FutureRetro 512 Manual
  1. Manuals
  2. Brands
  3. FutureRetro Manuals
  4. Electronic Keyboard
  5. 512
  6. Manual

FutureRetro 512 Manual

Hide thumbs
Table of Contents

Advertisement

Quick Links

Download this manual

Advertisement

Table of Contents
loading
Need help?

Need help?

Do you have a question about the 512 and is the answer not in the manual?

Questions and answers

Summary of Contents for FutureRetro 512

  • Page 2 Written by Jered Flickinger Copyright 2016 Future Retro www.future-retro.com...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION MIDI MODES - NORMAL THE ART OF TOUCH - SYNC CONNECTIONS - CV QUICK START - SYNC/CV DISPLAY LED’S - POLY MAKING SELECTIONS - POLY/SYNC KEYBOARD - POLY/CV - NOTE INFORMATION - POLY/SYNC/CV - OCTAVE - HOLD RANGE - TRANSPOSE DIRECTION...

  • Page 4: Introduction

    INTRODUCTION Thank you for choosing the 512 Touch Keyboard. Please take the time to read through this manual for a full understanding of the features, tips, and precautions. OVERVIEW The 512 is many things… a keyboard, arpeggiator, sequencer, MIDI to CV converter, MIDI to MIDI converter, and polyphonic MIDI router.

  • Page 5: The Art Of Touch

    512’s keys will never wear out or require maintenance like traditional keyboards do. The other advantage is the 512 can produce controller information based on how your finger interacts with the surface area of the key, making for a very interactive experience.

  • Page 6: Connections

    The CLOCK output provides a 0 to +10v analog clock signal that can be used to clock external analog modules, sequencers, or trigger envelopes. This clock will vary its timing based on whatever time signature is selected in the 512. This clock will also shuffle its timing based on settings of the SWING control. GATE The GATE output provides a 0 to +10v positive polarity gate signal, and is typically used for triggering envelopes in an analog synthesizer.

  • Page 7: Quick Start

    CONNECT IT If you would like to play a MIDI sound module, go ahead and connect the MIDI OUT of the 512 to the MIDI IN of your sound module. Be sure to set the MIDI sound module to receive on MIDI channel 1, as this is what the 512 will default to the first time it is used.

  • Page 8: Keyboard

    In addition the 512’s CV out has a range greater than 9 octaves. The 0-volt reference for the DAC generating the Key CV is user definable over a 5 octave range. This allows you to better align CV pitches to MIDI notes so two instruments are playing within the same range, or any desired octave spread.

  • Page 9: Octave

    OCTAVE You can change the octave the keyboard is currently playing by pressing the Octave -/+ keys. There are 9 octaves to select, and the 0 octave range is always selected when the unit is first powered on. The display LED’s above the Octave keys will light to show what octave is currently selected.

  • Page 10: Scales

    SCALES SELECTING SCALES There are 29 scales in all that you can assign to the keyboard or apply to arpeggiations, sequences, or MIDI to CV and MIDI to MIDI conversions. The first 28 scales are all user definable, while the 29 scale is the Chromatic scale.

  • Page 11: Scale Key Mapping

    SCALE KEY MAPPING The notes of a selected scale can be assigned to either the major scale keys (traditionally the white keys of a keyboard) or to all keys on the keyboard. We call these two different mappings of the scale notes Partial Key Scale and Full Key Scale respectively.

  • Page 12: Scale Inversion

    SCALE INVERSION The 512 can invert the entire keyboard scale. This is like flipping the keys of the keyboard from left to right. Notice the symmetry of the 512’s keyboard layout allows inverted scales to have a true mirror-like response to a non-inverted scale.

  • Page 13: Scalar Transposition

    SCALAR TRANSPOSITION The 512 can transpose the selected scale by up to 28 scale notes. Unlike a traditional transpose feature where notes are simply offset by a certain amount of semitones, Scalar Transposition is much more musical by shifting notes up and down the scale while confining them to play only notes within the scale.
  • Page 14 Since Partial Key Scale mapping assigns the notes of the scale to the keyboard differently than Full Key Scale mapping, instead of having 28 Scalar Transposition possibilities, there are now only 16 due to the fact that Partial Key Scale mapping only assigns new scale pitches to the major keys of the keyboard. The Major scale using the Partial Key Scale mapping on the keyboard is shown below.

