My Audio Key Rd700GX report

[Song80s]

Per Roland: "Audio playback of .WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files via USB memory; easy onstage control with Audio Key feature"

 

USB Audio Enhancement

Play audio through the RD-GX directly from a USB memory key. Flexible file compatibility enables playback of Standard MIDI Files, .WAV, AIFF and MP3s. The "Audio Key" feature lets you use the bottom 15 keys for controlling start song, song length, etc.

 

Really ?

 

I can Only play .wav files using Audio Key. Yes, I am on a 4 yr old mac with a bunch of iTunes in mp4 ( apple) file format.

 

Well big shocker, the audio key software doesn't recognize mp4.

 

I also converted the mp4 songs to a CD- making them AIFF files.

 

Shocker, the audio key software doesn't recognize AIFF files either- the software gave me a generic warning message when I tried to insert the file

 

Being persistent and a little aggravated, I converted the mp4 files to WAV files. That was the ticket. The Audio Key software

' understood ' individual WAV files and I was able to assign it to a ' key ' . It is a fiddly process

 

So , after hours of screwing around and cracking the code, I was looking forward to manipulating my WAV files.

 

Hah. All I can do is play the WAV tune and stop it on my Rd700GX.

The audio quality is good. But I can't refer to a phrase , or a bridge or an instrument part. Or slow the tune down. Underwhelming.

 

It appears you have to pre-organize that capability as a set of

" Audio Files ". So how do I break up a song ( in WAV) and arrange that in 'Audio File '. I have no idea. No info in the manual.

 

Roland does include nine ' Audio Sets" so you can mess around or get an idea or 2 what " audio Key " is capable of. But no clue on how to break up a WAV file/tune

 

One more thing- some of my iTunes are ' protected '. In other words I cannot convert them to WAV. Nice

 

 

And I could not 'assign ' a simple midi file to a ' key'. Grrr

 

Maybe I am misunderstanding Audio Key. I can see some potential.

I expected a more complete feature

 

Any one else muck with this ?

 

[Voojo]

 

One more thing- some of my iTunes are ' protected '. In other words I cannot convert them to WAV. Nice

 

One clunky way to get around this (I think - not sure) is to burn the songs to a regular CD using iTunes and then ripping the songs off of the regular CD.

[Song80s]

 

One more thing- some of my iTunes are ' protected '. In other words I cannot convert them to WAV. Nice

 

 

"I also converted the mp4 songs to a CD- making them AIFF files."

 

 

Thanks, but no go. AIFF not recognized by the Audio Key software.

 

And the copy protection doesn't allow ' conversion ' to WAV format

 

 

 

 

 

One clunky way to get around this (I think - not sure) is to burn the songs to a regular CD using iTunes and then ripping the songs off of the regular CD.

[Joe Muscara]

What he's saying is that once you burn the protected files to a CD, you can grab those AIFF files from the CD and convert them as you wish. You may need to use something to convert AIFF -> WAV.

[kanker.]

iTunes can convert AIFF-Wav

[Song80s]

What he's saying is that once you burn the protected files to a CD, you can grab those AIFF files from the CD and convert them as you wish. You may need to use something to convert AIFF -> WAV.

 

one would think

 

Once the original file is protected, I am unable to manipulate the file format. I have reset itunes ' preferences' to accomodate this - no luck

 

My Quicktime software wasn't helpful either.

 

 

[Joe Muscara]

Once you burn the file to an audio CD, the DRM/protection is gone from the file. Not from the original mp4 you bought, but from the file that's now on CD. AIFF, WAV, and most other formats do NOT support Apple's DRM, so there is no way you are being prevented from converting from AIFF to WAV.

 

Are you sure you're trying to rip the files from the CD back into iTunes and not trying to convert the original files again? Are you sure you made an audio CD and you didn't just copy the protected files from your Mac to a data CD?

 

Sorry if these are basic questions, but just trying to get to the bottom of the issue you're having.

[raddtunes]

Most of this discussion is about converting file formats - - but your original question brought up other points as well. There was actually a paper insert in my package that reccomended sticking to wav format - that other file formats would tend to usurp processing capability.

 

I actually use my Audio Key for break music on gigs - - it's very very handy for that. I even have songs timed out in 5 minute increments to let everyone know when they need to get back to the stage - - according to the music playing.

