Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    Looks like Roland responded to the "polyphony claim" problem we talked
    about elsewhere.
    
    I have no problem with "30 note max polyphony".  The presence of the
    word "max" is clear enough indication that there's more to the story
    and that it's not the same polyphony you'd expect from a true
    "30 voice synth".
    
    	db

    My guess is that some of the extra "polyphony" might be used for the
    FX.
    
    Steve

    Now I can look forward to the D-770 in a box...
    
    len.
    

    Two, len. With matching SRVs and choruses...
    
    Edd

    Here's a posting from USENET of the Roland promo spiel.  Supposedly
    there's more to be entered tomorrow.
    
    							Brian
    
     
    My editorial comments prefaced by asterisks. ----Brian
    
    Ok, as promised, here is the info on the D-70.  I'll post part 2
    tomorrow.
 
    -Dean
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         D-70 Super LA Synthesizer
 
The D-70 Super LA Synthesizer is a powerful 76-key, multi-timbral keyboard
featuring unique sound creation capabilities, innovative performance
features, and incredible new sounds.  The D-70 introduces a new approach to
the "Linear Arithmetic" concept, enabling you to develop complex,
exceptional sounds and providing a new level of creative flexibility which
makes it the perfect instrument for live performers or for studio
musicians who need instant, complete control over sounds.
 
With its extensive multi-band filtering capabilities, the new DLM
(Differential Loop Modulation) process which creates thousands of new
distinctive, modulated waveforms, and a wide selection of new PCM samples,
the D-70 provides you with extraordinary power.  The revolutionary Tone
Pallette editing system makes it easy to create new sounds instantly by
allowing you to modify main synthesizer parameters such as level, attack,
release, resonance, cutoff, and panning.  By pressing a single button on
the D-70's front panel, you can use the Tone Pallette's four sliders to
control parameters for any four Tones at once.  No other synthesizer offers
you such power and flexibility.
 
The D-70 also contains a wide variety of impressive performance functions.
Offering a large 40-digit x 8-line LCD which makes operation and editing
easy and full MIDI control capabilities, the D-70 is the ideal master
keyboard for any MIDI system.  
    
    ********That's what they say about every new machine.  Give me a break.
    What the hell is full MIDI capability anyway, it doesn't have
    poly-aftertouch.
    
                                     The keyboard lets you control release
velocity in real time, in addition to velocity and channel aftertouch, and
responds to polyphonic aftertouch through MIDI, giving you incredible
expressive responsiveness.  The Tone Pallette can be operated in real time
as well, providing even greater expressive possibilities.
 
The D-70 contains PCM wave data, such as white noise, spectrums, and
sawtooth waves, that can be used as sound elements.  A variety of high-
quality, multi-sampled PCM sounds including pianos, brass, guitars, drums
and distinctive synthesizer textures are provided internally as well.
 
In addition, a new sound card developed exclusively for the D-70 features
a large selection of PCM wave sound elements.  The D-70 is also compatible
with SN-U110 Series Sound Cards which provide access to a variety of
exceptional multi-sampled instrument sounds that may be used as is, or
edited as desired.
    
    *******This could be a MAJOR big deal.
    
                    Waveforms from the external cards as well as from
internal PCM sounds can be modified extensively, giving you incredible
power for creating sounds.  DLM (Differential Loop Modulation), a unique,
new editing feature can be used to truncate a waveform and process it with
loop modulation.  This allows you to create a wide assortment of totally
new waveforms from the original PCM wave.  These waveforms can then be
filtered with a high-quality multi-band TVF filter.  The D-70 enables you
to control and modify sounds at every level, giving you the ability to
create unique, sophisticated, and personalized sounds never available
before.
 
ENHANCED SOUND SOURCES
----------------------
Superb Selection of Built-In PCM Sounds
 
The D-70 includes a variety of sound elements such as white noise, sawtooth
wave, and PCM short loop sounds, similar to those of the other D-Series
synthesizers.  In addition to these versatile sound elements, the D-70
contains a wide selection of multi-sampled PCM sounds ranging from
lifelike acoustic instruments to analog and digital synth textures that
offer sound quality comparable to professional samplers.  The D-70 also
allows you to modify these PCM sounds using DLM and TVF filtering for an
even greater range of tonal possibilities.
 
 
Dedicated PCM Sound Elements Card and SN-U110 Series Sound Card Library.
 
In addition to the D-70's internal sound elements, a completely new Sound
Card designed exclusively for the unit featuring PCM sound elements such as
white noise and sawtooth waves can be inserted in the D-70's two ROM card
slotsfor additional creative possibilities.  
    
    ***** Wait a minute, a couple of paragraphs ago, they raved about the
    noise and sawtooths, now they say its an optional card????
    
                                           The D-70 is also compatible
with SN-U110 Series sound cards, a diverse collection of multi-sampled
PCM sounds.  PCM wave sound elements from the dedicated cards and sounds
from SN-U110 Series cards can also be TVF-filtered on the D-70 allowing you
to create an even wider variety of sounds.  
    
    ******** Since the U-110/220/20 have no filters, this is cool stuff.
 
 
DLM (Differential Loop Modulation) Enhances Sound Creation
 
DLM is a revolutionary feature that allows you to truncate PCM waveforms,
define the start point and loop length, then process the waveforms with
loop modulation, resulting in wave data with a new harmonic structure.  The
mode, start point, and loop length of the waveform can be set to create
integral or non-integral harmonics, producing sounds that span the entire
frequency range.  
    
    *******  Hopefully, some sample editors for PCs will be able to tweak
    this stuff.
    
    		      The D-70's built-in PCM waveforms provide the raw
materials suitable for effective filtering and DLM radically alters the
harmonics of these waveforms prior to the TVF filtering stage.  By using
a single PCM wave to create a varitey of different waveforms, DLM produces
random, modulated sounds completely different from the original similar
to a ring modulation effect.  With these high level editing possibilities,
you can build sounds from the ground up and customize PCM waveforms with
unprecedented control.
    
    ******* Of course, they won't be able to describe this in the manual.
    

    
    The word from EUW on the availability of the D-70 is July.  At NAMM,
    there was no talk of a rack, EUW guesses no rack before the fall.
    
    Their analysis: A D-50, U-20 and A-50 all rolled up together.  
    
    							Brian

Howdy folks,
I've been waiting to purchase a synthesizer/sampling keyboard and 
now that the D-70 is out I wanted to pose a question before making a 
final purchase decision.

My situation is that I'm planning on taking piano lessons again...as 
an adult. I haven't taken any since I was a kid but want to also 
take advantage of the new synthesizer/sampling capabilities 
available today, once I gain some proficiency in straight piano.

My top price is about $2100 and I don't need to get a sequencer, 
since I already have a Mac that I can purchase good software for 
that purpose, when I want. The D-70 is selling for $1800/$1900 at 
the stores I've seen it in (it has no built-in sequencer).

It seems like the D-70 is the best choice. I know this is somewhat 
overkill since I'm just beginning again, but I want a machine that 
lets me explore and have fun as well. So, I don't mind paying extra 
now for bells/whistles I will grow into, plus I like having 76 keys, 
which rules out the U-20. Plus, LA Synthesis seems to be the best 
technology...I'd like to know if I wrong on that point.

With all that said, my question is: Are there *currently* any other 
synthesizer/samplers out there I should look at? The several stores 
I've checked don't sell Yamaha, so I don't know if I should pursue 
this further or stop with the D-70.

thanks for any opinions on this,
/chuck

    By all means keep checking. The D-70 is a great machine, but according
    to the latest keyboard, has a few weirdisms. These may or may not prove
    frustrating to you...
    
    The Yamaha SY77 certainly seems like a contender in your market.
    
    Edd

If your goal is Piano lessons you may want a piano keyboard, not a synth 
keyboard (aka "weighted" touch vs "non-wighted" or "organ" touch).

A weighted controller (check out this months keyboard mag on controllers)
and some module (U220, proteus, M3r, etc) is a good combo.

The D70 does seem quite nice however, from plunking on it as well as reviews.

I believe the Yamaha SY77 is only 61 keys.

Chad

    I don't think the D-70 does sampling, am I correct?  So it would be in
    the synthesizer catagory, not the synth/sampler one.  Very few are.
    
    Unless you really need 76 keys, look at the Ensoniq VFX (note 1932 I
    think).  It has more effects, handles voices more dynamically, and base
    sticker price is $1395.  For bells and whistles, the VFXsd is $1900 or
    so and the VFXsdII is $2200.  The II has very very nice pianos.
    
    Please check into the VFX series; it's a personal matter to me since I
    want one so bad, and can't afford it! :-)  I can't even afford
    college...
    
    I don't know; I'm kinda turned off on Roland, now (no offense len).
    
    Mike

D70 is sample playback/synthesizer

It takes the U20/220/110 sample cards but allows you to do synthesizer things
to them.

If you do check VFX make sure you get at least V2 or greater of the software

Chad

This is a well-read conference. Thanks for all the quick replies. 
Here's my reponse:

Re .8 (WEFXEM::COTE):
I read the latest Keyboard review and did note that they had 
uncovered numerous weirdnesses, but I'm such a novice, most of them 
seemed too esoteric for me to worry about. Their concluding remark 
was optimistic, however, something to the effect of "The D-70 is the 
best piece of equipment Roland has ever produced."

You mentioned the SY77...Does that have comparable piano sounds to 
the D-70 (which uses the U-20's samples)?  I've been told the D-70's 
piano's tones are about as good as you can get within my price 
range.

Re .9 (NORGE::CHAD):
I asked the guy who demoed the D-70 (and other keyboards) if I 
shouldn't have weighted keys. He said that will exclude me from 
about 90% of what's out there, AND it *may* be a liability when 
playing certain pieces (meaning: weighted keys can be harder to play 
than nonweighted).

I really don't want to get into "combos" at this point, such as 
combining a keyboard controller with a synth...that's further down 
the road. This will sit in my living room, so there's an aesthetic 
element to it as well.

Re .10 (GRANPA::RUYOUNG):
I hadn't heard about the Ensoniq VFX series. Are there good dealers 
in Southern NH or Eastern Mass for these?  The D-70 does playback 
sampled sounds, that's why I was impressed with it.

thanks for the responses!
/chuck

    I'd have to agree with .9 and say that you might want to seriously
    consider a weighted keyboard.  As far as "excluding most of what's
    out there", isn't it true that you could get a weighted keyboard
    controller and hook up a module to it?  Most any synth worth buying
    has a version without a keyboard.  As far as it being a liability
    to get a weighted keyboard, I think that's a bunch of bull.  It's
    the non-weighted keyboard, if any, that has a chance of being a 
    liability when learning how to play and playing.
              
    Just my opinion.  Try for yourself.
    
    								Marc

    I would not look for the "best" technology for synthesis.  There are
    several good technologies and it is better to look at the good and bad
    with each.  I think you will come to the conclusion that the "best"
    technology usually consists of a mix:
    		
    		digital sampling
    		digital synthesis
    		analog synthesis
    
    Note that some synths claim to cover these bases. But, if you study
    more closely you'll see why there are still very expensive synths in 
    each of these categories that still don't cover all the bases.  For
    example, a D50 uses samples.  But, it's not quite up to all that a
    U220 can do.  A lowly analog Matrix 1000 can do circles around 
    a D50 or a sampler when it comes to certain kinds of lush, full and
    interesting sounds.  And, it could be that NONE of these boxes gives
    you a piano sound that you like (after hearing it for hours on end).
    
    Steve

>I asked the guy who demoed the D-70 (and other keyboards) if I 
>shouldn't have weighted keys. He said that will exclude me from 
>about 90% of what's out there, AND it *may* be a liability when 
>playing certain pieces (meaning: weighted keys can be harder to play 
>than nonweighted).


	Sounds like sales talk to me. Given the choice, weighted keys make
	a LOT more sense, especially when learning to play. Yeah, it limits
	the choices, but it weeds out the lousy keyboards as well. Maybe
	I'm extra-opinionated about this, but the quality of the keyboard
	has a lot to do with the satisfaction I get from playing some random
	piece of musical equipment. I don't buy that noise about weighted
	keys being "harder to play certain pieces". If you practice on a
	weighted keyboard, it is easier to play anything you come across,
	as your forearms will be a lot stronger, and you will develop a
	better sense of precision (with practice, of course).

	Aesthetically speaking, the 88 key controllers are as "pretty" as 
	anything else that's going to sit in your living room, and the amount
	of wires between controller and controllee are minimal (1 midi cable?).
	
	/pjh

> I hadn't heard about the Ensoniq VFX series. Are there good dealers 
> in Southern NH or Eastern Mass for these? 
    
    I've always been very happy with Daddy's Junky Music in Nashua.
    They're just down the road from the Pheasant Lane Mall (walking
    distance from the MA border).
    
