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SP Studio Systems SP-12 manual

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Table of contents for the manual

  • Page 1

    SP-12 SAMPLING PERCUSSION SYSTEM OWNERS MANUAL By Craig Anderton Version 2.3 © 1985 E- mu Syst ems, Inc. Scotts Valley , CA . All Right s Reserv ed[...]

  • Page 2

    CONTENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 2 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www.emulator archive.com TA BLE OF CONT ENTS INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................6 WHAT IS I T? ......................................................................................................[...]

  • Page 3

    CONTENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 3 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www.emulator archive.com 1N P LAY ING B ACK S EGM ENTS ..................................................................... 21 1O SE TT ING TEM PO........................................................................................ 22 1P P RO GRAM M ING THE M ETRON[...]

  • Page 4

    CONTENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 4 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www.emulator archive.com 3G CHANGING THE SON G DRUM SOUND MIX.............................................. 47 3H SETTIN G S ONG TEM PO ............................................................................ 48 3I PROGR AMM IN G TEM PO C HAN GES W ITH IN A S ONG .[...]

  • Page 5

    CONTENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 5 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 6C INTER NAL SY NC (S YN C 1) ........................................................................ 73 6D MID I SYN C (SY NC 2 ) .................................................................................. 73 6E SMP TE SYN C (SYNC 3) [...]

  • Page 6

    INTRODUCTION © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 6 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com INTRODU CTION WHA T IS IT SP-12 GROUND RULES SETTINGS AND V A LUE S THE TR ANSI TO RY N ATUR E O F SEG M ENT M ODE BEEP MESSAGES[...]

  • Page 7

    INTRODUCTION © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 7 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com WHA T IS IT? The SP-12 is t he latest member of E-mu’s family of high - technology musical instruments. It combines the m ost popular features of our first drum machine, the Drumulator, along with the Emulator II’s sampling capabilitie[...]

  • Page 8

    INTRODUCTION © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 8 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com SP-12 GROUND RULES Here are all the background terms you will need to know in order t o make sense o f the manual. A cti vating and De-activ ating Mo dules The SP-12 is organized as seven modules: Set-up, Cassette/Disk, Sync, Sample, Maste[...]

  • Page 9

    INTRODUCTION © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 9 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com SETTINGS A ND VALUES There are two ways of altering t he SP-12’s parameters. One is to alter a slider setting this is typically done when chang ing levels, pitch, and so on. The other is to specify a numeric value with the keypad. This i[...]

  • Page 10

    INTRODUCTION © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 10 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com THE TRANSITORY NATURE OF SEGMENT MO DE Segment mode is the SP-12’s “scratchpad” where you w or k up rhythmic segments prior to combining them in songs. Therefore, tempos, mixes, and most other segment parameters set while in segm en[...]

  • Page 11

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 11 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com P A R T 1: GE TTING RE A D Y 1A SETUP 1B INSTA NT GRA TIFICA TION! 1C BACKGROUND: THE PERFORM ANCE MODULE 1D SELECTING DRUM SOUNDS 1E A DJUSTIN G TH E MIX 1F TUNING THE DRUMS/CH A NGING DECAY 1G BACKGROUND: ADDITION A L SO UNDS 1H ACCES[...]

  • Page 12

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 12 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1A SETUP IMPOR T A NT!! Before you turn on your SP- 12: There is a 115/230 Volt select or switch on the back of the SP-12, next to the ON/OFF switch. M ake sure the AC voltage indicated on t he sw itch agr ees with the AC voltage presen[...]

  • Page 13

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 13 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1B IN STANT GRA TIFICA TION! Yes, the SP-12 is an extremely versatile device. But t hat versatility means that in order to learn about all the opt ions, you’ll have to spend a few hours with t he SP-12 and this manual. If you’re pat[...]

  • Page 14

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 14 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1C BACKGROUND: THE PERFORMANCE MODULE This module is where you select drum sound s, tuning, drum mix, and so on. All of these adjus tments reset to their de f ault v alues when the SP-1 2 is turned off. How ever, eight di fferent drum m[...]

