Owner's Manual

What SuperOS adds

On the S900 the operating system and the samples share one memory. To keep the full stock 464 KB of sample memory, SuperOS makes its room by removing a few rarely used stock features. A disk filled to the full stock memory loads complete, with all 68 objects.

None of this changes the sound. If you need one of these features, boot your original disk: everything stock comes back until the next power-on.

These steps are for an S900 with a USB floppy emulator fitted. Installing means copying one file to the emulator's USB stick or SD card. The S900 needs the version 1.2 EPROM.

Autoboot

If your emulator is set up to mount AUTOBOOT.HFE by itself at power-on, SuperOS can boot with no button presses. This only works if autoboot is already set up on your emulator.

SuperOS-900 is now installed.

The banner

When SuperOS has loaded, the top line of the display ends in SUPER 5.0.1 and the bottom line reads TIMESTRETCH EDITION SUPEROS303.COM.

If you see the old banner, a different image is selected, or the S900 was not switched off and on after selecting it. On the DISK pages the operating system file on the boot disk is named SUPER5.0.1.

Getting around the pages

SuperOS uses the S900's own way of working. Pages are named by section and number: EDIT SAMPLE *14 means press EDIT SAMPLE, then go to page 14.

1. Press a section key: PLAY, REC, EDIT SAMPLE, EDIT PRGRM, MIDI, UTILITY or DISK.
2. With the cursor on the page number at the far left, type the two digits of the page, or step with the PAGE keys.
3. Move the cursor to a field with the cursor keys.
4. Turn the CONTROL knob or type the value. Switches take ON/+ and OFF/-. Fields marked (ENT), Do or Auto D run when you press ENT on them.

Every page SuperOS adds or changes. All other pages are stock.

EDIT SAMPLE *14

The stretch makes a new sample that is longer or shorter than the original but at the same pitch. The original is not changed.

*14 STRETCH *New name NEW SAMPLE *200% *D-time 1000 *Auto D_ *Mon1/pol2 2 *Do_

• A looped sample keeps its loop, with the loop length scaled by the same amount.
• A stretched sample can be stretched again.
• The page keeps its values while you work, until the sampler is switched off.
• When the new sample will not fit, the display shows OOPS! Memory sample space is full. Lower the %, or delete samples you do not need.
• When the D-time is too short for the %, the display shows ENOUGH ALREADY! Raise the D-time.

EDIT SAMPLE *06 *07 *08

A point that sits on a zero crossing does not click. Set the point with the knob or the digits as usual, then press ENT with the cursor on the Coarse or Fine field: the point moves to the nearest zero crossing within 64 words.

• *06 START POINT and *07 END POINT: the point itself snaps.
• *08 LOOP LENGTH: the loop's start (end point minus loop length) snaps, so the loop joins at a crossing.

Turning the knob or typing digits works exactly as before; only ENT snaps.

EDIT SAMPLE *07

*07 END POINT *Coarse *Fine *Chop(ENT) (002,203-040,000) 40,000 *Name#APACHE02

The break is now cut into chops. Map them to keys like any other samples.

Chop names

The name offered is #, the first six characters of the sample's name, and the lowest free number from 01 to 99. To use your own name, cursor to *Name, type up to eight characters after the # and press ENT to leave the name, then cursor back to *Chop(ENT). Pressing the left cursor key on the first character also leaves the name. A name that is already in use is refused with Used and nothing is made.

You can also make a chop on EDIT SAMPLE *01: a copy to a name that starts with # makes a chop of the selected sample. A copy to a plain name makes a full copy, as on a stock S900, and is how you turn a chop back into an independent sample.

What a chop cannot do

• Discard and half-bandwidth resample (*09) and reverse (*05) change the shared memory itself, so they refuse on any sample that shares memory, chop or original, with Shared. Make a plain copy first.
• Recording to the name of a shared sample records into free memory instead of over the shared audio.
• Deleting is safe in any order: the memory is freed when the last sample using it is deleted.

Chops on disk

Save the break and its chops together with DISK *04 (the whole memory). The break saves as a normal sample and each chop as a one-block file that refers to it by name. When the disk is loaded, the chops join their break again and still share its memory. A chop saved on its own as a single sample is saved as a full sample.

