Loop Based Digital Recorder
THE LIGHTNING FLASH WITH ARROWHEAD SYMBOL, WITHIN AN EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE, IS INTENDED TO ALERT THE USER TO THE PRESENCE OF UNINSULATED ÒDANGEROUS VOLTAGEÓ WITHIN THE PRODUCTÕS ENCLOSURE THAT MAY BE OF SUFFICIENT MAGNITUDE TO CONSTITUTE A RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK TO PERSONS. THE EXCLAMATION POINT WITHIN AN EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE IS INTENDED TO ALERT THE USER TO THE PRESENCE OF IMPORTANT OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE (SERVICING) INSTRUCTIONS IN THE LITERATURE ACCOMPANYING THE PRODUCT.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN INVENTORY INSPECTION: The uniquely styled Electrix carton should containÉ o Electrix Repeater o Warranty Card o Repeater User Manual o International Switching Power Supply (with a power cord appropriate for your region) o Rackmount Screws (in a small envelope) Note: If any of the above are missing, please inform your local Electrix distributor, agent or dealer immediately.
TABLE OF CONTENTS English...
TABLE OF CONTENTS English...
OVERVIEW Throughout this book we'll be discussing many terms and ideas. Two of these terms are important to understand at the get go. Don't worry, there won't be any tests! So here you goÉ TERM #1: LOOPS When we talk about loops, we're simply making reference to a repeating musical figure. Looping is unique in the way it allows you to record and arrange your music. When Repeater hits the end of the loop it will immediately start playing again from the beginning.
OVERVIEW KEY FEATURES OF REPEATER Time Stretching gives Repeater the unique ability to change tempo without affecting the pitch of the loop. Pitch Shifting lets you change the pitch or key of each track independently. Repeater uses instrumental pitch shifting that is specially engineered for music. Loop Point Assistª (LPA) is an automatic loop trimming feature. It automates the tedious "pre-production" process of manually trimming a loop to match a given BPM. LPA works in real time.
FRONT PANEL 3 6 16 1 7 4 2 5 8 12 11 14 9 10 15 17 13 1 Input Level - controls the input level to Repeater. Set this control so that the input level indicator is Orange most of the time, and rarely clips (goes red). 2 Instrument Input - a high-impedance input optimized for instrument level sources. When a cable is plugged into this input, the rear inputs are disabled. 3 Loop - selects the current loop.
FRONT PANEL 18 19 20 23 23 23 23 27 25 21 24 22 24 24 26 24 28 14 Play - Play immediately starts the loop at the beginning. To achieve a stuttering effect, press and hold Stop then rhythmically press Play to trigger the loop. You can restart the loop even while it is playing by pressing Play. 21 Tap Tempo - in User Sync mode, the Tap Tempo is used to establish the tempo of the current loop.
REAR PANEL 1 Power Input - accepts only the Repeater power supply. Pull back the connector housing to insert the jack into Repeater. 2 Footswitch - plug in a Digitech FS-300 three button footswitch here. Undo, Play/Stop, and Record are supported with the footswitch. A single momentary footswitch will control the Record function. Please connect the footswitch before powering up Repeater. 3 MIDI Thru - sends a perfect copy of the MIDI information received at the MIDI in.
GETTING STARTED RECORDING BASICS Loop recording works a little differently than conventional recording. Capturing a good loop is all about being in touch with the rhythm of your musical figure. A typical 4 bar loop ¥ Start by playing your groove to get a feel for the tempo. ¥ Press Record right on the downbeat of the first bar of the loop to start recording. ¥ Assuming a four bar loop, press Record again on the downbeat of bar five to end recording (bar five is essentially the first bar repeated).
GETTING STARTED OVERDUBBING ADDITIONAL PARTS Now that you've got your first loop down, you can continue to overdub onto the existing track. If you want this new part to be quieter, try adjusting the Input Level or the volume of your instrument to get the balance just right. Repeater has a default feedback amount that reduces the level of the original recording as the overdub is recorded onto it. This prevents undesirable gain increases throughout the recording process. See RECORDING LOOPS for details.
GETTING STARTED ACOUSTIC GUITAR Here's a basic setup to get an acoustic guitar up and running with Repeater - without the need of any help from your "pocket protector" friendsÉ Making a Connection 1 Plug in your guitar here. 2 Connect the optional Digitech FS-300 or a single momentary footswitch to engage/disengage the Record function here. 3 Connect Repeater's outputs to your monitoring system.
GETTING STARTED 3 2 1 From Amp Send 2 To Amp Return 3 Footswitch 1 Using an amp with an effects loop It is best to plug Repeater into the Effects Loop of your amp if it has one. Connecting this way will ensure safe passage of your tone through Repeater. If your amp has a Wet/Dry Mix, set it to 100% wet for best results.
