Charlie Lab Megabeat One User Manual
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Charlie Lab Megabeat One User Manual

All-in-one hard disk midi player
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Megabeat One
Megabeat One
All-in-one Hard Disk Midi Player
User Manual

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Summary of Contents for Charlie Lab Megabeat One

  • Page 1 Megabeat One Megabeat One All-in-one Hard Disk Midi Player User Manual...
  • Page 2 Megabeat One Megabeat One All-in-one Hard Disk Midi Player User Manual...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    EGABEAT ANUAL ONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................page 5 CONNECTIONS AND COMMANDS ..........page 8 AC Connection ..............page 10 Audio Connections .............. page 10 MIDI Connections ............... page 11 DIGITAR Connections ............page 11 Pedal Connections .............. page 12 LET’S START ................page 13 Turning On ................
  • Page 4 UTILITY ..................page 32 COPY SONG: loading Songs in the hard disk ......page 34 EDIT GROUPS: create and modifying Groups ......page 36 GLOBAL SETUP..............page 43 5.3.1 Media Player..............page 44 5.3.2 Pedal Polarity..............page 44 5.3.3 Quick Start ..............page 45 MIDI SETUP ..............
  • Page 5 EGABEAT ANUAL...

  • Page 6: Introduction

    INTRODUCTION We wish to compliment you on your new Megabeat One. Megabeat One is a “Hard Disk Midi Player”, i.e. a Standard Midi File Player, in 0 and 1 format, based on hard disk. Unlike the normal Midi File reproducer, which use the floppy disk as a support (i.e.
  • Page 7 (wave-table audio card), which makes it the most versatile and compact integrated system ever existed for the reproduction of musical bases. Could we forget Digitar, the famous controller created by Charlie Lab in order to simulate the guitar performing techniques by means of your Midi instruments? Certainly not;...
  • Page 8 1. I NTRODUCTION - an A/D system to connect Megabeat One to a microphone or a line signal; - an Audio Recording system (to record an audio-digital track by means of the Direct-to-Disk technique). Finally, a computer interface used for the direct connection to a PC is already available (in order to carry out backup/loading operations of the hard disk of your Megabeat One easily).

  • Page 9: Connections And Commands

    EGABEAT ANUAL CONNECTIONS AND COMMANDS The front panel contains all the commands which you can use to operate with your Megabeat One. PAGE / VALUE CHARLIE LAB M E G A B E A T CURSOR VERSION XX HARD DISK MIDI PLAYER...
  • Page 10 2. Connections and Commands The back panel contains the audio jacks and the Midi ports: LINE OUT FOOT MIDI 12Vac SWITCH INPUT OUTPUT ACK PANEL Audio Output Left Audio Output Right Foot Switch Midi In Midi Out/Thru AC adapter jack Power On/Off Expansion Slot 1 Expansion Slot 2...

  • Page 11: Ac Connection

    In this case you have to connect the Audio Output (15, 16) of the Megabeat One to a line input of your the mixer, or directly to the line input of PA (or to the AUX or TAPE input of your Hi-Fi).

  • Page 12: Midi Connections

    MIDI cable (not included in the set). You have to connect the MIDI OUT (19) of Megabeat One to the MIDI IN of the external sound generator. If Megabeat On has an inbuilt audio card and you want to drive it by means...

  • Page 13: Pedal Connections

    SETUP” Menu, which can be read by pushing the UTILITY button; then set the parameter on “Auto” or on “Digitar”. If you connect the Digitar to Megabeat One by means of the “TO DIGITAR” socket, as described above, the AC adapter /MIDI interface pack which comes with the Digitar will not be used.

  • Page 14: Let's Start

    “Disappearing” CONTRAST and VOLUME knobs The CONTRAST and the VOLUME (13) knobs, are of the “disappearing” type, i.e. they are usually hidden in the chassis of Megabeat One, in order to avoid accidental changes of the volume or of the contrast.

