Patch/preset/tone changing - (Roland RD300GX)

[mcallyam]

Hi all,

 

ok so first of all this seemed(at first) to be the easiest thing on the planet to achieve(the saleman, every internet reviewer etc seems to tell me so) but several hours later I am no further forward, Im sure this has been asked before but I cant find it anywhere...I have found similar but the article was all about hex editing and sequencing from a laptop...surely you can edit this on the board itself.?

 

My question is; if you are playing a song that has a piano part (for example) at the start and then changes to an organ, then maybe to strings...how do you create 'patches/presets/tones (not sure what they're called) so you can switch between them at the press of a button instead of cycling through!!

 

I have an Roland RD300GX, so maybe its not possible on this model...but for 800 quid thats a poor show if not. there is this vaguely mentioned 'setup' saving section in the manual but it only tells you how to save the setups and rename them not to edit the tones in them. Roland have nothing on their website/forum to explain either.

 

Thanks ppl,

Ally

[rhat]

 

Hi all, ok so first of all this seemed(at first) to be the easiest thing on the planet to achieve(the saleman, every internet reviewer etc seems to tell me so) but several hours later I am no further forward, Im sure this has been asked before but I cant find it anywhere...I have found similar but the article was all about hex editing and sequencing from a laptop...surely you can edit this on the board itself.? My question is; if you are playing a song that has a piano part (for example) at the start and then changes to an organ, then maybe to strings...how do you create 'patches/presets/tones (not sure what they're called) so you can switch between them at the press of a button instead of cycling through!! I have an Roland RD300GX, so maybe its not possible on this model...but for 800 quid thats a poor show if not. there is this vaguely mentioned 'setup' saving section in the manual but it only tells you how to save the setups and rename them not to edit the tones in them. Roland have nothing on their website/forum to explain either. Thanks ppl, Ally

 

 

 

 

Not sure on the GX ,, I have a SX. If i want to switch between piano and organ. If I am using piano 1 ,,,, and The last organ i used was organ 3 When i hit the organ switch it goes back to organ 3. that said ,, i do find making the switch back and forth a little awkward. I tend to take a song and decide what the most signature parts are ,, organ or piano or rhode.. and just play one for the song. Is it ideal , na but being old school where you really only had one sound on a keyboard it doesnt freak me out. I may go to a second tier board but thats not going to happen now.. The best way to handle that is having a second tier board. You might split the board with one on one end and one on the other.... and just use one hand to get the licks in. I know its a problem,,, but like yourself I havent spent the time to work it out. I just have way too many songs on my plate to learn now to really get down to the fine detail.

[KJI]

Hi Ally,

 

I have an RD700 (the grandfather of the future SX, GX lines, you might say), and I'm a bit familiar with how the systems works, but not specific directions on the 300GX. However, I think I might be able to guide you to the right direction.

 

"Setup"s are like snapshots of all parameters on the board as you see them, and I can recommend 2 ways of achieving what you want.

 

Try this test: First go to the Piano category, and pick a patch you like. Then, go to the Strings category and pick a patch you like. Now try pushing the Piano category again - hopefully, it brings up the Piano patch that you had previously chosen. Same thing with the Strings category, and every category of sounds. Once you have chosen a desired sound for each category, save the present state as a Setup and presto - you can switch between your choice of sounds just by pushing the right Category button.

This used to work on my RD700, so test if yours works too. Also, this method only works if you're switching between different categories so might not work for you always.

*edit: I guess in essence this is what rhat was describing

 

The more conventional way to use the Setups is to select a desired state of the keyboard(patch selection, layers/splits maybe) and save each state as a different Setup. Then, go to the Setups mode and switch between the setups.

 

There are other tricks too. For example, for switching between 2 patches, set each of them to a layer and use the volume slider to switch between sounds (RD700 has an on-off button for each layer to make this more handy). Also, set the split point to a high extreme, and effectively you have a way to bring in a new patch just by pushing "Split". Set up all your splits, layers, etc this way and save as a Setup - that's what I frequently did for all my songs.

Once you know what you want to do, the manual should be a self-explanatory reference to how you can achieve them.

The RDs are a really flexible board on stage, and hope you can figure them out to your needs (I'm pretty sure you can). Let me know if you have any specific questions

 

Cheers,

 

Jooil

[mcallyam]

hey, cheers for your thoughts guys! I tried the first test you mentioned Jooil(ill try the others tonight after I can muster the courage for a second stint), however cant seem to get it to work like you mentioned(the manual really doesnt help either) I chose each of the tones that I wanted for each 'section', as in the piano, organ, strings etc and then saved this as a setup file..however when I load this setup file it only lets me use the tone that was selected when the setup file was saved...when I try to select a differnet tone by pressing one of the differnt catagory buttons it just changes the setup file to another one of the preset setup files.

Im pretty sure from looking at the web specs that the rd300 should function in essentially the same way as the rd700 so I must be doing something wrong...any ideas? I really dont know why im having so many problems doing this argghh

 

btw a random question to any one with a rd300, or anyone that knows....if you have say a piano tone selected and you are holding a chord on the pedal(or even a single note so dont think its anything to do with polyphony) then you change to another tone there is a short (1/2 second or so but noticeable) drop out in the sound, even if you don't play any notes from the new tone?

 

Thanks a lot,

Ally

[evildragon]

 

btw a random question to any one with a rd300, or anyone that knows....if you have say a piano tone selected and you are holding a chord on the pedal(or even a single note so dont think its anything to do with polyphony) then you change to another tone there is a short (1/2 second or so but noticeable) drop out in the sound, even if you don't play any notes from the new tone?

 

 

This is normal on most keyboards (except Kurzweil being the most prominent, and then some others - they switch the sounds without dropping out), the voice generator reallocates the voices to new sound, and sends All notes off message beforehand.

[mcallyam]

ah ok thanks, any more help on the above setup questions anyone?

Ally

[evildragon]

You're basically left with what you have. You cannot order the patches the way you want them to be played. You have dedicated buttons per type of sound, and that's it. If you want to have more freedom in setting up patches the way you like, get a workstation instead of stage piano.