Alesis NanoBass, Reference Manual, Page: 3 / 83

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NanoBass Reference Manual
3
Welcome!
Musician jokes are legion, but the one that comes to mind right now runs as
follows:
Stanley and Livingstone, on trek through the jungles of darkest Africa, are
awakened one night by the distant, maniacal pulsing of tribal drums. Unable to
return to sleep, they leave their tent and make themselves a cup of tea at the
campfire. The drums continue for hours, finally stopping at dawn. At noon that
day, while taking a break from hacking a path through the thick vegetation, the
two British explorers finally get to ask one of the bearers about the drums. The
man becomes extremely agitated. When pressed on the subject, he says only
one thing: “Oh no, no. Drums no problem. Much worse when drums stop.” That
night the two explorers are woken again by the drums, and the night after that as
well, but no matter how hard they push for an explanation all they hear, again
and again, is the same useless reply: “Oh no, no. Much worse when drums stop.”
Finally, exhausted from lack of sleep, unable to go further, they give up and turn
the expedition around, returning to their base at the nearest trading outpost. All
the way back the bearers seem much relieved.
Immediately on arrival, the explorers seek out the chief from whom they’d hired
the bearers and demand an explanation. “Oh no, no,” the old man says, “Drums
no problem. Much worse — “
“— when drums stop. Yes, old bean, we’ve got that part,” snarls Stanley.
Meanwhile Livingstone loses it, screaming “But why is it worse when the drums
stop!?”
“Bass solo,” says the chief.
(Just kidding. Some of my best friends are bassists, I swear it.)
You are now the proud owner of a tremedously powerful little box. Inside it you
will find 256 truly extraordinary bass programs, all constructed from linear, non-
compressed 48kHz 16-bit samples that are stored in four megabytes of on-board
ROM. Electric basses, acoustic basses, synth basses, clavinet basses...they’re
all here, and more, in an incredibly low cost/zero hassle package.
And while I’m grinning, let me also mention some other things I particularly
appreciate about the unit — like 64 voices of polyphony, the same built-in