Game Changer - I just made my FA amazing!

Forum for Roland FA-06/08
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stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Game Changer - I just made my FA amazing!

Post by stevel »

Well, for me anyway.

I didn't realize this about studio sets - I'd been complaining that the MFX is stored with the tone and you have to write a new tone (to a user slot) with the effect off if you want a no effect version.

That's still true.

However, I thought that was true about a lot of the other parameters as well. I new you could save the octave of each part in the SS, but what I didn't really realize - even though I'd looked at it before - is that you can save a bunch of other useful things as well:

1. Filter, Resonance, Attack, Decay, and Release can all be set on a per part basis in the SS - this is a game changer for me because I often want to adjust attack and release times. I knew you could do it to any single tone with the matrix, and I knew those changes weren't stored with the tone or the SS.

2. I found the Velocity Upper and Lower - do you know what you can do with this?

INTELLIGENT SPLITS! - That is, if you can play at the right intensity.

I just set it up so playing hard on the keyboard would give me a string sound (Part 2) and playing lightly would give me a Piano sound. I can play a multiple octave chord in strings, then play lightly and play piano over top of this while it holds - crossing through and above and below all the strings notes - even playing the same keys and getting a piano sound without re-triggering the string sound on that key!!!!!!

3. I also found here the place where you can set the "offset" for the velocity per part, rather than globally. This is another game changer because you can set it up so pianos and strings layered react differently to the key velocity. You can set this globally for the keyboard, but I've been unable to find a velocity curve that works for both PIano and something like strings or organ, etc.

4. And here, is THE MOST IMPORTANT SECRET HIDDEN THING in the FA - from a playing screen, press and hold shift and then press the button under "Part View". Use the arrow keys to scroll down to the "MIDI RX Filter" tab.

The very last column - hidden away - is the secretly hidden away Velocity Curve which by default is set to "Off". There are 4. Try them. 1 and 2 are MUCH better for piano playing than Off.

Since you can still tweak the PER PART velocity offset (under the Keyboard tab - scroll a few to the left) and then the Global velocity response of the FA, you can get those not-so-amazing-sounding pianos out of the box to be much better sounding!

I haven't spent much time tweaking it but what it may mean is I can set the global control for a good "all around" velocity setting and then tweak the piano in any studio set I put it in.

It's funny they put these Velocity Curves in the "MIDI Receive" tab - they really belong back on the Keyboard tab with all the other velocity settings. That, coupled with my not actually reading the manual thoroughly, kept me from discovering this until now! If I can't make the piano sound like the FA-08 or some other weighted controller, at least I can improve it from the default for the way I play.
Skijumptoes
Posts: 681
Joined: 11:08, 21 June 2010

Re: Game Changer - I just made my FA amazing!

Post by Skijumptoes »

Hah, Yes, the offsets are great, you have to be careful when editing a tone and you have offsets enabled - that's caught me out a few times, particularly if i'm using the resonance and filter to kinda peak that frequency to sound nice - then without the cutoff offset it's lost it's effect next time i recall it! :)

Also the MIDI receive business, you have to remember that the FA is a direct descendant of the Integra-7 Sound Module, so there's a few little oddities like that, whereby the keyboard is detailed as being a separate entity to the FA itself, and much of the sound module side of things is all about 'receiving' messages from itself / it's own keybed.

One thing, with the MFX ON/OFF you can save those changes in the sequencer don't forget, that's if you're using songs of course. I've even got a song that turns all MFX's off that i recall when i want to clear them all.
RoFa08
Posts: 27
Joined: 13:02, 9 June 2017

Re: Game Changer - I just made my FA amazing!

Post by RoFa08 »

stevel wrote: 4. And here, is THE MOST IMPORTANT SECRET HIDDEN THING in the FA - from a playing screen, press and hold shift and then press the button under "Part View". Use the arrow keys to scroll down to the "MIDI RX Filter" tab.

The very last column - hidden away - is the secretly hidden away Velocity Curve which by default is set to "Off". There are 4. Try them. 1 and 2 are MUCH better for piano playing than Off.
True! Thanks for this info! I have a better playing on my FA08
Joe P
Posts: 159
Joined: 21:44, 20 November 2014

Re: Game Changer - I just made my FA amazing!

Post by Joe P »

RoFa08 wrote:
stevel wrote: 4. And here, is THE MOST IMPORTANT SECRET HIDDEN THING in the FA - from a playing screen, press and hold shift and then press the button under "Part View". Use the arrow keys to scroll down to the "MIDI RX Filter" tab.

The very last column - hidden away - is the secretly hidden away Velocity Curve which by default is set to "Off". There are 4. Try them. 1 and 2 are MUCH better for piano playing than Off.
True! Thanks for this info! I have a better playing on my FA08
This is true, Steve - thanks! It can come in very handy. My home studio set has all my cover band sounds in it, but now I can essentially have different actions for different sounds. It will be especially useful for pianos, EPs and clavs.
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