Akai RE 32 Service Manual

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Page i The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol , within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated Òdangerous voltageÓ within the productÕs enclosure; that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons. The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is intented to alert the user to the presence of important operating and maintenance (servicing) instruc- tions in the literature accompanying the appliance. THE SYMBOLS ARE RULED BY UL STANDARDS (U.S.A.) 5B-En WARNING!! To prevent fire or shock hazard, do not expose this appliance to rain or moisture. 1-En CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK DO NOT REMOVE COVER (OR BACK). NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL. CAUTION RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK DO NOT OPEN Important Notice The material in this document is copyright to AKAI professional M.I. Corp., and may not be quoted or reproduced in any form without written permission from the company. LIMITED SOFTWARE WARRANTY POLICY All the software provided with, or purchased especially for, AKAI professional products has been tested for functionality. AKAI professional M.I. Corp. will make its best efforts to correct reported software defects for future releases subject to technical practicabilities. AKAI professional M.I. Corp. makes no warranty or representation either expressed or implied with respect to the system's performance or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will AKAI professional M.I. Corp. be liable for direct or indirect damages arising from any defect in the software or its documentation. Further, AKAI professional M.I. Corp. will not accept any liability for any programs, sounds, audio recording or sequences stored in or used with AKAI professional products, including the cost of recovery of such data. The warranties, remedies and disclaimers above are exclusive and take precedence over all others, oral or written, express or implied, to the extent permitted by law in the geographical area of the product's use. No employee of AKAI professional M.I. Corp., agent, distributor or employee of an agent or distributor is authorised to offer any variation from this policy. Rev. 3 4/20/2000

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Page ii WARNING WARNING The RE32 is designed to be used in a standard household environment. Power requirements for electrical equipment vary from area to area. Please ensure that your RE32 meets the power requirements in your area. If in doubt, consult a qualified electrician or AKAI professional dealer. 120VAC @ 60Hz for USA and Canada 220-230/240VAC @ 50Hz for Europe 240VAC @ 50Hz for Australia PROTECTING YOURSELF AND THE RE32 ¥ Never touch the AC plug with wet hands. ¥ Always disconnect the RE32 from the power supply by pulling on the plug, not the cord. ¥ Allow only an AKAI professional dealer or qualified professional engineer to repair or reas- semble the RE32. Apart from voiding the warranty, unauthorized engineers might touch live internal parts and receive a serious electric shock. ¥ Do not put, or allow anyone to put any object, especially metal objects, into the RE32. ¥ Use only a household AC power supply. Never use a DC power supply. ¥ If water or any other liquid is spilled into or onto the RE32, disconnect the power, and call your dealer. ¥ Make sure that the unit is well-ventilated, and away from direct sunlight. ¥ To avoid damage to internal circuitry, as well as the external finish, keep the RE32 away from sources of direct heat (stoves, radiators, etc.). ¥ Avoid using aerosol insecticides, etc. near the RE32. They may damage the surface, and may ignite. ¥ Do not use denaturated alcohol, thinner or similar chemicals to clean the RE32. They will damage the finish. ¥ Modification of this equipment is dangerous, and can result in the functions of the RE32 being impaired. Never attempt to modify the equipment in any way. ¥ In order to assure optimum performance of your RE32, select the setup location carefully, and make sure the equipment is used properly. Avoid setting up the RE32 in the following locations: 1. In a humid or dusty environment 2. In a room with poor ventilation 3. On a surface which is not horizontal 4. Inside a vehicle such as a car, where it will be subject to vibration 5. In an extremely hot or cold environment

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42 Version 1.00 RECORDING BIT LENGTH This selects the audio bit length for new recordings. Â¥ 16-bit: This is the compact Disc standard. Â¥ 20-bit: This option allows 20-bit audio to be recorded, giving greater resolution and headroom. Â¥ 24-bit: This option allows 24-bit audio to be recorded, giving even greater resolution and headroom. Â¥ 20-bit (packed): This is a special option that is only available when recording AKAI format audio files. Typically, 20-bit audio occupies the same space on disk as 24-bit audio (the extra 4-bits of storage space in each sample being wasted). The 20-bit Ã-packedÕ mode avoids this waste of space by writing the audio to disk in a special pattern. Sample 3 Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 1 Sample 2 24-BIT : 20-BIT : 20-BIT PACKED : Note that this mode does not involve any Ã-audio compressionÕ. It just places the data on disk in an optimal manner to maximise disk storage space and bandwidth.

