Re: So you want an effects processor (A5000)?

["Jesse Ray Lucas" <jlucas@neoprimitive.net>]

Matthias-

    Yes, the A5000 is a large box (14" deep), two rack spaces high.  It's
not that heavy though, compared to the size/weight ratio of the EDP.  Most
of the box is empty.

    You wouldn't be able to record a show on the A4/5000 because the RAM,
which is what it records into and plays out of, maxes out at 128MB (about 
12
minutes of stereo 44.1kHz, 16-bit audio).  You also wouldn't be able to use
it as an effects processor and recorder, unless you were using it in mono.
And even then it would be a weird setup.

    Ha ha, no realtime recording/looping either.  Although, you could 
sample
a loop or a set of loops and put them in the A5000 and trigger them with
some kind of keyboard/foot controller, which you could then play over, but
this would require work at home beforehand.  It's not a device that's
designed for live, on-the-fly usage.  The A5000 does not generate sync (and
will only sync it's LFO [through which you can sync delay effects] to
external sync), however, so you would need some kind of brain (e.g.
sequencer) controlling things.  *Or* you could program some kind of click
into a loop that would only go out of a specific output, and then pipe that
into the BeatSync jack on the EDP.  Possibilities for abuse are endless.

    The A5000 has a function called "Beat Change" which allows you to 
change
the length of a sample (e.g. a drum loop) without changing the pitch, or
vice versa, or both, in realtime.  You could map this control to a MIDI CC
fader/knob and adjust the tempo of a drum loop in realtime.  However, the
timestretching does not work on signals coming in the analog inputs on the
front of the A5000 (that would require the sound to be constantly sampled
and tossed into a buffer while the sound was being dynamically slowed down
and played back, and...well, how would you speed it up...a mind-reading
sampler that could predict the waveforms of what you were going to play 
into
it? -- once again, not what this thing was primarily designed for).

    What the A5000 excels at is sound mangling.  It does much more than 
just
chorus and pitch stuff.  The lo-fidelity/lo-res filters, and the
ring-modulator (TechMod) are my favorite to play with.  But putting those
through rotating speaker simulators, and pitch shifters make for some 
really
wacky sounds, too.  And when you start controlling effects parameters with
footpedals, then you're getting out there.

    I think it's a good box.  It has more than one use.

-J



----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthias Grob" <matthias@grob.org>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: So you want an effects processor (A5000)?


> fascinating suggestion, Jesse!
> I was mainly trying to reduce size and weight of my box by replacing
> the PCM80 and PCM90 by a single effect unit.
>
> With a A5000 the box would have the same hight, but become deeper and
> a little heavier but there would be a sampler...
> I dont know whether i could use one.
>
> Certainly would be interesting to record the show on its HD, but I am
> not sure whether the routing allows to use the effects and record the
> result?
>
> Could be interesting to add some basic loops... can you record
> samples nearly realtime?
>
> Certainly the effects dont match the PCMs, and there is no need for 
>stage.
> But can you do complex things that sound pretty strange or just the
> standard chorus/pitch and such as it looks in Yamahas Sampler manual?