Roland VS-2480 Manual 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Roland Corporation US. www.rolandus.com ®ÂØÒňΠPhrase Pad Guide

3 VS-2480 Phrase Pad Guide When the VS-2480’s Phrase Pad feature is activated, you can use each of the VS-2480’s 24 TRACK STATUS/PHRASE PAD buttons as a performance device that lets you play a phrase from its corresponding track. You can also record your performance into the VS-2480’s phrase sequencer—once you’ve recorded a phrase sequence, you can play it back side-by-side with your tracks. You can also bounce your sequenced performance onto tracks in the current project. For the sake of clarity, when we refer to phrase sequencer tracks, we’ll call them “sequencer tracks.” The TRACK STATUS/PHRASE PAD buttons and the CH EDIT/SELECT/PHRASE SEQ STATUS/AUTOMIX STATUS buttons play important roles when you’re working with the phrase pads and sequencer. In this context—to keep things simple—we’ll refer to these buttons as the “PHRASE PAD” buttons and the “PHRASE SEQ STATUS” buttons. To get the best response from its phrase pad, trim any extra space from the front of each phrase you’ll be using to ensure that the phrase plays immediately when you strike its pad. TRACK STATUS / PHRASE PAD IN 1-16 SOLO 9 12 1 17 2 18 3 19 4 20 5 21 6 22 7 23 8 24 MASTER (dB) 6 4 0 4 8 12 18 24 42 (dB) 6 4 0 4 8 12 18 24 42 TO FROM 13 14 15 16 10 11 FX 2 FX1 FX 3 FX 4 FX 5 FX 6 FX 7 FX 8 AUX 2 AUX1MST AUX 3 AUX 4 AUX 5 AUX 6 AUX 7 AUX 8 PAN / AUX SEND 1-8 CH EDIT / SELECT / PHRASE SEQ STATUS / AUTOMIX STATUS FX RTN IN 17-24 AUX MST TR 17-24 TR 1-16 Q Q RATIO GAIN FREQ FREQ GAIN FREQ GAIN GAIN FREQ THRESHOLD ATTACK RELEASE LEVEL FREQ EQ Low EQ High FADER WRITE READ MANUAL PRM MUTE EQ Lo - Mid EQ Hi - Mid Dynamics RTN PHRASE REC PLAY OFF TRACK PHRASE SEQ MASTER EDIT V.FADER EDIT PHRASE PAD PLAY AUX SEND PHRASE SEQ PAD /AUTOMIX Filter L R L R

4 © 2001 Roland Corporation US Understanding the Phrase Pads What a Phrase Pad Plays Each phrase pad plays the first phrase that’s on its corresponding hard disk recorder track. If you want a phrase pad to play a phrase from somewhere in the middle of a track, you can: • Copy the desired phrase to one of the track’s unused V-Tracks, and then select that V-Track when you’re using the phrase pads. • Copy the phrase to its own track. Each phrase pad has a single voice of polyphony. Every time you press a pad, it restarts playback of its phrase from the beginning. This allows you to play the pad so that its phrase stutters as it starts. Phrase Pad Setup Each track channel has its own phrase pad parameters. Use the parameters to turn on the channel’s phrase pad and to set the pad to play in any of three different ways. Setting Up a Phrase Pad 1. Press the FADER button that selects the group of track channels containing the one whose phrase pad you want to set up. 2. Press the desired track channel’s CH EDIT button—its CH EDIT VIEW screen appears. On the left side of the screen are its two phrase pad- related parameters. 3. Turn the PhrPAD parameter on—this activates the track channel’s phrase pad. 4. The PlyMod parameter sets the manner in which the pad’s phrase plays when you strike the pad. You can select: • Gate—so that the phrase plays for only as long as the PHRASE PAD button’s held down. • Trg (“Trigger”)—so that each press of the PHRASE PAD button toggles the phrase’s playback on or off. • OneS (“One-Shot”)—so that the phrase restarts and plays in its entirety each time the PHRASE PAD button is struck. 5. To turn off the track channel’s phrase pad, set PhrPAD to Off. When a track channel’s phrase pad is turned on, the corresponding hard disk recorder track doesn’t play when the Phrase Pad feature is active. (Once you exit Phrase Pad or Phrase Sequence mode, the track returns to normal operation.) If you want a track to play back during phrase sequencing—so that you can play other pads along with it— make sure its phrase pad isn’t turned on. When Phrase Pad or Phrase Sequence mode is active, you can return to a track channel’s CH EDIT VIEW screen to turn off its pad—or make any other desired change—by holding down SHIFT and pressing its CH EDIT button. Hold down SHIFT and press CH EDIT again to return to the previous screen. The pad plays this phrase. Beginning of the project

