Electrix Repeater, Manual

Page 1: ...Loop Based Digital Recorder ...

Page 2: ...ERVICEPERSONNEL For the UK WARNING WHEN USING ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS BASIC PRECAUTIONS SHOULD ALWAYS BE TAKEN INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a classA digital device pur suant to part 15 of the FCC rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a resi dential installation This equipment ge...

Page 3: ...able from time to time ELECTRIX DOES LOOP BASED RECORDING First we shook up FX processing with our popular Filter and Warp Factories MoFX and the MOD s now we re chal lenging the contemporary notion of linear recording Why Because we realized that many of our Electrix friends are producing music in loops and phrases So we put our heads together to come up with an intuitive way to record and manipu...

Page 4: ...English 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...

Page 5: ...English 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...

Page 6: ... of the musician recording with loops can be an efficient way to establish the feel of a song Loops can also benefit the arranging process allowing the composer to focus on a single section of a song shaping and refining until that phrase feels just right Loop based recording makes for a great musical scratch pad allowing you to quickly sketch out a tune It is also an indispensable tool for creati...

Page 7: ...with incoming audio like a live drummer or a vinyl source Okay this one may be even cooler that the MIDI sync above The FX Insert allows external effects to be applied to individual tracks the input of Repeater or the entire output Alternatively you can use the FX insert to achieve independent track outputs Reverse Play is a fun way to realize reverse solos and ambient textures These are just a ta...

Page 8: ...tes the current tempo Beats Per Minute Compact Flash Card Slot insert a Type 1 CFC here The CFC is slotted so that the card can only be plugged in right side up Check our website for CFCs that will work On the first insertion Repeater will format the CFC for you See FILE MANAGEMENT for more information UNDO Erase a single press will UNDO the last operation or overdub Pressing and holding will put ...

Page 9: ...Pan selected tracks are panned with the Tempo knob Pitch selected tracks are pitch shifted within a range of 2 octaves through 1 octave Twist the Tempo encoder quickly for large steps and slowly for cents TapTempo in User Sync mode the TapTempo is used to establish the tempo of the current loop In Beat Detection mode the Tap Tempo button can be used to help the software find the beat of the incomi...

Page 10: ...DIF Coaxial 75Ω main output for those who know better than to use the analog inputs on their Sound Blasters Main Outputs stereo mix outputs FX Send a post fader post pan FX send activated by the front panel control Connect this to the input of an Electrix MOFX or Filter Factory for some serious FX mayhem The FX send also serves as multiple out puts Just assign Tracks 3 4 to the FX sends and pan th...

Page 11: ...pping Select a track or a pair of tracks to record to by pressing the Track Select but tons above the Track Level faders Set the Track Level s to the top which is unity Press Record to start recording The next time you press Record or Play the recording will finish and the loop will immediately start playing back Selecting a pair of tracks simultaneously sets Repeater to record in stereo The Stere...

Page 12: ...h the entire range of the loop until you eventually get right back to the beginning Yeah baby ADDING EXTERNAL FX If you have an external FX unit connected to RepeaterÕs FX Insert you can apply FX to the input and record the effects as a part of the loop or you can apply the FX to any number of tracks during playback To set the FX Insert location Press and hold FX Insert button Select the tracks th...

Page 13: ...un Repeater s output is at line level and this is substantially hot ter then the average guitar Use the clean channel of your guitar amp If you try to run Repeater into a high gain or lead channel you will most likely be unhappy with the unnecessarily noisy results To get distorted or lead sounds try using one of the many avail able distortion pedals or a tube preamps before connecting to your Rep...

Page 14: ...at just about any MIDI foot controller is capable of controlling Repeater Don t have a bass guitar One of the advantages of Repeater s pitch shifting being on the loop output as opposed to the input is that you can quickly achieve great pitch shift effects automatically on playback Try this on for size Set the pitch shift of Track 4 to 12 Now create a rhythm loop with your guitar on Track 1 Select...

Page 15: ...with the start point and immediately begin playing the trimmed loop If you are just in user mode with no metronome then no LPA is applied to your recording Trigger Recording Repeater has a great little feature we call Trigger Recording Pressing Stop and Record at the same time will arm Repeater In this mode Repeater will automatically trigger the Record operation when an audio signal is pres ent a...

