Under Construction

05 - Program (Single) Mode

Choose Program Mode from the main menu application (AKAINOID.PRG). If an Akai sampler is detected on the MIDI ports specified in the Preferences dialog, a dialog box will show its software version (my SX3000XL actually shows v17.000) as well as its maximum and free amount of RAM. If not, an alert box will pop up telling you to check your MIDI wiring and MIDI settings in the Preferences, which you shouldn't forget to save. On success AKAINOID is retrieving the Akai's sample list and all of its programs and keygroups and the Program Mode part of AKAINOID presents its initial screen with the following windows open (detailed descriptions will follow):

To the left there is the ToolBox presenting icons for a couple of application functions and views as well as a LED, which is highlighted everytime you play a note on your master keyboard correctly connected to AKAINOID/your Atari. Clicking this LED will play the test note specified in the Preferences.

Next to the ToolBox there is the Program List showing all Programs (singles) inside the RAM of the Akai. The number displayed by the way isn't the list index but the MIDI program number. A preceeding asterix indicates, that the current state of the Program hasn't been saved to the Atari yet.

Below there is an area for Properties of the selected view (on start-up: Program Properties). This window is being replaced often as you choose different views and will show various Properties of the AKAINOID object (basically Program or KeyGroup) selected.

To the centre of the screen there is the Key-Mapping window showing all KeyGroups of the Program selected in the Program List from the lower end of the MIDI keyboard to the higher (bottom to top). You can change size and location of these KeyGroups and create new KeyGroups by dragging and dropping a sample from the Sample List to the right into the Key Mapping area.
This key mapping editor can be replaced by the Velocity Zones editor.

Clicking on keys of the vertical keyboard displayed will play the corresponding MIDI note on the Akai as long as you keep the mouse button pressed. The velocity of this note is the same as the test note's velocity specified in the Preferences.

The Sample List is displaying all samples loaded to the RAM of the Akai. Drag lines from this list to the Key Mapping editor in order to create a new KeyGroup or replace a sample inside an existing KeyGroup by dragging a line and dropping it onto the SAMPLE field in the KeyGroup/Zones editor when open.

05.01 The Program Editor

If there isn't any keygroup selected in the Key Mapping editor, the bottom area of the screen will show the Program Editor displaying all parameters directly related to an S3000XL Program and not to one of its Keygroups.

These parameters all have the same label as when editing on the S3000XL itself and their purposes can be looked up in the S3000XL Operator's Manual by Akai.

  • Typically you increment a parameter value by left-clicking it and decrement it by right-clicking it (I might add a feature allowing to swap the left and the right mouse button for incrementing and decrementing).
  • When holding [Shift] while clicking you increase or decrease the value by a sensible amount depending on the nature of the parameter (e.g. 4 for MIDI channel and 10 for panning).
  • When [Control]-clicking the value of a parameter, a blinking cursor will pop up allowing you to directly enter the value on the Atari keyboard.
  • When entering digits hitting [O] will zerofy the value and will try to validate the 0, no matter if 0 actually is a valid value.
  • Finishing editing is done by hitting [Return], a matter which actually still has to be told (just in case you wonder why the cursor is still blinking and the application doesn't seem to respond),
  • When holding down [Ctrl] while hitting [Return] the digits after the cursor are cut off and the bit until the cursor is going through validation.
  • When you have entered an invalid value, an alert box will tell you so and inform you about the valid value range. Clicking the [ OK ] button will then return to editing until you have entered a correct value.
  • When editing values for panning, hitting [C] will centre the panning.
  • You can move the cursor using the arrow keys and delete the digit under the cursor by hitting [Delete] or delete the digit to the left of the cursor by hitting [Backspace].
  • Entering new digits will overwrite the old instead of inserting them.
  • Hitting [Esc] will end the editing process without updating the entered value (the old value should show up again).
  • The MIDI Channel ranges from 1 to 16, 0 is accepted as OMNI.
  • Some parameters will just flip from ON to OFF or a different pair of values when clicking.
  • Some (like the Priority parameter) will step through a small list of values. I might someday replace this step procedure by pick lists.
  • Panning values also accept L and R instead of digits in the first cursor position.
  • Some parameters (such as Transpose) accept negative values and require a + or a - in the first cursor position.
  • The Program Name of course accepts all characters the Akai itself would accept.

Some values (especially those ranging from 0 to 99) are displayed as faders which you can grab with the mouse and move up and down. Note that some faders contain a second parameter underneath, which is closely related to the value being faded. The name of this parameter is written along side the fader's parameter name vertically to the left of the fader. These are typically parameters with a value range of 0 to 99 or -50 to +50.

The Range parameters do accept MIDI input from your connected master keyboard while the cursor is blinking. When entering the value on the Atari itself, note the space in the second position for white keys while black keys require a #.
The third position must be a + (as the Akai doesn't offer the first two negative MIDI octaves), followed by the octave number itself.

05.02 The Key Mapping Editor

The key mapping editor is showing all keygroups of the selected Akai Program (in the list to the left) as hatched rectangles next to an on-screen keyboard. The keygroup index and the name of the Sample loaded to Zone 1 of the keygroup is displayed to the bottom left of the rectangle. The vertical dimension and location of this rectangle represents the keygroup range.

When clicking one of these keygroups, it will be highlighted and in the bottom area the KEYGROUP/ZONES window will open and show the properties of the now selected keygroup.

Holding down [Ctrl] while clicking a keygroup, will replace the key-mapping editor by the Velocity Zones editor, in which you may change the range of the four velocity zones (see below).

You may relocate a keygroup by dragging a selected keygroup to a different note in the editor. You can scroll to somewhere else but I have to admit dragging and scrolling simultanously won't work by now. There's different ways to change the keygroup range anyways as you will read in the chapter about the KEYGROUP/ZONES editor.

You can change the keygroup's height when hovering the top end of the rectangle with the mouse. The mouse pointer will show a pointing hand, which indicates that clicking and moving the mouse now will alter the keygroup's height.

When you release the mouse button not only the Keygroup's Range parameters will be updated in the KEYGROUP/ZONE editor below but also a MIDI SysEx command will update the sampler instantly which will make the pink Program LED blink on the Akai. This is general behaviour: Any other change of any AKAINOID parameter will instantly update the Akai itself and make it blink.

In order to create a new keygroup drag a sample from the Sample List to the right and drop it onto the line of the desired low end note. A new keygroup holding this sample in Velocity Zone 1 is being created in AKAINOID and the sampler.

Unfortunately (from a screen designer's perspective) keygroups may overlap and overlay eachother in the data structures of the S3000XL. If you couldn't select a desired keygroup, try again while holding [Alt]. This should bring a second keygroup being overlayed up front.
The latter is a process which admittedly isn't working perfectly by now and still needs improvement.

You can delete a keygroup selected by hitting [Delete] or by choosing the corresponding menu item. Alternatively click the Dustbin icon in the ToolBox. Indices of the rest of the keygroups will be cascaded and will thus change (considered you haven't just deleted the keygroup with the highest index).
While you may delete the last and only keygroup of a Program, AKAINOID doesn't like it: When trying to change a parameter in the Program Editor now open, AKAINOID will ask you to create a new keygroup first.