Roland V-Arranger Keyboard VA-76 - Manual (Page 204)

VA-76 Owner’s Manual—MIDI
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36 being used and sent to the MIDI OUT port. This,
of course, depends on the Tone you assign to the
Upper1 part.
In Absolute mode, however, the MIDI note number
sent to the MIDI OUT port will be the one assigned to
the key you press (e.g. note number 60). The advan-
tage of Absolute is that you can play a bass line using
the VA-76’s Upper1 part and double it with a trumpet
of an external instrument.
PartSwtc
The Part Switch parameter allows you determine what
happens when you mute a part (see “Muting parts” on
page 114). One thing you know will happen is that the
part in question no longer sounds when you play on
the keyboard – even though its field on the KEY-
BOARD MODE page (accessible via the [OTHER]
button) is displayed in white, or even though the
Arranger is playing. What you do not see, however, is
whether a muted part still sends MIDI data. PartSwtc
allows you to specify whether or not a muted part
should go on sending MIDI messages:
Int— A muted part can no longer be played via the
VA-76’s keyboard or Arranger but continues to send
MIDI messages to MIDI OUT.
Int+Mid— A muted part can no longer be played via
the VA-76’s keyboard or Arranger and no longer sends
MIDI messages.
Selecting Int and muting a part thus has the same
effect as selecting Local Off (see page 201). Choose
whichever is more convenient in a given situation:
part mute can be saved to a User Program, while Local
and Part Switch can only be saved to a MIDI Set.
Rx Velocity, Tx Velocity
Your VA-76 is equipped with a velocity-sensitive key-
board and a tone generator capable of responding to
velocity messages. Velocity messages are an important
element for musical expression because the way you
strike a key results in a loud/bright or soft/round note,
telling the listener something about your feelings.
In some cases, however, it may be wiser not to convey
the velocity aspect of music making to emulate instru-
ments that are not velocity sensitive (such as organs,
for example). The VA-76 allows you to activate or
deactivate the transmission and/or reception of veloc-
ity messages. Use the associated [ON/OFF] fields to
switch the reception (RX) or transmission (TX) of
velocity messages on or off.
If you select [OFF], you have to tell your VA-76 which
velocity value to use instead of the continuous flux
normally received (in this case, the word receive
applies to both incoming MIDI data and the messages
received from the VA-76’s keyboard). That is what Rx
Velocity and Tx Velocity are for. The value you set will
be used for all notes received via MIDI IN (RX) or sent
to MIDI OUT (TX) – but only when the correspond-
ing velocity filter is set to [OFF].
SoftThru for Local
This function actually overrides the MIDI specifica-
tions, according to which the MIDI OUTput of an
instrument only sends messages generated on the
instrument itself (e.g. your VA-76). When you set Soft
Thru to On, all notes received on the NTA channel
beyond the NTA’s High and Low Limits are re-trans-
mitted to the MIDI OUTput. Use the Soft Thru fea-
ture for a digital piano or other keyboard instrument
without split function.
When you set Soft Thru to On, The VA-76 sends a
Local message (CC122) with a value “0” to the digital
piano, so that the piano’s sound source no longer
responds to the notes you play on its keyboard. Seeing
that the VA-76 echoes back all notes that are not used
to trigger the Arranger, you hear what you play on the
piano – except in the zone set apart for the Arranger.
(This requires that you also connect the VA-76’s MIDI
OUTput to the digital piano’s MIDI INput.)
When you set Soft Thru back to Off, the VA-76 sends a
Local message with a value “127”, thereby switching
the piano’s Local function back on.
VA-76.book Page 206 Friday, January 12, 2001 12:35 PM