alpha wheel or press the + or - buttons to select a different FX Preset (you can also change the Preset by cursoring to the full name of the Preset after the FX: label).

Notice that the unhighlighted blocks have a box around them. This shows they are active. Since this studio has 4 blocks, each block can use only 1 PAU. If you select an effect that uses more than one PAU, one of the blocks will become inactive and the box surrounding that block will disappear. For example, if you change the first block to FX Preset 183 NarrowResFlange, the box around block 4 disappears. The top line of the display shows you this FX Preset uses 2 PAUs. As in the past, if the Allocation parameter is set to Auto, the lower number blocks have precedence, so block 4 is the one that becomes inactive. If you highlight block 4 at this point, you will see the FX Preset shown in parenthesis, again showing it is not active.

The Chan/Bank buttons move you through the four FXBUSes. Since no effects are available in this case, you will see a line with no blocks on them if you look at any bus except FXBUS 1. You can still use a bus to send another signal to the AUX without the chain, by the way, since KDFX has been designed to offer you maximum flexibility.

Gain Staging in Effects Chains

When chaining Presets together, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the levels between blocks, most often to pad the level going into the next block to prevent unwanted clipping. While most algorithms have both an In Gain and an Out Gain parameter, In Gain is not selectable as a Bus Mod. In fact, any Preset beyond the first in a chain cannot use In Gain, and will display the value inside the Preset in parentheses. We suggest, when necessary, choosing Out Gain as a Bus Mod to adjust the output level of an effect, instead of trying to pad the input of the following effect. Of course, you can always edit FX Presets directly and customize them for your chain.

Checking Out Some Chains

For examples of studios with chains, check out studios 700-719. By setting the FX Ctrl parameter (KDFXMode:CTRL page) to Master, and the OutPair parameter (MIDIMode:Channels page) to KDFX-A, you can scroll through Programs on a given MIDI channel and audition these studios as they were intended to be heard, with a variety of input source material.

The Structure of Kurzweil Digital Effects (KDFX)

The Studio

All Effects-mode functions are contained in a studio. Only one studio is active at a time.

Each studio has four stereo or eight mono inputs. The sources for these inputs are the four output pairs available in two places: the Pair parameter on the OUTPUT page in the Program Editor, and the Out parameter on the CN/PRG page in the Setup Editor. In both cases, the available values are KDFX-A, KDFX-B, KDFX-C, and KDFX-D. Instead of going directly to the K2661’s physical outputs, these program outputs go to the inputs of a studio. Only after going through the studio does the audio output appear at the physical outputs. The inputs to the studio can come from one multi-layered program, or from several programs, or from the K2661’s own sample input when the instrument is in Live mode.

The input signals pass through an input routing system, as specified by the settings on the INPUT page in the Studio Editor. Here, the signals go through individual two-band equalizers, or EQs. Then each input, mono or stereo, is routed to any two of the four FXBuses.

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