Roland VA-76 - Manual

Features 8 Useful options FC-7 Foot Controller The FC-7 Foot Controller allows you to perform various Style selection functions (Fill In To Original/To Variation, Start/Stop, etc.) by foot. Connect it to the FC7 PEDAL socket at the back of your VA-76. The functions performed by the FC-7’s foot switc...

9 VA-76 – Owner’s Manual In addition to the items listed under “USING THE UNIT SAFELY” (see page 4), please read and observe the following: Power supply • Do not use this instrument on the same power circuit with any device that will generate line noise (such as an electric motor or variable lightin...

11 VA-76 – Owner’s Manual 1. Panel descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 1.1 Front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.2 Rear panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2. Setting up and demo songs . . ...

Contents 12 7.4 One Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Ignoring certain One Touch settings (Cancel Options) 100Programming your own Tone selections (Memorize) . 100 7.5 More refined Arranger settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 ARR(anger) Hold . . . ...

13 VA-76 – Owner’s Manual 12.5 User Style Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Erase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Insert . . ....

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Panel descriptions 14 1.1 Front panel A D BEAM CONTROLLER section Use the [ON/OFF] button to switch the D Beam Con-troller on (the button lights) or off (button dark). By holding down the [ON/OFF] button for more than a second, you call up the display page where you can select...

15 VA-76 – Front panel J KEYBOARD MODE section These three buttons are used to specify whether the keyboard will be split or whether one sound can be played using the entire keyboard. Press the [OTHER] button if you want to use other configurations than “Arranger left/melody right” (ARRANGER) or “on...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Panel descriptions 16 S VariPhrase section These buttons provide access to the revolutionary VariPhrase function of your VA-76. T SUPER TONES buttons Use these buttons to select one of the five so-called “Super Tones”. These are sounds for the Upper 1 part you may want to use ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Panel descriptions 18 1.2 Rear panel A POWER ON button Press this button to switch the VA-76 on and off. B AC socket This is where you need to connect the supplied power cord. Be sure to only use a wall outlet that delivers the correct voltage. C LCD CONTRAST knob Use this kno...

19 VA-76 – Audio connections 2.1 Audio connections The VA-76 does not contain an internal amplification system. You will either have to use stereo headphones or connect the VA-76 to a keyboard or other type of amplifier and speaker system. You could also connect it to a PA system, power amplifiers, ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Setting up and demo songs 20 Once the internal circuit tests have been completed, the display looks as follows: This page will be displayed automatically whenever you leave the VA-76 unattended for more than five minutes. Note: You can prevent the VA-76 from automatically sele...

21 VA-76 – Listening to the demo songs • Demo playback starts automatically. But you can press a Tone family field (“Piano”, “CPerc”, etc.) to select another demo song that features the Tones of that family. The abbreviations on the above display page reflect the names of the BANK buttons on the fro...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Scratching the surface 22 3.1 The general idea Your VA-76 is two instruments in one: one half pro-vides the backing for the melody you play in the other half. There are two main sections you can use for playing live. (The third section, the Song Composer, can also be used for ...

25 VA-76 – Using the VA-76’s Arranger 3.4 Using the VA-76’s Arranger The Arranger is an interactive “playback sequencer” that provides the accompaniments. These accompani-ments are called “Music Styles”, because they provide an 8-track backing for a given musical genre (Rock, Pop, Dance, Waltz, etc....

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Scratching the surface 26 Note: There are four more patterns for the ORIGINAL and VARIATION levels. See “Orchestrator” on page 62 for how to select them. Professional transitions: Fill So far, we have only used the ORIGINAL and VARIA-TION patterns. ORIGINAL is great for verses...

27 VA-76 – Adding a melody to the accompaniment 3.5 Adding a melody to the accompaniment If you set up the VA-76 using the Easy Routing func-tion, you not only select a Music Style but also a sound for your right hand. Let’s add a live melody to the accompaniment. 1. Press the [ORIGINAL] or [VARIATI...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Scratching the surface 28 an t Suppose you like the sound for the right hand but think that it is not really suited for the currently selected Music Style. Here are two easy ways of assign-ing a different sound to the right hand. Let’s agree to use the word “Tones” for the VA-...

29 VA-76 – Adding a melody to the accompaniment One Touch Another way of selecting a suitable Tone for the right-hand part while working with the Arranger is by using the ONE TOUCH feature. In fact, One Touch does a lot more than selecting a Tone for Upper1. See page 99 for details. Note: One Touch ...

31 VA-76 – Listening to Standard MIDI Files 3.6 Listening to Standard MIDI Files Standard MIDI Files are sequences almost any sequencer can read. Though you can use your VA-76 as “playback machine” of such Standard MIDI Files, it is also possible to mute the melody part and to play it yourself. 1. I...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Scratching the surface 32 • If Song Composer playback is stopped, selecting the Master page would switch off the Song Composer mode and take you back to Arranger mode where you can use the automatic accompaniment function. Minus One playback Your VA-76 allows you to mute any g...

33 VA-76 – Listening to Standard MIDI Files 12. Press [EXIT] to return to the Master page. The Master page now looks different, because the field in the upper left corner is called [Song]. See page 31. 13. Press the Keyboard Mode [ARRANGER] button if you once again want to use the Arranger. UP1 link...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 34 In this chapter, we will have a closer look at some of the VA-76’s functions. While “Scratching the surface” on page 22 only showed you what to expect and how to obtain instant gratification, this chapter is already a little more technical. But again, not all ...

