K.N.A.T

Issue No. 10

Hello everyone and welcome to issue number 10 of Ketron News and Tips (KNAT).
This issue is targeted for November 15, 2002. If you have a question to ask or a tip to submit, please let me know at jay@ketronus.com. Also I love your comments so don't hesitate to let me have a response.

A hearty welcome to all the new people who have gone to the web site www.ketronus.com and opted-in to this news letter. I can't believe how the lists are still growing. I have been getting a steady stream of wonderful people. Thanks!
If you are on this mail list by mistake or wish to unsubscribe, follow the removal directions at the bottom. Also if your name or email address is weird and you would like to continue to receive this newsletter, drop me a reply and let me know.

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Corrections:

--Thanks to Don Mason for pointing out that the links to the reviews for the X1 and XD9 on my web site were reversed. That has now been corrected.
--Thanks to Fred Lospennato for pointing out a mistake in the last newsletter (#9) where I said: "Accordions send the right hand information on channel 1, the left chord buttons on channel 2 and the left hand chord buttons on channel 3." Fred pointed out quite correctly that it is the bass and counter bass on channel 3. One final point about this: Not all accordions are set up in this manner. This is the customary manner, but by no means is it written in stone that you cannot use other channels. That is one reason Ketron set it up this way. If your accordion sends bass and counter bass on channel 5 then change the receive to match it.
--Notice that I put the wrong KNAT issue number in the body of the last issue. It should have been #9 and not #8.
--Except for these glaring errors I am perfect :-)

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MIDI TX

Pardon me for including the first few paragraphs from the last news letter. There have been so many new subscribers that I felt it would not be amiss to go over it again.

A little deeper (and simpler) look a the MIDI section.

Ketron instruments have some of the most sophisticated MIDI implementation of any MIDI device by any company. It is probably for this reason I get so many different emails asking questions regarding things that pertain to MIDI. It seems complex and technical and a lot of pretty good players don't understand it at all.

First off, let me say what MIDI means. It is an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface". Boy, that's enough to scare you off right there. What does that mean anyway? Basically it means that musical instruments can respond (or "talk") to each other using digital messages from one to the other. Now doesn't that sound better.

In the MIDI TX (transmit) section you can set what part of your Ketron instrument is sent to other MIDI instruments. In a lot of cases, the information being sent is going to a computer or sequencer or something of that nature. If you connect a Ketron instrument later than the MS series to a sound module, like a Yamaha MU100 or a Roland SC88 or even the later and best versions, the sound will not be correct for most rhythms. The right hand and most of the styles will translate OK, but channel 9, which is called Groove or Drum2 is calling up samples and that channel sounds really weird on other instruments. So if you are sending your styles to other modules, defeat Drum2 or Groove and have the Ketron instrument not send anything. To defeat that press F6 MIDI and then F1 MIDI TX and then using the cursor keys highlight the section you don't want to send and use the value keys to set the value to "--". The instrument will not then send that information out the MIDI port.

If you use the Ketron like I do hooked directly into your computer, you can choose what to send. I actually use the General setting for almost everything. That way you can keep your MIDI recordings consistent. When you play back, and send the information from your computer back to the instrument, the channels will call up the same information that was sent.

If you notice, the MIDI TX and the MIDI RX pages look a lot alike. You have 3 sections. If you are sending to a computer and you are playing the right hand along with your rhythm, You need to enable the section "Right" in the first section. Usually the best and most common setting is "1".

I could type until my fingers fell off and still not exhaust all the possibilities. And there is something else I want to get to.

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Combining Styles

Don wrote me about some of the styles on the SD1 not having percussion on them. Most notably the "Ober" styles. He is right. However if you want to put percussion on those styles it is not really hard to do.

In brief here is how. Go to Pattern Edit (this is in different places on different models) and then F4 (Copy). On the ensuing screen you will notice that the top left box is "Source" and the top right box is "Destination". Set the Destination to an empty slot. Set the Source to the style you are going to change. Use the number pad to find these styles. All styles are numbered so you should not have a problem.

In the middle left box use F3 to set to "Global". You are copying the whole style. In the next box down use F4 to set the box to "All Parts". Make sure the corresponding boxes on the right side of the screen also say "Global" and "All Parts". Then press F10 "Execute". You will notice that the Destination box no longer says "empty", but now has the name of the pattern you have copied.

Next find a part on a pattern that you want to add. Let us say, for example, that you actually used the Oberpolka as the style you want to add drums to. Now find a style with an appropriate drum part. NOTE* The part you are going to insert into the copied pattern must match the pattern. In other words you must be copying a part that has the same time signature as the pattern you are copying to. You cannot copy a 3/4 part onto a 4/4 pattern. (Ketron instruments are smarter than that). The parts must also have a matching number of measures. Copying a part with 6 measures into a slot with 4 measures won't work. It pays to do a bit of research on your styles to see what you are going to combine before you set out to do it.

Load the new style you are going to copy the drum part from into the "Source" box.

Then set the next box down on the left to "Arran. A" or "Arran. B" or wherever the drums are that you want to copy. The set the same box on the right (destination) side to copy those drums into the part you want it to go into.

Now on the next box down on the left set the parts using F4 to Drum1. Do the same thing on the Right side. Now press F10 "Execute". You have copied one drum part to one Arrangement. You can now repeat these steps to get drums on Arr. B, C, D, and if you want, Intros and Endings and Fills.

This is a little work, but if you are careful and chose your Styles carefully you should find that you have created a style exactly to your liking. And even if you don't like the result, you are still learning how and I'll bet that someday you'll get and idea that really clicks.

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