  • Page 15

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 15 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1E A DJUSTING THE MIX 1. Press the TUNE-MIX-MULTI switch (towards the upper left corner of the Performance module) until the MIX LED lig hts. The display graphically shows the level of each drum in the selected ban k . 2. Var y the slid[...]

  • Page 16

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 16 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1F TUNING THE DRUMS/ CHANGING DECAY (SET-UP 18) 1. You may tune or change the decay time of any of the dr um sounds. Cymbals may also be tuned, but due to the nature of the SP-12’s tuning change software, the sound will probably be di[...]

  • Page 17

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 17 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1H ACCESSING/E XITING MULTILEVEL (SET-UP 1 2 & 13) 1. Act ivate the SET-UP module by pressing its button. Its LED will glow, and the displ ay will ask for a functio n fro m the li st printe d to the right o f the SE T-UP button . 2.[...]

  • Page 18

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 18 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1I A CCESSING/EXITING M ULTIPITCH (SET-UP 11 & 13) 1. Act ivate the SET-UP Module by pressing its switch. Its LED will glow, and the displ ay will ask for a functio n fro m the li st printe d to the right o f the SE T-UP switch. 2. [...]

  • Page 19

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 19 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1J A CCESSING DYNA M ICS (SET-UP 14) Yes, the harder you hit the but tons the louder the sound. W e did this in such an incredibly ingenious way that engineer s across the country w ill burst out laughing when they take the SP-12 apart [...]

  • Page 20

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 20 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1L AUDITIONING (SELECTING) A MIX (SET-UP 16) You may select an already defined dr um mix (see Section 1K) which will assign the mix levels to the drum sounds in all f our banks. 1. Activate the Set- Up module by pressing its switch. Its[...]

  • Page 21

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 21 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1N PLA YING B A CK SEGMENTS You can record and play back 100 rhythm patterns called segments. These are numbered from 00 through 99. Several segments w ere loaded into the SP-12 at the factory; here is how to play them. 1. Press the SON[...]

  • Page 22

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 22 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1O SETTING TEMPO The tempo may be v a ried from 40 to 240 B eats Per Minute. Seg ment tempo settings ar e “remem bered” by the SP-12 only w hile you are in seg ment mod e. If you swi tch over to song mode ( as described later) , the[...]

  • Page 23

    GETTING REA DY © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 23 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 1P PROGRA MMING THE METRONOME W hen play ing back or recording segments, you can program the metronome for a variety of diff erent beats. The metronome produces an accented click on the first beat of each measure an d a softer click on [...]

  • Page 24

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 24 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com P A R T 2: RECORDIN G SEGMENTS 2A OVERVIEW 2B ERA SING A SEGMENT 2C “DIMENSIONING” A SEGMENT 2D UNDERST ANDING AUTO CORRECT 2E SETTING AUTO CORRECT 2F RECORDING A SEGMENT IN REALTIME 2G RECODING A SEGMENT IN STEP TIME 2H ERASING[...]

  • Page 25

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 25 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2A RECORDING A SEGM ENT - OVERVIEW There are two ways to record a segment, r eal time and step time. I n both cases, recording init ially consists of: 1. Programming the m etronome (if necessary). 2. Erasing previously recorded soun[...]

  • Page 26

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 26 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2B ERA SING A SEGMENT Erasing a segment clears out all existing drum sounds, and automatically re- dimensions the segment t o two measures of 4/ 4. Before erasing a segment, always check whether that segment already con t ains somet[...]

  • Page 27

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 27 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Part 1: Standard Dimensioning 1. Set the time sig nature by pressing TIME SIGNATURE. The display will probably show the 04/4 def ault t ime signature and a cursor will be f lashing under the first digit. There are three ways to ente[...]

  • Page 28

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 28 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Part 2: Real-Time Dimensioning Real-time dim ensioning mode is useful when you want a segment’s length t o be other than some number of whole measures and beats (i.e. if you wanted 2 measures, 1 beat, and just a tiny bit more). 1.[...]

