SOUND Engine based on a RISC Controller CPU clocked at 16 MHz that manages three hybrid voices for instruments: Bass drum and snare have analog circuits, while the third one is digital PCM.
Each voice have own individual level in the central section and separate outs for easier mix.
Let' s see the channels in detail:
a) BEAT basically BEAT DRUM is a VCO OSC generating a Sine wave.
- TUNE controls its pitch EG amount on VCO for warping.
- PITCH overall tuning : starting from rumbling 20 Hz- Not to be be confused with previous "Tune"
- DECAY controls the generated envelope Decay up to a very long time of 2.5 seconds.
- HARMONICS adds harmonics to the sine wave with some distortions.
- PULSE (Attack) add a square impulse to the attack for click- like thumbing bass
- NOISE (Attack) adds some white noise- like Simmons brain drum (SDS V-7-8-9 etcetera)
- ATTACK ratio of added pulse and noise attack to the sine.
- EQ a little Low-Pass filter to attenuate high frequency for more sub - bass effect in 808 way.
b) SNARE drum is composed by two triangle VCO plus a white noise generator:
- TUNE changes the pitch of both OSCs.
- XSNAPP the TR 808 "SNAP" of amount of filtered noise balanced with OSCs.
- DECAY the name say it all .
- DETUNE detunes the snare drum oscillators for resonating effect.
- NOISE TUNE amount of noise mixed (also open the filter) - at zero it mutes.
c) HITHATS sampled Hit-hats and some other PCM samples for a total of 6 samples coded at 8 bit resolutions : closed / open hihat, crash cymbal, ride, rim shot and clap .
Assign any sample to channel 1 or 2 called "CH" or "OH", however remember it's not duophonic!
INFO: Like original tr-909, the digital samples are routed in an Analog EG :
- OH / CH DECAY controls the decay time of the analog EG of the sample.
- HH BAL volume balancing between OH and CH.
- TUNE changes the sample reading speed.
- REVERSE plays the sample backward.
LFO (only OS 2.09+ ) two internal Low Frequency Oscillator sharing same Tempo Clock.
The LFOs work in Free mode or retrigger one, they can modulate 5 possible destinations: BD Pitch, / Snare Tune / Xsnapp /Noise Tune / Hi Hat and have four different waveform Saw Up-Down / Square/ Triangle.
SEQUENCER Real time record or step entry using the 16 dedicated buttons.
Up to 64 patterns are stored to the internal memory (split into 4 banks) and 10 songs maximum. The most interesting for sure the step mode "à la Roland" manner for immediate fun an visual pattern - not to mention that this baby records pot change for each new step! Another neat function is micro groove and shuffle to shift each step with a maximum of 96th of a bar resolution with a 92 ticks per Bar resolution.
Each voice in sequencer can transmit or transmits on its own Midi channel .
<IHMO> I must admit I have been really disappointed by the Jomox step programming as I felt unconformable with the buttons, worst of all, patterns often when out of sync in chaining. It seems that first OS have many bugs correct in other releases, maybe I was just unlucky.
MIDI all functions are available also by Midi control change, surely one of the best feature.
Also a complete Exclusive implementation for edit or librarian storage purposes.
SYNC the sequencer can be slaved with external Midi clock from other units or Sync-24 (24 PPQ resolution) to various vintage drum machine using this fantastic obsolete timing protocol.
MEMORY 100 preset drum kits in ROM plus 100 in RAM.
The internal memory works with a standard soldered Cr-2032 lithium battery |
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RELATED XBASE FAMILY :
- Airbase 99 improved x09 rack version with more voices and samples.
- Mbase11 only kick drum but with enhancements.
- Xbase 999 even bigger with 9 voices.
