United Kingdom
Total Posts: 1055
Joined: February 2, 2014
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Re: Using Styles in your KN7000 - CUSTOM Memory
Absolutely, that's what I usually do too but there's a subtle difference if you copy them to the CUSTOM rhythm group. You'll know a lot of this but I'm writing for everyone's benefit so I'll go into detail. Take the following scenario:
CUSTOM MEMORY - Part 1
Let's say you have a style called SUNNY DAY loaded into COMPOSER Memory A. You set up Panel memories 1 to 4 in PANEL Memory Bank A to store the sounds and effects you want. You can set up your Performance Pads for that style also if you want to. Then you copy COMPOSER Memory A to CUSTOM Memory 1, for example, any one of the 20 available.
Now, when you select CUSTOM - SUNNY DAY, you can use the four variations of the rhythm without changing your sounds and effects, just like a normal rhythm. Or you can select Music Style Arranger and the instrument sounds of the four variations will be the ones that you set up in those four Panel memories earlier.
PANEL MEMORY
I'm going to go off on a slight tangent now and talk about PANEL Memories. We have 13 PANEL Memory BANKS and each has 8 Panel Memories, so there are 104 sound registrations that you can save in all of those. You can name each Bank and each Panel Memory in order to keep track of them. So you could have a Big Band Bank with 8 PANEL Memories in it, for example.
You can use the PANEL Memories in EXTEND mode so that they select the rhythm when you select a Panel Memory. I don't do that because I want to select from any of the sound registrations I've set up without changing the rhythm.
Taking our example, this means that you could play SUNNY DAY using big band sounds and then swap to another panel memory for the strings to take over, or a jazz guitar and vibes, then swap the rhythm to a swingy style and back again, whatever you wanted. You can also select the Music Style Arranger to get back those four sounds registrations that you originally set up to go with the SUNNY DAY style whenever you have it playing. So it is equivalent to having an extra 4 registrations for each of the 20 CUSTOM styles that you have created. Ones suit that Custom style.
Your 104 PANEL Memories can stay constant. When you are changing from one Preset or Custom style to another, you can recall any of the 104 sound registrations you prefer.
For information - the Panel Memories are stored for about a week. So if you turn on your keyboard more than once a week you should be fine but it is always best to back them up on an SD Card.
Now to the interesting part...
CUSTOM MEMORY - Part 2
So you have set up 104 sound registrations that you like in the Panel Memories and you have loaded 20 styles into the Custom Memory (I have no idea when, there are never enough hours in the day!). This means that you have a further (20 x 4 =) 80 sound registrations available. This gives a total of 184 registrations at your fingertips (and more to come later).
Now, 20 songs sounds like a "cabaret set" to me. Two performances of 8 or 9 songs with a few spare for the encores! So we can set up 20 CUSTOM Memories and that will do an entire set for us. Or if we're playing at home we can have our favourite 20 styles saved there. Plus we can use any of the built-in preset rhythms (and their numerous registrations that are in the Music Style Arranger, I don't have time to count them now!).
Up until now I haven't really made use of the 20 CUSTOM Memories, I have just loaded a style into the COMPOSER along with a few PANEL Memories that I like, ones that suit the style. That's because it all seemed too cumbersome to me, to be loading styles and copying them one at a time. You couldn't make use of them in a live environment, I thought, so I didn't bother.
Well, dear reader, please forgive me if this is not new to you but it is new and exciting to me. You CAN load or save all 20 CUSTOM Memory styles at the same time from the SD card. I didn't realise this until now!
To save them: Press the SD button > Press Load > Select the Technics file format > Go to Page 2 (this is the part I didn't realise) > Ensure that ALL CUSTOM STYLE is selected > Press SAVE
Loading all 20 is virtually the same process.
The reason I've written at such length on the subject is because this 'little' feature has completely transformed the flexibility of the instrument for me! It means that I can have 'performance sets' saved on SD card that I can load in seconds.
I have to admit that I feel a bit dense for not realising this before now but as I said in one of my first blogs, when I first got my KN7000 I had to go out and gig with it quickly to make it pay for itself, so I haven't had an opportunity until recently to delve more deeply into the various features. One of the main reasons for starting this website is to help me (and all of you) to discover these things.
PROS AND CONS
Loading a COMPOSER - well, it is quick and easy. If you use the EXTEND feature to set tempo and everything else you want for one song this is a great way to prepare the instrument and that's what I have always done to date. I don't like the way that my PANEL Memories change all the time using this method but it does mean that I can use the first few Panel Memories and I always know where I am.
Loading 20 CUSTOM Memories - I think that this is the way I'll go from now on. I'll be able to work on my Banks of Panel Memories to store all of the sound registrations I like and I will be able to load sets of 20 'numbers' for instant recall, along with my repertoire that uses the built-in rhythm styles. In fact, I think I'm more likely to convert my repertoire that uses the built-in styles to sets of CUSTOM Memories too because it will give me more flexibility to change the built-in ones and save them as I prefer.
WHAT NEXT?
At the moment I'm preparing to go out gigging with my son (guitar and bass) and daughter (singing and many other things including drums and balalaika). So the obvious thing is to prepare a set of 20 for that.
I'm guessing that many of you might own the superb Andrew Lloyd Webber collection of styles by Technote. Up to now I have been loading them one at a time, feeling quite frustrated that I can't remember which numbered file goes with each song. So one of the first things I'm going to do is load them into CUSTOM Memories and save the whole set to have a play with! There are actually 21 songs but there is at least one that I don't like. If you don't have them, they are available from Strawberry Music for just £11.79 at the moment.
Well, I wanted to share my 'new find' with all of you, I hope those who know all these things already will forgive my enthusiasm and also please help to correct any errors I've made whilst writing this. As I've written at length I hope to convert this into an illustrated article on the website in the near future so all corrections, spelling pickups and contributions will be gratefully received.
Best wishes,
Mike
Posted on June 15, 2014 at 6:36 AM
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United Kingdom
Total Posts: 1055
Joined: February 2, 2014
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Re: Using Styles in your KN7000 - CUSTOM Memory
In addition to all of the above are the FAVOURITES that Rog mentioned and also the CUSTOM PANEL, which is a sort of emergency button of your favourite registration which never gets overwritten... but I must stop writing now and cook my boy some breakfast!
Posted on June 15, 2014 at 6:38 AM
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