Electro-Harmonix 2880 Assembly instructions

User Reference Manual

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRECAUTIONS FOR SAFE USE 2
ALITTLE HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION 3
QUICK STARTGUIDE 4
THE RECORD TRANSPORT7
TRACKS, TRACK SELECTION AND TRANSPORT 9
ANALOG CONTROL AND I/O 11
DIGITAL I/O AND POWER 12
MEMORY CARD AND USB 12
IN-DEPTH LOOK AT RECORDING TRACKS 14
IN-DEPTH LOOK AT OVERDUBBING TRACKS 17
IN-DEPTH LOOK ATMIXDOWN 19
MIDI AND MIDI SYNC 21
USER NOTES & TIPS 22
SIGNAL PATH DIAGRAM 27
Copyright
2005 Electro-Harmonix. All rights reserved. 2880 and
Electro-Harmonix and logo are trademarks of New
Sensor/Electro Harmonix. Product and company names
used within the manual are trademarks of their
respective companies.
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2
Precautions For Safe Use
Please read the manual carefully, as it was written to help you understand the capabilities and system requirements
of your new instrument. Carefully review the safety precautions as they not only ensure long and trouble-free life of
your 2880, but also ensure your own long and trouble-free life. Instead of neatly tossing it to the side once it comes
out of the box, keep your manual in a convenient place for quick reference.
The following instructions, on this page, are WARNINGS that must be followed:
1. Fluids and moisture: Do not operate this or any electrical instrument, in an area where it could be exposed to
moisture. This is an instrument, do not place drinks or fluids on top of it.
2. Placement and ventilation: The 2880 is a tabletop or floor instrument and thus may be placed on the stage or
tabletop setup. Placement must be balanced and even, while still leaving an unobstructed space for proper ventilation.
Proper ventilation ensures long life and far less stress on the instrument. Again, keep all fluids away from the storage
location. All bracket mountings must be able to bear the weight of the 2880 as its minimum rating.
3. Cleaning: Extreme care must be taken when cleaning the exterior. The exterior may be wiped down with a damp
sponge and an extremely mild detergent. Damp means slightly moist and not wet or saturated. Keep away from
ALL critical components as if you were dusting priceless china. UNPLUG THE INSTRUMENT before any cleaning.
4. Heat: The unit should be situated away from heat sources, or other equipment that produces significant heat.
5. Power Sources: When the unit will be unused for extended periods, disconnect the AC Adapter power supply
from the outlet. Be careful that the power cord is out of the way and specifically away from traveled areas. When
connecting or disconnecting the cable, grasp the plug firmly and push or pull. Do not pull from the cable. Make
sure that your hands are dry.
6. Service Situations: Situations that must be immediately addressed if encountered:
a. Damage to the AC Adapter or power cord. Immediately shutdown and disconnect the power cable.
b. Water, any fluids or material (any amount) has fallen into the interior of the 2880.
c. Exposure to natural elements such as rain.
d. Sudden impact of the instrument, such as dropping or a hard external impact.
e. Sudden and noticeable differences in performance and consistency.
f. Functional change where a marked difference in operation is noticed.
Note: All electrical failures must be handled by an authorized service technician. Do not attempt user service.
A qualified technician will handle it swiftly, accurately and correctly.
For your safety and proper repair, call: Electro-Harmonix: 718-937-8300.
Ask to speak with a service representative and you will be instructed on how to proceed.
You must call in order to receive service.
WARNING: Use only the 9VDC/500mA AC adapter supplied with the 2880. Do not use any other AC adapters. Using
other AC adapters, even those made by Electro-Harmonix, could cause harm to the unit, the adapter or you. The 2880
does not use batteries.

3
A Little History
In 1983, Electro-Harmonix released what would become
a legendary and more importantly, revolutionary, musical
instrument…The 16 Second Delay. Aside from being
the first looper ever invented, it helped change the way music
was created while presenting individual musicians with a way to
manipulate their creations instantly. The concept of looping, as
we know it today, was an entirely new dimension in musical
expression in 1983 and the 16 Second Delay was an
instant hit.
