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Roland KR-3 Owner's Manual

Digital intelligent piano
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Owner's Manual
Thank you for purchasing the Roland KR-3 Digital
Intelligent Piano!
So that you may enjoy reliable performance for years
to come, please take time to read this manual from
beginning to end.

Main features

❏ Three instruments in one
The KR-3 can be used as piano, organ or "keyboard"
(i.e. a synthesizer with automatic accompaniment) –
all at the touch of a button.
❏ 270 Tones (sounds) and 136 Styles built-in
Support for a wide range of musical genres. You'll find
additional Styles on the enclosed Style disk.
❏ Piano Tones that rely on stereo sampling
The Roland technology used ensures that your KR-3
offers some of the finest concert grand piano sounds
available on electronic musical instruments.
❏ 64-voice polyphony
Up to 64 voices can be played simultaneously. (In
most instances your KR-3 is 64-voice polyphonic.)
❏ Simple yet versatile Composer
Recording and playback of commercial music data is
easy with the KR-3.
The comprehensive Composer menu includes:
• 16-track Sequencer
• Chord Sequencer
• Song Edit
• Style Composer
• Style Converter
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of ROLAND EUROPE spa.
❏ GM (General MIDI) and GS compatible
• General MIDI System m
The General MIDI System is a set of recommenda-
tions which seeks to standardize the MIDI support
features of sound generating devices. Sound generat-
ing devices and musical data (disks) carrying the Gen-
eral MIDI logo conform to General MIDI
specifications. This means that whenever you play
back music data marked with the General MIDI logo,
the musical response will be identical when played on
any device also carrying the General MIDI logo.
• GS Format g
Roland developed the GS Format to standardize the
response of sound generators when MIDI is used for
the production of music. By using a GS Format sound
generating device, you can be assured that you will
always hear a faithful, high-quality rendition of any
commercially available music data that carries the GS
Format logo.
The KR-3's tone generator fully supports both the
General MIDI system and GS Format so you can use
music data that is designed for either standard.
❏ Reads and writes SMF Music Data
The KR-3 is capable of playing Standard MIDI Files
such as "SMF Music Data" (720 KB/1.44 MB format
3.5 inch floppy disks).
Copyright © 2002 ROLAND EUROPE spa.
1

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Summary of Contents for Roland KR-3

  • Page 1: Main Features

    • Style Composer • Style Converter All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of ROLAND EUROPE spa. ❏ GM (General MIDI) and GS compatible • General MIDI System m...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    2. Panel descriptions ..... 7 3. Before using the KR-3 ....9 3.1 Connections .
  • Page 3 • Do not attempt to repair the unit, or replace parts within it (except when this manual provides spe- cific instructions directing you to do so). Refer all servicing to your retailer, the nearest Roland Ser- vice Center, or an authorized Roland distributor, as listed on the “Information” page.
  • Page 4 • Before using the unit in a foreign country, con- sult with your retailer, the nearest Roland Service Center, or an authorized Roland distributor, as listed on the “Information” page.

  • Page 5: Important Notes

    Excessive heat can deform or discolor the unit. • To avoid possible breakdown, do not use the KR-3 in a wet area, such as an area exposed to rain or other mois- ture.
  • Page 6 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Important notes • To prevent damage to the disk drive’s heads, always try to hold the floppy disk in a level position (not tilted in any direction) while inserting it into the drive. ❏ Handling floppy disks • Floppy disks contain a plastic disk with a thin magnetic coating.

  • Page 7: Panel Descriptions

    2. Panel descriptions 2.1 Front panel A UTILITY button Press this button to access the KR-3’s Utility functions (see “Utility Menu” on page 47). B DEMO button This button provides access to an on-screen Help function with explanations of the KR-3’s functions, games allowing you to identify sounds and chords, etc.
  • Page 8 Used to select a Tone Group (see “Selecting Tones” on page 19). U SAVE button Press this button to save the Song in the KR-3’s inter- nal memory to disk. V COMPOSER section Use these buttons to control the on-board sequencer (called Composer).

  • Page 9: Before Using The Kr-3

    KR-3. Connect the power cord Insert the included power cable into the AC inlet on the KR-3, and then plug it into an electrical outlet. Be sure to use the supplied power cord. 3.2 Setting up the music stand Set up the music stand as shown in the figure below.

  • Page 10: Turning The Power On/Off

    To turn the power off, turn the [Volume] knob all the way to the left, and press the [Power] switch. The Power indicator at the left front of the KR-3 will go dark, and the power will be turned off.

  • Page 11: Connecting External Amplifiers And Other Devices

    About the adjuster When you move the KR-3 or if you feel that the pedals are unstable, adjust the adjuster located below the pedals as follows. Rotate the adjuster to lower it so that it is in firm con- tact with the floor. If there is a gap between the pedals and the floor, the pedals may be damaged.

