Drumming On The Keyboard - Roland VA-76 Owner's Manual

VA-76 Owner's Manual—VA-76 clinics
Here's how you can tell which Tone Map is currently
being used:
Map information
This information is also displayed on other pages
(mark the "Map" field). Here is another example:
Note: Tones without a "Map" indication belong to Map 4
(the new VA-76 sounds).
A word about the new Tones
All new VA-76 Tones (Map 4) are fantastic, of course,
but some of them are truly amazing. In the Tone List
on page 222 (and on the display pages), look out for
Tones that start with a "V" (for "virtual").
Select them and try playing at different velocities
(strengths) to discover the rich nuances that can be
obtained. There is a trumpet Tone, for example ("V
Trumpet", A81, Variation 13) that allows you to alter-
nate between a muted and a "full blown" trumpet sim-
ply by hitting the keys softer or harder. Various guitar
Tones provide a hammering-on/bending sounds when
you strike the keys as hard as you can. And there's
more.
On top of that, transposing the keyboard to the lowest
octave sometimes provides access to some typical
noises (scraping over the strings, hitting the body of
an acoustic guitar, etc.). See page 54 for how to select
the lowest octave. Though these "beautiful noises" are
probably too far away for live use, consider throwing
them in when recording your own songs. Your
sequences will sound even better!
42
Alternatively...
Assign the same "V" guitar Tone to the UP1 (or
UP2) and LW1 (or LW2) part, select the SPLIT Key-
board mode (see page 36), and transpose the LW1
(or LW2) part 3 octaves down using the Octave
function (see page 54). That should allow you to
throw in the odd scrape or knock. You may want to
select a relatively low split point (see page 35). This
approach "works" because most Tones are musically
useless below a certain note, so why not use the
remaining notes to the left for the playing noises?

Drumming on the keyboard

The MDR (M. Drums) part allows you to drum on the
keyboard. As stated above, this part is available in both
SPLIT and WHOLE modes. When used in SPLIT Key-
board Mode, it is assigned to the right half of the key-
board (which means that the notes pictured below are
masked until you select another Octave for the MDR
part).
The MDR part differs from the other Keyboard parts
in that it assigns different sounds to every key. If you
select the WHOLE mode and press the C2 (second C
from the left), you trigger a bass drum sound. Press
the D2 key (the D to the right of the C2) to trigger a
snare drum sound, and so on. Consequently, you
won't be able to play melodies. Consider the following
illustration:
C2
Here's how to activate the MDR part:
1. Press the Keyboard Mode [OTHER] button.
M-FX
CONTROLLERS
MELODY
INTELL
MIN MAX
M-VALUE
ON/OFF SYNC OTHER
C3
EFFECTS ONE TOUCH
TRANSPOSE
KEYBOARD MODE USER PROGRAM
ARRANGER PIANO DOWN UP
FREE PANEL