GETTING STARTED LIVE SAMPLING Repeater is set up to take just about any kind of signal; from a sub-mixer to your mixer's FX send, a group output, or even a vinyl source. In addition, you can connect an effects processor to Repeater's FX Insert for easy patching of the effect onto the overall input or individual tracks.
GETTING STARTED THE ALL REPEATER BAND One day every person in every band will integrate Repeater into their live show. Imagine a band that utilizes Repeaters, allowing them to loop themselves, then move on and overdub additional parts. All in perfect sync with each other via MIDI. The air would fill with harmonies, licks, ambient loops, and grooves, grooves, grooves. Hey you could load your part into Repeater, put down your instrument and go and dance with your honey...hmmmm...
GETTING STARTED STUDIO In the studio Repeater can serve many purposes. It makes a great scratch pad for getting ideas or grooves down quickly. It also makes for a great loop player with its unique ability to record and play loops without the need for manual trimming. Repeater can also function as a great sound design tool. Check it out..
RECORDING LOOPS BELOVED PROPELLERHEADS For those of you that are still reading this manual - and not busy making freak-a-delic loops that will earn you a Grammy - we offer these thoroughly entertaining and highly technical discussions regarding the finer points of the micro-technology blinking before you. This section was lovingly prepared for you by our really smart, and talented engineering folks. The smirky text is courtesy of the marketing department.
RECORDING LOOPS When selecting tracks for recording, the Track Select buttons operate as 'radio' style buttons. Pressing a new button deselects the previous track and chooses the one you just pressed, extinguishing and lighting the appropriate LEDs. You can select single tracks or stereo pairs. Stereo pairs are selected and deselected with a simultaneous press of both tracks. Tracks 1 & 2 can be paired as can Tracks 3 & 4.
RECORDING LOOPS 0% Feedback 0% feedback will completely erase the original loop track after the completed overdub cycle. This differs from Replace mode in that Replace will mute the track during the record cycle. In Overdub, at 0% feedback ,the record destination track will not be muted during the record cycle. UNDO /REDO Repeater features one level of Undo for overdubbing operations. Additionally you can Redo what you just undid, and then carry on to Undo the Redo if you just canÕt make up your mind.
RECORDING LOOPS You may adjust the mix or any other parameter during the resampling operation. During resample, if any destination tracks have the FX insert assigned to them then any tracks that were not chosen as sources will have their FX sends suspended. The FX send lights will flash until the resample is done. This ensures the FX return from such tracks does not mix into the resampled track or tracks.
THE TRANSPORT LOOP BROWSING Loops are arranged in a continuous sequence, with allowance for gaps if loops have been deleted. The browser indicates internal loops with a " ", CFC loops are indicated simply with the numbers, " ". Once you browse to the end of the set of internal loops there will be a final blank internal loop. Then the external loops on the compact flash card will be displayed with the numbering starting again at 1.
THE TRANSPORT PLAY In Play mode, Repeater plays back the contents of a recorded loop at the selected tempo, and the green LEDs of the Play button are illuminated (seems obvious, but you never knowÉ). In addition, the Slip, Pan, and Pitch controls are available and can be tweaked. If these controls are used, they will take over the normal play display. Play mode can be entered in several ways. The conditions and meaning of these different entry modes are discussed below.
THE TRANSPORT Pressing Record from Stop Pressing Record when the unit is in the stopped state will immediately start the unit recording/overdubbing. If the current loop is empty, this first recording will determine the length of the loop. Pressing Record from Play Pressing Record when the unit is in play mode will immediately start the unit recording from the current play position.
THE TRANSPORT From Record This will immediately stop the recording process and return the current playback/read point to the start of the loop. REVERSE Reverse can be pressed at any time except during recording. For both recording and playback, the active direction will now be reverse. If pressed again the transport will return to the forward operating mode. In Beat Detect and MIDI Sync modes going in and out of reverse might cause your loop to speed up.
LOOP EDITING CHANGING TEMPO In User Sync mode the tempo of the loop can be changed at any time by simply adjusting the Tempo knob or tapping a new tempo with the Tap Tempo button. Native Tempo To return to the original tempo the loop was recorded at, press Stop and Tap Tempo buttons at the same time. TRIMMING When you first record into an empty loop Repeater pads the recording a little, leaving you extra room at the start and end to develop the best loop points.
LOOP EDITING IMPORTANT! Repeater must record or Overdub though the entire length of the ÒVirtual TrackÓ after which it flattens the track and it is no longer virtual. If you do not record through the entire length of the loop Repeater will automatically keep recording until the end of the loop. During this time the Record LED will flash to indicate that Repeater is still Recording. If you press Stop during the recording immediately after a Loop Multiply your overdub will be lost.