In 2004, the music public demanded the 16 Second’s re-release, and it once again became an all-time classic.
Electro-Harmonix is now proud to present the 2880 Super Multi-track Looper. The new definition
in complex expression for performance and the studio. This powerful and interactive instrument follows a traditional
recording layout, so it will feel instantly familiar. However, there are significant differences that go well beyond the
recording world. In fact, at the very least it is a multitrack recorder. When viewed as a whole, it is a multifaceted per-
formance instrument with significant advantages in both live performance and as a personal recording instrument.
Introduction
The uniqueness of the 2880 is the ability to layer multiple
tracks and manipulate them. A special mix down track allows
you to create a spatial stereo pair while freeing up previous
tracks to add more instruments. Very complex interactive tracks
can be completed quickly with the ability to sound unique and
totally original. This is a very spontaneous instrument.
The Electro-Harmonix 2880 records at the industry
CD standard of 44.1 kHz /16 bit uncompressed digital audio.
What you record is what you get, without the degradation or
artifacts that compressed audio usually presents.
Building upon the original concept of the 16 Second Delay, while taking into consideration the demand for
more complex possibilities, the 2880 is more of everything. True world standard audio fidelity, as much
creative time as any musician would need, and an ease of use that is instantly familiar.
The 2880 uses world-class audio converters, while offering uniformity in syncing and integration with any user’s current
equipment. The storage is on flash cards that range from 128 megabyte to 2 gigabyte. All files may be downloaded
to your computer and retrieved when needed.
2880 Super Multi-Track Looper

How to Record a Multi-Track Loop:
1. Plug your instrument into either the LEFT or RIGHT Inputs and adjust the corresponding Input Knob so
that the Clip LED (Light Emitting Diode) barely lights up on your loudest notes.
2. Connect the LEFT and/or RIGHT Outputs to an amplifier or mixer.
3. Raise the DRY OUT Fader so that you can hear your instrument.
4. If you are using Headphones, turn up the HEADPHONE knob.
5. Make sure the QUANTIZE LED is off.
6. If you do not want to hear the CLIX metronome, turn the CLIX LEVEL knob down to zero.
7. Set the TEMPO slider to 50%.
8. Press the NEW LOOP button to put the 2880 into Record-Ready mode. You should see the RECORD LED
blink rapidly.
9. Press the RECORD button to immediately start recording. Play your instrument. The 2880 will record onto
TRACK 1.
10. When you are finished playing, hit either the RECORD or PLAY button to stop recording. Pressing RECORD
will stop recording and stop the 2880. Hitting PLAY will loop the 2880 back to the beginning, put the 2880
into OVERDUB mode and automatically continue recording onto TRACK 2. To exit OVERDUB mode, press
the RECORD button.
11. Raise the TRACK 1 Fader to hear the track you just recorded.
12. To record on another track, hit the TRACK SELECT button, you will cycle through the 4 tracks. Whichever
track LED is lit, is the track you will record on.
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Quick Start Guide

How to Overdub onto a Track:
1. You can continuously overdub onto any one of the tracks.
2. Record a New Loop onto TRACK 1, as done above in the How to Record a Multi-Track Loop section.
3. Press the TRACK SELECT button until TRACK 1 is lit.
4. Move the TRACK 1 Fader to 100%. When in Overdub mode, the track's volume slider acts like a Feedback
control on a delay pedal. For example, if the TRACK 1 slider is set to 50%, each time the loop cycles, the volume
of the previously recorded audio on TRACK 1 will be halved.
5. Hit the RECORD button, both the RECORD and PLAY LEDs will light up. This means you are in Overdub mode.
Since the TRACK 1 LED is lit, you are overdubbing onto TRACK 1.
How to Record 2 Tracks Simultaneously (aka Stereo):
1. Press the STEREO MODE button. Its LED will light and you will notice that a pair of TRACK LEDS will light, either
1 & 2 or 3 & 4.
2. After inserting your instrument(s) into the LEFT and RIGHT Input jacks, adjust the INPUT Level knobs so that the
CLIP LEDs barely light.