  • Page 29

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 29 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2D UNDERST ANDING AUTO CORRECT Auto correct lets you create patterns with perfect tim ing by placing whatever drum sound you play on y our choice of the nearest eighth note, eighth note triplet, sixteenth note, sixteent h note tripl[...]

  • Page 30

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 30 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Fig. 2-3 This illustr ates an important point: Use the least amount of resolution needed. If you are recording a sim ple snare back beat, there’s no point in using an Auto Correct setting with any more resolut ion than eighth note[...]

  • Page 31

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 31 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2E SETTING AUTO CORRECT To set Auto Correct, the SP-12 must be in segment mode. The SP12 can be stopped or running (recording). 1. Press AUTO CORRECT. The display shows the curr ent Auto Correct value (de fault i s 1/Il). 2. T he Ri[...]

  • Page 32

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 32 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com b. Chang e tempo by pressing the TEMPO button. c. Chang e Auto Correct by pressing AUTO CORRECT and using the Left and Right Arrow buttons. d. Change the mix by selecting MIX with the TUNE/MIX/MULTI button and varying t he sliders. [...]

  • Page 33

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 33 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2G RECORDING A SE GM ENT IN STEP TIME Here is an alternat e way to record and edit drum sounds w hich is particular ly helpful with unusual rhythms. 1. If necessary, program the Aut o Correct resolution. Auto Correct determines the [...]

  • Page 34

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 34 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2H ERASING A SPECIFIC DRUM SOUN D W he n you are in segm ent mode and editing a segment, you may erase a drum/percussion sound w her ever it appears in the segment. 1. St op the SP-12, confirm that you are in segment mode, and press[...]

  • Page 35

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 35 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2J COPYING A ND APPENDING SEGMENTS You may copy a s egment to one or more other segments. F or example, suppose y ou set up a great hi- hat and bass drum pa ttern in segment 54. Now suppose y ou w ant segment 5 5 to cont ain a snare[...]

  • Page 36

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 36 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2K ADDING SWI NG W hile in segment mode, you may specify that a segm ent have a particular rhythm ic swing to it. The SP-12 de fault s to a “sw ing factor” of 50%, which means tha t each quarter note is weighted so that the firs[...]

  • Page 37

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 37 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2L SWA PPI NG DRUM SOUNDS After recording the segment, you might come t o the realization that a part would sound better with, say, the Electr ic Snare than the reg ular Snare. No problem! Just swap sounds... 1. Activate the SET-UP [...]

  • Page 38

    RECORDING SEGMENTS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 38 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 2N CLE ARING THE MEMORY If you reach a mem ory FULL condition (as indicat ed by the display), save what you have on cassette or disk. After doing t his, you will probably want to clear some or all data in the SP12’s memory to crea[...]

  • Page 39

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 39 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com P A R T 3: CRE ATING A S ONG 3A CREA TING A SONG: OVERVIEW 3B SELECTING A SONG 3C CHAINING SEGMENTS TOGETHER 3D ENDING A SONG 3E EDITING SONGS (STEPPIN G, INSERTIN G, DELETING) 3F USING REPEA TS 3G CHANGING THE SONG DRUM SOUND MIX 3H S[...]

  • Page 40

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 40 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3A CREATING A SONG: OVERVIEW There are two ways to create songs using segm ent s. One way is to simply run the SP-12 and key in each segment just before you want it to appear. However, a far easier way is to go into song mode ( by pres[...]

  • Page 41

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 41 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Note: W hen going to s ong mode from segment mode, segment level and tempo settings are not tr ans ferred over t o the song. Instead, each song has its own programmed tempo (see Section 3H) and can acquir e (at any time during the song[...]

  • Page 42

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 42 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3C CH A INING SEGM ENTS TOGETHER As mentioned in the overview, it’s best to write out the order of segments you w ant to program into a song. Let’s try a simple example: Segment # Sect ion of Song Step 1: 61 Introduction Step 2: 62[...]

