In the past, I created some performances for my BK-9 based on user styles that had certain rhythm tracks muted. If I play a song using one of these performances, and then subsequently select a DIFFERENT performance that's based on a factory style, all of the tracks don't play. Because the mixer settings carry over from my first performance, some of the style tracks remain muted.

I know that I can open the mixer window and manually unmute the style tracks one by one. But is there a shortcut to unmute all of them with a single button press? Or perhaps I need to release some kind of lock, so that when I select the second performance, the track mute status defaults to what's programmed in the newly-selected performance (i.e., all tracks unmuted)?

I know that I could go back, edit my custom performances, and simply delete the musical content from the muted tracks. Then I could unmute the now-empty tracks, and re-save the performance, thereby eliminating the source of the problem. But that would be a tedious task. I can't help but think that there's a more streamlined way to prevent this unwanted interaction, taking advantage of the built-in settings.

My fellow Roland BK users, have you ever encountered this issue? If so, how did you deal with it??

You’re doing this on the fly, while the style keeps playing, right? If you’re stopped, the new Performance should completely override everything, unless you have some Performance Holds enabled. Check into those.

Check your OTS Holds as well, if you’re using those…

Make sure you aren’t confusing styles and Performances. Selecting a different style won’t override the current Performance settings unless you have the OTS enabled.

Thanks for the reply Diki. No, I'm selecting the style while everything is stopped. The new style actually loads and plays, no issue there. But some tracks for drum, ACC, etc. are muted because they were muted in my previous performance (which was based on a user style.)

My user style was based on a factory style. I was lazy and instead of deleting content from unwanted tracks, I just muted the whole track, and that is reflected in the Mixer screen. I'm not doing anything with OTS, so I can't imagine that's the issue.

I will look into performance holds. But I would think that when you load a new style, the BK would automatically enable all tracks at the volumes they had when the style was saved. Since one style can vary greatly from another, that seems like the most useful thing to do. Is there a parameter that controls this behavior? Thanks all!

I want to emphasize that what I'm selecting is a new STYLE; not a new performance. So in theory whatever settings were in effect with the old performance should remain.

I guess the behavior I'm desiring is that everything related to the style gets reset to the defaults put in place when the style was saved, and it ignores the current state of the board.

I think you have it backwards. Loading a style loads ONLY the style. It isn’t your ‘previous’ Performance, it’s still the same one. So if Parts are muted in the Performance with the previous style, they’re muted with the new style. Because you haven’t changed the Performance…

It’s the Performance that dictates the status of the Parts. Not the style. Whether it’s a ROM style or a User style.

There is a workaround which sort of simplifies setting up custom mutes for User styles, though.

You don’t need to go to the full Style Editor, you can mute style Parts with the Makeup Tools and overwrite the original user style (that way, any Performances that use that style won’t have to be reconnected to the edited style). It’s a simple job, takes a few seconds.

Now, you can load that style into a Performance that has all Parts enabled, but because Makeup Tools has muted the Parts, nothing will play on the muted ones. You can then load any style into the Performance afterwards, and they will play normally.

Your only issue would be if the style you want to mute certain Parts also needs to be used with the full mix occasionally. In this case, you’d save the edited style with a new name so the full original is still available.

Other brands may let the style set up the registration, but the Roland Way has always put the Performance as the master..!

There are also two other ways to mute and unmute certain Parts in a Performance that initially has all Parts enabled. One is custom (but global) the other has a preset selection…

The Track Mute feature can be set up to mute any combination of style Parts (but the setting is saved globally, not per Performance).

And the D-Beam has a whole set of useful mute groups that you can select which one you need per Performance. Stuff like ADrums, ABass, ABass and ADrums, ACC (but not individual ACC Parts).

They can also be used in combination… There’s some quite cool ‘remix’ possibilities playing around with these while a style plays:

Drums drop out
Bass and ACC drops out (drum solo, in effect!)
Bass and certain ACC drops out
Drum and Bass drops out and only certain ACC Parts play

Etc…

It’s quite fun to remix the style on the fly (and I think you can assign Track Mute to control input or FC7 for hands free). 🎹😎

I think this is what I misconstrued. My mistake is selecting that performance with the tracks muted first, because it "contaminates" the mixer leaving many tracks muted. I should either edit that performance to delete the content and unmute the tracks; OR, select a different performance with all tracks unmuted, which will then support the further selection of factory styles. Thank you as usual for sharing your wisdom!

The ROM Performances tend to put all Part Volumes to 100, so that seems a good place to start. If a user style is out of whack at those settings, the best solution is to Makeup Tools the style so it sounds balanced at those volume settings. Now you can swap between user styles and factory styles and your balances should be consistent. Me, I tend to push the ADrums and ABass a little hotter (110 or so) to get more of a live band feel, but you probably have your own preferences..!

The larger problem is that you still seem to want to swap styles in and out of the same Performance, rather than the far more comprehensive solution of creating a Performance with the new style. If the two styles are something you tend to switch between on the fly, place them adjacent in the Perf. List…

With as many styles available, and navigation in the user style section buried so deep in the folder structure, the Perf. List seems such a simpler way to get at needed styles.

By the way, the Default Startup Performance is a great way to set up your BK exactly as you tend to use it, split points, chord recognition types, Assign Switches, D-Beam settings, pedal assignments , and (specifically en point to this thread) Part Volumes and the like.

Now, turn on your BK and you’re ready to go! Swap ROM or user styles in and out and everything should sound great as long as you balance the User styles (if they need it) with the Makeup Tools…