  • Page 12: Basic Operation And Display

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Basic operation and display 4. Basic operation and display The KR-3 features a large-sized screen that keeps you informed about the status of your instrument and allows you to access functions for which there are (usually) no buttons or sliders.

  • Page 13: Overview Of The Kr-3

    4. Press the [DEMO] button to leave the Demo screen. Tone and Style demo — <Sound>/<Style> To give you a better idea of the KR-3’s Tones (sounds) and Music Styles (accompaniments), the KR-3 comes with a Sound and Style Demo function. Here is how to use them.

  • Page 14: Performance Functions

    To play a piano piece, for instance, press the [PIANO] button. Press [ORGAN] to trans- form your KR-3 into an organ. To play a song using the automatic accompaniment, press [ARRANGER]. Piano music — One Touch Program [PIANO] The settings assigned to this button are loaded every time you turn the power on.
  • Page 15 (see “What is an Arranger?” on page 23). Function I How to use the Arranger Here’s all you need to do to be able to use the KR-3’s Arranger: 1. Press the One Touch Program [ARRANGER] but- ton.
  • Page 16 Saints”, try adding some variation here and there. When “To Variation” is indicated in the music, press the [TO VARIATION] button. Of course, there is a lot more you can do with the KR-3’s Arranger. ( Eight-measure Intro ) Right...

  • Page 17: Playing Back Songs On Disk

    If the KR-3’s memory already contains a song, the following message appears: If you don’t want to lose the song in the KR-3’s inter- nal memory, press <CANCEL> and see “Saving a song to disk” on page 33. Otherwise, press <OK>.

  • Page 18: Pitch Bend And Transpose

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Overview of the KR-3 5.4 Pitch Bend and Transpose The KR-3’s left pedal (also known as “Soft” pedal) can be used to bend the notes you play. To do so, you must assign it the Pitch Bend function (see “Pedal func- tions”...

  • Page 19: Tones And Related Functions

    6. Tones and related functions 6.1 Selecting Tones The KR-3 comes with a host of instrument sounds (called Tones). These Tones are divided into eight categories, called Groups. Selecting “normal” Tones 1. Press the TONE button of the Group that contains the Tone you need.

  • Page 20: Adding Effects To Tones

    After a few seconds, the display will revert to the Basic screen. Note: When you switch off the KR-3, the Octave Shift set- tings return to their preset values. If you’d like the KR-3 to memorize your settings, see “Memory Backup” on page 50.

  • Page 21: Keyboard Modes

    The Tone assigned to the Upper Part will be used when you switch to Whole mode (see above). When you power on the KR-3, the Tone assigned to the Lower part will be “Strings.” Selecting Tones for the Upper and Lower parts 1.
  • Page 22 The indicator of the TONE button you press lights up. Play a few notes on the keyboard to confirm that the KR-3 is producing both a piano and a strings sound. Let’s call the two Tones “Upper Tone” and “Layer Tone”.

  • Page 23: Playing With Accompaniment (Arranger)

    Tone in octave steps, see “Octave Shift: changing the pitch by octaves” on page 20. • See “Auto: changing the Arranger defaults” on page 43 if you don’t want the KR-3 to change the tempo and select another Upper Tone every time you choose a Music Style.

  • Page 24: Selecting Music Styles

    Music Styles on the supplied Style disk. Note: Loading Music Styles from disk means that the Style in the KR-3’s User Style memory will be erased. Always save your own Styles to disk before loading another one. See “Saving User Styles” on page 38.

  • Page 25: Starting And Stopping Styles

    2. Press the flashing [INTRO/ENDING] button (indi- cator goes off). 3. Play a note or chord in the chord recognition area. KR-3 – Starting and Stopping Styles Starting manually If you prefer to be in complete control of the Arranger and therefore do not want it to start as soon as you play one or several notes, there are two options.

  • Page 26: Style Tempo

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Playing with accompaniment (Arranger) Alternatives for starting and ending Music Style playback Using a PAD button or a footswitch, you can fade in (whereby the volume gradually increases) to the start of a Style, or fade out (whereby the volume gradually decreases) to the end of a Style.

  • Page 27: Switching Style Arrangements (Divisions)

    2. Use the buttons below the display to select the part whose volume you wish to adjust. 3. Use the <L> and <M> buttons to adjust the vol- ume. KR-3 – Switching Style arrangements (divisions) 7.6 Switching Style arrangements (divisions) For each Style, you can select the particulars of the orchestration (arrangement) and accompaniment pattern type.