©2001 Roland Corporation US 5 Activating Phrase Pad Mode 1. Press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ, and: • the button lights solid green to show that the phrase pads are now turned on. • the PHRASE PAD buttons turn amber for each track channel whose PhrPAD parameter is turned on. 2. To turn off Phrase Pad mode, repeat Step 1. Playing the Pads in Phrase Pad Mode When the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ button is green—and when all of the desired PHRASE PAD buttons are lit amber—you can play the pads, either by themselves or along with your project as it plays back. Sequencing a Phrase Pad Performance Activating Phrase Sequence Mode 1. Hold down SHIFT, and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ: • the button lights solid red to show that the phrase sequencer is now turned on. • the PHRASE PAD buttons are amber for each track channel whose PhrPAD parameter is turned on. 2. To turn off the phrase sequencer, repeat Step 1. The PHRASE SEQ STATUS Buttons The PHRASE SEQ STATUS buttons set the behavior of the phrase sequencer’s tracks—each PHRASE SEQ STATUS button controls the corresponding sequencer track. Each time you press a PHRASE SEQ STATUS button, its color—and the state of the sequencer track it controls—changes. When a PHRASE SEQ STATUS button is: • amber—you can manually play the sequencer track’s phrase pad. • red—the sequencer track is armed for recording. When the sequencer’s recording, anything you play on its PHRASE PAD button is recorded (or “written”) onto the sequencer track. • green—the sequencer track is set to play back (or “read”) anything recorded on the sequencer track. Playing the Pads in Phrase Sequence Mode To play a phrase pad along with your hard disk recorder tracks in Phrase Sequence mode, you need to set its PHRASE SEQ STATUS button correctly: • When you want to play along without recording into the phrase sequencer, press the pad’s PHRASE SEQ STATUS until it’s lit amber. • To record your phrase pad performance onto its corresponding sequencer track, press the pad’s PHRASE SEQ STATUS button until it’s lit red. When a phrase sequencer track’s PHRASE SEQ STATUS button is red, its pad plays only when the phrase sequencer is actually recording. PHRASE PAD PLAY PHRASE SEQ SHIFT PHRASE PAD PLAY PHRASE SEQ + 1 17 PHRASE SEQ STATUS button WRITE READ MANUAL PHRASE SEQ /AUTOMIX

