Abstrakt Instruments Avalon, Reference Manual

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Page 2: ...ual is subject to change without notice No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the express written consent of Abstrakt Instruments LLC All other product and company names used in this manual are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners ...

Page 3: ...oducing sound levels that could cause permanent hearing loss Do not operate for a long period of time at a high volume level or at a level that is uncomfortable 3 Never use aggressive cleaners on the casing Remove dust dirt and fingerprints with a soft dry non abrasive cloth If the unit is persistently dirty use a slightly damp cloth using only water Do not use a liquid cleaner alcohol acetone tur...

Page 4: ...to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help European Union regulation compliance statement This produc...

Page 5: ...RN TRANSPOSE 18 5 2 3 9 FILTER B MODE 18 5 2 4 PITCH ATTRIBUTES 19 5 2 4 1 PITCH 19 5 2 4 2 ACCENT SLIDE 19 5 2 4 3 TRANSPOSE 19 5 2 4 4 MODULATION ENVELOPE TRIGGERS 19 5 2 4 5 SLIDE TIME 19 5 2 4 6 FILTER CV OFFSET 19 5 2 4 7 GATE LENGTH 20 5 2 5 TIME ATTRIBUTES 20 5 2 5 1 NOTE EVENTS 20 5 2 5 2 NOTE LENGTH TIES RESTS 20 5 2 5 3 ACTIVE STEPS 20 5 3 PITCH TIME STEP ENTRY MODES 21 5 3 1 PITCH STEP ...

Page 6: ...31 10 CONFIGURATION MODE 32 10 1 ENTER CONFIG MODE 32 10 1 1 SYNC INPUT 32 10 1 1 1 MIDI SYNC IN BEHAVIOR 32 10 1 2 SYNC OUTPUT 32 10 1 3 MIDI INPUT CHANNEL 32 10 1 4 MIDI OUTPUT CHANNEL 32 10 1 5 USB MIDI 32 10 1 6 LED DIMMING 32 10 2 EXIT CONFIG MODE 32 11 INPUTS OUTPUTS 33 11 1 AUDIO I O 33 11 2 CV GATE I O 33 12 SPECIFICATIONS 34 13 TB 303 SETTINGS 35 13 1 ANALOG VOICE 35 13 1 1 OSCILLATORS 35...

Page 7: ... some instances button combinations are indicated using the finger point graphic In these instances the order of button presses is indicated by the number of each hand For example SECTION BUTTON 2 is equivalent to the graphic below 1 2 3 STEP BUTTONS The 16 step button indicators are used for entering various step attributes They are also used for certain secondary functions such as setting MIDI c...

Page 8: ...me modes These buttons are not labeled with text but rather with direction arrows as shown below When used in this manual these buttons will be written NEXT and BACK 1 2 9 ROTARY KNOBS Rotary knob names are shown in uppercase bold italic For example the tune control would be written as TUNE 1 2 10 LED INDICATORS LED states are illustrated below Fully Lit Dimly Lit Blinking Off LED indicators are i...

Page 9: ...NS are used to select and display sequence step parameters 10 TIME is used to enter TIME related parameters and for entering TIME ENTRY mode for step input 11 RECORD is used to record realtime performance into a sequence 12 ARP ARP MODE are used for enabling the arpeggiator and setting the arp direction 13 BUTTONS 1 4 are used when selecting parameters such as such as pattern sections time signatu...

Page 10: ...ul range is 0 5V 9 VCA OUT is the output signal from the VCA 10 EXT IN is an audio input to the filter It accepts a wide range of signal levels as it has an internal preamp stage When the external input is used the sub oscillator is bypassed 11 CARTRIDGE SLOT is used for optional filter cartridges 12 SAW and SQR are 5V buffered outputs from the oscillator 13 USB class compliant port for connection...

Page 11: ...rnal filter cartridges may have any topology so in these cases the CUTOFF control may relate to high pass low pass band pass or notch frequency depending on the topology and filter mode of the cartridge being used RESONANCE sets the emphasis amount at the cutoff frequency TRACKING sets the key tracking amount This determines how much the filter cutoff frequency tracks the keyboard The tracking is ...

