Kurzweil EventStation Percussion Controller
January 28, 1999
Kurzweil is planning on doing more than just keyboards and heading
into electronic percussion. By combining a pad kit from Dauz Drums and Kurzweil's
VAST sampling technology with the new EventStation percussion controller,
drummers can build a powerful and expandable electronic percussion set.
EventStation Specifications
- 32 Kits
- 32 assignable inputs organized as 16 2-zone Pads.
- Any type of pad or pedal may insert into any input jack.
- 2 MIDI output ports organized as 32 MIDI channels.
- PSR pads are supported. Notes from PSR pads may sustain until the applied
pressure is released.
- Piezo pads are supported with note-offs via gate-times, adjustable from
1-9999 msec.
- 16 front-panel keys are both velocity and pressure sensing and may be used
to aid programming or for performance.
- Rear-Panel Expansion connector can accept up to 8000 additional inputs
without appreciable delay.
- Tap-Tempo is assigned to a Tempo-Pad which will sync the MIDI clock in real
time.
- HiHat has 8 positions for velocity switching, or crossfades.
- All pads will also support 8-way velocity switching and CrossFades.
- A pad may play a stack of either 8 notes or a variable-length list of notes.
- The onboard scratchpad sequencer will record the entire kit and store for
re-play up to 255 sequences with a total storage space of 6000 notes or other
events. Massively upgradeable with memory cards.
- Any MIDI Continuous Control message, sequencer control message, program
change or bank select message may be assigned into any of the Pad's event
slots.
- Every note-event may have an associated Gate-Time.
- Pads may mute or re-trigger other pad's events.
- Pad Response: Either of two distinct scanning algorithms will activate
automatically depending on the user's chosen input hardware type. One scanner
is extremely fast but offers no false-trigger rejection and is best used when
the trigger output waveforms are fairly "clean". This will be suitable
for most trigger pads. The other scanner uses a proprietary technique to even
out the anomalies of "messy" waveforms.
Response parameters, per Pad within each kit:
- Gain for each pad is adjustable from 1%-200% and may be viewed from a bar-graph
display.
- Threshold set the lower limit of a Pad's MIDI response
- Scan-Time adjusts for different trigger-types.
- Mask-time will set the time after an initial hit that subsequent peaks
are ignored. Used to control double-triggering
- AutoSuppression rejects sympathetic responses to other pad-hits.
- Specific Rejection allows a pad to always mute a sympathetic response from
a give pad-number.
- A ReferencePad settings is available to allow for the cancellation of vibrations
from the floor or other sources which affect the entire kit.
- 16 global Velocity curves have 6 user-adjustable points which pair force
levels with a MIDI velocity values. Using the curves, each Pad may be tailored
to any velocity response.
- An "ActivePads" display screen shows the activity-state for the
entire kit with a 32-location bar-graph.
- A TRAIN mode allows a player to teach the system his or her force-levels
for the lightest and hardest strokes for each pad.
A set of SHOWALL menu-screens give a quick over-view of various systems settings.
Performance Hardware (Your Kit)
The 16 rear-panel 1/4" stereo inputs may each accept a variety of performance
hardware which includes
- 2-Zone Kurzweil TriggerPads with a Piezo center and a Pressure-Responsive
rim
- 2-Zone Roland or Yamaha-compatible pads with a Piezo center and switch-type
rim,
- Standard- I -zone (mono) piezo drum trigger
- Electronic HiHat pedal.
- ContinuousControl Expression pedal.
Events
A MIDI event includes NOTE_ON/OFF, CONTROL CHANGE, PROGRAM CHANGE, SEQUENCE
CONTROL, SYSTEM - EXCLUSIVE or any other valid MIDI message. The format for
an EVENT is I -Status byte and 2 Data bytes. If only I Data byte is needed,
the other is left empty. An EVENT also has a GATE time which is the duration
of a note-event expressed in milliseconds. The EventStructure is expandable
to allow for the addition of new event-parameters in the future.
The Pad Structure
PAD is comprised of a group of events. There are currently two types of PAD-GROUPS
which may be applied to a PAD... 8-event groups and variable length groups.
The 8-note groups may carry combinations of any type of events which are programmed
either manually or by sysex dump. When Notes are assigned within this 8-EVENT
group, their NOTE-VELOCITY is picked up from the performance pads and pedals.
The 8-event groups are used for simply playing 1 or a just a few notes or other
events. They are also used for the various pedal-modes and LINK modes which
use the response from one pad or pedal to alter the output of another pad's
(or pedal's) events.
A variable-length group is created for a pad by performing something with your
hardware Kit. and recording a MIDI-SEQUENCE, live, into the PAD's Event-buffer.
These note-events will have their velocities determined at the time of their
performance and will not be altered when the MIDI Sequence is played back. Both
the 8-event and the variable-length buffers may be edited on-board.