  • Page 15: Single Play

    ANUAL SINGLE PLAY Straight after having turned Megabeat One on, it is in the SINGLE PLAY mode, i.e. it is set to play a single song at a time. The display shows a PAGE containing a list of songs in alphabetical order (in each page there are 12 songs).

  • Page 16: Playing A Song

    (therefore the hard disk is more protected than that of a common Personal Computer). However, as Megabeat One is a fairly sophisticated electronic instrument, we recommend you to take care of it using a special bag created by CHARLIE LAB, available as accessory.

  • Page 17: Operative Modes

    EGABEAT ANUAL OPERATIVE MODES HIGHLIGHTED SONG AND SELECTED SONG Before describing the various operative modes, we have to make a preliminary statement about the display and the cursor. The meaning of the items and the symbols visualized on the display are different for each mode: in SINGLE PLAY mode the titles of the songs or the names of other files contained on the hard disk are visualized;...

  • Page 18: Soft Keys

    The advantage of the SOFT KEYS is that they reduce the number of buttons necessary to have access to so many functions as those offered by Megabeat One , without muddling the user among a great deal of functions, but visualizing on the display only those necessary to the operative mode enabled in that moment.
  • Page 19 The highest number of songs which can be selected at the same time (and loaded into a Group) is 48. When Megabeat One in the PLAY position, (the green led over the PLAY button is on) the following Soft Keys are enabled in bottom line of the display:...
  • Page 20 4. O PERATIVE ODES PAGE: ØØ5 SINGLE PLAY TITLE: STREETS STREETS Ø1 VAGABOND WE_ARE WLAMAMMA ØØ3:4 WLAMAMMA YESTRDAY TEMPO Ø97 CLRSEL GROUPS LYRICS ADJUST SELECT Now another Soft key, corresponding to the following function, has been enabled: ADJUST: allows to access the page which will help you adjusting the parameters of volume, reverberation, chorus, transposition and tempo of the song currently played.

  • Page 21: Selecting/Deselecting A Song

    EGABEAT ANUAL CONTIN: It is usually called Continue and is often used together with the PLAY/STOP functions. It allows you to continue to play the song from the point where it was stopped by means of the STOP button. 4.3.1 SELECTING/DESELECTING A SONG To select a song in the SINGLE PLAY mode, highlight it with the cursor (i.e.

  • Page 22: Displaying Texts And Chords

    4. O PERATIVE ODES 4.3.2 DISPLAYING TEXTS AND CHORDS The function is enabled by means of the LYRICS soft key and can be retrieved both before and during the playing of a song. If the song currently highlighted contains texts and chords, you need only to play LYRICS and then PLAY.

  • Page 23: Play/Stop/Continue

    “lost”. In fact the text is stored in the song, and then read by Megabeat One, with a certain anticipation on the performing time of the song (therefore the text to be visualized on the display when the LYRICS function is enabled, could have been “lost”, as it was contained in a previous part of the song...

  • Page 24: Adjusting Volumes/Effects/Transposition/Time (Adjust)

    4. O PERATIVE ODES At this point you can: push the CONTIN soft key (to continue the performing of a song from where it had been stopped), push the PLAY button (to start the performing of the song from the beginning).
  • Page 25 (beat 10.1) volume setting = 110. When a song is being played, we’ll read “value 100” until the tenth measure and “value 110” after the tenth measure on the Megabeat One’s display (near the volume of the MIDI channel number 2).
  • Page 26 4. O PERATIVE ODES measure and the value “090” after the tenth measure on the display (near the volume of the MIDI channel number 2). Therefore the variations made by using the ADJUST function shall be added to (or subtracted from) the values of the parameters stored in the song. These variations can be stored on the hard disk (in a kind of table connected to the song) and will have effect only during the playing of the song, without causing any variations on the original parameters, which shall be recalled in every...
  • Page 27 EGABEAT ANUAL To change the volume of a MIDI channel: position the cursor on the desired channel; turn the PAGE/VALUE Dial to change the displayed value; push the SAVE soft key (if you want to store the variation). The CHANNEL VOLUME ADJUST parameter will show the variation of the value stored in the song which has just been carried out (for example: +010, -030.

