Roland V-Combo VR-09

[xKnuckles]

Complete guess here - but might it be the cable? Mine (Boss FV 500-L) initially didn't work because I was using a normal jack lead. It required a STEREO jack lead. Might yours be the same?

[WesG]

Do you have the expression pedal function set to expression pedal in the VR-09?

[rickzjamm]

Wes, that was it!! I need to a new prescription on my smart pills... thanks.

[xKnuckles]

A word of warning to you. This happened to me at the start of tonight's gig.........

 

image by xxKnuckles, on Flickr

 

I didn't even notice that it had come off - my drummer spotted it on the floor and offered it to me. I thought it must be a random piece of Lego or something! They are not stuck on at all - just pushed on and are liable to drop off at any moment. I think I will be applying some glue before they all disappear.....

[partyarty]

thanks for the heads up on the losing knob possibility. though Ive lost knobs on korgs and yamahas, not cheap to replace either. I did enjoy the B3 ideas of using the low gain on the organ! great idea.. I noticed in solos that the organ was losing a little during solos in the higher registers.. now its quite the difference! Love it! Please keep the ideas for settings coming! Since this keyboard has more of a common purpose than most workstations, tips like these are likely more helpful to everyone! I don't have to wade through sequencer issues! yeah!!

[rickzjamm]

So just glue is the fix?

[xKnuckles]

Well..........I haven't tried it yet - but I hope so. I must do SOMETHING. That knob came off for no reason. The VR wasn't turned upside down or mishandled in any way. I didn't even notice it happening. Not sure what the best type of glue would be, though.....

[WesG]

I lost one. My hypothesis is that it wasn't pushed on all the way at the factory.

 

If you glue them on, you will never be able to fully open up the unit for repair. Something to think about.

 

BTW I got a replacement from my dealer for $2.

 

Wes

[Joe Muscara]

If you glue them on, you will never be able to fully open up the unit for repair. Something to think about.

Excellent point. Maybe the thing to do is to use a weak glue, something that's enough to keep them on, but weaker than the plastic. That way, the knobs can be popped off but the glue could provide some extra hold. For instance, Loctite is designed to hold in screws and keep them from working themselves out, but with a little extra torque you can break the seal and unscrew them. Maybe something similar can work here.

[rickzjamm]

But that shouldn't be happening so easily. Good sounds but corners cut in the craftsmanship?? Not good.

[Kenny.]

It came off? I don't think that's that big a deal. My SH-201's sliders come off very easily. But seriously, they're plastic. They're bound to come off; this should be expected! If the SH-201 is anything like the VR09, to put them back on, you simply place it on top and push down.

 

Even on my XW-P1, if I violently pull down the drawbars, the caps of the sliders will fly into my face. I think this is to be expected from any keyboard. If you want them on permanently, glue them on, but their default configuration was the manufacturer's intent, as they're replaceable.

[xKnuckles]

It came off? I don't think that's that big a deal. My SH-201's sliders come off very easily. But seriously, they're plastic. They're bound to come off; this should be expected!

 

Not a big deal - agreed Kenny, but nevertheless a PITA if you do not notice and lose one - hence my mentioning it to warn everyone else. Also, it came off for absolutely no reason. I had not yet touched it.....

 

Good point Wes - thank you. I will leave out the superglue this time.... Might investigate your loctite stuff Joe - cheers.

 

[To B3]

So... by accident I found out that every (or almost) every preset that were on the first 5 (erased and replaced, in my case) user banks are replicated on the last 6 or 7 banks. Including the infamous Bay Area B3 and all the organ presets that are great starting points to my own. Not bad, not bad.

[partyarty]

you finally went that deep B3? lol.. yeah, those all to me seem to need their own tweaking any way.. I don't think I would miss any of them, what I keep forgetting is when I want to layer 2 sounds from the same category, or even the same sound layered in 2 different octaves.. It seems it only happens by accident, can someone mention the step by step of layering the grand piano on itself? or any other particular sound from the same category?

[To B3]

Thing is, after I saw that all the sounds on the banks 16 onward, every sound was a piano. So, I stopped scrolling

 

you finally went that deep B3? lol.. yeah, those all to me seem to need their own tweaking any way.. I don't think I would miss any of them, what I keep forgetting is when I want to layer 2 sounds from the same category, or even the same sound layered in 2 different octaves.. It seems it only happens by accident, can someone mention the step by step of layering the grand piano on itself? or any other particular sound from the same category?

[theGman]

If I recall, I did this by layering, say, Grand Piano with any Synth section sound, and saving it.

Then, I edited out the Synth sound by switching it to Grand Piano.

End result was an upper and lower same sound.

 

[To B3]

You dont even have to save it. Just do the same procedure and replace, then save it. The new V Piano sound is great on band context, layered with another piano sound that you like, to give more body.

 

If I recall, I did this by layering, say, Grand Piano with any Synth section sound, and saving it.

Then, I edited out the Synth sound by switching it to Grand Piano.

End result was an upper and lower same sound.

[Don Headley]

you finally went that deep B3? lol.. yeah, those all to me seem to need their own tweaking any way.. I don't think I would miss any of them, what I keep forgetting is when I want to layer 2 sounds from the same category, or even the same sound layered in 2 different octaves.. It seems it only happens by accident, can someone mention the step by step of layering the grand piano on itself? or any other particular sound from the same category?

 

To layer two of the same sounds, simply hold down the category button (the blue buttons ) and press your selected sound again.

This will give you two of the same sound across the key bed. Then you can cursor down to the sound and change the octave.

You can also set the expression pedal to only effect the upper or lower sound. You can easily set up a piano and fade in strings with the pedal then fade them back out at the end of your song.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Also to get a 12 string patch, I layer two of the steel guitar sound an octave apart.

