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Table Of Contents
292 Chapter 21 EXS24 mkII
Default instrument output volume (head room)
Sustained pad sounds and polyphonic instruments in AKAI format often tend to have a
higher output than a drum groove, for example. This can result in the output levels of
some converted AKAI instruments being much higher than the rest of your EXS24 mkII
sampler instrument library—occasionally, converted programs may be so loud that
they clip. Set this parameter to the desired amount, which will limit the headroom
(output level) of the EXS24 mkII parameter settings for each converted AKAI program.
The value you should choose for a given AKAI CD is a matter of trial and error, but here
are some suggestions:
 For drum CDs, start with either no change (0 dB) or a headroom value of –3 dB.
 For piano, string, or pad CDs, you might try a headroom value of –9 dB.
 For very loud programs, such as layered analog synthesizer instruments, you might
even want to try –12 dB.
 In cases where you’re not sure of which headroom value to select, start with the
average setting of –6 dB.
Merge programs (same MIDI cha. and prog. change number) into one EXS
instrument
Many CD-ROMs created for AKAI samplers feature programs that contain single velocity
layers for an instrument. AKAI samplers require that an entire volume, or all necessary
single programs are loaded, in order to play all velocity layers. All of these single
programs are automatically assigned to the same MIDI channel, and also respond to
the same MIDI program change number.
The EXS24 mkII AKAI conversion intelligently checks for these settings, and builds a
single EXS sampler instrument out of multiple single programs. In general, when
importing samples of this type, this option should be switched on.
The same is true for drum CD-ROMs where single programs contain one instrument
from a complete drum kit (kick, snare, hi-hat, and so on as separate entities) You’ll
probably want these single AKAI programs to be merged into a single EXS sampler
instrument—as a full drum kit.
There are, however, a number of AKAI CD-ROMs where a single program of an AKAI
Volume contains the entire instrument, and where other programs in the same Volume
have the same MIDI channel and MIDI program change number preset. On this type of
CD-ROM, use of the merge programs parameter is not desirable, and the option should
be switched off.