35 VA-76 – Keyboard Mode clinic Split point in Arranger mode When the [ARRANGER] button lights, the keyboard is split in two halves. The split point is located at a C key. This key is called the “C4”: There may be situations where the automatically assigned range is not what you need. In that case, ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 36 The display now looks as follows (the [KEYBOARD MODE] field must be white): 3. If the [WHOLE] field is not displayed in white, press it to make the display look like in the above illustration. In the central part of this page, you can switch on all Keyboard pa...

37 VA-76 – Tone clinic Active parts are displayed in white fields (and their button lights, see below), while switched-off parts are displayed in blue. 5. If necessary, change the split point. See “Split point in Arranger mode” on page 35. This split point indeed applies both to the chord rec-ogniti...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 38 2. Specify the part for which you want to select another Tone: Hold down the [PART] button and press one of the NUMBER buttons. If you only press the [PART] button, all GROUP and BANK indicators go off, while the NUMBER indicator that corresponds to the curren...

39 VA-76 – Tone clinic Tone selection via the display Let us now look at how to use the display for selecting Tones. For details about the terms used in this para-graph, see “Tone selection via the front panel” on page 37. 1. Press the [Tone] field in the display. The display now looks as follows: I...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 40 5. Press the [A] or [B] field to select the desired Tone group. 6. Press one of the following fields to select a bank within that group: 7. Press a Tone field to select a Tone (number). Again, the VA-76 may actually load another Tone than the one you selected....

41 VA-76 – Tone clinic Note: Press the Variation field without a number (“Organ 1” in our example) to preset the Capital Tone as “Preferred Tone”. 4. Press the [Customize] field to store this Variation as your new favorite. The display responds with: This means that your selection has been stored. A...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 42 Here’s how you can tell which Tone Map is currently being used: This information is also displayed on other pages (mark the “Map” field). Here is another example: Note: Tones without a “Map” indication belong to Map 4 (the new VA-76 sounds). A word about the n...

43 VA-76 – Tone clinic The display now changes to: This page means that the WHOLE Keyboard Mode is currently selected (see page 35). If you don’t see this page, press the [KEYBOARD MODE] field in the upper right corner. 2. Press the [SPLIT] or the [WHOLE] field, depend- ing on whether you wish to as...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 44 Selecting Drum Sets for the MDR part The MDR part may already be a remarkable function by itself. But things really become interesting when we tell you that the VA-76 comes with 116 different Drum Sets to choose from.There are Drum Sets for just about any musi...

45 VA-76 – VariPhrase clinic 4.3 VariPhrase clinic The revolutionary VariPhrase function allows you to play vocals or other sampled phrases via the keyboard – at any pitch, and at any tempo. 48 of those phrases reside in the VA-76’s ROM memory. They are divided over two groups (A & B), with 3 ba...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 46 The bank names tell you something about the kind of situations for which the phrases were originally intended. The Melodic phrases can be used for playing solo lines, while the Rhythmic and Background phrases are probably more convincing for spicing up your mu...

47 VA-76 – VariPhrase clinic Here’s how to select the Mono mode: 1. Press the Mode [MONO/POLY] button to make it light. If the indicator doesn’t light, the POLY mode is selected. Here, we need the MONO mode. 2. Switch on the Upper1 part (see page 45) and select the SPLIT Keyboard mode (see page 36)....

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 48 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 c...

49 VA-76 – VariPhrase clinic Realtime VariPhrase control via the display There may be times where you don’t feel like using any of the controllers mentioned above – or where they have been assigned other functions you do not want to change. In that case, consider using three on-screen sliders in the...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 50 Adding effects to the VariPhrase part Though already amazingly flexible by itself, the Vari-Phrase part can even be enhanced using two dedicated effects. These Reverb and Chorus effects operate inde-pendently from the “main” Reverb and Chorus effects. In many ...

51 VA-76 – Expression clinic 4.4 Expression clinic Allow us to introduce the VA-76’s performance func-tions. Also called Controllers , they allow you to add expression to your playing, which is a very important aspect for simulating glissando’s, bendings, and other changes to the timbre that will ma...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 52 Ribbon controller (Touch control) The Ribbon/Touch controller is a performance func-tion that was already available on vintage analogue synthesizers, the Roland JP-8000, and the EM-20. We included it because we figured that you might like to influence one of t...

53 VA-76 – Expression clinic Transposition If you are used to playing a song in a particular key, the Transpose function will help you go on playing in that key while sounding in another one. That way, you can accompany a singer or instrument without chang-ing your fingering. Hold down the [ONE TOUC...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 54 5. Press [ o BACK] to return to the previous display page, or [EXIT] to return to the Master page. Octave The Octave function is another useful parameter that allows you to change the pitch of the selected part in octave steps (12 semitones). You could take ad...

55 VA-76 – Expression clinic At first, the switches of this controller are assigned Arranger control functions. You can, however, assign other functions to these switches. See page 193 for details. Note: The FC-7 assignments apply to the VA-76 and are not written to individual User Programs. Selecti...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 56 Metronome The VA-76 is equipped with three metronomes: one for Style playback, one for Song Composer recording/playback, and one for User Style Composer program-ming. If you wish to hear a metronome during Style play-back, here is what you need to do: 1. On th...