  • Page 43

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 43 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3D ENDI NG A SONG After programming your song, you have several ways to end it. This assumes that you’ve already entered all the segments, and that you are one step past the last ste p in which you entered a piece of song data (for e[...]

  • Page 44

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 44 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3E EDITING SONGS (STEPPING, INSERTING, DELETING) 1. Stepping: To change a song step, locate the step w ith the Rig ht Arrow and Left Arrow buttons. Pr essing Right Arrow increases the st ep number, Le ft Arrow decreases the step number[...]

  • Page 45

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 45 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3F USING REPEA TS You may enclose a segment, or group of segments, inside repeat instructions t o repeat the segment(s) a selected number of times. This not only simplifies song programming, but also saves memor y compared to entering [...]

  • Page 46

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 46 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com W e can sim plify this by using the repeat function: Song Step # Segment to be Played or Instruction Step 1: Begin Repeat Step 2: 61 Step 3: End repeat 4 ( ┼ 4) Step 4: 62 Step 5: 63 Step 6: 67 Step 7: 68 Step 8: Begin Repeat Step 9:[...]

  • Page 47

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 47 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 8. W hen you reach step 13, press REPEAT to end the repeat, and then press 05 to indicate that you want segments 65, 66, 67, and 68 repeated five times. Finally, press ENTER to enter this step into the SP-12’s memory. 9. At step 14, [...]

  • Page 48

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 48 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3H SETTING SONG TEMPO Each song can have its own progr ammed tempo f rom 40 to 240 Bea ts Per Mi nute. 1. To change tempo (the SP-12 may be stopped or running and in or out of’ EDIT mode), pr ess TEMPO. (Note: If’ you change tem po[...]

  • Page 49

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 49 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3I PROGRA MM ING TEMPO CHA NGES WITHIN A SONG The tempo change feature is very handy if you want to program the temp o to speed up or slow down at specific places in the song. Y ou may introduce tempo changes at any point in a song; as[...]

  • Page 50

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 50 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3J JUM PING TO A SUB-SONG At any point in a song, you may jump to anot her song. This song will play thr ough in its entiret y, at which point you will ret urn to the first song at the same point at which you left it. To ju mp to a Su [...]

  • Page 51

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 51 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3. W hen the display shows the desired trigger value, pr ess ENTER. W hen playing back t he son g, the t rigger pulses will begin (or change, or end, depending on what you pr ogrammed) simultaneously with t he next segment pr og ram me[...]

  • Page 52

    CREATING A SONG © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 52 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 3M EFFICIENT USE OF MEMORY The more eff iciently you use memory, the more sp ace you’ll ha ve available for storing al l those wonderful drum p atterns. Consider a song where you hav e an 8 meas ure chor us, consisti ng of 7 id entic[...]

  • Page 53

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 53 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com P A R T 4: S A MPL ING YOUR OWN SOUNDS 4A SAMPLIN G: A N OVERVIEW 4B SETTING LEVELS PR IOR TO SAMPLING 4C A S SIGNING THE S AMPLE TO A PARTICULAR USER NUMBER A ND OUTP UT CHANNEL 4D SETTING THE SA MPLING THRESHOLD 4E SETTING T[...]

  • Page 54

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 54 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4A SA M PLING: A N OVERVIEW The SP-12’s sam pling capabilities are pret ty staggering. Bank 4 has eight sounds (User 1 through User 8) dedicated to sampled sounds. These samples can come from acoustic drums, electronic drums[...]

  • Page 55

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 55 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4B SETTING LEVELS PRIOR TO SA M PLING There are two Sample module functions involved in level setting: VU Mode (SAMPLE 1) and Level (SAMPLE 3) . The module’s GAIN contr ol trims the record level, just like the record level c[...]

  • Page 56

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 56 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4C ASSIGNING THE SA M PLE The SP-12 def ault assignment places the sampled sound on the lowest available empty user number, with the sound appearing on output channel 7 o r 8. Both of these can be chan ged as follows: 1. W ith[...]

  • Page 57

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 57 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4E SETTING THE SAMPLE LENGTH Once sampling starts, the SP-12 will normally sample unt il it runs out of memory or is stopped (Section 4F). However, this function let’s you progr am a fixed sample time up to 2.5 seconds; afte[...]

