Operating instructions

ADVANCED APPLICATIONS
© 1985, 1986, 1987 E-mu Systems, Inc. Page 204
PART 4: CREATING MULTI-INSTRUMENT PRESETS
In many cases, you will want the Sequencer to sequence several instrument sounds
simultaneously. There are three ways to do this:
 Create “MIDI Presets” (described in the MIDI/SMPTE supplement) that allow you to
sequence MIDI instruments from the Sequencer;
 Create “Individual Instrument Presets”, each with an individual sound (i.e. bass,
keyboard, percussion, horns, etc.), then program each Preset as one track of the
Sequencer; or
 Create “Multi-instrument” Presets, which contain several, instrument sounds,
assigned to different ranges of the keyboard, in one Preset.
 You can also combine any or all of the above approaches.
Note: Even if you don’t use the Sequencer the latter two techniques are important if
you want to create Performance disks that include a collection of sounds from other
Performance, or Library, disks. Generally, factory Performance disks group instruments
by category - keyboard sounds, wind instruments, etc.; but you might want a
Performance disk that contains one particular keyboard sound, one or two horn Voices,
and other sounds from other disks. This section describes the procedure necessary to
create multi-instrument Performance disks.
Using the Sequencer to sequence multiple sounds involves several memory tradeoffs,
especially if you are working with Individual Instrument Presets or Multi-instrument
Presets. Voices, Presets, and Sequences all use up Bank memory, with Voices
generally having the most voracious appetite for space and Sequences coming in
second. If you use up all your memory while storing Voices, you won’t have any space
left over for creating Presets or Sequences.
Each of the three methods mentioned above has advantages and disadvantages. MIDI
Presets are very useful, but of course you need to have some MIDI gear available.
Individual Instrument Presets let you work out Sequences in a very straight-forward
manner where each Preset, representing one particular instrument, takes up one track of
the Sequencer Multi-instrument Presets let you sequence multiple Emulator II sounds in
a single track, thus freeing up other tracks for MIDI instruments. For example, suppose
you want to sequence seven MIDI instruments and also sequence three different
instrument sounds in the Emulator II. This would normally not be possible if each
instrument sound had its own Preset, since you would need 10 tracks. However, by
assigning the three instruments to a multi-instrument Preset, one Sequencer track can
sequence all three instruments, thus leaving seven tracks free for MIDI Presets. Another
advantage is that tracks that contain the same Preset can be bounced together;
therefore, before assigning the MIDI Presets to the Sequencer tracks, you could work
out a very complicated part on several tracks using the multi-instrumental Preset. These
tracks could then be bounced to a single track, freeing up the remaining tracks for MIDI
Presets.