VR-09 Hints and Tips

[Kevmo]

No brass on a Roland??? You gotta be kiding ! try FS brass layer with a patch of choice.?

[brenner13]

A Roland Fantom X7 has been covering horn blats and sforzando swells, but just for versatility and to make sure we have a back up, I set up a quick registration with the VR09 layering FS Brass and StackTP Sect and am very pleased to find the cutoff fader effectively closes the filter after the initial blat and a slow slide upwards of that fader can produce wonderfully expressive horns. Works very well for Tommy James' "Draggin' The Line", as well as the done and done again "Mustang Sally".

Quoting myself from way earlier in this thread. Still love this brass setup...

 

[To B3]

Edit... "was" going to buy... had some problems on the online store and gonna have to rethink that...

[Kevmo]

1st again what is the solo piano vr09 patch of choice?

 

 

[rien]

1st again what is the solo piano vr09 patch of choice?

"Classic piano" or "european piano" (they are at the end of the acoustic piano set), triggered from an 88 weighted keys controller.

 

but i do never play live, and i do always play alone...

[brenner13]

Hmmm...need to start using some of the other ones like rien suggests. At the risk of repeating myself: Grand V with Tone at 1 or 2 o'clock, Compressor at 10 o'clock, MFX set to Chorus between 8 and 9 (just enough to cover up the yucky loops, but not so much that chorus is obvious...very touchy), and Stage Reverb at 10 or so. Layered soft Strings or a Pad at level 2 or 3 helps cover those stale sample loops as the Piano decays.

 

Here, I'll do it to myself so others don't have to take the time...

[Kevmo]

Vr09 tone control

 

Anyone else find it strange but usefull after u get used to it. Counter clockwize gives you a mid boosted bandpass filter clockwize you get an increasing bandstop smileyface eq.

[Craig MacDonald]

Agreed. Strange but very useful!

 

I assumed that it was a typical tone control or simple EQ but its not, it operates more like a notch filter or something like that.. It simultaneously emphasizes and de-ephasizes certain tones.. On organ, my favourite setting (for ballsy rock organ) is almost all the way to the left, which one might think is really bottomy but that's not the case...

 

[brenner13]

Such a fine line between innovation and madness...

[HammondDave]

Such a fine line between innovation and madness...

 

Or, as David and Nigel said: "...between stupid and clever."

 

[video:youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=InwMfeT2FdY

[brenner13]

Love that...HA!

[To B3]

Does it cut the sounds when changing from one sound to another? What about registrations, from one to another, cuts or keep sounding when changing? If it doesn't cut the sound, do you have to sustain the sound using the pedal to achieve that? If you hold a chord with one hand and change the sound with the other, the sound cut?

[Craig MacDonald]

At this time the VR-09 does not have the ability to sustain one sound while changing to another sound. In fact, if you hold/sustain a sound while changing registrations the VR-09 will re-trigger the held/sustained notes. This has been reported as a bug to Roland.

[To B3]

even if you hold a chord with a decaying sound like an electric piano, without pressing the sustain pedal? Does that happen even when going from registration to registration as well as from factory preset to factory preset?

[Mike Kent]

Here's a Tip:

Problem: Registrations store the relative mix of 2 layered sounds. But what I want is to start with one sound (say Piano or E.Piano) then fade in another sound (such as a Pad) in the middle of a song. I can start with a layer and just turn up/down the level of the Pad when I need it. The problem is that if the balance I want is with the Pad going from level of 0 to level of 7, I need to press the Level Up button 7 times - not easy while playing. If I just hold down the button for about a second it jumps to level of 12 - too loud.

Solution: I set up a layer with Piano at level 10 (the default) and Pad sound at level 12 (too loud). Then I use the iPad to edit the Pad sound, turning down the volume until I achieve the right balance. Then I turn down the Level of the Pad to 0 and store a Registration. Now when I hold down the Level Up button for a second it jumps up to Level of 12 and my Pad is at that mix that I predetermined as being just right. Hold Level Down button for a second to take it out. No glitches of changing registrations, just easy access to a predetermined precise mix.

