Roland Fantom-S88 - Manual (Page 22)

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Overview of the Fantom-S
Tempo Track
The Tempo track records tempo changes of a song over time. It can
be used for tempo changes during a song. If a song has the same
tempo from beginning to end, the Tempo track can be ignored.
When a song is first recorded on the Fantom-S, a tempo setting at the
time of recording will be stored at the beginning of the Tempo track.
Therefore when song playback starts from the beginning, the song
will always play back at this initial tempo.
Thus playback tempo is determined by the Tempo track setting. If
you modify the tempo during playback, the overall tempo of the
song will be controlled by the setting you make.
Beat Track
The Beat track records the time signature of each measure of a song.
Set the Beat track when recording a new song, or when you want to
change time signature during a song.
Pattern Track
You can also use the Pattern track to record musical passages, separately
from the Phrase tracks. Musical data in the Pattern track is regarded as
separate Patterns. Up to 100 Patterns can be created, and each Pattern
can contain data for 16 MIDI channels, as with Phrase tracks.
Patterns can be assigned to a Phrase track, so if you are using repetitive
phrases such as drums and bass, it is convenient to record each musical
phrase in a pattern, and then use the MICROSCOPE screen to assign the
pattern to the track (p. 148). In this case, the Phrase track contains only
the Pattern Call numbers that refer to the desired Pattern, and not the
actual Pattern data. Therefore the same Pattern can be used any number
of times with a negligible increase in memory used.
The RPS function (p. 172) for immediate playback also applies to
Patterns. Patterns are therefore convenient for live performance, if
you’ve recorded necessary sequencer data as Patterns and take them
to the gig.
Patterns also make fine scratch-pads for musical ideas.
Songs and the Sound Generator Mode
The Fantom-S’s sequencer can be used at any time, regardless of the
mode of the sound generator (Patch/Performance).
In Performance mode you can use up to sixteen sounds, with each
part playing a different sound. This means that Performance mode is
ideal for recording or playing an ensemble that uses multiple
instruments, such as drums, bass, and piano.
In Patch mode you can play using the sounds that are assigned to the
Keyboard part and the Pad part.
Positions for Storing a Song
Internal Memory
The sequencer has an area called internal memory that can temporarily
store one song. So we call this temporary song Internal Song.
To play back a song saved to a disk with the Fantom-S, it doesn’t
have to be loaded into internal memory. Only when you’re going to
record a song or edit a song saved to disk, do you have to load it into
internal memory. Since only one song can be worked on during
recording or editing, all the internal memory has to do is store one
song (about 120,000 notes).
The song in internal memory is volatile and will be lost when the
power is turned off. To keep a song, you must save it to user
memory or memory card.
Memory Card/User Memory
When keeping a recorded or edited song in internal memory, save it
to user memory or memory card as a song file. Up to 256 songs can
be saved to a card and user memory.
If you want to keep the song in internal memory that you recorded
or edited, you must save it as a song file onto a memory card or into
user memory. Either method lets you save up to 256 songs.
A card and user memory can contain two file types. The three-letter
symbol shown in parentheses ( ) is a file name extension that
distinguishes the different file types.
Song File (.SVQ)
This file is a song created on the Fantom-S. It is called an MRC Pro
song.
Standard MIDI File (.MID)
Standard MIDI File is a standard file format that allows sequencer
data to be exchanged between most musical applications. Fantom-S
files can be saved as Standard MIDI Files. This also allows you to
play back commercially available music data (GM scores) that is
compatible with the GM/GM2 system.
fig.01-11.e
Internal Memory
Song file
Standard MIDI file
Memory Card
User Memory Temporary Memory
Song file
Standard MIDI file
Fantom-S