REFERENCE MANUAL 2002
Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Important Safety Instructions and Compliance Notices.......................................... v Safety symbols used in this product........................................................................................................ v Please follow these precautions when using this product: .................................................................. v Instructions de Sécurité Importantes..........................................................................
Table Of Contents 4.7e Audio File Parameters vs. Track Parameters................................................................. 21 4.8 Editing a Track................................................................................................................................... 21 4.8a Track Crop Feature ........................................................................................................... 21 4.8b Track Start/Track End...............................................................
Table of Contents Word Lengths Supported.........................................................................................................................49 Analog I/O.................................................................................................................................................49 Digital I/O..................................................................................................................................................49 Unit Dimensions...............
Saftey Notices IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS AND COMPLIANCE NOTICES SAFETY SYMBOLS USED IN THIS PRODUCT This symbol alerts the user that there are important operating and maintenance instructions in the literature accompanying this unit. This symbol warns the user of uninsulated voltage within the unit that can cause dangerous electric shocks. PLEASE FOLLOW THESE PRECAUTIONS WHEN USING THIS PRODUCT: 1. Read these instructions. 2. Keep these instructions. 3. Heed all warnings. 4.
Saftey Notice 9. Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or grounding-type plug. A polarized plug has two blades with one wider than the other. A groundingtype plug has two blades and a third grounding prong. The wide blade or the third prong are provided for your safety. When the provided plug does not fit into your outlet, consult an electrician for replacement of the obsolete outlet. 10.
Saftey Notices Instructions de Sécurité Importantes Symboles utilisés dans ce produit Ce symbole alèrte l’utilisateur qu’il existe des instructions de fonctionnement et de maintenance dans la documentation jointe avec ce produit. Ce symbole avertit l’utilisateur de la présence d’une tension non isolée à l’intérieur de l’appareil pouvant engendrer des chocs électriques. Veuillez suivre ces précautions lors de l’utilisation de l’appareil: 1. Lisez ces instructions. 2. Gardez ces instructions. 3.
Saftey Notice Beim Benutzen dieses Produktes beachten Sie bitte die folgenden Sicherheitshinweise: 1. Lesen Sie die Hinweise. 2. Halten Sie sich an die Anleitung. 3. Beachten Sie alle Warnungen. 4. Beachten Sie alle Hinweise. 5. Bringen Sie das Gerät nie mit Wasser in Berührung. 6. Verwenden Sie zur Reinigung nur ein weiches Tuch. Sprühen Sie keine flüssiger Reiniger auf die Oberfläche, dies könnte zur Beschädigung der Vorderseite führen und auch weitere Schäden verursachen. 7.
Saftey Notices INFORMATION TO THE USER FOR CLASS A DIGITAL DEVICE (FCC PART 15, CLASS A) This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment.
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION AND SETUP The Alesis MasterLink ML-9600 is a revolutionary stereo high resolution integrated master hard disk recorder and compact disc recorder with built-in mastering digital signal processing. Never before have the technologies of high-resolution audio, hard disk recording, digital signal processing, and CD recording been combined into a single, stand-alone, integrated audio device that is so remarkably easy to use. 1.
Chapter 1 1.3 AC POWER HOOKUP 1 Make sure the MasterLink is turned off. It’s good practice not to turn on the MasterLink until all other cables are hooked up. 2 Before plugging in to AC power, note that the MasterLink’s IEC-spec AC cord (do not substitute any other AC cord) must feed a 3-pin outlet, where the third, round pin connects to ground. The ground connection is an important safety feature designed to keep the chassis of electronic devices at ground potential.
Chapter 1 1.5 ABOUT AUDIO CABLES The connections between the MasterLink and your studio are your music’s lifeline. Use only high quality, low-capacitance, shielded cables with a stranded (not solid) internal conductor and lowresistance shield. Although quality cables cost more, they make a difference. When routing cables: • Do not bundle audio cables with AC power cords. • Avoid running audio cables near sources of electromagnetic interference such as transformers, monitors, computers, etc.
Chapter 2 ONCE AROUND THE ML9600 2.1 THE FRONT PANEL Front Panel Feature 1. CD Drive Open/Close 2. CD Drive Tray 3. Vacuum Fluorescent Display 4. HD/CD Mode Button 5. Infrared Remote Receiver 6. Headphone Volume Control 7. Headphone ¼" Output Jack 8. Power Switch 9. CD Format Button Chapter 7.1 7.1 2.3 3.1 6.1 Front Panel Feature 10. HD Recording Mode Buttons 11. Create CD Button 12. Cursor Buttons 13. Track DSP Button 14. Playlist Buttons 15. Utility Button 16. Time Display Button 17.