6 © 2001 Roland Corporation US You can record, or “sequence,” your phrase pad performance into the VS-2480’s phrase sequencer using either of two approaches. You can sequence: • in realtime—by performing on the phrase pad buttons as your hard disk recorder tracks play. This method offers the most “musical” sequencing experience. • using “step” entry—by entering phrase-pad strikes, one-by-one, while the phrase sequencer and your hard disk recorder tracks aren’t playing. While this method is more mechanical in nature, it allows you to sequence with absolute precision. We’ll describe how to sequence using either approach starting on Page 8. Use the phrase sequencer’s editing tools to perfect your sequence after recording (Page 11). The PHRASE SEQUENCE Screens The VS-2480 provides two PHRASE SEQUENCE screens that contain the tools you’ll need for step-entering a phrase sequence and for editing a phrase sequence (Page 11). Navigating to the PHRASE SEQUENCE Screens 1. Press UTILITY. 2. Press the PAGE button until “PhrSeq” appears above F1. 3. Press F1 (PhrSeq)—the first PHRASE SEQUENCE screen appears. 4. There are two PHRASE SEQUENCE screens. To move between them, press PAGE. Both PHRASE SEQUENCE screens show the phrase sequencer’s playlist—they differ only in the tools they offer. The PHRASE SEQUENCE screen’s playlist acts much like the Home screen’s. You can zoom in and out just as you can on the Home screen. You can combine the two recording approaches by recording some sequence data realtime and some data using step entry. The phrase sequencer works hand-in-hand with a project’s tempo map. We recommend you set up a tempo map for your project to get the most from the VS-2480’s phrase sequencer. Use the current time locator display’s measures and beats counter to navigate through a project when you’re phrase sequencing. Just like the Home screen playlist, the PHRASE SEQUENCE screens’ playlist shows all of the sequencer’s tracks, arranged from top to bottom with their numbers shown to the left of the playlist. In this illustration, we’ve recorded sequencer data on Sequence Tracks 1-6. The checkbox to the left of each track’s name targets the track for phrase and region editing (Page 11). Timeline

©2001 Roland Corporation US 7 What the Appearance of Sequenced Data Means Each sequencer track in the playlist on the PHRASE SEQUENCE screen and the Home screen shows a recorded phrase pad performance. You can see where you struck the pad, and you can see the shape of the phrase playback produced by each strike. The recorded phrase data produced by each phrase pad strike is shown as a black box with a bar at either end. The bar at the front shows where the phrase starts playing. The bar on the end shows where it stops playing. When a pad is re-struck while its phrase is still playing, the bars show where the first strike ends and where the next strike begins. The Phrase Sequencer Grid The Grid feature allows you to view the bars and beats of your project’s tempo map in the phrase sequencer playlist to help you see the timing of your sequenced data. The grid is a set of vertical lines in the playlist. You can have a gridline for each measure in the project’s tempo map or for each beat. While the grid provides a helpful visual reference when you’re sequencing, it plays an even more important role when you’re editing a sequence, as described on Page 11. Turning On the Phrase Sequencer Playlist Grid Use your mouse to activate and configure the phrase sequencer’s grid. 1. Right-click your mouse on the playlist in either PHRASE SEQUENCE SCREEN. The Phrase Sequence Edit Pop-Up menu appears. (We’ll discuss this menu some more on Page 11.) 2. Select GRID from the menu—the Grid Options window opens. 3. Select the desired grid setting. You can select: • Off—so that the grid is turned off. • Measure—so that there’s a gridline for every measure in the project. • Beat—so that there’s a gridline for every beat in the project. If you select Measure or Beat, the grid appears immediately in the playlist. Phrase Sequencer Undo The phrase sequencer has its own one-level Undo feature with which you can reverse the most recent sequencing or sequence editing action. If you’ve sequenced a series of phrases, the sequencing of the last recorded phrase is undone. If you’ve edited a group of phrases, Undo reverses the entire editing action for the entire group. You can also redo an undone action until you perform a new sequencing or editing action. Phrase playback starts. Phrase playback ends. First strike Second strike Gridlines