  • Page 58

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 58 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4. If you are not satisfied with the sample, try again by keying in 6 to re-sample the sound. 4G DELETING A USE R SOUND Recording over a User Sound will erase the previous User Sound contents. Howev er , you might also want to[...]

  • Page 59

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 59 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 4H M ODIFYING A S AMPLE VIA TRUNCATION AND LOOP Truncation shortens a Voice’s length by trimming off parts of the beginning and/or end. This allows you to cut off unneeded portions of a Voice to save memory, change instrumen[...]

  • Page 60

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 60 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 6. Looping can be set at the same time as t runcation, or you can loop a previously truncated sample. Looping marks off a section (called a loop) of a User Sound. T he display indicates t he Loop Length (L=), whose end point i[...]

  • Page 61

    SAMPLING YOUR OWN SOUNDS © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 61 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Fig. 4-1 Note: Act ivating SET-UP and selecting SPECIAL FUNCT ION 19 set s a default decay for all sounds (as set by Slider 1). This is useful if you loop a sound and want it to decay, but also want to produce di fferent pit c[...]

  • Page 62

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 62 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com PA R T 5 : SA VI NG YO UR DA TA 5A BACKGROUND: SAVING DATA 5B GENERAL CARE AND HANDLING OF DISKS AND CASSETTES 5C HOOKING UP THE 15K1 DISK DRIVE OR C ASSETTE 5D FORMATTING DISKS 5E DISK AND CA SSETT E OPERA TIONS[...]

  • Page 63

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 63 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 5A B ACKGROUND: SAVING DATA Since you spend a lot of time wor king on segments, songs, and sampled sounds, you should spend the small amount of time necessary to save t hem. Don’t just save w hen you’ve filled up the m emory; sa[...]

  • Page 64

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 64 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com The SP-12 requires double-sided, double-density, 48 tracks per inch (TPI) 5.25” floppy disks. Cassettes should be high-quality data cassettes, not standard audio cassettes. Disk drives are somewhat fragile. Bef ore transporting th[...]

  • Page 65

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 65 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com To write-protect a cassette, knock out the litt le tabs on the back of the case as shown in Fig. 5- 3. These can be covered over with ma sking tape lat er if you want t o “un- write-protect” them. Fig. 5-3[...]

  • Page 66

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 66 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 5C HOOKING UP THE 1541 DISK DRIVE OR CASSETTE 1. Power off both the SP-12 and t he 1541. 2. Patch the disk cable from the plug above the 1541’s fuse post to the SP-12’s rear panel disk jack (see Fig. 5-4). Fig. 5-4 3. T urn on t[...]

  • Page 67

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 67 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Gently push the disk all the way in until it can go no f urther, then push the latch downward until, at the end of its travel, it pops f orward somewhat. To hook up the cassette, patch the CASS/SYNC/SMPTE OUT jack to the cassette’[...]

  • Page 68

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 68 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 5E DISK AND CA SSETTE OPERA TIONS Cassettes and Disks have nine operations in common, as printed in the Cassette/Disk module. Formatt ing applies only to disks. Here is a description of each operation, along with which buttons shoul[...]

  • Page 69

    SAVING YOUR DA T A © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 69 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Verify Sequences Disk: Key in 2 then 7 Cassett e: Key 1 then 7 After saving sequences, run this verify function to make sure that the data was saved correctly. The display will let you know if all is well. Verify Sounds Disk: Ke y i[...]

  • Page 70

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 70 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com P A R T 6: MIDI, SYNC, & SMPTE 6A MIDI CHANNEL AND MODE SELE CT (SET-UP 22) 6B BACKGROUND: SYNCHRONIZ ATION 6C INTERNAL SYNC (SYNC 1 ) 6D MIDI SYNC (SYNC 2) 6E SMPTE SYNC (SY NC 3) 6F CLICK S YNC (SYNC 4 ) 6G WRITING SMPTE T[...]

