VR-09 Hints and Tips

[simchaleh]

hey everyone. two questions:

1) wehre can i get an updated manual with how to use features in the new update? i cuoldnt figure out where to download it from?

 

2) i still havent seen any answer posted to what this means:

does anyone have any idea?

thnks

 

JUPITER-50/80 and ATELIER Series Solo Mode were added. When Dual is selected, the highest key in the keyboards of the part 2 will be sounded.

The Registration set of the ATELIER Series can be read. In addition, by turning on the ATELIER Mode, you can experience the feeling of performing in an ATELIER.

 

[rien]

the updated manual can be found at the usual location:

go to http://roland.com/, select the product tab, navigate to the vr-09 product page (either by going to synthesizers/v-combo, or by going to organs/combo), then go to the support tab, click on the "manuals" link, you are redirected to the support page for downloading the manual. latest manual is dated from 2013-09-05 (the date the update was published).

 

here is a shortcut to this same download page:

http://www.roland.com/support/article/?q=manuals&p=VR-09

 

as for the atelier mode, we still have to figure that out...

 

[Craig MacDonald]

I have to agree with AnotherScott.. I think the issue with hard panning sounds is the fact that with the current architecture, layered/split sounds share certain effects, like reverb for example, and the effects are stereo, so I don't think its easy to do this given the way the VR-09 works..

 

I think if you want separate outputs, you need to look at a higher end keyboard... The design point for the VR-09 just doesn't include this, and I don't think it ever will. Just my opinion of course.

[Kevmo]

Not a showstopper if i need leslied b3 plus non effected piano i just use Cv in a loud bar band setting its close enuf

[earl the pearl]

Still looking for a good Rhodes sound on the VR. Any suggestions on parameters

[High Diving Act]

This is how I designed my sound for rhodes on the vr09. Start with the Vintage EP... turn up the overdrive just enough to hear it engage.. and I don't mean fuzz... I mean just enough that you hear the tonal quality change.. It dulls the sound slightly. I find this helps reduce the bell sound a bit and bridges the low velocity tone with the high velocity bark. Then turn the tone knob somewhere between 9 and 11 o'clock to taste. This again dulls the highs a bit and brings in more natural mid range cut. Then change the reverb from stage to plate and adjust to taste. Viola.. My subjective rhodes tone. lol. Now save to a register if you like.

 

You can make the same adjustments to Stone EP if you like what you hear.

[Craig MacDonald]

HDA, thanks for the tips.. I tried this myself and it sounds pretty good, at least through my headphones (because I don't have my monitors set up right now). I'll give it a try at volume and see how it sounds through my QSC K10's a bit later.. I wonder how Roland is doing with adding the ability to save individual registrations...??? It would be nice if you could just store this and send it to me as a file!!! I think it's time to bug Roland again about this!!!

[Kevmo]

This is fairly subtle and similar to my rhodes patch. What im finding useful fun is the 60keybaord(wurly) on tunes i never used it on

[High Diving Act]

This is fairly subtle and similar to my rhodes patch. What im finding useful fun is the 60keybaord(wurly) on tunes i never used it on

 

I did a mod to the 60s EP also. Can't remember exactly right now but change the MFX to twinrotary and add about 11 o'clock... to start.. then tone knob to about 3 o'clock. Decent for tramp stuff.

[High Diving Act]

HDA, thanks for the tips.. I tried this myself and it sounds pretty good, at least through my headphones (because I don't have my monitors set up right now). I'll give it a try at volume and see how it sounds through my QSC K10's a bit later.. I wonder how Roland is doing with adding the ability to save individual registrations...??? It would be nice if you could just store this and send it to me as a file!!! I think it's time to bug Roland again about this!!!

 

Thanks Craig. It sounds pretty decent thru my monitors. The problem with the stock EP sound is that it seems to have 2 samples built in... standard bell sound and bark sound.. there is no smooth transition between the 2. as soon as you get it barking.. you loose all the low end quality.

[WesG]

BTW - if anybody else loses drawbar knobs... I just ordered a new one through my dealer for $2. So at least they are reasonably priced.

[AnotherScott]

Dats what I bin sayin....

Don't let it go to your head. ;-) And actually, while the key feel of the VR-09 was better than I'd expected, I was actually a bit let down by the feel of the drawbars.

 

Getting back to hints and tips, though... a while back (in the "Hammond announces new XK-1C" thread, page 11), I posted about how an iPad owner could get many of the VR-09 benefits out of an XK-1c, while also addressing a number of the VR-09's own limitations. Well, I thought it could also be worthwhile to point out that many of the VR-09's limitations can likewise be addressed by more fully incorporating the iPad that many VR-09 owners are likely to have anyway. By using the VR-09 to trigger sounds that reside in the iPad, you should be able to split/layer internal and external sounds such that you can do things like have different effects on your two sounds, or send your organ sound to a Burn while triggering a piano sound that doesn't have rotary effect, or send your LH bass patch out its own feed separate from your other sound, etc.

