Adding Realtime Expression - Roland VA-76 Owner's Manual

VA-76 Owner's Manual—VA-76 clinics

Adding realtime expression

Things you ought to know about VariPhrase
The VariPhrase technology allows you to change the
pitch of a phrase (by playing melodies) while the
speed (tempo) and character/timbre are kept constant.
On the other hand, you are free to change the tempo
without affecting the pitch/timbre of a phrase.
This is remarkable for two reasons:
a) Usually, the pitch of recorded/sampled material can
be changed only by playing the data at a higher or
slower speed, so that the tempo changes. (Conversely,
changing the tempo also means that the pitch
changes.) Consider the following illustration.
Traditional Sampler
Too fast &
too brittle
Original
Sounds like a
tape played
back at half
speed
On a sampler, playing higher notes will speed up the
phrase, so that a = 120 rhythm suddenly changes to
e.g. = 144, which would make the material useless for
live performances. Besides, traditional samplers do
not allow you to lock a phrase's tempo to the tempo of
a sequencer (or Arranger), while VariPhrase does.
VariPhrase
Higher, but
natural. No
tempo change.
Original
Lower, but natural.
No tempo change.
b) Sampled or recorded audio consists of frequency
clusters that describe the kind of sound, its timbre, etc.
We'll spare you the details... Such clusters also contain
certain frequencies that make a sound (e.g. your voice)
recognizable. No matter how hard you try to imitate
someone else's voice, you will always produce fre-
quency clusters that will betray you. Such frequency
clusters (partials) are called the formant.
Changing the pitch of recorded/sampled audio mate-
rial means that the formant is also transposed. And
that's precisely why a piano sample of the note "A4"
sounds like a cheap electronic piano when you use it
for the note "D5" (the D further to the right). Why?
Because the speed is different (see above), and –more
importantly– because the "typical piano frequencies"
are shifted to a different range.
48
"Her e comes Var i P hr a se"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
"Here comes VariPhrase"
VariPhrase analyses the frequency content of your
audio material and is therefore capable of (a) keeping
the formant constant, or (b) deliberately changing the
formant, so that you can modify the character of a
phrase to an extent that it almost sounds as though
you had changed a woman's voice into a man's, or vice
versa.
The VA-76's controllers can be used to modify these –
and other– aspects. Here's how:
D Beam controller
1. Press the D Beam Controller [ON/OFF] button
(button must light) to activate the D Beam Control-
ler.
2. Select a phrase with a man's face (for "male voice").
See the table on page 46.
3. Activate the VariPhrase part.
4. Move your hand over the "eyes" while playing
something.
The function currently assigned to the D Beam Con-
troller is called "Cut & Reso Up and
(Cut& Reso is for the VA-76's Keyboard parts, while
Formant Up is for the VariPhrase part.)
The male voice you selected in step (2) changes drasti-
cally as you move your hand closer to the D Beam's
eyes.
Other controllers
Of course, you can also use the remaining controllers:
the Ribbon, the BENDER/MODULATION lever,
Aftertouch, the Foot Switch and the Foot Pedal. Based
on what you will learn on page 55 and following, you
should be able to try them out now. See page 186 for
how to assign other functions to these controllers. The
important thing to remember is that only the parame-
ters marked with a will influence the VariPhrase
part.
Please bear in mind that the formant is only one
aspect that can be influenced in this way. The others
are: Pitch, Time (speed), and sometimes Level (vol-
ume).
Yet other parameters affect the VariPhrase indirectly
or change its behavior. They allow you to use a con-
troller to increase or decrease the influence of an LFO
(an oscillator used for modulation effects that result in
vibrato, WahWah, etc.) on various VariPhrase parame-
ters.
Formant Up".