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Nanoloop 1.2 Manual

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Nanoloop 1.2
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Summary of Contents for Nanoloop 1.2

  • Page 1 Nanoloop 1.2 manual...

  • Page 2: Hardware Requirements

    Nanoloop sounds best when plugged into TAPE-in of a normal home-hifisystem. Sometimes, sound level is a little low for AUX, so in many setups Nanoloop is the lowest part. There is not much space for equalizing then and on some (club-) systems Nanoloop sounds much rougher than on others (home-systems).

  • Page 3: General Concept

    General Concept Nanoloop is a step-sequencer. This means that a loop of 16 steps is repeated continuously while each step's parameters can be edited separately. A matrix of 4 * 4 squares represents the steps and within every square one or two points or little rectangles can be moved around to adjust the step's parameters.
  • Page 4 Pitch is only one of the synth parameters and adjustable semitone-wise without any musical scale assistance, so there may be better editors for plain harmonic melodies. Nanoloop is not sample based, but gives full access to the built-in features of the GB's sound chips (like the various noise-"colors") plus software-synthesis. The sound chips are analogoue oscillators with digital control registers for volume, pitch, etc.
  • Page 5 Usage On startup the screen shows the 4 * 4 sequencer matrix and the MAIN MENU. The menu consists of an upper and a lower part which can be switched by pressing SELECT. The upper part provides general and global functions while through the lower part one can choose which sound parameter to edit in the sequencer.
  • Page 6 Lower Menu / Sequencer In the lower menu you can select an instrument (UP / DOWN) and a parameter (LEFT / RIGHT) for editing in the sequencer. Press A to enter the sequencer matrix and SELECT to return to the menu. Within the matrix you can move the cursor from step to step with the joypad.
  • Page 7 with all parameters while A can paste duplicates anywhere. This way you can overwrite events and create a new structure very quickly. Parameters cannot be changed in this mode because the last copied event will always be pasted again as soon as you press A. On copy mode, muting an event resets it's pitch envelope attack.This may be useful when pitch envelopes influence the sound of previous events with a long decay.
  • Page 8 Example Patterns Each parameter is illustrated by an example stored in the first patterns of all banks. Some more musical loops are located in the last 4 slots. See "file" for instructions how to load patterns.
  • Page 9 Envelope A + UP / DOWN : attack A + LEFT / RIGHT : decay The S-instrument's envelope is generated in a different way than with R and N. It has only 3 steps of volume and especially on short envelopes a little noise between the volume steps soils the tone.
  • Page 10 Example: S 1, R 1, N 1, 2 (pulse)
  • Page 11 Pitch A + UP / DOWN : octaves A + LEFT / RIGHT : semitones The octave point on the left is resolved in 1/2 octave steps. S and R only. Example: S 2, R 2...
  • Page 12 FM, Interval / Pulse Width, "Filter" S: frequency modulation: A + UP / DOWN = depth higher / lower A + LEFT / RIGHT = modulation frequency higher / lower Because frequency distribution is not linear but exponential (semitones) any change in depth or frequency may cause a totally different sound.
  • Page 13 A + UP / DOWN = pitch of the second oscillator, relative to the first. The first three steps only cause a light detune which results in flange-like wave form overlapping effects. From the fourth step on, detune goes on with semitone steps up to one octave.
  • Page 14 N: filter-like parameters Via A + UP / DOWN and A + LEFT / RIGHT one can adjust two parameters of the noise generator, called "dividing ratio of frequencies" and "shift clock frequency". Both have similar, filter-like effects. Some combinations may cause only a little bubbling sound or even plain silence, others have more tonal effects.