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64 Version 1.00 MULTI-MACHINE EDITING MULTI- MACHINE EDIT Multi-machine edit mode provides a quick and convenient method for copying audio from one region to another on the same track(s). For example, it can be used to copy the chorus of a song from one position to another. The only restriction in this mode is that audio cannot be moved from one track to another. For edits that involve moving audio from one track to another, SINGLE- MACHINE EDIT should be used as described in a later section. MULTI-MACHINE EDIT is selected by pressing the EDIT key and then selecting MULTI in the TRACKS field. You will see the following display similar to this: The soft keys show the edit functions that are available. COPYING A REGION This allows you to copy a selected audio region on any combination of tracks in the system to a new location on the GRID. First, mark the region you want to copy using the IN and OUT keys and select the tracks containing audio you wish to copy using the EDIT TRACK SELECT keys. Cues within the marked region will be shown in green on the display to show that they are selected. Next, press the COPY (F1) key. The audio region selected will Ã-pop-outÕ of the GRID and will be shown as a Ã-ghostÕ image in red on top of the original cues: NOW Audio region selected Now, you can use any of the transport controls to move selected region to the position you want to copy it to. You can use PLAY, REW, FF etc., as well as LOCATE functions and then the JOG wheel to Ã-fine tuneÕ your selection. As you move to new areas in the GRID, the selected region will remain as a Ã-ghostÕ image referenced to the NOW time: NOW Jog wheel turned to the right to move the selected region

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68 Version 1.00 MULTI-MACHINE EDITING CUT This allows you to remove a selected region of audio copy on any combination of tracks from the GRID and close the gap(s) thus created, shifting all audio after the edit accordingly. For example: INOUT BEFORE CUT AFTER CUT First, mark the region you want to cut using the IN and OUT keys and select the tracks containing audio you wish to remove using the EDIT TRACK SELECT keys. Cues within the marked region will be shown in green on the display to show that they are selected. Next, press the CUT (F2) key on the main MULTI-MACHINE EDIT page. The audio region selected will be removed from the GRID and subsequent audio shifted accordingly. ERASE ERASE is similar to CUT except that it will remove the currently selected region but will keep any gap(s) thus created.: I N OUT I N OUT BEFORE ERASE AFTER ERASE First, mark the region you want to cut using the IN and OUT keys and select the tracks containing audio you wish to remove using the EDIT TRACK SELECT keys. Cues within the marked region will be shown in green on the display to show that they are selected. Next, press the ERASE (F3) key on the main MULTI-MACHINE EDIT page. The audio region selected will be removed from the GRID. DISCARD The DISCARD function will discard material on either side of the selected region but will not slip any subsequent audio: I N OUT I N OUT BEFORE DISCARD AFTER DISCARD First, mark the region you want to cut using the IN and OUT keys and select the tracks containing audio you wish to remove using the EDIT TRACK SELECT keys. Cues within the marked region will be shown in green on the display to show that they are selected. Next, press the DISCARD (F4) key on the main MULTI-MACHINE EDIT page. Audio material on either side of the selected region will be removed from the GRID. The main use for DISCARD is to get rid of any rubbish from cues before a certain point and after a certain point.