  • Page 15: Programming Scales

    Major scale takes 7 intervals to define the scale, and a Pentatonic scale takes only 5 intervals to define the scale. While there are a few scales that use more than 12 intervals, the primary reason the 512 offers 29 intervals for a scale is so you can create custom key maps of 29 pitch intervals in any order.

  • Page 16: Capturing Midi Scale Notes

    MIDI only 12 chromatic pitch intervals can be perceived. In other words, if the 512 receives C1 and C2 it does not care that C was played in different octaves, the pitch C will now be included in all octaves of the scale.

  • Page 17: Chords

    The 512 provides several new benefits to this method such as, you can now play up to 16 transpositions of this chord simultaneously, select different chords on the fly, and even apply +/- chord inversions to the chords notes.

  • Page 18: Chord Inversion

    Chord inversion is the process of taking individual notes of a chord and transposing them up or down an octave. The 512 allows you to invert chords +/- 4 steps. Let’s assume you have a Major chord selected to play, and you play middle C on the keyboard.
  • Page 19 Chord Inversion the order notes are transposed reflects the order they were entered for that chord when it was recorded. Experiment as this can lead to other possibilities, and is why the 512 behaves in this way.

  • Page 20: Programming Chords

    This is because the order the notes are entered is very important to constructing the chord. Note, it is not possible to use external MIDI notes the 512 receives to program chords. The first note entered will be the root note of the chord, while all other chord notes entered will have an interval based on their relationship to the note you first played as the root.

  • Page 21: Clocks

    CLOCKS While playing the keyboard, you may want to send MIDI and Analog clock signals to control the start/stop/timing of other units you want to play along with. To start the clock, press the PLAY key. The PLAY key LED will blink at quarter-note intervals to indicate clocks are being generated.

  • Page 22: Tempo

    The KEY CV produced is last-note priority, meaning if multiple keys are played, only the last key’s pitch is present at the output. The 512 can keep track of the order in which up to 16 notes are played. In this way, if multiple notes have been played and then you release the last played note, the KEY CV will then output the CV for the key played just prior to the note you just released.

  • Page 23: Midi

    While holding the MIDI key, the ^ LED will light to indicate if the 512 will transmit aftertouch messages over MIDI or not. If this LED is on, the 512 will transmit aftertouch via MIDI. If the LED is off, no aftertouch messages will be sent via MIDI although touch voltages will still be available at the TOUCH analog output.

  • Page 24: Velocity Curves

    VELOCITY CURVES The 512 has five selectable Velocity Curves that can be applied to the way the keyboard keys detect velocity. These curves are shown below. To select a Velocity Curve, hold the MIDI key, then press and release one of the five keyboard keys shown below.

  • Page 25: Aftertouch Curves

    AFTERTOUCH CURVES The 512 has five selectable Aftertouch Curves that can be applied to the way the keyboard keys detect aftertouch. These curves are shown below. To select an Aftertouch Curve, hold the MIDI key, then press and release one of the five keyboard keys shown below.

  • Page 26: Pitch Bend Response

    PITCH BEND RESPONSE You can adjust the Bend Up/Down key’s response to touch as well. While this setting will affect MIDI Pitch Bend messages, it will have a greater affect on the KEY CV voltage output. This is because the DAC generating the KEY CV voltages is updated much more quickly than MIDI can be transmitted.

  • Page 27: Bend Range

    In such a case, this is why the 512 provides the Half Bend Range. To select a range for the BEND keys, hold the MIDI key, and then press and release one of the two keyboard keys shown below.

  • Page 28: Midi Modes

    MIDI IN channel as the base MIDI channel currently selected at the time you enter any of the CV MIDI modes. So if you want the 512 to respond to notes coming in on MIDI channel 1, make sure you have selected a base MIDI channel of 1 before selecting this CV MIDI mode.

  • Page 29: Sync/Cv

    16, and the third note wraps around to play on channel 1. You will need to route the MIDI OUT of the 512 to the MIDI IN of each synthesizer you want to play. You can either daisy-chain MIDI connections if your synthesizers have THRU ports on them, or use a MIDI THRU box to send the 512’s MIDI OUT signal to all sound modules in parallel.

  • Page 30: Poly/Sync

    MIDI sequencers or controllers. Keep in mind that while this mode does do MIDI to CV conversion, since the 512 is most likely receiving multiple MIDI notes to play, the KEY CV generated will always be what the 512 perceives as the last received MIDI note.

  • Page 31: Range

    RANGE AND DIRECTION The Range and Direction functions are usually found as features within an arpeggiator. However the 512 allows you to apply these same features to sequences as well. RANGE The Range feature allows arpeggiations and sequences to transpose notes to higher or lower octaves for a defined number of times.