EDIT PROGRAM *04

*04 *Start 0,000 *End 0,000 *Porta 0 *KG1 *Vsw 128 *Xfd OFF *Mix 64 *AA 0

Page *04 holds the stock velocity fields (Vsw velocity switch, Xfd velocity crossfade, Mix) and four SuperOS fields for the selected keygroup. As on every keygroup page, KG picks the keygroup and KG 00 edits every keygroup of the program at once. The cursor runs KG, Start (coarse, fine), End (coarse, fine), Porta, Vsw, Xfd, Mix, AA.

Start and End

Each number is shown as coarse,fine: coarse 0 to 16 and fine 0 to 999. Move between the two halves with the cursor keys and set each with the knob or the digits. Anything typed above 16,383 plays as 16,383. The sample itself is never changed, so EDIT SAMPLE still shows its own points, and two keygroups can play different parts of the same sample at the same time. The new points are heard from the next note.

• The scale always runs between the sample's own start and end points, so on a chop it covers just the slice.
• The two points are kept at least 100 words apart. Start moves to make room; End moves only at the edge of the sample.
• Set End below Start and the note plays backwards from Start to End. Start 16,383 with End 0,001 plays the whole sample backwards.

Portamento

With Porta above 0, each new note glides from the pitch of the previous note on the same MIDI channel. The glide is measured in semitones, so an interval takes the same time anywhere on the keyboard, and each voice glides on its own, so chords slide together.

Anti-aliasing cap

The S900 limits each voice's filter to stay below the playback rate. AA 1 and 2 raise that limit; AA 3 removes it, so with Filter at 99 low-rate and pitched-down samples keep their raw, aliased top end. It cannot push the hardware past its normal limits.

EDIT PROGRAM, with a MIDI keyboard connected

Instant attack

On EDIT PROGRAM *09 ENV, Attack 0 now opens the note at full level the moment it starts. Attack 0 on the filter envelope (*17 VCF) likewise starts the filter envelope at full level. Attack 1 is the old fastest attack, which softens the first moment of the note.

Checked saves

Every save is read back from the disk and checked straight away. A part that does not read back correctly is written again once. Only if that fails too is a disk error shown, while the sound is still in memory. When loading, a bad read is tried five times instead of three.

Faster loading

Samples and programs load roughly four to five times faster than stock, and the operating system itself boots about three times faster.

Actions that ask first

These actions show a warning on the top line first. Press the same key again to go ahead, or move the cursor to cancel. Cursor and page keys never set them off.

EDIT PROGRAM *13, on a looping or alternating sample

*13 LFO DEP *Aft.tch *Mod.whl *EndLFO *KG1 0 50 20

Depth and the mod wheel

The mod wheel is the position: wheel down puts the loop on the first loop-length of the sample, wheel up on the last, whatever the loop length. The depth sets how far the LFO swings the loop either side of that position. With the wheel still and the depth up, the loop sweeps on its own; with a low depth, you place it by hand with the wheel. The position never runs past either end of the sample.

The depth is a keygroup setting and saves with the program. A program from a stock S900 or an older SuperOS loads with it at 0. CC 84 sets it over MIDI.

Wheel mode

Send CC 89 at 64 or above and the keygroups on that channel switch to wheel mode. The LFO no longer moves the loop. With the wheel at 64 or above the sample's own loop plays; turning the wheel down walks the loop back towards the start of the sample, a whole loop at a time, and the depth sets how far: at depth 99, wheel 0 reaches the first loop-length. CC 89 below 64 switches back. The mode saves with the program.

The loop length

The number of places the loop can go is the length between the sample's start and end points divided by the loop length. A 10,000-word loop in a 50,000-word sample has five places, which sounds like five jumps. A 200-word loop in the same sample has 250, which sounds like a sweep. Loops of roughly 20 to 300 words work well, and a sustained sound looped on one cycle works best. A drum break is not a good source: moving a loop through it clicks by nature.

Alternating and chops

On an Alternating sample the moving loop plays forwards then backwards, so it has no join at all. On a chop the loop stays between the chop's own start and end points, inside its slice.

When it does not move

• One-shot samples, and samples recorded or resampled at half bandwidth.
• Loops shorter than 32 words or 32,768 words and longer.
• A loop longer than the length between the sample's start and end points.
• On an Alternating sample, a position that would cross the middle of sample memory keeps the previous position. With short loops this is one place out of hundreds.

UTILITY *01 *02

Press UTILITY. Pages *01 and *02 are the SUPEROS pages: which MIDI controller does what, and whether the panel knob sends MIDI. A new number takes effect at once.