Chapter 2 2.3 THE FRONT PANEL DISPLAY Shown below is a drawing of the front panel vacuum fluorescent display, with descriptions of each portion of the display. Figure 2.3.1 Vacuum Fluorescent Display 6 1. Track Number Indicator – This indicates the number of the currently selected track. 2. 2X16 Alphanumeric Display – This displays track, playlist, and CD information. 3.
Chapter 3 HD MODE OPERATION 3.1 HD OR CD MODE? Because the ML-9600 has both an internal hard disk and an internal CD-R drive, the ML-9600 has two fundamental modes of operation: HD mode and CD mode. The HD/CD button in the upper right-hand corner of the unit toggles between those modes, and changes the functions of the transport control buttons (PLAY, REC, STOP, , SCAN, and SCAN ).
Chapter 3 3.2B SAMPLE RATE Four sample rates are available: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, and 96kHz. Pressing the SAMPLE RATE button on the front panel will toggle between these four rates. Sample rates are not user adjustable when in digital input mode; the sample rate will automatically be set to the rate of the incoming digital data. 3.2C WORD LENGTH Three word lengths are available: 16-bit, 20-bit, and 24-bit. Pressing the WORD LENGTH button on the front panel will toggle between these three word lengths.
Chapter 4 WORKING WITH PLAYLISTS When you are in "HD" mode, you will be working with Playlists. Playlists are the basic structures in which Tracks are organized before creating CDs, and are therefore one of the most crucial parts of the operation of the ML-9600 to understand. Playlists are simple in concept – they are lists of the songs that you want to have on your CD.
Chapter 4 4.3 AUDITIONING A PLAYLIST After a playlist has been selected, you may listen to part or all of that playlist by using the transport buttons on the right side of the front panel (PLAY/PAUSE, SKIP, SKIP , SCAN, and ). Pressing PLAY/PAUSE after a playlist is selected will play from the beginning of the SCAN playlist, light the Track Number indicator, and begin displaying Track Time in the Track Time Display (the format of which is determined by the TIME DISPLAY button).
Chapter 4 4.4B RECORDING A TRACK Before you can begin recording, you need to create a new Track by pressing the New Track button. This will create an entry in the playlist that you can then record audio into. Figures 4.4.2 and 4.4.3 show what will be displayed after the New Track button is pressed. Figure 4.4.2 New Track "Popup" This will be displayed briefly while a new Track is being prepared. Figure 4.4.3 shows what will be displayed after the "popup" goes away. Figure 4.4.
Chapter 4 Moving the cursor under the "U" character and pressing UP/YES and DOWN/NO will change the "write protect" status of the Track; U stands for Unprotected, and P stands for Protected. When a Track is write protected it may neither be recorded over nor cropped. Also shown are the Track’s sample rate and word length. If you are creating a new Track and have not recorded any audio yet, these icons will not be lit.
Chapter 4 Figure 4.5.1 Track Start Time Display The ability to set Track start times in a playlist is very important because it allows you to change the "gap" between songs on the CD. For instance, if Track 1 had a Start Time at 0:00:00.00 and its End Time at 0:03:30.00, Track 2 could have a Start Time as early as 0:03:30.00 (no gap between songs) or any time after that (0:03:32.00 would create a 2-second gap between the songs).
Chapter 4 4.5D TRACK FADES The ML-9600 gives the user the ability to easily create fade-ins and fade-outs on Tracks. Both functions are accessed by moving the cursor to the Playlist Edit Page Field and pressing the UP/YES or DOWN/NO buttons until the characters "FdIn" or "Fout" are displayed. Figures 4.5.4 and 4.5.5 illustrate how the display will look when indicating Track fades. Figure 4.5.4 Track Fade-In Display. Figure 4.5.5 Track Fade-Out Display.
Chapter 4 Figure 4.5.6 Fade Shapes Performing a fade-in or fade-out on a Track is as simple as deciding on a length and shape for the fade. For example, If Track 1 ends at 0:02:00.00 and you select a 10 second LINear fade-out, Track 1 will begin to fade out at 0:01:50.00 and continue to fade linearly until 0:02:00.00, at which point it will be completely faded out. 4.5E TRACK LEVEL ADJUSTMENT In Playlist Edit mode, it is possible to change the gain of a Track once it has been recorded to the hard disk.