8 © 2001 Roland Corporation US The phrase sequencer Undo feature is available on the first PHRASE SEQUENCE screen. To undo your last phrase sequencer action, navigate to a PHRASE SEQUENCE screen and: 1. If “UNDO” doesn’t appear above F5, press PAGE until it does. 2. Press F5 (UNDO). Once you’ve undone an action, “REDO” appears above F5 until your sequence something new or perform another edit. 3. To redo the action you just reversed, press F5 (REDO). Realtime Phrase Sequencing Phrase Sequencing in Realtime 1. If PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ isn’t already lit solid red, hold down SHIFT and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it is. 2. Set the PHRASE SEQ STATUS button for any sequence track you want to record so that its indicator lights solid red. 3. Press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ again so that it flashes red to show that the phrase sequencer is recording. 4. Press ZERO to rewind to the start of the project, or move the timeline to the location in the project at which you want to start sequencing. 5. Press PLAY, and play the phrase pads as desired. 6. When you’ve finished, press STOP—your performance appears in the playlist. 7. Press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it’s lit solid red, ready to play back what you’ve sequenced. 8. Press ZERO or move the timeline to the desired location. 9. Press PLAY to hear what you’ve sequenced. 10. If you’re satisfied with what you’ve recorded on a sequence’s track, press its PHRASE SEQ STATUS button so that it’s green to take make sure you don’t record over the sequence track if you record or re-record other sequence tracks. 11. If you’d like to try again—recording over your first attempt—repeat Steps 5-9. 12. You can perform Steps 2-10 to record any additional tracks. Make sure, however, that the PHRASE SEQ STATUS button is green for any sequence track you want to keep as you continue sequencing. The phrase sequencer’s Undo feature is completely separate from the hard disk recorder’s. Sequencing actions don’t appear in the standard Undo list, and the UNDO indicator doesn’t light when a phrase sequencer redo is available. Press HOME•DISPLAY or navigate to a PHRASE SEQUENCE screen to see your sequenced data. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but can be instructive. If you view one of the PHRASE SEQUENCE screens as you sequence, you can turn on its grid to check the timing of your sequenced data once it’s recorded. You can select and edit phrase sequencer data in the PHRASE SEQUENCER playlist. In this illustration of the Home screen, we’ve recorded on Sequencer Tracks 5-8 while playing along with Tracks 1-4.

©2001 Roland Corporation US 9 Step Entry In step entry phrase sequencing, the VS-2480 doesn’t play through the project as it normally does—you control when and how the sequencer moves forward in time. With the sequencer stopped, you enter phrase pad strikes where you want them. With the AutoLoc (“AutoLocate”) feature, the timeline moves forward by a specified amount each time you strike a pad—after it moves, it waits at the next location for you to strike a pad and move it forward again. You can also record phrase pad strikes by manually moving the timeline to a location and playing the pads you want to hear at that location. You can use either method, turning AutoLoc on and off as desired. Phrase Sequencing Using Step Entry with AutoLoc 1. Navigate to a PHRASE SEQUENCE screen (Page 6). 2. If”AutoLoc” isn’t visible above F1, press PAGE. 3. If AutoLoc isn’t highlighted—turned on—press F1 (AutoLoc) so it is. When you strike a phrase pad with AutoLoc turned on, the sequencer records the strike—including how long you hold down the phrase pad after hitting it—and then moves the timeline forward by one step. You set the size of the step using F2. 4. Press F2 repeatedly to choose from its three possible step values. You can select: • Length—so that the timeline moves forward after recording by an amount of time equal to what you’ve just played. • Meas (“Measure”)—so that the timeline moves forward to the next measure in the project’s tempo map after recording each phrase pad strike. • Beat—so that the timeline moves forward to the next beat in the project’s tempo map after recording each phrase pad strike. 5. If PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ isn’t already red, hold down SHIFT and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ until it is. 6. Press the desired phrase pad’s PHRASE SEQ STATUS button until it turns red. 7. Press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ once more—it flashes red to show that the phrase sequencer’s now recording. 8. If you want to sequence from the top of the project, press ZERO. Otherwise, move the timeline to the desired location in the project. 9. Play the desired phrase pad—if a pad’s PlyMOD parameter is set to Gate (Page 4), hold down the pad for as long as you want its phrase to play. When you release the pad, the timeline moves forward by the amount of time shown above F2. 10. When you’re done, press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it lights solid red to show that the phrase sequencer’s no longer recording. During step entry, you won’t hear your hard disk recorder tracks as you enter phrase pad strikes. You can hear them when the sequence is played back. Step entry is great for quickly building a drum loop from a phrase that contains a rhythm pattern. When you’re phrase sequencing a drum loop, use AutoLoc to zip right through the process. Simply strike the loop’s pad repeatedly until you get to the end of the project. When you want two phrase pad strikes at the same location, use step entry without AutoLoc—AutoLoc moves forward one step with each phrase pad strike. If you view one of the PHRASE SEQUENCE screens as you sequence, you can turn on its grid to check the timing of your sequenced data once it’s recorded.

