ALESIS MMT-8 Multi track MIDI recorder
Alesis MMT-8 Instruction Manual Alesis MMT-8 Instruction Manual ......................................................................................i 1 Introduction.............................................................................................................1 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 PART Mode...............................................................................................................2 Selecting and Playing a PART .......................................................
10 LOOP ..................................................................................................................... 18 11 MIDI ECHO............................................................................................................ 19 12 NAME..................................................................................................................... 20 13 MERGE ..................................................................................................................
1 Introduction The Alesis MMT-8 Multi-Track MIDI Recorder is a user friendly, yet extremely powerful MIDI sequencer. It is able to record any information received at its MIDI INPUT jack (except poly-pressure and note off velocity), and store it into non-volatile memory for later retrieval. This information can include notes, controllers, pitch bend, after touch, program changes, and system exclusive data.
2 PART Mode 2.1 Selecting and Playing a PART When power is first turned on, the sequencer will be in SONG or PART mode (SONG or PART LED lit), depending on the mode that was selected before power was turned off. The song or part number will also be the same as when power was turned off. 2.2 PART button Press the PART button to enter PART mode if the sequencer is not currently in this mode.
part is selected, all eight tracks are turned on. At any time, the track selection can be changed with the track select buttons. Pressing PLAY will start playing the selected part from its beginning, and the PLAY LED will light. The display will read, for example: The display is now showing the current beat number and the part number that is being played. As each beat (quarter note) occurs, the display will advance the beat count.
3 Recording a PART 3.1 Selecting the RECORD TRACK To record on a part, press the RECORD button. The RECORD LED will light. The track to be recorded always defaults to the lowest numbered empty track. For an empty part, track 1 will be selected. If a part has all eight tracks used, no track will be selected, and the RECORD LED will not light. Every time a track is recorded onto, the next empty track will automatically be selected the next time RECORD is pressed.
Pressing the PLAY button is also the same as punching out, except that the part will immediately start playing from the beginning. The rewind and fast forward buttons will also punch out. Pressing STOP/CONTINUE also punches out, but stops the part from playing as well. When recording for the first time on an empty part, the track will continue recording until STOP/CONTINUE, FAST-FORWARD, REWIND, or PLAY is pressed. When one is pressed, this determines the length of the part, rounded to the nearest beat.
4 LENGTH The LENGTH button is used to set the length of a part to a specified number of beats. While holding the LENGTH button, the display will show the current length of the current part. If it is an empty part, the display will read: This indicates that no length has yet been set. If RECORD mode is entered without setting this length, the length of the part will be determined by the number of beats recorded before pressing STOP/CONTINUE, RECORD or PLAY.
5 ERASE 5.1 Erasing a PART The erase button is used to erase a single track, part or song. When in PART mode, pressing and holding the ERASE button causes the following display: The number 01 would actually be the currently selected part number. All 8 track LEDs will be lit. To erase the selected part, press RECORD. The display will change to: The display will remain this way until the RECORD button is released, after which the display will return to its previous state. 5.
thru This feature makes it possible to erase specific data, such as the after touch on one track, without affecting the other data on that track or part. If erase after touch was selected and RECORD was pressed without selecting a track, all after touch on all eight tracks of the selected part would be erased. 5.4 Erasing a SONG In SONG mode, holding the ERASE button will cause the following display: Pressing the RECORD button will erase the currently selected song number.
6 COPY The copy button is used to copy or append a track, part or song, to another track, part or song. It only functions while the COPY button is held down. If the COPY button is released (either before or after the copy is executed), the previous mode will show up on the display, and copy mode is exited. 6.
6.4 Copying a TRACK to another TRACK of the same PART To copy a single track to another track of the same part number, press and hold COPY, and select the source track. The selected track's LED will remain lit, and all the other track LEDs will turn off. Now select the destination track. This track's LED will now flash, indicating that it is the track to be copied to. Pressing the RECORD button initiates the copy, and copies the source track to the destination track.
6.7 Copying a SONG to itself In SONG mode, pressing and holding the COPY button will result in the following display: The 01 display will actually show the currently selected song number. Like in PART mode, pressing RECORD will append the current song to itself, making it twice as long. 6.
7 EDIT The EDIT button is an on/off switch with an associated LED. All operations as discussed so far assume that EDIT is off. When edit is on, individual note editing can be achieved in part mode, and the list of parts in a song can be edited in song mode. To exit EDIT mode, press EDIT again (the LED will turn off), or select PART or SONG, which automatically turns EDIT off. 7.1 Editing a PART When EDIT is pressed while in PART mode (PART LED lit), individual MIDI events can be edited.
Pitch bend amounts can be entered with the keypad, but the only way to achieve negative numbers is to use the `-' button until negative numbers are reached, after which any keypad entry will be negative. For after touch, the display includes the beat, sub-beat, MIDI channel, and after touch amount. The after touch range is from 0 to 127. The page up and page down displays scroll as follows: For controllers, the display shows the beat, sub-beat, controller number, controller amount, and MIDI channel.
