Future Retro Orb Owner Manual - Manual (Page 7)

While a pattern is playing, you can change its direction to play
forward or backward by using the same technique as above. Hold
the Shift/Clear key and then press the Play key. When the loop
point for the currently playing pattern is reached, the sequencer
will change the playback direction.
Note: If the Orb’s MIDI parameter has been set to EXTernal, when
the Play key is pressed, its indicator will light up and stay on,
showing that the unit is cued up and waiting for an external MIDI
sequencer to send a Start command.
SELECTING PATTERNS
Patterns are arranged as 16 banks of 16 patterns for a total of 256
patterns in all. Before selecting a pattern, you must first make sure
that you are in Pattern mode. This is shown by the Song key
indicator being off.
To enter Pattern Select mode, press the Pattern key so that its
indicator turns on. The numeric display (in the center of the unit)
will now show the bank number 1–16 that is currently selected.
One of the 16 selector key indicators (located around the outside of
the display) will be on to show which pattern is selected for the
bank you are currently in. If none of the selector key indicators are
on, the current pattern selected is in another bank. If this is the
case, use the Up/Down keys to go through the other banks and see
what pattern is currently selected. To select a different pattern, use
the Up/Down keys to select the bank and then press one of the 16
selector keys that represent the pattern within the bank.
Selecting a pattern can be done while the sequencer is playing.
If one pattern is currently playing and you select another, the new
pattern’s key indicator will be on at half the brightness than that of
the pattern currently playing. This shows that the pattern is cued
and waiting until the pattern currently playing has reached its loop
point. Once the loop point has been reached, the cued pattern will
begin its playback. You can change the pattern that is cued and
ready to play next at any time until the current pattern reaches its
loop point.
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Each pattern will play continuously until either a new pattern is
selected or the sequencer is stopped.
Patterns may also be selected remotely from another MIDI
device by setting up the Orb to respond to MIDI Program Change
messages. Please refer to the MIDI section about Program Change
messages on page 41 for more details on how to do this.
MULTIPLE PATTERN CUEING
It is possible to chain the playback of up to 16 patterns in a bank to
create longer looping arrangements. To do so, enter Pattern Select
mode as you normally do when selecting patterns. Press and hold
the first pattern you wish to play and then press the last pattern that
is to be included in the loop.
Notice that patterns will be played sequentially from the lowest
pattern number to the highest pattern number. The first pattern
selected to play in the arrangement must have a lower pattern
number than that of the last pattern selected to be included in the
loop.
Once multiple patterns have been cued and are playing, you
can select another group of patterns to play when the first group
reaches its last step. When cueing up a second group of patterns,
you can select patterns in any bank and even partially overlapping
the patterns currently playing.
EDITING PATTERNS
Pattern Edit mode is where one measure of music can be recorded
or edited for each pattern.
These patterns can later be arranged into a song. Each pattern
records the note durations and their pitches, accents, glides, loop
point, time signature, and swing amount. Every time a pattern is
edited, the changes are automatically saved by the sequencer.
You must make sure not to change a pattern that you wish to keep.
By doing so, you will overwrite the old pattern with new data. To
avoid this, use the Copy/Paste function described on page 21.
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