    If you're the kinda guy that looks at the sticker price and says
    "that's too much" and then walks out, it's no better or worse than
    any other store.
    
    However, Daddy's will "deal" so if you're a negotiator, I would claim
    you can get as good a price from them as anyone.  I've always gotten 
    with about $25-$50 of mail order prices.
    
    I've been very happy with the way they've supported me as well.  I've
    had some bad troubles with my SQ-80 and they've gone out of their way
    getting me loaners while the thing's been in the shop.
    
    	db
    

Let me make one general comment, since we're beginning to get into 
more detailed discussion. My number one focus is to get the best 
price/performance ratio I can (just like our customers do with us 
:-). That's why I've thought the D-70 was a good buy...lots of midi 
features and good piano sound IN ONE UNIT for about $1900. Now, I 
know I can go up a grand (no pun intended) and get weighted keys 
(see next paragraph on this) or a built-in sequencer and disk drive, 
but that's getting to be a lot extra. Now, .10 piqued my interest in 
the Ensongiq VFX series that may actaully give me more, but that 
instrument has its problems too (more on this below, also).

Maybe I'm too new to know the difference, but the base note (that 
is, .0) has a pretty awesome list of features and user functions 
that make the D-70 seem like Roland has put the best of what users 
what into one machine, and that it's very competitive with what else 
is out there.  I'm not sold on it yet, but playing devil's advocate 
a little to flesh out what's most important. (Again, thanks for all 
the good feedback, this is *really* helpful.)

Re "The Weighted Keys Issue"
I'm concerned that if I get weighted keys and add a synth module 
to it that I'm now in the $3000 and up price range. I think there is 
some definite value to weighted keys, but I'm not sure. Also, once 
you're into weighted keyboards, you're into a piece of *furniture* 
of significant weight, and certainly not what you'd call portable. 
(Portability is a not main criteria, but a consideration.)

Re .10 (GRANPA::RUYOUNG):
I read with interest the note on the Ensoniq VFX. From what I could
tell, it seems plagued with bugs and problems. The Keyboard review
certainly mentioned some problems the D-70 has, but they seem minor
compared to the Ensoniq note and replies.  I will look into it
however. 

Re .16:
Thanks for the tip on Daddy's Junky Music, I'll check it out. Do 
they sell Yamaha, Ensoniq, and Roland?  (I'm definitely a bargainer, 
so it's good to know they're willing to bargain.)

Re .15 (PAULJ::HARRIMAN)
You said
 >Sounds like sales talk to me. Given the choice, weighted keys make
 >a LOT more sense, especially when learning to play. Yeah, it limits
 >the choices, but it weeds out the lousy keyboards as well.

I don't know what to conclude from this. It sounds like you're 
saying nonweighted keyboards have poorer sound than weighted ones.


/chuck

You can get a decent weighted controller for $1000-$1500.  A decent module
for it will cost you $500-$1000.  So you see, we are still in the same range. 
In order to make the best decision, you need to decide what your goal is.

Do you want to be a "rock" keyboardist, a "classical" pianist, a "jazz" pianist,
a hobbyist composer, or what?  You see, each category (and the 10^^6 I didn't
mention) each have their own "requirements".  If your goal is to play piano,
you would be a fool to not get a weighted keyboard.  However, if you want to
be a jazz organist, you'd probably want a non-weighted keyboard.  Other 
categories are probably not as clear cut and as I am not any of them, I'll 
defer.  The point is, analyze why you want something and get something to fill
the need.  Most salesmen will feed you bull.

The D70 sounds like a fine board to me -- I wish I could afford one.

If you stop by Daddy's, they no longer sell Yamaha but they do have Roland,
Korg, and Ensoniq.  Talk to Tim Miller and tell him Dave Blickstein and Chad
Leigh recommended the store and him (db is the one who first mentioned 
Daddy's).  Mentioning us won't get you any money off, but there are many of us
DEC people who go in there and know the folks.

Good luck

Chad

PS: the comment from PJH about lousy non-weighted keyboards was meant I think
to point out that while there are a million different non-weighted boards out
there (and a lot of them are probably not so hot), there aren't so many weighted
ones and the ones there are are probably not so lousy.  There are also very good
non-weighted boards.

    I will echo the sentiments of the previous noters concerning weighted
    keys. I did what you are about to do about eight years ago, that is 
    take piano lessons to improve my technique and overall playing skills.
    I too, did not own a piano, I had a Fender Rhodes and one of the
    plastic keys keys piece of junk. To cut a lon story short, I never
    could quite play my lessons correctly on my teachers piano the action
    was too different mainly to stiff for my then whimpy fingers. I
    eventually (two months later go a piano and what a difference that 
    made then and now. I can go from weighted to non weighted with no
    problem, however I find it challenging to play pianistic on plastic
    keys.
    
    I strongly recommend a keyboard with weighted keys, my choice is the
    Yamaha PF85 piano with a synth module. The down side of the PF85 is
    that is has no controller/mod wheels. But it sound great and the action
    is great.
    
    Good luck.
    Errol

	After having owned about 12 keyboard instruments over the past 12
	years, each with a different feel, maybe I should elaborate on 
	"lousy keyboards". By "keyboard", I am talking about the quality of
	the feel of the keys, as opposed to the quality of the sound. 

	For instance, my Wurlitzer 200A had a fair-to-middlin keyboard feel.
	It was a "real" action (linkages, hammers) but it was very light and
	didn't transmit dynamics terribly effectively, as would be evidenced
	by the 14 or so broken reeds I incurred before I figured out to not
	play it so hard. My Hohner Clavinet was much worse, as the keys could
	be wobbled from side to side about 1/16", and it didn't have a lot
	of throw. My Korg Polysix has a nice keyboard, even without touch
	sensitivity, since the keys spring back quickly and have firm springs
	to feel against. My Kawai electric grand has a grand piano's action
	(although it has short hammers), and I prefer practicing on it to
	any other keyboards. My EPS, although I love it, has a keyboard that
	makes a nasty clacking sound when you press the keys to the bottom.
	My ESQ-1 has a keybed that keeps breaking stays, and has required
	numerous repairs (this is a common problem in old ESQ-1s, from what
	I gathered elsewhere and in this conference). What does this do to
	my playing? Well, quite a bit, actually. I find that I can't play
	with the same amount of precision on the EPS that I could on the Kawai.
	Likewise, the Polysix is more responsive, despite it's lack of 
	velocity sensing, than the EPS. Doesn't mean I can't play it, or
	adjust to it, but they don't play at all the same. The point I'm
	trying to make is, if you are only going to get one keyboard 
	instrument, get a keyboard that "feels right". In my case, that
	meant get an instrument with weighted keys.

	/pjh

    RE:  VFX & stuff.
    
    I like the VFX keyboard the best out of non-weights.  Like Dave Orin
    (who introduced me to it) I like the Poly-Touch because it lets you know 
    where it is when it comes to after touch.  Of course, the velocity curve 
    programming on the machine is important, but I've found the D-xx series 
    kind of flat.  Again, this is opinion, so why don't you go and try a 
    couple?  You're the only one who can decide what you like.  Some people 
    hate the Ensoniq clack, as it were, but I rather like it.
    
    The other thing is, if you're going to be of the harmonophilic sort
    (made up word meaning you love sounds), you might want to look at how
    each machine is programmed.  Try editing patches on the VFX (took me
    minutes) and then the D-70 (still haven't figured anything out). 
    Without manuals, I mean.  If you have to deal with Roland manuals....
    
    Sounds like you want a machine to play, though, not to do all the
    amazing sounds in the world.  Check into the modules like Chad (?)
    said, 'cause they're the nicest to play (I mean weighted controllers).
    
    My 2 cents (can't make the cute sign, my compose character is broken).
    
    Mike

    Since everyone's throwing pennies in the pot ...
    
    If one of your goals is to improve technique, then you should seriously
    consider a weighted keyboard.  Not a keyboard with weighted action, but
    one with truly weighted keys.  One of the better playing controllers
    around is a Yamaha KX88.  Goes new for around $1400 or less, and weighs
    around 65 lbs.  Piano sounds?  Proteus is going for $675 now (or $875
    for the XR).  That's well within your budget.
    
    One thing the D70 will give you that the VFX won't is lots more voices
    (unless I've read the trade rags incorrectly).  In other words, you
    should be able to play more notes at a time on the D70 than on the VFX.
    The VFX problems you cited earlier have been corrected with new
    releases of the o/s ... my experience with Roland is that o/s upgrades
    are few and far-between (and sometimes incomplete).  So there are +'s
    and -'s on both sides.
    
    I don't think I've said much more than has already been said ... just
    don't be too hasty to get something.  Patience is *real* important in
    the MIDIgame.
    
+b

Well, at this point, I don't know what to say. Some quick comments 
off the top of my head.

Regarding the salesman feeding me bull just to make a sale: I don't 
that's true in one case. He would've been even happier if I bought a 
weighted keybaord, since what he sells costs more. He's a musician 
himself and simmply explained the pros and cons (the pro being you 
definitely get good feel, the con being that non-piano riffs are 
easier to play on a non-weighted keybaord...I think that was really 
his opinion, I didn't get he was especially invested in getting me 
to agree).

What I'm hearing from the last few replies is that basically people 
who play the piano use a weighted keyboard as the master keyboard to 
control separate synth modules. That's what I hear throughout. And 
that further, no one in their right mind would purchase a D-70, or 
VFX, or anything comparable if their primary instrument is piano.

One point I haven't mentioned is that I had planned to take lessons 
from someone who would teach on a comporable (nonweighted) keyboard.

Your comments have forced me to think about what I really want to 
get out of learning the piano using a digital keyboard. I know I 
don't want to become a concert or grande pianist. I don't expect to 
ever give performances or even make money from my playing. What I do 
want is to learn (again, as an adult) how to read notes, play pieces 
from sheet music, and then use that ability to take advantage the 
new synthesizer sounds that a midi keyboard offers to do my own 
composing. Based on that, it's hard to understand why weighted keys 
are so critical. But, like I said above, it really does sound like 
anyone who has the piano as their main instrument, uses a weighted 
keyboard to control other separate, independent synth modules. And, 
anything less than that configuration is a waste of money and 
lessons.

If I haven't interpreted what people are saying correctly, I'd love
to hear any dissenting opinions. However, I think I need to sleep on
this. 

confused-
/chuck

    I'm a pretty bad keyboard player.  I have only a d50 (unweighted).  It
    is fine for what I'm doing (playing around, inputting into computer,
    composing, etc).  I even used it a lot of the time when I was
    practicing for my real piano lessons I took last year.  But if I wanted
    to learn piano, I'd practice on a real piano or one that felt somewhat
    like a real piano.  So go ahead and sleep on it.
    
    I like the D70 from what I've read about it.  I wish I could afford one
    now.  It has really a lot of potential.  The neat thing is that you do
    synth type editing on full waves, not just snippets.  And that it takes
    U22O PCM cards.  It also has the advantage of being 76 keys; closer to
    real piano length.
    
    Back to the keyboard issue -- a lot of folks have two keyboards, one
    weighted and one non-weighted.  Anyway, find the latest Keyboard
    Magazine -- the one about MIDI controllers, and read up on the various
    ones they review.
    
    chad

    For gigs, I use one weighted keyboard and one non-weighted keyboard.
    
    I need BOTH.  I just find that for particular things one is often
    MUCH better than the other.
    
    I can't play pianistic styles on a non-weighted keyboard, and I can't
    play organ and many synth styles on a weighted keyboard.
    
    Try playing a piano style on a non-weighted and I just end up hitting
    a lot of wrong notes.  Try doing an rock organ style gliss (sweep
    of the keys) on a weighted keyboard and I injure my hands.
    
    I also just don't "think" piano on non-weighted keyboards or "think"
    organ on weighted - I know that's vague but perhaps you'll understand.
    
    It really depends on what you intend to do and what your personal
    preferences are.

    If I heard Chuck right, he's not so much interested in learning to play
    the piano as much as he is in learning how to play keyboards.  It used
    to be the case that the latter meant organs or pianos; now it means all
    of the above plus synths.  If it's the synth part that's important (and
    I sort of got that impression from .23) then a nonweighted keyboard
    would seem ideal for Chuck's needs, especially since he's said he
    intends to take lessons from someone who will teach him *keyboard*
    technique on such an keyboard.  There's a lot more to *piano* technique
    than just the keyboard.
    
    Chuck - don't be confused, it's clear from .23 that you've heard (and
    understood) everything that's been said, know pretty much what you want,
    but everybody's telling you what *they've* done, not what they think you
    should do.
    
    len.
    

I have two 'boards, one weighted (a KX88) and one non-weighted (a U-20).
Depending on what I'm playing, I use one board over another.  Trying to
play Scott Joplin on the U-20 can be quite a challenge as compared to the 
KX.  On the other hand, playing 'synth patches' (JP8 Brass, mad organ on 
my U20) almost always 'feels' better playing it with a lighter touch.

