llatham

That's OK all help is appreciated.

Thanks - these terms like "master" mode is what I needed!

Hello, I've been asked to join a band and lo and behold, they provide all the gear, set up and everything - all I have to do is show up and play! They've actually got 2 88s - an MOXF8 and I believe the other is a Motif workstation. However the MOFX8 was set up when I got to rehearsal last night and if that's going to work fine, that'll work fine. I was able to pretty quickly figure out how to find presets and got a basic handle on the basic groupings. Couldn't spend a ton of time with it though. But what I think I'll ultimately need to do is have a way to quickly access different sounds - without going "Pre 4, E, 12" to get to that sound. I have a Roland FA and you can set up a "Studio Set" of 16 Parts with a different sound on each part, balance them volume wise, and then switch between the sounds using the Pads (which is really handy). Is there anything similar in the MOXF8? I'm going to look up the manual but I know even the Roland manual can be confusing and still not tell you the most efficient way to set something up (i.e. you can do "favorites" but it's less practical because it's hard to see/hit those buttons in the heat of battle - so the pads are better for most people but they don't tell you that part of it in the manual!). So if you have any tips/tricks for a setup that lets you conveniently switch between sounds you can balance out volume-wise I'm all ears. PS, there will be some songs I may have to set up with Splits - the Roland makes this really either within the same Studio Set as your other sounds, or just a dedicated Studio Set. TIA for any help

What is it actually doing? Anyone know - for real? I've slowed it down and have a general idea (I found the stems for it and parts of the backing have the isolated EP) but it's pretty buried.

Thanks. I felt it has some "sync-ness" to it, so suspicions confirmed on that one aspect of it. Still, how to actually play it....

Ahh - so THAT's what is on Do it Again - I've always wondered. That's been in my backlog of "what was used on this" set of questions!

Burning down the House - it's in G - chords are not so much a problem or those melody lines, but what the heck is going on when vamping the G - sounds like maybe a patch with a 4th or 5th on it? Take me to the River - what the heck is that - sounds like an organ with "percussion" on? Again, chords are not an issue, but how to play the darn thing is! It sounds like some "bells" in there every once in a while - which I think is maybe another overdubbed organ with really short notes (this is also how I believe Pink Floyd made some bell hits in "Echoes"). It's really hard to hear what's going on in either of those songs, and if you don't have the exact right sound it's hard to reproduce. I could work on the sound, but it would really help to have an idea of what the person was actually playing (what keys they were striking!). If you can help out, please do. Thanks

What notes do you play? It almost sounds like something else in there besides just Cs?

ZZ Top There's this low octave C thing at each break - sounds like more than just jumping down an octave? Also, is that also EP playing the F and E triads during the "whoo whoo whoo" section?

Re: EXP 11 - there's some speculation over at Roland Clan. One user there noticed there was an extra slot in internal memory (where there used to be a total of 12 there's now a total of 13) so they've definitely made room for an additional EXP (you can't load more than 2 of course, but I believe this is so they each have unique Bank/Program (MSB/LSB/PC) numbering. If we could only load more than 2 at a time...

I know that the drawbars can be controlled via SysEx messages. Maybe not the most efficient or elegant way but if any other controller supports it, you could program your sliders on it to send SysEx to control the drawbars, and I would assume the rotary speed and brake, etc.

Sean I'm not a super proficient keyboardist, but I'm not sure I'd say the issue was that the black keys trigger louder. Firstly, on the 06, the "surface area" of all the keys is less - the distance from where the black key meets a white key, and where a white key ends is shorter than my other keyboards. This means that it places your hand up higher (closer to the controls) and thus they sit further back on the black keys. Now the black keys are also shorter a bit, but it's not enough so where you might typically be pressing a black key at the tip, you're trying to press it from the middle of the key or even closer to the controls - no leverage! I suppose if we all played with proper classical technique this would be less of an issue - I know most keyboard players don't. Likewise, I have small hands - I can't imagine someone with much longer fingers than me playing it (and I'm like in the smallest percentage for male hands). What I find is my black key fingers are often more than halfway past the mid-point of the key. This means I don't have as much leverage on them. If anything, if I play something like an A Major chord, I'm more likely to not get the C# than anything else. If I play F#-C#-F#, my finger on the C# is at the very very back of the key right where it cuts off to go into the chassis. On my old D5, I've still got a fingertip's worth of distance before it reaches that point. Likewise, if I play F-C-F, my finger on the C is "beside" the C# whereas on the older one it's "in front" of it. This means I'm more likely to "catch an edge" of the C# and pull it down with the C - wrong note. (poor technique doesn't help...) On my old D5, I've still got a fingertip's worth of distance before it reaches that point. Thus I find I'm much more likely to miss keys, and even accidentally strike unintended keys then on my D-5. I actually like the "action" - it's the physical key size that's the problem for me. At first glance, the pictures included in this thread do seem to look like the keys are bigger but I think we're talking millimeters here so it could be hard to tell. Nonetheless, I wouldn't recommend an 06 to anyone if they are used to some other size key (traditional). But for what I do, and the price I could pay, it does the job adequately and makes up for it with so many other features at that price point. If the 07 solves this problem, it would be the go to IMHO.