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Version 1.00 81 SINGLE-MACHINE EDITING INSERTING TO OUT AND SYNC REFERENCES As with PASTE and OVERLAY, you may also insert material referenced to the source materialÕs OUT point by pressing INSERT, OUT, EXECUTE. The REFERENCED TO field in the LCD will show OUT and the effect would be as follows: BEFORE INSERT AFTER INSERT + OUT NOW In this example, the inserted material all audio before the NOW time would slip allowing you to back-time the insert. You may also insert referenced to the source materialÕs SYNC mark. This is useful for bringing in material that needs to synchronise to specific visual events or to another piece of audio (a clichŽd example would be to sync a music crescendo to a gun shot). Pressing INSERT, SYNC, EXECUTE would give this result: BEFORE INSERT AFTER INSERT + SYNC NOW NOTE: If you try to insert referenced to a SYNC mark and there isnÕt one, it will insert referenced to the source materialÕs IN point In both examples, you may also use the clipboards 1-9. For example, INSERT, OUT, 6, EXECUTE would insert clipboard 6 referenced to its OUT point.

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Version 1.00 95 EDIT TOOLS CROSSFADE TOOLS The crossfade tools allow you to modify a cueÕs start and end point to create a crossfaded overlap or to remove the gap between two cues and butt them together. While in the CROSSFADE TOOLS page, the width of the tracks is halved on the display in order to clearly show overlaps of cues sharing the same track: All the CROSSFADE TOOLS can be applied to a single track or across multiple tracks limited, in the case of cross fades, by the amount of audio buffer RAM you have fitted in each machine. Where appropriate, therefore, the term Ã-cueÕ can also be read as Ã-cuesÕ. The standard transport controls are disabled while in the CROSSFADE TOOLS pages. Pressing the XFADE key (SHIFT+EDIT Q) takes you to main CROSSFADE TOOLS page where you have access to each of the Ã-Quick ToolÕ options - XFADE, BUTT, FADES - as shown below:

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98 Version 1.00 DISK MANAGEMENT DISK MANAGEMENT Now that we have some material recorded and edited, itÕs time to look at the utilities provided for managing disks connected to machines in the system. All DISK functions are accessed using the DISK key. Pressing the DISK key will take you to this screen: This screen is used for loading new projects and displays a list of the projects available on the selected disk. However, before looking at this in more detail, we should save the current project containing the material we have recorded and edited! SAVING PROJECTS Pressing SAVE (F1) displays this screen: The page shows the name of the currently loaded project. Just press the flashing EXECUTE key to save (or EXIT to abort). This will save the project and leave the page. You will receive the following pop-up prompt when you leave the page after the file has been saved: This message will flash up very quickly to confirm the project is saved. NOTE: No Ã’ARE YOU SURE?Ó prompts are given as it is felt that a quick way to save projects is very important. However, please be careful not to accidentally save something you do not wish to keep!! If, at any time, you change your mind and do not wish to save the project, press EXIT to leave the SAVE page. The parameters on the SAVE PROJECT page have the following functions: TRACKS When several machines are connected to the RE32 to expand the total number of tracks available, the system will behave as if there is a single Ã-multi-trackÕ project containing all of these tracks. However, in reality each connected machine maintains its own internal project containing data for the tracks assigned to that machine. When MULTI is selected in this field, the RE32 will tell each connected machine to save its local project. In other words, the systemÕs Ã-multi- trackÕ project is saved in its entirety.

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Version 1.00 107 DISK MANAGEMENT COPYING FILES/DISKS It is possible to copy data from one disk to another. You may copy individual projects and libraries or copy the whole disk. Pressing COPY (F5) will give you this screen: The parameters are: TRACKS Here you may select the machine that is connected to the disks drive you wish to copy between. To avoid confusion, the machines are listed by the tracks they represent. For example, machine 1 will be shown as Ã’1-16Ó, machine 2 as Ã’17-32Ó etc.. NOTE: Files can only be copied between two disks attached to the same machine. DISK Here you may select the Ã-sourceÕ disk you are copying from. TO DISK Here you may select the Ã-destinationÕ or Ã-targetÕ disk you are copying to. COPY TYPE You may select the type of file you wish to copy in this field. You may select: SINGLE FILE - this will copy a specific file as shown in the FILE TYPE and FILE NAME fields. ALL PROJECTS - This will copy all projects on the source disk to the destination disk. ALL LIBRARIES - This will copy all the libraries on the source disk to the destinations disk. ALL FILES - This will copy all the files on the source disk to the destination disk. DUPLICATE DISK - This will copy everything from the source disk to the destination disk. IMPORTANT NOTE: DUPLICATE WILL FIRST ERASE THE DESTINATION DISK BEFORE DUPLICATING THE SOURCE DISK TO IT. FILE TYPE When SINGLE FILE is selected, you may select the type of file you wish to copy (i.e. PROJECT, LIBRARY or SETTINGS) in this field. FILE NAME This parameter allows you to select the file you wish to copy.

