Getting started with ZEIT (Desktop unit)
Contents
1. upon the current operating mode We ve tried to keep this dual functionality to an absolute minimum because it s a feature that the majority of users including us don t like However without Shift mode ZEIT would have been double the size and we think you ll agree it s already big enough To make it easier to keep track of which mode you re in the Shift LED flashes once a second when you re in Shift mode When you re in Normal mode the LED stays off ZEIT USER MANUAL2. GETTING STARTED 1 1 1 GETTING STARTED Before you begin working with ZEIT you ll need to connect the instrument up to the power supply and a suitable MIDI sound generator This illustration shows the location of the power inlet and MIDI sockets on the rear panel of the sequencer CAUTION h ATTENTION souvan MULTI TAACK MID LAAI ZEIT is a MIDI Only device That is it only generates MIDI data and doesn t generate any sound of its own Consequently in order to hear anything you must first connect the sequencer up to a MIDI compatible sound generator or keyboard MIDI Out MIDI In i MIDI In MIDI Out ZEIT USER MANUAL 1 2 GETTING STARTED When you have connected your MIDI device to ZEIT as shown in the above diagram set the MIDI receive channel on your keyboard to Channel 1 If you don t know how to do this then consult the User Guide that came with your module Locate the Playback strip on ZEIT s front panel and press the button marked MIDI The display will show the following screen 26 Sequence T Chan gt 81 Prog The cursor points to the Chan field Turn the Data Wheel until the MIDI Transmit channel for the current sequence is set to Channel 1 Next check that you have either headphones or an amplifier connected to the audio output on your MIDI device and the volume control on your device is set to the lowest volume Now pr
3. Sequence Enable T 2 3 4 Now let s jump to the very top of the instrument The first bank of knobs are the Note Pitch knobs We use these for changing the pitch of each individual step ZEIT USER MANUAL GETTING STARTED 1 5 Below the Note Pitch knobs are two banks of Controller knobs We use these for changing the MIDI Continuous Controller values Moving down to the first bank of push buttons we come to the Step Active switches If a step is active then the LED above the step is switched on When the step is muted a rest then the LED is switched off Next we come to the Skipped Step push buttons If the associated LED is switched on then this step is said to be normal When the LED is switched off then this step is said to be skipped and is ignored by the sequencer Now we come to the Playback push buttons This bank of push buttons does one of two things Some buttons will set a specific playback parameter such as the clock speed or the sequence direction but others will take you directly to a page within one of the edit menus For instance pressing the MIDI push button will take you directly to the MIDI Channel parameter in the Sequence Menu whilst pressing the FX Send push button will set the ZEIT USER MANUAL 1 6 GETTING STARTED state of the Effects Send routing for the current sequence This set up has been chosen to provide what we believe is the optimu
4. above diagram this reference is 26 You don t need to remember anything about the edit page number it s there mainly to assist you when talking to our technical support staff Let s look at a typical menu page Below is the Effects Repeat Note Adjust page within the MIDI Effects Processor Menu Page Cursor Page Sub Page Number Home Title Number TEE 34 gt Effects 1 Apt 03 To the right of the page number is the Cursor Home position When the cursor is in this position you can use the Data Wheel to navigate between the menu pages Turning the wheel clockwise increments the page number and turning the wheel anti clockwise decrements the page number When you reach the end of the available menu pages turning the Data Wheel has no effect To the right of the Home position is the Page Title and in the majority of cases this is followed by a Sub Page Number In menu pages that refer to sequence parameters you ll see the Sequence Number in the top right hand corner of the display Let s look at the Sequence Direction Clock page 1 10 GETTING STARTED Sequence Sequence Name Number Dir Fud Clk 4x fof f Direction Clock Sequence Speed Status In this example the page title is actually the sequence name this makes it easier to figure out which sequence you re working with We felt that it was OK to break our fairly strict presentation rules in this instance because it s easy to get lost when you re naviga
5. ally a Patch record groups together 8 sequences along with their associated settings for the MIDI effects unit the playback tempo the MIDI channel which sequences are enabled and which are muted etc You can group together all of the sequences and their associated settings that make up a piece of music under one Patch record and save and quickly recall complex patches at a later date Next we ll look at ZEIT s front panel The Front Panel At first glance many users find ZEIT a little intimidating However if we look at the individual sections that make up the instrument you should be able to start finding your way around the sequencer very quickly Let s begin with the Transport Control strip This is at the bottom right of the front panel beneath the main display and the Data Wheel f The Transport strip features four push buttons From left to right these are the Reset button Step Backwards button Play Stop button and the Step Forwards button The push buttons operate in exactly the same way as a traditional tape recorder transport mechanism Step backwards rewinds the sequencer by one step Play Stop makes the sequencer stop and start Step Forward advances the transport by one step and Reset forces all of the sequences back to their individual start steps ZEIT USER MANUAL 1 4 GETTING STARTED To the right of the Transport Control strip are the Data Entry push buttons These are used for savi
