Hi. I am thinking about buying an FA 07, and have a couple of questions – please forgive me as I am a newbie to a modern workstation (I have been using Logic, however I am very tempted to get a workstation and the FA looks like so much fun, a more organic way of working and good value I think);
1. Can you take samples (I think they are called Insts or Partials in the manual?) from all the available drum kits, and assign them in a single User Tone / patch? E.g. If I wanted a User Tone comprised of a snare drum from one pre-set Tone, and the toms from another , or even lots of high-hats from different pre-set Tones combined in a single User Tone, is this possible?
2. Can you have more than 1 drum kit in a studio set (the manual seems to suggest you can only have 1 drum kit in a studio set, but looking at some of the videos I’m not sure this is true?).
Many thanks if you are able to help.
Newbie question about Custom Drum Kits tone
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Cheesekeys
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 18:47, 26 September 2017
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Skijumptoes
- Posts: 681
- Joined: 11:08, 21 June 2010
Re: Newbie question about Custom Drum Kits tone
1. Yes for your own custom drum sets you have two global choices:-
i. Supernatural drum set/kit (SN-D)
ii. PCM based sample drum set/kit (PCM-D)
For the supernatural kits you are limited to only supernatural sounds, which you can adjust things like the pitch, volume, brilliance, pan and attack/decay parameters etc. for each key/tone. So you could have snares at different pitches across an octave for example. But the supernatural engine is a little bit different than being a basic sample playback, it adds in different nuances to the drum sounds to make it sound 'natural', hence why you can't mix and match engines within the same tone.
The PCM kits, however, you get access to the entire PCM sample library on the FA, plus any expansions you have installed (Free from the axial site), for each key/note you have 4 samples (partials) which you can layer so they change sample the stronger the velocity, if you want, or you can just use 1 for ease - up to you. You also can adjust the pitch, envelope and a mass amount of parameters per key, filter envelopes, amp envelopes, pitch envelopes, random panning etc.
So yes, using PCM-D you can create pretty much any wild drum kit, or mix-match that you need, With the supernatural (SN-S) presets you have plenty of options too but it's not as wide ranging, but they do sound good, i've pitched up a natural kit to give it a more jungle/urban sound and it is great, always using it for the tight snare sound.
If you're not aware the PCM engine on the FA is that from past Roland Fantom synthesisers, so it's a well established format that many Roland users know well, if you ever get stuck with it.
2. Yup, you can put drum kits on all 16 channels/parts of the studio set if you wish, the only advantage of using Part 10 is that it has a more well featured Compressor setting which can compress (or eq) 6 groups of your chosen sounds (Keys) independently (i.e. you can put the bass drum through separate compressor than all the hats/snares etc.).
Part 10 isn't really a biggy to be honest with you though, i'm forever using 2-3 parts to create unique beats, usually Part 9,10,11. And of course in a studio set you can have a mix of whatever SN-D and PCM-D as desired.
There's tons of sounds onboard to play with, and you can even use non-drum elements to good effect too if you're experimental, i love having that option to drop a sub bass that holds on a kick drum for example.
i. Supernatural drum set/kit (SN-D)
ii. PCM based sample drum set/kit (PCM-D)
For the supernatural kits you are limited to only supernatural sounds, which you can adjust things like the pitch, volume, brilliance, pan and attack/decay parameters etc. for each key/tone. So you could have snares at different pitches across an octave for example. But the supernatural engine is a little bit different than being a basic sample playback, it adds in different nuances to the drum sounds to make it sound 'natural', hence why you can't mix and match engines within the same tone.
The PCM kits, however, you get access to the entire PCM sample library on the FA, plus any expansions you have installed (Free from the axial site), for each key/note you have 4 samples (partials) which you can layer so they change sample the stronger the velocity, if you want, or you can just use 1 for ease - up to you. You also can adjust the pitch, envelope and a mass amount of parameters per key, filter envelopes, amp envelopes, pitch envelopes, random panning etc.
So yes, using PCM-D you can create pretty much any wild drum kit, or mix-match that you need, With the supernatural (SN-S) presets you have plenty of options too but it's not as wide ranging, but they do sound good, i've pitched up a natural kit to give it a more jungle/urban sound and it is great, always using it for the tight snare sound.
If you're not aware the PCM engine on the FA is that from past Roland Fantom synthesisers, so it's a well established format that many Roland users know well, if you ever get stuck with it.
2. Yup, you can put drum kits on all 16 channels/parts of the studio set if you wish, the only advantage of using Part 10 is that it has a more well featured Compressor setting which can compress (or eq) 6 groups of your chosen sounds (Keys) independently (i.e. you can put the bass drum through separate compressor than all the hats/snares etc.).
Part 10 isn't really a biggy to be honest with you though, i'm forever using 2-3 parts to create unique beats, usually Part 9,10,11. And of course in a studio set you can have a mix of whatever SN-D and PCM-D as desired.
There's tons of sounds onboard to play with, and you can even use non-drum elements to good effect too if you're experimental, i love having that option to drop a sub bass that holds on a kick drum for example.
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Cheesekeys
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 18:47, 26 September 2017
Re: Newbie question about Custom Drum Kits tone
Thank you so much! Very helpful reply.
Re: Newbie question about Custom Drum Kits tone
I'll add that, because you can sample from within the FA, you could also just sample various tones to the sample pads, which, when assigned to a specific part (Part 16 by default) you could not only play them from the pads but from the keys as well (allowing you access to more than 16 sounds at once).
The primary advantage here is that you can MIX Supernatural and PCM drum tones within one kit if you wanted.
You of course would have to edit your samples to start right on the pad/key press and end soon enough that you don't get too much overlap (to allow for faster repeated notes) but for a basic beat with a mixed kit, this might be easier than editing all the parameters in a user kit.
But there is that option of you ever need it - plus, you could sample a 4 beat pattern you've made, then use the other sample pads to add in other percussion instruments on the fly, etc.
So lots of possibilities here.
The primary advantage here is that you can MIX Supernatural and PCM drum tones within one kit if you wanted.
You of course would have to edit your samples to start right on the pad/key press and end soon enough that you don't get too much overlap (to allow for faster repeated notes) but for a basic beat with a mixed kit, this might be easier than editing all the parameters in a user kit.
But there is that option of you ever need it - plus, you could sample a 4 beat pattern you've made, then use the other sample pads to add in other percussion instruments on the fly, etc.
So lots of possibilities here.