050.txt General Patch Programming Tips {for JV/XP synths) -------------- From Taurus3: DRUM PROGRAMMING TIPS: I've found the stock percussion waves which come with the Super JV family of synths to be pretty good, on the whole. There is a fair assortment of kicks, snares, cymbals and other samples of things being hit with the hands or sticks. The standard rhythm kits are also quite good, and they make fair use of the samples in the form of several pop and rock related kits. Chances are however, you're going to end up feeling unsatisfied with the rhythm kits, especially when its time to integrate them into that pop, rock or techno sequence you're working on. It may seem twice as hard to make things work if - like me - you can't shell out the big bucks for an expansion board. Fortunately, the Super JV has a few things up its sleeves to make rhythm-set programming more effective. Things such as great filters, a flexible drum programming architecture, and dedicated user RAM areas to store it all in. Hopefully, with these tips I'll be able to help you program some blazing electronic percussion, and in the process make things a little clearer about how drum programming fits together in the Super JV universe. DRUM PROGRAMMING AND FILTERS: Percussion sounds in the Super JV rhythm kits are usually resultant from three or four main factors; the pitch of the raw sample, the filtering and amplifying applied to that sample, and effects applied to the finished program. Out of these, pitch and filtering are very important in obtaining satifying drum sounds. The Super JV is equipped with four types of excellent filters - Lowpass, Band-pass, High-pass and Peaking. The Peaking filter (PKG) is an incredibly helpful tool for drum programming. Essentially, what the peaking filter does is produce a resonant 'peak' which can be swept up and down the freqency spectrum. It is different from the Band-pass filter, in that the freqencies on either side of the resonant peak are not attenuated. The Peaking filter can pin-point specific frequencies in a drum sample and then emphasize them accordingly with resonance. To do this effectively, the pitch of the sample must first be set. A snare sample, for example, can be pitched up or down by either semitones or cents (1/100th of a semitone). The sample can only be pitched up or down by a certain amount before the sound becomes 'unnatural'...but if 'unnatural' is what you're after, go for it! Even a small change in pitch can result in a quite different sonic 'character'. If you find that the basic sample needs no adjusting, so be it. Just experiment with different changes in pitch, on different percussion samples until you find something that pleases your ears. Once a pitch for the sample has been set, the fun begins. While playing the sample (ie. the note) you want to adjust, change the filtering of the sample to PKG. You should already hear a pronounced change in tone. Set the RESONANCE control of the filter to about 20. Now, sweep the FREQUENCY up and down, while playing the note. (Those of you with XP-80's and JV-2080's will be able to visually observe this as well) You should be able to hear different parts of the inherent frequency characteristics of that sample being emphasized. Try the same thing with other samples - toms, hi-hats, cymbals. The lower the FREQUENCY, the more 'punch', a medium setting produces a 'boxy' sound and a high FREQEUNCY setting gives you 'sizzle'. A setting of 20 for the RESONANCE control will probably be too much for realistic programming, so go for smaller amounts if you wish. Using this technique, it should be no trouble creating snares with extra punch, hi-hats and cymbals with sizzle, heavy kicks and toms, and so on. Pretty soon you'll be creating entire rhythm sets which exceed the factory presets in terms of clarity and sonic 'compatability'. Just remember that the PITCH of the sample and the filtering are two interelating factors, but these settings, like most other drum programming parameters, are completely independent of each other per note/sample. ADD EFX EFFECTS: If you wish to go one step further in creating an ultimate drum kit, route selected samples through the EFX processor. Two likely candidates for the job are the REVERB and GATE REVERB programs. I find the GATE REVERB effect too harsh for my liking, but the EFX REVERB is excellent. It's advantages over the master REVERB processor include the 2 BAND EQ and a PREDELAY parameter. Try boosting the low end of the reverb by +5 dB and the high end by +2. Combined with a short ROOM reverb with little or no predelay, this makes for a *very* punchy sound. Routing the hi-hat, ride and shaker sounds through the master REVERB as opposed to the EFX REVERB may may for a more integrated sound. Try it and see. I haven't tried this stuff with any of the expansion board rhythm sets, but needless to say, if I ever manage to get my hands on one I'll be trying it out. ------------- From Taurus3: These programming tips are for a wide range of programming scenarios, but are ideally suited to lead and bass synth applications. PSEUDO DUCKING DELAY: When wailing away on a lead synth patch programmed with a heavy delay effect, things can sometimes get cloudy. Here's a neat