10 © 2001 Roland Corporation US 11. Press ZERO, or return the timeline to the location you placed in Step 10. 12. Press PLAY to hear the sequence. 13. If you want to try again, repeat Steps 6-12. Phrase Sequencing Using Step Entry without AutoLoc 1. Navigate to a PHRASE SEQUENCE screen (Page 6). 2. If”AutoLoc” isn’t visible above F1, press PAGE. 3. If AutoLoc is highlighted—turned on—press F1 (AutoLoc) to turn it off. When AutoLoc is turned off, the timeline stays where it is until you move it. You can enter as many phrase pad strikes at the timeline’s current location as you want. 4. If PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ isn’t lit red, hold down SHIFT and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it is. 5. Press the desired phrase pad’s PHRASE SEQ STATUS button until it turns red. 6. Press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ—it flashes red to show that the phrase sequencer’s now recording. 7. Move the timeline to the desired location in the project. 8. Hit the desired phrase pad(s)—what you play is recorded at that location. 9. When you’ve finished entering all of the phrase pad strikes you want at the timeline’s current location, move it forward to the next location and repeat Step 8. 10. When you’ve finished sequencing, press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it lights solid red to indicate that the phrase sequencer’s no longer recording. 11. Move the timeline to the desired location and press PLAY to hear your sequence. Phrase Pad Button Summary You can edit your sequenced track to perfect it, as described on Page 11. If a pad’s PlyMOD parameter is set to Gate (Page 4), hold down the pad for as long as you want its phrase to play. If PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ is: You know: unlit Phrase Pad and Sequence modes are off. green You can play the phrase pads. solidly red the phrase sequencer is on and you can play its tracks. You can play a phrase pad if its PHRASE SEQ STATUS button is amber. flashing red the phrase sequencer is ready to record. When PHRASE SEQ STATUS button is: You know: unlit you can play its phrase pad if the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ button is green. amber you can play its phrase pad if the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ button is solid red. red what you play on its phrase pad will be recorded if the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ button is flashing red. green its phrase sequencer track plays back if the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ button is solid red and you play the project.

©2001 Roland Corporation US 11 Editing a Phrase Sequence You can edit your sequenced data on the PHRASE SEQUENCE screens. You can also perform many standard phrase and region editing operations on phrase sequencer data using the mouse and TRACK EDIT buttons—TRACK menu commands apply only to hard disk recorder tracks. Phrase and Region Editing of Phrase Sequenced Data You can perform some of the same phrase- and region-based editing operations on phrase sequencer data that can be performed on hard disk recorder tracks. The following operations can be applied to sequenced data: In addition, you can use your mouse to drag and drag-copy data much the same way as you can edit hard disk recorder data with your mouse. If you click on the PHRASE SEQUENCE window’s playlist, the Phrase Sequence Edit Pop-Up menu appears. This menu acts just like the Edit Pop-Up menu, allowing you to select from among the available editing operations. The only phrase-sequencer-specific item in the menu is GRID, explained on Page 7. Phrase Sequence Editing Tools You can edit your sequenced data when the PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ is lit solid red. If you attempt to perform an edit when the sequencer’s in Record mode— flashing red—the VS-2480 displays: Press ENTER/YES to dismiss the message and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ to turn it solid red before attempting the edit again. Available phrase editing operations: Available region editing operations: COPY COPY MOVE MOVE TRIM IN INSERT TRIM OUT CUT DELETE ERASE If you drag a phrase with your mouse when the grid is turned on, the front edge of the phrase snaps to the nearest gridline, allowing you to place the phrase perfectly in time. Just as with the Edit Pop-Up menu, hold down CLEAR when the Phrase Sequence Edit Pop-Up menu is open to view options for clearing your edit points. Hold down SHIFT for GO TO options.