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Version 1.00 111 DISK MANAGEMENT DELETE FILES In the disk DIRECTORY page, you can delete projects and/or libraries depending on the selection made in the FILE TYPE field. First select the type of file you wish to delete in the FILE TYPE field and then move the cursor to the file you wish to delete. Pressing DELETE will give you this prompt: The EXECUTE keyÕs LED will be flashing and you should press EXECUTE (YES) or EXIT (NO/ CANCEL) accordingly. As the prompt tells you, there is no undo for this so please check carefully that the correct file is selected for deletion before proceeding. If in any doubt at all, press EXIT to abort. If you press DELETE (F6) and the cursor is not on a file (i.e. it is on the DISK or FILE TYPE fields), the screen will pop-up the prompt: This prompt will appear for a few seconds. You should move the cursor to the file you wish to delete and press F6 (DELETE) again. If you try to delete a project that is currently loaded, you will receive this prompt: You should either load another project or create a new one and then return to the DISK page to delete the project you originally wanted to delete. If you have deleted any files, when you leave the DIRECTORY page, you will receive this prompt: When a project or library is deleted, the audio associated it with not deleted at the point of deletion. This may seem a bit odd but the reason for this is that if audio was deleted when you pressed EXECUTE, every time you delete a file, the system would have to go through a lengthy search process to check if the audio associated with that file is referenced anywhere else (i.e. in other projects and/or libraries) and this could take some time. As a result, to make the deletion process quick, only the file itself is deleted. Then, when you come to leave the DISK page, you are offered the choice of Ã-cleaningÕ up the disk. What this means is that the machine will search any connected disks and look to see if the audio associated with the files you have deleted is used anywhere else. If any part of it is referenced by any other projects and/or libraries, the audio will not be deleted. If, however, the audio associated with the file(s) you have deleted is not used by any other project and/or library, the audio will be erased from disk, thus freeing up extra disk space. To save yourself some time, if disk space is not a problem, you can choose to ignore this prompt by pressing EXIT and you can come back to this when itÕs more convenient. If you wish to proceed and erase any unreferenced audio, press the flashing EXECUTE key (see later - CLEANUP DISK).

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Version 1.00 133 DISK MANAGEMENT CLEANUP DISK CLEANUP DISK allows you to clear out redundant recordings and so save valuable disk space. Pressing CLEAN (F4) from the DISK UTILITIES page shows this screen: It is possible to have a disk full of unreferenced audio files. These are pieces of audio that have no association with any project or library. These are usually created when recording. For example, you make one recording and make a mistake. You drop in again over that, recording a new piece of audio. If the original recording is not in a library or another project, the audio associated with the original cue you recorded of it has become Ã-unreferencedÕ and is taking up disk space needlessly. Of course, if you keep recording over and over again on the same spot, you can fill your disk up fairly quickly. Also, if you delete a cue from a project or a clip from a library, you can end up with unreferenced audio. Another way audio can become Ã-unreferencedÕ is if you make a recording and then donÕt save the project. The functions in the CLEANUP page allow you to deal with this. The CLEANUP functions are: CLEANUP This will only erase unreferenced audio but will not Ã-top and tailÕ the cues that are valid. However, because CLEANUP keeps all the audio that may be being referenced (no matter how small), it could be you will see no or only a small change in the FREE ON DISK field because unlike MINIMISE, if just one cue in one project uses one second of a ten minute recording, the whole ten minutes will be kept. If you need to free up a further nine minutes and 59 seconds, use MINIMISE. Pressing CLEANUP DISK (F1/F2) will give this message: Because audio may be being referenced by the EDIT CLIPBOARD, you could try a cleanup and end up with no appreciable increase in available disk space. This option allows you to select whether you want the clipboard to be deleted as well. You should make your choice accordingly using F5 or F6 as appropriate. Pressing F5 or F6 will give this final safeguard prompt: When performing a cleanup, you should be aware that it is possible to have a project on a removable disk but for the audio for that project to exist on another disk (maybe the project is on an MO but the audio associated with it is all on a fixed hard disk). If the removable Ã-projectÕ disk is not present on the system when you perform a cleanup, you run the risk of losing all the audio for that project. The reason is simple... The CLEANUP function works by searching all the projects and libraries on all the disks currently attached to the system and it establishes what audio is being used by those projects and libraries and what is not. It then deletes any audio NOT being referenced by those projects and libraries from the disks.

