Arranger/Music Style Clinic; Selecting Music Styles - Roland VA-76 Owner's Manual

4.6 Arranger/Music Style clinic

Before telling you more about the Music Styles, we'd
like to explain the difference between Music Styles and
the Arranger. The Arranger is in fact the function (or
sequencer) that plays the accompaniments you select.
These accompaniments are always related to a given
musical genre (or "style"), and are therefore called
Music Styles. As the VA-76's accompaniments are a lot
more than just one pattern that goes on playing until
you stop it, the Music Styles comprise several patterns
(or divisions).
The Arranger is interactive in two respects: you can
tell it in what key it should sound by playing chords;
and you can also tell it what kind of of accompani-
ment it should play by selecting other divisions via the
front panel or the touch screen. The Arranger (the
"hardware") would be nothing without the Music
Styles (the "software"), while the Music Styles would
become repetitive after a while without the various
divisions.

Selecting Music Styles

Like for Tone selection, there are two possibilities that
can be used indiscriminately: you can work the tradi-
tional way (using the buttons), or via the display – or
mix these two approaches as you see fit.
Style selection via the front panel
Note: All button actions are also reflected by the display. See
"Style selection via the display" on page 60 for the informa-
tion that appears on-screen.
1. Tell the VA-76 that you wish to select a Music Style:
press the [STYLE] button (so that it lights).
As soon as you press the [STYLE] button, it lights in
green, as well as the BANK and NUMBER buttons of
the currently selected Music Style. (The color for Tone
selection is red, while orange is used for selecting User
Programs.)
The display now looks as follows:
The name next to the [A]/[B]/[C] fields tells you
which Music Style is currently selected.
Note: The numbers in the upper right corner of the display
indicate the MIDI address of the currently selected Music
Style ("B15 ScatSwing").
2. Press the [GROUP] button to select the group that
contains the desired Music Style.
There are three Music Style groups with 64 memories
each (for a total of 192 Styles):
Group A is selected Group B
A & B— These two groups refer to the Music Styles in
ROM.
C— This group represents the Disk Link group. These
are memories that can be selected in the same way as
the ROM memories, even though they load Music
Styles directly from Zip or floppy disk.
Note: See also the Music Style list starting on page 251 for
the names and addresses of the Music Styles.
When you select a GROUP, the VA-76 automatically
activates the BANK that was active in the previous
group. Here is an example: if you are currently work-
ing with the
B15 ScatSwing
means that bank 5 is automatically selected.
3. Press a BANK [1]~[8] button (so that it lights) to
select a Style bank within the active group.
Each Style group contains eight banks.
4. Press a NUMBER [1]~[8] button to select a Style
within the active bank.
Only now will the new Music Style be selected. You
could take advantage of this system to prepare the
group and bank with your left hand, while continuing
to play the melody with your right hand. Then, all you
VA-76 – Arranger/Music Style clinic
Group C
Style, selecting group A
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