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.

FAWM 2013 - Some Things

I finished the demos for the 2013 FAWM project on the 28th of February.  I usually pace myself, finishing one song and posting it on average every two days.  In this way, I'm assured I'll reach the goal of the 14 songs by the end of the month.

Usually, the routine is to write a song, give it some time (when it's available), then post it and start madly writing comments on others' songs in the hopes that you'll get some comments on the one you just posted.  It's a pretty supportive community, so people usually follow this unwritten rule.  The one exception is that people usually also follow the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything"rule.  So sometimes you don't get any comments, which can be better or worse than getting comments like, "This song sucks."

I won't go into all the reasons I decided not to post comments on others' songs this year, or why I decided to post everything only on the very last day of the competition.  For that, you can check my "manifesto," which I posted on my artist page on FAWM.org.

What the manifesto doesn't say is that one of the key advantages to this process is that I didn't have to feel like something was in a somewhat finalized state after only a day or two of work.  Sometimes dedicating a limited amount of time to a song is all it takes, and sometimes it's beneficial.  However, there are other times where it's best to let a track simmer in my mind before calling it semi-complete.

The whole idea of FAWM is to write songs.  Not necessarily finish them, or even post demos.  However, for me, it doesn't count unless I post a demo.  For the record, I don't think this is the only way to do it, just my way.  I'm fortunate enough to have the equipment, skills and time to do this, and I use February to make this happen.

Waiting until the whole thing was completed allowed me the artistic distance to realize the best order for the songs, the best flow.  I tried to post those songs in that order, but due to a combination of changes to the site and my lack of familiarity with the changes, I flipped the order of a couple near the end.  No biggie.  The intent held in this case.

Part of the limitation of releasing demos in the order they're written is that the people who are out there listening believe that the album should be sequenced in the same way it was written.  This is how I did the first album I released, but it's also partially why I never released a second.  I've never felt that every song I wrote during the month deserved a release after that first year.

So maybe I'm older, wiser, whatever.  I know now that Uncle Frank was right.  "Every artist has a built-in shit detector."  You have to trust your instincts and try to only release things to the public that are better than average, at least.  Why release something that's just not that great?  Chock it up to experience, learn from it, and count it as something you've done, but don't cripple an album by putting something substandard on it because you feel you have to.

So the takeaway is that I really did learn something new this time around, that while I love the process of FAWMing, for me, sometimes it doesn't (directly) contribute to the quality of subsequent tracks.

Fry Sums Up My Opinion on Dubstep in Under 10 Words

On sountracking

I just finished my first soundtrack project, and I learned a lot about myself, my music, and my ability to deal with both.

The film just premiered in Tijuana, and is set to have its Ensanada premiere tomorrow night.

More details to come.

FAWM Frustrations and Progress

I'm doing the FAWM thing again this year, and it's been great. I've posted two songs so far, and it's the 4th, so I'm on track.

However, tonight was a bit of a mixed bag in the studio. I managed to get a great idea recorded, but just when I was getting ready to figure out the final sequencing, Live stopped pushing audio to the Audiofire8.

Long story short, I installed the most recent driver, turned off the Audiofire8, rebooted, turned it back on, nothing.

Somehow, I think Windows XP got mixed up on what the audio device was. I have no idea how, I was in a session in Live when it decided to just stop working.

Ah, well. Fuck it, it's working now.


This was my first track from this year, check it out:

http://www.looprication.com/tracks/flower.mp3

P.S. I am sick as hell. This FAWM is going to be extra tough.

Evolution UC-33e and Ableton Live 8 (or what I don't know about MIDI could fill a library)

I've had my Evolution UC-33e MIDI control surface for some time now, and I have to say, I've loved it since the moment I opened the package. There's nothing quite like finally getting something you've thoroughly researched, coveted for a while, and then finally you're the first kid on your block to have one.

After the wildfires that devastated southern California back in 2007, I made a resolution to celebrate life. One of the first things I did was to finally kick down for this little beauty. I figured it would change the way I produced, and I was right.

However, I never took the time to really LEARN the manual. Sure, I read it, but I didn't PRACTICE with it. I can't stress how important this is to all the producers out there. If you don't RTFM, you don't deserve all the functionality it offers.

Now, having said that, I have to defend myself a little bit. The UC-33e comes with a layover for Ableton Live. However, there's nothing out of the box that allows you to just get up and running with it. You not only have to program the thing yourself, but you have to know HOW you need to program it, and WHY it's acting weird when you just try to automatically assign MIDI notes to it.

Here's a brief description of what worked for me (see page 12 of the advanced manual):

1. I selected preset #31 by clicking RECALL and then typing in 31.


2. I assigned the faders and knobs as usual to Live (I'm using version 8.1).


3. I clicked "launch button" #1 on the template, then hit ASSIGN, and then typed in 146 (for MIDI CC (on/off), see page 18 of the getting started manual).