57 VA-76 – Using live vocals 1. See “Metronome Output” for how to select the dis- play page with the metronome options. 2. Select an option in the Count-In section: OFF— The count-in function is off. 1Bar, 2Bar— Whenever you start Arranger playback, the metronome counts in 1 or 2 bars before the sel...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 58 6. Press the [ k ] field several times until the following page is displayed: 7. Set the [Volume] slider to “0”, and press the [ON/ OFF] field below this slider to select “OFF” (if neces-sary). Let us now set the input sensitivity of the VariPhrase [INPUT] soc...

59 VA-76 – Arranger/Music Style clinic 4.6 Arranger/Music Style clinic Before telling you more about the Music Styles, we’d like to explain the difference between Music Styles and the Arranger. The Arranger is in fact the function (or sequencer) that plays the accompaniments you select. These accomp...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 60 need to do is press the desired NUMBER button just before the beat where you wish the new Music Style to take effect. Style selection via the display Let us now look at how to use the display for selecting Styles. 1. Press the [Style] field in the display. The...

61 VA-76 – Arranger/Music Style clinic selection via the display”). Just be sure to select group C. Here’s what the display looks like when group C has been selected: Even for Music Styles on Zip/floppy, the VA-76 thus displays their names. In fact, it’s the names that are important for finding the ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 62 5. If the desired Music Style is not displayed, use [ o ][ k ] to select another group of 4 Styles. You can also use the [TEMPO/DATA] dial for select-ing other pages with different Music Styles on the inserted disk. Note: The VA-76 contains a powerful search e...

63 VA-76 – Arranger/Music Style clinic With the ORCHESTRATOR function, you can further refine and vary the Original and Variation patterns played by the Arranger. This is like orchestrating the accompaniment in realtime, because you can leave out parts, thin out the drum part, or even select a total...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 64 1. See steps (1) and (2) above. The “1st Style” is the one you (or the Virtual Band) selected last, while the “2nd Style” is prepared auto-matically. What you hear now is the “1st Style” (all three fields in the left column are white). Note: See below for how ...

65 VA-76 – Song Composer clinic 4.7 Song Composer clinic On page 31 we already showed you how to play back a Standard MIDI File on Zip or floppy disk. Here we’ll record a song using the Arranger as accompaniment. Recording your music You can record your music as “Songs” that can be saved to Zip or f...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 66 Listening to your song You probably want to listen to your song now. If you like it, be sure to save it to Zip or floppy disk (see “Sav-ing your song to disk”). 1. Press the [STOP ■ | √ ] field twice. This returns the Song Composer to the beginning of your new...

67 VA-76 – Song Composer clinic 3. Press the [REC ● ] field (so that it is displayed in white). 4. Press the [2nd Trk] field. This means “redo the melody but leave the Arranger parts unchanged”. The relevant part of the display now looks as follows: 5. If you’re ready, press the [PLAY ® ] field to s...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — VA-76 clinics 68 Note: If you want to save the song under its current name, or the name assigned by default (Song_001), you can skip steps (4)~(7). 4. Press the [Name] field, because you need to give your brand-new song a name. In fact, you even need to give your song two name...

69 VA-76 – Playing with the User memories 5.1 Playing with the User memories Loading VariPhrases, VariPhrase Sets or audio files As stated earlier, you can also use your own VariPhra-ses, or load up to 16 phrases from the supplied Zip disk. (The Zip disk contains 62 User VariPhrases and 7 Phrase Set...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 70 Press the [YES] field if it is OK to overwrite the phrase in the selected User memory. Press the [NO] field to return to the Disk Load page. Press [ o Back] to return to the previous page and select another memory. If you press [Phrase Set] Th...

71 VA-76 – Sampling your own phrases 6. Press the SAMPLING [CAPTURE] button. The display now looks more or less as follows: 7. Press the [A] or [B] field to select the desired User Phrase group. 8. Press a Phrase memory field (so that it is displayed in white). 9. Press the [Capture] field. Try to s...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 72 Note: The time signature cannot be changed here. That explains why we suggested selecting a Music Style with the correct time signature before calling up the Capture func-tion. 14. Press the [START/STOP] button and start singing or playback of...

73 VA-76 – Sampling your own phrases Press a key on the keyboard (or the [Preview] field) to play back the audio material, and adjust the Edit Start position so that the phrase starts at the desired posi-tion whenever you press a key on the keyboard (or the [Preview] field). Note: It would be a good...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 74 Encoding the phrase So far, we have been working with audio data that you could already save to disk (see page 76). That, how-ever, would not allow you to use this phrase in sync with the Arranger tempo. That is because the audio file hasn’t b...

75 VA-76 – Sampling your own phrases pitch, while the phrase is actually too low. To “trans-pose” it one octave up (when you press the same key on the keyboard), you would have to select “A3” as Original Key. Specifying the phrase’s tempo: Time Signature, Measure, Beat, Tempo If you decided not to u...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 76 11. Play a few notes on the keyboard to try out the phrase. If necessary, correct any of the above parame-ters, and press [EXECUTE] again. Note: If you change a setting after pressing [EXECUTE], you must encode the phrase again (by pressing [E...

77 VA-76 – Phrase Parameters 5.3 Phrase Parameters As you know, there are some parameters you usually set immediately after sampling an audio phrase and before saving it to disk. “Executing” those changes transforms such a phrase into a VariPhrase (a process we call “encoding”). VariPhrases are the ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 78 Fine Tune (–50~50) This parameter allows you to tune the Vari-Phrase if it turns out that it is slightly sharp or flat. Just in case you have already worked with a sampler: this parameter is not meant for tempo-matching purposes: it merely cor...

