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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Translated and reprinted with permission from Roland Inside -----------------------------------------------------------------------------