Page 12: ...time is variable in the case of the Avalon the attack is fixed to retain the behavior of the TB 303 This envelope can be turned completely off by setting VCA DECAY to the minimum setting 3 6 MODULATION ENVELOPE The modulation envelope is an additional attack decay AD envelope that can be used to modulate the filter and the final amplifier VCA In addition to the dedicated filter and amp decay envel...

Page 13: ... the selected track will start in sync after the current pattern or pattern chain 4 2 WHAT IS A PATTERN Before continuing with details on pattern editing it is necessary to understand the structure of a pattern A pattern is a sequence of pitch and time events or steps 4 2 1 THE PATTERN STEP As is the case with traditional step sequencers the PATTERN STEP is the fundamental parameter of a pattern r...

Page 14: ...RN GROUP Second select Group A or Group B with the GROUP A B buttons 4 3 3 PATTERN NUMBER Lastly select a pattern number using the PATTERN BUTTONS 4 4 PATTERN PLAYBACK To play back a pattern using internal sync Press RUN while in PATTERN PLAY or PATTERN WRITE MODE Set the TEMPO control so that you can see the step indicators running across the sixteen steps The RUN indicator is lit when the sequen...

Page 15: ...e roman numerals I through VII Tracks are made up of pattern within the pattern bank that corresponds to the track number For example TRACK IV uses patterns that reside in PATTERN BANK 4 7 TRACK PLAYBACK To play back a track using internal sync Press RUN while in TRACK PLAY or TRACK WRITE MODE Set the TEMPO control so that you can see the step indicators running across the sixteen steps The RUN in...

Page 16: ...pattern data A NOTE ON SAVING TO MEMORY The memory contents of a pattern bank are stored temporarily in RAM so any changes to patterns are automatically stored in RAM to allow the sequencer to playback in all main modes without being interrupted In this regard there is no explicit save function for patterns and workflow is not interrupted Whenever the sequencer is stopped or the Pattern Bank or Tr...

Page 17: ...bed in section 5 2 3 1 Once viewing the desired section press TIME STEP BUTTON of the desired last step For example to set the last step as step 29 of a sequence you would do as follows a Select SECTION 2 by pressing SECTION BUTTON 2 as shown in section 5 2 3 1 b Select the last step within SECTION 2 step 29 by pressing TIME STEP BUTTON 13 The indicator will light solid Now the pattern will cycle ...

Page 18: ...ress FUNCTION UP DOWN and select the desired option Pendulum modes repeats the last step so that the pattern remains at the same time division 5 2 3 6 PATTERN ROTATE Pattern steps can be rotated forwards and backwards using the FUNCTION ROTATE buttons For example to rotate the pattern data forwards one step press FUNCTION ROTATE 5 2 3 7 PATTERN RANDOMIZE Randomizing a pattern overwrites all pitch ...

Page 19: ...taves as the note will first shift to the higher C key To Transpose a pattern step press STEP BUTTON UP DOWN For example to transpose step 4 up an octave press STEP BUTTON 4 UP 5 2 4 4 MODULATION ENVELOPE TRIGGERS The Avalon has an extra modulation envelope that can be triggered on any step in a similar way to accents and slides To trigger the modulation envelope press STEP BUTTON ENV For example ...

Page 20: ...RIBUTES There are also time related parameters for each pattern step 1 Note Event 2 Tie Rest 3 Active Steps 5 2 5 1 NOTE EVENTS Note events are added to a sequence simply by pressing the STEP BUTTONS When a note has been added to a step the STEP BUTTON LED will light up This indicates that the step is active and a note is entered If you press the same STEP BUTTON again the indicator will go out an...

Page 21: ...by the blinking STEP BUTTON LED To skip a step forwards or backwards use the NEXT and BACK buttons The sequencer will automatically exit to NORMAL MODE once the time attributes for the LAST STEP have been entered If you want to exit PITCH ENTRY MODE before the last step of the sequence simply press HOME to go back to NORMAL MODE If it is desired to use TIME STEP ENTRY MODE as the exclusive mode fo...

Page 22: ...he Avalon MIDI CC 74 messages from an external device The incoming MIDI data will be sampled and the value set for each step Filter cutoff data MIDI CC 74 is also received by the Avalon outside of RECORD MODE for traditional cutoff control not a per step parameter lock 5 5 REALTIME MODE Realtime Mode is used for adding or muting accent slide and or modulation envelope triggers in realtime without ...

