GLOBAL
Page 274
S3200XL Operator’s Manual - Version 1.00
BLOCK EDITING IN SONG MODE
So far we have seen how to create songs in a fairly simple fashion - i.e. in the S.ED page, press
, press
, move the cursor down a step, select a new take - and this will get you
through creating a song. Even if that is all you learn to do, you should find song creation quite
straightforward. There are other editing techniques available in the SONG mode, however, that
makes this mode even more powerful.
Using the
and
keys, you may identify whole blocks of steps and copy and shift
them around a song very conveniently. The easiest way to explain this is by example. Let us
say you have the following:
TAKE 1
This is a 1 bar drum section with a cymbal at the down beat of bar 1
TAKE 2
This is a 2 bar drum section without the cymbal
TAKE 3
This is a 1 bar drum beat with a small fill at the end
You have set the steps up as follows:
TAKE 1
No repeat
TAKE 2
3 repeats
TAKE 3
No repeat
You have created a 8 bar drum section complete with a cymbal at the start and ending. Let’s say
you now want that whole section to repeat 4 times. You could do it the hard way and mark and
insert each step sequentially but the easiest method is this:
Ensuring the cursor is on the scroll bar, move the cursor to the first step in the block, TAKE 1,
and press
. Now move the cursor down two steps by pressing 2 on the numeric keypad
and press
. This marks the three steps as one block. Now move the cursor down a step
(press 1 on the keypad) and press
. You will copy that block at the end of TAKE 3.
You can now do one of two things to copy it twice more. You can either move the cursor to the
end of the second block (press 3 on the numeric keypad) and press
again and then
move it to the end of the third block (press 3 again on the keypad) and press
once again.
The other way to achieve the same effect is to move the cursor back to TAKE 1 and press
and then move the cursor to the second occurrence of TAKE 3 (press 5 on the numeric
keypad) and press
, press 1 on the keypad to move the cursor down a step and press
. This will append the whole block onto the end of itself. Either way is equally effective so
choose whichever is easiest for you.
This method of block copying and inserting has even more uses than just appending block
onto themselves. Again, another example should demonstrate this.
Let us say you have the three takes sequenced as above - TAKE 1 once, TAKE 2 three times,
TAKE 3 once - and you wish to insert this just before the BREAK in your extended mix. Move
the cursor to TAKE 1 and press
. Press 2 on the numeric keypad to take you to TAKE 3
and press
.
