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Tips
& Tricks
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The
ASR-X Lives! The
ASR-X Lives! Craig
Anderton In
the fall of '98, the ASR-X became the heart of my
"loops and guitar" live act. But it also started a
love/hate relationship that, fortunately, has taken
more of a turn toward love lately thanks to three
cool add-ons: Software version 2.67, the MIDITools
Controller Thinner, and the Peavey PC1600 fader
controller. Here's the deal. V2.67
tightens up the MIDI timing in a major way (and
wow, did the ASR-X ever need it). You'll hear the
difference as soon the first measure of a sequence
plays. Also, it tightens up the timing of internal
timing-related parameters (like when you sync a
parameter to the system clock). If you have an
ASR-X, you must have this update. The
Peavey PC1600 is a 16-channel fader box (it also
has 16 assignable buttons). Feeding its output into
the ASR-X's MIDI in, and assigning faders 1-16 to
controller 7 for channels 1-16, allows for
real-time control over loop levels. This is crucial
for "opening up the box," as there's no way the
existing interface allows you to do this sort of
thing. Also, because you can program snapshot mixes
into the PC1600, it's a piece of cake to move
through a remix - mix for a while, then call up a
snapshot, then mix some more, etc. However,
slamming a bunch of PC-1600 faders can send out
enough data to choke the ASR-X and totally screw up
the timing. This is where the MIDITools box comes
in. This is made by a company up in Seattle called
Pavo (www.pavo.com), and first appeared in the book
"Digital Projects for Musicians," co-written by Bob
Moses and Greg Bartlett at Pavo (with help from
me). Anyway, this can thin out the controller data
enough to keep the ASR-X happy. And
if you investigate these three aspects of the
ASR-X, you'll be happier too! I can only hope there
will be one more rev that allows you to disable the
resetting of the track parameters when a loop goes
back to the beginning. This totally messes up the
flow when you're doing a remix, and all of a
sudden, everything jumps back to its original
value. Ensoniq, please, fix this - it would also
extend memory dramatically since a loop that
repeats takes up little space. By
the way, if you're curious about what I'm doing
with the ASR-X, I do give concerts periodically in
Europe (mostly Germany) and am starting to do a few
more dates here in the USA. However, these ASR-X
loops will also be the foundation of a loop library
I'm doing for Sonic Foundry's ACID program. This is
a little different concept for a loop library, as
it also contains several ACID projects of complete
songs that I do using the loops. In a way, I'm
treating ACID as a music delivery system, but
what's cool is that it's interactive. You can click
on a tune to hear my version of how to use the
loops, or mess with the tunes, use the loops in
your own productions, etc. Fun stuff! Now,
before signing off, I have to comment on the whole
Hacker/Ensoniq thing. First, Jane and Eric deserve
nothing but commendation, praise, and admiration
for what they've done with this newsletter. As to
Ensoniq, being a synth company is a high-risk
business: consider Moog, ARP, Oberheim, Sequential
Circuits, Polyfusion, and several others. Having
experienced the music industry from the inside and
the outside, I understand both the frustration in
dealing with the company, as well as the
difficulties of running a company under the best of
circumstances, let alone in a very high-risk
business. I can guarantee you that the people at
Ensoniq have done their very best to deliver the
best products they could, and if they didn't meet
our lofty expectations as users, the fault is
partly in our expectations as well as a company's
inability to deliver on those
expectations. PARIS
looks like it will survive, which is great news: I
think it's a fabulous system. Yes, the Ensoniq we
know is gone. So are Atari computers, Prophet 5s,
and a bunch of other cool things that for one
reason or another, couldn't hack the cruelly
Darwinian process that goes on in any small,
low-margin industry. So let's thank everyone for
what they've done, wish them the best for the
future, and get on with the art of making music.
And yes, if my TS-10 ever blows up and I can't get
it serviced, I'll be VERY bummed... Bye,
everyone. Thanks again, Jane and Eric, for hosting
the party and letting us make a mess of your living
room : ) |
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