tip for those of you wanting a delay effect without all the echoes...it works for lead patches using one or two tones. Using the copy function, copy active tones to free adjacent tone 'slots'. For example, copy active tones 1 + 2 to the free 'slots' 3 + 4, or active tone 1 to free 'slot' 2. Once you've done this, scroll to the tone delay page on your JV for tone 3 (and/or 4). For starters, try a NORMAL tone delay setting of 300. Then scroll to the effects routing page, and route tone 3 (and/or 4) through the mono DELAY (under the master REVERB). Disable effects for tone 1 (and/or 2). Then (this is the tricky bit) manually match the delay time of the mono DELAY to 'rhythmically' fit to the tone delay setting. If you play at medium to fast speeds, you'll notice no delay effect, as the delayed tones cannot duplicate your playing fast enough, resulting in no delayed sound...and as the DELAY effect is routed only to these delayed tones, no echoes either. As soon as you slow down or pause on a note, the other tones will 'catch up', and the DELAY effect will be able to process the other tones, resulting in a normal delayed sound with lots o'echoes. This is a *real* handy effect for fast solo synth lead-lines, as you can play fast without a mush of echoes gettin' in the way. As soon as you pause for a pitch-bend or something, you'll get the echoes. GUITAR-TYPE VIBRATO: This is a *must* for any guitar simulation and great for giving a guitar-type quality to synth leads. All preset guitar patches in the Super JV are programmed with a triangle wave LFO modulating pitch, routed to the mod-lever for their vibrato effect. There is a glaring error here in the way that the Roland programmers, and indeed most programmers implement vibrato in their guitar patches. A standard electric guitar player achieves vibrato by moving the string along its width (not its length, unless you're Mike Oldfield). Therefore, the pitch of the sounding note can normally only ever go UP. Try it on a guitar and listen. The triangle wave modulating the pitch of the oscillator in guitar patches is usually doing so in both directions, in equal amounts. (XP-80/JV-2080 owners will have a visual display of this). How to achieve a more natural sounding vibrato, then? Offset the LFO by +50 or +100. This is a small but important point for realistic electric guitar emulations or synth leads with vibrato. GUITAR FEEDBACK: On a simlar note, a more realistic guitar feedback effect is possible through adjusting the pitch of the 'feedbacking' oscillator. A simple triangle or sine wave works well for guitar feedback. A setting of an octave sounds bogus...unfortunately most of the presets are programmed like this. Instead, try a PITCH setting of an octave + a third, (+16) or two octaves + a third (+28). To control the onset of the effect, bring the level of the 'feedbacking' oscillator in through aftertouch. This gives you much more control than fading in the oscillator after an short elapsed time. LIQUID SOUNDS: For basses and leads with a more 'liquid' character to them, try activating portamento. Scroll to the portamento screen and change portamento TYPE to TIME and TIME to, say, 12. On another note, the following tip may help you to achieve more natural lead and bass sounds. The Super JV engine is capable of extremely short envelope attack and release times. This leads to an unwanted side-effect, known as the 'click'. You may notice an unpleasant 'click' at note-on and note-off for some of the preset bass and lead sounds, where the TVA attack time is set to 0. This is due to a very short envelope time. A TVA ATTACK and RELEASE TIME of 1 smooths out the click while still giving a snappy attack, whereas a TVA ATTACK and RELEASE TIME of 2 eliminates the click altogether. Setting the TVA ATTACK TIME is set to about 5 or 6, and combining it with the portamento setting outlined above will produce a wonderfully liquid sound. It works well with sounds of a highly resonant character. HOLD PEDAL LATCHING: One of the Super JV's greatest strenghts is its ability to 'latch' and hold certain controllers with the hold pedal. I've found this a great resource in guitar emulations. Try the feedback technique above. Then set the PITCH BEND RANGE DOWN parameter to -19. On the PATCH/COMMON/CONTROL screen, set CTRL 2 to AFTERTOUCH (defaulted to SYS CTRL 1) and the PEAK AND HOLD parameter to PEAK. As you play, bring in feedback with aftertouch. You can now 'latch' the feedback with the hold pedal and perform incredible pitch-swoops with the pitch-bender. In other applications where a filter might opened through the mod-lever, being able to latch and hold it with the pedal is an indispensable feature. ----------------- From Ethan Brown: Another observation regarding guitar modulation: As mentioned above, most guitar players' vibrato only involves raising the pitch off the base pitch. I have been able to get a quite realistic effect by "vibrato"ing a key (applying medium pressure and moving my hand back and forth) when aftertouch is assigned to pitch bend. Try this, for example, with the upper portion of the "Crunch Split" patch. The advantage of this technique is that you can vary vibrato frequency and depth with a nice, non "automated" feel.