Hello to all,
Going over all the excellent messages/topics I saw that there is a difference in behaviour of keyboards , if playing the styles.
Being a guitarist from origin I learned myself playing ages ago on a piano by playing the chords, which means I use minimum three fingers and very often (for 6th/7th chords etc..) all of them, which technique works great on my G-800. Does the Solton behave different???? Uncle Dave?

Fred

Freddy,
That's the way I play it too. The X1 is great in this respect. It recognizes anything I can play and has several different modes, including pianist.
It has some wonderful switches to have the bass play just the root, or just the lowest note.
It also has Hold feature for bass, chords and drums, so that you can change variations and still keep the same bass, chord or drum part.
I had a G800 and the X1 will make you want to throw rocks at yours!
Don

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 12-10-1999).]

Very interesting, Dave. You are the first person that I know of who plays arranger workstation with one finger chord mode and running bass line. To me, this style is more difficult to play than left hand just playing inverted root chords ("Fingered" mode with "To Lowest" Bass). One potential danger for the one finger chord style though - for a short period of time, you may not be able to predict what chord your keyboard is interpreting your "one finger", at least for the very beginning one to two notes of the bar. By "one finger" mode, do you mean you use the "Easy 1", or "Easy 2" mode, F6 on page 2 of Arrange mode? According to your description, you should be using "fingered mode" in which the X1 only plays the chord according to your actually fingering - if you are pressing 2 keys at the same time, the accompaniment only uses these 2 notes instead of a complete chord. This mode allows absolute control of the chord and accompaniment produced by your X1 - but of course you will have to play chord with your left hand, not your style. "Easy 1" and "Easy 2" interprets your single finger to a complete chord and may produce wrong chords at a very short interval unless your bass line is very quick and so the X1 can interpret a short sequence of bass line as your desired chord. Dave, would it be possible that you record a song of yours with the X1 and put the resulting MIDI file somewhere so I can listen to your style of playing? I may be able to learn some great X1 playing style from you.

Paul Ip

Hi all, very very interested.

Now you all get me worried! The BASS hold CHORD and DRUM buttons dont work on my X1! Ive been dying to try and get the BASS hold to work but not been able to. I am running under V3 as well but it didnt work with any of the other versions either. But funny thing is that the JUMP button never used to work until V3. So what am I doing wrong with the BASS hold feature? Is there another way to get this feature rather than the button?

Danny (UK)

Danny,
I don't see any way to access it other than through the dedicated buttons. You might check to see if the footswitch can control it. I left my keyboard at the job so I can't check right now.
But, it only works within variations on a style, not between different styles.
The functions worked on all OS versions I've had.
Don

Just got in from work. You can definitely access the Chord, Bass and Drum holds from the footswitch. I don't think that would be a practical use for the footswitch, but you might want to check to see if they will make the functions work on your particular X1.
Don

Danny,
None of the keyboards I've ever had have had problems! You have had several. I think you have got a bad batch in the UK!! Every function works on my keyboards. All I can say is if there is a "lemon" keyboard, you must have it. I'm sorry for you!
Go to Utility page, find the button for Registration, then see if on any of the three pages, you could have possibly turned on or off the lock switches. I don't remember if this is even a possibilty in this mode, but check and see anyway. I don't have an X1 at home to look at it. This is just a thought.
George kaye

To all X1 users,
First of all, nice to hear that there are a number of left hand bass players besides myself. I used to play left hand bass in my band consisting of keyboard, drums and guitar. When our drummer left the band we did our gigs with keyboard and guitar, that's how I came to the arranger keyboards in the late 1980's. If we're doing gigs with a drummer and a trumpet player from time to time I appreciate very much returning to the roots. When we're doing that I'm playing the manual bass on my MS 100.
But anyway, I have to make my point. I am staying in regular contact to numerous X1 players here in Germany. I tried this piece and I fell in love with its styles and sound, except the piano. But all I hear is that people in Germany are still having problems with this gear. My dealer - he's not a Solton dealer but he could get hold of the X1 if I really wanted one - told me to go for the PRS 9k. Besides there "are" similarities between the MS 100 and the X1. I played the PSR 9000 last weekend, it was great but it didn't blow my brains off like the X1 did when I first heard it.
PS: By the way,
The Solton company Germany is admitting that there are still bugs in the european version of the X1

Markus

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Markus, There are very few problems with the current X1. Most are preference changes that individual's want. The fact is the people I know, as well as myself , have had no problems performing with the instrument...THIS IS NOT A BIAS OPINION, Though I am a Solton dealer.[I also have aappreciation for my Roland G1000...Personally , I think these two are the best of the bunch......Fran

Markus,

I ditto Fran's post. I am using the European version 3.0a that George Kaye recommended and have not had a single failure. I am curious as to what range of serial numbers of X1 that your friends in Germany own are having problems. Maybe these X1's are older units?

Roland G-1000 in my opionion is the easiest to operate on stage using the disk link feature and performance mode - maybe I am still more used to it than the Solton X1. It also has some good JV sounds and is very convenient to play manual bass and drums using the PK5 MIDI pedal. The only inconvenience that I found is its lack of starting/stopping drums like Korg I30 and Solton X1. Roland has to introduce a style family called "acoustic styles" that does not include drums at all with lower style variations and gradually add drums for the more complicated variations within the same style. I wish to know if there is a simple way other than these accoustic styles to directly mute/enable drums. As far as controlling individual parts of accompaniment I like Korg I30 the best for their dedicated 9 hardware sliders. Solton X1 with Korg I30's hardware sliders would be ideal for real time performance.

Paul Ip