Actually, it looks like the "Keyboard Switch Groups" may address the MFX issue. While my example would just entail leaving 1 armed and switching between 2 and 3 (for trem and non trem versions of the same sound) it sounds like the tone remain functionality has been improved.

Ah, story of my life. The ONE upgrade I want - the ability to turn MFX on and off without having to be on the Effects Edit Screen is not (nad probably won't ever be) addressed. If you want Bass on the lower part of the keyboard, and an Electric Piano with the ability to turn the Tremolo on with a Button or Footswitch (or Phaser, or Chorus, or Delay, etc.) there's no way to do it other than to create two parts and use the pads or something to toggle between them - 1 part non-trem and one part trem. You could do this in two studio sets but previously there was no tone remain across studio sets (if the sound changed IIRC). There are some patches with effect on already that a parameter such as trem depth (on/off essentially) could be assigned to S1 or a pedal, but if it's not the sound you want, you'll either have to save new versions of each of the (same) tones with each effect you want on it and assign all the parameters. It would be so much easier if the MFX just worked like the TFX. The Controller upgrade looks like a MAJOR deal. I was just playing with the pads last night for an experiment and I was disappointed that the mode doesn't save with the studio set, so that's a nice upgrade as well. What kept me from buying the 08 was footprint and weight. I already knew the key size on the 06 was like my A-800 Pro. I'm fine with the action, but the size of the keys is not right. IF the 07 has "more traditional" sized keys it would be perfect for me. Though at this point, I couldn't afford to trade in the 06 and take the hit on it and pay the difference to get the 07. I'm actually kind of surprised because it seems by and large, 76 key boards are becoming a bit of a rarity - the producers and edm people want 1 octave things, pianists want 88 weighted, and two handers usually find 61 enough. 76 is a hard market to fill - but a "middle" action and in this case, "middle" key size would certainly make it a worthwhile product to make.

The other thread brought this up - Mainstage with floating split points. Well, most synths don't do this. You get a fixed split point. My Roland FA-06 allows you many many splits and layers (across all 16 parts!) but none of them are "intelligent" or "floating". But I just realized there's a "cheat" for this - and it's something that's probably available on many synths: The FA allows you to, on a per part basis, set the upper and lower range for the velocity that a Part will respond to. So if I put a piano on part 1 and set the velocity limit from 0-63, and then put strings on part 2 and set the VL from 64-127, (and turn both sounds on to be played by the keyboard) if I play lightly, I get a piano sound (and other velocity offsets and volume adjustments can balance the volume with the strings) and if I play it strongly I get a strings sound. So I can play a string chord in multiple octaves and hold it with the pedal, and then lightly play and play piano notes over that - even the same pitches as are being held by the strings (because I'd have to hit the key harder to make a string note replay). You could even overlap the VL in the center range and have "intelligent layers". I know some synths will even let you set velocity limits on a patch per patch basis so you could actually get really complex if you had both. Obviously, this is only great if you can really control how hard you play either each hand or even finger - and if you're holding keys with one of the parts you can't really play the other sound over it without cancelling one and re-striking at the right velocity to get the other. But you can absolutely "cross sounds" this way. Or, IOW, rather than defining the sound by keyboard range, you're defining it by how you strike the keys. You get your two sounds at once, and once can cross above/below the other if you can control the playing strength - don't even have to play stepwise!

Thanks Kalin, excellent advice. It's so funny what you say about fingerprints - this seems to be one of the biggest pet peeves of many users!!! If you're not using your DS-61, feel free to send it to me :-)

Someone else on another forum was asking about the DS-61. Has anyone played both it and the FA series? The buttons and pads etc. look identical and it just appears to primarily have fewer features and fewer overall sounds. What kind of synth engine is it? It looks like it will take EXP sounds from Axial, but it doesn't' appear to have Supernatural sounds. I would be curious to know if it shares PCM sounds with the FA series. Also, I have an A800 which has the "modern" Roland keys that are a bit slimmer and shorter than my old old synths, and I thought the FA 61 was the same, but having lined them up the other night, I see that the FA keys are actually a bit narrower. Is it likely the DS has the same keybed? Amazingly the DS has a software editor. The FA does not. Maybe they also fixed all the other idiotic issues in the FA (like not being able to turn of MFX in any meaningful way). But hey, I got a pretty LCD screen! I'd be curious about the Velocity Curves as well - I'd say the FA is probably a compromise, but I've had to set it to almost the heaviest setting to get any kind of piano dynamics that the default curves in the A800 do way better. I've heard though that the 88 key version of the FA is great (I've seen threads where people thought they were actually different patches, but it's really a key velocity issue). So I wonder how the DS compares to the FA in the 61 key versions, and how the DS compares to its 88 key big brother in terms of velocity response. I know it doesn't have aftertouch and that's a deal-breaker for some. But this person isn't really to the point where they're going to miss aftertouch so it's an attractive board for them. TIA

