[A6] Mix Mode and Keyboard local off?

[elmacaco]

> I never understood the rationale behind individual voice outs in
> practice, since you can't restrict poly voices to a range.  You have
> to hard pan on main and aux as you indicated.

This does seem a bit odd, the Xpander and Matrix 12 allow you great
flexibility with their zones, the A6 would only need 8 assignable zones to
match the flexibility, and then the individual outs would be able to be
grouped accordingly.

I guess they only considered it for taking monophonic voices out through
their own mixer channel, as it can be a bit awkward to have individual mixer
channels per voice for a polyphonic patch, but it wouldn't be the first time
(Matrix 12, Xpander).

I guess the thinking was that with the aux and stereo outs, you can divide
the A6 into 4 separate poly sections with 4 voice poly each, and any mono
lines you want you take from the individual outs, yet the available voices
are allocated as needed between the 4 poly parts.

Hmm, it kinda makes sense now, but it would be great to assign specific
voices to polyphoinic mix channels, with 16 voices, you can end up with more
polyphonic parts than 4, and It's nice to mix them on a mixer, and record
them on separate tracks in one pass.

> I suspect they were using these in the lab as debug outs for the
> individual vcas and just left the jacks on in production.  I have yet
> to hear of a good use for all of these.

My guess is that it's intended only for mono sounds, and perhaps more
specifically for synthesized drum sounds where individual outs are a must
for further processing.  I'm glad they are their but it does seem like just
another month and some of these things wouldn't have been missed.

You're probably right since they are direct voice outs, had they been
assignable like on samplers, you could have had 8 stereo pairs completely
configurable to mono as well.  But, I know that most gear isn't designed
with me in mind, luckily the synthesis side delivers so well that these work
arounds are minor considering what you do get.

I wonder how many people on the list use mix mode?

Thanks again Mike, I'm glad I'm not alone in missing poly assignment.

Ed


> Bonne chance,
> Mike
>
>
> On May 4, 2006, at 1:08 PM, elmacaco wrote:
>
> > Thanks Mike,
> >
> > I was beginning to suspect as much.  Right now I just have mix
> > channel one
> > enabled, that should be easy enough to remember as the master
> > keyboard, If I
> > come across a situation where I want to mute it, then using mix
> > channel 16
> > is a good idea, as it seems unlikely that I will even use 16
> > separate mix
> > channels.
> >
> > Thanks for the suggestion.
> >
> > One more thing, is there a way in Mix mode to define which voices
> > are used
> > by each channel in poly mode?  I'm interested in using the
> > individual outs
> > with poly sounds.
> >
> > I know in mono mode it's simple, and I can use the stereo and aux
> > outs for 2
> > poly sounds, no wait 4 if I hard pan them, hmm... that just might
> > do it if
> > there is no direct way to define what voices are used, still seems
> > a bit of
> > a waste of the individual outs if you can't constrain the voice
> > pool for
> > each sound or mix channel.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Ed
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mike Schultz" <mschultz at magma.ca>
> > To: "A6" <a6 at code404.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:16 AM
> > Subject: Re: [A6] Mix Mode and Keyboard local off?
> >
> >
> >> Ed,
> >> The short answer is no.
> >>
> >> One active mix channel has to have the keyboard enabled over the
> >> range, otherwise you won't transmit squat.  I suppose you could try
> >> something fancy, like making a silent mono patch and putting that up
> >> on mix channel 16, which has keyboard enabled over the entire range.
> >> But then you are wasting a voice, and adding more complexity.  That
> >> is the nature of the thing.
> >>
> >> MikeS
> >>
> >> ---
> >> www.boycrusher.com
> >> www.hilotrons.com
> >>
> >>
> >> On May 4, 2006, at 3:04 AM, elmacaco wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi everybody,
> >>>
> >>> I am attempting to set up the Andromeda as my master keyboard for
> >>> the time
> >>> being, and everything seems to work fine in program mode, but when
> >>> I get to
> >>> Mix mode I encounter something strange.  If I set all Mix Channels
> >>> to MIDI
> >>> Out <OFF> and KYBD <OFF> it seems to override the Global keyboard
> >>> setting of
> >>> MIDI Transmit altogether.  I was hoping that the keyboard would
> >>> send midi
> >>> out independent of the mix channel settings like a normal local off
> >>> mode, so
> >>> then I can use the mix channel select buttons as mutes.  As it
> >>> stands I have
> >>> to keep one active with MIDI OUT and KYBD both On to still use it
> >>> as a
> >>> master, even when controlling other synths.
> >>>
> >>> Is there a way to disable the mix mode override of the global
> >>> keybopard
> >>> setting?  So I can just have all mix channels set to MIDI IN <ON>
> >>> with KYBD
> >>> and MIDI OUT <OFF> and not worry about muting my controller when I
> >>> mute an
> >>> A6 Mix channel?  I guess I was hoping that setting local off was a
> >>> true
> >>> local off even in mix mode and leaves the keyboard transmitting midi
> >>> independant of the A6's voice mix settings.
> >>>
> >>> I see the value in the flexibility of the set up as it is, being
> >>> able to
> >>> have your controller transmit on any and all channels at the same
> >>> time is
> >>> pretty handy for some I guess, but for the purposes of me and my
> >>> sequencer,
> >>> I hope that there is a way to make the keyboard transmit midi
> >>> regardless of
> >>> the mix channel settings.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>>
> >>> Ed
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> A6 mailing list
> >>> A6 at code404.com
> >>> http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> A6 mailing list
> >> A6 at code404.com
> >> http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
> >>
>
>