User manual ALESIS MASTERLINK

[. . . ] REFERENCE MANUAL 2002 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Important Safety Instructions and Compliance Notices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Safety symbols used in this product. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Please follow these precautions when using this product: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Instructions de Sécurité Importantes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] Pressing UP/YES will confirm the copy; any other key will cancel the copy. Once the copy is confirmed, the MasterLink will begin to copy the Audio File, and the Play and Record LEDs will light to indicate the copy is in progress. Additionally, the display will read "Audio File Copy ­ Copying" while the copy is occurring, and "Audio File Copy ­ Complete" when the copy has completed. 20 ALESIS ML-9600 REFERENCE MANUAL Chapter 4 NOTE: When an Audio File is copied, the copy has its name changed automatically so that the last three letters of the name are "Cxx"; C indicating that the file is a Copy, and xx being a two-number designation of the Copy generation (first generation = C01, second generation = C02, etc. ) Of course, you can change the name to whatever you like after the copy has been made; the automatic name change is designed to help avoid the confusion of having two or more Audio Files with duplicate names. 4. 7E AUDIO FILE PARAMETERS VS. TRACK PARAMETERS Certain parameters are unique to Audio files, others are unique to Tracks; however, all parameters that apply to an Audio File also apply to a Track that "points" to it. Table 4. 7. 1 lists all of the user parameters that are applied to audio in the ML-9600, and differentiates those associated with Audio Files versus those associated only with Tracks. Parameter Sample Rate Word Length Track Name Start Point End Point Write Protect Status Track Number Track Start Time Track Level Track Fades Digital Signal Processing Audio File X X X X X X Track (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) X X X X X Table 4. 7. 1 Audio File vs. Track Parameters 4. 8 EDITING A TRACK 4. 8A TRACK CROP FEATURE Cropping is a term usually associated with pictures; a portion of a picture is selected to keep and the rest of the picture is deleted, or "cropped". The process is much the same for audio on the ML-9600, as you can crop the audio file you are working on to keep only the audio that is desired and delete the rest, thereby freeing up disk space that would otherwise be wasted. Cropping is usually used to remove unwanted noise from before the beginning of a song, and after the end of a song. In the analog tape world, this is sometimes known as "head and tail" editing. NOTE: Cropping is a "destructive edit", and cannot be undone once completed. Since cropping permanently affects the Audio File, all instances of a Track (and its corresponding Audio File) that has been cropped will also reflect the edit; i. e. if the Audio File is used in other playlists than the one in which it was cropped, those Tracks will also be cropped. In addition, any fadein or fade-out that has been applied to the Track will be reset to 0 seconds Cropping on the ML-9600 is accomplished by first selecting the Track you are interested in. Press PLAYLIST SELECT to choose the appropriate playlist, then press PLAYLIST EDIT to edit the playlist. SKIP and SKIP to choose the Track you wish to crop. Press ALESIS ML-9600 REFERENCE MANUAL 21 Chapter 4 4. 8B TRACK START/TRACK END Pressing TRACK START or TRACK END once will "pre-roll" the start or end of the selected Track. When you press and release TRACK START, the Track will play from its beginning and will play for five seconds, while pressing and releasing TRACK END will begin playing five seconds before the end of the Track and will stop once the end of the Track is reached. The reason this functionality is important is that you will be changing the "start pointer" and "end pointer" of your song, and will want to preview those points before you crop. 4. 8C SCRUBBING THE HEAD AND TAIL In order to move the "start pointer" and "end pointer", you must press and hold TRACK START or TRACK END and use the SCAN and SCAN buttons to "scrub" the audio back and forth. This process is much like "rocking the reels" on an analog tape machine; the difference here is that you are SCAN and SCAN buttons, move the "start pointer" or "end doing it digitally. Using the pointer" to the desired location, then release SCAN or SCAN . Once you think you have the pointers in the correct position, you may preview the points by pressing the TRACK START and TRACK END buttons (explained above). 4. 8D TRACK START/END POINTER CAPTURE If you are listening to a Track and you hear a section of audio that you wish to move Track Start pointer to (either for Cropping or Splitting the Track), simply press PAUSE to pause the audio then hold PLAYLIST EDIT and press TRACK START to instantly move the Track Start pointer to the point at which the Audio was paused. [. . . ] This can cause a track to be slightly cut off at the beginning or end of the audio. This feature gives you the ability to add an offset to the track start ID of a Red Book CD either at the beginning or at the end (or both) of a track so that variances between CD players will not affect a CD 46 ALESIS ML-9600 REFERENCE MANUAL Chapter 8 created in a MasterLink. These offsets are typically measured in "CD frames", a frame being equal to 1/75th of a second. To edit Start and End Time offsets, press the UTILITY button repeatedly until Utility Page 6 is displayed, as shown in Figure 4. 5. 1. Figure 4. 5. 1 Start and End Time Offset Page The cursor defaults under the "St Offset" field; if you press UP/YES while in this field the "En Offset" parameter will be displayed. [. . . ]