| I have been toying with the idea of entering the wonderful world of
MIDI for some time, I am a guitarist and no little beyond a few chords and
scales on keyboards, my wife however is an excellent classically trained
pianist. For a special Xmas present I decided to get some form of pretty good
electronic keyboard. As a sort of compromise I got my wife a Yamaha YPP-50
digital piano (of which more in another note). I did look at some excellent
Technics and higher end Yamaha pianos that had some of the interesting
synth-type stuff that was of more interest to me but decided in the end that it
was better to buy a separate synth module and to use the YPP-50 as a master
keyboard. I was sold on the RA-50 as soon as I tried it, the sounds are
excellent and the Arranger/Accompaniment section allowed even a keyboard
ignoramus like me to sound good.
It appears to be basically an MT32 synth module with all the tremendous
breathy LA sounds plus an arranger section. This allows you to choose from one
of 32 styles (Funk->Rock->Reggae->Baroque->Tango->etc). This gives you a drum
track (you can only vary the tempo but there are two variations on each of the
styles). Then varying degrees of accompaniment e.g. chord sensing from one
or two keys being pressed a full chord will be played, a bassline and 'vamping'
accompaniment to go with the left hand part. The upper half of the keyboard has
optional 'melody intelligence' which harmonizes a part with your melody.
It really does sound good, most of the sounds are excellent, the drums
are particularly realistic and the reverb adds a tremendous amount to the
fullness of the sound. I should imagine that a good keyboard player could have
a tremendous time with all the different parts, my classically trainded purist
wife refuses to use it! I know the auto-arranger is a cheat but then so is
using a capo on the guitar. I have been playing around with the real-time
sequencer (upper & lower parts can be entered separately but no punch in or
step mode entry) and then playing along with my guitar, I would say that the
RA-50 plus a good sequencer is all you need to be a one-man-MIDI-band.
I am still exploring the possibilities of it and am going to try it out
with an Atari ST & sequencer that a friend has. It does appear to have a very
full MIDI specification and it did occur to me reading through the SYSEX
details that it may be possible to produce custom voices like the MT32 proper,
of course this would require it to be under software control. I would be
grateful for anyone's opinion on this.
Nigel
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| RE < Note 2223.1 by MALLET::BARKER "Pretty Damn Cosmic" >
Hi Nigel,
I played around with one of these in NYC last summer and had a blast
with it. It is a far cry from the auto-accompaniment stuff you get in consumer
organs. They gave it the ability to not only receive commands from the front
panel, but also from the input keyboard (as you play). Nice touch.
You mentioned getting a sequencer... Won't the RA-50 store songs?
Dan
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| re .2
> You mentioned getting a sequencer... Won't the RA-50 store songs?
Well, sort of, but you can only enter data in real time, I haven't even found a
way to change the tempo on playback. You can play the left hand part and record
it then record the right hand part while playing back the part you first
recorded. You are limited to 3 songs in the onboard memory, you can get RAM
cards which you can save to and load from. You can also get additional music
styles on ROM to add to the 32 on-board styles. In truth most of the music
styles would be more suited to the cocktail bar or GB band than what I am
interested in but the useable ones are very good.
With a proper external sequencer I can have 8 voices plus drums in 32 note
polyphony, it is also possible to trigger the auto-arranger via MIDI. This
seems a very cost effective way of entering the wonderful world of MIDI. If as
I suspect I can also generate MT32 custom voices then I will have all the
equipment that I need for the forseeable future (famous last words from
neophyte MIDIot!).
I paid �599 which is about $900. I'd be interested to know what the price is in
the US, I have a terrible feeling that it will be much cheaper, oh well.
Nigel
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| <<< DNEAST::SYS$PROD3:[NOTES$LIBRARY]COMMUSIC.NOTE;1 >>>
-< * * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * * >-
================================================================================
Note 2278.0 ANYONE WHO OWNS A RA-50 FROM ROLAND??? 1 reply
UTROP1::BOVENJ 24 lines 2-MAR-1990 07:29
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I played with the Roland RA-50 for a while. It's a very sophisticated
auto-accompany module with it's own multi-timbral LA synthesis SGU,
drums and the lot.
It provides you with 40 different music styles (rock, funk, baroque
etc.) in which "the band" accompanies you.
If you don't intend to be the most original recording artist ever
it can be very useful in transferring your rough idea's into a
professional arrangement very quickly.
Price in Holland is Dfl. 2100, - (1100$). Personally I would like
to own one for the purpose stated above, but I'll wait a awhile until
some gadget-obsessed people throw out this module because it's starts
to bore them (a serious risk with this kind of pre-programmed stuff).
QUESTION: DOES ANYONE OWN A RA-50? IF YES, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
IT?
================================================================================
Note 2278.1 ANYONE WHO OWNS A RA-50 FROM ROLAND??? 1 of 1
UTROP1::BOVENJ 6 lines 2-MAR-1990 07:32
-< sequel >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry, forgot to sign the previous note.
best regards,
Jeroen
|
| Well, add me to the list of owners of a RA50, and a HP-6000 Keyboard.
I'm a beginning, novice player, however, "my significant other",
is an excellent Pianist (owns a Kawai, 7-foot grand). She was the
driving force in the selection of the HP-6000, had to be
88-full-size key, and the touch and feel was the closest
she could find to her grand. She feel is closest to the Harpsicord.
The package price was $5000.00 for the HP-6000, RA50, 2-foot switch
es and a funny looking wooden bench seat.
We also picked-up a Music Style Card "Around the world" and
a Voice Crystal X to store patches and 3 songs.
I think the Japanese have a different view of some of the music
styles, but I'm not complaining. The kids really like the sounds
to their favorite songs (Big Bad Wolf, Pink Panther, etc.).
I need some advice on a good sequencer, the RA50 doesn't even have
enough memory to store classical music, and most piano
duets don't fit.
It was suggested to buy a NC-300, from Roland, 25,000 Midi changes
and a true 6 tracks, just fits nicely into the RA50 and HP6000.
The only other negitive about the RA50, is not being able to use
the voices of the HP-6000. To have to play games with cables,
and MIDI channels, which to a hardware engineer is neat, to a
Pianst is a pain....
I've be interested in sharing patches and songs (demos), the
only thing is these RAM/battery stored cards are going for
$80 list ( $68 my price). If anybody has a better price,
please let me know.
We also had a PRO teach us about the RA50 so we feel somewhat
in control and would be willing to talk over problems.
Al / Rosie
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