4. Then hit DATA MSB twice and entered 127 (the value to be sent to the button when you press it).


5. Then hit DATA LSB twice and entered 000 (the value to be sent to the button when you stop pressing it).


6. Hit Ctrl-M in Live to bring up the MIDI Map screen


7. Clicked on the scene launch button for scene 1


8. Pressed "launch button" #1


9. Repeated this process for the other five launch buttons and the stop all clips, launch clip, clip up and clip down buttons


10. Viola!

The same process works for the transport stop and play buttons, but you should assign 147 to the record button, as it works best with the Note (on/off) MIDI CC (velocity off /velocity on setting - see page 18 of getting started manual).

You actually may not have to do steps 4-5 for each button, I didn't actually have to. Those values were already assigned (you can tell when you click DATA MSB twice fast or DATA LSB twice fast - the number that appears on the display after that is what's assigned.

Special thanks to rictheobscene on this post for guidance:

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=13538

Happy producing!

Cheers,

-ix

monome - i am soooo wanting one of these

feignroom from stretta on Vimeo.

New Tracks Written for 50/90

Each July 1st, a worldwide collective of musicians, producers, lyricists and music fans gather on the innernets to create music for a project called 50/90. The idea of the project is for each group or individual to create 50 songs in 90 days. This year, it's being run by the folks from FAWM, who bring you February Album Writing Month.

We knew this was going to be pretty much impossible, but creating 50 songs for us wasn't the goal. The goal was really to participate in the community aspect of it all - to interact with friends made in February, hopefully get some inspiration, and write some music.

Well, so far, not bad. We've finished a total of six complete songs, contributed to djx's excellent Solar Sails track, and have made and received many comments.

Here's a link to our work:

http://5090.fawm.org/fawmers/looprication/

The only bad thing is that 50/90 shuts down after a while, so the whole thing disappears sometime before the end of the year (we're guessing). All the demos will probably live in perpetuity on looprication.com but it's cool to see all the constructive criticism on the 50/90 site.

You can go to the site to see who we're following, but if you're lazy, just check some of these links:

djx - a frequent collaborator, excellent electronic producer, and fellow r-hole (Reason) dweller
caterwauler - we're hoping to collaborate with this ethereal voice soon
heavyhedonist - not many demos (which we have razzed her about endlessly) but the lyrics stand on their own quite nicely

Latest track as of now - Abduction - get it here:
http://5090.fawm.org/songs/3579/

or here:

http://www.looprication.com/tracks/abduction.mp3

The whole thing ends October 1. We'll do our best to keep the music coming.

Native Instruments Komplete 6

I knew it was coming. Native Instruments has announced Komplete 6, which is as they claim the best value ever as far as the Komplete bundle is concerned.

I'm pretty much ready to line up for this one, if for only the Absynth 5 update. I pretty much swear by Absynth 3 for my basslines, and I've used A4 for a lot of ethereal sounds, so I'm curious to see what they do with this one. Also, I think Absynth is the only product they have that's not built on Reaktor. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just sayin'.

As far as Kontakt 4 and Guitar Rig 4, I'm not as excited. I'm sure they've done amazing things to those two applications, but I don't use them much. Just GR for some send effects through Live, which has actually been a great thing. OK, yeah, I should be more excited for GR4. And as far as my lack of enthusiasm for the next version of Kontakt, I plead ignorance.

So yeah, here we go. And for the suggested upgrade price of $169 (US, which isn't worth shit these days but it's alls we gots), that's a fantastic investment.

Mastering

so i'm starting to do final mixdowns of the tracks i wrote in February for the FAWM.org project. if you haven't been following along, that's ok, i'll catch you up to speed.

FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month, and it's about the most amazing thing i've worked with. better than any software, processor, ram, anything. it's just a community of people, all over the world, who get together online and try to write 14 songs [each] in 14 days. i guess in leap year you get an extra day, but this wasn't one, so i'm not sure.

i ended up writing 13, then did a collaboration with djx from alaska, then went back and finished another one on the 28th that was giving me problems [my ailing DAW is over six years old!] so yeah, a total of 15 songs, almost doubling the number of tracks i've actually called 'somewhat finished.'

i've decided to release these songs as a cd sometime this year. for those of you who know and love me, this will be your birthday and christmas presents, as the cost of mastering and releasing this thing will cost almost as much as a brand new, top-of-the-line DAW would. as always, b.weber is doing my artwork, the amazing jim grant has offered some of his stunning photography nearly free [thanks bamoe!], i think cd baby will be doing the duplication.

now i'm looking into mastering, the most critical and expensive part of the process.

i'll keep you posted.

Daft Punk in LA - 21 July, 2007

Daft Punk continues to amaze me. They really do have this sort of control over the crowd that few electronic acts (outside of Underworld) have had to date.

