Monday 25 January 2021

Andromeda A6 - Alesis Part 2 - Ribbon Controller & Performance Wheel

 The Ribbon Controller

 

 The Ribbon controller can be thought of like a pitch or mod wheel stretched across the keyboard.
As it has a much longer travel, its more accurate than  a mod wheel.

It can be assigned to any of the A6’s mod destinations and is programmable per Program like the wheels.
The MIDI Controller Number is user selectable


The ribbon can be assigned to multiple destinations at the one time and has 3 configurations.
1. Ribbon Value
2. Ribbon Left
3. Ribbon right
 
 
 
1. Ribbon Value
This assigns continuous values over its entire length.
 
2. Ribbon Left
This divides the ribbon in half.
The left becomes a self contained ribbon.
(There is a centre line).
 
3. Ribbon right
This divides the ribbon in half.
The right becomes a self contained ribbon.
 
The ribbon can also be a control route source .
Can be used to rescale any other modulation in a live performance
 

Ribbon HOLD Buttons 

On each side of the ribbon there are HOLD buttons. 
 
 
When ribbon hold mode is on, the ribbon value will be “sticky”. 
That is, when you lift your finger from the ribbon, it will hold its value. 
When you exit ribbon hold mode, the ribbon value will snap back 

Programming the Ribbon Controller

1. Press the RIBBON button to the left of the ribbon controller.
    This displays its control routes (CROUTES).
     In the CRoutes display a Mod Route can be assigned only one controller at any time.
     Also, only 35 of the Mod Routes can be controlled from here.
 
You can see in the above pic, that the ribbon is not connected to anything.
 
2. Press soft button 1 (CROUTE). 
You’ll now see a list of SOURCES on the left, going through a LEVEL and ENABLE control, to a list of ROUTEs on the right.
 
 
3. To change the sources on the left (to either Ribbon Value, Ribbon left or Ribbon right),
    turn the soft knob 1 or  press the up or down keys when SOURCE is highlighted.
 
 
4.  Turn soft knob 5 (ROUTE),
 (or press the up or down keys when ROUTE is highlighted), 
to display the destination.
To highlight ROUTE turn soft knob 5 very gently, then use the up/down keys.
 
 
 
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 The Performance wheels.

The A6 has two performance wheels.
They are incredibly flexible. 


These are mainly used for pitch bend (PITCH) and vibrato (MOD). 
The Pitch wheel is on the left. It is a spring-loaded wheel that snaps back to its center or neutral position when released.
The Mod wheel is on the right. It is not spring loaded and must be manually returned to its off position. 
It is normally used for vibrato.

Of course, you don't have to use these two wheels as described above. Eg you can make both pitch bend , both vibrato, swap them, neither,  etc.
You can assign these wheels to modulate any parameter that is designated as a mod destination. 
You can even assign the wheels to perform multiple modulations at the same time.

The pitch wheel is usually set up so that pushing it away from you bends played notes up in pitch and pulling bends them down. This setting can be reversed.
It can also have a different type of modulation on either side of the center stop.
 

Programming the Wheels

 
To make changes to either wheel, press the PITCH (“Pitch Wheel”) ASSIGN 
or the MOD (“Mod Wheel”) ASSIGN button. 
The parameters for that wheel will be displayed 
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CHORDS 
 
The CHORD button allows you to play a chord with a single key. 
To define a chord, hold down the CHORD button until the chord LED starts to blink. 
Then, play the notes of the chord and release the button. 
After the chord is in memory, playing a single note on the keyboard will play the chord relative to the note you played. To toggle chord mode on and off, simply press the CHORD button.
 
 
 
 

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