79 VA-76 – Phrase Parameters Time Keyfollow (–200~+200) This parameter allows you to vary the tempo as you play higher or lower notes (with the Original Key setting as origin, where the phrase will run in sync with the Arranger/Song Composer). “0” is the usual setting. Negative values (–) mean that ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 80 Time Sw When Time Keyfollow (see page 79) is set to a value other than “0,” the Time Sw setting specifies whether differences in the playback speed between the first-played key will be smoothly changed to the playback speed of the second-playe...

81 VA-76 – Global VariPhrase functions 5.4 Global VariPhrase functions The following parameters are Global parameters. This means that they apply to the VariPhrase part itself – not just the phrase that is currently selected. They can, however, be written to a User Program (see page 127), so that up...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 82 Mode 1. Press the [FUNCTION MENU] button. 2. Press the [VariPhrase] field. 3. On the page that appears now, press the [Global] field. 4. Press the [Mode] field in the left column. Loop If you want the Phrase to play back as a loop (i.e. to be ...

83 VA-76 – Truly “global” VariPhrase parameters selected phrase and similar to a noise gate in a record-ing studio, with the additional advantage that you can specify the pitch of the “audible bits”. Pause Another remarkable footswitch function allows you to “freeze” the audio data at the point wher...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the VariPhrase part 84 Sync Settings The following parameters may turn out to be very use-ful indeed. As you know, all VariPhrases (ROM and User) are automatically synchronized to the Arranger/Song Composer tempo. At extremely high or low val-ues, however, the phras...

85 VA-76 – Upper1 functions 6.1 Upper1 functions More about the Super Tones The SUPER TONES buttons are intended to help you select a Tone for the Upper1 (or UP1) part without bothering to use the [Tones] field on the Master page or the BANK/NUMBER buttons. They cannot be used for the other parts. W...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Advanced Keyboard part functions 86 Memorize Super Tones: programming other assignments for the buttons As stated earlier, you are free to assign any five of the VA-76’s 3,646 Tones to the User set memories for the SUPER TONES buttons. 1. Select a Tone for the Upper1 part. See...

87 VA-76 – Upper2 functions 1. Press the Keyboard Mode [OTHER] button. The display now looks more or less as follows: 2. If the display does not look like in the above illus- tration, press the [KEYBOARD MODE] field in the upper right corner, and the [SPLIT] field. Both must be displayed in white. 3...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Advanced Keyboard part functions 88 Splitting Upper2 and the VariPhrase part Once you have completed the above and set the UP2 Split point to your liking, you can switch off the UP1 part and use the VariPhrase part instead so as to use a PCM (sampled) Tone for UP2 and a VariPh...

89 VA-76 – Upper2 functions the Upper2 and Upper1 parts are split ( UP2 Split or UP2 To Left ), detuning or shifting the UP2 part would not be very meaningful. You could use Coarse to program an interval of a fifth (7 semitones) for Upper2, which is especially effective for brass sounds and guitar p...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Advanced Keyboard part functions 90 Instead of jumping in semitone steps (as you would expect), the pitch glides from one note to the next whenever the Portamento time is higher than 0. The higher the value you set, the slower the glide. This effect is particularly useful for ...

91 VA-76 – Velocity sensitivity 1. On the above display page, press the [Options] field. 2. On the page that appears now, press the [Lower Hold] field. 3. Press the desired “Lower On/Off ” fields to make your selection. If you select [Lower 1 Hold On] and [Lower 2 Hold On], the [LWR Hold] field on t...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Advanced Keyboard part functions 92 Min and Max can be used effectively for switching between two Tones simply by striking the keys harder or softer. Doing so allows you to alternate between two sounds. Remember, though that some “V” Tones already have this function built-in (...

93 VA-76 – Scale Tuning The pitch of the other notes is left unchanged. The keys corresponding to the notes whose pitch is changed are displayed in white for easy identification. Here is an example: You will notice that every note can be selected only once. That is because the value you specify (usi...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Advanced Keyboard part functions 94 Here again, the white keys inform you about the notes whose pitch is actually being affected. 2. Press the value field (or the on-screen key) of the note/key whose pitch you want to change. That field is displayed in white. As stated earlier...

95 VA-76 – Arranger and Music Styles 7.1 Arranger and Music Styles Think of the Arranger’s Music Styles as your backing band. Your VA-76 is indeed capable of playing several “versions” of a given accompaniment. All you need to do is make up your mind about the kind of music you want to play and to s...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 96 Sync (Options) If you’ve never used an arranger keyboard before, the status of the [SYNC] button is the single most impor-tant function to look out for after switching on your instrument. After all, if it is on without you knowing it, playing just on...

97 VA-76 – Selecting other Style divisions Tip: The Intro is “renewable”, i.e. you can press the [INTRO] button again while the Intro is playing. Doing so on the fourth beat of the first Intro bar, for instance, will retrigger the beginning of the Intro in the second bar. Fill In Half Bar Certain po...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 98 Bsc/Adv— Switches between the Basic ( B ) and Advanced ( D ) levels. These two patterns are available via the VA-76’s Orchestrator function. Or/Var— Switches between Original and Variation and thus duplicates the functions of the [ORIGINAL] and [VARI...