Chapter 4 4.6 ADDITIONAL PLAYLIST EDIT FUNCTIONS 4.6A EDITING TRACK NAMES Editing a Track’s name is similar to editing a Playlist’s name; move the cursor to the Track Name field and use the UP/YES and DOWN/NO keys to scroll through the alphanumeric character set for each of the Track name’s eight characters. The character set includes A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and . TIP: Pressing UP/YES and DOWN/NO simultaneously while in the Track name field will cause the currently edited character to become a .
Chapter 4 Figure 4.6.2 Delete Track Confirmation where "Song 01" is the name of the Track to be deleted. Pressing UP/YES will remove that Track from the playlist, moving the next Track in the playlist in its place. Pressing DOWN/NO will cancel the operation and return the unit to its previous state. NOTE: Deleting a Track from a playlist does not delete the audio samples from the hard disk. The audio remains on the disk in an "Audio File"; see section 4.7 for more details. 4.
Chapter 4 Audio Files are listed at the "bottom" of every playlist, and are visually distinguished from Tracks by the lack of a Track number, and by the words "audio file" in the second line of the alphanumeric display. Audio Files do not have playlist Start or End times associated with them. Audio Files can only be accessed from within Playlist Edit mode. Audio Files are viewed by pressing the SKIP button until the last Track in a playlist is reached.
Chapter 4 Choose the destination Track and press TRACK MOVE causing the display to prompt "Are You Sure?". Pressing UP/YES will complete the move, any other key will cancel the move. 4.7C DELETING AUDIO FILES To delete an Audio File from the hard drive, you must currently have that Audio File selected in the display (press SKIP until you are past the last Track in the playlist). Pressing the DELETE TRACK button will force the unit to check all 16 playlists for instances of the current Audio File.
Chapter 4 Figure 4.7.6 Delete Audio File Confirmation #2 Pressing UP/YES will delete the file from the hard disk. Pressing DOWN/NO will cancel the operation and return the unit to its previous state. 4.7D AUDIO FILE COPY In certain situations, it may be desirable to duplicate an Audio File on the hard drive, such as in situations where a destructive edit (like cropping) is going to be performed on an Audio File and you want to preserve the original file. First, select the Audio File you wish to copy.
Chapter 4 NOTE: When an Audio File is copied, the copy has its name changed automatically so that the last three letters of the name are "Cxx"; C indicating that the file is a Copy, and xx being a two-number designation of the Copy generation (first generation = C01, second generation = C02, etc.) Of course, you can change the name to whatever you like after the copy has been made; the automatic name change is designed to help avoid the confusion of having two or more Audio Files with duplicate names. 4.
Chapter 4 4.8B TRACK START/TRACK END Pressing TRACK START or TRACK END once will "pre-roll" the start or end of the selected Track. When you press and release TRACK START, the Track will play from its beginning and will play for five seconds, while pressing and releasing TRACK END will begin playing five seconds before the end of the Track and will stop once the end of the Track is reached.
Chapter 4 Figure 4.8.2 Track Crop Complete Screen and will then return to the Track edit display. 4.9 TRACK SPLIT A Track Split is simply the act of taking one Track (and its associated Audio File) and splitting it into two Tracks (and two Audio Files). Track Splits can be useful in several ways: • • • • Inserting Track Markers into a long, continuous piece of audio, without interrupting the audio flow. Breaking a long recording into discrete songs. Isolating regions of a song for re-sequencing.
Chapter 4 4.9A AN ALTERNATE METHOD... An alternative to using the Track Start pointer to determine the Split point is to play the track up to the point at which you wish the split to occur, then press PAUSE to pause the Track. If you then hold the PLAYLIST EDIT button and press NEW TRACK, the Track will be split, with the split point set to equal the pause point (the last audio that you heard).
Chapter 5 DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING 5.1 OVERVIEW The ML-9600 has a very powerful built-in Digital Signal Processor that can, if desired, make changes to your music after it has been recorded. These changes are usually made to balance the frequency content (Equalization) of a song, or to "smooth out" very dynamic music (Compression and Peak Limiting), or to maximize the signal so that it uses up all of the dynamic range available (Normalizing).