-Dan

I know this has strayed far from D-70 info, but hopefully there's 
some relationship.

Now that I've slept on it, here's what I keep coming back to (this
is sort of me thinking out loud at this point, so don't feel
compelled to respond): As a rank beginner I thought it would be
great to get great piano sounds *and* other synth editing
capabilities in one unit that would look nice in my living room,
without being concerned about modules and sequencers, and gawd
forbide, cabling. ;-} The power and integration of the D-70 seemed
attractive. 

However, I originally went into these dealers saying I wanted
weighted keys, thinking, "Oh, I can get a synth with great piano
sound and weighted keys, if I want." Sure, the Korg T1! It's just 
over twice as much as a D-70, assuming discounts.

Last night I found someone who has a Midiboard with numerous devices 
hooked up (Proteus/1, drum machine, Mac IIcx, 24 channel mixer and 
much more) and it looks like my office downstairs! The keys had a 
nice feel, but I wouldn't say it felt like a piano, either.

I think there's a lot to be said for learning on weighted keys, but 
there are other issues to weigh as well. Another consideration in 
favor of an integrated unit is that if I go somewhere like my cabin 
in NH, I unplug it and put it into the car. Period. It would be a 
considerable hassle with different modules to unplug, pack, and plug 
back in. Maybe if you're a musican that doesn't bother you, but I 
don't even do that with my Mac SE.

The guy I spent time with last night made a pithy remark (I think I 
was ready to hear it, given all this discussion): When you don't 
know what you're doing, anythink you buy will be the wrong choice. I 
found that oddly reassuring, like, "Fine, I'll get what I think I 
need/want/can affort now, and figure I'll get something else later 
and sell it then."

I'm still thinking. I didn't sleep well last night either...
/chuck

    Chuck - if you're interested in developing serious keyboard technique
    (read: chops & finger-strength), I don't think you can avoid getting
    some type of weighted keyboard.  I admit that this is purely
    subjective, but I have not been able to appropriate the speed and
    accuracy I need using a non-weighted board.
    
    A specific example: I have a KX76 (non-weighted, and somewhat flaccid
    action).  I once did two weeks worth of Hanon on the thing - to the
    point of being fairly proficient.  I then tried to play other boards
    (including a real piano, a Fender Rhodes, a DX7, and a JX10) during a
    particular event; the only board that I could play effectively was the
    DX7 (which is more flaccid than the KX); all other boards had "stiffer"
    action, and my technique (ie, finger strength) was not up to playing
    the heavier boards.
    
    I had a chance to try this again, and did the two weeks practicing on
    my own arthritic Rhodes.  I had *no* trouble playing other boards.  In
    both instances, I played both piano-type and non-piano ("synthetic")
    sounds, with no problems - and with greater ease than I ever expected.
    But, like Len said, there's more to technique than chops.
    
    If you're interested in more than just simple finger-strength and raw
    chops, then I don't see why the D70 would be a bad deal - Roland synth
    boards usually are somewhat stiffer than average.  If your primary
    focus is to develop keyboard *chops*, then you really should consider a
    weighted action.  It all depends on how proficient you are on the
    keyboard currently.
    
    In any event (and from what I hear you saying), if the D70 has the
    sounds and features you want, I wouldn't feel too bad about getting it. 
    You can always pick up an old piano or a Rhodes to do strength training
    on later.
    
+b

And we excpect a full review of the D70 after you get it!!! :-) :-) :-)

Chad

    Grrr. Race condition - I just found out that .28 was entered BEFORE my
    .29, and I didn't see it.  Sigh.
    
    It looks to me like you've answered your own question.  A single board
    is much easier to carry around than even a controller and a module.  I
    don't remember what you said you could get a D70 for, but I think that,
    given your .28, the D70 would be a pretty decent fit.
    
    I doubt that you'll end up with "something you don't want" if you get a
    D70 ... but it definitely won't be the last piece of MIDI gear you buy.
    Trust me.  8-)
    
    Looking forward to that review . . .
    
+b

    Another angle that a beginner should consider in choosing an instrument
    is how much a particular instrument contributes to the fun of playing.
    If there are things about the D70 that get you excited, then you are
    apt to play more and get better faster. If you get an instrument that
    either feels uncomfortable or which has some other aspects which are
    annoying then you will play less. I think this will be the case
    independent of how much discipline you have. I've noticed that I'll
    sit at my upright with its fairly heavy action for a couple of hours
    but get tired at only a half hour at my synthesisers because, I
    believe, the real piano sound is so much fuller than anything I can
    get with my CZ1 and FB01. (haven't tried it yet with my Korg P3).
    
    So, my suggestion would be to pay attention to how excited you get
    when you play the various keyboards and go with the one that'll be 
    more likely to keep your interest day after day. 
    
    
    	Ron

I think folks have given you a lot of advice for weighted keys
because from earlier notes it sort of sounded like you wanted
a piano substitute that also had good synth sounds.  If that
was what you wanted, and you wanted to be able to play a wide
range of the piano literature on your synth, then I think it
would be a good idea for you to get an 88-key, weighted keyboard.

But as the discussion has evolved it seems much more like you
want a good synthesizer, not a piano-substitute (though if you
could have both in your price range, why not?).  And it sounds
like the D70 really has the stuff you want.  It sure sounds like
the right thing for you at this time, so I'd suggest taking the
plunge.

I got my Roland D-5 keyboard for my work project at Daddy's in
Nashua and recommend them (and Tim) as well.  They're nice people
and will deal pretty easily for good prices.

Michael and Everyone Else-
I think advice for the weighted keyboard has been good, with the
ensuing discussions on my other reasons helping to clarify my
thinking. (Poorly constructed sentence...sorry.)

Yesterday I made it to Daddy's and they were definitely helpful 
(ironically, I've driven and walked by there hundreds of times 
without ever noticing it).

I played the Roland model 300 (the weighted keys piano with midi
control) and liked it, but it's ~$2K with no synth and it's heavy as
hell. 

Then the salesman (Brian) showed me what you could do with a VFXsd 
and I was really impressed (although you still have to edit sounds 
using numbers instead of viewing the envelope and moving transition 
points around, as you can on the D-70, which is very nice). I was 
impressed with the sequencer. Now, I know I can buy a laptop with 
a sequencer or separate sequencer and get all that, but it was nice to 
have it built-in. So, now you see I'm even more confused than 
before. The piano on the VFX sounds really poor, so I would wait to 
hear what the "megapiano" sounds like in the new VFXsd-II, which is 
not out yet, according to Brian.


Here's a thought: Suppose I start with a synth (unweighted keys), 
then eventually buy just a keyboard controller with all the keys and 
weights to build up my fingers. A two-stage process that solves 
(eventually) these problems:

1. Start learning piano now -- I haven't heard anyone yet say I
can't learn on unweighted keys, just don't expect to play Scott
Joplin with any credibility or plan to sit down at a regular piano
and expect to have my muscles built up enough. 

2. Have Synth... -- I get to have fun with a synthesizer while I'm 
learning now, without concern about buying modules that make sounds, 
modules that sequence, cables to connect, and so on.

3. ...Will Travel -- The big frustration with buying a weighted 
keyboard is they weigh a lot and (like in #2) I have to get lots of 
components that I'm not ready to deal with yet. I realize the 
advantage is I'm not locked into the synth's technology by buying, 
reselling, and buying newer synth modules, but if I want to pop the 
thing into the car for a vacation somewhere, disassembling and 
reassembling is a hassle, IMHO...but what do I know?

4. Integration & Aesthetics -- This will sit in my living room and 
at least for now, don't want to add all sorts of things that make it 
look like outpatients from the Hospital for the Electronically 
Insane live here, which my office downstairs already does. Having 
one unit is nice for a novice like me. I can't afford a Korg T1, 
which has a nice synth/sequencer and weighted keys, and even if I 
could I don't think I'd make it my initial purchase for weight 
reasons alone (86 pounds!), aside from shear size.

This reasoning sort of paints me into a corner. The D-70 is still a
top contender (I keep bringing it back to the D-70 in part so the
moderators can be satisfied this all relates to the base note :-). I
like what I saw with the VFX but definitely won't consider that
until I hear what the megapiano sounds like (with nearly 2 megs of
RAM dedicated to *just* the one piano sound/sample, it should be
pretty good). I'm leaning toward having a sequencer, which I wasn't
before, so that my girlfriend and I can save and edit songs as well
as waveforms. If anyone has any additional suggestions, let me know.

This is where I'm at for now...thanks for your continued prodding 
and concern!
/chuck

In my previous note, near the end, I said parenthetically "with
nearly 2 megs of RAM dedicated to *just* the one piano sound/sample,
it should be pretty good." Presumably it'll be in ROM, not RAM. 

I nominate this  discussion to be "the most debated and detailed purchase
consultation in COMMUSIC".

Buy it already!   :-)


Regards,
/Mitch

    D-70
    
    There, I said it, just to comply with the base note.
    
    I got treated pretty shabily at Daddy's in Nashua the two times I went
    there (1.5 years ago), no flame or anything, but...
    
    Chuck Levin's has the version II VFXsd already.  Could be a test unit,
    however they quoted me a price as if I could take one home that day.  I
    don't know, but either way I heard the 2M of ROM and it was, as
    Greaseman would say, "Schweeeeet!"
    
    To my ears (big deal, right? :-D) it sounded as good as the 1000PX
    Grand (not the stereo one).  At least the best a synth has ever come up
    with.
    
    Mike

    So, now ya wants a sequencer ...  Welcome to MIDI-h*ll!  Nomatter how
    many features your box has, no matter how new it is, there is going to
    be something you will want that your box won't have.  And, you won't be
    able to do what you want until you get that new fangled doodad.  Know
    what you'll drool over after a sequencer?  How about a graphic
    equalizer, multiple FX, an analog box, more memory, a
    limiter/compressor, DAT, stereo sampling, more voices, MIDI-routing
    stuff, an outboard mixer, and on and on ...  Like entropy, MIDI-lust
    only increases.
    
    Steve

Oh no, all I want is a synth with good piano sound.

...and good sound editing capabilities, 'cause that's important.

...a sequencer *is* nice, however, nothing more.

...the weighted keyboard controller will come later, really.

...I would *like* a DAT, but can hold off.

...mumble

      mubdllc

                xusyb


                          rildkz...


/chcuk

Chuck,

Just back from vacation and just read through this note.  Here's what it
looks like:

Correct me if I'm wrong:  You are new to this and want to jump in and
spend two grand to _get_started_?  You want something to haul up to NH. 
You and everybody else is drooling over the D70 (I am too).  And the VFX.

You could go another route.  You could get a used unit (older Ensoniqs
have relatively good feel and there's some reasonable weighted key units
around as well.)  I got a used Casio HT-6000 (cross between home and pro)
that has velocity sensitivity speakers and a fairly nice synth programming 
capability.  I hauled that to Cape Cod and Maine and had a ball.  I'm not
sure I'd expose a $2K brand new unit to that humidity.

Once you have played around on the used unit, you could sell it for about
what you paid for it and buy what you have figured out you need.  Or you
might just decide to keep it for that NH summer cottage.  

This field is addictive.  Don't jump in and expect to get your "last"
keyboard, module or controller.  Wade in. Have some fun learning. Become
an expert on the features that you think you need.  The D-70 (or D-80)
will be waiting for you.  I think Dave Blickstein is right.  You'll
discover you need _both_ a weighted and an unweighted keyboard.  

Alex



If I had 
spent $2K on a brand new keyboard, I'm not sure 

The D70 has been getting bad press on USENET -- underpowered or something.
They talked about the nits in the KEYBOARD report (which I must admit I only
skimmed).  One guy sold his D50 and got a D70.  He went back and got his D50
back.  They say it sounds really great though.  (as a side note, the Korg WS 
has been getting super USENET press but as a real synthesizer for synth-dweebs,
not what you are looking for)

Chad

    
    Re: .41
    I agree with Alex's recommendation on used gear for a first purchase
    with one caveat:  used stuff never has the "latest" sounds.  
    
    A used ESQ-1 will cost 1/3 of a new VFX-SD.  The comparison between
    piano sounds is ludicrous.  The ESQ-1 had a credible piano sound for a
    synth in 86, but by today's standard it's poor.  Since you specified a
    piano sound as a major consideration, that would rule out a lot of used
    gear immediately.  
    
    As far as synth sounds go, older gear is still pretty competitive to my
    ears.  Don't let the built-in reverbs on the new boxes fool you, reverb
    makes *everything* sound good, even my playing 8^) 8^)  8^)  8^)
    
    							Brian

Well, I'm still thinking about it. Thanks for the continued input. 
So many choices make for a hard decision.

/chuck

    Hard to believe, but true ...
    
