Yamaha A4000

Hi Alécio.



I know about a unit of A4000 (full) at "Mercado Livre". Comes with 128mb Hd 2.5Gb and 10 cd's.

For R$ 2.800,00



http://www.mercadolivre.com.br/jm/item?site=MLB&id=13816710



hugs,



Thiago.

hi Alecio, I own an A5000 and a 4000 and I know them inside out, IMO it is a great sampler, you can import all major fromats (akai, emu, roland wav and aiff)



the cd roms that you get with it are very good, not the best but you can edit those sounds into something very nice...



there are some native Yamaha format sample cd's that you can buy online @ motifator.com,

Vr sound.com is blowing out their yamaha format sample CD's at about $25 bucks each,

you can also get drum kit from hell for the yamaha samplers, an excellent drum library IMO

if i remember right it's a typical scsi, here's the spec :



SCSI (half-pitch, 50-pin)



about the hard drive,

this is the internal hard drive & zip spec :



Internal hard disk drive

(3.5 inch)

performance requirements

Interface 50-pin SCSI or 40-pin IDE

Power supply +5V maximum 840 mA

+12V maximum 2400 mA



Internal Zipdrive

Interface 40-pin IDE (ATAPI)

Power supply +5V 0.8A

Hall (HALL)



I recommend IDE over scsi, they are faster with the yamaha...



you have to mount then format the drive from within the sampler, not your computer...

there's a list of approved models at yamaha's usa website, there are some drive brands and models that will not work with the A4000, I had great luck with seagate older drives, I use model ST38410A (10 gigs) the A4000 will only format and write to the first 8 gigs, so look for a small 8 or 10 gig hard drive, newer 80 gig drives and the like WILL NOT WORK, before you buy test it first, mount the disk, format the disk, create a new volume in one partition, save some samples and then load them into the A4000, that's how you verify that the drive is working ok

hi Alecio, I bought the cable from my pro audio dealer, there's no way I could have built that kind of cable lol....



I also use a yamaha cd burner, depending on the model loading times can get faster or slower but once the samples are loaded I save to the IDE drive that way I save time...



don't forget to turn off play and load to increase loading speed

if you are having problems with loading data

make sure you mount the cd rom drive too, go to the disk menú, and turn off play and load in the utility menu, this will make load times a lot faster



ps. the A4000 can't read mac formatted cd's, only ISO format cd's for PC's so if you try to burn CD's from your mac to load them to the A4000 make sure you write them in ISO format in toast or mac/iso hybrid...

Originally posted by Alécio Costa - Brazil:



What amazes me is that as I load a kit, for example,and address it to a Program, like 001 Funky Kit and as I select PLAY > Program, sometimes the samples play (Funky Kick at C1) and sometimes not, quite strange..

I see midi data being sent to the module but no sound outputted. (!!)





Also, very confusing the concept of BCH and smp at that beast.



BCH, the basic channel, which one can select at another window and then =smp... So does the user need to readdress every sample so as to build a single sample bank, suppose one is loading from the same CD rom library?



Why don´t these japanese folks do not use a simpler approach? I have worked with dozens of digital boards, sound modules, recorders and I swear I have never seen such an awful manual and GUI!

;) and you can do so much with it ! the A4000 is full of useful tools so this flexibility can get quite difficult to master because of its complexity, I do agree it can be too much for the mind to absorb in a while so spend some time with the manual which by the way i think it's very complete, you are free to think I'm crazy because i also think the A4000 is actually easy to use ! i had no problem with the manual, but you have to become used to the sampler jargon and other synth terms to understand it, you can't expect instant gratification results from it, every other pro quality sampler is just as complex, I suggest you download and read the sampler handbook and the poweruser PDF's @ yamaha's site



[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.yamahasy…"]yamaha sampler handbook page[/]="http://www.yamahasy…"]yamaha sampler handbook page[/]



look for the power user guides here



hope this helps Alecio, feel free to post any other questions here....