*01 SUPEROS *StartCC 13 *PortaCC 5 *LoudCC 11 *PitchCC 12 *EndCC 14

*02 SUPEROS *FiltKnob OFF *AAcapCC 16

Sending the knob to MIDI

With the cursor on FiltKnob, press ON/+. Now turning a Filter field on an EDIT PROGRAM page sends CC 74 with the value shown (0 to 99), and turning a Loudness field sends LoudCC with the value plus 50 (Loudness 0 sends 50), on the basic MIDI channel. A sequencer records the moves and can play them back.

Every SuperOS controller acts on the keygroups of the current program that receive on the channel it arrives on. A controller and the matching panel field set the same value, so whichever moved last wins, and what you hear is what saves with the program.

Filter

CC 74 sets the keygroup Filter, using the panel's own scale: CC 63 is Filter 63, and 100 to 127 act as 99. The filter now moves on notes that are already sounding, from the panel and from MIDI, and a CC sent with nothing playing is kept for the next note. The number 74 is fixed.

Loudness and pitch

LoudCC sets the keygroup Loudness and moves notes that are already sounding without restarting them. The panel Loudness field does the same on held notes. Loudness is stored in the program; the stock MIDI volume (CC 7) is a separate control and still works.

PitchCC transposes the keygroups: CC 64 is no change, each step is a quarter semitone, so CC 0 is 16 semitones down and CC 127 is 15.75 up. Sounding notes retune at once. The pitch wheel works as before.

Start and end points

StartCC sets the keygroup Start point on the 16,384-step scale of page *04, heard from the next note. Sent alone it works as a plain 128-step controller: CC 0 is the sample's own start. Sent as a 14-bit pair with its fine half (StartCC + 32) it reaches every step. A StartCC above 95 has no fine half.

EndCC sets the keygroup End point in 128 steps: CC 127 is the sample's own end point and each step down is one 128th of the way back towards its start. On a one-shot sample it works as a length control. On a looped sample the loop hangs from the end point, so moving the end moves the loop through the sample from note to note.

Portamento and the AA cap

PortaCC writes the keygroup Porta time (0 off, 127 slowest) and AAcapCC the keygroup AA cap, as on page *04.

Envelopes, LFO and transwave

These controllers are always on; there is nothing to set up. They write the keygroup values straight away, and a page shows the new value the next time it is drawn. Values above a parameter's range act as its top value.

MIDI while a recording is armed

Arming a recording on the REC pages no longer switches MIDI off. While the S900 waits to record, a computer can still read and write its memory over MIDI, and can start the take in any START WITH mode. The take keeps the name you gave it.

Error messages

An OOPS message or SYSTEM ERROR no longer leaves the machine frozen: sounding notes and the panel keep running. Press a section key to clear the message; MIDI then works as normal. SYSTEM ERROR means the processor hit a fault. It does not happen in normal use: note what you did last and switch off and on before you carry on.

Memory access over MIDI

The S900 answers three system-exclusive service messages, kept unchanged in SuperOS. With a MIDI cable each way, your own software can read and write the running sampler's memory: press panel keys, read the display and the list of samples and programs, change keygroup values and start a recording.

F0 47 <ch> <op> 40 00 00 <payload> <checksum> F7

• <ch> is the basic MIDI channel minus one: 00 for channel 1, the start-up setting. With omni on, any channel is accepted.
• Each payload byte is sent as two bytes: its low seven bits, then its top bit.
• The checksum is the exclusive-OR of all the payload bytes as sent. A PEEK with a wrong checksum gets no reply.
• Send each message in one burst and wait for a PEEK reply before the next message.
• PEEK at most 64 bytes and POKE at most 16 bytes per message. Never PEEK length 0: the sampler sends all 64 KB.
• POKE has no reply; PEEK the range afterwards to check it.

The SuperOS controllers as they are at power-on. Numbers marked UTILITY can be changed on the SUPEROS pages.

The stock MIDI controls (volume, sustain pedal, pitch wheel and the rest) work as on a stock S900.

• Stock S900 disks load and save exactly as before.
• Disks and programs saved on SuperOS 5.0.1 load on a stock S900 and on SuperOS 4.0.3 and later, and the other way round. A stock S900 ignores the SuperOS keygroup settings.
• Chops need SuperOS 5.0 or later to join their break again (section 9).
• Samples are saved uncompressed. A full memory still fits on one disk.
• The SUPEROS controller settings are not saved to disk; everything on the keygroup pages is saved with the program.