[partyarty]

Don, I must have been doing that without realizing it and wondering how I got 2 sounds of the same instrument.. that is the easiest thing and I tried it tonight and of course it WORKS.. just hold the blue button down, hit the same instrument button and you have 2 of them.. love it! Also enjoying the beefing up the low gain on the organ.. covered whipping post, sounded fantastic.. if you are a gigging musician, care about decent gigging sounds, space you take up, the weight.. and the PRICE, you really can't beat it. One thing I would like is if I have a layered sound and change it, there is a way to lock in the EFFECT so the effect does not change with the sound you change to unless you unlock it.. I would think there is a button that could serve in that capacity with hopefully an update, if there is interest in it.

[jamac]

Is Partial Layer Possible?

 

Starting with a full keyboard piano, I want to layer in a bass, but just over the bottom octave or so. Can I cut off that bass patch above a certain note?

 

I've been using an Ensoniq TS-10 (25 pounds not including case!) for the past two decades. Just got this VR-09 and I'm blown away. Thanks for being here.

[brenner13]

It's a faint recollection, but I think I have a couple of full organs across the keybed with bass only on the lower split but I didn't think that was possible with this board. I certainly don't know how to do it. I'll try to work on it a bit tomorrow.

 

[brenner13]

One CAN add a third sound on the lower split when already using a split on the organ for dual manual simulation. Select the blue ORGAN button under the display, select split under the ORGAN section, then HOLD the blue ORGAN button and the SPLIT button between the PIANO and SYNTH sections while selecting any of the preset buttons. The third selected sound is only available for the lower split so the only FX available for it is reverb. One also must press the UPPER/LOWER button under the ORGAN section to make the light go out and move the drawbars to bring in the lower organ section layered with the other lower synth/bass/piano/whatever.

 

This dual layering of the lower section only works with split ORGAN on the upper...can't do piano with bass layered on the lower for instance. Perhaps a bit limited and not particularly easy to set up in a live sitch, but easy enough to save to a registration when needed for the show.

[Dave159]

Hi I've recently bought this keyboard and upgraded it to 1.03 . I have found what appears to be a really annoying bug. If I layer or split a piano sound with a pad or string sound and the piano is the upper voice, a brief key press results in a note which sounds several times, each with less volume, like an echo. Doesn't happen if the piano is the lower voice. I don't know if it happens in other versions, mine was 1.00 when I got it, but quickly updated it.

 

Anyone seeing the same ?

[brenner13]

Does the lower sound selected have delay as part of the preset? Might try turning the delay knob to nil after setting up the split. I don't do a lot of splits but have not noticed this glitch in the few I have but I'll try to investigate on Saturday. Does it happen with every split you do with piano on the top? What specific sounds are designated to the lower?

 

BTW, welcome to the forum.

[Dave159]

Hi, The problem occurs even with delay set to 0. moving delay knob up and down changes it but does not cure it. The only way to do that is to use the cursor wheel to change the piano sound and then back again.

[Dave159]

Hi, The problem occurs even with delay set to 0. moving delay knob up and down changes it but does not cure it. The only way to do that is to use the cursor wheel to change the piano sound and then back again.

 

By the way I did send a video of the problem to Roland UK, not sure if there is any way to upload it to the forum.

[tommym]

Craig - it's months later, but I just got a VR-09 and, in using the iPad to edit, I went too deep, and changed the JPBrass sound, so that whenever I edit and save a Registration with it in it, it sounds right (brassy, in this case) but when I recall the edit, the sound reflects my earlier ill-advised iPad edit. I've reinitialized and the problem persists. Do I have to go back into an iPad edit and somehow un-edit JPBrass? I'm not sure how I actually 'saved' JPBrass on a deep level, so deep that even a Factory Reset won't restore it. As you said, if I unselect JPBrass in a Registration and then reselect it, it comes back to normal, probably fetched from the ROM location that you mentioned. But it kind of makes saving Registrations useless at this point.

So I tested the capacity of the VR-09 to share registration sets and load individual registrations. I stored my current registration set on a USB stick, loaded it into my computer and then emailed it to myself, and then reloaded it back into the VR-09 and was able to load individual registrations without any problems. The USB stick actually contained two files:

 

VR09_001.UPG

VRSYN001.DAT

 

It's interesting that there are two files created.. .UPG file extensions generally refers to an OS upgrade, and the VSRYN001.DAT file name and extension infers that this is the synth data, but it's not obvious what the purpose of the two files are. Being curious I tried storing multiple registration sets and each registration set created a multiple File (numbered VR09_001/002/003 etc) but it didn't create multiple VRSYN001.DAT files. Interesting..

 

I have a few more things I want to try, when I have some more time. I want to confirm that loading in a registration overwrites deep synth data (it should if we're going to be able to share synth patches).. The manual doesn't reference registrations saving anything beyond ADSR data, so I want to test this.

 

[jmemcse517]

So..... we're playing live, and my bass player set a pick on my top VR-09. To be a wise guy I put it in the little USB compartment - and forgot I did it. Then it got packed to the next gig and I pulled it out of the road case and noticed a rattle. So I went "oh ya, that pick", so I opened the compartment but it seems to have slipped inside the keyboard.

 

Yup, that's me folks. I confess I'm an idiot.

 

I really don't want to take all the knobs off to get it open and remove the pick. As long as it doesn't interfere with anything mechanical it shouldn't hurt anything. I would think picks would be non-conductive.

 

Any thoughts? And yes, lesson learned.

[Adam Burgess]

The gap next to the wheel on my Stage 2 has taken a few picks captive

! When it got to five, I decided to open it.

[AnotherScott]

Craig - it's months later,

Craig has left the building. But if no one else here chimes in with the answer, you should still be able to find Craig in the yahoo clonewheels group.