Roland Clan Forums

The only thing I really miss about my Juno Stage was the ability to program rhythm patterns and arpeggios! Why on earth Roland didn't offer these seemingly easy additions to the Jupiter line... I'll never know.

BUT that said, I'm trying to find the easiest way to add easy to program (or on the fly) rhythm patterns to play along with when trying to be a one man band. I usually play bass in the left hand, piano in the right and it would be so nice to have easy access to rhythms!

I've tried using DAWs (garageband and Live 9) and found them too complicated and both don't offer jazz styles and require programming before hand.

I've tried using iPhone apps... just not really up to snuff sound-wise or ease of use/customizing, etc.

Any suggestions? Dedicated drum machines are getting harder to find. Alesis seems to be the only one that has traditional sounds but I dread having to learn YET another piece of gear.

I have also considered getting another Juno Stage as a 2nd but would rather have something newer that Roland or other manu. are supporting. So I'm thinking about buying a Roland VR-09. it's downfall is non-programmable rhythms and no arpeggiator.

Just doesn't seem to be an easy solution. HELP?!!!

I don't know what equipment you have access to but one suggestion is to record your rhythms, put it on your USB stick and use the player to use it as a backing track.

Another suggestion would be to get an Aira TR-8 - fab bit of gear, works well on the fly with very 'in' sounds.

Neither these suggestions of course address your arp question. However, you can create an arp pattern in a DAW, export it as an SMF and import that SMF into a user slot on the JP-80 arp.

Not sure how much that helps but maybe gives you some food for thought :)

Thank You Cello for replying!

I have both macbook air and iMac in the home studio. I could do that but was hoping to find something that I could use on the fly.

I owned the TR-8 and recently sold it. IT was a bit too dance and hip hop for my needs. Great machine though and lots of fun.

I've created arps that way using Live 9 since they removed the ability to do that in the newest garageband and I never upgraded my Logic 9 to the latest and it no longer works on my system.

As luck would have it, there are NO Juno Stages for sale on eBay right now and there is no where for me to demo a VR-09 (plus it doesn't allow to set up patterns like the Stage did to play on the fly and add fills, intros, endings, etc.).

I'm very interested in learning more about this quest of yours. I'm currently looking for rhythm/drums myself. I've researched the TR-8 and the Tempest, but neither of these appear to be good fits (for me) by themselves. I'm currently leaning towards trying out Stylus RMX first, since it is software and has very cool groove features. I already own and love Omnisphere (from the same company, Spectrasonics). However, I tend to find more inspiration playing hardware. On the other hand, getting more hardware also means acquiring some kind of sound card/mixer, and I have bad experiences with the sound quality of these things, so it is probably going to be expensive.

That's very true Kimsnarf! I have also thought about that if I add another keyboard or machine, I'll have to get a mixer or something of the like. I usually record via USB on the JP80 (a great feature that I love!) but I do have a 2in 2out thunderbolt interface that I could run the mixer out to. More gear, more $$, more time spent learning how to do things instead of just playing, etc.

I will look into dedicated software like you mentioned but I've just found it to be very akward when playing a quick pickup session to have to hook up the computer, and there is just so much that can go wrong playing on the fly with a $2000 computer balancing on my keyboard, I'd rather have dedicated hardware, personally too!

I'm thinking the best solution is for me to just find another juno stage since I already know it has what I want, I know how to use it and program it. Just have to wait until one pops up on eBay.

IPad with Yamaha Arp & Dr Pad app is a very fine answer for classic musical style (rock, blues, etc)... Of course, there are a lot of apps that can make the job with Jupiter-80 ... StepPolyArp / Rubycon / Phaedra / Gumdrops / Impktor ... and many others ...

I like the looks of that Yamaha App but I don't have an iPad :(

Anyone have experience with the older Boss Jamstation or the overpriced Roland BK7-M backing boxes? I'd really like to find the functionality of what the Juno Stage has but in a box I can set on top of my Jupiter 80 instead of dealing with another keyboard. What fits that bill with a set of "parts" for a song (intro, verse, chorus, fill, outro)? Programmable but comes with presets too?

Alesis SR18 will let you trigger patterns from the pads. So you could setup intros, verse, chorus, fills but you would have to program the beats yourself or import a SMF pattern. What you are really asking for is an arranger without the tone generator and those don't exist. You could also use the SR to drive the SN drum sounds in the JU80.

It may not have solved my problem but I'm trying something. I found a good price on a Boss DR-670 drum machine today. looks pretty easy to set up and program, much like what I've dealt with in the past with a TR-707 back in the day and the pattern set ups in the Juno Gi and Juno Stage. For $80, I didn't feel it was too much to spend and likely I can resell for that as well. I'll let you all know how it goes!

flyingace wrote:Anyone have experience with the older Boss Jamstation or the overpriced Roland BK7-M backing boxes? I'd really like to find the functionality of what the Juno Stage has but in a box I can set on top of my Jupiter 80 instead of dealing with another keyboard. What fits that bill with a set of "parts" for a song (intro, verse, chorus, fill, outro)? Programmable but comes with presets too?

I had a jamstation back when it first came out and then I sold it, but recently I picked up a used one on ebay for cheap. Its a great little box for what it is, quick and dirty rhythm section. It does have some live features where it can loop a section until you hit a switch to change sections, and stuff like that.

I think a cheap 2nd hand Yamaha RY8 or RY9 will suit your needs.
I bought one (RY9) to use as a midi metronome for our drummer but I was surprised how powerful it actually is.
It's got midi, is programmable, has a crapload of preset rhythms and the drum kits sound great.
Here's a mint one starting at $50 http://r.ebay.com/qOXWDV