Hello everybody!
Probably this question was post before but I'm just gonna be a lil bit more precise. So I play the keys with my R3 in a kinda industrial-rock band so we use tons of electronic sounds (which I program yay! ) and it has come to our luck that a local producer heard some of our stuff and decided to produce us some tracks and work with him. Now we have pretty good material, enough to make a jam in front with public and all that. So my question ... I use more than 4 synth programs for each song and I just recorded them in order from 1 to 8 on each bank per song. So for example: A Favorite is Song 1, B Bass is song 2 and so on with the respective programs. There are some songs that require me to quickly change programs making live play a pain in the arse; and not only that, but sometimes I need for example program 1 to be running all the time while I play program 2 (but this is impossible). My first thought was: I need a sampler, so I'm saving some $ for a SP-404 ... but with all that, anybody with this same issue? Any tips? Any ideas?
Yeah, you either need:
-more R3s or other synths (so you have a different sound on each one)
-more powerful version of the same synth (RADIAS has up to four simultaneous timbres)
-backing tracks/sampler (no fun)
-workstation - not as in depth sound design but better multitimbrality (often up to 16 simultaneous timbres)
I use a combination of the above. I've got a workstation (Korg KARMA) controlling the Radias, and a additional MIDI keyboard too so that I can play additional sounds on the Radias or the KARMA.
I also occasionally throw in a drum machine or computer.
Current Gear: Kronos 61, RADIAS-R, Volca Bass, ESX-1, microKorg, MS2000B, R3, Kaossilator Pro +, MiniKP, AX3000B, nanoKontrol, nanoPad MK II,
Other Mfgrs: Moog Sub37, Roland Boutique JX03, Novation MiniNova, Akai APC40, MOTU MIDI TimePiece 2, ART Pro VLA, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.
Past Gear: Korg Karma, TR61, Poly800, EA-1, ER-1, ES-1, Kawai K1, Novation ReMote37SL, Boss GT-6B
Software: NI Komplete 10 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, Ableton Live 9. Apple OSX El Capitan on 15" MacBook Pro
I highly recommend the microSAMPLER over the SP-404. You can spread a sample across the keys to play like a regular keyboard, or just use the keys like pads to trigger full-length samples. You could literally chop a song up and sequence out an entire backing track to play along to, but from the audience's point of view, it looks like you're just playing a regular keyboard.
KP3 (or one of the other Kaoss Pads, I suppose) is an absolute godsend for this type of thing. Just sync it with MIDI and phrase sample a loop. Once you've got that down you can warp it live with one hand while changing patches on the R3.