Hi Rikki,

The more I read here, the more I’m starting to get interested in that PA2xPro again. I’m looking forward to another session on it, though, at this point, I’ll definitely wait until the Audya comes in.

That was creative of you to cut the pattern down. I hadn’t thought of something like that. So you can do that with the “editing?” Yes, everyone seems to agree that the “editing” features are A-1.

I think I already mentioned that I tend to be more of a player than a keyboard techie. Reason being, it forces me to play harder to overcome the lack of modern keyboard features. Unfortunately, I need to get back into “keyboard features”...my Roland is starting to show it’s age!

So what does one do with these new keyboards? You can take a “busy” pattern, trim it down to what suits my playing style, and then I would save it in a “user” slot? Would that be the general solution to these “busy” styles I find on recent keyboards?

I play a lot of Big Band and Fox Trots, but I also play a lot of styles in general. Although I play American standards and standard 50‘s, disco and rock, I also tend towards International music. I’ll play New York, NY and then go right into an Irish jig, or a Strauss waltz, or a polka, etc. Of course, this is dependent on the audience. When it comes to contemporary (R&B, hip-hop, etc) I don’t even try….I do DJ for that kind of stuff, so I’m not concerned with those style patterns. But I thought I’d mention this so you (and others) would have a better idea of my own needs in a keyboard (Diki talked about “personal needs” in the other thread).

With classic disco and rock, I’d prefer the styles to be busy so they don’t concern me too much.

Further thoughts from you? Or anyone on this?

Lucky

Unlike just muting parts completely, there isn't much you can do to make a 'busy' part simpler, short of completely editing the style and putting in a part of your own... most of the time, you can't simply erase some notes from a busy track and get a simple one.

However, if the drums and percussion get to be too much, I guess erasing a percussion part or two might be fairly simple... lose the bongos or congas and shaker or tambourine might help thin things out a bit. But simplifying a busy guitar track piano part or horn parts would be a major undertaking.

Another place to look would be translated styles... Perhaps you can find similar styles that have simpler parts coming from other arrangers (personally, I find a lot of Roland styles to be not too busy) and either use the translation whole, or merge it with your favorite tracks from an existing Korg style, for a hybrid style. If the OS makes it easy to do (the Roland's do, for sure!), assembling new styles out of Parts from other styles might be a far easier task than creating your own styles.

Just a thought.

Hi Lucky
all sorts of editing that can be done fairly easily.
The one I mentioned about cutting short the style part, simple as in record mode, scrolling the pattern length from 8 bars to 4 bars, it cuts out the last 4 bars of the pattern.
To delete the first 4 bars instead of the last 4, slightly more complex, you go to record mode, then edit mode & cut the first 4 bars. You save this as a user style.

A fairly simple way of customizing a style.

Other stuff you can do fairly easily, is to copy style tracks within the same style or from another style ie
just say variation 1 you're quite happy with, but variation 2 the bass pattern is a bit too busy, you can copy the bass pattern from vari 1 to vari 2 fairly simply.
Or just say, vari 1, 2, 3 are ok but vari 4 is just too busy & you'd never use it. Copy one of the other variations to vari 4 & modify it slightly, by copying a different drum track or bass track, in short, modify the style to suit your songs.
If you do find a style works better without certain tracks ie too busy, delete it.
It's no good just muting accomp 5 when in style play mode. Muting affects all the style parts, so if you mute accomp 5 for vari1, it will also affect vari2,3 etc

There's lots of user spaces & favourites spaces, so unless you use 100's of styles, you shouldn't run out for customizations.

I always put my permanent customizations into a Favourites slot & I keep my User spaces for styles I'm currently editing or auditioning. When I've finished editing & I know I want to keep a style, I save to Favourite slot.

I noticed you mentioned Roland?? in that case maybe you've not used pads??

Pads are great for adding additional sounds to drum & percussion tracks. There's also string pads, piano pads all sorts of stuff.
Pads can also be created from style tracks ie you've got a great guitar track in one of the styles & you'd like to create a pad out of it. Simple as copying style track to pad , a couple of adjustments like , is it a looping pad ( continuously plays in sync with style) or a one shot pad ( effect like a crash cymbal or a drum roll or if you want to get really creative down the track, you could use a wav sound).

Also style tracks can be copied from pads. So if you happen to have a pad that works perfectly with a style ( and you have a spare track) you can copy that pad into the style, saves having to press pad button.

There is one must have to my mind , & thats a pedalboard. I've had my EC5 since my i2 back in 1992. I sold keyboard , but for some reason never sold the pedal board. Must have been destined to own another korg, even if it was 15 years down the track. Makes things easier being able to assign certain functions to a board.

With the Audya nearly due, it's wise to wait & see what suits you better.
I dashed out & bought the Ketron SD1+, my other choice was the T2, stupidly I didn't wait to check out the T2.
Not knocking the SD1, but for me the style editing functions that I require , just didn't exist.

