Sundown Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 Hey all, My oldest brother is a lifelong guitar player and he and his wife decided to buy a Roland Juno DS to experiment with and learn to play. For what he’s doing, it’s a very fine instrument and way better than what I started with nearly 40 years ago. He’s not a technical guy at all, and he called me the other day frustrated that he couldn’t figure out how to change the time signature for a loop. He says to me “this owners manual is TERRIBLE!”. I said “Brother, you don’t know what a bad Roland owners manual is …” Unless you saw what passed as a manual in the mid to late-80’s, anything Roland is doing now is leaps and bounds better. My GO Keys manual is Shakespeare compared to my old (typed) Roland D-20 manual. Roland manuals in the eighties were legendary for poor translation and typos. Anyways, it made me laugh. Todd 4 1 Quote Sundown Finished: Gateway, The Jupiter Bluff, Condensation Working on: Driven Away, Eighties Crime Thriller Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361 DAW Platform: Cubase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgoo Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Roland wasn't the only culprit. There's folklore about the Yamaha CP-70B manual's instructions on how to assemble the legs to the bottom half (keyboard). Evidently the author chose a slang word for "screw" although they apparently didn't know that the slang version referred to a different kinda screw: "f*ck the legs into the case"... Giving credit where it's due, I couldn't remember the exact quote. This has been discussed before, so I found it here: 2 5 Quote Custom Music, Audio Post Production, Location Audio www.gmma.biz https://www.facebook.com/gmmamusic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaJockey Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 10 hours ago, mcgoo said: Roland wasn't the only culprit. There's folklore about the Yamaha CP-70B manual's instructions on how to assemble the legs to the bottom half (keyboard). Evidently the author chose a slang word for "screw" although they apparently didn't know that the slang version referred to a different kinda screw: "f*ck the legs into the case"... Giving credit where it's due, I couldn't remember the exact quote. This has been discussed before, so I found it here: Reminds me of an instruction manual for an old compressor motor I used to own. The Jinglish talked of faults occurring in the motor as "rotating mistakes". Quote The companions I can't live without: Kawai Acoustic Grand, Yamaha MontageM8x, Studiologic Numa Piano X GT, Other important stuff: Novation Summit, NI Komplete Ultimate 14 CE, Omnisphere, EW Hollywood and Fantasy Orchestra, Spitfire Albion and Symphony, Pianoteq 8 Pro, Roland RD88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konnector Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 I've had my share of old Roland manuals over the years. It wasn't just the translation issues with those. They gave little instruction or examples as to what exactly a certain parameter would be used for - only the various parameter options you had control over. The best, informative, clear and concise manual I ever had was my Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler manuals. There were three or four included totalling about 400 pages. They really did a great job and made it very easy to learn how to use every bit of it. I have a manual from a Hammond XK-1. The english translation in that rivals anything Roland ever put out! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YashN Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 You don't even need to go back in time to have a laugh: try finding tube preamp PCBs on aliexpress and the like and you should find listings of said things with such poetic descriptions as 'Fever' and 'Bile' ... That nobody corrects these is further amusement. 😁 Quote Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Roland: JX-3P, JX-8P, Korg: Polysix, DW-8000, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 Bought a SPD-20 drum pad years and years ago. It had a wonderful manual. I learned to layer sounds for each pad with various cross fades and velocity switches. Example, I could set a ride cymbal sound to play a 50 percent volume when played soft, then gradually crossfade to a ride bell sound with hard hits. Diagrams and directions for each possible velocity curve made it super easy. It was also super easy to attach pedals for bass drum, hi-hat control, and external drum and cymbal pads. I turned it into a kit. Bought a new SPD-SX Pro last year, three generations past the SPD-20. What an awful manual and menu system. I still have not figured how hot to get hi-hat sounds and control to the pad I want. I fight with it for a while, then go back to using my old TD drum brain. Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threadslayer Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 On 8/23/2024 at 4:26 PM, Sundown said: Unless you saw what passed as a manual in the mid to late-80’s, anything Roland is doing now is leaps and bounds better Back then, rumor had it that for some arcane reason, Roland manuals were first translated from Japanese to Dutch and then from Dutch to English. This may have been urban folklore, but it seemed as plausible as anything else and could explain some of the language mangling. Quote Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. -Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk7421 Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 I got a Roland VR 760 and the owners manual is a nightmare! I am trying to get the split function to send information to an organ module and it doesn't come close to explaining how to do it even though several people in a previous post say it can be done. Their explanation doesn't make sense to me. Just because one person understands something doesn't mean they can make it clear....just look at about 10 YouTube music lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EscapeRocks Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 Hey! I learned the ancient, dead language of Sanskrit while learning how to program my then, new, Yamaha MEP4. Between the owner's manual and the two line lcd display, it was an interesting adventure Quote David Gig Rig:Roland Fantom 08 | Roland Jupiter 80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 I would give their tech support a call or email them. I know a lot of times on some arrangers, on the midi preset accompaniment drum beats there's not a way to change the time signature, it's fixed. Their support team should be able to answer this. If it's not possible, a lot of times these manuals don't say that. There won't be any information at all that it can't be done. It will be completely missing if the answer is no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 "Problems caused by your improper playing" is still my all time favorite chapter title from a Roland manual (GR-700) 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksoper Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 On 8/25/2024 at 1:03 PM, Threadslayer said: Back then, rumor had it that for some arcane reason, Roland manuals were first translated from Japanese to Dutch and then from Dutch to English. This may have been urban folklore, but it seemed as plausible as anything else and could explain some of the language mangling. This reminds me of a tour story. The bass player and I had two days off on the island of Ischia, Italy. We were at a bar watching M*A*S*H dubbed in Italian. At the bar sat a group of Germans, a few Italians, and us. I spoke some high school German and the bass player was fluent in Spanish. I translated the Germans to the bass player and he offered Spanish to the Italians. It was probably as close as a Roland manual but we were all pretty drunk and had a blast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.