7.2 Erasing an event Any event being displayed can be erased by holding ERASE and pressing RECORD. Erasing an event removes it from the track, but does not alter the timing of the track. For example, removing a quarter note at the beginning of the track does not move everything else forward a quarter note. 7.3 Adding an event An event can be added by using the COPY button.
8 Editing and Creating a SONG When in SONG mode, the EDIT button is used to enter the song edit mode. This mode is used for creating or editing a song, which is a list of parts. The display appears as follows: The step number can be moved forwards or backwards with the fast forward and rewind buttons. The part number is underlined, indicating that it can be changed with the keypad or +/- buttons. If a song is empty, the first step's part will be blank.
9 SONG Mode 9.1 SONG button Press the SONG button to enter song mode. The display will read as follows, with the last song entered being indicated in the number portion of the display: 9.2 Selecting a SONG The 00 is underlined to indicate that it will be changed if a new number is selected with the keypad or the +/- buttons. The second line of the display shows the name of the currently selected song (up to 14 characters). If the current song number is empty, the second line will read EMPTY SONG.
Pressing STOP/CONTINUE will stop playing the song, and the display will return to the select song display. Pressing STOP/CONTINUE again will begin playing the song from the beat at which it was stopped. Pressing PLAY will always start the song from the beginning of the first step. When a song reaches its end, it will stop and the PLAY LED will turn off, unless LOOP is on, which will cause the song to loop back to step one and continue playing.
10 LOOP The LOOP button is a simple on/off switch with an LED indicator. When LOOP is on, a part or song will loop back to its beginning when it has reached its end, and continue playing indefinitely. If LOOP is off, a part or song will stop when it reaches its end.
11 MIDI ECHO The MIDI ECHO button is an on/off switch with an LED indicator. When MIDI ECHO is on, whatever information is present at the MIDI INPUT jack will be sent to the MIDI OUTPUT jack. When not in RECORD or RECORD ready (RECORD LED lit), the MIDI data is transmitted out unchanged. When in RECORD or RECORD ready, and the track selected has been assigned to a specific MIDI channel (see MIDI CHANNEL below), then all MIDI information received will be transmitted out on the selected MIDI channel.
12 NAME The NAME button is used to change the name of a part or song. The name of a part or song is 14 characters long. An empty part or song will always have the name "EMPTY PART" or "EMPTY SONG", and cannot be changed. When a part or song is first used, its name is changed from "EMPTY PART" or "EMPTY SONG" to "NO PART NAME" or "NO SONG NAME". To change the name of a part or song, press and hold the NAME button. The display will read: The cursor is now under the first character of the part or song name.
13 MERGE The MERGE mode is provided so that two tracks can be merged together (overlapped) onto one track. In part mode, when MERGE is held down, the display reads: The eight track LEDs will be off. Press the first desired track (it will light solid), followed by the destination track (it will flash), followed by RECORD. The display will read: This display remains until the RECORD button is released. The first track and the second track are now combined in the second track's location.
14 MIDI CHANNEL Like the COPY and ERASE buttons, the MIDI CHANNEL button is only active while it is held down. It is used to select the MIDI channel of a track or part (it has no function in SONG mode).
15 QUANTIZE The QUANTIZE button is used to correct the timing of notes to any desired beat value. QUANTIZE only moves note events, and does not alter controllers, pitch bend, after touch, program change, and system exclusive information. While holding down the QUANTIZE button in part mode, the most recently recorded track will be lit, and the display will read: The 10 quantize choices are 1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32, 1/48, 1/64.
When entering a value with the keypad, the sign remains unchanged (except when entering 00, which is always positive). To change the sign, the +/- keys must be used to "pass through" zero to the other side. Each track can be selected and set independently. Of course, the first beat of the first part of a song cannot be advanced (it can't read minds...).
16 TRANSPOSE The TRANSPOSE function allows for a track or part to be transposed by a user specified number of semitones. When TRANSPOSE is held down in part mode, the display reads: The keypad can be used to enter a two-digit number of semitones to tranpose up from the original pitch (00-99), or the +/- buttons can be used to increment or decrement the amount. Like in ERASE mode, all eight track select LEDs are lit, indicating that the transposition will affect all tracks.
17 TEMPO The TEMPO button is used to change the tempo of a part or song. The tempo is stored with a song, and not with a part. While in part mode, the tempo remains at its previous setting until changed. While in song mode, the tempo changes to the programmed tempo each time a different song is selected.
18 MIDI FILTER The MIDI FILTER button is used to select what type of MIDI information will be recorded by the MMT-8. While holding down the MIDI FILTER button, the page up and page down buttons can be used to scroll through the possible choices, while the +/- buttons can be used to turn each function on or off. The possible displays that can be scrolled through are as follows: Pressing the `+' button changes the display to ON, pressing the `-' button changes the display to OFF.