    I may be getting back into MIDI, in a small way.  Looks like I may get
    to go with a D70 and MC50.  The wife and family are happy and I now
    have permission to see if I can work something out.  I'll be going back
    with the idea of working up stuff suitable for soundtracking, since
    that's probably where I seem to do best.  Looks like some of my
    previous stuff will be used on a Digital training video.  And, there
    may be some other opportunities opening up in the future.  One rubber
    nose.  Anyway, my name is Steve and I'm a MIDIholic ...
    
    Steve

    Chad mentioned recently (off-line) about D70 nits.  In note .41 he
    mentions that KEYBOARD had gripes and that some users complained about
    underpower or some such.  Does anyone have any details, maybe OS
    versions to look for?
    
    BTW, the D70 demo sounds nice.  Hard to believe there's no outboard FX 
    or GE.  In a side-by-side demo the D70 made a T3 sound like a toy.  I 
    could not hear any noise or distortion and the volume was up enough
    that you could feel it.  Editing of sounds seems to be really easy
    compared to what I used to do.  I was surprised that the thing is now
    down to $1695.  (BTW, I prefer to do mail order, but for this I thought it
    would probably be best to deal locally.  For me, this is really big
    bucks and I want minimal risk as far as support and service.)
    
    The MC50 looked really nice.  Wish it could do macros like the QX5.  
    But, with 40K events there's plenty of headroom.  For me, I'm not as
    concerned about being able to load songs quickly or to load in lots of
    songs at one time.  It weighed in at $729 and looks like a good match
    with the D70.  In fact, these are the only pieces of gear that I'm
    planning on for some time to come.
    
    I also heard the Proteus 2.  It did sound good, but there were flaws in 
    it that bothered me.  Like, in its demo I could definitely hear that it 
    was a sampler.  When you're trying to emulate acoustic instruments this 
    can be a real problem.  It's like they didn't multi-sample quite enough.  
    At $1200, though, it might be a good deal for somebody.  After I got over 
    the initial first impressions I started having lots of second thoughts 
    about it.  (Not that I could even afford to have even first thoughts ...)
    
    
    Steve

Hi Steve !

My local dealer told me that the D-70 comes with a new SW version, where they
did fix some bugs, BUT THEY ALSO REDUCED THE POLYPHONY TO 24 !!!!!!!!!
That's what he said.

	Richard

    24!?!  Boo, hiss!  I'll check this out with Wurly's.  Wonder how much
    the percussion is affected.  Wonder if there are more bells and
    whistles or if I can get 24 *useful* voices.  Will report back what I 
    find out ...
    
    Steve

    Okay, sounds like it was a vicious rumor.  Here's the scoop (which Lisa
    Ventriglia from Wurly's tells me she has verified).  Current versions
    of the D70 are being shipped with version 1.11.  The older version
    is 1.10 and this version did lose voices.  She noticed it because the
    store has both versions and sequences run on the old version that run
    fine on the new version do lose voices.  They have not observed voice
    loss with the current version (1.11).   I think she indicated that the
    store model that is on the old version is scheduled to be updated.
    
    Steve

Here is my review of the D70.  Basically, it is a combination wavetable synth, 
stereo FX box, mixer and MIDI controller.

Here are the basics:

	- 30 voices, multi-timbral, smart voice stealing
	- sampled wave sources 
	- on-board effects (reverb and chorus) and mixing (levels and panning)
	- dry and wet outputs
	- 76 weighted keys, velocity, release velocity and channel aftertouch 
	  with support for splits, layers and zoning 

More details:

The levels of the synth go from groups to performances to patches to tones to
original tones.  You get 10 groups, 64 performances, 128 patches, 128 tones 
and 119 original tones.  All numbers except for original tones are doubled
when you add a RAM card which you can copy the internal stuff to and alter.

Each group can hold 5 performances.  Each performance controls keyboard
parameters, 5 parts, a rhythm part, the effect unit and the MIDI output 
configuration.  Keyboard parameters control access of the keyboard and MIDI
to the 6 parts.  The keyboard can only play one part at a time, of course.
But, via MIDI you can access all parts at one time.  Each of the 5 parts can
access one patch.  The rhythm part is comprised to tones assigned to keys.
The effect unit provides reverb and chorus and, though considered part of
a performance, gets most of its programming at the patch level as tones get
routed through it in many different ways.  The MIDI output controls allow 
you to send on as many as 4 MIDI channels by dividing the keyboard up into
as many as 4 zones.  You can overlap the zones if you want.  And, it gives
you choice of normal velocity for two channels in overlapping zones, 
cross-fading (low velocity for one channel, high for the other) or mixing
(one channel tends to dominate the low end and the other tends to dominate
the higher end of velocity ).  Zones for parts are defined separately from the
MIDI output configuration, which allows you to control other synths at ranges
outside the part zones.

Each part can hold one of 128 patches.  Each patch has from one to four tones.
Each tone has the following values that are quickly and easily modifiable from
the "tone palette".  For many of these you get to use sliders to control the
values and can hear the results as you make adjustments.  The values you can
control for each tone are level, pan, tuning, cutoff frequency, resonance, 
attack and release.  These get you into menus that are pretty easy to navigate
through.  Each tone can have a chorus and a reverb selection.  The choices
for reverb include 3 rooms, 2 halls, 1 gate, 1 delay and 1 cross delay (which
pans between left and right).  The level of reverb can have one of 32 settings 
or can be turned off.  There are 32 settings for delay and reverb times 
(actual time seems not to be indicated and might vary according to the effects 
selected) and there are 32 settings for number of repeats for the delays.
These variable parameters can be controlled with the sliders.

With the chorusing, you have choices of two choruses, a mix of chorus and 
flanging, flanging and short delay.  You can control level, rate, depth and
feedback.  These variable parameters can be controlled with the sliders.

Now, at this point I need to take a quick breather.  Think about it.  What we
have here is the ability to create a synth that can generate 30 voices, each
of which can have its own reverb, panning, levels and chorus set.  And, these
are very quiet effects.  I can't hear any noise.  Try doing this much with
outboard gear and you would do serious damage to your credit rating.  How much
would about 13 MIDIverbs and a mixer with 30 inputs and 13 sends go for these
days?  And, this is all digital, high-bandwidth and low-noise/wide-amplitude
stuff.  And, you can still send out a dry mix for other outboard processing.

Each tone is created from an original tone.  You can start with the raw PCM
sample, or you can take just a snippet of the sample.  The latter they call 
Differential Loop Modulation.  They use two algorithms for tying the snippets
together but go into no details about it.  Instead, they have you fiddle with
the sliders to see what sounds good.  A bit frustrating, but this conforms more
with how most folks tweek.  This goes through three stages: wave generator,
time variant filter and time variant amplifier.  An LFO can modulate each of 
these stages.  And, you have an envelope generator for each stage.  

What you do not get is a two-tone system at this level for doing cross-fading
and such.  Remember, that's controlled at the part level.  I think this is
one reason why some original tones from SN-U110 PCM cards won't work like you
might suspect.  As a side note, you can basically plug in cards for a U110,
U220 or U20 into this thing.  Most of the stuff will work, except with the
rock drums card.  But, I expect that these cards take little advantage of
the D70.  They have only one card out so far that is just for the D70.  More
are expected in the future.  This is a weak area for Roland, but mostly 
because this thing is a beast.  (In fact, I've named this one "Beast" in honor
of a family pet.) Of the 119 PCM samples on board, 47 are acoustic, 44 are 
synthesizer and 28 are percussion.  The DLM feature creates a mind-boggling 
set of possibilties from these samples.  And, the samples provided pretty much 
cover the bases so that you should be able to get a reasonable approximation 
of whatever sound you want.  I expect to add new sound cards as they come out.  
May start with the first one soon.  In the software they have space for only 
32 different U110 cards and only 32 D70 cards, probably because they try to 
pack a lot into each card.

The PCM sample can be used whole.  If you go the DLM route you can choose
the start point (from one of 128 locations) and one of 128 lengths.  I expect
that this is like creating a sample loop with a regular sampler.  I don't know
how they do this.  They probably just divide up the PCM samples and set the
locations.  The reverb and chorusing have already been covered, so I won't
repeat that here.

Pitch generation is done with an envelope that gives you attack, sustain and
release.  You can control key following to get different tempering for a
tone.  This reminds me very much of what Yamaha does which allows you to go
with other than standard scales.  Unlike Yamaha, they do this by percentage
increments rather than by refering to non-standard scales by name.  The pitch 
envelope attack and release times can be made to vary according to pitch, again 
reminding me of a good Yamaha feature in the TX81Z I used to have.  And, you 
can alter the pitch envelope to vary pitch with attack and release.

The time variant filter (TVF) has a five stage filter.  You get attack, two
decays, sustain and release.  With this complicated a wave, they start drawing
out the wave and let you see and hear it change as you tweek.  A far cry from
having to mess with guessing numbers for envelopes on the TX81Z ...  If you
use the filter, you have your choice of low pass, high pass or band pass.
You can add resonance and control its value.  You get a choice of four velocity
curves and can have velocity variance according to key position.  You can
control the depth of the envelope that varies the cutoff frequency, which can 
be negative though I don't yet fully understand what an inverted envelope does. 
I suspect an inverted envelope causes the cutoff frequency to be below the
key's normal frequency.  Envelope depth can be varied according to velocity.
And, the attack, decay and release times can be make to vary according to
velocity and release velocity.

As would be expected, the time variant amplifier (TVA) is much the same as the
TVF except that instead of cutoff frequency we're talking amplitude.  And,
there is no negative envelope.

The LFO can alter pitch, cutoff frequency and amplitude.  You have your choice
of triangle, sine, square, rising saw and random.  A bit unexpectedly, you only 
get one LFO per patch.  There are 128 frequencies, but no mention of cycle 
times.  There are 16 settings of delay and 16 of rise before the LFO kicks in.  
You can also add offset to the LFO (-100%, -50%, 0%, 50%, 100%).  Depth of the 
pitch, cutoff frequency and amplitude modulation can be varied from -64 to
+63.  Negative values "flip" the waveforms.  So, with a negative depth you
can virtually create a falling sawtooth wave from the rising wave initially provided.

Rhythm tones are treated slightly differently from synth tones.  Happily,
you don't have to just use the original tones from the percussion samples.
Lots of possibilities here.  Because rhythm tones are assigned to keys, they
tend not to explicitly vary in pitch according to key.  You can, however, 
assign pitch as a key is assigned.  And, the pitch can go up or down during
the attack.  Attack time can be set, too.  A special feature allows you to
specify a second key that when hit will cause the tone to be muted.  This is
useful when emulating a hi-hat, for example.  Filter controls are similar to 
those of synth tones.  And, you get effects as with the synth tones.  I really 
like being able to, for example, add room reverb to a snare drum without 
having to devote an outboard FX box.  One thing that is interesting is that
it should be possible to layer and cross-fade a percussion key with another
tone from a synth patch.  This would give you the ability to do some of the
cross-fading tricks like what's done with the R8 drum machine.  All in all,
this makes for a very flexible, high-quality percussion system inside the
D70.

Last of all, time to talk about impressions.  The demo is, unlike what you
get in some machines, something that you could actually do with an outboard
sequencer.  I went with an MC50, which is a beautiful match as it has the
capacity and the flexibility to keep up with doing just about anything you
want to do with the D70 at a price that mere mortals can afford.  It's the
type of demo that you can let people listen to when you are trying to justify
putting out the bucks for this thing.  This box really delivers big bang for
the buck if you consider what you'd have to pay to get the same quality and
power with outboard gear.  But, unlike other workstations I've seen, because 
there is so much in this thing it will probably be quite a while before I
outgrow it.  I know, famous last words, but I was pretty happy with what I had
before and could have lived with it for a long time were it not that I had
to drop MIDI for a while.  This system is much more powerful than what I had.
Nice, very nice.

Finally, to give you a taste of what the inner-most core of the machine is,
I have attached a list of the PCM samples.  Where there are multiple copies
seem to be multi-samples.  This is probably why it has such a good piano, 
organ and other emulations.  I believe that the PCM cards tend to have lots
of multi-samples as well.  In addition to these, there are a few hints about
how to use DLM to get organ, triangle, sawtooth and noise waveforms using
DLM and a few of the PCM waveforms.  In the factory preset of the rhythm 
keyboard settings they use most of the percussion original tones and a few
of the other tones.  There is a virtually limitless number of percussion
patches that can be created.  

One more thing.  I plan to dump all of the internal data to disk before 
hacking any of it.  With all the control you get, it's quite possible to make 
it a radically different sounding and performing beast than what it is coming 
out of the box.  By saving the factory settings I'll be able to recover it all 
and explore the tricks that are used for a lot of the settings.  They designed
the settings with this in mind, apparently.