Originally posted by Alécio Costa - Brazil:

sure bud. I really think it was some problem because I was always loading a specific volume. So at the keyboard, sometimes the sample played and sometimes not.

so why hitting C1 for teh first time it played the kick and a few seconds it was not playing at all?

check the sample's velocity range, I don't think it's a problem, otherwise it would happen with everything you load... ;)



[ November 12, 2003, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Mario-C. ]

Originally posted by Alécio Costa - Brazil:

isn´t there a faster way to change the midi channel without needing to open sample banks, etc?

It is so unlogical having the Programs list and the midi function at that window just exchanging the global or basic or LOcal midi receive.

Nice thursday

sure, use multi mode and assign the programs you want to the desired midi channel there

Originally posted by Alécio Costa - Brazil:

wow, after all this, I´m sure I will receive the GOOFY hat on here -lol



Mario, please, just take a look at this:

[DISK] > F5

Knob 4 ( I selected the volume ()st23 sweet st, which is a volume previously loaded from cdrom to internal IDE master drive and it contains 10 programs, size 7.3MB)



Knob 5 > pressed twice to load



[PLAY] > F1

Program 01: Chamber 1A

Program 02: Chamber 1B

Program 03: Chamber 1C

...

Program 10: Chamber 2E



So, I changed to multi. Now, my xp80 plays fine, but the CHAMBER 1A was moved to PROGRAM 15 and plays at part 15 of my Xp80 performance( Midi channel 15). It is happening also with part 16 of Xp80 (midi chan 16)!!!!

Also, at the Sampler screen, the names at Program 01 and 02 are duplicated..

So what am I missing here sir?



Also, how can I delete just part 02 of this list and load, let us say the ambient kit at Program 02 without deleting the other string stuff? I mean just ine drum kit.



ISn´t there a way of monitoring which part is playing besides of course selecting it on the keyboard controller?

______________________________________________



At [EDIT]

F6 Midi/ctrl

Edit - Midiset



I changed the receuve channel...

Is thsi the way to do without making the previous mess?

thanks

when loading volumes the memory will be erased, if you don't want to clear the ram, you have to load programs individually, you do this in the Disk > F1 window, use the LoadTo option to tell the A4000 where to load the selected program...



now in multi mode if the programs start jumping around use knob 2 to select them and knob 3 to change them, if they still jump you have to disable program change recieve in utility F6, now if you want to be able to recieve program changes just insert them in your sequencer's respective midi channel and don't set the recieve program change feature to off...



load the drums to program 02 using the instructions i wrote at the beggining,if you want to delete the unused stuff press play F2 select the stuff you want to erase then press delete



I dont undertand what you mean with monitoring which part is playing, you mean like a solo function ? if you mean solo i think you can't but you can get around it by soloing the part inside your midi sequncer, are you using pro tools for midi ?



You lost me with your last question sorry

:s:

Originally posted by Alécio Costa - Brazil:





a) can I save each performance? Let me explain more... In Roland Jargon, a performance is a set of 16 parts with patches aproperly addressed to each part/single midi channel.



b)Will I have to download every group of programs every time the A4000 is powered?



Yes, I did the mistake of loading the DJ CDROM entirely and it deleted all the volumes of my IDE internal drive.



c)The name of the drive even changed, maybe because I exceed disk limit. Is it right?



Boy, if I have the chance, I will want to buy one more sampler of this. I have just inverted all my logical, now things are getting clear -lol

You are right, the sound is amazing!!!!

I just wished I had K2500/2600 orchestra/strings libraries, which are the best I ever heard.



d) just one more. I create a volume at the Internal IDE Master HD. I try to load new volumes or patches/programs into it and it gets copied out of it. Is it happening because I can just copy patches/individual programs to just created volumes?

Thanks again

The next step will be: edits and sample bank assemblies.

A) yes but only in the internal hard disk, create a volume then save your work there



B) yes, you have to reload every time the A4000 is powered on, for this reason, make sure you save your edits often, if something happens you'll lose all your work



C) you can rename the hard drive at anytime...



about the kurzweil format, the A4000 won't read those :( but there are many akai, emu, roland compatible CD's that you can buy



D) there are seven save modes, press comand save in PLAY mode and choose the save mode that best suit your needs, you can erase everything in the volume while saving, save only edited data, save only one program, one sample, etc.



select SaveType and use the knobs to select the save type you need

;)