99 VA-76 – Melody Intelligence 7.3 Melody Intelligence The Arranger of your VA-76 can not only play chords but also add a counter-melody to your melodies based on the chords you play in the chord recognition area (see page 101). This counter-melody will be played by the Melody Intelligence part (MEL...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 100 If you select a One Touch memory while another one is already active In that case, the VA-76 selects the Tones and Reverb/Chorus/Delay settings of that One Touch memory. It may also switch on one of the following functions if you switched them off a...

101 VA-76 – More refined Arranger settings 1. If necessary, switch off the One Touch memory that is currently on: • Press the [ONE TOUCH] button to select the follow- ing display page: • Press the [OFF] field so that it is displayed in white. The One Touch field (1~4) that was on, will go dark. 2. S...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 102 point you set for the Keyboard parts will also be used by the Arranger to determine the upper (Left) or lower (Right) limit of the chord recognition area. 1. Press the Keyboard Mode [OTHER] button. 2. Press the [ARRANGER CHORD] field in the upper le...

103 VA-76 – More refined Arranger settings Dynamic Arranger The Dynamic Arranger function allows you to control the volume of the Arranger parts via the way you strike the keys in the chord recognition area (velocity). If the selected Style uses a “V” Drum Set, this function also influences the timb...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 104 7.6 Arranger Options 1. On the page that appears when you press the Key- board Mode [OTHER] button, press the [ARRANGER CHORD] field if it is not displayed in white. 2. Press the [Options] field. The display now looks more or less as follows: You ca...

105 VA-76 – Arranger Options Press the first field ( Rit/Acc ) and use the [TEMPO/ DATA] dial or the [DATA] button/Numeric Entry pad to select the ratio by which the tempo should increase/decrease. Next, press the [CPT] field and enter the number of clocks required for executing the requested tempo ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 106 Intro& Ending Alteration Now suppose you like the accompaniment you assigned your chord to (e.g. the “7th” pattern), but think that the Intro and Ending sound odd when you start a song with that chord (“Csus4” for instance). Consider the followi...

107 VA-76 – Selecting Tones for the Arranger parts 7.7 Selecting Tones for the Arranger parts You can select other Tones for the Arranger parts of the currently selected Music Style. Assigning another Drum Set to the A. Drums part, for instance, may already dramatically change the Music Style’s char...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 108 7.8 Working with Styles on Disk Programming your own Disk Link assignments The VA-76 comes with 64 preprogrammed assign-ments to Music Styles on the supplied Zip disk. The Zip disk, however, contains a lot more Music Styles (559 in all), while you m...

109 VA-76 – Working with Styles on Disk Find: locating Styles on a Zip disk Working with Music Styles on Zip or floppy disk is convenient and fast, as you know by now. The Zip disk supplied with the VA-76, however, con-tains 559 Music Styles. That is why there is also a pow-erful Find function for q...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — More about the Arranger 110 If it says “0 of 559”, the VA-76 was unable to find a file that contains the desired information. In all other cases, the field will read “XX of 559”, which means “found XX Style Name, Country, Genre, or File Name entries that match the characters y...

111 VA-76 – Working with Styles on Disk Style Delete It is also possible to delete a Style from floppy or Zip disk. You should use this as sparsely as possible – and never for the supplied Zip or floppy disk . Once a Style is gone, there is indeed no way to restore it. So please be careful and try t...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 112 The VA-76 also allows you to set the volume, the ste-reo position and the amount of effect the parts should use. Of course, you can also program the effects them-selves. All of these parameters can be found on the Mixer pages. There are three way...

113 VA-76 – Volume and pan (2) Use a Single Part page Single Part pages contain all available Mixer parame-ters for the currently selected part. A typical Single Part page looks like this: Here, you need to proceed as follows: 1. Select one of the VA-76’s Mixer pages (see a~c on page 112). 2. Select...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 114 Note: The relative balance of two grouped parts is only maintained as long as you do not decrease (or increase) the volume once one of the faders on the other pages has reached the value “0” (or “127”). If you increase the volume of a group beyon...

115 VA-76 – Output Assign 4. Set a value between 1 and 63 to move the part fur- ther to the left, or 65~127 to move the part further to the right. Note that you can also select Rnd (Random), which means that the part will alternate between the left and right channels in a random way. Note: The percu...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 116 1. Press the [FUNCTION MENU] button. 2. Press the [Output Assign] field in the bottom row. 3. Depending on the group the desired part belongs to, press the [Keyboard Parts], [Style Parts] or [Song Parts] field so that it is displayed in white. In...

117 VA-76 – Effects and Equalizer 4. Press the [Reverb] field and modify the Reverb send level. Note: The Reverb, Delay and Chorus send levels cannot be set for Keyboard parts you assign to the M-FX effect (see page 122). The M-FX effect, however, has the same send parameters (see page 123). Effects...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 118 7. On that page, press the field of the parameter you want to edit and change its value with the slider, the [TEMPO/DATA] dial, or the [DATA] button/Numeric Entry pad. Reverb types & Parameters This is where you can edit the Reverb effects pr...

119 VA-76 – Effects and Equalizer Rate (0~127)— This parameter sets the speed (fre- quency) at which the Chorus sound is modulated. Higher values result in faster modulation. Depth (0~127)— This parameter sets the depth at which the Chorus sound is modulated. Higher values result in deeper modulatio...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 120 2. Press the Low Gain [400Hz] or [200Hz] field to select the low frequency to be boosted or cut. 3. Press the Low Gain value field and use the slider (right), the [TEMPO/DATA] dial, or the [DATA] but-ton/Numeric Entry pad to enter a positive (boo...

