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d70live.txt.pp
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1994-06-20
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This article is for those of you who have a Roland D-70, and for those who
have set their eyes on one, just saving up for the glorious day when you walk
home with the latest state-of-the-art LA Synthesizer from Roland. To be able
to understand how to handle the D-70 menus, you need to know certain things
about the basic structure of this synth. This article explains some of this,
and takes you through a few tricks to make life with the D-70 just a little
bit simpler.
ROLAND D-70 LIVE !
Performance
All functions deciding what the D-70 sends from the keyboard, and what comes
out from MIDI OUT, are found under the "Performance" section. Choose the
function "Edit" and then "Performance" when you want to change some of this.
A Performance is a setup of MIDI functions, 5 different patches in 5
different MIDI channels, one separate rhythm-part and a setup of the D-70's
built-in effects.
A patch is a sound consisting of a maximum of 4 Tones. A Tone in it's turn,
consists of a waveform being influenced by 3 envelopes. One controlling the
LFO (vibrato etc.), one for TVF (filtering) and one for TVA (amplifying).
The MIDI-palette
Let's have a look at what is called the MIDI-palette. This is what makes the
D-70 able to operate as a master-keyboard.
You can make the D-70 send data on 4 different MIDI channels, either with 4
MIDI- zones or in different layers, so that your velocity on the key hit
decides on which layer it affects. Notice that these 4 MIDI-channels are
completely independent of the D-70's internal sounds.
You can send a separate Program Change on each of these 4 channels, so that
your synths all change their programs automatically when you choose a patch.
In addition, you can transmit MIDI-volume and transportation for each
channel. One important thing to keep in mind, though, is that the MIDI-LINK
function under System Setup must be set to ON for the D-70 to be able to send
MIDI Program Change and volume control each time you change a patch.
To actually get to these live-functions, do the following:
Press Edit, choose Performance and then press F4 twice. Now you are able to
move around the 4 different setups representing the 4 MIDI channels the D-70
will be transmitting to. These are tagged L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-4. If you
want to transmit on 1 channel only, make sure you set the other 3 to OFF.
Different MIDI-zones
You can also split the MIDI-channels into 4 "zones" (ranges) on the keyboard.
To do this, press the button MIDI OUT left of your display and then press F3
for "Zone". Now press Zone once more, and the display will graphically show
which areas each of the four zones cover. Now you can edit these areas with
the MIDI-palette.
Alternatively, you can add plits between the L and the U groups. In this
case, press F2 (Split) instead of F3 (Zones).
If you wish to change between two MIDI channels according to your keyboard
velocity, set the function "VEL" in the SW display and then put the lower
limit for the change with the parameter "Thr" (=Threshold). You can only
change between L-1 and L-2, or between U-2 and U-4 - in other words, you
cannot change between an L- and a U- channel. This change mode can be used
both in the Layer, Zone and Split modes.
MIDI Volume realtime
Let's imagine that you've made a performance that uses 4 channels with
predefined Program Change messages. The most interesting way to go from here
would probably be to be able to adjust the balance between these while you're
playing. It's quite simple:
Press the button that says MIDI OUT, to the left of the display. Then, on
the right side in the display, you will see 4 bars and at the very top right
there should be 4 nunbers. Press the button with "Level" in the
Tone-palette, to the very left of the D-70's front panel.
It should now say "Volume" beside the 4 numbers, and you're ready to send a
MIDI- volume message to the 4 channels by using the 4 on-screen drag bars.
Using the same method, you can press the "Tuning" button and change the
transport factor on each of the 4 channels, again using the drag bars.
MIDI Control Map
With MIDI Control Map, you are able to set which Control Change parameters
the D70 should transmit. You can pick up information from Bender, Aftertouch,
C1- handle/Exp pedal and a switch pedal, and change this information into
whichever Controllers you might want to change.
There are two different ways to do this - Either press Edit, Performance and
then F3 twice, or simply press MIDI OUT twice. Now you will be able to choose
where to pick up the information and transmit 2 different MIDI-Controllers
based upon this information. For example, you could send both Volume (CC 7)
and Pan controls (CC 10) from the C1/Exp pedal. You can also choose whether
these Controllers are to be transmitted from the MIDI-palette's upper or
lower part - or, if you wish, from the entire keyboard.
Master Volume by Foot-pedal
If you wish to use a foot-pedal for controlling the D70's master volume while
you're playing live, there are several ways to do that. You could assign a
control pedal to do this job, but that will block for the possibilities to
control other parameters on external modules.
The best solution would probably be to use a stereo volume pedal and hook it
up inbetween the stereo output sockets on your D70 and your mixer, amplifier
or PA. This way, you will not miss out any of the MIDI possibilities, and
you will quickly and easily be able to control the volume without altering
any of your synths' parameters.
A quicker change of sounds
One slightly annoying effect of changing sounds while playing live, is that
it all takes a little too much time, something you don't always have much of
when you're on stage. The reason for the lost time is that whenever you
change to another of your D-70's Performances, there are a great number of
parameters to be altered, and all this while the effect processor is holding
back in order to complete the effect (i.e. reverb) it is already working on
without just snapping it off. And then finally the effect processor goes for
it's new setup.
Here's a suggestion to another way of changing sounds in a hurry:
Most people use the D-70 without a sequencer or other keyboards, and if
you're one of them, you can always use the maximum number of sounds in the
MultiTibral setup. You find this by pressing the "Part" button right beside
your display, you will see that there's room for 5 different sounds on the 5
different Parts the D-70 can handle.
At the top of the display you'll find a line saying "Kbd part = x", and with
F1, F2 etc. you can move up and down the through the parts. The actual part
in the display (Kbd Part) is the Part that will be controlled from the D70's
keyboard. Keep in mind that these do not affect MIDI OUT.
Now, when you're up there on stage, choose a Performance like you normally
would, and when you're ready to switch to another sound, press "Part" and
"KBD part". Now your D-70 will play your patch through channel 2 instead,
but the MIDI functions have not been altered in any way.
The only real drawback with this very fast way of changing sounds is that the
sounds will all have the same kind of effect - although the amount of effect
you add to it can be changed for each part.
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Hope this will make your gigs a little easier to deal with - remember, the
best way to get the most out of your D-70 is simply to throw yourself at it
and try out all the functions you can find. Use your D-70 as much as
possible, and you will soon find yourself whizzing around the menus, patches,
parts and performances.
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Translated and reprinted with permission from Roland Inside
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