 

I can also see using the Audio Key as a convenient enhancement in live performances where loops/samples are needed - as long as the RD is not the only axe, obviously.

 

But really - Roland already has plans for the next RD keyboard in two years, right? And it will tout the virtues of "expanded Audio Key features" - - right?

 

 

 

[DaveMcM]

...It appears you have to pre-organize that capability as a set of

" Audio Files ". So how do I break up a song ( in WAV) and arrange that in 'Audio File '. I have no idea. No info in the manual...

You need a waveform editing program such as Audacity, a free downloadable program. You open the file ripped from CD in Audacity and you will see something similar to this:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/images/audacity-macosx-small.jpg

Among other functions, Audacity will display the actual waveform of the audio file that is loaded. Here you can cut the song apart into intro, verses, choruses, etc. and save each as a separate wave file. Then use the Audio Key utility to assign the wave files to the desired keys and assign the playback mode for each section, i.e. one-shot now, one-shot wait, loop now or loop wait.

 

Audacity can be downloaded HERE.

[DrpianoSP]

The audio quality is good. But I can't refer to a phrase , or a bridge or an instrument part. Or slow the tune down. Underwhelming.

 

What you are expecting is quite a complex process of manipulating existing audio-files. Roland doesn´t claim anywhere that the audiokey-feature can do this. As was mentioned before, there is special software for that.

 

If you want to play midi-files, don´t forget that there is also the SONG function which allows you to play midi, wav or mp3 files in different tempos and pitches. I find it quite useful.

[Song80s]

The audio quality is good. But I can't refer to a phrase , or a bridge or an instrument part. Or slow the tune down. Underwhelming.

 

What you are expecting is quite a complex process of manipulating existing audio-files. Roland doesn´t claim anywhere that the audiokey-feature can do this. As was mentioned before, there is special software for that.

 

If you want to play midi-files, don´t forget that there is also the SONG function which allows you to play midi, wav or mp3 files in different tempos and pitches. I find it quite useful.

 

good catch and point about the SONG feature- I overlooked that.

I will play with that in the next day

 

If you listen to the last 2-3 minutes of the Jeff Lamm NAMM Booth

video he DOES say you can ' chop up ' MP3 files using the Roland

software:

 

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=923

 

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=923

 

Perhaps you can do that with SONAR LE- but I am not sure there is a mac version

[Song80s]

...It appears you have to pre-organize that capability as a set of

" Audio Files ". So how do I break up a song ( in WAV) and arrange that in 'Audio File '. I have no idea. No info in the manual...

You need a waveform editing program such as Audacity, a free downloadable program. You open the file ripped from CD in Audacity and you will see something similar to this:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/images/audacity-macosx-small.jpg

Among other functions, Audacity will display the actual waveform of the audio file that is loaded. Here you can cut the song apart into intro, verses, choruses, etc. and save each as a separate wave file. Then use the Audio Key utility to assign the wave files to the desired keys and assign the playback mode for each section, i.e. one-shot now, one-shot wait, loop now or loop wait.

 

Audacity can be downloaded HERE.

 

Thanks, Dave !. I see a few ver's for OSX

[DaveMcM]

Thanks, Dave !. I see a few ver's for OSX

 

No problem. It looks like there are only two versions for OS X and you should choose between them depending on the brand of your PC's processor;

• For Mac OS X (Intel): Audacity 1.2.5
  
• For Mac OS X (PPC): Audacity 1.2.6a

 

 

[Song80s]

The audio quality is good. But I can't refer to a phrase , or a bridge or an instrument part. Or slow the tune down. Underwhelming.

 

What you are expecting is quite a complex process of manipulating existing audio-files. Roland doesn´t claim anywhere that the audiokey-feature can do this. As was mentioned before, there is special software for that.

 

If you want to play midi-files, don´t forget that there is also the SONG function which allows you to play midi, wav or mp3 files in different tempos and pitches. I find it quite useful.

 

Thx again for pointing out RD's SONG feature. As you know, it handles midi well

 

Unfortunately, it does a poor job on ' reducing the tempo on WAV

files. When I reduce the time to -5% and greater, the entire tune ' wavers' which challenges the ear for pitch. -25% is total

tremolo effect

 

Or maybe WAV files aren't easily altered. I will mess with that on my M3M next time

[delirium]

slowing down mp3 works just fine on mine.