Definitions - ESI ESI2000 Operation Manual

Definitions

How the ESI Organizes Sounds
Sure, you're anxious to start coaxing wonderful sounds from the instru-
ment—but the following is a necessary part of learning how to play the
ESI. It is important to understand how the ESI organizes sounds in order
to make best use of the instrument in the shortest possible time. Many
terms will be introduced now that show up later in the manual.
You can think of the ESI as resembling a collection of sound-organizing
modules, all contained within an the ESI bank. Pathways indicate how
information flows within the ESI. Let' s take a closer look at what makes
up this information, and how it is transferred from one section of the
instrument to another. We'll start with individual samples, then work
our way through the system.
The Sample
Loading in any sound in mono or stereo creates a sample. A sample is
the raw material with which the ESI works. The total available sampling
time can be divided up any way you like—one long sample, lots of short
samples, a few medium samples, or any combination thereof.
The term sample commonly means two different things:
1. A digital recording of a complete sound, or
2. Each snapshot of the sound that makes up the complete sample.
Confusing? You bet! In this manual, we'll assume sample means the
complete recorded sound unless indicated otherwise.
You can modify a raw sample in several ways:
• Transposition: A sample can be transposed up or down in pitch to
cover a particular range of the keyboard. By doing this, it is not
necessary to record a sample for every key.
• Digital Processing: In the ESI, Digital Processing might consist of
Looping a sample (allowing even short samples to play indefinitely),
Truncating (cutting off unneeded parts of a sample, thus saving
memory), or any of a number of digital processes that actually
change the raw sample data.
• Dynamic Processing: Just as synthesizers include signal processors
(filter, voltage-controlled amplifier, envelope generators, LFO, and
so on) to modify the sounds produced by the synth' s oscillators, the
ESI includes similar modules for modifying the sound of samples or
combinations of samples.
11
Intro/Basic Setup