JD-XI Craziness!

[williamsound]

So I got my first JD-XI a few years ago & I love it. It's just so much fun.

In the past year, I've been collecting the Behringer clones & have 7 of them now. I've been using the simplest (PC/Linux) sequencer, Seq24. It's so simple & uses patterns for sequencing. It even has a song mode! I have success sequencing all 4 parts of the JD-XI + all of my Behringers + my Roland SP-808 + my SH-201, SH-01 & Alesis Micron. Almost too much fun! (yeah, right.)

My curiosity got the best of me, one day, so I tried something different, on a smaller scale...

Now the JD-XI sends/receives midi on 4 channels:
Part 1 - midi ch 1
Part 2 - midi ch 2
Drums - midi ch 10
Part 3 - midi ch 3

That being said, I daisy chained 3 of the Behringers out from the JD, set the channels & turned down the amp envelope on each of the 3 parts on the JD. I kept the drums in the mix. Now I can use the JD to play & sequence 3 of the Behringers at a time - easy!

Now with the drums on channel 10, I put my SP-808 at the end of the chain, on channel 10. The sounds for JD's drums only go so far up the keyboard, leaving the last 11 keys with no sounds on them. I set the trigger note for the first sample to the high D note & there you have it. I can now trigger samples on the drum track. Unfortunately the SP-808 is only 4 sample polyphony, but it works for me.

Another plus is that I can blend in any of the JD's internal sounds with the Behringers, by just turning up the amp envelope - cool.

Now I haven't tried this NEW idea yet, as my setup is torn apart to make more room for my 2nd JD-XI that I brought home today!

Ok, technically speaking, this should work. Along with the new (well, used) JD, I picked up a 'MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru' box. This thing has 1 midi in & 4 midi out, really handy.

So here's my plan. Keeping in mind that midi sync is sent separate from the 16 channels. I'm going to take the sync (start/stop) from my BR-1600 recorder, into the Quadra Thru box, out to each JD-XI, with 3 Behringers connected to each JD. I don't see how this wouldn't work, as the sync signal is the only thing that the JD's are receiving. With the BR-1600 being able to record 8 tracks at a time, I can record it all at once. Of course I'd have to do some experimenting when it comes to mixing the drums/samples/JD's internal sounds, as the Behringers would be taking up the first 6 channels, leaving the 2 JD's (each output in mono) to tracks 7 & 8, most likely run into the SP-808, before going into the recorder.

The whole point of this is to get away from using the Seq24 program. I hate sitting in front of a computer to make music. Using this method, gives me the freedom to fiddle with the Behringers while recording & overdubbing, while keeping it all in sync & can record single tracks if I wish. Now add in the patching/modular aspects of the Behringers...

Whew. It's quite the ball of yarn. I use the BR-1600 as a digital mixer, direct out to my KRKs. I am ultimately going to purchase a 16x4 Mackie Mixer, as the studio is always growing.

One side experiment I'm thinking of is plugging any given Behringer into my Boss VE-20 to see if I can get chords from a mono synth. Imagine arp-ing chords! LOL

Anyway, Hi All! I'm new here.