Not usable in Live?

Forum for the JD-XA.
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Novaliz
Posts: 7
Joined: 02:06, 24 February 2017

Not usable in Live?

Post by Novaliz »

Sorry, my third post. I dont want to spam the forum. I got my JD-XA on tuesday though I like it very much I ran into some issues I cant solve. The most important issue for me is that I cant use it in Ableton Live. For example I have a 4 part analog patch. When letting Ableton play the patch it only plays the first part. There is no way (at least no I found) to solve the problem. There is some weird midi routing because of all the parts in the synth. I also cant play the synth in a regular way via Push. I only can play one part alone but not all parts together. I tried everything.

If I cant solve this issue I have to give the synth back to my dealer. I have time till tomorrow evening to fix that otherwise I give it back on saturday. Maybe there is a solution I dont know?
Jdoo
Posts: 216
Joined: 06:19, 19 February 2016

Re: Not usable in Live?

Post by Jdoo »

There was a good post on GearSlutz by Ron Feinberg, on connecting to a DAW, using the sequencer, etc. There is also some great info posted by Oscar Finch on DAW connectivity (Summarizing below - something I have from Oscar). Also -- there is a Best Known Methods doc, which can help when youre getting acclimated to the JD-XA posted here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/219 ... 201.1.docx

Oscar's DAW Tips:
Here are some things I have learned working this way.
1.You can play individual midi channels from another controller only.
2.You can create an external midi instrument (without audio input) and sequence all 8 midi channels on a Midi Instrument / per Midi Channel basis with full use of all the Midi FX in Logic on each part - this is super hand as i can use Numerology as a Midi Effect and get some very complex stuff going on but I digress.
3.If you set a JD-XA Midi Instrument up and set Channels to ALL it will record all the midi data from ALL selected / layered Analog and Digital Parts so long as you play the JD-XA keyboard and NOT a controller - it will even record JD-XA arp events this way too.
This has several benefits as you can for example - record those lovely layered parts and play them back exactly how you hear them and played them on the JD-XA but can also explode the main track and it will split the midi data for each layer across the respective channels and allow you to edit each layer seperately with independent CC's etc.
4.When working this way you can then sequence the other JD-XA parts independently.
5.Whether or not you choose have the Audo routed back in on the Master JD-XA midi instrument is entirely up to you. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't and just have a separate Audio track active instead.

hth -

Joe
OneOfManyPauls
Posts: 93
Joined: 11:41, 3 May 2016

Re: Not usable in Live?

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

I'm not surprised that people get confused with the way the jd-xa is set up for external control.

The key is to realise that the jd-xa keyboard acts like a midi controller that *splits* the signals to the 8 individual parts (4 analog + 4 digital), which it might be easier to think of as 8 individual instruments. Each of those 8 parts have their own midi channel by default (midi channel = part number).

The Part ON button selects which internal parts receive the keyboard signal to their "channel" (so the parts get played by the jd-xa) - and which external midi channels receive the note data too.

So if you play a note with all 8 parts ON, your keyboard is sending data to 8 parts/"channels" internally and 8 midi channels externally (to your DAW).

So you either need to set up your DAW to handle recording/playback on up to 8 midi channels simultaneously to replicate what the jd-xa keyboard is doing, or you can do one of the following:

1) go in and set the midi channel for each part to be the same eg set them all to channel 1: PART EDIT > PART MIDI > Ch=1. This means that the keyboard only sends out on one midi channel and all the parts will respond to that one midi channel.

2) if you connect via MIDI DIN rather than USB, you can use SYSTEM > MIDI > Remote Kbd=ON. This allows an external keyboard to work just like the physical keyboard on the jd-xa, rather than needing to be configured for individual channels. It also means your DAW will be treated like an external keyboard and the jd-xa will do the necessary splitting that it does for its own keyboard, rather than requiring midi channel matching. It's a shame this doesn't work via USB.
bigmuz7
Posts: 67
Joined: 13:04, 5 January 2016
Location: Glasgow Scotland

Re: Not usable in Live?

Post by bigmuz7 »

I have exactly your setup and have been through the same process of working out the best way to have it connected. For some reason Roland have not allowed the 'omni' set up to work through USB so the simplest and best way to route it in Live is to get a dedicated Midi controller, I'm using a UM-1 and have that connected to the JDXA only, with remote keyboard turned on. This way you will have full control of all parts from Live, if you are using a seperate controller keyboard. The other problem is that Live can only play back on one channel per track, there are ways around that obviously but just takes needless time to work around. So I just call up my UM-1 from within live as the JDXA, it also means your push will work as an alternative input device, and you can use the JDXA as a sync master also when using its arp or sequencing functions except you need to alter the channels for the sequencer tracks, normally set to INT to either EXT or Both if I rememer correctly for each one.

Just remember NOT to allow the Live track to have the um-1 set for both input and output as it will scramble the JDXA s brains lol, as theres not a 'thru off' in Live AFAIK (gets MIDI buffer overflow) and also, dont leave the USB connected by mistake and MIDI at the same time as that makes Live go bonkers .. Apart from the hassle of changing sequencer tracks for sync output, it all works ok.
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