  • Page 71

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 71 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com OVERVIEW The SP-12 includes several MIDI f unctions and synchronization options. W e will describe MIDI options first, t hen move into synchronization. The non-sync oriented MIDI functions include select MIDI channel and play dr[...]

  • Page 72

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 72 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com The following table shows which Em ulator II keyboard notes trigg er which SP- 12 drum sounds (o f course, other MIDI keyboards may also be used). Emulator I I SP-12 C1 Bass 1 C#1 Cowbell D1 Bass 2 D#1 Rim E1 Snare 1 F1 Snare 2 [...]

  • Page 73

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 73 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 6B B ACKGROUND: SYNCHRONI ZATION The SP-12 can synchronize to one of several different tempo references: Internal clock, external click track, MIDI timing messages, or SMPTE tim e code. It can also generate (write) a click track[...]

  • Page 74

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 74 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Note: If for some reason the MIDI device does not send start/stop commands but does provide timing information, you can set the SP-12 to “ready” mode prior to receiving the MDI signal. Select the desir ed SP-12 segment or se[...]

  • Page 75

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 75 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Note: The MIDI output “track s” the SMPTE output, so if you are driving, say, a MIDI sequencer from the SP-12 MIDI OUT, the sequence w ill “f ast-forward” along with the SP-12. However, you will not hear the SP-12, as it[...]

  • Page 76

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 76 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 6G WRITIN G SMPTE T IM E CODE ON TA PE The SP-12 is a SMPTE tim e code generator that can write SMPTE time code on tape (typically one track of a multitrack recorder), to which the SP-12 can later synchronize. Recording SMPTE on[...]

  • Page 77

    MIDI, SYNC & SMPTE © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 77 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 6H WRI TING A 24 PPQN CLICK SYNC TRA CK ON TAPE The SP-12 can write a Click track to tape (typically one track of a multitrack recorder), to which the SP-12 can later sy nchr onize. 1. Act ivate the SYNC module and key in 1 for [...]

  • Page 78

    MIXING A ND PROCESSING © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 78 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com PA RT 7: M IXING A ND PROCESSI NG 7A MIXING A ND PROCESSING: OVERVIEW 7B PSEUDO AUTOMATED MIXDOWN 7C CREATING AMBIENCE 7D USING SPECIA L EFFECTS IN THE STUDIO[...]

  • Page 79

    MIXING A ND PROCESSING © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 79 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 7A MIXING A ND PROCESSING: OVERVIEW Sure, the SP- 12 sounds astonishingly realistic.. .but it doesn’t necessarily sound like the drum sounds you hear on records. W hy? Because when recording engineers record acoustic drums, th[...]

  • Page 80

    MIXING A ND PROCESSING © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 80 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com So far, that’s one channel of ambience. You could add a se cond channel, but another approach is to split the mono ambient signal into two feeds. One of’ these would be panned left, whi le the other w ould be delayed by abou[...]

  • Page 81

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 81 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDIX A PPENDIX A: THE ART OF SA MPLING A PPE NDIX B: UNDERST ANDING RHYTHMIC NOTATION A PPE NDIX C: UNDERST ANDING TIME SIGNA TURES A PPE NDIX D: UNDERST ANDING MIDI/SMPTE A PPE NDIX E: TIPS ON CREATING REALISTIC DRUM P ARTS A P PENDIX[...]

  • Page 82

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 82 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com AP P E N D I X A: TH E AR T OF S AM P L I N G Recording good samples is not al ways easy; creating a r eally super set of User sounds requires patience, pract ice, and skill. Sure, you can get musically usef ul results within a few days aft[...]

  • Page 83

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 83 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com Removi ng the gr ound conn ection defeats t he safety advantag e of using a three-w ire plug. Make sure the SP- 12 chassis - some ot her path to ground (usually via the audio input and outp ut cables) . Havi ng two paths to ground can cause[...]

  • Page 84

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 84 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A udio “exci ters”: To brighten up a sampled si gnal, use a device such a s an Aphex Aural Exciter or EXR Proj ector. Both of these devices add a high- end “sheen” without adding the stridency encountered wi th excessive high-fr equ[...]