LOOP EDITING SLIPPING Track 1 Slipping lets you offset the start position of a loop or its individual tracks. ¥ Press Slip, and the display will change to show the slip offset of each active track in beats. Track 2 ¥You can select/deselect the appropriate tracks for Slipping by using the Track Select buttons. Editing one track at a time displays the slip amount with a finer resolution. ¥ Use the Tempo knob to set the slip position in bars/beats/1/100 of a beat, with zero being the original position.
LOOP SYNC SYNCING Press the Sync button to toggle through your sync modes: ¥ Beat Detect: Repeater reads your incoming audio to find the tempo. ¥ MIDI: syncs tempo to MIDI clock input ¥ User: tempo is set by the Tap Tempo button and adjustment of the Tempo encoder Beat Detect Selecting Sync Repeater identifies the beat and tempo of your input audio and uses it to drive Repeater's internal clock which determines the tempo of any recorded loop.
FILE MANAGEMENT COMPACT FLASH CARDS IMPORTANT! Never remove the Compact Flash Card while the light is on. No, it doesnÕt matter if it is green yellow or red. Wait until the light is out to remove the card. If you do remove the card while the light is on the data on the card could become corrupted and unreadable by repeater. The Compact Flash Card (CFC) use the standard FAT (DOS-like) file system using the FAT16 standard. Current Type 1 CFC implementations peak out at 256MB.
FILE MANAGEMENT LOOP COPY The Copy function is available when Repeater is playing or stopped. To Copy a loopÉ ¥ Select the loop and press the Copy button. The Copy button will flash, indicating that you're in copy mode, and the display will change to show the source loop number on the left of the display, and the target loop location on the right of the display. ¥ If you don't have enough memory, the display will read " You can free up space by erasing some loops. ".
FILE MANAGEMENT FILE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE Repeater stores information on the CFC in a hierarchical format: F:\Electrix\Repeater\Loop001ÉÉLoop999\track1.wav Each loop folder contains up to 9 files, of which there are three possible file types: < .wav > - the .WAV file contains the content for each track is the standard 16 bit 44.1kHz format. Loop start and end locations are marked with region markers. < .
FILE MANAGEMENT SHARING FILES WITH YOUR PC Here's how to get the loops you've created with Repeater onto your PC for back up or for loading into your favorite PC based audio application. First you're going to need a USB Compact Flash Reader. Check out the SanDisk ImageMate, (http://www.sandisk.com/cons/imagemate.htm). Get the CFC reader working and plug in a CFC with Repeater data on it. Repeater organizes its data in convenient folders. The folders are named just like the loop, i.e. "Loop001".
MIDI USING MIDI Repeater primarily uses MIDI in two ways: to automate/remotely control its parameters via MIDI Control Change messages and to sync to MIDI clock from Sequencers or other Repeaters. MIDI CHANNEL SELECTION Repeater receives MIDI information on the channel specified by the MIDI channel selector on the rear panel.
MIDI SELECTING LOOPS VIA MIDI Repeater uses the MIDI Bank control change messages for remote selection of loops via MIDI. They work as a MSB/LSB pair. MSB stands for Most Significant Bit and LSB: Least Significant bit - think of it as chapter and verse. MIDI CCs are limited to 127 values. Using MSB/LSB allows us to utilize banks of 127 to access all of Repeaters 1000+ loops.
MIDI SYNCING REPEATER TO POPULAR SEQUENCERS/DAWÕS Protools Syncing to Protools is a two step process. First, if you are using a Mac, you must set up OMS to acknowledge Repeater and its characteristics. In the Studio Setup create a device that looks like this: (see Opcode for OMS instructions) Now in Protools under the MIDI menu, select MIDI Beat Clock. Enable Beat Clock, and select your MIDI Interface. Now Repeater will sync to the tempo map in Protools. Cubase Syncing to Cubase is also simple.
MIDI MIDI SPECIFICATIONS TABLE Name Track 1 Record Select Track 2 Record Select Track 1&2 Record Select Track 3 Record Select Track 4 Record Select Track 3&4 Record Select Track 1 Level/Mute Track 2 Level/Mute Track 3 Level/Mute Track 4 Level/Mute Loop Select MSB Default 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 100 100 100 0 PC 6 7 14 8 9 15 16 17 18 19 N/A CC 80 81 90 82 83 91 16 17 18 19 0 Loop Select LSB Slip Track 1 Beats Slip Track 1 MS Slip Track 2 Beats Slip Track 2 MS Slip Track 3 Beats Slip Track 3 MS Slip Track 4 Beat
MIDI Tempo Lock Tap Tempo Loop Select Up Loop Select Down Dry Mute* Erase Loop* Audio Trigger Record* Off 0 0 0 Off N/A N/A N/A 12 4 5 22 N/A 23 104 68 96 97 107 108 92 Advance Track Select* Tracks 1&2 Level /Mute* Tracks 3&4 Level /Mute* Inhibit MIDI RT Start/Stop Output* Internal Loop Select PC* CFC Loop Select PC* N/A N/A N/A Off 24 25 26 N/A 109 110 111 112 N/A N/A 48 - 63 64 - 127 N/A N/A * Denotes new options in OS 1.1 English...