I do have some Ballroom & Bigband styles I've collected, happy to send them, but don't know if the store would be happy to load them for you to try??
Possibly some could still do with a bit of tweaking as I haven't gotten round to it yet.
I basically kept the ones with potential & dumped anything that was really bad.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lucky2Bhere:
[B]
Hi Rikki,

The more I read here, the more I’m starting to get interested in that PA2xPro again. I’m looking forward to another session on it, though, at this point, I’ll definitely wait until the Audya comes in.

Hi Mikey,
just interested. What type of styles do you actually use for the kiddies songs.

I tried to watch the video clip, but I think my WIRELESS internet is slower than my old dial up. I think I must live in a black hole or something. I had to give up.

best wishes
Rikki

hi rikki.

I have tried to expiriment with a little variety. i use few from each bank. I am really interested in more from the rock genre that arent bland and all the same and would love to get some dance/rb from to emulate whats popular on top 40 radio right now. the newer dance stuff ive heard on the T2 stink!!!!!!

the korg addressed the rock genre much better than yamaha. do you have any that can make the T2 shine in those genres?




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God Bless,
Mikey

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Diki....are you saying I can "translate" the Roland styles (with STL extensions)I have now from 10 years ago, and, if so, is it time-consuming? I collected hundreds of them...many are specialty styles (Charleston, Ragtime, etc) and perfect for what I do. Plus...I'm just plain used to them.

I started out playing Yamaha PSR's but eventually switched to Roland as, I agree with you, the dance styles at the time were superb. Even today they don't get carried away with them.

Lucky

Hi Rikki,

Thanks for writing so much, but I have to tell you that what you've written is "over my head!" Not because of the way you wrote it, but because of the terminology that Korg uses. And also because I'm really not familiar with today's arrangers with their new features. It's kind of like when I bought my first computer. Hadn't a clue what the salesman was talking about...what was a GUI?...what was an operating system?....what was Windows even? Nowadays I'm a whiz at it but it comes from day in and day out hands-on usage.

There's only two ways I'm going to learn what this Korg can do. Either buy it and hope it works out or......spend a week studying the manual. The former is too costly and the latter is too time-consuming. What to do, what to do?

I'll probably take that long drive up to Frank's "keyboard supermarket" when the Audya comes in and then I can see the that AND the SD5 and the PA2xPro. He knows the keyboards well and can explain it to me while they're in front of me.

Yes, if I go the Korg route I would appreciate whatever Big Band and Fox Trot styles you feel I might like.

What is it you actually do over there in Australia. Recording or performing? I'm very impressed that you're so involved with music! Is there a big market for arranger players there? P.S. I really miss playing Waltzing Matilda and Tie Me Kangaroo Down for the Aussies in the pubs! They're a great bunch!

Lucky

Hi Lucky,
sorry, I do prattle a bit.
In a nutshell,
option 1: was to cut bars from an existing style , so it may better suit the song you're playing.

option 2: was to use existing style parts, swap them round ( using copy function) to create a new style, that may better suit the song.

As for the pads, just make sure you check them out, they can add a lot to your playing.

As for me, I'm only a hobbyist.

I used to help musicians with the fundamentals of workstations , keyboards etc
sort of a walking, lots of talking,
" start up manual " back in the early 90's for one of the big Sydney music stores.

I'm basically fascinated with arranger technology , mainly style creation process.
Since I'm more technically minded, than musically blessed, I spend a lot of my time working out methods of converting styles, style editing etc etc
Unfortunately, musical creativity is something I lack. haahaa

Anyway, good luck with your keyboard hunting.

best wishes
Rikki

Hi Mikey,
sorry, I only have the normal psr styles for my psr1500. I didn't bother collecting user styles. There's so many psr styles floating around on the net, I got tired of trying to sort good from bad conversions.

I never ended up getting the T2, as I bought the sd1+ before I had a chance to see one.

Have you checked the Yamaha site to see if they've brought out any additional styles that might suit?
I constantly get emails on stuff, but since I don't use my psr much anymore, I don't bother to check the site to see what they've got.

Dance (trance etc) & Rock isn't a genre I use even though I did collect a few of them.
The trance styles were too good to discard, even though I don't think I'd ever use them.

If I come across something I'll let you know.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by mikey_maestro:
[B] hi rikki.



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best wishes
Rikki

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/PA800_StyleMaking/

I went back to samash to try the pa800 and the PA500 again. This will be my third try just to confirm my thoughts. I have to say that the voices have gotten a lot better than the pa80 days, but the styles are 90% the same. Even with the new voices the styles don't sound much better. I know that it has newer features from when I had the pa80. but I going to pass for sure and not look back. I decided the Korg is not a keyboard for me until they really turn those styles around and get a better OS.