Page 16: ...aters 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 The All Repeater Band a little obsessive we know ...

Page 17: ...ommand from the bridge of your own console captain English 17 GETTING STARTED Bus or ALT Output MainOutput MIDI OUT FOOT SWITCH POWER Phono Line LEFT LEFT R L RIGHT INPUT RETURN SEND DIGITAL SPDIF RIGHT FX INSERT OUTPUT 15WATTS USE ONLY WITH ELECTRIX POWER SUPPLY MODEL TFR0035 IN THRU MIDI CHANNEL OUT MIDI 1 2 3 4 TRACK OUTPUT ASSIGN TRACKS 3 AND 4 TO THE FX INSERT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT REPEATER L...

Page 18: ...ting theSyncMode Repeater defaults to User Sync mode on power up If you wish to Record while syncing to MIDI or Beat Detection select the appropriate Sync mode before starting your Recording Setting Levels before Recording The Input Level knob on the front panel of Repeater controls the front and back input levels To set the level plug in your instrument and tweak the Input Level knob until the LE...

Page 19: ...out erasing the original recording In Replace mode Repeater will replace the existing material on the track with the new recording like a conventional tape based recording device Pressing the Overdub button will extinguish the Overdub LED and put Repeater into the Replace mode Overdub lets you infinitely stack and layer additional parts much like you would on the JAMMANª or Digital Echoplex Proª S...

Page 20: ...t up a multitrack loop you can bounce it down to one or two tracks Resampling will cement any modifications you ve made to your loop including pitch shift track slip pan level FX and tempo Resampling can bounce the contents of all four tracks down to a mono or stereo pair of tracks You can only bounce down to a stereo pair if one is already made You cannot record a stereo pair over two mono tracks...

Page 21: ... cool effect is to hit Reverse overdub a new part and then hit Reverse again to take you out of the reverse mode Now your loop will play forwards and the portion you ve just overdubbed like a guitar solo will be playing backwards looC FX INSERT The stereo effects insert allows you to integrate external effects processing into your loop sound design You can assign this insert to the main input or o...

Page 22: ...p you can use the Loop knob to select a new target loop number if not the current loop number The new loop needs time to load about a half a second so prepare a little early for your loop transition Repeater tells you when the new loop is locked and loaded by adding a row of dots under the flashing loop number Pressing Play will then engage the auto loop transition Repeater will wait and quantize ...

Page 23: ...ay shows the current bar and beat counting down and the Record button LEDs will light Additionally while the undo function is available the Erase UNDO button is lit During recording it is legal to operate the Slip Pan and Pitch controls You may also dance but only if legal in your current location The special case of recording is the Initial recording which is defined as recording to a track in a ...

Page 24: ...en the memory limit is approached the display will show a shrinking bar graph that will show the impend ing demise of the available memory As the unit runs out of memory the unit will behave as if the user had pressed the Stop button Beat Quantization in MIDI and Beat Detect Sync modes If Repeater is in Beat Detect or MIDI sync modes or the Metronome is on then it is assumed that you want to hit t...

Page 25: ...t cause your loop to speed up This is because external sync modes like Beat Detection and MIDI Sync force the loop to synchronize to the incoming beats HereÕs what happens as Repeater goes in and out of Reverse the beat of the loop may become misaligned to that of the external sync source so Repeater will speed up slow down to correct this timing discrepancy and realign the beats If you don t want...

Page 26: ...W Math is truth and beauty For example in 3 4 time the Beats value would be 3 and the Div would equal 4 4 4 time the values would be Beat 4 Div 4 Trimming is non destructive so when you ve finished editing and want to discard the trimmed parts press and hold Trim The dis play will change to read and Stop and Trim will flash Pressing Trim will save and discard the trimmed ends The display will flas...

Page 27: ...possible for loops consisting completely of virtual tracks TEMPO EDIT If Repeater has not figured out the proper bars beats and division for your loop don t worry you can edit this infor mation Changing these values has no effect on the actual audio it will however affect how the loop syncs to incoming tempo information Press and hold Sync to get into the Tempo Edit mode Use the Loop knob to edit ...