  • Page 28: Group Play Mode

    Experiment with the effect of the TEMPO parameter settings on songs which show TEMPO changes in the Master Track. GROUP PLAY MODE Megabeat One employs GROUP PLAY in order to organise files in a simple and intuitive manner. It is possible to create Groups containing song lists to be performed in...
  • Page 29 If you are in GROUP PLAY mode and you did not previously play any Song (or the last song has finished), Megabeat One is in “Stand-by” mode (the red LED above the STOP button is on; the green LED above the PLAY button is off); in the bottom line of the display the following Soft Keys are active: PAGE:ØØ1...
  • Page 30 When Megabeat One is in “PLAY” mode (the green LED above the PLAY button is on), in the display last line the following Soft Keys are active: PAGE:ØØ1...

  • Page 31: Choosing A Group

    CHOOSING A GROUP When you have access the GROUP PLAY mode, the display shows the groups stored by the user in the hard disk or those automatically created by Megabeat One when loading a floppy disk (see UTILITY mode). Another group, called USER GRP, is always active in the main page of GROUP PLAY mode.

  • Page 32: Showing The List Of The Group Songs: List Group

    4. O PERATIVE ODES soft key, you can change the value from LOOP to NOLOOP and vice versa. LOOP/NO LOOP value can be changed even when the group is in PLAY mode. If you press the PLAY button, the first song of the group is performed. In the field called “TITLE:”, on the right, the display shows: the name of the current selected song;...

  • Page 33: Lyrics And Adjust

    EGABEAT ANUAL As usual, you can display the other pages of the group songs (if present) with the PAGE/VALUE Dial. With the cursor buttons you can move from one group song to another one. On the right hand side of the display, the TITLE field (as above described for SINGLE PLAY mode) is active.

  • Page 34: Utility

    In order to have access to the UTILITY menu, you have to press the UTILITY button (placed above the PAGE/VALUE Dial) when Megabeat One is in “stand-by” mode, that is when it is not performing a song or a group of songs (the LED on the PLAY button is off), otherwise the UTILITY menu is not enabled.

  • Page 35: Copy Song: Loading Songs In The Hard Disk

    EGABEAT ANUAL ENABLED SOFT KEYS The soft keys enabled in UTILITY mode are the following: UTILITY ERASE SONGS COPY SONGS MIDI DATA DUMP EDIT GROUPS PC DATA DUMP GLOBAL SETUP MIDI SETUP SONGS BACKUP RENAME SONGS DISK UTILITIES SELECT EXIT SELECT: allows you to have access to one of the previously described functions.
  • Page 36 TILITY In order to use the COPY SONG function you must insert a floppy disk into the drive of Megabeat One, otherwise the following message will appear: FLOPPY DISK NOT READY. The soft keys relative to the COPY SONG function are: PAGE:ØØ1...

