Tips & Tricks - Roland U.S. Blog

Tips & Tricks

Getting the Auto-Tune Effect with the VE-5

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A Little Fun with the Pitch Correct Function

VE-5 Auto-Tune

Get the auto-tune effect with the BOSS VE-5 Vocal Performer.

These days, there’s simply no excuse for bland vocals. We’re not saying that the VE-5 Vocal Performer will make you sing better or replace talent. But how about enhancing your sound with automatic harmonies or a little bit of echo? In this role, the VE-5 is perfect for adding some extra oomph to your singing. And along with polishing your sound with standard studio-style effects, the VE-5 is totally capable of delivering the famous auto-tune effect—á la T-Pain—should your music call for it.

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Control the INTEGRA-7 with Ableton Push

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A Step-by-Step Guide

Integra-7 with ableton push

Control the INTEGRA-7 with Ableton Push

The INTEGRA-7 Module holds over six thousand tones. These include tones using Roland’s proprietary SuperNATURAL technology and thousands of Roland’s classic EDM phrases, drum kits, and hits from the built-in SRX expansion boards. This makes the INTEGRA-7 a great library of sounds to expand your sonic choices alongside Ableton or any DAW. More

Adjusting Pad Sensitivity for TD-15 V-Drums

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Customize V-Drums to Your Drumming Style
TD-15: How to Adjust Pad Sensitivity

All drummers play drums differently. Some play soft, others play hard. Using different dynamic levels while playing can not only distinguish a drummer’s style, but also has an immediate and audible result on the sound that is produced.  Adjusting the sensitivity of electronic drum pads allows you to customize them to fit your particular playing style. For example, if you’re mainly a soft player, then you may want to increase the sensitivity, so the lighter taps trigger more easily. The reverse is also true, by lowering the value you will decrease the sensitivity of the pad.  Adjusting the sensitivity is not the same as adjusting the head tension, but rather how the sound module receives and translates information from the pads. In other words, increasing the sensitivity will make softer strokes louder, and decreasing the sensitivity will require a stronger stroke to produce accurate triggering from the pads. Adjusting  pad sensitivity is a feature on the TD-15 and other Roland Drum and Percussion Sound Modules.

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Gig Smarter, Pack a Light Piano

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Apply the Best Travel Advice to Your Live Rig

RD-64 Digital Piano light piano

Pack a light piano—the RD-64 is only 28 pounds!

For the longest time before accepting a piano gig, there were always three thoughts that looped in my head over and over again—one, the weight of my stage piano; two, the size of my stage piano; and three, the trade-off of substituting my stage piano for a light piano. Aside from my moaning and groaning, I’ll have you know that I always ended up taking my 88-key beast to the gig. This type of instrument can easily weigh 60 pounds or more, not to mention the added weight and size of the case. Ugh! The entire package can easily weigh about 150 pounds. Without a buddy to help me move it, I thought my back would snap, especially after the gig while struggling to fit it into my car. However, the biggest killer was having to carry it up to my third floor apartment. What a drag! Fortunately, I’ve now found an excellent alternative to lugging around a full-size stage piano to every show.

CONTEST: Win an RD-64 Digital Piano

Ends August 31, 2014 More

Nate Morton: My TR-8 Setup for The Voice

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How to Trigger the TR-8 from Your Drumset

Nate Morton: My TR-8 Setup for The Voice

Nate Morton’s hybrid kit for The Voice includes acoustic drums, V-Drums and a TR-8

EDM has definitely become part of the pop musical lexicon and is the backbeat to much of today’s music. So much so, that I recently received a call from Nate Morton, the drummer for NBC’s The Voice, who told me that more and more contestants where competing with EDM tracks. As a result, Nate was looking for a convenient way to be able to add EDM sounds alongside his acoustic rig. Nate, and his drum tech, Steve Morrison (of Drum Tech Services) had brought an original TR-808 into rehearsals, and were determined to integrate these classic sounds. Because space was an issue, along with needing the most realistic 808 sounds possible that could be triggered by MIDI, we decided to experiment with a TD-15K V-Drums Kit, triggering an AIRA TR-8 Rhythm Composer. What we discovered was that the AIRA engineers had not let us down, enabling the TR-8 to easily integrate as a sound module for V-Drums. For V-Drums enthusiasts, adding a TR-8 to your rig is easy, inexpensive and gives an edge to your sound that you won’t find anywhere else.

Nate Morton TR-8 Setup Step-by-Step PDF

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Remix Any Song Without Track Stems

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Go Beyond Sampling and Looping

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Remix Any Song Without Track Stems

Have you ever wanted just the vocal part of a song? Or, how about the opposite, where you wish you had just the backing track? DJs and remix producers go through great lengths to acquire track stems, loops, acapellas, and other bite-size sections of songs for sampling and remixing. In the old days of DJing, the only way to create a loop was to have two of the same record, which made it possible to capture and extend a portion of a song by reversing and crossfading between both pieces of vinyl. When CDJs became available, looping could happen with the push of a button. And now, with computers, DVS systems, and Loop Stations, it’s easier than ever to remix with loops. More

Play Anything with Your Drum Set, Anything…

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Mickey Hart Plays the Sounds of Outer Space

drum set drumstix

Play Anything with Your Drum Set, Anything…

If we said that you could play the sounds of outer space with your drum set, would you believe us? We had a hard time believing it ourselves, but that’s exactly what Mickey Hart did at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival with Skrillex. Actually, Mickey plays the sounds of the universe all the time through RAMU (Random Access Musical Universe). RAMU is Mickey’s personal sound library that he’s collected over decades. It includes rare and unique percussion instruments from around the world, historical sound bites, speeches, and the sounds of planets. According to Mickey, the planetary sound vibrations are captured from radio satellites, which he then treats for “sonification” to be playable music tones in Ableton Live. Technically, RAMU could be triggered from any MIDI device, however the V-Drums make the articulation of real drumming possible.

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True Bypass vs. Buffered Effects Pedals

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How Long Are Your Cables?

true-bypass-vs-buffered

What’s the difference between True Bypass and Buffered Effects Pedals?

This article is intended to clarify a topic that is often surrounded by misinformation. Our intention is to present the facts and help the reader make informed decisions about using buffered and true bypass pedals, and to achieve the best tone.      

Tone matters. To guitar players, it’s that simple. Tone is the Holy Grail, the ultimate quest. But how do you get great tone? With so much guitar gear available, and with so much conflicting information out there, we’d like to clear up some of the confusion about the guitar signal path, stompbox pedals (both true-bypass and buffered), and other things that affect tone.

To get the best tone out of your rig, it’s important to understand the following principles and make decisions about cables and pedals based on them. More

5 Steps to Become a Keytar Shredder

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Practice Tips and Tools

5 Ways to Become a Keytar Shredder

Win a Lucina AX-09 Keytar in White or Sparkling Black

Keyboard players from another era had a great idea: let’s get out from behind our boards and shine. Thus, the keytar was born. While some remember this instrument as a relic of the eighties, make no mistake, the keytar back, and it’s racking up cool points all over the place! And that’s not just marketing speak. The proof is in the pudding, on stages all over the world. So, let’s discuss how some of the features on Roland’s most versatile keytar, the Lucina AX-09, can help you become a keytar shredder. And then you, too, can join your front man and guitar player on stage.

CONTEST: Win a Lucina AX-09

Ends May 31, 2014 More

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