Struggling New User - What is a studio set?

[Ashcrowe82]

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks to whoever has set this up. I am hoping I may be able to tap into the wealth of knowledge here to get some answers to what are probably some very simple questions for you.

I purchased an FA-08 earlier this year as an upgrade for a keyboard I got when I was 12 (26 years ago). I had been using my old keyboard (Yamaha PSR510) at gigs up until now, but its embarrassing and figured it was time for a change. Needless to say, technology has changed a bit since then.

I just really can't get my head around the idea of studio sets.....

I am an amateur player at best, play by ear, and tended to use the transpose button a lot on my old board. I might play maybe 4 different transpose settings throughout the course of a gig. On my old board, I could go through at the start of the night and set up each sound/split, set the transpose and octave, then when I needed it, I just pressed one button and it was there.

I know this unit is FAR more advanced, but despite maybe 4 hours of banging my head against the wall over the last 2 nights, I just cant seem to work out the logical way to set this one up to do the same, or what settings are retained/stored in what areas.

Can anyone suggest the most logical way for me to set these up?
Are my - voice/patch/sound/tone settings
- transpose setting
- octave setting
stored in a "studio set''? or favourites??

I can't quite grasp the concept of the studio set.

I initially started out just using the ''favourites''.I would go into ''part view'', edit my ''Pitch'' ''octave'', then edit my ''coarse'' (transpose) up to where I need it, but then I would try and ''write'' it to my keyboard, and then I got confused whether I am writing the "tone'', or the ''studio set''. After trying what I thought was every different option here, I would restart the keyboard, call up my favourite, and the transpose or octave setting didn't carry through. I now have the transpose and octave set, but I honestly have no idea how I did it.

I'm just totally bushwhacked. If there is anyone out there that can offer me advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm sure it is 5 mins work for someone who properly understands the keyboard, but I clearly don't.

Thanks in advance,
Ash (South Australia, Australia)

[cda]

OK. Let's start with what a studio set is at a basic level. It is a set of 16 tones (sounds or patches) and these sounds can have their own settings, like transpose, eq, pan, volume and global fx. These settings are saved in the studio set. So, for each song you play, you can have a separate studio set.

Where it starts to get a little bit more complicated is when you edit individual sounds, called tones. For example, as well as the fx in the studio sets, which are global for all the tones, the tones themselves have their own fx. When you edit the tone, you have to write/save it, otherwise the changes you make to it go away when you change studio sets.

The above is important to understand. Get back to me, and then we can move forward. Ask if you don't understand anything.

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suhkIAJpdmM

[9blackoranges]

Hi,

I too had a 30 year break before coming back to keyboards when I bought my FA06 3 years ago , so had to learn midi from scratch as well as the peculiarities of this keyboard.

With regard to your particular first tries I would suggest you leave favourites alone for now.You will manage fine without them until you have many many sets/songs.

First question to you is, do you just play live? On the keyboard are all the songs/sounds you want to come from the keyboard solely played by you there and then (live) or are you/will you be using pre-made/pre-recorded backing or accompanying sounds as well/at the same time?

The reason I ask is that the FA keyboard has two tandem fundamental aspects which you most know and understand. Songs and Studio Sets.

A Studio Set can be regarded as you setting up a stage for a group and setting out all your gear ready for the group to get on stage and play a concert. It has no sounds and is dumb until people ( the group) actually press the keys, hit the drums, strum the guitar, blow the trumpet etc. It what the roadies would do to set out and prepare everting ready to go live.

The SONGS are sort of the video recording of the stage performance, so it will have the sounds actually made by the group as they played it and of course the shows the equipment they used to make it ( the stage setting) , that is the studio set. The SONG is therefore uses the Studio Set ( the gear all set-up) plus the sound actually made.

So, back to the question I asked you. If you only use the keyboard for it to make live sounds as you play it, you only need to make and save a Studio Set. If you want it to also play back automatically other sounds ( drums, guitars etc) at the same time as you play live sounds on the keys you need to save both your Studio Set and the live pre-recorded sounds as a SONG.

Presuming you only want to use it for playing live actual sounds on the keys just save each 'set-up' as a different Studio Set and save them numerically sequentially. You will note that the first few Studio Sets are already taken up by Pre-set Studio Sets, so say save your first as 005, then 006 etc.

Doing it like this will simplify future developments. If for example you want to build upon your Studio Set 005 by adding in some extra refinements such as adding in an explosion sound, a riser, a siren, some chimes etc you can add them by also saving it as a SONG with corresponding song number 005 and the same title/name.

play just going to

[stevel]

I can't quite grasp the concept of the studio set.

Hi Ash - yeah, it's kind of confusing.

You've gotten some good answers, but let me put it another way and see if it also helps.

Look at those two buttons that say Split, Dual, and Studio Set.

THEY LIE :-D

Because you're ALWAYS PLAYING A STUDIO SET no matter what!

What those buttons do is change the VIEW you have of your SS.

A SS is 16 Parts.

If you have none of those buttons lit, you're in "Solo" mode - and what you see on the screen is simply the sound loaded into Part 1.

So when you get it, plug it in and turn it on the first time, it comes up to "program" 001 which is a Piano sound. Then if you start scrolling through your sounds you'll see some split and layered patches, as well as some SS versions.

But really, they're all SS.

Those buttons just "filter" so you only see for example, Part 1's sound when you're in Solo mode.

When you press Split or Dual, you're actually seeing the first 2 Part's sounds.

When you press both buttons to go to SS, you're seeing all 16 (or as many as will fit on the screen).