  • Page 85

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 85 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com SAMPLING FR OM TAPES Maintaining sam ple quality via VCR r ecording: One excellent way to sam ple involves using a VCR and digital audio adapter (sucb as the Sony PCM -F1) for recording different sounds. Com pared to using conventional reel[...]

  • Page 86

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 86 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com PART 2: MANIPULATING THE S AMPLE Proper use of tr uncation and looping can conserve memory and create novel eff ects; let’s show how it’s done with an example. Suppose you w ant to sample a long, sustaining sound such as a gong. Althoug[...]

  • Page 87

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 87 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com[...]

  • Page 88

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 88 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDI X B: UNDERST ANDING RHYTHMIC NOTATION This extremely brief overview is intended solely as a refresher and memory jogger; for a detailed description of rhythm notation, see any good book on music theory. Measures: A piece of music i[...]

  • Page 89

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 89 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDI X C: UNDERST ANDING TIME SIGNATURES A time signat ure (also called metric sig nature) describes the m eter of a piece of music. It consist s of two numbers arranged lik e a fraction, such as 3/4, 4/4, et c. The top number (numerato[...]

  • Page 90

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 90 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDI X D: UNDERST ANDING MIDI/SMP TE MIDI is causing a certain amount o f confusion among musicians. Fear not -- it’s not all that diff icult to understand, and the SP-12 makes it particularly easy to deal w it h MID I. For those of y[...]

  • Page 91

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 91 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com particular momen t, thus letting you determi ne the fl ow of informati on from on e MIDI dev ice to another. This is w hy having a sp ecifica tion whi ch manufac turers can f ollow is so important; it i nsures that a v ariety of otherw ise [...]

  • Page 92

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 92 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com The words of greatest interest to the SP- 12 relate to pitch and tempo. The SP-12 sounds can respond to different notes being sent over M IDI ( see Section 6A); therefore, drum sounds can be played by hitt ing individual notes on a MIDI key[...]

  • Page 93

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 93 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDI X E: TIPS ON CRE A TING REALISTIC DRUM P ARTS If you’re a dr ummer, you probably don’t need to read this. But for those of you who are primarily melodic players and ar e using the SP-12 to augment your recordings or live act, r[...]

  • Page 94

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 94 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDIX F: TIPS ON USING CA SSETTE INTERFACES Here is a collection of backgr ound information and tips concerning cassette interfaces. Not e that it might t ake you some time to set levels properly and get everything working r ight. Howev[...]

  • Page 95

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 95 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com  I dentify data vocally: Since most small cassette machines have built-in mikes, and other decks have mic input j acks, it’s easy to r ecord a brief bit of narration describing the nature of the data saved on the c asset te. However, n[...]

  • Page 96

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 96 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDIX G: HOW THE SP-12 WORKS Here’s a brief idea of how the SP-12 does its magic. The drum sounds were recorded at a studio using real drum s and a human drummer . These sounds were then converted into digit al form (“digitized”),[...]

  • Page 97

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 97 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com A PPENDIX H: SPECIAL FUNCTIONS (SET-UP #23) NOTE: In t he following feature descriptions the abbreviation “RAM ” (Random Access Memory) means all sounds that are not permanently burned into the factory chips. These can be User-sampled s[...]

  • Page 98

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 98 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 17. COPY SOUND Th is function allow s you to move any sound in the SP-12 to any location (Banks 1 - 4.). You should think of the front panel instrument names (Bass 1, Rim, User 6, etc.) as locations as well as sounds. For example, if you wa[...]

  • Page 99

    A PPEND IX © E-mu Systems, Inc. 1985 Page 99 Enhanced by The Emulator Archive 2002 www. emulator archive.com 18. SWAP SOUNDS Please refer to section 2L of the SP-12 owners manual. 19. DEF AULT DECAY This function applies only to RAM sounds in the TUNE mode (Set-up function # 18 – Decay/Tune Select) that need to be decayed as well. A decay rang e[...]