2.
2. Press the [RHYTHM TRACK] button (right next to the [SYNTH TRACK] button) a few times and
notice that each time you press it the red lights to the right of the buttons cycle through 1, 2 and 3.
Also notice that both the orange [RHYTHM TRACK] light and red light are blinking when on 2 and 3.
This means that tracks 2 and 3 are selected but they are muted. When track 1 is selected the button
and red light stay on continuously, meaning that track 1 is selected and not muted. Cycle through and
land on TRACK 1. If you haven’t hit play, go ahead and check it out. You should now be listening to
track 1 only, and it’s probably a kick drum.
3.
If you are hearing a 4 on the floor kick drum, you will notice that buttons 1, 5, 9, and 13 are
illuminated. Press a few more buttons and check it out. Each time you add a button you get another
kick drum. Make sure all of them are on (the “machine -gun fire” kick pattern is what you should get).
Now let’s mess with this.
4.
As with the synth track above, press the
SHIFT
button, then
EVENT SELECT
button repeatedly until
you see “INST SEL” illuminated in the mode area.
5.
Select the [STEP 1-8] button. What you will see in the LED display is “bd08” which stands for “bass
drum #8”. Simply move any of the 8 control knobs to change the sound of the bass drum to one of the
other drum sounds. As soon as you move the knobs, the instrument immediately changes. Select the
[STEP 9-16] button and do the same thing. With a little thought you can really create some interesting
grooves just by changing the instruments.
6.
You can change the pitch, gate time and velocity of each of the 16 steps of the rhythm track in
precisely the same way that you did with the synth track outlined above. Press the shift button, then
event select to select either “PITCH”, “GATE TIME”, or “VELOCITY”, press either the [STEP 1-8]
button or the [STEP 9-16] button and use the 8 control knobs to change each of the steps. Simple.
Now you understand the basics of how the DX200 works. Let’s take a look at one of the more powerful
features in the DX200: Free EG.
Free EG
Free EG is basically a 4-track parameter sequencer that affects your synth track. Essentially Free EG allows
you to record controller data into a type of data “sequencer”. Free EG does not record note data—only
controller data of the type generated directly from the front panel of the DX200 or via the XG Works Plug-in
Editor is recorded. This feature is really great for a number of reasons. Say you would like to have a filter
sweep occur every 4 measures while your pattern is playing back (BTW: Your 1 measure pattern. Free EG
sequences can be longer than your single measure pattern). You’d also like to have the delay effect come
up on beat 4 of the 4th measure of your 4 measure Free EG. Maybe you want to record some knob tweaks
of the [HARMONIC] knob, and maybe a tweak of the [FM DEPTH] knob. And you all want them to groove
with your pattern. This is what Free EG allows you to do: Record up to 4 independent tracks of controller
data that changes the timbral quality of your synth track in tempo with your pattern. And you can decide how
you want these tracks to playback. And everything can be recorded so that it is in perfect rhythmic
synchronicity with your pattern. Just to go over that again, in my example above I have:
1.
A filter sweep that happens every 4 measures during pattern playback. This was recorded into
TRACK 1 of my Free EG control.
2.
A delay effect tweak that I recorded into TRACK 2 of my Free EG control.
3.
A tweak of the [HARMONIC] knob recorded into TRACK 3 of my Free EG control.
4.
A tweak if the [FM DEPTH] knob recorded into TRACK 4 of my Free EG control.
This effectively makes a one-measure pattern sound both much longer and gives it some interesting sonic
“motion”. If you have read the DX200 Power User, at this point in the document I called this “heli-filthy”, and
declared myself a “heli-geek” for using such a “heli-trendy” word. I won’t get caught in such a “heli-
predicament” this time…
How to create a 4 track Free EG “Sequence”
Very quickly, all you need to do is:
1.
Select a Pattern. You can use the one we have been using or select a new one.
Page 6 of 9
DX200 Desktop FM Synthesizer - Power User Guide
4/17/03
file://J:\Yamaha\dmi\products\dx200\poweruser.htm