This is the end of the review.  I've left out a lot of stuff.  Like, I didn't
mention the menu accelerators and other features that allow you to tweek sounds
during performance.  Or, the ability to assign a C1 slider on tke keyboard to
function as a controller for effects or whatever.  Or, that you have three
pedal inputs (two switches and one linear), one of which can turn all effects 
on or off.  Or, that it has a headphone output.  Or, that it has a panic
function that resets most parameters not only onboard, but also over MIDI.
Or, that it has a relatively large back-lit display.  Or, that the manual seems
to be much better than Roland is known for.  On and on.

What will Roland do next?  Well, I expect that one of these days we'll be able
to load, edit and store PCM samples over MIDI.  There will probably be
enhancements to the DLM editing to make that easier.  They'll probably add
more voices and effects.  Perhaps we'll be able to have even more control over
effects and settings.  Instead of sounding like a small orchestra, one box
will sound like a large orchestra.  But, I suspect that the D70, like the D50,
will have a relatively long lifetime.

Steve

A. Piano 1
A. Piano 2
A. Piano 3
A. Piano 4
E. Piano 1
E. Piano 2
Bright EP
E. Organ 1
E. Organ 2
E. Organ 3
E. Organ 4
R. Organ
A. Guitar
E. Guitar 1
E. Guitar 2
Heavy EG
Slap 1
Slap 2
Slap 3
Slap 4
Slap 5
Fingered
Picked
Fretless
Ac. Bass
Choir
Strings 1
Strings 2
Soft Tp
Tp/Trb 1
Tp/Trb 2
Tp/Trb 3
Brass
Sax 1
Sax 2
Sax 3
Flute
Shaku
Calliope
Pan Pipes
Bagpipes
Balaphone
Btrimbao
Kalimba
Cymbalon
Vib
Marimba
Fantasynth
JP Strings
Syn. VOX 1
Syn. VOX 2
Synth Harp
Digl Bell
Fanta Bell
Dist 5th
Soft Syn
Bass LP
Bell LP
Harp Atk
Pizz
EP Wave
Clave Wave
Lite Wave
B-3 Wave
Sax Wave
Blo Wave
Syn Wave 1
Syn Wave 2
Syn Pulse 1
Syn Pulse 2
Syn Pulse 3
Syn Square
Syn Tri
Syn Saw 1
Syn Saw 2
Syn Saw 3
Digital 1
Digital 2
Digital 3
Digital 4
Digital 5
Digital 6
Digital 7
Digital 8
Digital 9
Whitenoise
Breath
Spectrum 1
Spectrum 2
Noise 1
Noise 2
Snaredrum1
Snaredrum2
Snaredrum3
Snaredrum4
Snaredrum5
Kick 1
Kick 2
Kick 3
Kick 4
Tom 1
Tom 2
Hi-hat
China Cym
Crash Cym
Ride Bell
Side Stick
Sticks
Cabasa
Claps
Cowbell
808 Snare
808 Hi-hat
808 Tom
Elec Tom
808 Claves
Click
Agogo
Orch Hit

      thanks, Steve.  nice job.

    Hey, anytime.  You know, I think we mentioned this before.  For the
    next Commusic tape, we ought to have a section where we do the synth
    built-in demos and such.  Maybe the theme of the next tape should be
    something like, "What It Iz, What It Duz".  It would allow us to show
    what various synths, drum boxes, FX boxes, composition algorithms and such 
    could do and could serve as a reference.  I'd volunteer, but I don't
    have appropriate recording equipment.  I'd be glad to help.  
    
    Steve  

I just found a real interesting "gotcha" last night when running the D70 and
changing performances.  It actually turns out to be a feature, but can bite
the new D70 user.  Basically, the D70 has MIDI in and out with the MC50.
The D70 is set to "local" mode, so the keyboard is isolated from the synth
portion of the D70.  That is, the keyboard sends MIDI to the MC50, which sends 
it back to the D70, which then plays the sounds.  Before settting it up this
way, I could select a performance and then select the "Ghosties" patch.  But,
when set up with the sequencer, when I select a performance and select the 
"Ghosties" patch, I get the "E. Trumpets" patch sound, even though "Ghosties"
still appears on the screen.  So, what happened?

What happened is that when the performance was selected without the MIDI
feedback it functioned as expected.  But, when the MIDI feedback was
introduced, the MIDI palette for the performance was invoked.  This palette
sends MIDI messages when the performance is invoked.  The intention is that
you can send level and program change messages to an external box so that it
will be all set for the performance with a zone on the keyboard controlling it.
The program change number in the MIDI palette, however, has nothing to do with 
the 5 patches that are in the performance.  So, here's what happens.

First, the performance is entered.  5 patches are set up and the D70 is ready
to respond in multitimbral fashion with "Ghosties" on channel 1.  The screen
is basically attached to the keyboard and other controls, so it gets updated.
Then, it sends the MIDI messages according to what's in the MIDI palette.  
These messages go to the MC50 and come back to the D70.  They include a program
change message that tells the D70 to use patch "E. Trumpets" when responding
to channel 1.  I think I have "Ghosties" on channel 1 because that's what's on 
the screen.  But, the D70 has been reconfigured over MIDI to play "E. Trumpets"
on channel 1.  Since this is an instruction for the synth portion of the D70
and not for the control portion, the screen is not updated.  I wouldn't want
an update either because things could get mighty confusing if I'm in
multi-timbral mode, the sequencer is playing the synth portion of the D70, and
the D70 controls are being used to play another synth.  (Of course, things
would be confusing then anyway, so all bets would be off.)

At first I wondered if turning off the MIDI OUT link mode would fix this.  But, 
all this does is keep the MIDI palette values from being updated in the 
temporary area when you select a new performance.  The way to defeat this 
behavior is to go into the MIDI palette for the performance and turn off the 
MIDI flag for each of the four zones.

This is not a bug, it's a feature.  Reason is that for a given performance you
can have any of 5 patches, each responding to MIDI channels and note ranges.
But, the MIDI palette could at most match only one of the patch selections.
So, you are bound to have funny things happen when you go to different
performances and have the synth isolated from the keyboard.

If you really want to be able to change patches by sending program changes as
a result of changing performances, the solution is to remember to correlate the 
MIDI palette of each performance with only one set of four patches and zones.  
Then, if you switch performances you will get the patches and zones you expect. 
There are 64 performances, so there's a fair amount of headroom for selecting 
any of the 128 patches.  If you really want to be able to select 128 patches 
by selecting from 128 performances, then you can add the RAM card.  But, the 
patches that can be selected from the RAM card's performances have to be on 
the RAM card and a similar restriction applies for internal peformances.


Steve

    Ensoniq synths have a similar setup, they call them "templates" and
    they double as control pages for the on-board sequencer.  Unlike the
    D-70 they *do* update based on MIDI input.  In fact, the same template
    is used for setting up patches that will be controlled over MIDI and
    the patches that are external to the synth and being controlled from
    the keyboard.  This bypasses the problem you described.  It does get
    weird, though, watching the display updating the values as a sequence
    is being played.
    
    Another thing you might want to watch out for (not sure if this is part
    of your problem) is that on machines which have hierarchal structures
    where the "patches" are contained in "performances", the program change
    messages to select new performances need to be sent over a MIDI channel
    which is *not* used within the performance.  This can get hard on a
    synth like the Yamaha TG-33 which allows 16-way multitimbral operation;
    it's possible to use *all* the channels, making it impossible to have
    a "global" control channel.  
    
    Another machine which has a messy architecture in this regard is the
    Kawai K1; all "single" patches lie in the range 0-63, while all the
    "multis" (performances) lie between 64-95.  Obvious confusion reigns if
    you're inside a multi and send out a program change greater then 63 on
    a channel assigned to one part of the multi.  
    
    								Brian

    re .52 - Steve :
>This is not a bug, it's a feature.  Reason is that for a given performance you
>can have any of 5 patches, each responding to MIDI channels and note ranges.
    
    Steve, the above phrase caught my attention. 
    
    Does it mean that if I have already recorded sequencer tracks, and am
    now using the D70 as an SGU, the most patches/keyboard setups it can
    respond to via MIDI is *5* ?  As in, separate keyboard setups each
    responding to its own MIDI channel ?
    
    thx - karl

    
>    Does it mean that if I have already recorded sequencer tracks, and am
>    now using the D70 as an SGU, the most patches/keyboard setups it can
>    respond to via MIDI is *5* ?  As in, separate keyboard setups each
>    responding to its own MIDI channel ?
    
Hi, Karl!

The immediate answer to your question is "yes".  But, it is not as much of a
restriction as it might seem.  

The SGU can have 5 patches running and a rhythm track.  Each patch resulting 
from a program change can have a MIDI channel and 4 tones, each tone having
its own zone.  So, the SGU is limited to playing 20 *different* tones plus 
whatever you stick on the rhythm track.  And, you are limited to a total of 30 
tones playing at one time with in excess of 20 different tones.

"Excess" is because if you want, you can put synth sounds on the rhythm track 
on each key and tune the pitch for that key.  If you use, say, 10 keys for 
rhythm you still have 66 that you can use for other tones.  So, if you really 
want to you can create a 96-piece orchestra spread across 6 MIDI channels 
with 30 of them able to play at a time.  64 program changes could be used to 
set up 20 of them with different instruments from a palette of 128 instruments.
Make that 128, 20 and 256 with the RAM card.


Steve

    Roland - 'tones' and 'zones' -arggh.
    
    So what you've got is 5 keyboard setups, each responding to its own
    MIDI channel, and a buncha keyboard splits to give multitimbrality.
    Sounds like each keyboard setup/preset (to use an E-Mu phrase) is
    limited to 4 'tones' ?  What about, like, solo piano stuff where I
    might use more fingers ?
    
    I really don't know why I'm asking - definitely not in the market. I
    said, I'm DEFINITELY NOT IN THE MARKET.  Am I listening ? ;-)
    
    karl

    In Rolandese, L/A variant, "tones" are layered together to form
    "timbres", what the rest of us used to call a patch.  So, as on the
    D-50, if you want to make use of splits within a part they must be less
    complex than the maximum complexity allowed on the machine.  
    
    I.e. that killer sound that uses four tones can't be part of a split
    (unless the other half of the split is a subset of those four tones).
    Sort of harks back to our old buddy, the MT32 "how many notes"
    controversy; to get 32 notes out of the box you had to use less complex
    sounds, the most complex sounds only allowed 8 notes.
    
    						Brian

    
    I botched it up the first time.  Let's see if I can get the reply right
    this time.
    
    A piano (and it's a good piano) will require one patch (4 sampled tones
    spread across the keyboard).  That leaves 4 MIDI channels and 16 tones
    for other stuff, not including the rhythm channel/keyboard.  Each of
    the 4 patches still has its choice of level, assignment of effects,
    levels and panning to tones, and so forth.
    
    I was grossly inaccurate before about how the effects tie together.  Each
    tone or patch, by itself, does not have direct access to chorus or reverb
    settings.  At the performance level, the settings for reverb and chorus 
    are determined for all of the patches in the performance.  This includes 
    how or if chorus is attached to reverb (pre- or post-).  At the patch
    level tones can be attached to the chorus (with or without reverb), reverb 
    only, straight to the mix output, or to the dry output.  Thus, with 5 
    patches you have only one set of settings for reverb and chorusing 
    possible but can pan tones individually and attach them to the effects
    in different ways.  At the performance level, you can also assign each
    key to an original tone with panning and output assignment.  This means 
    that there is only 1 FX box inside for the 6 parts along with mixing 
    capabilities for each tone.  In other words, I lied about having lots of 
    FX boxes inside as far as chorusing and reverb.
    
    Part of what threw me is that there are PCM samples with FX already in
    them, like snare drum.  But, hey, I'm still learning about this thing.
    
    Also, if the system setup control channel is enabled, you CAN call up
    performances by sending program change messages.  That saves having to
    do extra program changes to select all the patches.
    
    Steve                                       

    re: .57
    
    They have improved on this with the D70.  In a performance, you can set
    the zone for each of the four parts.  Each part can call up a 4-tone patch.
    So, you can get four tones to each patch and divide the keyboard up
    into, say, four zones each with a four-tone patch.  With 30 tones, you
    can hi2 keys in 3 zones, 1 key in the fourth zone and have two tones
    left, all at once with four of the four-tone patches sounding.
                                                                         
    Steve

    I keep discovering new stuff with this synth.  I can see a mixer,
    off-board FX and maybe a sampler in the future to go with this.  For
    now, though, I can do just about anything I want.  Since I am limited
    to 30 voices, I usually try to skim down on the number of tones that a
    patch will use.  For example, if a string patch uses two tones and it
    sounds fine with just one tone I'll kill one tone.  But, the problem
    you run into is the classic problem of a single sample tone not being
    as rich.  What I'm learning now is the value of the DLM tones.
    