  • Page 15: Pitch Envelope

    Pitch Envelope A + UP / DOWN : attack, increasing or decreasing A + LEFT / RIGHT : decay If there is an event in the step, the envelope is added to the pitch so that the original pitch won't change. B resets attack but doesn't mute the step. If CUT / PASTE is activated, the decay value will be copied.
  • Page 16 Wavetable / Delay S -wavetable: A + UP / DOWN = selects a wave form. Wave form 0 is a sine wave, all others can be edited in the wave form editor. A + LEFT resets wave form to sine wave 0. A + RIGHT switches to wave form F.
  • Page 17 A + UP/ DOWN adjusts delay of the second oscillator. A + LEFT sets it to zero A + RIGHT sets it to maximum length Example: R 5, N 3 (pulse)
  • Page 18 Panning A + LEFT / RIGHT = LEFT / RIGHT channel, B = center A + UP / DOWN plays first oscillator left / right and second right / left. Example: S 6, R 6, N 4...
  • Page 19 Upper Menu File There are 4 banks with 15 pattern-slots per instrument. Triangles show the positions of the last loaded or saved patterns. A + UP loads a pattern from cursor position, A + DOWN saves the current pattern. To start a pattern exactly on the first step, you can alternatively load it with B+UP.
  • Page 20 advanced multi-pattern handling: The first up to four patterns can be loaded together with START and will then form one big pattern which's parts are played / displayed alternating. Back in the main menu, the number of the current part is shown in the upper left corner. To edit a certain part, wait till it is played and then enter the pattern editor.
  • Page 21 Song Here you can arrange the patterns of the bank you have selected in the file section before with a simple 3-track editor. The song has 3 tracks for the 3 instruments S, R, N from top to bottom and is displayed in 4 rows. To adjust the pattern number of a step, press A + UP / DOWN.
  • Page 22 When leaving the editor (SELECT), song data are saved automatically in the current bank and a playing song is stopped. On very high playback speed and depending on the number of events set in a pattern, loading the patterns may take longer than playing them. This results in every pattern being played twice per step or patterns getting mixed up.

  • Page 23: Wave Form Editor

    Wave Form Editor There are 16 wave forms in the wavetable. Wave form 0 is always a sine wave, all others can be changed. To select and view a wave form, press LEFT / RIGHT. Left to the wave form there is a slider to select a partial which is controlled via UP / DOWN.
  • Page 24 Copy & paste: A + UP copies the current wave form. After selecting an other wave form with LEFT / RIGHT it can be pasted with A + DOWN. Wave forms are automatically saved (to bank 0) when leaving the editor (SELECT). Example: S 5 Load this pattern and then play around with the wave form editor.

  • Page 25: Pattern-Operations

    Pattern-Operations These functions are executed directly from the menu: A + UP inverse pattern A + LEFT / RIGHT shift pattern stepwise B activates a swing factor, shown by a dotted note icon in the lower right corner.
  • Page 26 BPM on low speed. On higher speed Nanoloop skips BPM steps because of a lower internal resolution.Values greater than 255 are not shown correctly but work fine up to self- oscillation.
  • Page 27 MIDI -sync In a MIDI setup, Nanoloop can only be slave. To start master and slave synchronously, set Nanoloop to slave mode by pressing B and then start the master. In most cases this is all you need to do. To change the sync-time base (1/1, 1/2, etc.) press A + LEFT / RIGHT.
  • Page 28 Once the time base was reset to 1:1, it is no more MIDI- based but Nanolop-to-Nanoloop, there is no way back to MIDI-mode. This is necessary because MIDI-sync signals appear 6 times but Nanoloop's internal sync only once per step.
  • Page 29 Problems All parameters use the same generic interface, but some have a different range than the graphical representation. Therefore sometimes a fader only moves every second step, like the pitch envelope does. On the other hand there are for example only three possible pulse width values corresponding with 16 slider positions.
  • Page 30 Since R-sound is never switched off, it doesnt make pulse noise. But R-pitch- envelopes are calculated and applied to the hardware even on completely empty patterns. So in each loop-round, the pitch value of the “current" (no more existing) event will increase/decrease until it overflows into the next hardware address which restarts sound.
  • Page 31 Because on load- and save-process memory is unprotected, nanoloop shouldn't be shut down during file operation. If the program restarts after an accidental reset by loose power, restart it again manually before using it.
  • Page 32 Some carts don't even survive shipping or break soon after delivery. If this is the case, please contact support@nanoloop.com for quick replacement. For questions and comments, please contact support@nanoloop.com...
  • Page 33 www.nanoloop.com...
  • Page 34 (c) 1997-2001 Oliver Wittchow Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color are registered trademarks of Nintendo of America, Inc. Nintendo of America, Inc. has not recommended, authorized, endorsed, approved of, or licensed Nanoloop.