3. Press the NEW LOOP button to put the 2880 into Record Ready mode. The RECORD LED will blink rapidly.
4. Press the RECORD button to begin recording immediately.
5. To stop recording, hit either the RECORD or PLAY buttons. Hitting RECORD will stop record and playback.
Hitting PLAY will cycle the loop to its beginning and begin Overdubbing onto Tracks 3 & 4 automatically, the
loop continues playing.
How to Record a Quantized Loop:
1. Press the QUANTIZE button to turn on Quantize mode. Its corresponding LED will light up.
2. Turn the CLIX LEVEL knob up so that you will be able to hear the metronome Clix.
3. Press the NEW LOOP Button. The RECORD LED will blink rapidly.
4. At this point you will hear the metronome beating at the tempo set by the TEMPO Slider. You can adjust the
tempo by moving the tempo slider up or down. Up will give you a faster tempo; down will be a slower tempo.
5. Hit the RECORD button. The 2880 will not immediately begin recording but instead will give you a 4-Beat count-
in. On the 5th beat, after the count-in, the 2880 will begin recording. This is beat 1 of the loop. Upon hitting the
RECORD button, the Clix metronome will reset to beat 1.
6. For a Mono recording, TRACK 1 LED will blink rapidly during the 4-Beat count-in. When making a Stereo
recording, both the TRACK 1 and 2 LEDs will blink rapidly during the 4-Beat counting.
7. Once the TRACK 1 LED goes solid, the 2880 is recording.
8. To stop recording, hit either the RECORD or PLAY buttons. Press RECORD or PLAY within the first 2 beats of the
current bar and the 2880 will truncate the loop length to the end of the previous bar. Press RECORD or PLAY
during the 3rd or 4th beats of the current bar and the 2880 will finish recording the current bar then stop
recording. For example if you want to record a 2 bar loop, you can press the PLAY button during the 3rd and
4th beat of the second bar or within the first 2 beats of the third bar. The QUANTIZE LED will blink rapidly until
it finishes recording the loop.
How to Mixdown Your Tracks:
1. At anytime, you can mix your 4-Tracks down to one stereo Mixdown track. For now let's start with the 2880 in
Idle (stopped) mode. If the 2880 is Playing or Overdubbing a loop, hit the PLAY button to stop it.
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2. Hit the Mixdown button once and its LED will light solid. You are now in Mixdown mode.
3. Assuming the Mixdown Track has not been previously recorded, move its volume slider to its top position.
You can continually Overdub any of the 4 tracks onto the Mixdown track; the Mixdown Fader acts like a
Feedback control.
4. Hit the PLAY button. Your loop will play back. Move the Volume and Pan controls of the 4 tracks to your
preferred settings. You can adjust the Volume and Pan controls as much as you like when recording the
Mixdown track.
5. When you are ready to record the Mixdown track, hit the RECORD button. You will immediately begin recording
your mix onto the Mixdown track.
6. To stop recording the Mixdown track, hit either the PLAY or RECORD buttons.
7. The Dry Input signal will not be recorded to the Mixdown track, only audio that was previously recorded on the
4 tracks.
How to Backup your Audio Files to a Computer:
1. Make sure both your computer and the 2880 are powered up.
2. Connect the 2880 to your computer with a standard USB cable.
3. As long as your computer is running Windows XP, ME, MAC OS X or 9.2, the computer will automatically
recognize the Compact Flash card inside the 2880 and treat it like a Removable Disk.
4. Open up the Compact Flash card's window, you will see 6 files: TEMPO.TXT, TRACK1.WAV,
TRACK2.WAV…TRACKM.WAV. You can copy any or all of these files to your hard drive. It is recommended that
you copy all 6 files and store them together in a folder on your hard drive.
5. To disconnect the 2880 from the computer, follow the proper ejection procedure for the computer you are using:
a. For Windows, go to the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon down in the lower right corner of the screen.