121 VA-76 – Insertion effect (M-FX) 2. Press and hold the M-FX [ON/OFF] button to jump to the following display page: This page may look vaguely familiar (especially the left column). There are indeed other ways of selecting this page: via the [Mixer] field on the Master page, or via the [EFFECTS] b...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 122 Assigning the M-FX to a Keyboard part You may have noticed the Insertion M-FX [ON/OFF] field on the Single Part pages of the Keyboard parts (see page 113). Here is an example: Press it (so that it reads [ON]) to assign the currently selected Keyb...

123 VA-76 – Insertion effect (M-FX) Selecting an M-FX type Let us now have a look at how to select a different type (effect) for the M-FX processor. Each type you select is loaded with suitable preset settings that cannot be edited on the VA-76 itself. You can, however, modify two parameters per typ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 124 8.6 VariPhrase and Audio In effects The VariPhrase and Audio In parts are two separate entities, which is why they do not share the same effects processors as the Keyboard and Arranger/Style parts. The advantage is that your “virtual” (Vari-Phras...

125 VA-76 – Sound Palette: editing Keyboard part parameters 8.7 Sound Palette: editing Keyboard part parameters Your VA-76 allows you to edit certain parameters that affect the way a Keyboard part sounds when you play it. These parameters will help you “modify” the parts by adjusting their brillianc...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Mixer, effects and editing 126 Note: There are additional modulation parameters that can be controlled via the Aftertouch (see page 189). Use them for WahWah (TVF modulation) or tremolo (amplitude modulation). Timbre (TVF) By modifying the filter settings, you can control the ...

127 VA-76 – Writing your settings to a User Program The VA-76 is equipped with 128 User Programs that allow you to store almost all settings (or registrations) you make on the front panel. Before taking a closer look at these User Programs, there is one thing we have to point out. All settings relat...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Registrations – User Programs 128 3. Use the [A]/[B] and numeric fields to select the group, the bank and the memory number where you wish to write your settings. One final step before writing your settings to a User Program is to assign a name to your settings. You only have ...

129 VA-76 – Selecting User Programs The name of the selected User Program is displayed on the Master page: The asterisk (*) only appears when you change a parameter setting after loading a User Program. This is to alert you to the fact that the current settings no longer correspond to the ones you r...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Registrations – User Programs 130 Tempo— Press this field if the tempo setting con- tained in every User Program should be ignored. MIDI Set— Press this field if the linked MIDI Set (see page 131) should not be recalled. This allows you to use a User Program, that you original...

131 VA-76 – Automatic functions for User Programs Linking a MIDI Set to a User Program MIDI Sets are “User programs for MIDI parameters”. There are eight such memories (see page 207). If you regularly use the VA-76 in different MIDI environ-ments (studio, live, band), preparing three MIDI Sets and l...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (the basics) 132 The Song Composer of your VA-76 is a Standard MIDI File player/recorder with the additional advan-tage that is can double as 16-track sequencer whenever you want it to. The VA-76’s Composer reads GM/GM2/GS compati-ble Standard MIDI files. Note: Y...

133 VA-76 – Song List: searching songs on disk (Find) If you press [YES], the display shows an animated clock to indicate that the disk is being formatted. You can exit this display page without interrupting the formatting process by pressing the [EXIT] field. That allows you to do something else wh...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (the basics) 134 The display now looks more or less as follows: 3. Play the notes of the Song you want the VA-76 to find. The key and rhythm are of little importance. (You must get the intervals right, though!) The note boxes will display a quarter note for every...

135 VA-76 – Song playback functions The display now looks more or less as follows: 4. Press the [PLAY ® ] field to start Song playback. The lyrics are now displayed on screen: 5. Press the [STOP ■ | √ ] field to stop playback, or the [ o Back] field to return to the main Song Composer page. Note: Yo...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (the basics) 136 2. On the Song Composer page (see above), press the [Minus One] field. The display now looks more or less as follows: The [1]~[16] entries refers to the 16 MIDI channels of the currently selected Standard MIDI File. The [ON] and [OFF] switches ar...

137 VA-76 – Song Chains Transpose Of course, it is also possible to take advantage of the VA-76’s Transpose function, which may be convenient if you are used to playing a given song in another key than the one used by the selected Standard MIDI File. There are two methods for setting the transpositi...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (the basics) 138 5. Press the [Edit] field. (The display on your VA-76 may look slightly differ-ent.) 6. Press the [New] field to create a new Song Chain. Ignore this step if you want to edit (change) an exist-ing Song Chain (the one you selected above). The disp...

139 VA-76 – Song Options Chain Mode The Chain Mode allows you to specify how the selected Song Chain should be played back. This is typically a function you set after selecting the desired Song Chain but before starting playback. Press the [ Auto ] field if playback of the next song in Chain is to s...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (the basics) 140 Note: If you rename or delete a song that is referenced by a Song Chain (see page 138), the Position in question will be empty. The VA-76 will skip such empty Positions during playback of the Chain in question. (Be aware that this may shorten you...

141 VA-76 – 16-track Sequencer 11.1 16-track Sequencer The Song Composer of your VA-76 is linked to a 16-track sequencer with full-fledged editing functions that allows you to refine your recordings in great detail. Selecting the 16-track sequencer 1. Press the [SONG COMPOSER] button. The display no...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 142 Example 1: Recording a track Here’s how to add a track to a song in the VA-76’s Song RAM memory. This is only meaningful after recording a song using the Song Composer or after playing back a song on disk. See page 145 for how to start a new ...

