Looking for help loading a multisample in tone manager/JUNO DS88

[jackmuta]

Hi, my name's Jack and I'm new to the forum. I've owned the Juno DS88 for a few years now. I'm looking to store a VST instrument as a patch on the keyboard and I've converted the instrument to an Soundfont (SF2) file, which according to Roland is compatible with tone manager.

I'm a little confused as to the actual workflow of getting the soundfont on the DS. The only area in tone manager that I can load the sf2 from my computer is in the sample creator, but it can only load one wav file at a time. I tried putting the sf2 on my DS-formatted flash drive, but when trying to import the sample via the keyboard's "sample import" button, I get a "Not found!" message next to "import File:"

The only other method I can think of is to import each individual wav sample to the Juno, load it in the tone manager, and edit the multisample from there? That seems needlessly tedious and roundabout, though, so I'm hoping there's an easier more sensible way. I'm not even sure how to load a multisample onto the Juno if it won't accept a soundfont file. I created the sf2 sampling the VSTi in perfect fourths, meaning a wav sample every five notes. For the entire range of the instrument, it's a good number of wav files. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also, a somewhat related, off-topic question. If I delete some of the default patches stored on the DS, can I clear up more space for my own samples, or am I limited to only what Roland provides for additional user samples?

Running Windows 10 64-bit, DS is up to date as is tone manager and librarian. Thanks in advance!

[vespina]

I've played a little with multisamples on the JunoDS and, as far as I know, the only way is by loading each sample individually. Also, as far as I know, there is no way to delete internal patchs to free memory for user samples. As I uinderstand, internal memory, expansion memory and sample memory are independent.

[jackmuta]

I've played a little with multisamples on the JunoDS and, as far as I know, the only way is by loading each sample individually. Also, as far as I know, there is no way to delete internal patchs to free memory for user samples. As I uinderstand, internal memory, expansion memory and sample memory are independent.

Ok thanks for the reply. A little frustrating Roland made the process so restrictive and cumbersome for the DS, but it is what it is. I understand they have product lines with different offerings for a reason, I just was hoping there would be more flexibility under the hood so the keyboard could grow along with my needs.

For the topic at hand, I've figured out the process. Ended up finding the only tutorial on the subject in a youtube video in Portuguese. For anyone that googles the topic and happens to come across this thread in the future, here's what you need to do. This is assuming you have already formatted your USB flash drive for your keyboard and have the latest firmware and the latest version of the tone manager. Also assuming you are familiar with basic functionality of the tone manager (ie how to get it to recognize your keyboard, different sections, etc.) AND that you've backed up your keyboard before messing with anything.

1. Export each individual sample you'd like in your multisample as a 16-bit, 44.1 wav file to your "IMPORT" folder on your flash drive.
2. Connect your flash drive to your Juno DS and power on. Click the sample import button and import each wav file individually to a separate user sample slot. Choose the correct starting home key for each sample you import (helpful to label each sample with the key for this reason)
3. Start tone manager. Make sure keyboard is connected and tone manager loads your patches. Go to editor, then multisample. Your loaded samples should show up in the list on the left.
4. For your first sample, click on the home key (the key of the original sample) on the digital keyboard. Hold down shift and click the key above to define the range to which the first sample will apply. A red box will surround the key-range selected. Highlight the sample in the list on the left and click the arrow key button to move it into the list on the right. You've just mapped the sample to those keys.
5. Repeat the process for all of your samples until you've defined the ranges for the entire instrument and their associated samples.
6. Name your multisample. Click write and save it to an unoccupied slot.
7. You can now go into the patch editor and edit the parameters of your multisample as you would a normal Roland patch.

My account is probably too new to post links but if anyone would like to go directly to the video that showed me how to do it, go to Youtube and search "Juno DS multisample". There's a video called "Roland JUNO-DS/XPS-30 - Tutorial Multisample - Sidinho Leal" that is a tutorial in Portuguese on this exact topic. Brotip: Turn on CC and then use the auto-translate to your native language. It's not perfect but it's definitely enough to follow along. Hope this helps someone!

[vespina]

I would just add that this multisample feature is more useful for synth sounds that for piano like sounds. I've tried a few times to load piano multi samples, even with different velocities, and the results were always bad.

[jackmuta]

I would just add that this multisample feature is more useful for synth sounds that for piano like sounds. I've tried a few times to load piano multi samples, even with different velocities, and the results were always bad.

Definitely in most use cases. However, in the video I mentioned above the instrument the guy is actually multisampling a piano to his DS and it sounds pretty good considering. But I think that's only because he's bringing in like 40 wavs and stretching them across only 2 or so keys at a time. At that point, you may as well just adjust the onboard piano patches, imo.

[vespina]

Yes. Thing is that for most people is easier to setup a multisample patch than tweak with the cumbersome JunoDS programming to try to get the sound they want.

[Sergey Kadyrov]

For anyone that googles the topic and happens to come across this thread in the future, here's what you need to do.

This is very thoughtful of you! Because this feature became sort of mythological! But I'm not that surprised, I know people have their concerns about Roland EA7 as well, as it's called "expandable arranger", but in reality it is a big mystery in terms of how far it can actually be expanded.

I wish I could add some nice nylon guitar to my Juno DS, but it looks like I need to collect a lot of energy and patience in order to make it happen, by the time I manage to do that I probably will have a different keyboard.

[jackmuta]

This is very thoughtful of you! Because this feature became sort of mythological! But I'm not that surprised, I know people have their concerns about Roland EA7 as well, as it's called "expandable arranger", but in reality it is a big mystery in terms of how far it can actually be expanded.

I wish I could add some nice nylon guitar to my Juno DS, but it looks like I need to collect a lot of energy and patience in order to make it happen, by the time I manage to do that I probably will have a different keyboard.

Yeah that's been my biggest issue with the DS88 as an owner. Roland seems to make it purposefully difficult to expand the existing soundbanks, even when creating your own. I love the weighted keys, and general feel of the keyboard. The synth sounds are fantastic, and a lot of the piano/ep sounds are also great. However, I would gladly trade in some of the more "gimmicky" features (looping, vocoding, etc.) for more customizability and user-friendliness under the hood.

[Wackienne]

Thanks so much for posting this step-by-step information. When it comes to anything other than the keys and buttons that are very obvious to me, I feel as if I have my head in a burlap sack. I’ll be trying this for sure.