FWIW I have the Roland A800 and I had an A500. It's very easy to program to send Sysex messages (with the help of Reezekeys and others on this forum!!!). It has the "short" black keys everyone complains about, but the build quality seems to be good. I've been hauling mine out to gigs for a year in the back seat of my car, not in a case! I'm super careful and have a case now, but even with that the stupid little knobs on the sliders come off really easily. I'm missing 4 of them now. The sliders still work of course, it's just that the knobs are gone - if you're carrying it and you brush against something they'll fall off! So you just have to keep your eye on them at all times (a dot of glue might help but I'd be afraid some would drip inside). Mine has fallen off the rear deck in my car, and unfortunately I had an X stand collapse at a gig on me before I knew that could happen. It broke the little MIDI interface switch on the side but I've never used that so thankfully it's still in working condition. The only other thing that bugs me is the USB cable port is very snug - you have to be really careful pulling out the cable - I'm always afraid it might pull the jack out if I'm not careful. If you consider one, there are maybe 16 or so maps you can set up - so Control Map 1 could control Drawbars on an organ patch (assuming the synth can do that) and Control Map 2 could just be volume and pan for 8 channels or something like that. The only stupid thing is, the splits and layers can only be set up to affect ALL the control maps - you can't have a different type of split/layer on each control map (what were they thinking?). But, even though the buttons say "split" and "dual" on them, they don't have to be that way - any of the 4 presets can be whole, split, or layer (2 way only) and you can choose which of the MIDI channels each sends on as well as the octave. All in all a pretty good controller for the price.

Considering buying one of these. I know it's not much, but this is a big deal for me. I haven't bought a new synth since my SC88STPro - which I'm still using. Before that, I had a D-5 - which I'm still using. Right now, I'm using an A800 to play the SC88. I was using the internal sounds in the D-5 but it's started the "warble" caused by the joystick so now I'm just using it as a 2nd keyboard - it goes in to the A800 which can mirror it out, so I put it on its own channel and both boards go into the SC88 and play the sounds. I can select sounds for either board using the buttons/pads/knobs on the A800. I even figured out (with the help of some fellow forumites) how to send the channel the D5 is on to the 2nd audio outputs so our soundperson can adjust the volume of each out front. If I get an FA06, I'll still need a 2nd board. I'd use the A800. I can put the A800 in, and put it on channel X, and use its pads to send bank sel/program messages to select sounds and play them from the FAs sound engine - correct? I've been reading the FA doesn't have aftertouch. Is that the keyboard, or messages? IOW, the A800 does have aftertouch - will it trigger aftertouch functions in the FA. I actually use my aftertouch on that board for mod, because I made the mod stick up and down the fast/slow on a leslie. On the A800, once you set the aftertouch to be mod like that, it won't change for the various control maps - so you can only set up one thing. Anyone have an A3/5/800? How does the action compare? I'm not crazy about the 800 as there's no "leverage" on the black keys (you can't play them up to high or they don't go down so easy). I'm also much more likely to accidentally hit wrong keys on the 800. I much prefer the action on my ancient D5 (can press anywhere on the length of the key and seems to "reject" near misses better). And all this Axial stuff is completely new to me. These are sounds you can download and "install" in your board, yes? Are they created by Roland, or can users upload them and share (like some of the Line 6 or Fender guitar modelling I'm much more familiar with) or both? Where do they go? Internal memory? How do you get them there? via USB? I see it has an SD card but I have no computers with SD capability (I suppose I could use a Mac at work maybe). How many will it hold? I visited the site and saw these icons like iphone app icons - I assume that's a "set" of sounds. Could you download all of them, then upload only the ones you want into the board (say 1 set for 1 gig and another set for another gig)? Do you have to download them and install them to audition them all? If there's ones you like can you keep them and delete the others, etc.??? I'm sure it has plenty of sounds and they sound good. No worries there. And I could certainly still use the A800 with the SC88 if I wanted some of those sounds (most are probably duplicated on the FA though, or at least some resemblance). I had a great sound for Tom Sawyer created from a modified patch on the D5, but there's nothing on the SC88 that even comes close (there may be a way to get the reso sweep going, I just haven't dealt with all the CC changes because then it needs to go on its own channel so I don't have to do a reset to get rid of any CC changes). Those are the kinds of things I'd be interested downloading - though I'm sure I could make one on the FA. for its price, is the the best thing I can get?