[Mike Kent]

Here is a layered sound to try:

 

I own a Rhodes that I often run through my Leslie. On my VK-8 I love Electric Piano mixed with just a bit of Organ (16" and 8" only) for something a bit different but related, a bit more subtle in a good way.

 

I found something similar but different again on my VR-09:

1) Layer of 1: Rock Organ 2:Vintage E.Piano - Both with Level 10

2) Vintage E.Piano down 1 octave

3) Organ 16' drawbar 80%-100%, 8' drawbar 60%-80%. No other drawbars out. Play with the 16' and 8' drawbars to find the mix that suits you. Sometimes I use only 16'.

4) I like to set Rotary to: Type 2, Wf Accel 5, Tw Accel 8, Wf Slow Speed 9, Tw Slow Speed 19, Wf Fast Speed 73, Tw Fast Speed 84

5) I set MFX to Phaser for a nice variation, but rarely use any.

All that is stored as a registration for me.

 

This is a nice modulated Rhodes sound when you want less effect than a chorus or phaser. I play most phrases with slow rotary, then switch rotary speed to fast for just a couple seconds and back off again, for short expressive change, maybe transition from one phrase to the next. Dynamic Range becomes compressed as compared to a typical E.Piano sound. But I often like it that way - it's just so smooth with notes that hold as long as you want them to.

 

(Organ at Level 0 gives you just the E.Piano through Leslie - also useful).

[rien]

thanks SynMike, this is a nice sound !

 

it seems you can achieve the same sound one octave higher by NOT transposing the EP, and fiddling with 8' and 4' drawbars.

[To B3]

Sounds interesting... that might work well on clav too, i guess... a bit of overdrive would add a certain spice to it too, i think... Can you record some examples of that sounds?

[High Diving Act]

Ya I tried it too.. sounds nice.

I really like the tone control for sound shaping... very musical.. but it is a shame you can't eq each sound independently (even 3 band would be nice.) from left to right the tone control goes.. mid push.. to flat... to happy face. I'm liking the sounds produced when tone is on the left.. but loose some bottom end.. and if you go to far to the right.. the highs are nice but too much bottom is present. Just makes it difficult to equalize all registrations without messing with the mixer eq between patches. Anyone using this board live... and using multiple sound sets throughout the night.. find this frustrating?

[To B3]

Anyone uses the VR09 as a two keyboard organ/piano setup, with both the VR and the controller driving VR sounds? How do you like it and what do you use as a controller? Is it easy to configure and make it work properly?

[Ken Beaumont]

I used my SV1 to play piano through the VR-09 once. I had to set the VR09 to "Keyboard" midi mode.

[Craig MacDonald]

ToB3

 

I have used my VR-09 with a Yamaha 88 note weighted action controller a few times, and it worked quite well.. To do so you set everything up as a split and set the controller on the correct midi channel, as well as configuring the VR-09 for a second keyboard, and that's it (I set the VR as upper and the controller as lower)

 

That said, there are a couple of things that are a tad quirky. As previously stated a thousand times, you cannot set expression separately (off/on) for the upper and lower parts.. Also the lower part will not have effects on it, as only the upper part will have effects, the exception is reverb I believe.. Best example of this is when using the phased EP on the lower keyboard and organ on top.. You will lose the phaser effect on the EP in this split mode (which is the same for any split). The effects are quirky on this thing.. In organ mode the controller automatically works as a lower manual (no configuration is required other than having it on the correct midi channel).

 

Using an 88 note weighted action to drive some of the VR-09 sounds is really nice.. The AP, EP, and clavinet sounds, feel and sound a lot more real when triggered this way..

 

Other than the quirky effects, the VR-09 works quite well with an external controller, based on my limited experience with it.