  • Page 28: Easy Fingering - Chord Intelligence

    Play- ing chords isn’t always easy, especially when you need to concentrate on your melody. That is why the KR-3 features a function called Chord Intelligence. It is intelligent in that it allows you to play major...

  • Page 29: Melody Intelligence

    KR-3 – Melody Intelligence 7.8 Melody Intelligence The Arranger of your KR-3 not only plays chords but also a counter-melody based on the chords you play in the chord recognition area. This counter-melody will be added to the Upper part.

  • Page 30: Recording And Playback

    If that is what you want to do, first save your song to another disk (see page 33), then erase the song in the KR-3’s internal memory (see “Erasing the Composer song” on page 32).
  • Page 31 Note: If you record in Whole mode, the Tone of the Lower and Upper parts you are playing may change. That is because a Standard MIDI File also contains so-called program change messages that tell your KR-3 which Tones to use. Correcting minor mistakes Let us now look at the advantages of working with tracks.

  • Page 32: Playing Back A Composer Song

    8.5 Erasing the Composer song Here is how to erase an entire song in the KR-3’s inter- nal memory. Before doing so, you should save songs you wish to keep to disk (see below).

  • Page 33: Saving A Song To Disk

    The [WHOLE] button also lights up to signal that the KR-3 will now function in Whole mode. The 16-track Sequencer uses only one Tone for each track, so you cannot record in Split or Layer modes.

  • Page 34: Chord Sequencer

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Composer Menu The currently selected track appears in reverse video on the display. Note: Drum or SFX parts can only be recorded on the “D” or “S” tracks. 3. Get ready to play. Choose the Tone and make the necessary settings for the performance.

  • Page 35: Recording Mode

    Note: When a disk is formatted, all the data stored on it is completely erased. As a rule, you should always check the contents of a used disk (either on the KR-3 or on a PC) before formatting it. 1. Set the Write Protect tab on the disk to the “Write”...

  • Page 36: Style Composer

    TEMPO [+]/[–] buttons. Note: You cannot use Arranger parts of a User Style because the KR-3 has only one User Style memory – the one you are copying Style parts to. 2. Use the MUSIC STYLE buttons and the buttons next to the display to select the Style that contains the desired rhythm part.

  • Page 37: Style Converter

    Divisions. Here is a brief summary of the available divisions: Intro, Original, Variation, Fill In To Variation/To Original, Ending. The KR-3 allows you to silence (mute) selected parts of a Style division. You could, for example, mute the Accompaniment 1 part of a Variation pattern.

  • Page 38: Saving User Styles

    Note: If you want to cancel the operation, press the [EXIT] button. 9.8 Song Edit The KR-3 has eight functions that you can use to edit the songs you have recorded. Note: After carrying out one of the following functions, it may be impossible to restore the previous settings.
  • Page 39 Note: Once a measure has been deleted, it cannot be restored. 1. Press <Delete>. 2. Use <√> and <®> below the display to select a parameter, and set the value with <+> and <–>. “Track”, “From”, “For”: see step (2) under “Quantize: timing corrections”. KR-3 – Song Edit...
  • Page 40 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Composer Menu 3. Press the <EXEC> button to confirm your settings and edit the data. Insert: adding blank measures Insert allows you to make a track longer by adding rests at the specified position. This will make room for new data and shift data that lie behind the From posi- tion further to the right.

  • Page 41: Function Menu

    Note: You cannot change the Beat in the Arranger mode or when you are using the Composer function. Key Touch (velocity sensitivity) You can adjust the way in which the KR-3 translates the velocity data. 1. Press <Key Touch>. The touch level will appear in the right half of the screen.
  • Page 42 4. Set the Key note by pressing the key while holding down <Tuning>. You need to do this for all temperaments except Equal. Note: The temperament you select here applies to all KR-3 parts (the keyboard parts, the Arranger parts, and the Com- poser tracks/parts).

  • Page 43: Organ Screen Functions

    Tone, Tempo Lock— Selecting another Music Style no longer loads the preset tempo and Upper Tone. OFF— In this mode, the KR-3 loads none of the set- tings related to the Music Style you select (see “Set- tings” on page 23).

  • Page 44: Music Assistant, Pad Buttons, Pedals

    The Tone being used for sounding the chords is appropriately called “Chord Tone.” Along with the Chord Tone, the KR-3 will also play a bass note with (you guessed it!) the “Bass Tone”. Ordinarily these Tones are preset, but they can be changed through the following procedure.

  • Page 45: Performance Pad Buttons: Additional Or Frequently

    99 sets can be saved on a disk. Music Assistant settings can only be saved on a disk that has been formatted by the KR-3. If you’re using a new disk, first format it (see page 35), then carry out the following steps.

