SOLTON

MS100

The MS100 is a professional keyboard designed for the most demanding musicians that require the very best sound quality and performance in step with the progress made in today's informatics field.

In fact the instrument is provided with several Solo Voices that have a fidelity of timbre second to none, unique in the world of Arranger keyboards and incorporates a powerful 510 Mbyte Hard Disk which enables the most efficient control of the MIDI Files, Styles, PCM Sounds and all the general data regarding the keyboard.

The MS100 provides a choice of 99 Arrangements, all carefully selected by musicians from vastly different cultural and geographical environments, with the intent to create the most authentic "feeling" possible in the various kinds of music.

This makes the keyboard extremely versatile and powerful for live performances of any kind of international dance music.

Furthermore the MS100 is compatible with all General MIDI standard software and with the SOLTON library of disks developed for the MS series.

 KEYBOARD

The keyboard has 76 semi-weighted keys with 4 dynamic curves, Aftertouch, 2 Modulation and Pitch Bend Wheels. Other effects provided are Portamento, Global Transposer, Octave Down, Full Chord and Arabic Scale.

256 GENERAL MIDI VOICES

The sound generation of the MS100 is made up of 256 Orchestral Voices created with Multi-sampling tech-nology and Algorithm Sound Synthesis. The sounds are sub-divided into 16 different families according to normal General MIDI standards with 2 separate banks of selection and have an 88-note extension with a 28-note polyphony. The voices, particularly the solo instruments, have all been sampled according to today's highest technological standards respecting the character and at times even the small irregularities that are typical of each instrument. Just listen to the Trumpet, the Flute, the Clarinet, the Saxophone, the Human Voice Choirs, the Mouthorgan, the Violin, the Accordion, the Mandolin and the Electro-magnetic Organ effects.

128 USER VOICES

The Internal Voices of the MS100 can be modified totally in the User Voice section by means of the Attack, Decay, Release, Cut Off, Resonance, Tune, Octave Shift, Modulation and Effects parameters and these can be saved on disk. The first 4 of the User Locations are also used for the loading of some PCM Sounds and some Grooves.

12 DRUM SETS - 135 PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

The MS100 contains 135 percussion sounds sub-divided into 11 preset Drum Sets. A User Drum Set is also provided by means of which the player can programme his or her personal Drum Set. The instruments are grouped into 7 sections: Bass Drum, Snare, Hi Hat, Cymbal, Toms, Hi Latin, Low Latin. Each section can be individually controlled by the Volume, Reverb., and Pan/Pot functions and furthermore can be manually included/excluded very easily by means of the On/Off facility.

PROGRAMS

The Program section of the MS100 enables the programming of 128 combinations of the 4 Voices of the keyboard in the various Patch, Duet, Trio, Split, Velocity Switch modes. With an accurate superimposition of the sounds and correct control of the various Detune, Octave Shift, Pan /Pot and Effects parameters it is possible to create original and stimulating effects for the instrument. A Reload function is provided, enabling the restoration of the original programmes.

GENERAL MIDI

The keyboard uses the General MIDI standard with 16 parts and 16 MIDI channels. Any MIDI File, programmed according to the General MIDI protocol, can be read and reproduced by the MS100. The possibility to MUTE the various parts, to exclude the solo part (LEAD OFF) and visualise the lyrics on the display (LYRIC OFF) has also been included. Furthermore the Song only can be transcribed, leaving the normal tuning of the keyboard unaltered.

The musical accompaniment can be balanced against the lead line by means of the Drums Volume ±. The initial setup of the Song can be completely remapped with the parameters provided in the GM parts and the variations can be resaved in the same Song. Finally it is also possible to programme Chains of Songs (CHAINS) with a maximum of 32 files for non-stop live performances.

HARD DISK/FLOPPY DISK

The MS100 is provided with an internal 510 Mbyte Hard Disk and a 3.5" Floppy Disk drive. The Hard Disk is sub-divided into 999 folders and each of these can hold up to 255 files, of which 99 can be Songs. The Hard Disk is certainly destined to change the habits of musicians that play Arranger Keyboards. In fact it's enormous capacity will soon become apparent; it can contain more than 10,000 MIDI Files apart from an enormous number of Styles, PCM Sounds, Programs, Registrations etc. The Hard Disk's loading times are extremely fast: about 7 seconds to load 128 Kbytes of memory (for example 1 Groove) and less than 1 second for MIDI File access. The Floppy Disk is used only for the initial transfer of new files to the Hard Disk, after which the musician can then work exclusively with the Hard Disk and, at last, leave the piles of disks, normally used, at home. Furthermore, in order to give more power to MIDI File reading, the very useful NON STOP PLAY function has been implemented in the Hard Disk controller, which enables the passage from one MIDI File to another without interrruption, even while the Song is actually playing.

VI1 - VIDEO INTERFACE - KARAOKE

The MS100 can be connected to any normal television set by means of the VI 1 Video Interface (optional). The chord names and the lyrics of the Song will both be seen on the screen, with the words changing colour as the Song scrolls by (KARAOKE).