  • Page 32: Direction

    DIRECTION The Direction feature determines the order that arpeggiator and sequencer patterns will play. There are five directions to choose from, and the symbols above the five right-most display LED’s help identify these directions. To change the Direction value, hold the DIRECTION key, and use the -/+ keys to select the desired Direction. Once satisfied with your selection, you can release the DIRECTION key.

  • Page 33: Arpeggiator

    ARPEGGIATOR The Arpeggiator can be used to quickly generate simple melodies by holding notes on the keyboard or by entering and holding notes into memory. PLAYING THE ARPEGGIATOR To select the Arpeggiator, while in the Keyboard mode, press and release the ARPEGGIATOR key. The ARPEGGIATOR key LED will light to show the Arpeggiator mode is now active.

  • Page 34: Selecting Rhythm Patterns

    MIDI velocity value of 127, and all steps are written to glide from the previous step’s pitch. This is what you might expect from a traditional arpeggiator with only basic features. And of course the 512 goes much deeper than these simple default patterns.
  • Page 35 PROGRAMMING ARPEGGIATOR RHYTHM PATTERNS The 512 provides 29 user writable rhythm patterns to use with the arpeggiator. These rhythm patterns determine if a step should play as a Rest, have a specific Duration, or Sustain to the next step. Each step can also produce a different Velocity value, or determine if the pitch on that step shall glide from the previous pitch played or not.

  • Page 36: Note Duration

    Now that a Velocity value has been selected, you can write multiple steps at this same value. If a step needs to be a different value, simply select a new Velocity value before entering that step’s rhythm duration. ENTER THE NOTE DURATION Pressing any of the 29 keyboard keys will enter a specific note duration to the current step of the rhythm pattern.

  • Page 37: Sequencer

    C (transpose value of 0) keyboard key will not transpose the sequence but will alter the TOUCH and aftertouch values the 512 produces. This also allows you to create aftertouch expressions while you are making various selections to other parameter values.

  • Page 38: Selecting Sequences

    SELECTING SEQUENCES The Sequencer provides 145 user writable patterns. These patterns are arranged as 5 banks of 29 sequences. You can select different sequences at any time while the sequencer is playing or stopped. When new selections are made, the new sequence selected will begin playing as soon as the current sequence reaches its loop point.

  • Page 39: Programming Sequences

    PROGRAMMING SEQUENCES Each sequence can be up to 64 steps (4 bars long using 4/4 time signature), and each step records a single note pitch, the step’s duration, the step’s velocity value, and whether or not this step will glide its pitch from the last pitch played.
  • Page 40 DEFINE THE VELOCITY VALUE Before entering Pitch values, first you should decide what velocity you want the step to be. When you first enter Record mode, if a Velocity value is not defined, a default value of 127 will be selected. To set the Velocity value, hold the HOLD/ACCENT key, then press and release one of the 29 keyboard keys representing the velocity value as shown below.

  • Page 41: Sustain

    ENTERING A SUSTAIN There is an alternative method for entering a Sustained note. Rather than defining the note Duration as Sustain as previously mentioned, you can simply hold the RANGE key while entering a note’s Pitch. This too will write the current step as Sustained. ENTERING A REST If you want to enter a Rest (where no note occurs) into the sequence, simply press the DIRECTION/REST key.

  • Page 42: Troubleshooting

    CV MIDI Mode you want to use. TOUCH RESPONSE If the 512 is not responding to key touches the way you like, please revisit the MIDI section of the manual and adjust the Bend, Mod, Velocity, and Aftertouch curves, and sensitivity settings.

  • Page 43: Memory

    –key. Pressing any touch key on the 512 should cause all LED’s on the unit to light if a touch is detected on that key. This is also a way of checking to see that all LED’s are functioning properly as well.

  • Page 44: Specifications

    SPECIFICATIONS Dimensions: (W) 17.5” x (D) 7” x (H) 1.5” Unit Weight: 2.6 lbs Universal Power Supply: 100-240V AC input, 15V DC output Power In: 15V DC Current Draw: 290mA (typical) MIDI Connections: In, Thru, Out (5-Pin Din) MIDI Channels: 1-16 MIDI Note Range: 0-127 MIDI To CV Conversion: Yes Polyphonic MIDI Conversion: Yes, 16 Channel/16 Note Polyphony...

Table of Contents