Roland A-37 User Manual and Saving Patches Into Memory

If you search for "Roland A-37 Manual" you find the official site with two links.  One of them is to some sort of weird doodling (literally) and the other is to the MIDI Implementation.  Not sure how or when I found this manual but the file is dated October 30, 2022.

I also wanted to post my own write-up of how to save settings into its memory. This is a super powerful unit that I bought from Guitar Center back in maybe 2003 for $600 USD.  I used it as a straight MIDI controller for years before I got into hardware and started realizing some of the great features it has, like being able to send MIDI via two separate MIDI OUT ports and sending one channel for the upper part of the keyboard and a totally different one for the lower part.  You can even send on MIDI OUT A on the upper part and MIDI OUT B on the lower part.

Patches

A patch contains things like MIDI channel settings for the upper and lower range of the keyboard.  You can select the same channel for both but it’s kind of a waste.  A total of 64 patches can be set for each A and B.  Patch numbers are from 11-88.  Think of the first number as a bank, the second number as a patch number.

Setting the MIDI channel

1. Ensure none of the EDIT buttons are lit (CONTROL, DATA, PRG CHG)

2. Select a patch by pressing A/B, then two numbers (A11 is default)

3. Press UPPER or LOWER to select keyboard MODE you want

4. Push the DATA edit button.  You should see "ch" flash and then it will show the MIDI channel number (1-16) and MIDI OUT socket (A or B)

5. Use the UP and DOWN buttons to select MIDI channel and out socket (e.g., 7A is channel 7 sent through MIDI OUT A)

6. You can also push the other button (UPPER or LOWER) to set that channel and socket as well.

7. Push DATA again to exit

Saving MIDI settings to a patch

1. Hold the WRITE button

2. Push the A/B button to select either A or B

3. Push 1-8 to select the bank

4. Push 1-8 again to select the memory

5. Press ENTER to save

Example: Selecting "A" with the A/B button, then pushing the "3" numeric key, then the "2" numeric key would save it in memory slot "A32"

NOTE: release WRITE at any time before hitting ENTER to cancel.

EDIT: here's a link to the Roland A-37 manual

Using Native Instruments Battery kits in Maschine 2

This is just a summary of the amazing video I've linked here.  I did this process several times this evening and I think I've got it down but I'm sure if I don't do it for a while I'll forget.  So in a nutshell, this is how you map individual Battery samples/cells to individual sounds in a group in Maschine.

1. Open Battery from Instruments, load a kit on sound 1 (pad 1)
2. Click Channel/MIDI button (upper left) and then right arrow to page through until you get to MIDI page in left screen
3. Leave pad 1 alone, but for every other pad, hit the pad, change knob 1 (DEST.) to S1 (sound 1) and knob 2 (channel) to 1
4. All pads will now show Dest = S1 (sound 1) and channel = 1, except pad 1, which will have a Dest = None.  All pads should now be triggering the same sound (sending same MIDI)
5. Click back to Pad Mode and adjust the Octave +/- and Semitone +/- buttons for each pad to get it to trigger the sound you want.
6. Rename the sounds in the software (recommended) and rename the Group (e.g., 707 Kit Mapped)
7. Save the group in the default location
8. When loading the group, ensure in the software that the +ROUTING item is lit in the bottom left

Again, huge thanks to Aftalyfe for creating this video.

Deep Reconstructions Zubaru

I've been vocal about my love for the discontinued Native Instruments Kore 2 product, and hopefully I've evangelized the series of effects known as the Deep series that included Deep Freq, Deep Transformations, and my favorite, Deep Reconstructions.

In preparing for FAWM 2022 I've looked back on some of the amazing things I've been able to make largely due to these effects.  There are literally hundreds of patches in this series crafted I believe all by Denis Goekdag, now CEO and cofounder of Zynaptiq.

This Guitar Rig patch is something inspired by (read: stolen from) the Zubaru patch from Deep Reconstructions.

Zubaru Guitar Rig Patch

FAWM 2021 - What Have I Learned?