There are 33 assignable PADS in the standard EventStation, which includes the
32 performance inputs from the 16-stereo jacks on the rear panel and the Metronome
Pad which may be programmed separately. Also, there are 16 touch-sensitive Performance
Keys on the front-panel of the EventStation which may be used to program and
audition sounds for their corresponding jacks at the rear of the machine.
A KIT in the EventStation is a complete configuration of all of the Events
for each of the 33 assignable pads.
The Metronome is a programmable buffer of events which is looped by default.
A characteristic of simple Metronome presets has the upbeat and/or downbeat
notes accented with a higher velocity than the rest of the notes. The player
has complete control of the the events of the Metronome however. Also, the Mteronome
may be assigned a TEMPO PAD which is used to set the tempo of the click in real
time. Other devices have been marketed in the past which offered just this synchronization
feature and nothing else.
A Pad may have up to 8 LINKS assigned to it which allow the pad to Trigger
the events of other pads. The LINKed Pads' events may be played together with
the events of the Trigger Pad or sequentially after the timeout of the Trigger
pad in "daisy-chain" fashion. Also, a PAD-LINK may mute the events
of another Pad.
Pad Modes:
- Off:
- NotesAll: 1-8note/event simultaneous from 1 hit. ChordMemory
- NotesSequential: 1-8 notes/events play in sequence from 1 hit. Uses
user-programmed Gate-times.
- NotesSequentialLoop: 1-8 notes/events will play from a hit and loop
until the pad is re-struck.
- AltUp: 1 note/hit. buffer bottom to top.
- AltDown: 1 note/hit. Buffer top to bottom.
- AltUpDown: 1 note/hit. Top-Bottom, Reverse.
- AltRandom: Each hit is 1 of 8, randomly
- Latched: Toggle note(s) On/Off from hit.
- Squeeze: Maintaining the Pad Pressure for a PSR pad will sustain
the Pad's Note(s)
- ContinuousControl: Track pressure and send a CC value
- Velocity Switch: The 8 event(note) entries are played singly based
on velocity-threshold switch-points. The notes are issued at the sensed velocity.
- Velocity CrossFade: The assigned note-events are blended according
to the velocity-value. For a light hit the first event is played softly and
the last event is played loudly. For a hard-hit the first event is played
loudly and the last event is played softly. A reverse mode could be added.
- Velocity-Add: 1-8 events/notes are played according to Pad velocity.
A light hit plays Event# 1. The hardest hit plays all 8 events/notes in the
buffer.
- NotesRepeat: The first activity starts the repeat of another Pad's
events. Continued variable pressure changes the repeat-rate.
- SweepNotes/ArpeggioMode: Similar to HiHat Mode. A pad hit plays the
first note in its buffer. Sweeping a pedal will play the rest of the notes
in the buffer according to the pedal's 8 threshold levels. Reversing the direction
of the pedal terminates the mode.
The Event-structure allows use as an arpeggiator although it currently must
be hand-programmed.
Additional arpeggiator software would automatically generate note-values and
gate times. A must!
- ProgramChange Send 1-8 program changes together. (2 bytes = Status/Data).
The Bank# adds 2 bytes (CC0/CC32)
[use bit7 as a disable flag for the bank-bytes]
- SweepProgram: Send Program Change based on 8 thresholds.
- PatternSequence: Stop/Continue onboard variable-length MIDI sequence
- MIDI_Sequence: Stop/Continue external MIDI sequence
- Kit-Increment: When the pad is sensed the next Kit# is selected.
- Kit-Decrement: The kit# is dec'd. Chain-Inc: The step# in a recorded
chain is incremented.
- MuteAll: Mutes all other pads when struck.
- MessageTrigger: Triggers a Pad's events from a single MIDI input
message from the external MIDI Input port.
- RefPad: Peak is 1) subtracted from all simultaneous new peaks
or 2) read as a supression-reference
- RecPad: Start OnBoard KitRecord to a MIDI sequence/Macro
- HiHatPedal#l: Pressure changes note#-index sent from another Pad's
8-note buffer. Uses 8 thresholds. Programmable raw-vals?
- HiHatPedal#2: CC message may be sent along with the note-selects
to the HiHat pad.
- HatPad: Note-on uses this Pad's velocity but the HHPedl's thresholds
to select I note from the 8-note buffer
- PressurePad: PolyKeyPressure follows Note-On from a single PSR pad.
ClockOn: turns on the MIDI clock.
- ClockPad: The assigned Pad becomes the Tempo pad which is used to
control the metronome and the outgoing MIDI clock.
- ClockPadAdvance: Successive hits on this pad will advance the Pad#
of the TempoPad.
For more information, visit Kurzweil at www.youngchang.com/kurzweil
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