Hi,

My name is Simon and I live in the uk, I have just brought a second hand XP50 and I am in the process of developing sounds for a live set. I am having real problems with the volume of each individual patch. Could you please tell me the best way of matching the levels of the sounds so that no more engineers scream at me while playing live

Thank you in advance

Rocco

Hi!
I don't have such weird problems... . Do only the user-sounds make these problems or all sounds? If this only hppens with the user-sounds, look at the patch(-volume)-level, maybe there's something wrong. If this happens with all sounds, I must admit that I propably can't help You.

Hey Simon,
I have an xp 80. I just discovered that you can turn the gain down on individual patches. Read your manual. Sometimes the gain is way higher than the other sounds on the keyboard. I think it's in the Performance/effects area when you go into your menus. There's +6,+12,0,-6,-12. It's in there somewhere. I'll take a look at mine later and figure out exactly how to get to it, then let you know on here. Sorry I couldn't be of better use, but I'm at work.

-Tracey

PS: The gain isn't the same as the part levels.
PS: Okay, I read my manual. I think it might be the same on your keyboard. You go into Patch/WG...then there is a wave gain for each individual tone. If you can get to this menu through performance...do it. Remember that you hit the "common" F key option if you want the gain to apply to all of the tones in that patch. Let me know if this helps.

-Tracey


[This message has been edited by stillme (edited 12-18-2001).]

[This message has been edited by stillme (edited 12-19-2001).]

Thanks for all your help

I am contemplating buying some expansion boards for the XP50, does anyone know what they are like especially the keyboards of the 60's and 70's

Cheers

Rocco

I've heared the "Keyboards of the 70's and 80's"-Expansion.
It contains mostly organs and e-pianos. Besides there are mellotron and some weired sounds like the klicking, cracking and rustling of a vinyl-record. Maybe someone can use this for anything... .

There are no old synth-sounds! And I think the organs do not sound very different to those that are on board.

Okay, I think I was wrong. I had to look in my book again.

In patch mode, you have to go into WG PRM. Then, it is easier to go into the palette so you can see all the tones. Each one has a wave gain switch. Then, if you want to apply the wave gain to the entire patch, push common. Sorry for the mess-up. I'm still learning myself. I think I'll forever be studying this xp manual!

-TM

OK. Here's something to consider. If you make these changes to the patches, they'll need to be saved in user locations, or you'll need to do it every single time you need that patch. I haven't noticed the problem that much with my xp80. You might consider buying a stereo compressor/limiter to run your synthe through. That might help equalize the volume fluctuations you're experiencing.
As far as the 60s 70s board, while some of the organ sounds are similar to stock sounds, most imo are much better. Plus there are many organ samples with real leslie applied, so you don't need to use the soso simulation in the XP FX. Rhodes sounds are a bit noisy sometimes, and they don't really hammer. They're more ballad or jazz oriented. Wurlis are pretty good. I've tweaked a couple rhodes and wurli sounds to get them more authentic, at least to me they sound more authentic. I like the board a lot, because the XP stock sounds rhodes don't sound anything like the real thing, and it doesn't even have wurlis. This board has helped a lot. i just wish the organs and rhodes could be made a bit more gritty. I'm looking to buy a preamp for that purpose. I'd really miss the expansion board if it went wrecked somehow, which I doubt.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice, I think now I may be able to overcome the problem.

Another thing, I have spent the past few months downloading patches off the net and I have a large collection but I was wondering if there was a fresh new site where I could download more recent patches.......................any suggestions?

There's a place called synthefood.com. It costs a few dollars for their user banks, but they say it's all new and interesting patches they have developed.
I've not tried it, because I have several downloaded patches as well and I create lots of my own.

Sorry, it's not synthefood.com. Here is the url: http://www.btinternet.com/~synthfood/index.html

Costs $20. I don't know how they go about international orders though, but you might look.

Hey FAEbGBD,
You seem to know a lot about your keyboard. I'm impressed! I'm still learning...I've had mine since August. Can you tell me anything about the Session, or the Bass & Drums board?

I don't have the session board. I've heard some demos though. It sounded good. some nice grand pianos, electric guitars are good, nylon guitar is good, brass leaves something to be desired, a so-so sax. I don't have it because I had more specific needs rather than just better quality of everything. There was nothing on the board that absolutely floored me from listening to demos.

The bass and drums board I do have. This is a swweeett board! Very nice electric basses, fretless, acoustic basses. You can hear string buzzing and such for added realism. Also several artifacts such as slides, slaps, pops, and harmonics are available and can be useful if done tactfully.
Drums are great as well, but somewhat limited for my taste. Plenty of kicks and snares and toms, but few cymbals; highhats, crashes splashes, rides, etc. There is only 1 ride cymbal, with 3 different samples, the bell, and 2 other positions. There is also no brush kits which really disappointed me. The samples available are quite good though; for instance, the toms have a bit of snare resonance in them as they would at an actual kit.
It's almost breakfast time, so I'm signing off. Hope that helped.
I should quickly add there are no electric drum kits to speak of either. No drum machine sounding stuff; pretty much all acoustic drums.

[This message has been edited by FAEbGBD (edited 12-24-2001).]

Thanks, that did help. I just would hate to spend over a hundred bucks on something and be disappointed. That's a lot of money! Maybe I don't have a trained enough ear...but I really don't hear anything THAT bad about the brass on the XP. I hear an aweful lot that the brass sucks on there, but I guess I just don't hear where it sucks, know what I mean? Maybe you could enlighten me a little. I haven't much studied that end of the music spectrum. I'm mostly acoustic and strings and stuff like that.

Thanks again!
-Tracey

Well, I think most people really like the session board. The sounds like pianos, guitars, are definitely better. Again, my only experience for this board is hearing demos. The bass/drums board I like a lot, though it has limitations. I don't know how good it would be for acoustic type folk music. The drums are pretty fat. Good for jazz, funk, and pop. You can make some nice user kits with a mix of stock sounds and expansion sounds.

As far as brass, I just feel that a wind instrument is really hard to capture; especially brass. The trombones are pretty good, french horns suck, too synthey sounding, and trumpets just don't have enough samples. For instance, no samples for doing falls, shakes, half-valve glisses. Plus it's hard to make a nice soft trumpet without totally sucking the life out of the samples. You can't make a nice brassy sound without it sounding all synthey and processed. The high notes are just not very real at all. Filters can only do so much.

BTW, I've had my synthe for almost 2 years, so don't be too impressed. I'm learning stuff from this board all the time.