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[Musicwithharry]

Good Morning

As many of you heave read in my previous posts, I have a PA700 (Serial # under 140) and have not upgraded to the latest OS (1.4?).

I have had a slight quirk when using the Ensemble feature. I play at nursing homes for a living and play the Big Band styles and other styles for music anywhere from the 1920's to the 1970's for the residents of these homes.

When have a set of sounds put together for each song, I use the STS settings to switch between different instruments within the same style, allowing me to 'medley' up to (and sometimes more) than 4 songs within the same style.

Here is an example for when I play 'It Had to be You':

STS1 - Folk Sax (sound 1), Flute (sound 2) and Sistro (sound three). In 'It Had to be You', I use the sax in the first verse, add the flute to the sax in the second verse, and then the Sistro to both other sounds on the last verse. I have the Ensemble setting to trigger on the sax part (not the flute or Sistro) only.
STS2 - Jazz Guitar (sound 1), Pad (sound 2). This STS is used for another song called 'By the Light of the Silvery Moon' within the same style - I simply adjust the tempo to be a bit faster and start playing the other song. The Ensemble is set to trigger on the Jazz Guitar

When I activate the Ensemble, in just about any style or STS, I notice that when I hit a chord and hit a lead note on the top at the same time (I have the split activated) I do not get the Ensemble chord block on the lead notes when I am pressing down the chord notes on the bottom of the keyboard. I have to press the Chord notes first and then a split second (or less) later, hit the lead notes above to hear the Block chords from the Ensemble. I usually hit the new chord before I have to play the lead note(s) above in order to hear the Ensemble feature working. It only happens when I first hit the Chord and lead notes at the same time. Once it registers, everything is fine. It does not continue if I hold down the Chord and start to play - only when it first happens. I suspect that the computer is registering the Chord I am playing to generate the Ensemble notes for the right hand.

I have had to adjust my playing to where I hit the chord right before I want the solo voices (right hand) to sound in an Ensemble setting.

To my knowledge, this happens on everything that I would use in an Ensemble in order to have seamless Ensemble sounds when playing the right hand.

I do not have the Ensemble activated throughout the entire song, usually at the more full parts of a song (as if the entire brass section is playing at the end of the song). If I play a Polka (which are big here in certain parts of Iowa), the same thing happens.

I know that the computer needs a bit of time to generate the chord structure for the Ensemble once I hit the chord, but I also used to use a Roland E-09 as my main arranger and NEVER had computational time issues by the computer in order to figure out the chord I was playing.

Do I have something set wrong? It is not a huge deal, because I have adjusted my playing technique to compensate for this, but it would be nice to have both the Ensemble notes playing at the same time as I hit the chords in the left hand.

I also used to have a Korg PA500 and noticed this to be a problem with it too. Maybe it is just the way Korg computes the note arrangement in the Ensemble feature.

I have had my PA700 since September 2017 and an quite well versed in its operation. I use the Songbook to trigger MP3 files and keyboard sets for my original material and also use the sequencer for live work. My particular issue is strictly when using the styles and the Ensemble feature.

It is not a deal-breaker for me as I LOVE the PA700. I just wondered if someone else had this issue too and maybe there is a setting I do not have set properly.

Grace,
Harry
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