We got to the venue just in time to catch the last 20 minutes of the excellent Ratatat. I tell you, these guys have really got something unique. Two guitars and a guy that does keyboards, sequencing and programming. The sound is just massive live, and people were screaming for them. It was one of the best crowd responses I've seen for an opening act. I'm not sure if the other two openers were the first DJ and the one that spun between Ratatat and Daft Punk, but the bill said four acts, and when Ratatat left the stage, they said, "Daft Punk's up next!"

After Ratatat, we stood in line for over 30 minutes to get two beers (not too overpriced at $7) and a water (at $3). We were pretty amped from all the Monster and Skyy we'd been drinking, so we should have really snuck in a pint of something to balance ourselves out, but eh. Lessons learned. We got out of line just to get a spot for Daft Punk, who started promptly at 11 with the Close Encounters of the Third Kind riff. Nice. They went into Robot Rock, then Technologic through a bridge of something from Homework (Oh Yeah?). The set was banging, and the entire crowd was on its feet and DANCING the whole night. Even the upper deck. ESPECIALLY the upper deck. Daft Punk actually sold out this gigantic venue. I think people are finally starting to "get" electronic music after all.

My one slight disappointment is that the set was almost identical to the one they did at Coachella. There were a few different bridges between songs, the tracks themselves were tweaked differently in a lot of places, but the order was pretty much exactly the same, so no surprises. I just went with it. They really did tear the roof off the place, yet again. When they got to Da Funk, near the end of their set, the whole place was pulsating as one giant, throbbing arm, pumping a fist in the air to the beat. I never saw anyone get pushed or anything like that during the entire night. It was a very respectful crowd.

After it was over, we started walking. We asked our friendly neighborhood police officer for directions to Hill Street, where our hotel was, and he pointed us in the right direction. We decided it would be too tough to fight off the other 16,000 in attendance for a cab, so we hoofed it up Hill. We asked a few musicians who were packing up if we'd be safe. They said, "Yeah, just stay positive." We soon knew what they meant. This was skid fucking row, people, rats, cockroaches, the homeless, you name it. But we really did feel pretty safe, all things considered. You can take the boys out of Detroit...

We ended up walking from the Sports Arena all the way to 818 N. Hill in Chinatown where our hotel was. Sadly, we didn't pass a single convenience store on the way, so we ended up beerless when we got back at around two. The excitement and lack of alcohol made us sit up and talk for hours, and when we finally realized it was almost 6:00, we decided to scrap the idea of sleep in favor of getting an early start home.

I finally got to sleep around ten Sunday morning, four hours of nearly-uninterrupted slumber. I'm calling it an early evening tonight. My one regret is that I didn't know if I could bring my camera in or not, so I only got a few pictures with my cel phone.

Life Imitates Darude

By now, I'm sure you've heard that a sand storm has enveloped an entire city in China. That's too bad. But it does bring to mind a certain song I remember a DJ Scott Powel caning back in the day (I am so kidding about that).

But I do think that Darude predicted this, and that he may be the new messiah. Has anyone tried to translate this into Morse code?

Another dead giveaway: my cat Boa ran when I shoved my laptop playing this song in his face. He usually loves it when I do that.

Dare you click my link? Muahahahhaahahaaaaaaa

Reason 4 Enters Beta Testing

Reason, the reason (no pun intended) most of us electronic music producers can get anything done, is about to enter its next phase. Version 4 of the program is set to hit the streets, as usual, "when it's ready." This is what I love about Propellerhead Software, the company that makes Reason and ReCycle. They don't do anything half-assed. They consistently put out the most stable piece of software I've ever worked with, audio or otherwise.

I'd been haunting the site for a few weeks when the beta tester signal appeared. The company was ready for public beta testers at least a few weeks ago, and I've been privileged to be on their list for the last few days.

While I can't talk about my beta testing experience, I can tell you that before I started, I was very excited about some of the new features in Reason 4. These include the totally rebuilt sequencer that allows changing time signatures and tempos, as well as the new ReGroove mixer and the arpeggiator. I've used it for only a few hours, but I can't tell you how it's going.

I can tell you about how excited I am to fork out my $129 USD to upgrade from version 3 to 4. I see the promised features in version 4 as an even bigger improvement than version 3. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a huge proponent of Propellerheads, but if I was 100% ready to upgrade to version 3, I'm 10,000% ready to upgrade to version 4.

Check out their site here.

Mac v. PC Ads are Pissing Me Off

OK, so I loved the one with the bloated PC, because it's true.

Maybe I shouldn't hate the one I saw tonight about how "Macs don't get those cryptic error messages" as much as I do, but I have to tell you, I'd rather get an error message than nothing.

I say this because at the Mesa studio tonight, all I wanted to do was burn a CD of my ProTools project, and the stupid Mac not only wouldn't let me, but kept "not-crashing" - meaning it wouldn't crash, but it wouldn't give me an error either.

Is that really better?

I'd rather see something that let me know something was really wrong and KNOW I had to reboot than see a message that said, "Oh, hold on for an indefinite amount of time..." and then finally accept that I had to reboot.

Consequently, the much-touted Mac never did let me burn that CD.