Alesis Micron Owners Manual.pdf - Fdiskc

6. Record rhythm (real-time)
Once you’ve reached the “record” parameter, you’ll hear the
metronome start to click. Use this “lead-in” time to get yourself
into the groove. (As always, if the tempo isn’t right, you can use
the [tap] button to adjust it.)
Once you’re ready to play, just start playing on the white keys
above middle A. The Micron will begin recording from the first
note of the rhythm. Alternately, if you don’t want to play from the
first note, you can push the control knob to kick off the recording.
The rhythm will loop continuously, so you can add to it each time
it comes around. You can play the entire rhythm at once, or add
to it drum by drum.
When recording in real-time, remember that playing will never
erase anything you’ve already recorded. To wipe out a section so
you can replay it, you can hold down the control knob as it gets
played back. This will wipe the notes for all drums.
However, you frequently will want to wipe out the notes for just a
single drum, leaving the other drums intact. Holding down a black
key will make the Micron wipe the notes of the last drum played
(the drum shown on the display).
To stop recording, turn the control knob or press a mode button.
You will often want to clear the entire rhythm and start over. One
way of doing this is to hold down the control knob and wipe out
the rhythm as you record. But a quicker way is to hold down the
[rhythms] button and hit the highest note on the keyboard. As
long as you have less than ten drums, this will jump you to the
“Clear rhythm?” option. See page 39.
4 Rhythms
Four Beats per Bar
All Micron patterns have four
beats per bar.
You can still create oddmeter
rhythms. It just takes a
little calculation and a
willingness to ignore the
tempo indications given by
the [tap] button.
For instance, one way to
create a ¾ feel is to combine
a length of ½ bar with a grid
of 24 steps. That will give
you a total of 12 steps to work
with.
Ignore the display’s “6 + 6”
grouping. Think “4 + 4 + 4”
instead.
Changing the metronome
The metronome you hear
when recording is, in fact,
just another pattern. It is
named “* Metronome”, and
appears near the beginning of
the pattern list. You are free
to edit this pattern all you
like. For example, you can
choose a different program,
or put the clicks on eighth
notes or triplets instead of
quarter notes. A quick way of
disabling the metronome
entirely is to simply rename
this pattern and store it. You
can always bring back the
metronome later with another
rename.
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