Select the USB Mass Storage Device and hit the STOP button. Alternatively in XP, setup the 2880’s CF Card
for “Optimize For Quick Removal.”
b. For MAC OS, go to the Finder, drag the Compact Flash Card icon to the Trash.
How to Restore your Audio Files from a Computer:
1. Make sure both your computer and the 2880 are powered up.
2. Connect the 2880 to your computer with a standard USB cable.
3. As long as your computer is running Windows XP, ME, Mac OS X or 9.2, the computer will automatically
recognize the Compact Flash card inside the 2880 and treat it like a Removable Disk.
4. Locate the 6 files you want to restore to the 2880 on your hard drive.
5. Copy the files to the 2880’s Compact Flash card, directly to its root folder (meaning do not place the files into a
folder on the Compact Flash card if you want the 2880 to play them).
6. Play the 2880, the audio files should be restored.
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.To disconnect the 2880 from the computer, follow the proper ejection procedure for the computer you are using:
a. For Windows, go to the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon down in the lower right corner of the screen.
Select the USB Mass Storage Device and hit the STOP button.
b. For MAC OS, go to the Finder, drag the Compact Flash Card icon to the Trash.
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1. NEW LOOP Button: The NEW LOOP button will put the 2880 into Record-Ready Mode. When you press
the NEW LOOP button, the RECORD LED will blink rapidly, telling you the 2880 is ready to record. Press the
NEW LOOP button again to exit Record-Ready Mode. If you press the NEW LOOP button while recording a New
Loop it will end recording and put the 2880 into Playback mode. Below is a table displaying the results of press-
ing the NEW LOOP button depending on the current mode of the 2880:
Current Mode New Mode
Idle Record-Ready
Playback Record-Ready (Continues playing loop in memory)
Overdubbing Overdubbing (NEW LOOP Button is ignored)
Record-Ready Reverts to previous mode before Record-Ready
Recording New Loop Playback (End recording New Loop)
2. RECORD Button and LED: Depending on the 2880's current mode, the RECORD button serves a few
purposes, all of which cause the 2880 to enter/exit some kind of recording mode. The RECORD LED will light up
anytime the 2880 is Recording or Overdubbing audio. Below is a table displaying the results of pressing the
RECORD button depending on the current mode of the 2880:
Current Mode New Mode (RECORD LED State)
Idle (If Loop in Storage) Overdubbing (RECORD LED = ON)
Playback Overdubbing (RECORD LED = ON)
Overdubbing Playback (RECORD LED = OFF)
Record-Ready Begin Recording New Loop (RECORD LED = ON)
Recording New Loop Idle (RECORD LED = OFF)
The RECORD LED blinks rapidly when the 2880 is in Record-Ready mode.
+NEW LOOP =
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+RECORD =
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The Record Transport
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3. PLAY Button and LED: The PLAY button is used to enter/exit Playback mode depending on the current
mode it is in. The PLAY LED will light anytime the 2880 is Playing or Overdubbing audio. Below is a table
displaying the Record/Playback modes and the resultant mode the 2880 enters after pressing the PLAY button:
Current Mode New Mode (PLAY LED State)
Idle (If Loop in Storage) Playback (PLAY LED = ON)
Playback Idle (PLAY LED = OFF)
Overdubbing Idle (PLAY LED = OFF)
Record-Ready Playback of Loop in Storage (PLAY LED = ON)
Recording New Loop Overdubbing (PLAY LED = ON)
When a loop cycles back to the beginning, the PLAY LED blinks once, signifying the start of the loop.
4. REVERSE Button and LED: Press the REVERSE button and the loop will reverse its Playback/Record
direction. The REVERSE button can be used at all times except when recording a New Loop. The REVERSE LED
will light up when the Reverse function is active.
5. OCTAVE Button and LED: The OCTAVE button will lower the pitch and tempo of the loop by exactly
one octave. The OCTAVE button can be used at all times except when recording a New Loop. The OCTAVE LED
will light up when the Octave function is active.
6. PUNCH IN Button and LED: When the PUNCH IN function is activated, Overdubbing Mode will
change into Punch In Mode. When recording with Punch In active, whatever was previously recorded on the
active track will be erased, no matter where the volume fader is set to for that track. The Punch In function is
useful for fixing bad notes or mistakes. When Punch In is active its LED will light up.