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142 Version 1.00 SYSTEM SETUP SETUP - MULTI When MULTI mode is selected, pressing the SETUP key will display the following options: The MULTI SETUP pages are designed to allow easy configuration of parameters that should be set identically on each machine connected to the system. Pressing RATES (F1) will take you to the SYSTEM RATES page: This page is used to set the systemÕs global sample rate and frame rate. The parameters are: SAMPLE RATE This sets the systemÕs sample rate. You may select 32kHz, 44.056kHz, 44.1kHz and 48kHz. Other options may be available depending on the facilities available on the connected machines. On entry to this page, if all connected machines are set to the same sample rate, then this rate will be displayed. If not, the sample rate field will say Ò* DO NOT MATCH *Ó until a new rate is selected. NOTE 1: This page will only allow selection of sample rates that are supported on all the connected machines. NOTE 2: Recordings made at a sample rate other than the selected sample rate will play back at the wrong speed. For example, if the sample rate is set to 44.1kHz and you try to play back a recording made at 48kHz, the recording will play back slow. Therefore, please make sure that your recordings are made at the correct sampling rate. Recordings made at different sample rates cannot be used in the same project. TC FRAME RATE This shows the systemÕs timecode rate. This field is not editable, but instead serves as a visual check that all machines are configured correctly. If all machines are set to the same frame rate, then this rate will be displayed here. If not, this field will say Ò* DO NOT MATCH *Ó. Timecode frame rates can be individually set on each machine as explained later in the section on TIMECODE SETUP.

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Version 1.00 167 SYSTEM SETUP EXT WORDCLOCK OK - The GPO will change level while external wordclock is being successfully received. EXT TIME LOCK - The GPO will indicate when the transport is successfully locked to external timecode. REC TRACK - These options allow a tally to be sent when any of the record tracks are switched on/off. REHEARSE - These options allow a tally to be sent when rehearse mode is enabled. TRACK SLIP 1 ..8 - These options allow an appropriate tally to be generated when a track is slipped.

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Version 1.00 179 SPECIFICATIONS RE32 SPECIFICATIONS Power Requirements : 120V AC 60 Hz 19 W 220 - 240V AC 50Hz Operating Temperature : 5°C ~ 40°C Operating Humidity : 30% ~ 80% (without condensation) Dimensions : 483 x 86 x 310 (330 maximum) (W x H x D, mm) EIA 7U Weight : 5.6kg Display : 248 x 60 dot graphic LCD Edit Resolution : Sub-frame Connectors Display Output : 15-pin D-sub male, Analogue level VGA (640 x 480) IBM PC Format Expansion Port : 9-pin D-sub male, for RC15 (optional) connection AKAINET : BNC 50-ohms, for Ethernet (10 Base-2) connection Keyboard Input : 6-pin mini-DIN female, for PS/2 Keyboard connection Accessories : AKAINET Cable (BNC 50-ohms, 20m) x 1 AC Cord x 1 OperatorÕs Manual x 1 h Above specifications are subject to change without prior notice.