    DLM is the wild part of the synth.  I figure all good synths have a
    wild aspect, else they become uninteresting after a while.  (Guess
    that's why some synths are 'male' and others 'female'?  Okay, okay, I'm
    sorry.  Hold it down ...)  Anyway, I note that what few DLM tones are
    there sound more like layered tones even though they are single tones.
    The reason for this is probably that DLM tones are typically rich as
    far as the frequency spectrum goes.  So, I think I'll start looking to
    DLM tones for generating pads that are interesting yet only use a few
    tones.  
    
    I wish Roland would get on the ball as far as the PCM cards go.  My
    guess is that they are still selling lots of U220 cards.  I probably
    wouldn't buy one, though.
    
    Steve

    BTW, don't remember if I mentioned this or not.  E. U. Wurlitzer's in
    Worcester was the place that I got mine from.  Arranged financing with
    them at 14.5% with Baybank.  They gave me a price of something under $1700 
    for the unit.  I didn't haggle about price, but I found over the network
    that the best price found mail order was $1709.  At the time I also got
    an MC50.  They threw in a sustain pedal for free.  Just recently I got
    a thank you note from Lisa Ventriglia who was the sales person I worked
    with.  She pointed me to the unit, but also helped me look at
    alternatives (T3 and WS).  I was already pretty informed, but it was
    good to get the feedback based on what I wanted to do.  It is so nice,
    here a month or so after getting the unit, to still be pleased with it
    and not to have that feeling that I paid too much or that the unit is
    not what I want.  I did business with Wurly's before.  I'll probably do
    business with them again.
    
    Steve

    Here's some more I've learned whilst playing with the beast:
    
    With 30 voices I've found that the percussion can sometimes be "off".
    This is apparently not the voice losing bug of earlier versions as I
    have, I think, a later operating system.  Rather, this is probably
    because at certain times I have too many MIDI messages coming at once
    and the percussion winds up coming in last and getting delayed.
    
    This is not the problem you can have with percussion samples lasting
    too long and causing voice problems when going at fast speeds.  The
    solution to that, by the way, is to start using the voice stealing
    options and shorten the percussion tones.
    
    The solution to my problem was simple.  I just "arpeggiated" some of
    the tones so that some occurred 1, 2, 3 or so MIDI ticks after the
    place where the percussion hit.  There is no noticeable audio
    difference except that the percussion hits dead on now.
    
    Another thing is that the rhythm setup is WONDERFUL.  As you may
    recall, for each group of 5 patches (performance) you get a rhythm
    setup.  In this setup, each key can be assigned an original tone and
    you get FX routing, TVA, TVF, pitch control, LFO panning, muting and so
    forth.  So, it's easy to set up lots of drums for a performance.  The 
    amount of control is really powerful, allowing for lots of variety.
    I'm especially appreciating this because a piece I'm working on now
    calls for a sort of heartbeat, muffled type of booming drum.  No
    problem.  Set up the filtering for low-pass, played with the TVA and
    TVF envelopes and BOOM, there is was.  The envelopes are really quick
    to mess with since you can see the envelopes in the display, tweek
    values with the dial and hear the results all at the same time.
    
    I found a major nit, but there is a workaround.  The D70 transmits both
    attack velocity and release velocity.  BUT, the MC50 does not recognize
    release velocity.  BOO, HISS, ROLAND!  Fortunately, the D70 allows
    real time level transmission using the sliders and display.  So, for
    those few places where I've really needed to vary the release I've been
    able to do the same thing by controlling the levels with the sliders.
    It's kind of fun to watch the pictures of the sliders move on playback.
    There is a major limit to this, though.  You are limited to altering
    levels only on the patch assigned to the keyboard, since what you are
    doing is yanking the keyboard controls via MIDI.  But, you can do this
    type of modulation with 4 tones (one patch) so there are usually ways
    to work things.  This same trick can, of course, be used to mess with 
    other patch parameters as well.  Should be interesting later on.
    
    I'm beginning to see why Roland has been so slow coming out with PCM
    cards for the D70.  The machine is really good if you have an idea in
    your head and need to get the sound out.  Used to be that you'd go out
    and buy the card that had sounds that were close.  But, with this thing
    it's pretty easy to get something that is close pretty quickly and with
    the samples that are on board.
    
    What more do I want?  Well, I still would like a "real" vibraslap. 
    But, I'm sure that if I really need one I'll be able to hack up
    something that is close, even if it requires some sort of
    rapid-attack thing using the MC50.  Adding sound cards seems more of a
    convenience than a necessity.
    
    One of these days I may play with more sound effects.  While making
    that booming drum I played with filter resonance.  To my surprise,
    I had a water-drop sound like what you'd expect to hear in a cave or a
    rainstorm.  I'll have to remember that little trick.  I expect to be
    able to use a snare sample as the basis for creating thunder sounds.  
    Lots of variation of that should also be possible.  Even though there
    are a bunch of samples intended for percussion, any of the samples can
    be used for percussion.  Whole new world to open up there.
    
    Steve

    Correction.  You only get 1 rhythm section with the D70.  It's 76
    timbres, but only one section.  Too bad, but I can see why they did it
    this way.  It's still very powerful.  But, when you are doing several
    different performances you have to keep in mind that you have to use
    the same rhythm section for each.  Right now, the percussion is
    scattered over the entire range for all the pieces.  I think that in
    the future I'll zone the keyboard for each performance, putting, say, a
    kit from E1 to C2, another from D2 to C3 and so on.  I can still access
    all of the timbres with each performance, of course.
    
    One sort of nice thing is that when you alter the rhythm section it is
    not brought into temporary memory like the performances, patches and
    tones.  So, any changes you make to the rhythm section are immediate
    and don't have to be written to non-volatile memory.
    
    Steve

    Wurly's and Roland were very responsive on this issue.  I get to have this 
    fixed for free if I don't blab too much about the details.  If any of
    you really have a "need to know" I'll disclose details off line.  But,
    out of respect for their wishes I'm not going to say more in this
    "public" forum.
         
    Steve

    By the way, for those of you thinking about running to your dealers
    with this "bug", you have to prove that you have found the bug.  I'll
    have to bring my system in today and demonstrate to them that I found
    it.  This is actually an opportunity for me to show off, so I don't
    mind.  In exchange, I get a free fix (the synth, that is).
    
    Steve

For those of you that care, Roland has one, count 'em, one sound card for the
D70.  Now, I know what you're thinking and you need to stop and pay attention
or you'll go blind.  You might also be thinking that this is a PCM card that
will, hopefully, fill in the gap where U110 cards won't cut it.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!  This card plugs into the RAM slot, not the PCM slot!
It is nothing more than a RAM card with different presets from the internal
presets.  Worse, the rhythm section is the SAME as the internal rhythm section.
Exactly the same.  What you get are more presets similar to what you get with
the original machine.  I've already trashed many of those, favoring to tweek
and diddle with patches and tones of my own.  In fact, if you really want
the preset, have no scruples and have a buddy that does too, you COULD go buy
the card, dump it to internal memory, dump it to a RAM card and save the cost
of buying two of these things.

Roland has yet to come out with any PCM cards for the D70.  Folks are crying 
for the new cards, especially since some of the more popular U110 cards won't 
work on the D70.  I'm looking for some sort of announcement from Roland within 
the year of a set of PCM cards for the D70.  This SHOULD include a vibraslap 
on a latin card (to replace one of the poplular cards that won't work on the 
D70).  I'll probably get a latin card and a card that has more acoustic 
samples.  

BUT ... and this is a big but (not to be confused with what you're sitting on) 
... for most applications the on-board samples are sufficient to do so much 
that I have yet to find very many sounds that I can't come close to, as far as 
stuff that I want to do.  Anyway ...  


Steve

    Well, it's been about a month and I still don't have my D70 back.
    It surely isn't Wurly's fault.  They have been most helpful and have
    gone beyond the "norm".  Lisa has, especially lately, been calling
    the service folks and Roland every day to see what is going on.  She 
    gives me a call once or twice a week now just to let me know what's 
    happening.  The first problem was that the service center in Worcester 
    wanted to have the synth before they would order the part.  They wanted 
    to verify the problem.  They ordered the part from Roland, who dragged 
    heels.  Lisa badgered them into getting the board out.  They sent the 
    right board, but with the wrong version of ROM.  Back it went.  Now, 
    they're (again) waiting for Roland to send a new board, so very little 
    real progress has been made.  But, Lisa is riding it pretty heavily.
    
    I'm pretty sure that Roland is doing this intentionally.  They are
    going to fix it for free, but by dragging their heels there is a
    greater chance that I'll demand to have my synth back without the
    upgrade - which of course would be cheaper for them.  I'm sticking to
    it, even though I could get a call any day that would require having
    it.  Lisa/Wurly's have been on my side all along the way.
    
    Here's where it's good to deal with a local dealer.  Lisa says Wurly's
    will help me out if I need to get a D70 on an emergency basis.  So,
    they have reduced my risk.  More, I needed to get a QX5 to dump my old
    sequences from tape to my MC50.  Wurly's let me borrow one gratis.
    They've been polite, courteous and committed to keeping me happy.
    I believe I have become a loyal customer.  Now, if I could just have my
    synth back ... ;^)  If any of you stop by there and see Lisa or Jim or,
    can't remember the other guy, Jay?, feel free to mention that you heard 
    about the excellent support they are giving one appreciative Commusicer.  
    Good folks out there.
    
    Steve
                   

    Okay, I got my D70 back a couple of days ago.  I have noticed a few
    differences.  The vibrato problem went away, yay!  They upgraded the
    ROM to version 1.16, which is supposed to be the very latest.  Other
    things I note are that some of the displays seem to have more
    infomation that is new.  Don't know what it all means yet.  They
    haven't apparently changed or deleted anything from before, just added
    stuff in some empty spaces.  It'll be up to me, I'm sure, to figure it
    out.  Also, at initialization it doesn't do the cutesy scrolling of the
    "D70" figure.  Instead, it has an "initializing ..." message and comes
    up much more quickly.  I suspect that the long wait was just so that it
    could do the cutesy display.  The demo sounds the same as do the
    voices.  I haven't noticed any significant differences as far as voice
    edits or parameters.
    
    BTW, I am hacking up a believable dulcimer patch in the rhythm section.
    Basically I take on of the electric guitar original tones, do high-pass
    filtering with the frequency cranked way up, diddle with the TVF and
    TVA parameters to ramp the filtering up during the attack and then die
    off naturally.  Next, I need to layer on identical tones that are a few
    semitones off to get that double-string effect.  This sounds a little
    complicated, but really it's pretty easy since many of the parameters
    are edited graphically.  By meshing the dulcimer into the rhythm setup
    I can use the rhythm patterns in the drum machine to play it and don't
    end up using any synth patches.  It's fun.
    
    Steve

>    out.  Also, at initialization it doesn't do the cutesy scrolling of the
>    "D70" figure.  Instead, it has an "initializing ..." message and comes
>    up much more quickly.  I suspect that the long wait was just so that it
>    could do the cutesy display.

You were able to disable that cutesy display before, it's just not documented.
The top row of patch selection buttons each have a different feature assigned
to them. To discover the feature hold down one of those buttons and power
on the D70. One button toggles which startup display you get, another tells
you the current operating system rev, another puts you into bulk load mode,
another disables the keyboard from the control channel. If you have trouble
figuring out which is which let me know, I will try it at home and report back
what I find.

Mike
(another D70 owner who's been enjoying your entries, but hasn't had enough
 time to fully explore what his D70 can do yet)

    Which one clears out all the preset tones?  :^)  ... but, I wouldn't be
    surprised if there were such a function ...
    
    Steve

Believe it or not, one of the functions (8 or 9) asks you if you want to
clear out all memory.

Mike

    FWIW, I tried holding down patch buttons at power up.  Nothing
    different happens.  Looks like changes were made ... :(
    
    Steve

From:	DECWRL::"tuan@sequent.com" "Tuan Nguyen" 23-JUL-1991 00:54:37.86
To:	ricks::sherman 
CC:	
Subj:	Re: D70 upgrade info? 

Hi Steve,
 
Version 1.16 ??? wow !!! and I'm only 1.11 ?? ... ???
 
Here is what the ver 1.11 have as bux fixes and new features !!
 
BTW, what do the 1.16 have anyway??? Is there other buxes that I have not
encounter ???? Could you please what's else is new ???
 
thanks,
tuan.
 
BUS FIXES and NEW FEATURES!
 
1. The polyphony problem that occured when using the D-70 in a multitimbral
mode has been greatly improved. This problem was mainly attributed to a
software bug.
 
2. When editing in the "Controller Map" menu, and indicator (*) will show
up at the top of the menu next to the Performance patch number confirming
that you are performing an edit function.
 