MIDI The MIDI CC and PC messages tables reference the following appendices: Appendix A - Loop Bank Select MSB controls the range of the LoopSelect LSB message as received by Repeater. - Bank 0 = Internal 1-16 - Bank 1= External 1-128 - Bank 2= External 129-256 - Bank 3= External 257-384 - Bank 4= External 385-512 - Bank 5= External 513-640 - Bank 6= External 641-768 - Bank 7= External 769-896 - Bank 8= External 897-999 Appendix B - Slips to the beat number. Loops generally have unique numbers of beats .
REFERENCE DISPLAYED MESSAGES For those of you who hate reading manuals, weÕve matched LCD displays to brief descriptions so you can quickly flip to what you want to know. Power Up On power up. Software Version. Detects CFC. Loop Location CFC Memory Internal Memory Multiply Loop Press Multiply Loop and the loop is instantly doubled in length. Press and hold Multiply Loop and use the Tempo knob to dial in another multiple. Trim Loop ¥ The first press of Trim will put you into the Bars Trim mode.
REFERENCE Copy If there is not enough memory to complete the copy the " " message is presented. If there is room to copy the display will indicate the current source loop on the left and destination loop on the right. The Tempo knob controls the destination. Stop and Record will flash. Pressing Copy performs the action. Pressing Stop (or any other button) cancels the copy. The copy function is complete and the unit leaves copy mode.
REFERENCE FX Insert Engage When the FX Insert is lit the FX Insert is engaged. While it is held down the display says " " and the tracks to be sent can be selected by the Track Select buttons (which are lit to indicate the selected tracks to be sent out the insert). These tracks are always displayed by lit FX Insert LEDs. (Even when the insert is not engaged). Resample Set the Levels, Pan, Pitch and FX Inserts just how you want it to sound for the new resampled track.
REFERENCE Upgrading Software To upgrade RepeaterÕs software, first copy the file from your PC onto a CFC card that Repeater has formatted. Unplug RepeaterÕs Power Supply and insert the CFC with the upgrade software. Restore the power. If more than one version of software exists on the card then the Tempo encoder will scroll through them. Select the software version you wish to load and then press Record to upgrade the unit. Any other button press cancels the action.
TROUBLESHOOTING Can't hear the Input - make sure the input level is set sufficiently to make the Input LED go red on louder notes, Make sure the selected track/tracks output levels are turned up. Make sure the FX Insert is not engaged. Tracks are not making sound - If there is signal present as indicated by the LED meters next to each track, make sure that the Levels are up, that the FX Insert light is off, (if not press FX Insert), and that your tracks are panned where you are expecting them.
TROUBLESHOOTING My MIDI foot controller doesn't line up with RepeaterÕs PC numbers. Some companies offset their PC numbers to confuse the rest of us. Hooray! You may need to subtract one from the Program Change numbers in RepeaterÕs MIDI chart to line up right with your floor controller. I insert a CFC while playing and the CFC light just blinks red. It's an unformatted card. You need to stop Repeater and reinsert the card to format it. ItÕs a card that is too slow to work with Repeater.
INDEX 0% Feedback 19 A Acoustic Guitar Ambient Tracks Audio Threshold 13 14 19 7, 29 33 C Compact Flash Cards Copy 7, 30, 32 31, 32, 40 D Displayed Messages 39 E Electric Guitar Erase External Flash Memory 13 20, 39 31 F File Directory Structure Footswitch Formatting a CFC Front Panel FX Insert 32 10, 14 30 8, 9 7, 12, 21, 41 I Initial Recording Internal Memory 18 31, 39 L Levels Live Sampling Loop Loop Point Assist (LPA) Loop Triggering 18 15 6, 22 7, 15 23 M Memory Space Management Metron
SPECIFICATIONS MAIN AUDIO PATH Connector: Input Impedance: Output Impedance: SNR: THD: Max Input: Frequency Response: Gain: INSTRUMENT PATH 1/4Ó Unbalanced Input/Output 77kOhm 1kOhm 94dB (A-Weighted) <0.012% 18.2 dBu +0/-0.7dB (20Hz to 20kHz) 21dB to negative infinity EFFECTS LOOP PATH Connector: Input Impedance: Output Impedance: SNR: THD: Max Input: Frequency Response: Gain: 1/4Ó Unbalanced Input/Output 77kOhm 1kOhm 94dB (A-Weighted) <0.013% 18.2 dBu +0/-0.
FLOW DIAGRAMS English...