So what a SS is is a collection of 16 possible sounds that can be played singly or in any combination. You use the "view buttons" to "filter" how many you see so you don't confuse yourself - if you're only using the Piano on Part 1, there's really no need to see the other 15 Parts, so you can just change the screen to see only the Piano.

But it looks really different on the screen making you think there's some internal mumbo jumbo going on - but really it's not - you're always playing a Studio Set, it's just that sometimes, depending on the buttons, you're not seeing all of the SS's contents.

Now, for a practical example, let's say you need a Piano sound and an Organ sound that you're going to change between.

Option 1 is to make SS001 be Piano on Part 1, and SS002 be Organ on Part 2, and on both just use the "solo view" so you only see that instrument. There'll be 15 other things in each SS but they're "off" so you don't need to see them or worry about them.

You could manually turn the wheel to go back and forth between 001 to 002, or you could program 001 into favorites 1 and 002 into favorites 2 and do it that way (single button push instead of getting pesky wheel turned right, especially if you're in a hurry).

Option 2 is to put the Piano sound on Part 1 of the current SS and the Organ sound on Part 2.

Therefore you don't need to change SS, just toggle between Part 1 and Part 2. That can be done with the Pads, or you can use the up down arrows (I prefer the pads).

There are pros and cons to each.

I was playing with a band recently and I had about 14 sounds I had to switch back and forth between even during the song. And mutliple songs used Piano. So it makes no sense for me to use 14 SS when I have to change from 13 to 14 in one song, then go to 1 for another, then to 5 and 6 for another, then back to 1, then 5 and 14 for another, and so on.

The favorites buttons are too small to see and push in a live situation without time, and each bank only holds 10.

So I put them on the Pads in ONE SS and use the pads just to jump between sounds quickly.

Let's say, you need to play Piano Solo, Organ Solo, Strings Solo, and then Piano and Organ, and Piano and Strings. You'd have to set up 5 Studio Sets for that.

I mean, you could have a SS set up with Piano on Part 1 and Strings on Part 2, then just press the "solo" button mode and you'd only get Piano. But there's no way to get Strings by themselves that way (it plays the "active" part, which by default in "solo" mode is Part 1).

There's nothing wrong with having a SS set up for each one, and there might be reasons to do so, but, you have to use 5 studio sets for what you could easily and more conveniently do with 1!

You grab SS 001 and put Piano on Part 1, Organ on Part 2, and Strings on Part 3.

Then you assign the pads so Pad 1 is Part 1, Pad 2 is Part 2, Pad 3 is Part 3, and Pad 4 is Part 1+Part 2, and Pad 5 is Part 1+Part 3. Heck, at that point you can even then make an Organ and Strings combo and an all 3 combo if you want it!

Now, in SS "view" or "mode" where you can see all 16 (or what fits on the screen) you "activate" parts by turning on their Keyboard Switch.

But also, even if the KS is not on, the "active" (highlighted/selected) part will always play - and usually that's Part 1.

So all the SS in the darn thing are set up so Part 1 is the active part.

What happens when you go to "solo" mode is it just displays Part 1, which is the active part by default, and when you play the keyboard that's what sound you get.

When you go to "dual" mode, it activates Part 1 and 2 (1 is "selected" but both 1 and 2 get their Keyboard Switch turned on) and when you play a Key you'll hear a combination of what's on Part 1 and Part 2. And you'll see the screen that way.

With "split" mode IIRC the default is basically the same except the keyboard range is also set so Part 1 plays the upper half (or lower half I can't remember which) while the Part 2 plays the other half.

When you go to SS mode, it reverts back to only Part 1 being "selected" and having the KS on (this is on the SS that weren't preset demos from the factory).

Now you can STILL use Favorites if you want - I've set it up so my Favorites 1 in Bank A takes me to a SS I set up with nothing but Piano sounds in it. So there are 16 Piano patches on the 16 Parts of the SS, and I use the pads to jump between them (I do this when recording so I can quickly switch between piano sounds to try out which one sounds best in a mix). My Favorites 2 button does Electric Pianos - 16 of those.

The only downfall about using a SS is that if I do something like turn down the volume of my Piano sound on Part 1, when I change to a different sound on Part 2 then come back, the Piano sound is still going to be the volume I left it.

But sometimes in a song I need that to happen so it all depends on if you need that or want it to "reset" - which you need to change SS for.

I hope that helps. Feel free to ask for clarification or a working example if you need it.

[anotherscott2022]

Are my - voice/patch/sound/tone settings
- transpose setting
- octave setting
stored in a "studio set''? or favourites??

I can't quite grasp the concept of the studio set.

A single sound is a Tone.

A Studio Set is a set of up to 16 Tones (and those tones, themselves, can be invoked in various combinations).

A Favorite is like a "shortcut" in Windows, or an "alias" on a Mac... it contains no data, it is merely a pointer. In this case, it is a pointer to a Tone or a Studio Set, and just gives you a faster way to recall that Tone or Studio Set than having to navigate to it through a scrolling list every time you want to get back to it.

[thus]

A Studio Set is a collection of sounds for a song. Roland uses the term “Tones” on the FA to refer to sounds — what other keyboards/keyboardists might call presets, patches, or instruments.

So, a Studio Set is a collection of Tones for a song, with each Tone in a numbered slot called a Part. A live keyboardist may want to use Pad Util to configure the numbered pads to select each Part during a performance.

As others have mentioned, you can go further and play multiple Parts at the same time using keyboard splits and layering. You can also configure the pads to select these combos. Here’s a video on that: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fK2Oxkgmbds