In the post on the Audya I commented about the position of the pitch bend wheel. Someone said they dropped it there because hardly anyone bothers using it anymore. May I ask WHY that is? As I think about all the song files I've listened to, I remembered that, aside from manufacturer demos, there is little (or no) pitch bend expertise being utilized. Fact is there is very little exploitation of the keyboard in general. Most folks seem to let it play, drop a few chords down, and sing over it. This is not a criticism, critique, or judgment. Just a real interest in why players don't use all the bells & whistles their machines possess.

Also.....whatever happened to "portamento?" Once you got the knack of it, it really added a new dimension to your performance.

Someone said they dropped it
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I would not be listening to this 'someone' anymore!..I use the port& pitch EVERY session for sure.

[This message has been edited by mr9000 (edited 02-13-2008).]

The fact remains that, if you play an ARRANGER (rather than use it as an SMF player, which a WS could do just as easily, if not better), your left hand is constantly tied up playing the chords. This only leaves you a very limited time that you can rush over to the lever to do a bend, and most of the REALLY juicy stuff actually happens across chord boundaries. So, no go.

It's the main reason I miss my Chord Sequencer so much. After I lay the chords down the first time for Verse and Chorus (usually singing the lead), all I had to do was press PLAY on the CS, and the chords would repeat. But NOT the fills or variation choices, so I wasn't as locked in as an SMF would have made me. But off I could go and use the pitch bend like a crazy man!

I WANT MY CHORD SEQUENCER BACK!

OT
Hi Diki
Could you not record your chord sequence as a Midi file, and then store it in the style slot next to the style you are using, so that you can then just switch between them?
It may not be as flexible as a CS, but possibly a workaround.

Back to the question
Diki has summed it up pretty well, but there may be a possible workaround, (Not as flexible but might add a bit of flavour) most boards have a glide/pitch bend (Hawaiian Guitar Effect for Organ Players) that can be assigned to a footswitch, so just use this when your hands are tied up playing other things. (Most can have their length adjusted and stored in a preset)
Just a thought

Bill

What I do on Ty2 is make a custom voice of the trumpet, guitar, sax, whatever, which bends on demand through playing touch (velocity).
Gives you the freedom to bend as and when you like.

John

Sorry, but velocity triggered bends don't do it for me. How loud you want the note is independent of whether you need a bend or not (ever bent a quiet note?).

Ditto for pedal or switch based bends. You need to be able to bend up OR down, depending on circumstance, and you need to be able to bend different intervals, at different rates. Sometimes you need a little pitch 'blip' sometimes you need a screaming wind up to a target note over a bar...

Trust me on this one... I am a pitch bend freak! Wheels, levers (I do like the Roland system, it's only drawback is you can't leave the modulation UP. There are plenty of other ways of achieving this, though), pitch strips (LOVE my KX5 and the strips on my Kurzweil). When playing anything other than piano and non pitch moving sounds, I play at least half the time with my LH glued to the lever! It's the only way to get real horn string and wind inflections, IMO...

As to the Chord Sequencer...

Sadly, Roland is not capable of syncing the SMF and arranger sections. You CAN do it this way with practice, but timing is critical. I worked all this out quite a while ago. But it doesn't address the interactive nature of the Chord Sequencer, which could be switched in and out seamlessly and re-recorded at will.

There are plenty of WORKAROUNDS, but none of them match the CS for improvising, probably the reason most of us chose arrangers over WSs in the first place.