Roland FA (Part 3): Advanced Layers and Splits
Practical Guide for the Roland FA 06, 07, or 08 Keyboard
Advanced Layers and Splits
I’ve really been enjoying Ed Diaz’s instructional videos on the tricks and intricacies of the Roland FA workstation. His moves can be pretty complex, however, prompting me to take meticulous notes, sometimes reviewing the same ten seconds several times to catch his deft hand movements. I’m sharing my notes for anyone who would like to use them as an aid to learning the Roland FA keyboard. This third instalment summarizes Ed’s four-part demonstration of a fancy layering technique, to which he devotes an entire Studio Set to construct. Links his videos are at the top of the corresponding sections.
PART 1
Setting up Your Sounds
Roland FA-06/08 - Advanced Layers and Splits Part 1 - YouTube
In the first video, Ed shows you how to set up the keyboard to have 3 sounds (or “tones”) layered on the top half of the board and a bass sound on the bottom half. He pushes the Dual/Split buttons simultaneously to get to a previously assembled Studio Set to which he will be making some changes; and shows us the list of sounds already there by using the down and up cursor arrows to highlight one Part box after another.
Returning to the top box, he presses a category button and then “Enter”. This brings up a list of sounds in that tone category. He’s decided to change the first tone to an electric piano, so he presses the category button, “E. Piano” to bring up the list of electric piano sounds. (Above some lists are sub-categories that you can also jump to quickly by using the left and right arrow cursor buttons.)
Audition the tones to find a favorite by cursoring down through the list and playing. When you find one you like, press Enter again, and then use the down arrow key to go to the next Part box and repeat the process (Enter, choose tone category, cursor to audition sounds, Enter, move to next Part) until you’ve chosen the sounds you want to layer and the bass you want to put on the bottom.
To recap:
1. Put your sounds into a studio set – you may begin with a PRST or USER.
2. Name the set (explained in the previous two blogs of this series as well as in the FA manual.)
3. Press Write etc. to save the set (explained in previous blogs.)
4. If starting from a PRST, highlight the preset title bar and then press Enter to bring up a numbered list of INIT Studio slots so you can find an empty one to save your newly named Set.
5. Make sure to press Write again to save the set in that spot.
Part 2
Get Tones to Play Together and Make a Split Point
Roland FA-06/08 - Advanced Layers and Splits Part 2 - YouTube
Ed begins the second video with a reminder to save all your steps as you go or risk losing your work to unforeseen circumstances!
Using the sounds he chose in Part 1 of this tutorial, he goes into each Part box with the arrow buttons, and cursors sideways to highlight KBD. Spinning the wheel will toggle the yellow KBD light ON, so that every sound having the KBD on will play together. Since you’re making one compound sound with this Studio Set, you want all of the KBD lights to be ON.
To save the highlighted combinations, WRITE!
Now you can change octaves (if you want to) by holding SHIFT and pressing PART VIEW (under screen). Then cursor up to the top title bar showing the various tone parameters, cursor right until you find PITCH, and use the cursor and wheel to change octaves in any of the tones you want to alter. (You can find more detail in my second blog of this series, A Few Tone Tricks.)
To Create the SPLIT
Cursor back up to the title bar and leftwards back to KEYBOARD. Alongside all the tones in the Studio Set list, you will see the letter names of the bottom note and top note in the range. To confine the bass to the bottom register, use the wheel to change the second letter (the top note) to the highest note you want the bass to be able to play. (Keep in mind that Middle C is C-4.) Then change the bottom note of the other three sounds to the lowest note you want for them. You can vary this as you wish, perhaps using one of your sounds only in the midrange or on very high notes. You have created a split point (or several).
There are actually three ways to adjust the split point. However, none of them will work unless the yellow KBD light is toggled on for the Part. Here are the three methods:
1) As explained above, adjust the split point in the Part View “Keyboard” menu. For the Bass, you will lower the upper note to keep it in the low register of the keyboard; for the other sounds you’ve layered, you will raise the lower note, usually to the half step above the topmost note of the bass.
2) Exit the Part View menu (by pressing EXIT), and cursor to a sound in the Studio Set. Then cursor sideways from the name of the tone past the volume level to the yellow and purple dot-lights. From there you can move down onto the mini-keyboard where there will appear, side by side, the letter names of the top and bottom notes of the upper and lower registers. The light blue side is the active one; use the left-right arrows to change between upper and lower. Then use the wheel to travel up and down the keyboard. The lighted keys are active; the dark ones are silent. This way you can visually see where your sounds will be playing.
3) Rather than using the wheel, yet a third way to create the split is to hold down SHIFT and then just touch the actual keyboard where you want the split to be. You will have needed to use the left-right arrow buttons to highlight either the bottom note or the top note that you want to change, and use the up-down arrows to cursor from one tone to another.
To adjust the volumes, you can stay in this screen, and cursor to highlight the Level numbers (they all start at 100) which are just above each little keyboard. Ed likes to swing all of them down to zero (using the wheel or the Increase/Decrease buttons), and then add in each volume to his liking, choosing one as the main sound, and the others as enhancers.
Always make sure to WRITE after you’ve made changes.
Part 3
Add a Second Bass to the Bottom Split
Roland FA-06/08 - Advanced Layers and Splits Part 3 - YouTube
In Part 3 Ed adds a second bass sound, and basically reviews all the steps from Parts 1 and 2.
Part 4
Assigning “Hold” and “Pitch Bend” to Specified Tones in a Set
Roland FA-06/08 - Advanced Layers and Splits 02 - Part 4 - YouTube
This fourth video is a real adventure! Ed begins with a different set of sounds to demonstrate why you might want to delve into this deep and cool part of the workstation.
Hold SHIFT and press Part View, and cursor up to the top bar, and then to the right, much farther along this time, until you get to a field of pink called MIDI RX Filter. Oh my, my!
Each pink row controls a different aspect of the column of tones: Program Change, Bank Select, Pitch Bend (which he will get back to), Polyphonic Key Pressure, Channel Pressure, Modulation, Volume, Pan, Expression, and Hold. (The words flash up at the bottom of the screen as you cursor through each abbreviation.) The field of bright pink buttons means all those variables are being “received” by the tone. Therefore, when you have layered sounds and only want one or two to bend when you play with the Pitch Bend, highlight the pink “PB” button on the tone you want to deny, and toggle the light off by using the wheel. “Hold” is for the sustaining pedal, which you can toggle off in the same way.
Why would you want to do this?
Ed’s Studio Set contained three tones in the upper register he wanted to bend for soloing, but not to sustain; and several other tones layered for the left hand that he wanted to maintain steady pitch and to sustain with the pedal so he could then use his left hand to play with the pitch bend wheel. For the solo tones he toggled off the HOLD, and for the accompaniment tones he toggled off the PITCH BEND, so each hand played with opposite effects. A very cool tip and idea! Thank you Ed!
The next instalment in this FA-Diaz-tutorial blog will address a feature that Ed calls Advanced Keyboard Switch Groups that you will love learning about. Until then, have fun playing around!