12 © 2001 Roland Corporation US Quantizing Phrase Sequence Data On the first PHRASE SEQUENCE screen, you’ll see F1 (Qtize) (“Quantize”). Quantizing moves the start of any selected phrase—or phrase within a selected group of phrases—to the nearest 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32 note to correct performance timing errors. You can select one or more phrases you want to quantize the same way you’d select them in track editing: as phrases or as regions containing multiple phrases. As with standard phrase editing, you can select one phrase on each sequence track. To select a group of phrases on the same sequence track, define a region that includes all of the desired phrases. You can select a desired phrase or region using your mouse or the VS-2480’s buttons. Mouse selection works the same way as with hard disk recorder tracks. To select a sequenced phrase using the VS-2480’s buttons: 1. Move the timeline so that it touches the phrase. 2. Use " or # to cursor to the sequence track, as shown by the arrow to the left of its number. 3. Press F3 (MARK) to target the sequence track and its phrase for editing. A checkmark appears in the box to the left of the sequence track’s number. To select a sequenced region using the VS-2480’s buttons: 1. Set the desired IN and OUT points using the usual methods. 2. Use " or # to cursor to the desired sequence track, as shown by the arrow to the left of its number. 3. Press F3 (MARK) to target the sequence track and any phrases it contains that fall between the IN and OUT points for editing. A checkmark appears in the box to the left of the sequence track’s number. Quantizing a selected phrase or region: 1. Press F1 (Qtize). A window opens in which you can select the desired nearest note value to which you want to move the selected phrase sequencer data. Select: • 1/1 note • 1/2 note • 1/4 note • 1/8 note • 1/16 note • 1/32 note 2. Press ENTER/YES to move the beginning of all selected phrases to the selected note value, or press EXIT/NO to cancel the quantizing operation. To undo the quantization operation before moving on to other sequencing or editing operations, press F5 (UNDO). When a sequence track— and its phrase or region—is selected for editing, it has checkmark to the left of its number.

©2001 Roland Corporation US 13 Micro-Editing Sequencer Data On the first PHRASE SEQUENCE screen, press f4 (MICRO) to view the MICRO EDIT screen. On this screen, you can manually change the start time and the length of each sequenced phrase. You can also delete phrases on this screen. To view the desired track’s sequenced data, press F1 (Tr Inc) or F2 (Tr Dec) to move higher or lower, respectively, through the phrase sequencer’s list of sequence tracks. The current track’s name and data is shown above the list of its phrases. To change a phrase’s: • start time—press " or # to select the phrase in the list. Use $ and % to select the desired unit of time measurement in the Start column—you can select time code or measures/beats/ticks. Turn the TIME VALUE dial to select the desired start location. • length—press " or # to select the phrase in the list. Use $ and % to select the desired unit of time measurement in the Duration column—you can select time code or measures and beats. Turn the TIME VALUE dial to set the phrase’s length as desired. To delete a phrase: 1. Press " or # to select the phrase in the list. 2. Press F4 (DELETE) to erase the phrase. To undo a micro-edit: 1. Press F5 (UNDO). Until you perform a new edit or sequence more data, you can press F5 (REDO) to reverse the undo. To leave the MICRO EDIT screen, press F6 (EXIT). You can see the changes you make in the data window above the phrase list.

14 © 2001 Roland Corporation US Using Tie, Rest and BackStep On the second PHRASE SEQUENCE screen, the Tie and Backstep features use the position of the timeline to change the duration of the closest phrase on the selected track within a specified time window to the left of the timeline. Rest moves the timeline by the selected amount. • F3 (TIE)—the timeline moves forward in time by the specified amount, increasing the duration of the closest phrase within the time window so that it reaches the timeline’s new position. • F4 (REST)—the VS-2480 moves the timeline ahead by the specified length. • F5 (BckStp)—the timeline moves back in time by the specified amount, shortening the duration of the closest phrase within the time window so that it extends no further than the timeline’s new position. The arrow to the left of the playlist selects the sequence track whose phrase is affected by Tie or BackStep. To select a different track, press " or #. If the selected track is linked, Tie and BackStep affects both tracks. Before Tie After Tie With F2 (Beat), Tie stretches the phrase to the next beat. Before Rest After Rest With F2 (Beat), Rest moves the timeline to the next beat. Before BackStep After BackStep With F2 (Beat), BackStep shrinks the phrase to the previous beat.