Page 23: ... indicated on the graphic 1 To select UP mode press ARP MODE UP the UP LED will be lit 2 To select DOWN mode press ARP MODE DOWN the DOWN LED will lit 3 To select UP DOWN mode press ARP MODE DOWN UP the DOWN UP LED s will be lit 4 To select PLAYED mode press ARP MODE DOWN UP until both the DOWN LED UP LED are not lit In PLAYED mode the notes in the arpeggio are played in the order they are entered...

Page 24: ...ONS GROUP A B BUTTONS as described in section 4 3 6 2 2 PATTERN CHAINING A group of patterns within the current pattern group can chained A pattern chain will loop continuously until a different pattern or new pattern chain is selected To create a pattern chain select the first pattern in the chain followed by the last pattern in the chain The LED indicators of the patterns within the chain will r...

Page 25: ... to force a pattern to mute accents press and hold FUNCTION PITCH ACCENT 6 3 3 REALTIME MOD ENV The modulation envelope can be triggered in realtime by pressing PITCH ENV Each time the button combination is pressed the modulation envelope will be triggered The modulation envelope can also be triggered with the sequencer stopped This can be useful for drones with long evolving filter and or VCA mod...

Page 26: ...WRITE MODE NORMAL MODE is indicated by a solid lit indicator above the HOME button 7 3 1 TRACK STEP INDICATORS The current TRACK STEP is indicated on the STEP BUTTONS BUTTON 1 4 LED s The indicators light solid to show the current TRACK STEP whenever the NEXT or BACK button is held down They are arranged as 4 groups of 16 track steps The BUTTON 1 4 LED s signify the TRACK STEP group BUTTON 1 LED 1...

Page 27: ...in section 4 3 7 3 4 2 TRANSPOSE Track steps can be transposed by semitones and an octave up or down To transpose the current track step up or down one octave press PITCH UP DOWN When the transpose is selected the corresponding LED indicator will light up while the PITCH button is held To transpose a track step by semitones press the PITCH and one of the BUTTON KEYS to enter the transpose amount T...

Page 28: ...utton is the repeat from sign and D S means from the sign They are used to set cue points to loop a section of a track so a track will loop from D S back to the sign To set the repeat from sign on a track step press FUNCTION To set D S on a track step press FUNCTION D S 7 4 REALTIME MODE In REALTIME MODE track steps can be manipulated realtime by overriding transpose accent slide and mod env setti...

Page 29: ...d while the sequencer is running 7 5 1 TRANSMIT To transmit a specific track it should first be copied to the track copy buffer using the track copy function as described in section 7 3 3 Once the track is copied make sure the receiving MIDI device is setup to listen for the SYSEX dump Press FUNCTION DUMP to initiate the dump 7 5 2 RECEIVE Once the external MIDI device is setup press FUNCTION DUMP...

Page 30: ...t slide and mod env settings 8 4 1 REALTIME ACCENT SLIDE Accent and Slide can be played to trigger accents and slides To override pattern step data with accents and or slides press PITCH ACCENT SLIDE For example to force a pattern to accent steps press and hold PITCH ACCENT Accent and Slide can also be played realtime to mute accents and slides To override pattern step data and mute accents and or...

Page 31: ...y Range Accent Off 0 63 Accent On 64 127 Slide Overlapping Notes There are only on off states for accent accents are triggered with a note on velocity value of 64 127 9 4 2 FILTER CUTOFF This feature is implemented starting with v1 04 software Controller Number 74 Controller Value 0 127 9 4 3 MODULATION ENVELOPE TRIGGER This feature is implemented starting with v1 04 software Controller Number 80 ...

Page 32: ...start will restart the current pattern at the first step allowing the sequencer to continue uninterrupted playback while remaining in sync This is very useful for live performance 10 1 2 SYNC OUTPUT The sequence can output MIDI and DINSync clock MIDI clock is always enabled DINSync clock can be turned on and off To enable DINSync Out press SYNC OUT STEP BUTTON 3 so that the indicator is lit 10 1 3...

Page 33: ...ing noise and distortion 11 2 CV GATE I O The numerous CV Gate 1 8 jacks are used for interfacing the Avalon with external hardware CV GATE INPUTS The GATE IN 1 8 jack allows other analog devices to trigger the Avalon s envelopes The CV IN 1 8 jack allows control of the pitch of the Avalon oscillators from an external source When a CV input is plugged into the jack the internal sequencer pitch CV ...