  • Page 46: Pedal Functions

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Music Assistant, Pad buttons, pedals Basic/Advanced— This has the same effect as pressing <Advnc√Basic> or <Advnc®Basic>. Simple Intro/Ending— This function allows you to select the simple version of an Intro or Ending at the press of a button.

  • Page 47: Utility Menu

    12.2 Utility functions Master Tune Master Tune allows you to tune your KR-3 to acoustic instruments that cannot be tuned. Like all electronic musical instruments, your KR-3 is set to A4= 440Hz, which may be flat for certain acoustic instruments.

  • Page 48: Metronome Volume And Beat

    Note: Beat cannot be changed during Style playback or when using the Composer. Selecting a different Reverb and/or Chorus effect As stated earlier, the KR-3 provides several types of Reverb and Chorus effects. Choose the one that matches the mood of the song you wish to play.

  • Page 49: Program Change (And Bank Select)

    That channel number (1~16) appears on the display. Note: MIDI messages sent from the external MIDI instru- ment to the KR-3 are received on all channels. However, all keyboard information (of the Upper, Layer, Lower, Chord, and Bass Tones) will be transmitted on one channel.

  • Page 50: Music Assistant Arranger Update

    Note: Do not turn the instrument off until the display shows “Backup complete”. Factory Preset (initialization) This returns all settings stored in the KR-3 to their ini- tial values when shipped from the factory. Note: The Music Assistant memories also return to their initial settings, so be sure to save them to disk first.

  • Page 51: Connecting Midi Instruments

    MIDI IN. The KR-3 does not provide a MIDI THRU connector. Here is how to connect the KR-3 to an external sound module, sequencer, etc. When working with an exter- nal sequencer, be sure to establish both connections and to set Local Control (see page 49) to Off.

  • Page 52: Appendix

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Appendix 14. Appendix 14.1 DSP effects 1. Overdrive: Distorts the sound a little 2. Distortion: Distorts the sound a lot 3. Phaser: Gives a swelling sound 4. Enhancer: Makes the sound seem brighter and louder 5. Auto Wah: Changes the timbre in cycles 6.

  • Page 53: Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles

    Syn Strings Warm Pad Sax/Brass Blow Sax Soprano Sax Trumpet Trombone Alt Sax Clarinet Muted Trumpet Brass 1 Oboe Flute French Horn Synth Brass 1 Bassoon Blow Pipe French Horn Solo Synth Brass 2 KR-3 – Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles...

  • Page 54: Internal Music Styles

    KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles Internal Music Styles Pop/Rock 1 8B Pop2 2 Stevie 3 Sh Rock 4 Techno 5 16B Pop1 6 Dance 7 8B Pop3 8 8B Pop4 9 16B Pop4 10 Swingin 11 BluesBros 12 Blues...

  • Page 55: Drum Sets

    Room Hi Tom 1 Elec Hi Tom 1 Reverse Cymbal - - - - - - - - - - KR-3 – Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles TR-808 Kick 2 808 Bass Drum 1 808 Rim Shot 808 Snare Drum...
  • Page 56 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles CC32 Type DANCE Dance Snr 1 Std Kick 1 Kick 2 808 Bass Drum 2 Kick 1 808 Rim Shot TR-909 Snr Brush Tap Brush Slap Dance Snr 2 Brush Swirl 808 Low Tom 2...

  • Page 57: Chord Intelligence

    Dm7 ( 5 ) E m7 ( 5 ) Em7 ( 5 ) Daug E aug Eaug Dsus4 E sus4 Esus4 D7sus4 E 7sus4 E7sus4 KR-3 – Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles FmM7 Fdim Fm7 ( 5 ) Faug Fsus4 F7sus4...
  • Page 58 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles F#M7 F#m7 F#mM7 GmM7 F#dim Gdim F#m7 ( 5 ) Gm7 ( 5 ) F#aug Gaug F#sus4 Gsus4 F#7sus4 G7sus4 A M7 A m7 A mM7 AmM7 A dim Adim A m7 ( 5 )

  • Page 59: Midi Implementation Chart

    Notes Mode 1 : OMNI ON, POLY Mode 2 : OMNI ON, MONO Mode 3 : OMNI OFF, POLY Mode 4 : OMNI OFF, MONO KR-3 – Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles Recognized Remarks ≠ O : Yes X : No...
  • Page 60 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles Notes...
  • Page 61 KR-3 – Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles Notes...
  • Page 62 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles...
  • Page 63 Distributors Information When you need repair service, call your nearest Roland Service Center or authorized Roland distributor in your country as shown below. SINGAPORE AFRICA AFRICA Swee Lee Company 150 Sims Drive, EGYPT SINGAPORE 387381 TEL: 846-3676 Al Fanny Trading Office...
  • Page 64 KR-3 Owner’s Manual—Tones, Drum Sets, Music Styles...

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