  • Page 37: Edit Groups: Create And Modifying Groups

    When you select the song to be copied from a floppy disk into the hard disk, Megabeat One verifies that the hard disk does not contain another song with the same name. In this last case, the copy is not allowed and the display shows the message: SONG ALREADY PRESENT.
  • Page 38 5. U TILITY In order to work on a group, choose first the desired group (with the CURSOR buttons or the PAGE/VALUE Dial) and then press the soft key relative to the desired operation. ERASE: allows you to erase the selected group. By pressing the ERASE soft key, the display shows the following message: "SONGMIX1"...
  • Page 39 EGABEAT ANUAL After positioning the cursor on one of the groups present in the EDIT GROUPS main page, by pressing the CREATE soft key you have access to the creation/editing page. If you chose to begin with an existing group, the display shows the list of the songs present in the group.
  • Page 40 5. U TILITY MPORTANT Do not use the EXIT button placed under the PAGE/VALUE Dial, you will loose all the work you have done. Save the changes made to the group with the SAVE soft key (see below). DELETE: allows you to remove a song from a group. Before pressing the DELETE soft key, position the cursor on the song you want to remove.
  • Page 41 EGABEAT ANUAL RENAME GROUPS OLD NAME: SONGMIX1 NEW NAME: SONGMIX1 INS >> DEL << EXIT The first choice for the NEW NAME is the same of the OLD NAME. The cursor will highlight the first letter of the NEW NAME field: in order to change the name of the group, move the PAGE/VALUE Dial clockwise (to increase the selected letter) or anticlockwise (to decrease the selected letter).
  • Page 42 5. U TILITY PAGE: ØØ1 EDIT SONGMIX1 A LICE HONESTY AMOREBEL MNLTSHAD BEBOPALU YOURSONG BLUESUED GIPSYKI CROCODIL INSERT REMOVE SAVE EXIT The difference between the CREATE and MODIFY functions is that the CREATE function always creates a new group, while with the MODIFY function all the changes made are relevant to the starting group.
  • Page 43 EGABEAT ANUAL EXIT: allows you to return to the EDIT GROUPS menu. Every change you did not save with the SAVE soft key will be lost. RENAME: allows you to change the name of an existing group. Once you have selected the group with the cursor, press the RENAME soft key. The display shows what follows: RENAME GROUPS OLD NAME:...

  • Page 44: Global Setup

    GLOBAL SETUP This function allows you to have access to the global parameters of Megabeat One, in order to specify: the kind of disk from which you will read the song (hard disk or CD-ROM); the polarity of the pedal command (normally open or normally closed);...

  • Page 45: Media Player

    SAVE soft key, or leave without saving, with the EXIT soft key. 5.3.2 PEDAL POLARITY Megabeat One can be connected to a pedal of one of these kinds: normally open, normally closed. With the pedal you can use the START/STOP commands.

  • Page 46: Quick Start

    TILITY 5.3.3 QUICK START This parameter enables the Quick Start function, used by Megabeat One to speed up the reading of the first beats of a song. These beats usually do not contain notes, but only messages of Program Change, Bank Select..., that is something that “does not make a sound”.

  • Page 47: Midi Clock Out

    MIDI INPUT (Midi or Digitar) choice, possibility to select a song of a group via Midi, possibility to visualize Lyrics Sysex (when present) on the Megabeat One display or on external displays (wordbox). In order to enable MIDI SETUP function:...

  • Page 48: Midi Clock Out

    Megabeat One can transmit the Midi Clock, but it does not identify an external Midi Clock coming via Midi from other devices. This means that, if you want to synchronise a song on Megabeat One with one of a sequencer, the sequencer must be the Slave (usually placing the sequencer Midi Clock parameter on External, Midi, Out, etc.) and Megabeat One...

  • Page 49: Midi Song Sel

    EGABEAT ANUAL With the current version of Megabeat One, these two input can not be active at the same time, this means that it is not possible to play simultaneously with the Digitar and drive the Megabeat One internal sound generator with an external keyboard or a sequencer (the “Midi Merge”...

  • Page 50: Lyrics Sysex

    SAVE soft key, or leave without saving, with the EXIT soft key. 5.4.4 LYRICS SYSEX This parameter will show Lyrics or text (“Karaoke”) on the Megabeat One display or on external displays (wordbox) depending on the selected parameter. The values for this parameter are: INTERNAL...

  • Page 51: Songs Backup

    In some MIDI connections, bad working conditions might appear due to the rising of a Loop (e.g. when both Megabeat One MIDI IN and MIDI OUT are connected to a sequencer where the THRU function is active). In such cases, disable the MIDI SOFT THRU function on the devices connected to the Megabeat One.