 

I think it would work well this way: Use an app like SampleTank that allows you to put different sounds on different MIDI channels, and call up different presets with MIDI Program Change. If you want to use a SampleTank sound as your "lower" sound, create a SampleTank preset that has the sound you want to use assigned to the channel your VR-09 is sending "lower" on, and has no sound assigned to the channel your VR-09 is sending "upper" on. Create an upper+lower VR-09 registration that is itself silent for its lower part, and include a MIDI Program Change command that will invoke the SampleTank preset you want to use.

 

If you simply want to be able to play the two sound with independent effects for both, you can just run an audio cable from the iPad out to the VR-09's Aux In (I assume that Aux In is simply merged with the VR's own sound at its out, and that it does not put it through any additional processing). If you want to keep the VR sound and the iPad sound separate (i.e. to put the VR sound alone through the Burn, or other scenarios where you want to route your two split/layered sounds to separate external destinations), then you would need to run the outs of your VR and your iPad separately all the way to your amp (or, if you don't have enough inputs in your amp, into a mixer). But especially if you have the iPad already, I think this would add some very useful functionality to the VR.

 

That does bring up the question of where to put the iPad. I don't think Roland is doing themselves any favor with this picture on their site:

 

http://www.shimamura.co.jp/cms/media/165/20130723-vr09.jpg

 

You've got to be able to come up with something that looks more elegant than that! And actually, for a different keyboard (but likewise, one with very little free panel space), I was looking for a way to mount an iPad, and was looking into things that attach to the board with a c-clamp, but the ones I found only had a clamp opening of a couple of inches, not enough to clamp on to the chassis of the board. I'd be curious to know what other people may have come up with, short of putting the iPad on its own stand or a mic stand.

 

(p.s. -- funny how they airbrushed the bottom of the music stand out of that pic...)

[simchaleh]

Intresting idea about sampletank. Are any of the samples available on ad actually any good?

 

Im using the attatchable stand that comes with the bk5. I think u can b it seperate. Its great, and compact.

 

As far as the long mysterious atalier mode, i asked roland. Heres what they replied

 

The import function can bring in registrations that are created on an Atelier home organ - this does not add any new sounds, but (like a registration in the VR-09) arranges and edits the sounds currently in the VR-09. If you have an Atelier organ that has registrations that you enjoy, you can now import those settings in the the VR-09.[/b]

[AnotherScott]

Intresting idea about sampletank. Are any of the samples available on ad actually any good?

 

Probably as you would say about the VR-09 itself, some better than others, but I think there are definitely lots of usable sounds. Here's a demo... non drum sounds start at 2:40

 

[video:youtube]

 

and another shorter demo, that also shows some of the other aspects of the interface.

 

[video:youtube]

 

There are lots of other iPad music apps... this one just gives you a lot of usable sounds within a single app, which keeps it simple.

 

Im using the attatchable stand that comes with the bk5. I think u can b it seperate. Its great, and compact.

That looks like a nice solution, and certainly a lot better looking than the old school music stand Roland depicted with the VR! Even if Roland doesn't sell it separately as a retail item, I imagine you could at least order it through parts.

 

http://www.thomann.de/thumb/bdbmagic/pics/bdb/277204/7165294_800.jpg

 

http://www.thomann.de/thumb/bdbmagic/pics/bdb/277204/7165299_800.jpg

[Craig MacDonald]

Dats what I bin sayin....

Don't let it go to your head. ;-) And actually, while the key feel of the VR-09 was better than I'd expected, I was actually a bit let down by the feel of the drawbars.

 

 

Let down by the feel of the drawbars? I bet if these were the first and only drawbars you were ever used and then you tried the real Hammond drawbars, you'd say "WTF? These big ugly things feel awful" ;-)

 

Yes, there's no question that the drawfaders have shorter throw/travel than the real thing and the spacing's a bit different and the knobs on the end are smaller than the real thing.. but they work just fine....!

 

I guess it's just one more compromise that you make if you want all of this in a $999 package! I don't think it's a big one.. but opinions are going to vary..

 

[Craig MacDonald]

Intresting idea about sampletank. Are any of the samples available on ad actually any good?

 

Im using the attatchable stand that comes with the bk5. I think u can b it seperate. Its great, and compact.

 

As far as the long mysterious atalier mode, i asked roland. Heres what they replied

 

The import function can bring in registrations that are created on an Atelier home organ - this does not add any new sounds, but (like a registration in the VR-09) arranges and edits the sounds currently in the VR-09. If you have an Atelier organ that has registrations that you enjoy, you can now import those settings in the the VR-09.[/b]

 

This is an interesting response.. the idea of importing a registration sounds like the functionality that we need to use import the AXIAL synth sounds.. This might be worth exploring a bit!!

[Craig MacDonald]

I've got a Griffin Audio Midi charge dock and an iPad full of synth apps, and I've been meaning to see how good this stuff works, to see if I could work it into my gig rig somehow, but I just haven't had enough spare time to get to this..! I'm going to try to get to this in the next couple of weeks. I have to say that based on my initial experience with the iRig interface, I'm don't think the iPad is quite "ready for prime time" yet.. But I expect this to change..

[WesG]

You know what would be nice? An iPad app that let us the Roland USB Wifi doohikey as an iPad MIDI source.

