Roland DS61 deep menu diving.

[Baldwin Funster]

Does anyone on the planet really know what everything in the menus do ? The manual just glosses over most items and the product videos just show how to layer or whatever, not what all the other parameters do. Where can I find a comprehensive tutorial on this thing?

[marczellm]

I have a JUNO-G and from what I gleaned, the DS is not much different. You could read the manual of the G online, which in my opinion is fairly comprehensive, or ask here about specific things and I would gladly help. I experimented the hell out of the G when I got it, so apart from the sampling thing which I never got into, I can help you with most of what it does. I also have some bits of experience with other Rolands.

[Baldwin Funster]

I have a JUNO-G and from what I gleaned, the DS is not much different. You could read the manual of the G online, which in my opinion is fairly comprehensive, or ask here about specific things and I would gladly help. I experimented the hell out of the G when I got it, so apart from the sampling thing which I never got into, I can help you with most of what it does. I also have some bits of experience with other Rolands.

 

Thanks for the offer to help.

What I'm trying to do is play some of the sounds inside a performance patch from different midi channels. Or more accurately I'm trying to use a squarp pyramid midi sequencer to play drums on midi ch 10, bass on midi ch 2, A mono synth lead on ch 3. While playing EP or organ at the same time. So issues with local control , parts in a patch being recieved on different channels as well as settings on the sequencer re midi out,thru, echo ect.

 

I realize you probably don't have the squarp sequencer which is half the equation, but you might have ideas about the roland side of things.

[marczellm]

First of all, do check out the so called Parameter Guide. It seems the manual was split in two parts and the deep stuff (88 pages) is now called the Parameter Guide. It should explain everything.

https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/JUNO-DS_88_76_61_ParamGuide_eng01_W.pdf

 

On page 21 you find that in Performance mode, in the Level/Ch group, a parameter called Rx Channel (Rx stands for Receive) specifies the MIDI channel that each part listens to. There is also an Rx Switch here that turns MIDI receive on/off per part.

A warning: The JUNO-G had a shortcoming, which the DS might or might not have, where even though Parts 1-16 were supposed to be assignable to MIDI channels independently from the Part number, some features - even as basic as adjusting per-part volume - only worked if you left the channel setting alone (=equal to the part number). So I resorted to always putting drums on Part 10 etc. Not a big deal.

 

Page 19 tells you about the Kbd setting ("keyboard switch") that turns local control for a patch on/off.

Etc.

[AnotherScott]

A Performance allows you to assign 16 sounds, and IIRC, by default, part 1 is MIDI channel 1, part 2 is MIDI channel 2, and so on. So if you make Part 2 a bass and Part 3 a mono synth, you should have what you want in terms of your sequencer playing "bass on midi ch 2, A mono synth lead on ch 3" etc. For "playing EP or organ at the same time," make that your Part 1 sound, and make sure your sequencer isn't sending anything on MIDI channel 1. (This should work because, by default, I think your keyboard will only play part 1 of the Performance unless you specifically enable keyboard control--i.e. the Kbd parameter--for additional parts.)

[EscapeRocks]

For the Juno settings.

 

pull up the Juno DS Parameter guide. Page 19 of Performance Edit.

 

You can set each of the 16 parts MIDI receive channel. turn MIDI receive on or off, and many other things. Such a pitch of each part, keyboard range of each part, etc.

 

I don't know the Squarp: However basic MIDI from your example: On the JUNO set the drum to receive channel 10, the bass to receive channel 2, synth to channel 3.

 

Then make sure your other sound are on different channels. i.e Channel 1.

 

Turn off receive for any channels not used or wanting to sound when you play the Juno itself. This is a quasi-Local Control off.

 

 

YOu might also go to YouTube and search Juno DS Ed Diaz, and also search Juno DS tutorial. Lots of good info

[Baldwin Funster]

Pulled from another thread.

 

Roland has some midi quirks I am coming across. Unless I am doing things wrong on my ds61 , which is likely, it seems to act like midi on part 1 is almost omni. I can have the rx switch to off on that part and it gets note info from my out board sequencer which is txing on ch 10 only. But if I set the rx channel on part 1 to rx ch 3 which I'm otherwise not using then I functionally get what I want which is a split with part 1 & 2 and my outboard sequencer playing the ds drums on part 10 ch 10.

If I set it up like the manual says I get bizarre piano playing the drum program. I know this is a ramble, I'm feeling stream of consciousness today.

Jr Deluxe, for your DS problem:

Check out if either of these two settings are on:

- Remote Keyboard Switch (this means whatever channel it receives MIDI on, it plays the keyboard)

- Performance Control Channel (on my JUNO-G it allows received program changes on that channel to change performance, but it might conceivably also trigger sounds on other models)

 

The DS doesn't have a setting exactly called remote keyboard switch but it has I believe the equivalent rx/tx switch. It also has individual "rx on" and "rx ch" per part, in 3 different places per patch. Perfomance, Patch and some overlap in System. I've spent alot of time messing around in all of these.

The weirdness only happens related to the part 1 of a patch. If I have part 1 rx on , recieving on midi ch 1 , I get the drum sequencer playing a piano sound. But not even the programmed drum part but some hash of 16th note garbage.

If I have rxsw off on part 1 or any part, I get no sound from that part. But if I set the rxsw to "on" and rx ch for part 1 to say midi channel 3 then I get sound and no conflict.

 

The problem seems related to the dual and split modes and volume sliders. I can get it to work close to normal if I avoid using part1 in a patch but then i lose the part 1 volume slider on the front panel.

 

Btw, midi soft thru is off. Midi thru on the sequencer is off but I'm not ruling out some quirks in the sequencer interacting with quirks in the DS.

 

For the moment my workaround seems to function but this is all from just sequencering drums to come back on midi ch 10. When I put a bass part on say midi ch 2 or 3 and then play some sounds from the keybed like piano or organ who knows what will happen.

[EscapeRocks]

In order to do what you want, you need to setup all of your patches in performance mode. Even if it's just one patch, you need to have it be a performance This is what gives you control of all 16 part's parameters

 

Part 16 was always my "program change" channel. I used my MODX to change patches in my rig, and it would send PC to the DS-88

 

I don't have my DS anymore. I'll search around and see if I still have my notes on how I set it all up to be controlled and be a controller.