©2001 Roland Corporation US 15 The amount of time by which the timeline moves and the time window are determined by F2’s setting. When: • F2 (Length)—the timeline moves forward or back by an amount of time equal to the shortest phrase it’s touching. • F2 (Meas)—the timeline moves forward or back to the next measure, changing the duration of the nearest phrase that’s located a measure or less to its left. • F3 (Beat)—the timeline moves forward or back to the next beat, changing the duration of the nearest phrase that’s located a beat or less to its left. Controlling the Sound of Sequenced Tracks Each phrase sequencer track borrows the corresponding track channel when the VS-2480’s in Phrase Sequence mode—in essence, it becomes a sequence track channel. The track channel’s fader and all of its CH EDIT tools—including its dynamics processor and EQ—are available for shaping the sound of the sequencer track. You can even add effects, just as if you were working with a hard disk recorder track. Since the CH EDIT buttons act as PHRASE SEQ STATUS buttons in Phrase Pad and Phrase Sequencer mode, there’s a special way to get to the sequence track’s CH EDIT screen, which we mentioned in passing earlier: • Hold down SHIFT and press CH EDIT. Do the same thing again to exit the CH EDIT VIEW screen and return to the previous screen. Phrase Sequence Bouncing You can bounce what you’ve recorded on your phrase sequence tracks to tracks in the hard disk recorder. Once you’ve performed the bounce, you can hear your phrase sequence—now converted to audio recorded on project tracks—without entering Phrase Sequence mode. The process of bouncing phrase sequence tracks is a lot like normal bouncing, except that you bounce from source sequence tracks to destination hard disk recorder tracks. If the timeline backsteps beyond the start of a phrase it’s touching, the entire phrase is deleted. It’s a good idea to turn on the grid when you’re using Tie, Rest and BackStep to help you visually keep track of what you’re doing. When you’re in Phrase Pad mode—and not using the phrase sequencer—the CH EDIT tools control the sound of the live phrase pads. When bouncing phrase sequencer tracks, you can link source sequence tracks or destination hard disk recorder tracks for stereo bouncing, as usual.

16 © 2001 Roland Corporation US Bouncing Phrase Sequence Tracks 1. If you’re not in Phrase Sequence mode, hold down SHIFT and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ so that it lights solid red to indicate that the phrase sequencer is ready to play back its data. 2. Make sure that the PHRASE SEQ STATUS button for any sequence track you want to bounce is green. 3. If you want to change any CH EDIT settings for a sequence track—including adding effects or linking the sequence track to its odd/even partner—hold down SHIFT, press its CH EDIT button and make the desired changes. If you’re adding effects, make sure to route the FX return channels to your destination hard disk recorder tracks, and bring up the necessary FX return channel faders. 4. If you want to change the destination V-Track for any of your destination hard disk recorder tracks—or if you want to link the track to its odd/even partner—hold down SHIFT, press the desired track channel’s CH EDIT button and make the desired changes. 5. Route the source sequence tracks to the destination hard disk recorder tracks as you would for a normal bounce—the sequence tracks look just like standard tracks in the EZ ROUTING VIEW screen and on the Quick Routing screens. 6. Arm each destination track for recording by holding down REC and pressing the track’s TRACK STATUS button. 7. Hold down REC and press PLAY to perform the bounce. 8. When the bounce is complete, hold down SHIFT and press PHRASE PAD PLAY•PHRASE SEQ to leave Phrase Sequence mode. 9. Hold down STOP, press TRACK STATUS for your destination tracks and listen to the bounce.