143 VA-76 – 16-track Sequencer 7. Press the [Octave] field. This is only necessary if you want your notes to be sounded and recorded in a different octave than the one you use for playing. This can be useful for record-ing a part which is just a little too low (or too high) and therefore does not “f...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 144 Volume (Level) 13. Press the [Mixer] field in the left column. The display now looks more or less as follows: 14. Press the [Level] field in the left column so that it is displayed in white. 15. If necessary, use the [VOLUME] slider for setti...

145 VA-76 – 16-track Sequencer Saving your song The 16-track sequencer uses a special portion of the VA-76’s RAM memory where all editing takes place. To ensure that you do not forget to save your song after recording and/or editing it, you are given the opportunity to do so upon leaving the Song Co...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 146 Song RAM memory. (Songs programmed on other instruments that already contain two drum tracks can be used like VA-76 songs with a “2nd Drum track”, though.) Select Off if you don’t need a second Drum Set, or set the number of the desired track...

147 VA-76 – Editing 16-track songs 11.2 Editing 16-track songs Easy editing and useful functions After recording a track, you may want to do some touching up. Here are some easy things you can do. See “In-depth editing of a 16-track song” on page 148 for more elaborate functions. [Play Trk] If this ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 148 In-depth editing of a 16-track song The Edit level of the 16-track mode provides eight functions: Erase, Delete, Insert, Transpose, Velocity, Quantize, Gate T., and Shift. Here is how to select these Edit functions: 1. Load the song you wish ...

149 VA-76 – Editing 16-track songs Data Type Allows you to select the data to be erased: Allº: All editable parameters listed below. Note: Only note messages. Modul: Only modulation messages (CC01). PBend: Pitch Bend data (i.e. use of the BENDER/MODULATION lever). Volume: Volume (CC07) data. Expre: ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 150 From/For— The From level allows you to specify the position where the selected number of bars, beats, and clocks is to be inserted.For, on the other hand, specifies how many bars, beats, and CPTs are to be inserted. Bar, Beat, CPT— See page 1...

151 VA-76 – Editing 16-track songs Note: A similar system is also available for other parame-ters. See “Change” on page 152. Quantize Use this function if you chose not to quantize your music during recording (see page 142) and now realize that the timing is not quite what you expected it to be. Qua...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 152 allows you to tidy up the timing and still keep any irregularities (music!) the original may contain because it was not quantized. Track— See page 149. You can also select the M track to shift tempo changes and SysEx messages. The initial set...

153 VA-76 – Editing 16-track songs Track (1~16, All)— Allows you to select the track whose data you wish to change. Though you can also select ALL, this should be done with great caution. If you look carefully at the layout in the center of the display, you will notice that there are two kinds of ch...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 154 CPT— This is where you specify the CPT position of the beginning and end of the track to be copied. Unless you do not need all notes within the last bar, you should keep the default setting. Mode (Replace, Merge)— Selects the Copy mode: Repla...

155 VA-76 – Style Converter Note: If the original was referenced by a User Program and if you now wish to use the new version (saved under a dif-ferent File Name), do not forget to change the Song Link setting (see page 130). Initialize See page 145. The VA-76’s Style Converter is an easy and intuit...

157 VA-76 – Edit Lyrics The new User Style will be copied to the Disk User memory. If that memory doesn’t yet contain data, the new Style will use the current time signature and tempo. If you like, you can set the default tempo in the field next to [Key]. If the Disk User memory already contains dat...

159 VA-76 – Edit Lyrics 18. Repeat this at the quarter note where the second line should be displayed. 19. Keep pressing [DATA] on all beats where the sub- sequent text lines should appear. 20. Press the [STOP ■ | √ ] field when all Lyrics data have been synchronized. The display now again looks mor...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 160 Exporting the Lyrics data as text file Here’s what you need to do to export the Lyrics data contained in a Standard MIDI File as text data. This may be useful for editing or printing the lyrics using your computer. Note: This only works if th...

161 VA-76 – Header Post Edit The Header Post Edit function allows you to modify certain playback parameters of the song that is cur-rently in the VA-76’s Song RAM memory. These mod-ifications are either global or track-specific in nature and can be saved to disk along with the song data. In a way, t...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Song Composer (16-track, etc.) 162 PChange— (1~128) These are program change mes- sages that allow you to select another Tone or Drum Set. See page 222 for a list of the VA-76’s Tones and Drum Sets. Volume (07)— Control change messages (CC07) that allow you to modify the Part ...

163 VA-76 – Concept You can program your own accompaniments ( Styles ) on the VA-76. Styles you program do not reside in ROM, which is why we call them User Styles , or Styles created by a user (either you or someone else). There are three ways of creating new Styles: • By converting portions of a S...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 164 Looped divisions— Looped divisions are accompani- ments that are repeated for as long as you do not select another division or press [START/STOP] to stop Arranger playback. The VA-76 provides four pro-grammable looped divisions with three variations...

165 VA-76 – Recording User Styles from scratch Note: The following sections also contain comments on what we are doing and possible options. If all you want to do is program a Style, just read everything that appears in bold. You can come back to the related explanations when-ever there is something...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 166 Working with clones On this page, you can activate three clone functions that allow you to record one part and copy it to up to three divisions and three modes each. The “=” sign means that more than one pattern will be recorded. 10. Use the [Mode] ...