Page 28: ...a time displays the pitch shift amount with a finer resolution Use the Tempo knob to change the pitch in cents 100th of semitone intervals Use the Loop knob to shift in semitone increments You can press and hold Pitch to reset to 0 PANNING You can set the pan positions for tracks using the Pan button Press Pan and the display will change to show the current pan value Deselect any tracks you donÕt ...

Page 29: ...ter stores tempo information within each loop This is the loop s ÔstoredÕ tempo In a per formance setting this feature allows you to pre configure each loop for a unique tempo that will automatically be recalled the next time the loop is loaded You can manually change the tempo of the loop at any time with the Tempo encoder or by tapping a new tempo with the Tap Tempo button If you change the temp...

Page 30: ...ows 1 Off Card inactive or no card is inserted It is safe to remove the card 2 Flashing Red Card checks out as unformatted or unusable 3 Flash Green Once Card is Ok 4 Constant Green Data is being read by the card 5 Constant Red Card is actively writing Do not remove IMPORTANT CFC Performance All CFCÕs are not created equal Some lack the bandwidth to keep up with Repeater Cards that we have tested ...

Page 31: ...d time stretch ing a loop Internal memory is great for those times when you forget your CFC or want to copy files between CFC s External Flash Memory CFC memory is non volatile and will hold its content forever without the need for power of any kind CFC memory is designed to work like a hard drive in fact most computers treat it simply as a hard drive which makes it a widely compatible storage med...

Page 32: ...É see aboveÉ A typical 4 track loop will look like this Please do not rename any of the files inside a loop folder Repeater will not recognize files or folders that do not conform to its strict file structure The WAV files are standard files and are compatible with many PC based audio applications Each of the four tracks are exactly the same length COPYING BETWEENCOMPACT FLASH CARDS There are two ...

Page 33: ...ard When copying Loop folders insure that they contain all of the proprietary Repeater files along with the WAV files Exporting Loops From Repeater The WAV file format has provision for region marks Repeater uses the region marks to identify the start and end point of the loop Most audio applications will support and indicate the region marks in their editor win dows English 33 Bounce Tracks Commi...

Page 34: ...ed as a SPP of 0 and a sequencer start message 0x FA Stop Stops the sequencer 0xFC Clock Sent out 24 times per quarter note 0xF8 Advanced MIDI RT tweaking In some situations it may be desirable for Repeater to NOT send out MIDI RT start stop and SPP messages The output of these messages can be inhibited enabled by sending Repeater the Inhibit MIDI RT Control CC message When syncing via MIDI it may...

Page 35: ...er MIDI channel Additionally all front panel controls respond to CC and PC messages received on the currently selected MIDI channel The MIDI CC and PC messages supported are given in the Repeater MIDI Specifications Table USING A MIDI FOOT CONTROLLER WITH REPEATER By lining up a MIDI foot controller with some of the above mentioned parameters it is possible to control a Repeater entirely with oneÕ...

Page 36: ...ls Cubase Syncing to Cubase is also simple First if you are using a Mac you must set up OMS see above This assumes you have a MIDI interface Then you will need to setup your synchronization inputs and outputs Go to the Synchronization window under the Options menu Select your input and output device Set the tempo base to MIDI Clock Select your MIDI clock input source as your MIDI inter face port F...

Page 37: ... C Pan Track 1 64 N A 24 0 127 0 full left 64 centre 127 full right Pan Track 2 64 N A 25 0 127 0 full left 64 centre 127 full right Pan Track 3 64 N A 26 0 127 0 full left 64 centre 127 full right Pan Track 4 64 N A 27 0 127 0 full left 64 centre 127 full right Pitch Track 1 Semi 64 N A 28 12 Semitones as per Appendix D Pitch Track 1 Cents 0 N A 60 0 99 0 99 cents 99 127 99 Pitch Track 2 Semi 64 ...

Page 38: ...92 64 86 arm trigger at current programmed level Values 87 127 arm the audio trigger at 40dB to 0 dB respectively Advance Track Select N A 24 109 64 127 Action Tracks 1 2 Level Mute N A 25 110 0 127 See Appendix G Tracks 3 4 Level Mute N A 26 111 0 127 See Appendix G Inhibit MIDI RT Start Stop Off N A 112 0 63 off 64 127 on Output Internal Loop Select PC N A 48 63 N A Selects Internal loop 1 16 CF...