7. QUANTIZE Button and LED: The QUANTIZE button toggles between Non-Quantize (NQ) and
Quantize modes. When the QUANTIZE LED is lit, the 2880 is in Quantize mode. When you record a New Loop
in Quantize mode, the 2880 will give you a 4 beat count-in and extend the loop length to the nearest full bar;
the loop is quantized to the nearest bar. This means the 2880 will continue recording a New Loop (after
pressing the RECORD or PLAY buttons to end the loop) until it reaches the end of the current bar. All bars are 4
beats long. In Non-Quantize mode, the length of the loop is defined by the time between pressing the RECORD
button (to begin recording) and then the RECORD or PLAY buttons (to end the loop).
8. EXT. CLOCK Button and LED: Pressing the EXT. CLOCK button will enable the 2880 to follow the
external MIDI Sync it receives at its MIDI IN jack. The EXT. CLOCK LED will light up when in Ext. Clock mode.
While in Ext. Clock mode, the 2880 will wait for the MIDI Sync signal. If no MIDI Sync is available when you
press the PLAY button, the PLAY and EXT. CLOCK LEDs will blink rapidly telling you there is no sync. You will see
the same blinking if you try to Overdub or record a New Loop with no MIDI Sync present. The one exception is
when recording a New Loop, if you press the RECORD button twice, the 2880 will look to its internal tempo
setting and record the loop, ignoring the fact that there is no MIDI Sync signal.
+PLAY =
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9. DRY OUT Fader and Pan Pot: The DRY OUT Fader and Pan Pot give you the ability to monitor your
instrument when recording or to play along with a loop you have already recorded. Adjust the output volume of your
instrument using the DRY OUT Fader. Use the Pan Pot to direct the Left and Right Inputs to the Left and Right Outputs.
When Pan is set to the CCW position, the Left Input is monitored at the Left Output and the Right Input is monitored at
the Right Output. When Pan is set to the CW position, the Left Input is monitored at the Right Output and the Right
Input is monitored at the Left Output. When Pan is set to the middle, both Inputs are mixed to both Outputs. The
setting of the DRY OUT Fader and the Pan Pot have no influence on the signal that is recorded.
10. RECORD Tracks: There are 4 tracks available for you to record your instruments onto. You can record at most
2 tracks simultaneously. Each of the 4 tracks contain a pan pot and a level fader. This allows you to balance your
volumes as well as locate your tracks within the stereo spectrum. Each track also contains an activation LED above the
track number. When the LED is lit, that particular track is activated for recording. When you hit the RECORD button
from the Idle state, the active track will be recorded or overdubbed onto.
The tracks are available in mono or stereo pairs (1 & 2 or 3 & 4). The recording levels are set with the INPUT knobs.
TRACK Faders: The 4 track faders serve a dual purpose: during Playback they are the volume control for each
track, during Overdubbing they act like a Feedback control from a delay effect. So when you are Overdubbing, the
level of the previously recorded audio on the active track is multiplied by the position of the track's fader. If the fader
is set to 100%, the previously recorded audio will remain at the volume it was recorded at. If the fader is set anywhere
below 100%, with each pass of the loop, the volume of the previously recorded audio will attenuate according to the
setting of the fader. Using this function, it is possible to use the 2880 as a very long delay pedal.
11. TRACK SELECT Button: This button is used to select the active track. Pressing the TRACK SELECT button will
cycle through the 4 tracks.
12. STEREO MODE Button and LED: This button toggles the 2880 in/out of Stereo Mode. When the STEREO
MODE LED is lit, you are in Stereo Mode, when it is off, you are in Mono Mode. When Stereo Mode is activated, the
stereo pairs (1 & 2 or 3 & 4) will be recorded simultaneously. The LEFT Input will always be sent to Tracks 1 or 3. The
RIGHT Input goes to Tracks 2 or 4.
Tracks, Track Selection and Mixdown
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