Page 34: ... Pattern Length 64 steps maximum 1 Step 1 4 1 8 1 16 1 32 includes triplet modes Pattern Copy Paste Clear Shuffle up to 8 stages Pattern Directions Forward Reverse Pendulum Random Skip Steps Slide Times 50ms 100ms 303 400ms 2s per step Arpeggiator Realtime Record modes Pattern Memorized Content Per Step Note Length Pitch Accent Slide Env Trig Slide Time Filter CV Gate Length Per Pattern Time Signa...

Page 35: ...corresponds to the fixed setting of the TB 303 13 1 4 VCA ENVELOPE The TB 303 has a fixed VCA Decay time of 3s This is equivalent to the 3 o clock position of the VCA DECAY control 13 1 5 MODULATION ENVELOPE The modulation envelope should not be used Set the VCF DEPTH and VCA DEPTH controls to the center off position 13 2 SEQUENCER To limit the sequencer to TB 303 behavior you ll have to ignore se...

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Page 37: ...rn C2 programmed in steps 5 6 above The tempo is not critical as we re monitoring the direct saw and square outputs before the filter and final amplifier 10 Adjust the TUNE trimmer until the frequency is close to 65 4Hz 11 Next play the second pattern C3 programmed in steps 7 8 and adjust the SCALE trimmer for approx 130 8Hz This is exactly one octave above the previous step as the goal is to adju...

Page 38: ...lt b SWITCH 2 ENV MOD minimum depth This switch sets the ENV MOD depth when the control is at the minimum position The TB 303 doesn t allow the filter envelope modulation to be turned all the way off and there s still some modulation when the control is at the minimum setting This switch allows for ENV MOD to extend to off when the ENV MOD knob is at its minimum setting OFF ENV MOD goes to off def...

Page 39: ...f you are more analytical and wanted to understand the machine behavior and what the adjustments are doing you may be interested in what follows You will notice that for increasing ENV MOD amount the filter decays to a lower frequency so for increasing ENV MOD the control voltage has a greater range but also has a progressively negative offset The graph below shows what s happening As the ENV MOD ...

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Page 41: ... also increases the slew of this control voltage The plot below shows an example of this accent sweep envelope at maximum accent setting for minimum mid and max setting of the resonance control 3 MODULATION ENVELOPE VCA DEPTH VCA DEPTH has been designed with a progressive voltage offset for negative modulation amounts When the control is rotated counter clockwise for modulation a positive offset i...

Page 42: ...SE The switch selects the low frequency response of the audio signal to the VCA When the switch is in the out position the frequency response rolls off at 70Hz When the switch is pushed to the in position the frequency response extends down below 30Hz ...

Page 43: ...f pitch time attributes always correspond 1 to 1 to define a pattern step Pattern steps correspond directly to the step button indicators on the control surface of the Avalon 1 2 TB 303 PATTERN STRUCTURE TB 303 pitch and time attributes are always programmed separately A pattern consists of independent sequences of pitch steps and time steps Pitch step attributes are only advanced when a note even...

Page 44: ...also show the current pattern step as it automatically advances In TIME ENTRY MODE when a time attribute is entered the step advances automatically In addition the STEP BUTTONS also show the current pattern step as it automatically advances The pattern step advances regardless of whether the time attribute is a note event tie or rest 3 WHERE IS TAP MODE TAP MODE is an alternative method in the TB ...

Page 45: ...tive Sensing No No System Reset No No Tune Request No No Universal System Exclusive File Dump Yes Yes Transmission of patterns and tracks 2 MIDI Timing and Syncronization MIDI Clock Yes Yes Song Position Pointer No No Song Select No No Start Yes Yes Continue Yes Yes Stop Yes Yes MIDI Time Code No No MIDI Machine Control No No MIDI Show Control No No 3 Extensions Compatibility General MIDI compatib...

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Page 47: ...46 AVALON Reference Manual Abstrakt Instruments 1010 Ocean Dr Hermosa Beach CA 90254 USA 2015 Abstrakt Instruments www abstraktinstruments com 00193 001 06 2015 ...