3. Rhythm tone data that would have been corrupted when performing a system
exclusive load will now load properly.
 
4. Currently the D-70 will send a program change message every time you call
up a new "Performance" patch. This can be a real problem when using  the
D-70 with a sequencer.  In this situation, choosing a performance patch would
send a program change message on one or all four (if all of them are active)
of your transmit channels back to the D-70 and totally reconfigure the patches
you have assigned to your parts.
 
Ver 1.11 allows you to defeat the transmission of program change messages with
the following procedure:
 
	a. Power up the D-70 holding down "Bank" button number 2.
	b. In the "System Setup" menu, "PG" will be displayed in the bottom
 	   left portion of the menu.
 
5. Currently the only way to use the C1 slider and/or help pedal to lower
the volume of a particular part is to assign it to TVA level. This also 
requires changing the TVA level of each tone in your patch to a value of 0
Ver1.11 allows you to assign the C1 slider and/or Expression pedal to Part
lever rather than TVA level with the following procedure (this will effect 
the keyboard pan that is currently called up under the "Part Parameter 1"
menu of your "Performance" patch):
 
	a. Power up the D-70 holding down "Bank" button number 1.
	b. In the "System Setup" menu, "EX" will be displayed in the
	   bottom left portion of the menu.
 
6. Powering up the D-70 holding down button number 4 will still disable MIDI
note events from being sent out on the "Control Channel" , but this setting
will now be displayed in the "System Setup" menu as a "KY".
 
7. System Exclusive dumps/loads using the regular Sys/Ex mode located in the
System Setup menu, now work properly but will still take a long time.
 
8. Transferring system exclusive data from the temporary patch area to a 
sequencer or computer will now function properly (this function had a bug in
the old software). One thing to note with this procedure is that when loading
the "Temp" patch back into the D-70 from your storage device, the name of the 
patch will not appear unless you write the patch into memory.
 
Note: Any of the new power-up features can be alternately reversed by 
      repeating the same procedure.
 
      These features will be remembered even after the unit has been 
      powered off
 
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Date: Mon, 22 Jul 91 21:44:30 -0700
From: Tuan Nguyen <tuan@sequent.com>
Message-Id: <9107230444.AA26358@crg8.sequent.com>
To: ricks::sherman
Subject: Re: D70 upgrade info?

    I've now played with the buttons during power up a bit more.  Looks
    like they've done some reassignments.  I have been able to get it to
    show the OS number and have gotten screens that show maintenance
    settings and such.  The features previously mentioned are really neat.
    I've also gotten the window that allows you to dump stuff to MIDI.
    
    Steve

    Got my first real hardware error between my D70 and MC50.  I think it
    was due to power glitch.  I get these every once in a while.  Caused
    one or more sysex's to get interpreted by the MC50 as PB's.  Boo, hiss!
    Had to restore from a backup disk dump and recreate a patch that got 
    trashed.  Bummer.  But, it has (so far) been pretty easy.  The error was 
    not reproducible.  But, from here on I'm going to be sure to scan the MC50 
    dump after it's done to make sure that all it got were sysex's.
    
    Found out how they did that sound on ST:TNG where the Enterprise slows
    down from warp drive.  They basically run a snare drum sample through a
    filter and (I think) add some resonance.  It's on the rhythm setup on
    the, what is it? ... D#7 key?  Something like that.
    
    Steve

    Well ...  that problem with the sysex's getting trashed?  It's back.
    Looks like the D70 is at fault.  When I dump the original contents, no
    problem.  But, after I hack at the sounds and try to dump, magically I
    get PB's on channels 1, 3 and 16.  It always fries at the same place in
    the dump sequence, which also tends to rule out the MC50 trashing on a
    random basis.  I think it's the D70 because according to the D70 specs 
    it waits a bit (20 mS) between each sysex packet.  These PB's are being 
    sent about 1 MIDI clock after or so.  They land one on top of another 
    and in rapid succession.  Otherwise, I observe a neat gap of about 30
    MIDI clock pulses (maybe?) between sysex's as large as 250 bytes or so
    coming from the D70.  The sequencer is running at 120 bpm.  The sysex's 
    that do make it are complete.  That is, nothing is getting chopped off 
    because I can see the F7 at the end of each of them.  I get a sysex error 
    message when I try sending it back to the D70.  And, if I monitor the
    track I can observe something coming in all at once on channels 1, 3
    and 16.
    
    Boo, hiss!  Looks like the D70 may be heading back ... again.  I'll give 
    Lisa at Wurly's a call in the morning.  MOST frustrating.
    
    Steve
            

    Called Roland on this one (from home during a break).  The number is
    (213) 685-5141, asked for a product specialist.  Spoke to "Mike".
    I now have a workaround.  The moral to this lesson is to ALWAYS check
    your dumps to MIDI to make sure that there are ONLY sysex's.  OR, 
    always use the procedure below.  By the way, the procedure below goes
    MUCH FASTER than the dump from window 27.
    
    1. Set the MC50 "THRU" to "OFF".  Otherwise, the dump will create a
    buffer overflow real quick.
    
    2. Power down the D70 and power it back up while holding the "NUMBER"
    "5" button.  The extended screen will come up.
    
    3. From this screen, you can dump the guts of the D70 to MIDI, dump
    from MIDI to the D70 and one other function.  Hit "F.1" to dump to
    MIDI.  It will ask you to hit "Enter", but don't do that yet.
    
    4. Start recording with the MC50.  After it hits measure 1, hit "Enter"
    on the D70.  The MC50 will die temporarily.  Not to worry.
    
    This dump takes a fraction of the time to do compared to using window
    27's "I -> M".  Once you have it, you can play it back normally to
    reconfigure the D70.  It takes about the same time, which is much
    faster than if the dump were created using window 27.
    
    The original problem is still there, of course.  But, this workaround
    is apparently a back door (undocumented in the manual, of course) that
    fixes a lot of ills one can get when doing data transfers between a
    sequencer and the D70.
    
    Steve
         

I've noticed there is a difference in the SYSEX data sent by doing the 
undocumented "number 5" approach versus the documented way.  The "number 5"
way (which I call the fast dump) sends and receives SYSEX data that appears to
be in some internal binary format. My assumption is that because it's in this
"compiled" format that it loads so much faster. The SYSEX data sent by the
documented method is sort of readable (i.e. you will see text of patch names)
if you dump the sysex file created. I only noticied this because I am in the
process of writing a program which will read the SYSEX dump file and create a
nicely formatted report of all my patches, tones, etc. and their current 
settings.

Mike

    Could be.  I know that the fast dump dumps gobs more stuff (verified by
    the size of the dump and by the fact that the address range on the
    display is much larger).  I suspect also that it segments the data like 
    the regular dump, but that it does not pause between sysex's like the 
    regular dump does.  I've now also discovered the purpose for the clear
    all memory function (I think that's "number 5").  
    
    During all this some bits wound up getting trashed internally.  In my
    case, I started getting the "no ram card" message virtually with every
    button push.  The solution was to clear all memory and reload the dump
    I did when I first got the synth back from the shop.  Cleared things
    up.  But, I still have dumps done that have patches but which also have
    munged areas, so I either have to buy a ram card (!) or just be careful
    to restore the system afterwards.
    
    By the way, my vibrato problem from way back is still there, just not
    as bad.  Looks like I'll need to generate my own workaround.  This is a
    very powerful machine.  But, the quality of the design is not as good
    as it should be.  Even so, I wouldn't trade this thing in.  It sounds
    great and (so far) I've been able to make it do what I want.  Sound
    familiar to you Ensoniq fans?
    
    Steve
         

>    During all this some bits wound up getting trashed internally.  In my
>    case, I started getting the "no ram card" message virtually with every
>    button push.  The solution was to clear all memory and reload the dump
>    I did when I first got the synth back from the shop.  Cleared things
>    up.  But, I still have dumps done that have patches but which also have
>    munged areas, so I either have to buy a ram card (!) or just be careful
>    to restore the system afterwards.

I did buy a ram card before I attempted changing the memory. I've since felt
safe enough to store other things on the ram card. I have found the fast bulk
dump to be very reliable. I don't think I have ever had a problem with it.

I have had a very difficult time getting the documented dump mode to work.
I occassionally have been able to dump from the d70 to my software sequencer,
but not the reverse. I keep getting midi buffer overflow errors. I am going
to make sure midi-thru is off, that may have been part of my problems.

Mike 

    Yes!  Turn THRU off, if it's an MC50 or any other sequencer that does a
    merge to the output and does buffering!  I think, BTW, that the reason 
    for my problem is that some of the tones got trashed after I tried
    loading in the bad sysex.  (Always remember to make sure everything's 
    clean as a whistle before doing sysex.  Isn't this called practicing 
    safe sysex?)  So, when I flip through them they try to access ram slot 
    postions.  I think that I'll poke around and see if that's what happened.  
    Would rather not have to copy down all the settings and enter them in by 
    hand after reload.
    
    Steve

    That vibrato problem was still bothering me but I FINALLY found out how
    to eliminate it entirely.  Turns out that for some odd reason, I had a
    patch that had the filter envelope way up and extended until long after
    the amplitude envelope had zeroed out.  By bringing it back to come
    close to the amplitude envelope the vibrato went back to normal.  My
    guess is that the D70 was trying to filter a signal that had been
    zeroed out and was somehow getting overflows.  Division- and
    multiplication-wise that can lead to massive calculations and massive
    CPUs.  No wonder the vibrato slowed down on parts.  This is only a
    guess, but it seems to work.
    
    The moral of this lesson is (assuming I'm correct), don't let the TVF 
    envolope extend too high and too far past the TVA.
    
    Steve

    Does the D-70 let you apply the TVF to PCM partials/structures?  A
    source of considerable frustration on the D-550 is that the really
    good pipe organs are PCM based.  I'm sequencing some of the classics
    of the French organ literature, which rely heavily on the use of the
    swell box (where the pipe are located behind louvered shutters that can
    be opened and closed with a pedal on the organ console) for dynamics.
    Closing the shutters cuts the high frequencies a lot more than the
    lows, so a realistic velocity sensitive pipe organ patch has to have
    the filter track velocity as well as the VCA/TVA.  On the D-50/550, 
    the TVF can only be applied to synth partials, and the synth partials
    just can't touch the PCM partials for good pipe organ sounds.
    
    len.
    
    

    >swell box (where the pipe are located behind louvered shutters that can
    >be opened and closed with a pedal on the organ console) for dynamics.
    >Closing the shutters cuts the high frequencies a lot more than the
    >lows
    
    Talk about analog filtering  8^)  8^)
    
    							Brian

    He says in his best Sylvester voice ... abtholutly!
    
    The TVFs are one of the main goodies in the D70 and can be directly
    applied to PCM samples.  That's how I can get a dulcimer out of the
    thing so easily.  I run two electric guitar samples through TVFs
    running in high-pass mode, detune and there it is.  Minor mod and it
    becomes a believable banjo.  I've run a bass drum through a low-pass
    TVF to get more thump and less of the other stuff.  Band pass can get
    you neat FX, too.  Couple this with resonance and play with the filters
    to get really analog sounding stuff with sweeps and movement.
    
    Steve

    Oh, yeah, you can attach controllers to the filters, too.  I haven't
    played much with it so I don't know that much about it, yet.  Lots of
    stuff can be attached to C1 or an expression pedal or one of the four
    tone sliders near the display.
    
    Steve

    Found out for sure why I had a problem with the dumps.  It's because
    the D70, as Brian tells me typical of Roland, sends lots of sysex
    messages out as you push buttons.  In my setup, I was hooked up with
    two-way MIDI to an MC50.  So, you guessed it, I had sysex going out 
    and coming back doing wonders to my patches.  There is a switch at the
    system level that allows you to turn off the D70s sensitivity to sysex.
    So the solution is to keep this switch off and only turn it on when
    something is sending sysex, like a data dump.  But, when doing dumps to
    the MC50, make sure the switch is off so that when the dump is loaded
    again it is already off.  Of course, this means you have to turn it on
    just before a dump.  No big deal.  One thing I'm getting out of this is
    the ability to pretty quickly hack performance, patches and tones on
    the fly.
    
    Steve

    Found out, as detailed in note 2301.25, that the FX and Percussion PCM
    card should work in the D70, even though the setups don't.  I hope to 
    pick up this and the Orchestral Winds card in the near future.  Will
    post a review when that happens.  At long last, I should be able to get
    a vibraslap into the system ...
    
    Steve

    Re: 2301.25, .89
    
    Steve, the orchestral strings card is *solo* strings, not ensembles.
    
    							Brian

    Hmmm ...  he says to hisself ...
    
    Steve

    Here's a quickie review of the two PCM cards I got for the D70.
    The good news is that Wurly's gave me a price of $65 for each.
    The bad, really bad, news is that Lisa was laid off there.  I'm
    working with Jay now.  Hard times are hitting the music biz ...
    