[To B3]

If only the overdrive or the tone control could be used independently on the lower sound too, my needs would be very much covered with very few other workarounds, as I tend to use organ as my main sound on the RH always and Rhodes/Wurly or clav (no AP) on the LH, almost always with overdrive (think the Danny Louis sound set on Govt Mule). When splitting sounds, I prefer that the EP or clav have no other modulation effects applied, like phaser or tremolo, as they are "comping" on the RH organ melody/solo and often tend to muddy up it... I leave the "modeed" sounds to when I'm playing just EP, such as on the verses of songs... Dont mind losing the mod when splitting... Sometimes, I'd like some wah on the LH sound, but can live without it... It's the lack of overdrive on the LH sound that bugs me more, on the VR09 (i can use the same overdrive and amount on both sides of the split, no problem... But nothing that a preamp or amp mod pedal cannot resolve, isnt it?

[rien]

I tend to use organ as my main sound on the RH always and Rhodes/Wurly or clav (no AP) on the LH

by the way, i don't know if you finally bought the VR-09, but one big limitation that may get in your way is that the organ cannot be transposed at all ! never, ever, not even by whole octaves...

 

this can be very limiting when splitting the keyboard, the playable range for the organ becomes very small.

[SK]

by the way, i don't know if you finally bought the VR-09, but one big limitation that may get in your way is that the organ cannot be transposed at all ! never, ever, not even by whole octaves...

I just tried it on my new VR-09, and the transpose button itself works fine on organ (hold it down, press up or down), but I'm not seeing where the octave buttons work. The drawbars will have to do for octaves, like a real organ.

[AnotherScott]

I just tried it on my new VR-09, and the transpose button itself works fine on organ (hold it down, press up or down), but I'm not seeing where the octave buttons work. The drawbars will have to do for octaves, like a real organ.

Of course, on a real organ, you're not splitting it and using two octaves for EP or whatever. It is a little limiting if splitting the board to create a smaller portion for organ limits you to only being able to play parts that are designed for that section of the keyboard. Though as you say, some creative use of drawbars can help get around that.

[SK]

I just tried it on my new VR-09, and the transpose button itself works fine on organ (hold it down, press up or down), but I'm not seeing where the octave buttons work. The drawbars will have to do for octaves, like a real organ.

Of course, on a real organ, you're not splitting it and using two octaves for EP or whatever. It is a little limiting if splitting the board to create a smaller portion for organ limits you to only being able to play parts that are designed for that section of the keyboard. Though as you say, some creative use of drawbars can help get around that.

Agreed, definitely some limitations... just saying the transpose button works on organ.

[To B3]

How many steps can you transpose when using an organ sound?

 

About limmting range, even when you play separate keyboards with separate sounds, I almost always tend to play on small ranges on both boards, not going up and down the ful range. So, for my use, the 61 keys are workable on the VR for many of the gigs/rehearsals. Fow example, on Superstition, I play the clav riff on 2 or 3 octaves of the keyboard, lower side of the split. Have and organ on the remaining octaves on the upper side and play it simultaneously with the clav on the chorus and to acentuate some parts... If I take a solo, I switch to organ or EP/Clav alone... that's pretty much the case on many songs I play on my current funk/rock/blues bands... It's the lack of overdrive and individual tone shaping on the lower sound that really bothers me...

[AnotherScott]

About limmting range, even when you play separate keyboards with separate sounds, I almost always tend to play on small ranges on both boards, not going up and down the ful range. So, for my use, the 61 keys are workable on the VR for many of the gigs/rehearsals.

The issue isn't that, when you split, you only have a limited range of keys to work with for a given sound... that's obviously an inherent issue with splitting. It's that you can't octave-shift the organ sound. So if you have organ assigned to the top two octaves, you can only play organ parts that you would normally play on the top two octaves anyway, you can't play (for example) a part that is designed to be played on the middle two octaves. It's not a killer, but it's a limitation worth being aware of.

[Craig MacDonald]

On a positive note... While you can't change octaves on the organ, if you play it from an 88 note keyboard, all 88 notes will play the appropriate organ tones, so you can get higher, and lower tones than a normal 61 note organ keyboard. When using the split mode and a second 88 note keyboard controller you can set your lower Drawbars to 008800000 for light chords in the middle octaves and still have nice solid bass notes/tones on the lowest octave of the 88 note controller. That's pretty cool.