My 10th FAWM is over and once again I've (somehow) managed to do 14+ songs in 28 days (technically 16 in 27 this year).  Every year I wonder if I can do it.  The self-doubt never goes away, even after writing over 150 songs in those 10 years, all during a February, I still have that little voice of doubt inside.

Now that it's all but over, I've been thinking of the things I still don't know how to do and focusing on that, because I have constant imposter syndrome and (when it comes right down to it) never think anything I do is good enough. So massive thanks to @caseewilson for posing the question, "What did you learn?"

There are a lot of great answers on that thread.  I'm not sure how many active FAWMers there are this year, or how many manage to "win" (do 14+ songs), but that forum post shows you that there are artists from all different styles, locations, and levels of experience, and we're all learning.  Luckily, that's my favorite thing in the world.

So here's what I learned.  I learned to:

FOCUS.

The vast majority of my tracks fall into the downtempo / chill out genre this time. Still a few that fall outside of those boundaries but I've made probably the most cohesive album of the 10 years I've done this.

EDIT. 

Pretty much all my stuff this time around is 4-5 minutes, and while it could still use some editing here and there, I feel most tracks are tighter than normal.

STEAL. 

I'm not good enough to steal properly, which is probably why it sounds different than what I'm ripping off, but then it's not stealing I guess?

PATCH. 

I got into modular synthesis almost two years ago but "dancing on fire" is the first song I've done that's 100% modular (all but drums were sequenced in Ableton but that's about it).

MASTER. 

Better than before at least. Gotten much better with using compression / a limiter, still not great with EQ.

BE PATIENT. 

To echo @cblack - yes. This was the hardest of all. I always put a *lot* of time into my first track but after that, there might be one or two that I give that much attention to how it sounds at the end (mostly mixing / mastering). This year, starting with my second song, I realized if I just put one or two more hours into every track, it would make a huge difference. This resulted in me spending arguably more time than ever before in the studio, 27 days straight with an average of about 4 hours a day working on or listening to others' tracks.

And I honestly learned to love what I do (and the ones who enable me to do it) just a little more.

I'm on this awesome podcast from G-Slade!

 Hey all,

I had the privilege of spending several hours with G-Slade yesterday, a fellow long-time FAWMer and all-around good dude.  An enigma wrapped in a blueberry pancake wrapped in a pizza - now that's what I call a podcast!

We wax idiotic about a lot of stuff, mostly aliens and music too.

Click the pic for the podcast :)

He's had tons of other folks on there as well, and doing a fantastic job of representing a plethora of musical genres.  It's worth it just to hear him pronounce the word I now only know as:

M! I! crooked letter, crooked letter, I! crooked letter crooked letter I! humpback humpback I!

(Mississippi for all those who haven't visited the excellent P-Valley)

liriope

I've been up all weekend
Chasing dragons
Watching for truth
Living a lie

Once I found the apex
Expensive drugs and cheap sex
Feeling next to nothing
Fawning to fly

And then I found you

Colors washed from my world
Savaged by domestic girls
Made my bed
Now here I lie

Accepting the consequence
Except for the pretense
I wish I could say
I don't want to die

And then I found you

All the times that we had
All in the past
Back to this
There's not much else

Time is all I have now
Feeling a fade out
You made me feel
I could live with myself

And then I lost you

You're like liriope
Not that much left of me
You're like liriope
Sinking inside of me

FAWM 2013 - Five Years Later

I listened to some songs I wrote for FAWM 2013 tonight for the first time since I wrote them, probably.  These last two nights I've spent listening to a lot of old stuff, at M's suggestion / request.  When I think about revisiting what I've done, I'm always afraid I'm going to find that I'm repeating the same themes, that I have no new ideas.  Isn't that every artist's worst nightmare?

It's not just 2013 I've been revisiting, but all of the years of music I've made, at least since I started participating in FAWM in 2009.  I even listened to the first song I ever finished, a remix of Locust / All Your Own Way from June 2001.

The crazy thing is not realizing how far I've come, but how I wish I was back in the creative headspace I was back then.  I'm excited for what I'm doing now... maybe in five years I'll be able to appreciate it the way I appreciate what I did in 2013 now.