  • Page 52: Rename Song

    EXIT soft key to return to the UTILITY menu. When Megabeat One copies the song from the hard disk to the floppy disk, it verifies that the floppy disk does not contain another song with the same name.
  • Page 53 EGABEAT ANUAL The display shows the list of all the songs present in the hard disk (songs are divided in pages, as usual, and are accessible with the CURSOR buttons and the PAGE/VALUE Dial). The active soft keys are: PAGE: ØØ5 RENAME SONGS STREETS VAGABOND...

  • Page 54: Erase Song

    5. U TILITY Once you have finished the song name editing, confirm it with the OK soft key (in order to save the modified name), or leave the change with the EXIT soft key, returning to the RENAME SONGS menu. In order to leave the RENAME SONGS menu, use the EXIT soft key.

  • Page 55: Midi Data Dump

    The Megabeat One will allow the erasure of a song only if it does not belong to any group. If it did the display would show the name/s of the group/s.
  • Page 56 5. U TILITY Moreover, the dump files can be included in a group (as the first file of a group for example ) and transmitted before playing the songs of that group. This function is extremely helpful especially during live performances where you may need to re-load some patches into your instruments at once before playing a group of songs.

  • Page 57: Pc Data Dump

    This function enables the direct transfer of data from a Personal Computer (IBM compatible PC) to the hard disk of the Megabeat One and viceversa. To be able to operate in this function you need to buy the optional kit (floppy disk and linking cable).

  • Page 58: Floppy Disk Format

    If you format a floppy disk which already contains data you will automatically erase all those data. At the moment, Megabeat One can work just with “720K” disks. In a further release of the operative system it will be possible to format 1.44M disks.
  • Page 59 EGABEAT ANUAL Choose NO to halt the formatting or YES if you want to continue. When the operation is completed the display goes back to the UTILITIES menu . 5.10.2 H. DISK RECOVER This function enables you to solve whatever problems you may have while using the hard disk.
  • Page 60 5. U TILITY Once the RECOVER has been enabled the display changes once again: SONGS RECOVER 0014 RECOVER IN PROGRESS The solution of the problems may even take a few hours because the system will have to carry out a complete scanning of the disk surface analysing every single song, copying the data into the available areas and verifying their integrity sector by sector.

  • Page 61: Hard Disk Format

    ARE YOU SURE ?! Choose NO to halt the formatting or YES if you want to continue (before proceding with the disk formatting the Megabeat One will ask you to confirm your choice pressing the soft key YES once again).

  • Page 62: Operating System (Updating)

    YSTEM UPDATING OPERATING SYSTEM (updating) The operating system of the Megabeat One is made up of all the commands and functions which enable the Megabeat One itself to carry out all the operations described in this manual. It has been previously loaded by CHARLIE LAB into the hard disk of the Megabeat One and it is automatically loaded every time the unit is turned on.

  • Page 63: File Prefixes

    Audio to Midi Files Generic Files (unknown type) Audio Files can be recorded on the hard disk of the Megabeat One through the optional Audio Recording system (it turns analog signals into digital tracks). Generic Files can be recorded on the hard disk of the Megabeat One through...

  • Page 64: Specifications

    MIDI: MIDI IN, MIDI OUT/THRU RJ45 plug for Digitar link • B ACKLIGHTED GRAPHIC DISPLAY DOTS • P PULL KNOBS FOR VOLUME AND CONTRAST ADJUSTMENT • S 260x240x90 mm • W EIGHT Megabeat One 4.5 Kg Power supply 1.3 Kg...
  • Page 65 EGABEAT ANUAL Megabeat One User Manual by Natale Caccavo © 1995 C HARLIE Roland, Megabeat One and Digitar are registered trademarks. Charlie Lab reserves the right to make changes without prior notice Artwork: Master Studio...
  • Page 66 1anual User...

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