    The Orchestral Winds card (SN-U110-06) gives you oboe, bassoon,
    clarinet, bass clarinet, french horn, tuba and timpani.  All of these
    sounds are hard to get without the card.  You don't get the full
    benefit of the stuff on the card because of the architecture
    differences between the U110 and the D70.  Specifically, if there are
    dual samples you only get the single sample in the pair.  There are
    basically about 13 samples out of 35 where this might make a difference.
    But, the sounds are good quality and there is enough variation to get 
    what I want.
    
    I'd still like to try out the Orchestral Strings card, but am shy since
    the D70 can already make good string sections though, as Brian points
    out, solo strings are not supported.  For me, I haven't run into a
    situation where I want to do solo strings but have run into situations
    where I want solo winds.  We'll see ...
         
    The Latin and F.X.Percussions card (SN-U110-02) is delightful, in spite
    of the fact that the setups don't work.  There seems to be less "waste"
    in that it's mostly filled with single samples.  Only 3 samples out of
    45 are probably affected by the architecture limitations.  Of course,
    the setups are not supported.  But, for me this was no big deal.  To
    try out the samples, by the way, all I did was edit one of the rhythm 
    keys and stepped through samples.  The samples are good quality, though
    they are mono and probably only 12-bit.  They sound to me just like
    what you get with the S10/S50.  The FX samples were probably picked
    because they tend to be percussive.  I look forward to getting more
    interesting sounds running them through the D70s filters ...  Here's
    the listing:
    
    CONGA 1
    CONGA 2
    CONGA 3
    BONGO
    CLAVES
    TIMBALE
    TAMBOURINE
    WOOD BLOCK
    WHISTLE
    TRIANGLE
    BELLTREE
    JINGLEBELL
    VIBRASLAP
    CASTANET
    MARACAS
    AGOGO 1
    AGOGO 2
    CUICA 1
    CUICA 2
    GUIRO 1
    GUIRO 2
    GUIRO 3
    BERIMBAU
    SHEKELE
    STEEL DRUM
    LOG DRUM
    
    ORCH HIT
    SIREN
    TYPE 1
    TYPE 2
    CLOCK
    PINBALL
    TELEPHONE
    SMSH GLASS
    REZNO
    EERIE
    AMBIA JR
    TEMPLE BLK
    ZING !
    BOING !
    MOD ZAP
    INTERFACE
    SCRATCH
    STAKE
    ZAPPU
         
    Steve

    So Steve, we gotta know...
    
    
    		??????HOW'S THE VIBRASLAP??????
    
    8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)

    It is satisfactory and useable.  I would like to have control over the
    frequency of the hits, but since the full sound is sampled that ain't
    possible.  I was a bit disappointe with the tambourine, but I can
    probably throw FX at it.  The triangle, siren, boing, zing, stake,
    latins and blocks are delightful.  Mostly, I am breathing a sigh of
    relief about the vibraslap ...
    
    Steve :)

    From USENET, a book recommendation for D70 jockeys:
    
From: lv0e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Lisa Laverne Vaughan)
Date: 10 Oct 91 12:43:54 GMT
 
I picked up on someone's tip recently to get a book called 
"ROLAND D-70, The Book that puts Human Beings Back in Charge of the
Synthesizer" by Bobby Maestas.  Got it from the Bookshelf (1-800-233-9604).
Something like $27...
 
It steps you thru all phases of thd D-70 from how to interface it with
your other equip to actually programming the damn thang... just like sitting
down with someone who can explain concisely and simply the operations.
Maybe if everyone who owns a D-70 picks one of these up, we can get the
bboard discussions on D-70 patches really rolling with good questions and
info...
 
....lisa

    I'm eating crow ...  Brian was right about trying to do strings with
    the resident samples.  There's only ONE string sample.  It's good, but
    not for small string pads or solos.  Also, I love doing brass, but
    there isn't enough trumpet/trombone stuff for brass solos that are
    resident.  So, I've ordered cards 5 and 12.
    
    Given the glowing reports about the guitar card, I went over the guitar
    samples.  Don't think I'll go the guitar card way.  There is already a
    fair number of guitar samples with and without FX.  The preset patches
    just don't take full advantage of them, IMHO.
    
    Steve

    A friend with a D70 (I've a D110) asked me about restoring the factory
    setup. I checked this note re the "power-up + hold button-n" switches,
    and he did a "CLEAR MEM", then some "INITIALISE's". He said he ended up
    with zilch - tone/patch ... memory all zapped !  He had to go back to 
    the shop,  where they restored the factory setup from a ROMcard.
    
    Can this be true ?  Are "presets" over-writeable on this beast ?
    
    Jim

    YUP!  First thing he SHOULD have done was save the presets to a
    sequencer or perhaps a RAM card.  I've done it.  If you've got an MC50,
    send me a 3.5'' disk and return mailer (with postage) and I'll put my
    backup on it.  Or, his dealer might be able to help him.  
    
    One other gotcha, if you pass sysex via MIDI THRU on a sequencer from
    the D70 and back to the D70 and you allow the D70 to accept sysex you
    can easily hose the D70 presets.  Sometimes I forget and take a bath
    ...
    
    
    Steve 

    More things I'm learning ...
    
    Like other Roland synths, if you alter panning (and I assume other
    parameters on voices, though I'm not sure what all) it only affects the
    next note played.
    
    I *suspect* that if you have no RAM card and try to access it that, in
    it's confusion, the D70 may trash some patches.  I am not sure about
    this.  But, there is some little gremlin running around in there that
    may also involve sysex messages and results in a gradual degradation of
    the machine.  To be on the safe side, I keep lots of memory dumps on
    disk and clear all memory before loading dumps in.  It's a pain, but it
    keeps things more predictable.
    
    I'm noticing vibrato slowdown more often now.  Doesn't seem to happen
    when you are doing pitch bend.  Mostly happens when you bring in the
    LFOs.
    
    To my surprise, I'm getting to where I can pretty easily hit the voice
    limits.  I think this will be a trend with sample players since raw
    samples usually don't have enough movement or fullness.  On the other
    hand, I'm learning the virtues of DLM for getting sounds with fullness.  
    I think that DLM will come in handy when you want a rich, full sound
    but don't want to waste too many voices on it.
    
    I really wonder why they screwed up the direct outs.  It looks good on
    paper, but all that direct outs do is send voices through the direct
    outputs.  All voices STILL go through the FX path to the stereo outs.
    I can't figure out why they did it that way.  It SHOULD have been done
    so that if a voice is routed to direct out it DOESN'T still go to the
    FX path.  As it is now, voices either go through just the FX path, or
    go through BOTH the FX path and DIRECT out.  
    
    Steve

    I'll probably go to master in a couple of months.  I've been debating
    with myself as how to best do it.  Then, I got this thing in the mail
    from Platinum Productions in Boston (617-983-9999 or 1-800-MIXDOWN).  
    They are a 24-track studio and advertize DAT mastering and a 32-channel
    console.  There was a card in it giving me 4 hours of free studio time
    to be used before February.  Called them up.  Nobody was in, but I
    left a message.  They charge $24/hour.  Dunno if that's a special deal or 
    what, but I'm going to check them out for doing my digital master.
    
    Near as I can tell, the direct outs are all but worthless.  That is,
    unless there is some way to kill a particular patch as far as the FX
    path is concerned without doing anything to the other voices. 
    Nevertheless, I think I can take advantage of using a good studio to do
    the master.
    
    First, I can kill the reverb on all my patches.  The chorusing features
    of the D70 are nice.  Roland is good at chorusing.  But, as reverbs go,
    they are not as good as, say, Lexicon.  So, the first order of business
    will be to take advantage of a studio reverb unit.
    
    Next, I've been concerned about some of my pieces that probably would
    sound nicer if they had compression.  That's mainly because I have lots
    of bass drums and such that can saturate the sound.  I want them to
    dominate, but not saturate.  That is, I want the boom to be there but I
    don't want to have to cut the other parts except during the boom. 
    Thus, compression would fit the bill.  I understand that studio-quality
    compressors can work without sounding compressed if done right.
    
    Though I've been careful to keep my stuff within limits using my
    spectrum analyzer, my unit only covers ten bands.  Using a studio's
    spectrum analyzer should yield superior results.
    
    Also, it might be interesting to see if any tunes would benefit from
    the slightest amount of exciter added.  This might be the one and only
    time when direct outs might be used.  This would be done to give some
    of the pieces (which are intended to be sort of orchestral and airy)
    more presence, for lack of a better term.
    
    It might also be interesting to see if the studio has any other
    whiz-bang boxes, like that Roland 3-dimensional thing or whatever it
    is.  Here, the real benefit would be in having an engineer to work
    with.  It's already a given that an engineer helping with the digital
    mastering should be able to help create a master that is ready to ship
    to a manufacturer.  
    
    I'll have about 44 minutes of stuff.  Once things get set up, and
    assuming I come well-prepared, I would imagine it would take about 
    6 to 8 hours or so of studio time to master it all.  
    
    Steve

    Steve, I went into a pro studio with my little PCM master expecting to
    be encouraged to do all the things you mentioned - compression, cleaner
    reverb, exciter, etc.  After all I have home-quality mixer, reverb,no
    compression, etc., not a REAL studio.
    
    Instead the studio owner said, "We just need to run this straight to
    DAT."  He could've hit me up for hours'n'hours.  I suspect you MIGHT
    have the same experience.
    
    karl

    More stuff I've been learning:
    
    My preferred setup is now to leave the D70 in "local" mode and leave
    the sequencer with THRU off.  Also, I leave sysex receiving off and
    only turn it on when I dump sysex from the sequencer.
    
    I've fallen in love with DLM because it just recently solved a really
    tough problem.  The problem is this: how do you get a teeth-rattling,
    analog-sounding bass out of the thing?  Granted, you can get a warm
    bass with some of the presets.  But, I needed a grungy, nasty bass with
    hair on it.  Well, looking over the DLM stuff that already was done, I
    figured out the basic process:
    
    	1.  Find a sample that sounds just a bit like what you really want.
    	    (In this case, it was a sample taken from a JP synth.  By
    	    itself it was not good enough, but it had nice bass and just a
    	    hint of grunge in places.  The sample itself was pretty
    	    boring.)
    
    	2.  Turn DLM on for the tone and go to mode A.
    
    	3.  Set the start point to the beginning and set the length to 1.  
    
    	4.  Test the note by playing a note.  Don't worry about exact
    	    pitch.  Pitch is not going to be constant.
    
    	5.  If it's what you want, stop.
    
    	6.  If you're not yet at the end of the sample, then increment the 
    	    start point go back to step 4.
    
    	7.  If the length is not at the end then increment the length and go 
    	    back to step 4.  
    
    	8.  If you are in DLM mode A, flip to DLM mode B and go back to
    	    step 3.	
    
    	9.  Pick another sample that has aspects of what you want and go
    	    back to step 2.
    
    	10. Well, if you've run out of samples, try diddling with the
    	    chorusing effect parameters and go through the samples of interest
    	    again.  Go back to step 1.
    
    	11. Filters, did you mess with the filters?  If not, diddle with
    	    them and go back to step 1.
    
    	12. Still not satisfied?  Well, you need another synth!  Fortunately, 
    	    by the time you've reached this point we are well into the 21st
    	    century and you really should have spent more time making music
    	    rather than diddling with the synth parameters ...
    
    
    Seriously, though, this process is pretty quick once you get a feel for
    how varying the parameters alters the sound.  I got my window-rattling
    bass.  Using this process kind of opens up a new window.  Each sample
    is different.  While I was doing this I found that the sounds with this
    sample were pretty much just different flavors of the same set of
    sounds.  It was less 'dangerous' than twiddling with FM synth
    parameters in that successive sounds seemed to be at least mildly
    related to each other.  
    
    For this sample, I found that short lengths lead to more pleasing
    musical sounds.  Long lengths reminded me of the helicopter sound you can 
    get out of a Prophet 5 (for those of you who remember that beast).  If I 
    ever need the sound of a helicopter, now I know I can get it with DLM.  
    Longer length stuff will have that kind of aspect to them (sounds kinda
    like mmmmmmchuckammmmchuckammmmm ...).  It's the shorter length stuff that 
    will probably be the most fruitful as it tends to not have those bursts 
    between cycles.
    
    
    Steve

    addition to step 7:  Set the start time back to 1.

    A new program for Atari ST posted to MIDILIB.

    --> D70RXTX

    This is a sysex librarian for the Roland D70 synth.  It will store any
    type of dump that the D70 can perform.  The file ROLAND.D70 is actually
    a copy of the factory default dump, in case you wiped yours out.

    Directory A$:[MIDILIB.TOOLS.ATARI.D70RXTX]

    D70.RSC;1                 D70RXTX.PRG;1             READ.ME;1           
    ROLAND.D70;1             
    
    						Brian