PA1x Tips gleaned by Bruce from forums Rob Sherratt
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: sampling
safen wrote: How do you add a sample to an existing set? and how come every time I turn on and off the keyboard, my settings change? how can I keep my my set as the default instead of loading it each time I turn the keyboard on? thanks
Hi Safen,
User Samples have to be loaded into RAM each time you switch the keyboard on. This can be done automatically if PCM autoload is enabled (from the Global menu). Each time you create a new user sample, always assign it to a Multisample. Always assign the Multisample to a new User Sound. You will need many samples to build up a complete Multisample. Normally C, D# and F# for every octave, each sample stretched to 1 semitone down and 1 semitone up. You can edit the Multisample at any time and add new samples.
Edit Styles on a PA1X Written by Administrator Monday, 05 November 2007 This was written by a chap called " Spalding ". He is an active and well respected member at the Korg Forums. He gave us permission to post this
First bear in mind that i have the PA1X which may be very slightly different to the PA800 but the principles are exactly the same. Start with the keyboard in style play mode. You may be using a funky style lets say in the 'dance style tabs group' but there is too much going on in it . Perhaps you like the drums but the bass is too busy or the guitar too much in your face. You may prefer the strumming pattern from another style lets say in the '16 beat style group' and the brass from one of the Gospel styles. Make a note of the tracks you want to change ie drums,percusion, bass Acc2 Acc3 Acc4 acc5 etc Make a note of the tracks you want to copy and the groups they are from ie '16 beat group groove style accomp 2 wah wah guitar or whatever You should now have noted what you want to change and what you want to change it to. We will start to edit the style that you feel most fits what you want but needs some editing so press record. Its the big red button on tyhe PA1X dont know for the PA800.... This will take you to a screen that asks you what you want to edit 1 select record/edit current style(that should be selected by the instrument as a default)and press ok 2. It will take you to the style record page press the reel(looks like a film reel) icon for recording lets say the bass. We dont need to record anything as we are going to delete the bass sound. 3 Press the menu button 4. select style edit . Press the delete all tab at the bottome of the screen .Make sure that you delete all. In practise you could just delete some of the pattern say from bars 1-4 but thats more advanced than i want to deal with right now ! 5 Press execute and then press. Now press the copy from style tab at the bottom of the screen.
6. then press the select button as this will then show you all the styles in the group your original style is from. There are tabs to the left of the screen so you can quickly select the style that you want to copy from ( remember the styles you noted down at the begining. Then simply select the style you want to copy from, select the element of the style ie Acc 1,2,3,4 drums bass etc and select the element you will be copying too ie Acc 1,2,3 etc . In this example it will be the bass sound from which ever style you prefer . Press execute and voila it will be in the style. You can press the delete tab and delete the other elements that you wanted to change pressing execute after each change 7. choose another style from the copy from style tab lets say the 6 string guitar style from the 8 beat group of styles because you liked the guitar . 8 Select the element that you want to copy from and move to etc. You can do this repeated from this page remembering to press execute after each change. 9 When you have finished making changes press menu again and you will be on style record page again. Press the drop down tab at the top right of the page and save the newly composed style and you can even overwrite the factory style rather than save it as a user style. Press the big red record button off screen and it will then ask warn you that you can lose what you have edited unless you save it. Press yes to save and then you are back in style play mode. Select your edited style and enjoy !!!
Tutorial PA800 Master class http://www.createsongstyles.com/index.php/Keyboards/Korg/ExcellentTutorforKorgPa800.html
Portability of styles. The songbook is very useful for individuals. It is another "dead end" for those people interested in developing styles to share with other users. The stylerelated data contained in the songbook is not portable between users and if you share your songbook with someone else in a .SET file and they load it, it will delete their own songbook. There is at present no automatic mechanism for merging together songbook entries from multiple sources. (though it can be done manually using SBEdit as related in a previous thread). So, I am trying so far in vain to persuade friends on this forum to prepare styles complete with "stand alone" style performance and STS data (using "write style perf." and "write STS"). You can then save these styles into separate .SET files with just a STYLE folder and a single .STY file inside it. There are no dependencies or links to other data apart from factory sounds, and you can publish these styles on the internet, other people can load them on their Pa2x/ Pa800 to any location they want and the styles and sounds will work as the author intended. I've so far seen no other method or guidance proposed on the forum that achieves portability and 100% guarantee that styles shared by one user in a .SET file will work on anyone else's keyboard.
How to build a style “Here are a few tips on recording your own styles ON the keyboard; these instructions are generally applicable to any PSR. Assuming you are creating a style from scratch, first delete all the tracks from each part of the style. Now let's choose main A for example..... Turn on the metronome; else you will get totally lost when it comes to keeping within each bar and getting your patterns to play in time!
Choose one of the rhythm tracks and select a suitable drum kit. Note that if you change the voice usually the reverb will be set back to zero, so you will get a very dry sound. You may like to call up the reverb setting and set it to about 30, or to save time store the drum kit voice in one of the registrations with this setting. Start recording of the style and listen to the metronome for a few bars to get a feel for the tempo, also note the bar (measure) number as it records and when the "loop" begins again. Now try putting down a simple closed hihat sound (usually f# in the 2nd or 3rd octave assuming you haven’t transposed) on each beat Make sure you stop playing as soon as you reach the end of the loop... the pattern will continue playing in a loop. Now you can overdub a kick drum say on each 1/2 a bar, again be sure to begin playing at the beginning of the loop and stop playing the keys once it hits the end of the loop (else you will end up with "double" notes) You can then add a snare if you like on every other note against the kick, now you have a simple 8 beat. Next move to say CHORD 1 track.... I then usually think about the main chord voice, say for example a piano... You need to think of the rhythm of the piano as it will play in the style and then once the loop begins record a CM7 chord in that rhythm... again stop at the end of the "loop". If you make a mistake, you need to stop the style record and delete the track, and then repeat... it often takes a few goes to get it right. Bass line next, choose a nice bass voice (I like the dark fingered bass in the XG section) and again on the start of the loop play a SIMPLE bassline, in C though. You can then continue adding pads, perhaps some twiddly phrases and so on. This is just the main section A, then there's sections B, C and D, oh and then the intros, endings and fills. Some tips for the other bits.... Intros Generally you can improvise around on these quite a bit, though keep to the Key of C... Any notes can be used, infact the intros and endings can incorporate short melodies like mini songs, but should always finish in a way that they naturally progress into a C chord... Endings again lots of scope for improvisation and adlibs but remember that the last notes in the ending are just that, so wind things down! Fills very difficult to do, only 1 bar to play with and should ideally form a bridge between each section of the style. Again must be CM7. Some "techniques" useful for style recording.... Since you have to record your pads and chords in CM7 for most parts in the style, try some "open" chords i.e. miss out the middle notes or simplify the chords using just 2 notes... For a nice Celtic pad sound, try playing an open chord of E and G missing out the root Quantizing the drum sounds and percussion can help to tighten the style as it loops, but avoid quantizing other instruments too much as the style will sound machine like. XG voices are always best to use for compatibility but may require transposing down 1 octave to match the range of the panel sounds, especially for the bass voices. On the 740 and other keyboards that allow access to the registrations during style record (sadly not the 9000!), keep your voices and settings in the registration memories for each track of the style it makes recording each part much easier than having to set up voice, level, effects each time. Avoid adding intricate or strong melodies in the style, such as the phrases... they will dictate the use of the style too much in playback. Since the style is a "backing" to your performance, use the mixer and effects settings to keep the rhythm instruments "back" in the mix, unless you deliberately want particular voices in the style to stand out strong.