Chapter 5 5.2 SIGNAL FLOW It is important to understand how the audio signal path is routed in order to effectively use the Digital Signal Processing power of the ML-9600. DSP is applied only to audio being played back from the hard disk, and goes through six different DSP "blocks" before reaching either the audio outputs (in the case of audio playback) or the CD drive (in the case of CD creation). Figure 5.2.1 shows these DSP blocks and their order. Figure 5.2.
Chapter 5 5.3 APPLYING DSP TO A TRACK Signal processing functions are applied by first selecting a Track in a playlist that you wish to modify. Using the PLAYLIST SELECT, PLAYLIST EDIT, and SKIP buttons, select the Track. Pressing the TRACK DSP button will then bring up the last DSP screen that was selected. Figure 5.3.1 shows a sample Track DSP page (in this case, the Compressor block's Threshold page). Figure 5.3.1 Track DSP Page The first line of the display indicates the currently selected DSP block.
Chapter 5 Make-up Gain Make-up gain is applied after the compressor to "make up" the level lost during the compression process. The ML-9600 has a make-up gain range of 0.0dB to +65.0dB, adjustable in 0.5dB increments. Attack The attack time of the compressor determines how long the compressor takes to begin to take effect after audio rises above the threshold.
Chapter 5 Detect The detect parameter determines how the audio level is compared to the threshold level. There are two choices, Peak and RMS. Peak detection looks at the peak level of the audio and uses that value to compare to the threshold parameter, while RMS looks at the average level of the audio. Meter The meter parameter selects how the meters will be displayed while in the compressor pages. Normal shows the stereo level of the audio at the analog and digital audio outputs.
Chapter 5 5.4C DSP3:LOOK-AHEAD PEAK LIMITER The Look-Ahead Peak Limiter is designed to give you the ability to limit the highest peaks in a Track and simultaneously bring up the gain of the Track in order to maximize its level before creating a CD. This allows you to "squeeze" that extra couple of decibels out of the dynamic range, without squashing your audio by hard compression or traditional limiting.
Chapter 5 5.4D DSP4:NORMALIZER A Normalizer's function is to scan a Track for the highest peak value, determine the ratio between that peak value and full-scale, and multiply the Track by that ratio so that the highest peak value of the Track is equal to full-scale. The major improvement in this normalizer over others is that the gain multiplication is performed in real time, instead of rendering the normalized file back to disk.
Chapter 5 Figure 5.4.3 Paste DSP Settings Page Pressing the DOWN/NO button in this page will have no effect. Pressing the UP/YES button will paste all DSP parameters from the temporary RAM buffer into the destination track. This process leaves the RAM buffer intact, so multiple pastes are possible without having to re-copy each time. 5.
Chapter 5 Figure 5.4.5 Render DSP Page Pressing the DOWN/NO button in this page will have no effect. Pressing the UP/YES button will prompt you with an "Are you sure? Y/N" message. Pressing DOWN/NO will cancel the DSP Render operation. Pressing UP/YES in this screen will render all DSP parameters (Track Gain, Compression parameters, EQ parameters, Limiter parameters, Normalizer parameters, and Track Fade parameters) to the destination track.
Chapter 6 CREATING A CD 6.1 CD RECORDING SETTINGS Once a playlist has been assembled, creating a Compact Disc is a very simple operation. The first step in the process is deciding on which format of disc to create. There are two types of Compact Discs that the ML-9600 can create: Red Book CDs and CD24 CDs. Red Book CDs (or CD-DA discs, as they are sometimes referred to) are audio Compact Discs that conform to the Sony/Philips Red Book specification.
Chapter 8 Third, press the CREATE CD button. Several things happen at this time; the MasterLink checks the playlist to insure that all Tracks are greater than 5 seconds in length (a Red Book limitation), and that there are no "empty" Tracks (achieved by creating a new Track and not recording audio into that Track). Depending on the type of CD you have chosen to create, the display will then prompt with a "confirmation" page, shown in Figure 6.2.1 for a Red Book creation. Figure 6.2.
Chapter 6 NOTE: If a playlist is composed entirely of 44.1Hz/16-bit audio, with no DSP (including Track fades) applied other than Track gain, the CD creation process will bypass the rendering stage. Once the CD creation process is complete, the rendered image remains on the hard disk, and can be used for subsequent CD burns without re-rendering.