6. ess Play Stop in the Transport Control strip and slowly increase the volume on your device If the instruments are connected up properly you should be able to hear one of the factory preset sequences playing on your sound generator If you don t hear anything then check your connections to make sure that you haven t made a mistake In the next section we ll talk about some of the terms we use to describe how ZEIT works This will make it easier to understand the following sections Terminology The following is a short introduction to the terms we ll use frequently in the next couple of chapters Even if you re familiar with step sequencers in general we still recommend that you read this section to make sure we re all talking about the same thing ZEIT is an 8 track step sequencer By this we mean that the instrument can play 8 sequences at once on any of the 16 MIDI channels A sequence is made up of 3 data streams each consisting of 16 individual steps The data streams are hard wired as one note channel and two MIDI controller channels The note channel provides the raw MIDI notes and the controller channels provide articulation and expression to the sequence GETTING STARTED 1 3 A step can be either normal or skipped If a step is normal then it can be either active i e the sequencer plays a note or it can be muted the sequencer plays a rest If a step is skipped then the sequencer skips over it Fin
7. ideNoon OK f of j Sequence Sequence Confirmation Number Name Message When you re saving a sequence record scroll through the list of available locations and when you find a suitable record press the Select push button Your sequence record will be saved and an OK confirmation message will be displayed If you re changing data values with the Data Wheel and you re at the top of the available data range then turning another click in the clockwise direction will flip the parameter to the bottom of the available data range Likewise if you re at the lowest available value for a parameter then one more click in the anti clockwise direction will flip the parameter to the top of the available range One final function that is a bit of an odd ball and doesn t really fit in anywhere else is Edit Hold Edit Hold is a performance feature that when enabled lets you make a series of changes to the current sequence without those changes being passed to the output driver When you switch off Edit Hold those changes are then copied up to the output driver all at once so your audience will hear a sudden change in the sequence Of course if your edits are not passed to the output driver then you can t hear them either Hence it s a useful tool but once you know what you re doing 1 12 GETTING STARTED ZEIT has two operating modes Normal and Shift and the function of many of the push buttons on the front panel will change depending
8. m playback environment Wherever possible we ve tried to stick to the rule that one button has only one function However the Clock Speed and Direction push buttons have different though related functions in normal mode and in shift mode they simply extend the number of available clock and direction options In normal mode when you press one of the Clock Speed or Direction push buttons then the associated LED will remain on all the time When you re in shift mode then the associated LED will flash roughly twice a second Moving on we come to the Modifier strip On the left hand side we have the Low Frequency Oscillator LFO controls Each sequence has a LFO permanently wired into it and the output from the LFO can be routed to the Note Pitch Note Velocity and both of the MIDI Continuous Controller signals to slowly modify the sequences generated in real time A Sweep Generator is also hard wired into the sequence control set up We ll talk more about the Sweep Generator at a later stage Seoverce Directs Processor ta e eho See Se eee Fl Dee On the right hand side of the Modifier strip we have the Effects Processor strip This bank of push buttons will take you directly to the relevant page in the Effects Processor Edit Menu Finally we come to the Quick Select strip Straight out of the box these buttons call up the first page of the various edit menus and are used mostly for inspecting
9. ng and loading records and for moving between individual fields in the editor screens We ll talk in greater detail about these buttons in the Menus and Data Entry section later on in this chapter For the moment the most important push button in this section is the Shift push button because this button changes the function of many of the front panel controls When the Shift button has been pressed we say that the front panel is in shift mode The LED above the button will flash approximately once per second when you re in shift mode When you re in normal mode the LED is always Off Data Entry Control Select hifi Enter Above the Transport Control strip is the System Display and to the right of the System Display is the Data Entry Wheel which is usually referred to more simply as the Data Wheel We use this for changing parameters moving between editor pages and adjusting the playback speed To the left of the Transport Control strip is the Sequence Select strip ZEIT can have 8 sequences playing at once and we use this strip to select the sequence we want to edit next This sequence is often referred to as the current sequence Try pressing these buttons You should see how the display and front panel LEDs change every time you select a new sequence Above the Sequence Select Strip is the Sequence Enable strip These push buttons are very important because they let you enable and mute any number of sequences very quickly
