User manual ALESIS NANOPIANO

[. . . ] Nanopiano REFERENCE MANUAL by Connor Freff Cochran © 1997 Alesis Corporation ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ NanoPiano Reference Manual 1 Your Shipping Carton Should Contain The Following Items: NanoPiano AC power adapter 1 rackmounting screw Alesis warranty card Reference Manual 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 ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ 2 NanoPiano Reference Manual WELCOME! Back in 1979 my band's keyboard player and I went on a quest to find the Perfect Stage Piano. There was a shiny new Yamaha Grand in the recording studio where we were working, but for live performances we needed something (a) portable, and (b) affordable. [. . . ] The NanoPiano can only respond to one MIDI channel at a time. If it is set to receive on MIDI channel 2, for example, it will ignore MIDI messages coming in over channel 1, or channels 3-16. To make sure the NanoPiano is receiving data, play the controlling instrument while watching the MIDI indicator LED on the NanoPiano's front panel. If everything is set properly, the LED should light up. If you don't see the light, double-check your cable connections and MIDI channel settings. AS PART OF A DAISY-CHAIN (the OUT Jack, Part 1) When you want to control several MIDI devices at the same time, there are two ways to do it. The first is to buy a MIDI interface with multiple OUTs, and then run separate MIDI cables from this interface to all the different devices. This is called a "star" network and it is the preferable way to go, if you can afford it. The second way is to "daisy-chain" several units together. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ NanoPiano Reference Manual 15 A daisy-chain is where the OUT/THRU jack on the NanoPiano comes into use. After connecting the controller's OUT to the NanoPiano's IN, you'd continue the chain by running a MIDI cable from the NanoPiano's OUT/THRU to the next instrument's IN jack, then another cable from that instrument's THRU to the next instrument's IN, and so on down the line until you were finished. Now when you play your controller, each device will respond to the MIDI data and "pass it on down" the line. PLEASE NOTE: As a general rule of thumb, daisy chains should be no longer than three instruments in a row. Any more than that and you risk accumulating data transmission errors that could cause stuck notes, unexpected program changes, and inaccurate control. In really big MIDI setups, you might find yourself combining a basic star network with selected short daisy-chains, usually of instruments which you either can't (or don't want to) edit with your computer. Which brings us to. . . ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ 16 NanoPiano Reference Manual LIMITED COMPUTER EDITING (The OUT Jack, Pt. 2) The NanoPiano's 256 programs are stored on the circuitboard as EPROM data, and can't be changed. You can still use a computer, though, to edit one program at a time. If you connect your computer's MIDI OUT to the NanoPiano's MIDI IN, and the NanoPiano's OUT to the computer's IN, then you can use a commercial librarian/editor program (such as Mark of the Unicorn's Unisyn) to edit the contents of the NanoPiano's edit buffer. This would allow you, for example, to change the samples in a program, pick a new LFO waveform, adjust its attack envelope, radically alter its effects settings, and so forth. Then you could save this new program in your computer and download it into the NanoPiano's edit buffer any time you wanted. What you can't do is permanently store this changed sound in the NanoPiano itself, because the unit has no battery-backed RAM. Whatever editing you did would vanish when you turned the unit's power off. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ NanoPiano Reference Manual 17 Rackmounting Your NanoPiano will sit happily on any flat surface, and thanks to its four rubber feet it won't slide around too much. But if you are interested in a more secure and permanent installation, then rackmounting is the way to go. [. . . ] The first bank is selected by sending a Controller 0 command (Bank Select) with a value of either 0 or 1. This bank consists of the eight categories listed on the right side of the CATEGORY knob: Acoustic Piano Piano & Strings Piano Layer Piano FX E. Piano EP Layer Chromatic Organ The second bank is selected by sending a Controller 0 command (Bank Select) with a value of 2. This bank consists of the eight categories listed on the left side of the CATEGORY knob: Bass String Synth Pad Lead Split Effect Piano & Pad ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­ 94 NanoPiano Reference Manual Piano & Vox PLEASE NOTE: It's possible to get confused here, if you don't pay attention, by the interaction of the CATEGORY knob and incoming MIDI Program Change commands. [. . . ]