This post in the "What songs do you use to get people on the Dancefloor" prompted me to ask this question:

"P.S. Ooooh! GREAT BALLS OF FIRE - you get to show off your soloing skills AND it's a barnstormer of a RnR song everyone of all ages digs."

Do you guys play through the stops on songs like this or do you use the Synchro button to stop the style when you life your hands off the keyboard to make these stops?

I always seem to have trouble leaving the SYNCHRO button turned on the whole song; if I life one finger off the keyboard the whole damn style stops and I'm out of rhythm.

I sometimes turn the synchro button off during the song and back on when I know a stop is coming.

Any pointers here or do you just play through the stops?

This is a good question that I’m glad you asked as it has been one my mind lately. I’m not very good with the SYNCHRO button myself. I mainly use it for endings when none of the “canned” endings work for me.

I’d like to use SYNCHRO for songs like “oye com va” that have important breaks during the course of the song. But when I try to use the SYNCHRO button the results sound very choppy.

Any tips?

I program the stops in one of the Intros using Style Assembly...generally I'll use the BREAK section of the style (or another style), but sometimes I use parts of ENDING 1 as well.

I find using the SYNCHRO-STOP very awkward.

Ian

I also find the Sync-Stop button difficult to work with, therefore, for the few songs that I need this function I use a workaround. Louis Prima's Buona Sera and Just A Gigolo are classic examples. I utilize a registration where the sync-start is activated, then the style begins playing. No intro, break or fill--just the style. The way it works is you fire up the style, play the intro, get into the song, and when you need that extended break just press the registration button. Then, when you're ready to resume the song, or in the case of Buona Sera, make a transition from a tango to jump jive, the tango is the first registration button and the jump-jive is the second.

Works for me,

Gary

Ahh, that's really smart. I never even considered a foot pedal for stop/start. I use sustain and Leslie on/off. I guess I would have to create a performance just for the Synchro function on the foot pedal on my Korg Pa2xpro.

Gary, I liked your idea as well, but it is very song specific.

I marvel at some of the OMB keyboard players that scurry up and down their keyboards pressing buttons all over the place, but I get flustered doing that while I'm trying to sing and play at the same time. I guess I'm not that gifted;

I use Break, controlled by foot pedal (on Audya).
There are four breaks and four fills per style, so one of them is usually right.
I never got the hang of Sync Off.
When I use the Roland, I either hit Stop or have to create a style part because there are no effective Breaks.
A few styles have stops built in to a variation.
DonM

Was going to comment that most of these situations are covered better by a 'break' than having to stop then restart by hand or footswitch. Timing critical things like this are best left to the machine...

Mind you, it's good practice to see if YOUR timing is spot on... Maybe if you can hit the one PERFECTLY every time you use a bar break (complete silence, not a break/fill), you might have good enough time to do it by foot or hand, but you'd be surprised (especially if you record it and listen back carefully) how hard it is to be that precise, especially in the heat of gigging...

I DO like the Audya's four break/fill choices, though. This is something that other manufacturers really need to jump on, as the B/F during Var1 isn't really anything that ought to work in Var4 (and vice versa). One just doesn't seem enough to cover all your needs...

Me, as the Roland's don't have a B/F (just a break), I'll hit the break switch on the one, then hit the fill switch (I do it all with my feet) on the three or four if I need a B/F, or just leave it silent for a full Break... Works pretty well, and at least I get a different fill depending on the Variation. The thing is, Breaks often need YOU to play through them, sometimes with quite a signature lick or flourish, and doing everything with your feet allows you to do these with both hands (if needed)...

Scary how often I agree with ya Diki!
DonM

I use the sync button quite often, as well as intros, endings, fills, breaks, repeating loops, etc., all in the same song. It adds imagination. I look like a button pushing addict in some songs, as the PA800 allows for incredible arrangements. And as Diki pointed out, precision is the key.

[This message has been edited by zuki (edited 05-18-2010).]

The two controllers I use a lot of on the keyboard is the "pitch bend" and the "sync."
The trick to using "sync" is to know in your mind what you want to do with a song, and if it's "break" then turn it on a few measures before you want the series of breaks. I play notes in the right hand in the silence. When done with your series of breaks, turn it off again so it doesn't get in the way. As Zuki said, it's another form of creativity.

If one is having difficulty using any of the controllers, the remedy would be to practice using them constantly until it becomes second nature. Some take longer than others to get a handle on. I had that problem when I first worked with pitch bend. Nowadays it comes natural. Everything eventually does, musical or non-musical, if you just practice it.

Lucky

Cannot play "Tain't It The Truth" by Ernie Kado, or "Smack Dab In The Middle" By Ray Charles. It's impossible with out the Sync/Stop button.
I have it on the foot petal but some times I forget and hit the button with my right hand.

It also helps to play "Ain't That A Shame" Fats Domino.

There's lots of tunes where this feature comes in handy I'm sure. The foot petal helps a lot.

I simply feel that, if you are playing well, BOTH hands ought to be tied up! Yes, there are a lot of songs you can maybe get away from the chord input, but OTOH, there are a LOT of songs where there are often quite a few passing chords leading up to a break... after all, it is a strong point of the song, and usually has a build up to it.

Hence, I prefer to do all this control stuff with my feet. To be honest, I wish I could do EVERYTHING with footswitches, and simply PLAY with my hands 100%, but no OS (that I know of) really allows you to do this - Roland have a LOT of F/S choices (and a 7 pedal and two switch pedal inputs) but it still doesn't cover ALL your possible needs.

What really gets my goat is that, when it comes to possible footswitch needs and choices, it all seems so arbitrary what is offered as part of the OS. Some things get included, some things don't. It just seems so utterly LAZY... after all, it's just a list of sources and destinations, not exactly rocket science for a programmer, but it seems as if, for no apparent reason, the engineers go 'Why BOTHER making it comprehensive - maybe we can hit the pub earlier if we just give them a smaller selection?!'

As just about every arranger is completely software driven these days, I see no reason why ANY input (switch, footswitch, button, slider, D-beam, knob, Data Wheel, whatever) on the arranger ought not to be possibly connected to ANY destination the OS offers. How many of us have looked at another arranger and gone 'Why, oh why did they put THAT there? I would MUCH prefer it HERE'

A simple Global re-map of the arranger's knobs (or even better, per registration) would allow us MUCH greater customization, at the cost of only a few more lines of code. It could even be hidden under an 'Expert Mode' page, so that it doesn't frighten or confuse the newbies and casual players. But it seems SUCH a useful option at the cost of little coding.

Shame they are too anxious to get to the pub...

On my PA800 I have 2 switched near the pitch bend programed to shut off the arranger tracks and the bass - I just hit these 2 and all I hear is the drums ... I use it alot, and when I need the "band" to come back in .... it's just a button push away!

I use my Roland's D-Beam to turn the ACC on/off, and just have bass and drums.. that works pretty well, too.

I tried to get Roland (back when they were updating the G70) to have a fill played during a Break to be drums only, as a pickup, but it fell on deaf ears...