User manual ALESIS NANOBASS

[. . . ] Nanobass REFERENCE MANUAL by Connor Freff Cochran © 1997 Alesis Corporation ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 1 Unpacking and Inspection Your Shipping Carton Should Contain The Following Items: 1 NanoBass 1 AC power adapter 1 rackmounting screw 1 Alesis warranty card 1 Reference Manual 1 Program Chart If anything is missing, please contact your dealer or Alesis immediately. PLEASE NOTE: The warranty card is important. We'll be able to take better care of you now, and serve you better in the future, if you fill it out and send it in. ALESIS CONTACT INFO: Alesis Corporation 3630 Holdredge Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90016 phone: 1-800-5-ALESIS (800-525-3747) e-mail: alecorp@alesis1. usa. com website: www. alesis. com © 1997 Alesis Corporation All Trademarks property of their respective holders. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ 2 NanoBass Reference Manual Welcome! Musician jokes are legion, but the one that comes to mind right now runs as follows: Stanley and Livingstone, on trek through the jungles of darkest Africa, are awakened one night by the distant, maniacal pulsing of tribal drums. Unable to return to sleep, they leave their tent and make themselves a cup of tea at the campfire. [. . . ] A "voice, " in synth parlance, meant a single note of polyphony. A five voice instrument like the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5TM could play five simultaneous notes. A 16 voice instrument like the Yamaha DX7TM could play 16 notes. Then things got complicated, when synth programmers got deep into digital design and figured out how to create even more complicated and interesting ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ 24 NanoBass Reference Manual sonic textures by stacking voices together in combination. Suddenly the "number of voices = polyphony" equation didn't directly apply anymore. In one program on an instrument, for example, playing a single key might trigger a flute voice and a choir voice simultaneously: one note, two voices. Another program in the same instrument might stack another two voices into the mix: one note, four voices. If such an instrument had 16 voices to start with, playing just four notes would max it out. It's important for you to understand that interaction. Some of its programs trigger only one voice per note played. With those programs, you'll have 64 notes of available polyphony. Other programs trigger two voices per note, giving you 32 voices of available polyphony. Still others trigger four voices per note, allowing you 16 notes of polyphony. Why In The World Would I Want 64 Voices Of Bass? Excellent question. The answer, of course, is that making the NanoBass capable of generating 64 simultaneous voices is a severe case of technical overkill. But since Alesis had to design one basic Nano hardware package for all the products in the line, and the others did need 64 voices, the engineers figured "What the heck!Somebody out there might just feel like pushing the envelope. " Off the top of my head, I can think of one definite benefit that having 64 available voices provides, and three experiments you ought to consider trying. The definite benefit: Some of the programs use multiple voices per note, making for a fatter, richer sound. Experiment #1: Along that line, you might try sending the same Note On message repeatedly, at increments only a few MIDI ticks apart. Depending on how many Note Ons you send, you can thicken the sound (or blur its attack) in interesting ways. Yamaha DX7 owners use to do this deliberately by routing the DX7's MIDI OUT jack directly into the instrument's MIDI IN jack, which caused voices to automatically double up on playing. Experiment #2: Explore the upper registers of programs. Just because a program is useful for bass lines doesn't mean it is automatically devoid of useful ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 25 high notes. [. . . ] * Your mother will still love you at tempos below 160. * Listen to a bass player you hate, and then never do anything that they do. * Listen to a bass player you really really like, and then never do anything that they do. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­ NanoBass Reference Manual 79 * Study the bass role in other musical forms: like the bass clarinet and bassoon, or trombone and tuba, in orchestral writing; or the bass voice in vocal works (Handel's Messiah; anything by the Bobs, the Nylons, or Bobby McFerrin; any doo-wop groups or barbershop quartets); or the synth bass in dance music. [. . . ]