FA-06/08 effects setup

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scramble
Posts: 88
Joined: 20:21, 16 November 2007

FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by scramble »

Roland have always been terrible at documenting the effects section on their synths, but looking through the various FA manuals they seem to have reached a new low.

Anyway, from looking at the manual, reviews and forum posts I gather that this is the way the FX works with a studio set:

Each part in a studio set gets one MFX slot, which is completely independent of the MFX in any other slot. (There are 68 MFX types.) Each part also gets its own independent EQ.

Then there's one extra 'insert' effect ('IFX') available. (Not one for each part, just one overall.) Any of the parts can use this if need be. But there looks to be no send levels available. (I know it's an insert rather than a send effect, but a send level is always helpful). There are 78 types of IFX, and there's no master compressor available if the IFX is used.

Then there's the usual chorus and reverb setup -- only one chorus and one reverb can be in use for every studio set but each part can have different send levels to the chorus and reverb.

Following those there's a Master Compressor (but not if you've used the IFX), and a Master EQ, and a 'Total FX', which is an effect which gets applied to the whole studio set. (There are 29 types of TFX). I'm assuming that TFX is just blanket-applied to all parts and you can't control the levels of each part that goes to the TFX. Some TFX parameters can be controlled in real-time using the real-time knobs.

Is that all correct?

And can tones by themselves have more than one MFX, like 'patches' on older Roland synths could? (The manual says nothing about this.) Or is there no longer a distinction between tone/patch mode and performance/studio set mode? Is all just the latter now?
cda
Posts: 263
Joined: 23:04, 8 August 2014

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by cda »

Yes, I think that is all correct. Never really used the IFX, so can't be 100% sure.

There is one MFX per TONE.
bennyseven
Posts: 699
Joined: 18:01, 19 April 2014
Location: Germany

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by bennyseven »

There is no more possibility of chaining MFX for one TONE, like on the older Fantoms.
Roland changed the architecture, giving us now one MFX each TONE.
So, yes, there is no distinction between TONE (single, split, stack) and STUDIO SET (former PERFORMANCE) mode.

Only 1 per TONE, but now 16 (plus IFX) instead of 3 MFX overall in older systems.
scramble
Posts: 88
Joined: 20:21, 16 November 2007

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by scramble »

That is both brilliant, and awful.

Brilliant because it used to be so frustrating trying to fit a large bunch of patches into a performance with only 3 MFX slots. I used to dream of the day when there'd be a dedicated FX engine for every part. So, that's great.

But it's also awful because some sounds need 2 or 3 effects to work, and now there is no possibility of that, even when you're just in the studio working on one sound at a time (although I suppose the insert effect could be of help here). And it's doubly frustrating because there will, for the most part, be a lot of FX processing power going spare. An FX engine that is capable of powering 16 independent FX units at once, and it can't be used to give a part more than one, even when it's the only part in use? That's like winning the lottery and then shooting yourself in the foot at the same time.

It would have been great if they could have done something like, have 3 (or even 4) possible MFX slots for every tone, but only allow you to have 16 in total in the whole studio set. Was that too difficult to program? Well, maybe in the next gen there'll be 2 MFX slot per part.
Stealth
Posts: 22
Joined: 23:31, 25 December 2010

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by Stealth »

scramble wrote:That is both brilliant, and awful.

Brilliant because it used to be so frustrating trying to fit a large bunch of patches into a performance with only 3 MFX slots. I used to dream of the day when there'd be a dedicated FX engine for every part. So, that's great.

But it's also awful because some sounds need 2 or 3 effects to work, and now there is no possibility of that, even when you're just in the studio working on one sound at a time (although I suppose the insert effect could be of help here). And it's doubly frustrating because there will, for the most part, be a lot of FX processing power going spare. An FX engine that is capable of powering 16 independent FX units at once, and it can't be used to give a part more than one, even when it's the only part in use? That's like winning the lottery and then shooting yourself in the foot at the same time.

It would have been great if they could have done something like, have 3 (or even 4) possible MFX slots for every tone, but only allow you to have 16 in total in the whole studio set. Was that too difficult to program? Well, maybe in the next gen there'll be 2 MFX slot per part.
Some 15 years ago, in the time of Access Viruses and other ones, they had already one Insert effect per MIDI channel, and now with triple much processing power, that should be a breeze to have 3 Insert effects per MIDI channel. But alas, it isn't.
Icebergbass
Posts: 6
Joined: 22:03, 14 June 2017

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by Icebergbass »

I'm 2 years behind on this post, but I just found it. So not an option of assigning 2 different effects to a tone, huh? I found the sax sounds a bit lousy on the FA-06, compared to, for instance a tone from the Juno DS called Blow Tenor. I'm still trying to mod one of the sax sounds on the FA, to make it more realistic, but no luck. If only we could download tones from the Juno into the FA...
lipi
Posts: 55
Joined: 08:22, 19 October 2017
Location: Hungary
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Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by lipi »

If you don't need so much compression you may us IFX instead of Master Comp. You can switch that IFX on/off on multiple parts after the MFX and before Chorus.
If you want one more "IFX" take look on that post...viewtopic.php?f=55&t=54640
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by stevel »

Icebergbass wrote:I'm 2 years behind on this post, but I just found it. So not an option of assigning 2 different effects to a tone, huh? I found the sax sounds a bit lousy on the FA-06, compared to, for instance a tone from the Juno DS called Blow Tenor. I'm still trying to mod one of the sax sounds on the FA, to make it more realistic, but no luck. If only we could download tones from the Juno into the FA...
1 MFX per tone. All you can do is, use an MFX type that is a "multi-effect" of its own.

Have you tried EXP 10? It has more Sax sounds than the default.
Icebergbass
Posts: 6
Joined: 22:03, 14 June 2017

Re: FA-06/08 effects setup

Post by Icebergbass »

Thank you stevel, I'll definitely try the EXP you suggested
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