Using Ensoniq ASR/EPS Patch-Select Buttons for Switching Tunings

Just in case this is of interest to any of you out in tuning land,
somebody asked me about how to use the ASR/EPS patch-select buttons to
switch off between different tuning tables. I asked if he knew what layers
are about. Here was his reply followed by my reply to that:




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>Well, yes, of course, I know what a layer is, but why only 4?

Good.

The 4 is because there are two patch-select buttons over by the
pitch-bend and mod wheels, and there are four possible combinations of two
on-off switches like that.

To use them to select layers, and thereby tuning tables, go over to the
Edit:Instrument page, then punch the back-arrow button until you get to a
page that looks like "OO PATCH=" followed by a bunch of numbers or dashes.

A patch is a combination of layers playing at the same time, and with
this page you can choose which patches play with each up-down combination
of the patch-select buttons.

If, for example, you want:
- Layer 1 (only) to play when you have both patch-select buttons
released,
- Layer 2 (only) when you press the right patch-select button but
not the left,
- Layer 3 (only) when you press the left patch-select button but
not the right,
- Layer 4 (only) when you press both the left and right patch-
select buttons.
To set this up, move the cursor with the right- and left-arrow buttons in
this "OO PATCH=" display until it's directly to the right of the "=". If
you push the up-arrow button at there, a 1 will pop up next to the "=".
That means that layer 1 will play when you have neither patch-select button
depressed. If there are any other numbers to the right of that 1, then
move the cursor over to them and press the down-arrow button, which will
turn off those layers.

To turn on layer 2 for the right-button-only patch, press the right
patch-select button, and hold it down. You will notice that the display
changes to "O* PATCH=" followed by numbers or dashes. The "*" means that
that patch-select button (the right one) is down, and the "O" means that
that button (the left button) is up (i.e., not depressed). The numbers in
that display the layers that will play when you have that combination.
Turn layer 2 on in the same way as you turned layer 1 on for the "OO"
patch, and turn the rest off. You have to hold the right patch-button down
throughout that entire operation.

You can then set the "*O" and "**" patches similarly.

To make the ASR play different tunings, or tuning subsets, in each of
those layers, you can get one of the layers to sound right, and then do a
Command:Layer:Copy Layer command to create layers 2, 3, and 4 as duplicates
of layer 1. Be sure to use the "Params Only" option, since that will avoid
copying the sample data itself, which hogs a lot of memory.

You then select each layer one by one, and do an Edit:Layer on it, and
cursor over to the "PITCH TBL=" (I think that's how it reads anyway) page.
You can use the up- and down-arrow keys to select a pitch table for that
layer. That then will give you a different pitch table for each of four
otherwise identical-sounding patch-button selections.