Operation Manual

Using Your PSR-A1000 with Other Devices
PSR-A1000
140
Now let’s examine what happens when we play back a
recording. When you playback a music CD (for example,
a solo piano recording), you’re hearing the actual sound
(vibrations in air) of the acoustic instrument. This is called
audio data, to distinguish it from MIDI data.
In the above example, the actual acoustic sounds of the
pianist’s performance are captured in the recording as
audio data, and this is recorded to CD. When you play
back that CD on your audio system, you can hear the
actual piano performance. The piano itself is not
necessary, since the recording contains the actual sounds
of the piano, and your speakers reproduce them.
The “controller” and “tone generator” in the illustration
above are equivalent to the piano in our acoustic
example. Here, the player’s performance on the keyboard
is captured as MIDI song data (see illustration below). In
order to record the audio performance on an acoustic
piano, special recording equipment is needed. However,
since the PSR-A1000 features a built-in sequencer that
lets you record performance data, this recording
equipment is unnecessary. Instead, your digital instrument
— the PSR-A1000 — allows you to both record and play
back the data.
However, we also need a sound source to produce the
audio, which eventually comes from your speakers. The
tone generator of the PSR-A1000 fills this function. The
recorded performance is reproduced by the sequencer,
playing back the song data, using a tone generator
capable of accurately producing various instrument
sounds — including that of a piano. Looked at in another
way, the relation of the sequencer and the tone generator
is similar to that of the pianist and the piano — one plays
the other. Since digital instruments handle playback data
and the actual sounds independently, we can hear our
piano performance played by another instrument, such as
guitar or violin.
Finally, we’ll take a look at the actual data that gets
recorded and that serves as the basis for playing the
sounds. For example, let’s say you play a “C” quarter note
using the grand piano sound on the PSR-A1000 keyboard.
Unlike an acoustic instrument that puts out a resonated
note, the electronic instrument puts out information from
the keyboard such as “with what voice,” “with which
key,” “about how strong,” “when was it pressed” and
“when was it released.” Then each piece of information is
changed into a number value and sent to the tone
generator. Using these numbers as a basis, the tone
generator plays the stored sampled note.
Recording and playing back the performance of an acoustic
instrument (audio data)
Recording Playback
FD
Tone generator
Sequencer
FD
Recording and playing back the performance of a digital
instrument (MIDI data)
Controller (keyboard, etc.)
Recording Playback
In the case of digital instruments, the audio signals are sent
through output jacks (such as AUX OUT) on the instrument.
Tone generator
Sequencer
Keyboard performance
(MIDI data)
Even though it is a single musical instrument, the PSR-A1000 can
be thought of as containing several electronic components: a con-
troller, a tone generator, and a sequencer.