6 Ways Keyboard Workstations Help Your Creativity
Get Your Musical Ideas Down Quickly & Easily with the FA-06 & FA-08
Author: Adrian Marsi (Roland Canada)
Why Go Workstation?
It may be hard to see the need for a keyboard workstation these days, as the computer is rapidly taking over the music creation workflow. But the new FA-06 and FA-08 Music Workstations from Roland give simple reasons to their existence—they allow you to get musical ideas down quickly and easily. This is something that musicians relying on computers have struggled with for a long time.
1. High-Quality Sounds, Ready to Play
To spark your musical inspiration, the FA-series instruments have over 2,000 sounds from Roland’s award-winning INTEGRA-7 sound module. There are expressive SuperNATURAL acoustic, synth, and drum sounds, as well as a collection of Roland’s most-prized PCM sounds from past instruments—more than enough sounds to get ideas flowing!
2. Capturing the Musical Moment
To get those ideas on record, the FA series has a simple-yet-sophisticated 16-Track MIDI sequencer. What makes this sequencer so simple is its non-stop recording feature, which allows you to enable and disable recording while the sequencer is running. Think about how this can enhance your workflow: you can easily audition new sounds, move to the next track, try new melodies, or even mix tracks, without ever having to stop the sequencer.
FA-06 Music Workstation DAW integration.
3. Seamless Transition
We do understand the need to move your music over to the computer at a certain point in the production process, so we’ve engineered the FA-06 and FA-08 to do that easily. Each track that’s recorded in the FA-series’ sequencer can be exported as an individual WAV file stem, directly to an SD card. What’s great is that almost all current laptops and desktops have an internal SD card reader. Simply insert the card and move your files into your favorite multitrack recording software. Done!
4. It’s All About Control
Now that you’ve moved your workflow over to the computer, an FA-series workstation doesn’t stop working for you. Both the FA-06 and FA-08 can be used as a USB audio/MIDI interface for your computer. What’s more, they also offer a DAW Control mode, with control templates for the most popular recording software. This allows the FA series to provide solid hardware control for your DAW.
The FA-Series Workstation command center.
5. Taking the Stage
Taking your finished music live is another feat that the FA-series workstations are up for. The built-in sampler can easily accommodate any backing tracks that you would like to perform with:
- Export your song from your recording software as a WAV file.
- Save the file on an SD Card.
- Import the file into one of the 16 sampler pads on the FA series.
Once you’re done, playing the backing tracks is as simple as tapping the assigned pad.
6. Make It Your Own
If you feel the need for more sounds, FA-series workstations have two virtual expansion slots that can accept downloaded sounds from Roland’s Axial website. This allows you to customize the instruments with sounds that cater to the music you play and record.
The Workstation Workflow Advantage
The workflow of creating music with the FA-series workstations is so simple. The movement of ideas from concept to instrument, then to the computer, then back into the instrument for live performance, has never been this seamless or transparent. Roland’s FA-06 and FA-08 Music Workstations are definitely worth a look and listen at your local musical instrument store.
Video demonstration published by MMR Magazine.
Originally published as: http://rolandblog.ca/justifying-keyboard-workstation-2014/
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