19 CLOCK The CLOCK button is used to set the clock input and output functions of the MMT-8. Pressing and holding CLOCK button allows access to the CLOCK pages. The first page is used to select the clocking source, and will display one of the following choices: By using the keypad or +/- buttons, one of the three clocking sources can be selected. The default setting is MIDI & INTERNAL (1), with the other choices being INTERNAL ONLY (2) and TAPE SYNC (3).
3. Enter play mode, but don't start playing until tape sync clock occurs. 4. If in play mode, start playing, otherwise ignore sync. 5. Start playing from beginning with tape sync clock. 6. Start playing from beginning with MIDI clock. If tape sync and auto start are on and a part or song is playing, it will stop playing automatically if the tape sync signal is interrupted for more that 1 second. If auto start is not on, the MMT-8 will wait in play for more sync pulses.
20 CLICK The CLICK button is used to set the rhythmic value that the metronome will have. Holding the CLICK button results in the following display: The 10 click value choices are 1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32, 1/48, 1/64. The +/- buttons or the keypad can be used to scroll through the choices. The keypad buttons 0-9 can also be used to select the click value directly, with 0=1/2 and 9=1/64. Additional click pages can be accessed with the page up and page down buttons.
21 TAPE The TAPE button is used to access the tape interface features of the MMT-8. This allows the user to save and retrieve sequence data with an ordinary cassette recorder. Pressing and holding the TAPE button results in the following display: Pressing the RECORD button initiates the save to tape. Both buttons can now be released, since this operation may take over two minutes, during which the display will read: The display shows the current part or song being output.
For sending data to the MIDI OUT port, pressing RECORD from the SEND ALL PARTS & SONGS OUT MIDI page results in the display showing: Again, the RECORD and TAPE buttons can be released, and the display will continue until the operation is complete, with the currently loading or verifying part or song number being shown in the display. When loading one part or song, the display will continue to show the selected part or song number in the upper display.
22 Storing to disk using MIDI system exclusive data dump The MMT-8 send to MIDI function is provided so that the data can be stored on a computer, a Yamaha MDF-1 (MIDI Filer) or a Yamaha DX-7IIFD. The data is sent out as one block of system exclusive data, with the length being determined by the amount of memory being used. If using the MIDI Filer, no more than 85% of the memory should be full or else the data will be too large for the MIDI Filer's buffer.
23 Syncing the MMT-8 to tape It is possible to sync the MMT-8 to a tape recorder with the help of the TAPE SYNC mode. In this mode, the MMT-8 reads a master clock pulse from a track of a tape recorder, which keeps all of the sequencers/drum machines perfectly in time with the recorded information on the tape machine.
23.2 To clock the MMT-8 from tape sync 1. Connect the output of the track of the tape machine that has the sync tone to the TAPE IN jack of the MMT-8. 2. Press and hold the CLOCK button. The display will read: 3. Use the keypad or +/- buttons to select TAPE SYNC IN. The display should read: 4. Put the tape machine into PLAY. The MMT-8 will automatically start as soon as it receives the sync tone, causing any other sequencers connected to it to play.
24 START/STOP footswitch The START/STOP footswitch jack is provided for a momentary normally open footswitch that connects the jack's tip to its sleeve (ground). While in stop, the footswitch will function like the play button and start a part or song from the beginning. While in play, the footswitch acts like the stop button, and stops playing.
25 Memory 25.1 Remaining memory Holding RECORD and pressing LENGTH causes the following display: This shows the amount of memory that has not been used. Note that some operations may not be possible even though it seems that there is still a small amount of memory available. This is due to the fact that the MMT-8 requires enough memory to duplicate a part before it can be recorded on, or length changed, or offset, etc.
26 Auto Locate The MMT-8 has Auto Locate ability that allows you to go directly to a specific beat of a part without playing through the beats prior to the desired beat number. 26.1 Part Mode: A: When the MMT-8 is in PLAY -• Press and hold either the fast forward or rewind button. • Enter the number of the desired beat (3 digits) using the keypad buttons. • Release the fast forward or rewind button. • The part will continue playing from the selected beat number.
27 MIDI Implementation Chart Channel Mode Note Number Velocity After Touch Function Default Changed Default Messages Altered True Voice Note on Note off Key's Chan's Pitch Bender Control Change Program Change System Exclusive System Common System Real Time Aux Messages 0-63 64-122 124-127 True # Song Pos Song Sel Tune Clock Messages Local Control All Notes Off Active Sense Reset Mode 1: Omni On, Poly Mode 3: Omni Off, Poly Transmitted 1-16 1-16 Recognized 1-16 1-16 X X 00-127 O X X O O O O X 0-127
28 Troubleshooting Chart Symptom No sound during playback of recorded parts Won't record after touch or system exclusive data Won't save or load to tape Won't sync to tape. What's Probably Wrong Didn't record. MIDI channels not properly corresponding with sound sources. Tracks are muted MIDI filters for after touch and system exclusive are enabled Bad connections Bad tape Level of sync tone is too high or low Errors in data Bad connections. Level on tape. What To Do Check MIDI connections.