Chapter 8 Here's where it can become confusing: 96kHz/24-bit stereo audio has a play speed data rate of 576,000 bytes per second, so, using the same "2X" data rate to the CD, you have audio being recorded to the CD at about 0.53 times play speed (a five-minute song will be recorded to the CD in about 9 minutes, 26 seconds). Observing the track time counter will again confirm this measurement.
Chapter 6 6.3D FINALIZING The last stage is the finalizing stage, where the CD drive "closes" the disc and writes the final Table Of Contents to the disc. This process takes about 30 seconds to complete. After this finalization process, the disc will no longer be able to accept new data; it becomes a "read-only" disc. Once the disc has successfully been finalized, the tray will eject and the display will indicate "successful", as shown in Figure 6.3.1. Figure 6.3.1 Successful Red Book Creation 6.
Chapter 7 CD MODE OPERATION 7.1 CD PLAYBACK In addition to being a full-featured mastering hard-disk recorder and CD burner, the ML-9600 is of course also a great sounding Compact Disc playback machine. With the HD/CD switch set to CD, the ML-9600 provides you with standard CD player controls, such as play/pause, stop, forward and reverse scan, and forward and reverse skip. 7.1A PLAYING A RED BOOK CD Press OPEN/CLOSE to eject the tray, and insert a disc.
Chapter 8 into the currently selected playlist. It is important, therefore, to make sure that you have selected the appropriate playlist before switching to CD mode. After switching to CD mode (via the HD/CD button), pressing the TRACK MOVE button will bring up the CD track move page, as shown in Figure 7.2.1.
Chapter 8 UTILITY FUNCTIONS The UTILITY button gives you access to several functions of the ML-9600 that are important to its operation, but are not as obviously related to the acquisition, editing, and delivery of your music as most other features of the machine. The utility functions in the ML-9600 are accessed by pressing the UTILITY button. The first press of the UTILITY button will take you to the last selected utility function.
Chapter 8 Figure 8.2.1 Loop Mode Page The MasterLink defaults to "Loop Off"; pressing UP/YES once will change the Loop mode to "Track Loop", which applies to Tracks in a Playlist as well as to tracks on a CD. Another press of the UP/YES button will change the Loop mode to "Playlist/CD Loop", which will loop an entire Playlist or CD indefinitely. 8.3 UTIL3:PLAYLIST BACKUP This feature provides the ability to back up and restore all parameters of a Playlist to CD.
Chapter 8 Once a blank CD is inserted into the drive and the tray is closed, the unit will scan the disc to verify that a recordable disc is present. Once the disc has been verified as a recordable CD-R and its length has been determined, the MasterLink will verify that the playlist will fit on the CD-R that you have inserted.
Chapter 8 Figure 8.4.3 Playlist Not Empty Prompt Pressing the DOWN/NO button at this prompt will cancel the Playlist Restore operation. Pressing the UP/YES button will continue the process, appending the restored Tracks to the end of the existing playlist. 8.5 UTIL5:RENDER PLAYLIST TO DISK There are some instances where you may wish to render a Playlist to the hard drive, but do not want to immediately burn a CD; for instance, you may wish to audition the rendered image before committing to a CD.
Chapter 8 created in a MasterLink. These offsets are typically measured in "CD frames", a frame being equal to 1/75th of a second. To edit Start and End Time offsets, press the UTILITY button repeatedly until Utility Page 6 is displayed, as shown in Figure 4.5.1. Figure 4.5.1 Start and End Time Offset Page The cursor defaults under the "St Offset" field; if you press UP/YES while in this field the "En Offset" parameter will be displayed. To the right of the offset field is the "Offset Amount" field.
Chapter 8 8.9 UTIL9: SYSTEM INFORMATION The system information page displays the following information: • • • • • Software Version – This is your main system software version. File System Version – This is the current version of the file system that manages data on the hard disk drive. Eprom Version – This is the version of firmware that boots the system. CD Drive Information – This is the CD Drive model and internal firmware version.
Appendix A SPECIFICATIONS ADC 24-bit 128X oversampling DAC 24-bit 128X oversampling SAMPLE RATES SUPPORTED 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz WORD LENGTHS SUPPORTED 16-, 20-, and 24-bit ANALOG I/O 44.1kHz/48kHz Sampling Frequencies: Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz +0dB, -0.3dB THD+N : <0.002% @1kHz, -1dBFS Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 113dB, A-weighted 88.2kHz/96kHz Sampling Frequencies: Frequency Response: 20Hz – 40kHz +0dB, -0.5dB THD+N : <0.
