Retrokits RK-008 Quick Manual

RK-008 QUICK MANUAL [v0.6b / fw0.35]
100 PARTS
16 SONGS
PART MODE
SONGSTEP MODE
Each song has it's A Part can be 682
own 64K memory beats long and also
stores track states
block containing
100 parts
Operation modes
SYSTEMPOSOLOEDITSONGSTEPART
Channel Indicators
Submenu available
1 2 3
Realtime Modifiers:--
FILTER
Highlite: Mod active
-- CC -- AT PB
Outline: Menu selected
Progress bar
Transport Controls
Recording indicator

INTRODUCING THE RK-008

The RK-008 is a portable Multitrack MIDI Recorder. It records your MIDI
playing as-is. No step divisions, no MIDI-Channel per track or note
constraints. It is like having a tape recorder for your digital performance.
In this quickstart manual we will explain the RK-008 by the buttons:

MODE

MODE
Sets the RK008 in Part or Songstep mode. In Part mode you can
record your musical Parts, in Songstep mode you can chain these Parts
together. You can also save mute states on a Songstep to re-use a Part in
the song structure. The REC key toggles between browsing through
Songsteps or adding/changing Parts or Track mutes in a Songstep.

ROUTE

Route sends incoming MIDI messages through to the output of
the RK-008. The selected track determines which processing is applied to
the incoming MIDI message (in terms of modifiers, filters, transpose, MIDI
channel and output port). Incoming MIDI messages are also indicated by a
blink on the Route LED.
ALT ROUTE
Pressing ALT+ROUTE sets the RK-008 in Performance
Mode. In this mode you can quickly mute/unmute tracks by pressing the
Track buttons (while normally pressing Track keys will select for record-
ing). If the RK-008 MIDI Remote Control Channel is set you can also
invoke Track note transpose by a MIDI key. The transpose will be applied
on all tracks which have '99' as their transpose value.

LOOP

Depending on the RK-008 MODE state, LOOP will repeat current
Part or the current Songstep.
1-8 TRACK 1-8 + LED STATES
The 8 Track keys can be used to select the Record Track destination . If
used in conjunction with ALT they will act as (un)mute keys. The LED
above the Track button tell you about the contents:
OFF
Track contains no MIDI data.
DIMMED
Track contains MIDI data but
is muted.
BLINK ON/DIMMED
Track (muted but containing MIDI data) is selected for recording

TRACK SOLO

Long-press a Track key to solo the Track. Add extra Tracks to solo just
by pressing them. There are two ways to exit Solo:
If more Tracks are solo'd, press ALT to exit solo mode. The resulting
Solo states will be set to Track mute/unmute states.
Reduce all solo Tracks back to one and short press this last one to
exit and revert to your old mute/unmute state.
PER-TRACK REALTIME
8 TRACKS
MODIFIERS
A track can hold 16 MIDI filter
channels of MIDI Velocity Scale
data in parallel Note Length Scale
Note Transpose
Quantize
Swing
Channel Remap
Output select
*
* = Unsaved state
Part /Songstep number
4 5 6 7 8
TRANS QUANT OUTPUT
Play/Menu Information
REC Loop indicator
MIDI Routing indicator
ON
Track contains MIDI data.
BLINK ON/OFF
Track (empty) selected for
recording.
MANUAL 0.6b: SUBJECT TO CHANGE!!
Tracks can be modified individually in real-time. Apply:
Quantize (note on/length) & Swing
Or set an output Filter on:
Notes Controllers Program Changes
Merge/mixdown Tracks will render/fix modifiers to Part memory.
You can also select each Track to Mute, force MIDI data to a single MIDI
channel or route it to a specific Output port (OUT1, OUT2 or RK006).
Most keys are taken up by the digits, these are for selecting Parts but
also have an alternate function which you can invoke with the orange
ALT key. If you have a function activated the screen will show 'EDIT'
active. Generally REC acts as operation execute and STOP as abort.
ALT
Pressing ALT+[grey numeric] gives you various RK-008 options.
ALT
PLAY Pressing ALT-Play enters StepTime Recording.
ALT
STOP
Pressing ALT-Stop sends a MIDI Note Panic
Invokes alternate menus
ALT [num]
In general: The REC button will act as an operation ENTER key and the
STOP button will act as an ABORT (ALT does this for menu's too),
returning the RK-008 to main operation mode.
In calculator-CE-button-fashion: Would you like to return to main
operation mode: A maximum of three presses on the STOP button will
get you home. Below the ALT+digit combinations:
/1] LENGTH
1
Type the Part length with the numeric keys, Max 682 beats.
Not applicable in free record mode (TEMPO menu).
/2] TIMEBASE
1
Type timebase of the track (affects metronome click and loop detection)

1] COPY

2
The active Track will be used as copy source. Select another Track. to set
the Track destination. Select a Part on the numeric buttons to copy
selected Tracks to another Part. Deselect all Tracks to enter Part copy.
Note: To combine two Parts, use MERGE, not COPY (COPY overwrites).

2] EXPAND

2
Enables note extraction on a Track with single-MIDI channel data and
the extraction of separate MIDI Channels on a multi-channel Track.
Note: Expand only works with free Tracks in a Part.

MERGE

3
Mixdown Track MIDI Modifiers (e.g. quantize, velocity, channel, .. ) and/or
merge multiple Tracks to one. After merging, modifiers are set to default.
If entered with a Track active, this Track will be used as the mixdown
destination. Select other Tracks to include in mixdown by pressing the
corresponding Track buttons and press REC to execute.
Deselect the active Track to enter Part Merge: Enter the two-digit Part
number to merge to the current Part and press REC (DEC/INC changes
Part number).
Note: If you select the current Part as merge destination, effectively the
Part will be doubled in length.

/1] FILTER Velocity

4
Numeric keys scale note velocity to:
20% 50%
1 2 3
120% 150%
4 5 6
-10% 80%
7 8 9
ORG
0
Transpose
Aftertouch Pitchbend

/2] FILTER Events

4
Digit keys toggle filtering for:
90% Notes
1
MAX Controllers
2
+10% Program Changes
3
Aftertouch
4
Pitchbend
5
No Filtering / Default
0