ARRANGER

The keyboard has 99 newly conceived Styles, each of which is made up of 4 Arrangements, 2 Intros, 3 Fill Ins and 2 Endings. The Intro and Ending 1 are single chord, that is (on the contrary to the Intro 2 and Ending 2) they do not contain any harmonic variations. This is to allow the musician a more personal control of the various keys in the introduction and ending phases of a piece of music. As an alternative to the Intros, the Count In can be used; this will carry out an empty bar before the Start.

The Jump function will prove to be very useful for the automatic passage from one Arrangement to another or to replay the Intro during the performance. The choice of Styles is extremely vast: Rock, Rap, Tecno, Disco, Rock & Roll, Swing, Slow, Soul, Country, Latin etc. The MS100 distinguishes itself for it's exceptional selection of Arrangements, typical of European and International Folklore; in particular the Latin American rhythms, Italian Folk, Oberkrain music and Country and Western. Furthermore, the most requested collective dance rhythms such as Meneito, Hully Gully, Limbo, 60's Revival, Disco Samba, Tarantella are not lacking.

The Arranger has several useful functions enabling the best control of the feeling of a performance, like the Dynamic Arrangement, Retrigger, Lower, Octave, Old. Several functions are included for the Bass such as Bass to Lowest (with external control), the Sustain control and the new Bassist function, which behaves in the same way as the Pianist function, that is enabling the Bass to be played manually while at the same time controlling the Accompaniment. Those intending to play the Bass with the pedalboard in the classic organist style can connect the SOLTON MIDI Pedalboard to the MS100.

An exclusive feature of the Arranger is that the Accompaniment parts follow the key variations respecting the rules of harmony, adapting the intervals according to a sophisticated musical logic, instead of just transposing previously memorized sequences. Thanks to the Arrange Balance function, it is possible to immediately balance the volume between Accompaniament and lead line.

PIANIST

The Pianist function enables the player to use a pianist's technique on the keyboard and at the same time control the Arrangement by freezing the Chord Recognition at any moment with the Sustain Pedal. The Pianist effect is certainly very well accepted by all pianists who are not obliged to change their musical techniques when playing the MS100.

EFFECTS PROCESSOR (DSP)

The MS100 uses a Digital Signal Processor with new professional quality Reverb effects, Chorus, Ensemble, 2 speed Rotor effect, Delay and EchoRepeat.

PATTERN

The Pattern section permits the programming and editing of the Style. About 20/24 Styles can be memorized in the standard version of the internal memory of the MS100. A Memory Expansion for the Patterns, which can contain a further 40/48 Styles, is available as an optional (Mod. EM 1 - 640 Kbytes). The Pattern can be programmed exactly like a Style with 2 Intros, 4 Arrangements, 3 Fill Ins, 2 Endings and it is also possible to globally or partially copy the already existing Styles in order to modify their contents. The Patterns can be easily saved/loaded to or from Disk individually or in Chains (Pattern Chain). A protection function (LOCK) is also provided to protect the Patterns that are already resident in the memory.

SONG RECORDING

It is possible to record on disk any piece of music that you play in 'Real Time' on the keyboard. The Song can be composed of 9 MIDI parts (5 Arrangement parts and 4 Program parts) and records all the changes made on the control panel of the keyboard while playing. Duing playback it is possible to play with the memorized sequence.

128 REGISTRATIONS

The MS100 has provision for 128 Registrations, that is 128 general setups of the keyboard. 2 different configurations are provided for, Basic and Advanced. The registration also has a specific MIDI channel and can therefore receive Program Change commands via MIDI. The passage between one Registration and the next can be made with the FS 13 or FS 6 Footswitches.

PCM SOUNDS, GROOVES & STYLES

The MS100 has the capacity to load from disk (Hard or Floppy) up to 4 PCM Sounds or GROOVES from the SOLTON Disk Library into the internal memory. This prerogative enables the sound of the MS100 keyboard to be continually updated, keeping it in line with the latest trends and considerably reducing any risk of it becoming out of date. The Grooves & Styles are special Styles made up of PCM rhythms (Groove) and Arrangements. Thanks to specially designed software the Grooves are synchronized with the internal Tempo and with the entire Accompaniment. The loading of the Grooves from the Hard Disk is extremely fast (only 7 secs.) thereby enabling several Grooves & Styles to be used during a session (the relative Patterns in fact remain in the memory and it is not therefore necessary to reload them each time).

SEPARATE OUTPUTS

The MS100 is provided with 4 separate outputs which can be assigned to any part of the instrument (Solo, Bass etc.) or also a single percussive section (Bass Drum, Snare etc.). This enables the amplification, equalization or any other treatment by external effects in the preferred way for the single parts of the keyboard excluding the internal effects.

DISK LIBRARY

The SOLTON Disk Library comprises: Midi Songs Words&Music (with lyrics), Midi Songs Instrumental (Instrumentals), Styles, Grooves & Styles and PCM Sounds. The library developed for the MS (MS60 / MS50 / MS40, MS 20 ed MS10) is completely compatible with the MS100 (with the exception of the PCM Sounds and the Grooves & Styles that require a different format).