How to setup Presets on TR

jeremypassion · Post by **jeremypassion** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:24 am

So, I'm with a band that does original as well as cover songs. The cover songs are usually placed in medley form to get the crowd going.

The problem that I'm having is knowing how to make presets as well as how to SPLIT a certain part of the keys to be a bassline and the rest to be another sound.

While doing these medleys, I have to constantly change the sounds and transpose after every song change and it always creates an awkward stage moment. Is there anyway I could make different presets with different sounds and transpositions? I would love to just press a button that brings me to a new preset that I previously made for a smooth transition in our medleys.

HELP please! Thanks/

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:09 pm

Use combi mode with two timbres, one for your bassline and one for the other sound. Save your combis in the order you'll use them for convenience.

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:59 pm

kanthos wrote:Use combi mode with two timbres, one for your bassline and one for the other sound. Save your combis in the order you'll use them for convenience.

That's how I do it, as for the transpose, that's global.
There may be a way to transpose on the fly , but I can't help with that.
Anyone?

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:47 pm

well, if you're making custom combis, you can transpose each timbre. so if you have a combi for each song, then you can easilly have for example all timbres on a combi transposed by +3 or -5 or whatever.

Personally, I use sequencer mode for my gigs. note that I haven't got any recorded sequenced data, but it saves having to overwrite any combis.

for example I can have a sequencer file called Magic Flight (for one of our songs), which might have two actual 'songs' inside. each is a scene. for example 001:Intro, 002:Verse, 003: Chorus

you could even copy a number of them so that you have the complete running order, only having to press the 'inc' (increment) button. Like: 001: Intro, 002: Verse, 003: Chorus, 003: Verse, 004: Chorus, etc.

Then before the gig it is possible to load all the song files into a single file for the set, using the 'append' instead of 'clear' option when loading the file. then saving that.
so I load MagicFlight.sng, QuickRelease.sng, in order for the set.

For this purpose though if you are using more than one 'song' scene for a song then I tend to name the intro or first scene with the name of the song rather than 'intro' so I know where I am.

And in fact its easier than this because most of our songs only have one scene - saving having to flick around so much by using an external keyboard to trigger different sounds. so I can be playing on the TR for the verse, then switch over to the controller for the chorus, etc. as well as zoning (key splitting) to cram as many sounds onto the rig as possible without having to change.

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:18 pm

I use the sequencer for live performance as well. X-Trade, I'm curious why you use one part per song instead of putting all the parts into a single song (assuming you have enough tracks in the song to do so?) The advantage of having all the tracks in one song, as I understand it, is that I can switch sounds seamlessly by switching tracks - or does that work with switching songs as long as the effects and sounds are the same?

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:17 pm

kanthos wrote:I use the sequencer for live performance as well. X-Trade, I'm curious why you use one part per song instead of putting all the parts into a single song (assuming you have enough tracks in the song to do so?) The advantage of having all the tracks in one song, as I understand it, is that I can switch sounds seamlessly by switching tracks - or does that work with switching songs as long as the effects and sounds are the same?

I think you've misunderstood. I was simply outlining all the options. Now that I have an external MIDI keyboard, I do usually use one scene per song now, splitting sounds across both keyboards.
But particularly in the past when I was working in a Prog band, songs had many sections and I often needed the whole 61-key keyboard span for certain sounds (e.g. organ, piano), so I was using several several different scenes per song.

note that i am now referring to 'song' as a written or performed piece of music, and 'scene' to refer to a single song slot set up in the sequencer mode of the keyboard. I think that is sometimes a point of confusion.

even if the effects don't change when changing scenes, I think there is still a slight dropout. But that outlines another need to change scenes within a song occasionally, particularly on the TR - if you are using an internal sound which needs a specific effects setup. and the dropout outlines the need to stay within one scene and use multiple controller keyboards or change tracks. its just about finding the best tradeoff between the two.

I avoid changing tracks because it requires more navigation - have to go back up to the top to change scenes. and if you are working like I do with a variety of different sounds and needing different tempos for effects and arpeggiators etc for different songs, then switching to a new scene makes more sense between songs and when building a set list.

I've thought about these things for a long time and believe this to be probably the most efficient and non-destructive (as opposed to for example wiping out banks of programs or combis) way to work with the keyboard at gigs.

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:39 pm

No, I understood. What I was asking was what benefit there was to using 'scenes' to switch sounds instead of using one 'scene' and switching the active track.

I can think of two other reasons, besides needing different effects. One is that if you never use tracks, you can keep the scene title highlighted and use the INC button to move between scenes instead of using Timbre/Track + a track number or highlighting the track field and using INC/DEC there, so it's a few less button presses.

The other is that program changes in sequencer mode are only sent to external devices when you switch sequences, unless you've recorded program changes, so switching scenes would switch programs, while switching tracks would not.

At any rate, it seems that there's no purpose in me changing the way I'm doing things right now, which was why I was interested.

Larry Satterlee · Post by **Larry Satterlee** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 1:19 am

Hey - thank you both kanthos & X-trade for the tidbits on using the sequencer for live program changes ! This is gonna make some really big sounds when it's combined with my PC2X! Thanks guys.
Larry