Page 39: ...e beat by per centage Appendix D Sets Pitch Shift in semitones 40 24 46 18 52 12 58 6 64 0 70 6 76 12 41 23 47 17 53 11 59 5 65 1 71 7 42 22 48 16 54 10 60 4 66 2 72 8 43 21 49 15 55 9 61 3 67 3 73 9 44 20 50 14 56 8 62 2 68 4 74 10 45 19 51 13 57 7 63 1 69 5 75 11 Appendix E Selects the FX Insert combination 0 No Effects Insert active 6 FX on Tracks 2 3 12 FX on Tracks 3 4 1 FX on Track 1 7 FX on...

Page 40: ...100 which you can modify with the Loop and Tempo knobs These changes will affect your tempo and the Bars and Beats will be recalculated according to the rule Seconds Bars x Beats x Tempo 60 Div For example in 3 4 time the Beats value would be 3 and the Div would equal 4 4 4 time the values would be Beat 4 Div 4 Undo Press Erase UNDO and the display reads for a second Press Erase UNDO a second time...

Page 41: ...e Loop knob to edit the total number of beats in the loop Use the Tempo knob to change the time signature Slip If only one track is selected for slipping the display reads with a higher resolution displayed for the slip amount in bars beats 1 100 of a beat If more than one track is selected for slipping the display shows all slip values in beats only The dot indicates that the value is as displaye...

Page 42: ... finish the resample CFC States Card Ready Card inserted in socket and socket LEDs off Reading from card Green Writing to card Red Reading Writing Amber Card rejected Flashing Red Note Removing the card whilst reading or writing is in progress can potentially corrupt the file system on the card To be safe ensure the CFC slot LEDs are off before removing the card Unformatted Cards If you insert an ...

Page 43: ...load and then press Record to upgrade the unit Any other button press cancels the action Blank Loop Blank loop with tempo information Low on Memory In the case that record is triggered when memory is full the word will flash in the memory play time window for 3 seconds Unless the unit shows the current memory space is full a track select button or a stereo linked pair of Track Select buttons will ...

Page 44: ...situation is to try and optimise the levels in the system to minimise noise Try adjusting the input level of the guitar amp down so that it will accept a signal from Repeater that corresponds to 0dB or better on the track level indi cators without clipping Reducing the output of Repeater using the track sliders or input level control is undesirable as this will reduce the ratio of signal to noise ...

Page 45: ... to adjust the tempo of the loop into a range that Repeater can handle I remove the CFC and when I put it back in the loop has lost my edits Repeater saves parameters only after coming out of record or when you change loops Try changing loops before removing the card My loop speeds up If you are in Beat Detect or MIDI sync modes Repeater will sync your loop to these sources If In different cases t...

Page 46: ...3 M Memory Space Management 31 Metronome 12 MIDI 34 MIDI Clock 34 MIDI Foot Controller 35 43 MIDI Specifications 37 Multiple Outputs 17 Multiply Loop 26 39 O Overdub 12 19 43 Overdub Feedback 14 19 40 P Pan 28 40 Pitch 14 28 40 Trigger Pitch 28 34 Play 23 R Rear Panel 10 Recording 11 23 Recording and Combining Loops at Different Tempos 11 Recording Polyrhythmic Time Signatures 27 Replace 19 Resamp...

Page 47: ...Frequency Response 0 0 6dB 20Hz to 20kHz Gain 0dB INSTRUMENT PATH Connector 1 4Ó Unbalanced Input Input Impedance 500kOhm SNR 94dB A Weighted THD 0 014 Max Input 18 2 dBu Frequency Response 0 0 5dB 20Hz to 20kHz Gain 21dB to negative infinity PHONO PATH Connector RCA phono line Input Input Impedance 47kOhm phono line SNR 94dB A Weighted THD 0 28 phono 0 014 line Max Input 19 dBu phono 18 2 dBu lin...

Page 48: ...English 48 FLOW DIAGRAMS ...