Roland A-500/800 PRO � sliders as drawbars?

[drawback]

I'm just wondering if anyone with a Roland A-500/800 PRO controller is able to set the sliders in reverse as drawbars to control Hammond VI's. I have my eye on one for B-3X iOS.

 

Thanks!

[Delaware Dave]

Are you buying that particular Roland series just because it has sliders so that you can use them as drawbars? Rather than getting boxed into a controller that has drawbars have you considered purchasing an inexpensive programmable midi drawbar unit and then attaching it to the controller of your choice?

 

link

[Biggles]

I briefly had an A800, it was OK but very problematic to setup gave up in the end and returned it.

 

You would be better spending mire for a Ferrofish and add that to your current keyboard it will be cheaper than an A500 and the BX3

[drawback]

I've mulled that over, considered a D-9X actually, but presently I'm using a Korg Grandstage and don't have a semi-weighted (or synth weighted) controller of any kind. I've eliminated most of them because of â no expression jacks, no separate MIDI, bulky form factors, too few sliders, way too many and distracting pads, and price.

 

The Roland pretty much has everything I require at the right amount of connectors, 9 sliders, minimal pads, mod stick (which may be useful as a Leslie switch), good quality keybed, slim footprint, right price.

 

Setup should be easier with the B-3X for iOS which does cc# learn. Unless that needs to be programmed right in the Roland... in that case, after scanning the manual it does look like a struggle.

[M_G]

I'm just wondering if anyone with a Roland A-500/800 PRO controller is able to set the sliders in reverse as drawbars to control Hammond VI's. I have my eye on one for B-X3 iOS.

 

Thanks!

 

Yes. With the Editor Software you can set the faders as

drawbars.

 

I use the A800 with iPad and B3X or HX3 Expander...

[drawback]

Excellent. Thanks M_G!

 

I've just realized I have this habit of misnaming the app. B-3X it is!

[Reezekeys]

I'm just wondering if anyone with a Roland A-500/800 PRO controller is able to set the sliders in reverse as drawbars to control Hammond VI's. I have my eye on one for B-X3 iOS.

 

Yes, the sliders can be programmed in reverse. I'm not sure why you'd want the mod stick as a Leslie control though, seeing as it's spring loaded.

 

It's not that hard to program the A-Pro keyboards using Roland's editor program. Programming on the keyboard itself is doable but a PITA so I avoid it (and certain parameters can only be programmed from a computer anyway). I'm on my second A800, so I'm pretty familiar with the editor. Click on a control and a box pops up with a few fields that have drop-downs to select what you need to send. Here is the volume slider I just reversed (to make sure I was giving you the correct answer!). The "virtual center click" puts a dead zone in the middle where the value stays at the midpoint. It works for both sliders & pots though I'm guessing it's meant more for the pots.

 

 

on edit: Looks like M_G beat me to it while I was composing this!

[drawback]

Thanks â the stick is indeed spring loaded but I was thinking that shouldn't be a problem. Left for slow, right for fast and up/down for brake and expect the stick to snap to center without changing the cc.

[AnotherScott]

You would be better spending mire for a Ferrofish and add that to your current keyboard it will be cheaper than an A500 and the BX3

Ferrofish is not nearly the quality of B3X. However the Ferrofish would probably make a nice drawbar controller for B3X

[Polychrest]

I"ve used an A-800 Pro to control Blue3 and VB3 II. Mapping the drawbars to sliders was easy, and there was a dedicated 'reverse drawbars' function in the software, IIRC.

[Reezekeys]

Thanks â the stick is indeed spring loaded but I was thinking that shouldn't be a problem. Left for slow, right for fast and up/down for brake and expect the stick to snap to center without changing the cc.

 

I had to actually look at the manual since I've never investigated how the paddle is programmed. The default for both axes is "NO ASSIGN" but unlike the other controllers that send nothing when assigned to "NO ASSIGN", the pitch bender/mod wheel paddle actually SEND pitch bend and mod (CC#1) when set to "NO ASSIGN"!

 

The A-Pro editor lets you reassign both the pitch bend (side-to-side) and mod wheel (up-down) axes of the paddle like the other controllers, however you can't assign any of the other controllers to pitch bend. If you need pitch bend, you can only get it on the pitch bend lever and it must remain set to "NO ASSIGN."

 

How do you expect the stick to snap to center without changing the cc value? Actually, only the pitch bend (left-right movement) snaps to center, so any CC assigned to the PB paddle will wind up with a value of decimal 64. The mod wheel (up-down movement) controller snaps to 0 (or 127 if you program in reverse)* when you let go. It's hard to see how you could get that to work the Leslie, unless the VI you're controlling has the ability to read these CC commands as toggle switches. Can the B3X do this?

 

*[edit - OK it doesn't necessarily snap to 0 or 127 â you can program a controller to have any range of values between 0 to 127. E.g., program the mod wheel to send values from 38 to 115 and when you let go, the value will "snap" back to 38.]

[drawback]

Great question, Rob. Just perusing the B-3X Manual it may be possible. No worries if not, though, I just think it would be cool if it does. BTW I"ve found the reverse slider function can be set in the app itself.

 

***

2.5 MIDI Controllers

 

Hammond B-3X responds to MIDI Continuous Controller messages (MIDI CCs) to remotely change its settings. You can assign a MIDI CC of your choice to the listed parameters by tapping the CC value and typing a new one.

 

2.5.1 MIDI Learn and Reset Assignments

 

You can also press and hold the value to open a contextual menu where you can select 'Learnâ¦' Tap the 'Learnâ¦' option and then move your desired controller to instantly assign it to the parameter. Here you can also reset the selected parameter to its factory assignment or reset all of the parameters to their factory assignments.

 

2.5.2 Latch Controller

 

Tap the Latch button for any controller to convert a momentary switch â such as a sustain pedal â into a standard on/off switch. This is particularly useful for using the sustain pedal to change the Leslie Speed. With Latch on and Leslie Speed set to CC64 (sustain pedal), the Leslie Speed will change when you depress the sustain pedal and will stay at the new speed when you release the pedal. Then when you depress the pedal a second time, the speed will change again.

 

2.5.3 Invert Controller

 

Tap the 'Inv' button for any controller to invert its behavior. This lets you customize Hammond B-3X to work with any MIDI controller keyboard or other other control surface. This can be especially useful for assigning typical MIDI controller sliders to the Hammond B-3X drawbars which are 'inverted' from traditional faders. The original Hammond hardware drawbars increase the volume as they move down. Of course, usually a slider increases the volume when it moves up. So by tapping the Invert button, you can simulate this with a typical MIDI controller slider so that it is at it maximum value in the fully down position, and at its minimum value in the fully up position.

 

***

[M_G]

Ah, I forgot this...correct (I am getting old..... :-(( ).

 

You can set this inside the B3X App too ! I did this with my Yamaha Montage Faders cause it is not possible to reverse the faders inside the Montage.....

[Reezekeys]

"Latch Controller" may work for the brake but the way you want to switch between fast & slow may not. I'm not well-versed in how all Hammond apps implement control changes to control fast & slow; is it a single CC # with value=0 as "slow" and value=127 as "fast"? Or is it two separate CC #s? I assume it's the former. Personally, I wouldn't spend $79 on an iPad app if I was counting on being able to do this. Good luck!