10. re 8 of these one for every sequence equence Enable 2 1 3 4 In the above diagram Sequence 1 is shown as the currently selected sequence When selected the LED above the relevant Sequence Select push button lights up and remains illuminated until you press another Sequence Select push button Note that ZEIT has 8 sequences available at once The above diagram shows only the first 4 Play On Sequence Sequence Sequence Current Number Name State Step The first parameter on the second line is the Sequence Number for the current sequence and the second parameter is the Sequence Name The third parameter is the 1 8 GETTING STARTED Sequence State and this parameter is either On i e the sequence is playing or Off i e the sequence is silent Sequence Enable 1 2 3 4 You can change the Sequence State using the Sequence Enable push buttons on the front panel These are immediately above the Sequence Select push buttons If a sequence is active i e playing then the LED above the relevant Sequence Enable push button will illuminate If not then the LED will remain off In the above example Sequence 2 is active whilst sequences 1 3 and 4 are not i e they are muted If you press one of the Sequence Enable push buttons while you re in the Patch Tempo page the Sequence State will show either On or Off If you re in any of the other edit pages then the instrumen
11. t will jump to the Sequence State field in the Sequence Play Menu The fourth and final parameter on the second line is the Current Step for the current sequence This two digit number is updated constantly whilst the sequencer is playing Next we ll look at how you change data values to alter the way a sequence sounds The Menus and Data Entry We have tried to make the menu system as simple and as intuitive to use as possible Each menu consists of one or more pages and every menu page provides access to one or more data fields each representing a sequencer parameter When you change a sequencer parameter from the front panel you are automatically dropped into the relevant page within the edit menu for that parameter and the cursor a right chevron gt character will point to the data field that you have just changed If you just want to check on a particular value you can press one of the Menu Quick Select buttons and then use the navigation features to work your way through the menu ZEIT USER MANUAL GETTING STARTED 1 9 Edit Page Reference l 26 Sequence T Chan gt 81 Prog The menu pages themselves can be divided roughly into three groups 1 those that affect sequences 2 those that affect the current patch 3 and those that govern the system setup and MIDI facilities Certain positions on the screen are important The top left hand corner of every menu page is the Edit Page Reference In the
12. ting around menus We re not fond of menus that s why ZEIT has so many buttons and knobs This page also has three data fields a Direction parameter the Clock Rate and the Sequence Active Status To navigate between data fields you press the Enter button which is located at the bottom right of the front panel beneath the Data Wheel Every time you press the Enter button the LED flashes once and the cursor moves to the next field The cursor always moves around the screen in a counter clockwise direction When you reach the last data field on the screen the cursor returns to the Home position If there s only one parameter on the screen then the cursor will return to the Home position immediately In certain pages you have to press the Se ect button before something will happen The Select button is located near the Enter button at the bottom right hand side of the front panel ZEIT USER MANUAI GETTING STARTED 1 11 The diagram below shows the Load Sequence page in the Sequence Play menu To load a sequence press the Enter button so that the cursor is sitting after the Sequence Record Number and before the Sequence Name You can scroll through the available records until you find the one that you want When you ve found it press the Select button to load the record A confirmation message OK will appear to let you know that the sequence has been loaded Load Sequence Seq Al gt DarkS
13. values loading and saving records etc We recommend that you go through these menus with the manual open at the section called The Menus in Detail The Patch Tempo Screen The Patch Tempo screen is the first screen you see once the sequencer has finished starting up It s also the screen you return to when you exit from the edit menus ZEIT USER MANUAL GETTING STARTED 1 7 Patch Patch Sequencer Current Number Name Mode Tempo Y y Y y 86 DarkSideMoon Play 138 G 41 DarkSideBass On Al The top line of this page refers to the current Patch The first parameter is the Patch Record Number The next parameter is the Patch Name which in the above example is DarkSideMoon To change the Patch Name you would go to the Patch Edit Menu The third parameter is the Sequencer Mode which is usually Play but can be Comp when you re using the composer plug in or Morf when you re using the sequence Morph facility The fourth and final parameter on the top line is the Tempo setting When you re in this page you can use the Data Wheel to increase and decrease this value You can increase the Tempo up to a maximum of 250 BPM and decease down to a minimum of 30 BPM Note that when synchronised to external MIDI equipment this value is approximate only The second line tells you about the current sequence which is selected using the Sequence Select push buttons at the bottom left of the front panel There a
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