[simchaleh]

The import function can bring in registrations that are created on an Atelier home organ - this does not add any new sounds, but (like a registration in the VR-09) arranges and edits the sounds currently in the VR-09. If you have an Atelier organ that has registrations that you enjoy, you can now import those settings in the the VR-09

 

This is an interesting response.. the idea of importing a registration sounds like the functionality that we need to use import the AXIAL synth sounds.. This might be worth exploring a bit!!

9.[/b]

 

from my understanding, theres no question as to their ability to do importing of sounds. ive seen from the bk5, that theyve added new core sounds and drums on different updates from the usb really easily

someone even experimented by taking the update for the bk5OR, and going into the files of the update, and switching the rom file with the same named file on the update of the regular bk5 model, and run the update on the regular bk5, and now the regular bk5 has all the OR sounds and drums.

and the bk5 doesnt even have the registration possibilities that we have on the vr09. on the bk5 to get new sounds, it was nescesary to update the whole rom. by the bk5 where we have the quick and easy registrations, it really shouldnt be an issue.

the question is when roland will wake up and work it into the plan.

[promusik]

I've had my VR-09 for a few weeks now and am generally very happy. I'm having one problem which is that when midi-ing it into my kurz pc3x to trigger sounds on the kurz I get jibberish. Sounds stutter and only seem to trigger some of what I'm playing making it totally unusable :-(

 

I've also noticed that the start/stop transport control on the kurz lights up sporadically. I'm thinking that the VR is spewing out some sysex that is upsetting my kurz? Or some weird midi clock thing???

 

Has anybody tried using a PC3 with the VR09? Any advice on what to try? I've tried emailling both kurz and Roland and have heard nothing back...

 

Help!

[KevinYo]

Do you have the latest firmware installed on the vr-09?

[Craig MacDonald]

Good suggestion Kevin.. I'm not sure what might be causing the problem, my VR-09 works flawlessly to control my Korg Kronos..

 

Assuming you're on the right/newest OS level, I would start by simplifying things and making sure that the PC3x is set to receive on just one channel, so no fancy combinations or setups.. make sure that it's in Omni mode and set to receive on the same channel as the VR-09. I would also make sure that the VR-09 is in the right TxMIDI Channel (transmit channel). I would also turn send PC Switch off (so you're not sending program changes). I would also turn "visual control" off.. there's a chance that this might be sending some odd information.

 

Last but not least, check your midi cable.. I assume you only have one midi cable.. just from the VR-09 to the Kurzweil.. if you're using two cables (going midi out to in on both machines) disconnect the cable from the Kurweil out to eliminate some looping/changing of midi data in one of the keyboards. You want to simplify the configuration in order to isolate and figure out the problem.

 

That's all the suggestions I have for the moment.

[promusik]

Cheers guys. I have updated the OS on the VR-09. There is no midi loop and I've simplified all the parameters and tried every configuration of midi modes etc. Also tried various cables. Nothing has any effect. Could this be due to sysex or midi clock? I thought that sysex is supposed to be exclusive to that manufacturer so should be ignored? Any creative solutions or am I going to have to get used to the fact that the boards just don't get along?

[Craig MacDonald]

I'm not sure about sysex/midi clock, and what might be going on between the two keyboards.

 

I really think it's time to look at your support avenues.. Have you talked to the retailer that you purchased the new VR-09 from? Can they provide some support? Can they point you to Roland Support.. When I was a keyboard/recording consultant, we did a lot of diagnosing customer problems as part of the purchase.. I'd start down the official support path and I'm not sure that the Roland VR-09 blog is the correct place for this kind of question.

 

Is anyone else here experiencing any similar problem with the VR-09 when using it to control another keyboard.. (as I said mine works flawlessly with my Korg Kronos).

[promusik]

Thanks Craig. I've tried emailing both company's support lines but had no reply as yet...

 

Would be great to hear if there are any other PC3 users out there that have/don't have the same problem but otherwise keep up the good work with the hints and tips. It's a great keyboard despite it's quirks!

[To B3]

Héllo, what are your leslie tweakss to make it sound more rock and blues, in the style of gegg rollie, for ex? Low And high gain, leslie accel And Stuff like that?

[To B3]

So... I've been trying by myself some leslie experiments, but nothing to my liking yet. I miss some motion on chorale both on mono and stereo and the acceleration is still sounding wrong to my ears... Anyone had any success to make it sound more natural, more leslie like, specially in mono? Consider that I play more rock/blues stuff... Care to share your tweaks? Thanks in advance!

[theGman]

Related ? VR9 question. I just got one from Sweetwater. I haven't had time to look through the manual, was hoping somebody could tell me how to find out which version is loaded in it.

 

It was a demo unit there, so I got a fair price I believe; I doubt if they leave demos up that long?

 

Thanks, Paul

[ChiefDanG]

 

While holding down [ EXIT ], turn power ON.

* Continue holding down [ EXIT ] until the version information appears on the display.

The version will be displayed at the Display.

Turn power OFF.

 

[ChiefDanG]

http://www.roland.com/support/article/?q=downloads&p=VR-09&id=63055093