167 VA-76 – Recording User Styles from scratch Tone selection Another important aspect is Tone selection because the address (Group, Bank, Number, Variation) of the Tones and Drum Set you select is recorded at the beginning of every division. 14. Press the [Tone] field in the left column. We are abo...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 168 Furthermore, in User Style Record mode, all patterns are looped , so that the VA-76 keeps playing them back until you press the [START/STOP] button. A wrong number of measures (5 instead of 4, for example) is very likely to put you off, so do take t...

169 VA-76 – Recording User Styles from scratch 22. Use the [TEMPO/DATA] dial to specify the num- ber of bars. Our pattern should be 4 measures long, so enter the value “4”. Note: You could also specify a CPT value by pressing the [CPT] field and using the [TEMPO/DATA] dial. That CPT value ( = 120CPT...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 170 Saving your Style to disk If you are serious about programming your own Styles, make it a habit to save them as frequently as possible. After all, if someone decided to turn off your VA-76 now, you would lose everything you have pro-grammed so far. ...

171 VA-76 – Recording User Styles from scratch Note: The on/off status only applies to the User Style mode. In normal Arranger playback mode, all tracks will be played. In other words, this is a help function. To mute a part in Arranger mode, see page 114. Here is how to mute tracks in User Style mo...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 172 Another way of programming User Styles is to use parts from internal Styles in ROM or User Styles on (floppy, Zip) disk. The VA-76 allows you to: • Copy entire Styles to the Style RAM memory (Disk User) • Copy the selected division of one or all tra...

173 VA-76 – Copying existing Styles 7. Press the [Listen] field to listen to the excerpt you are about to copy. Note: Listen is not available when you select ALL for one of the above entries. From Start by specifying the position of the first event (or note) of the source track to be copied. 8. Pres...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 174 When the data are copied, the display will tell you: Editing on the fly by recording Adding notes in realtime To add notes to an existing part, press the [Merge] field so that it is displayed in white, select the track, and start recording by pressi...

175 VA-76 – Editing User Styles If you select the ADrums track, the display looks slightly different: That is because you can only assign Drum Sets to the ADrums track. 3. Select the division whose settings you wish to change, and possibly also all clones (see page 165). 4. Press the [MERGE] field i...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 176 The Reverb and Chorus settings represent Send values (see page 116). The effect settings (Type, Character, etc.) can only be saved to a User Program. In other words, a Music Style’s character may change depend-ing on the User Program you select. You...

177 VA-76 – User Style Edit mode Time Signature Press the [Time Signature] field in the left column The Time Signature page allows you to check and set the time signature of certain or all patterns. The time signature of the major (M), minor (m), and seventh (7) patterns must always be the same. Thi...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 178 Erase [FUNCTION MENU] button → [User Style Composer] field → [Edit] field → [Erase] Erase allows you to selectively delete data either within a specified range of the pattern(s), or from the entire track(s). In Data Type ALL mode, Erase will substit...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 180 Quantize [FUNCTION MENU] button → [User Style Composer] field → [Edit] field → [Quantize] The Quantize function can be used after recording a part if you don’t feel comfortable with the timing of what you played. If only certain notes in a given tim...

181 VA-76 – User Style Micro mode Select this mode whenever you need to change just one aspect of an otherwise perfect User Style (or cop-ied ROM/Disk User Style). In this section, we will use the word event for any kind of message (identical to MIDI messages that cause the Arranger to play or set s...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 182 Status column— This column contains all the mes- sage types you can assign to an event. See page 177 for details. Use the [TEMPO/DATA] dial for selecting an event. Don’t look for CC64 (Hold or Sustain) events because you won’t find any. The use of t...

183 VA-76 – User Style Micro mode Status— Use the [TEMPO/DATA] dial to select the Status of the new event (note, control change, etc., see the table on page 177). You may have to press the [ Type ] field if it is not displayed in white. Then press the [ Value ] field and specify the “identity” of th...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Programming User Styles 184 Copy Mix [FUNCTION MENU] button → [User Style Composer] field → [Micro] field → [Copy Mix] The Copy Mix function allows you to copy the selected events to another position. This means that the events in question will be used twice. From, To— See “Mo...

185 VA-76 – User Style Utility Style tracks” on page 172 for a step-by-step tour of this function. The following does not present all parame-ters and settings available for the Copy function. Track (ADrums, ABass, Acc1~6, ALL)— Allows you to select the track whose data you wish to copy (the source p...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Miscellaneous 186 13.1 Choosing the performance functions (Controllers) The VA-76 provides several built-in controllers as well as three sockets for connecting optional controllers that will make your life a lot easier. It would thus be a good idea to browse through this chapt...

187 VA-76 – Choosing the performance functions (Controllers) hand outside the D Beam’s range, both Resonance and TVF Cutoff return to their original values (“0”= no change). Note: If TVF Cutoff is already set to “+63”, you cannot increase it using the D Beam Controller. In that case, the following o...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Miscellaneous 188 Formant Up/Down— These two options allow you to change the character of the selected VariPhrase. See page 48 for details. This function can also be con-trolled via an on-screen slider (see page 49). Cut&Reso Up and Formant Up— This is a com- bination of t...

189 VA-76 – Choosing the performance functions (Controllers) Touch Control (Ribbon) This page contains the functions that can be assigned to the Touch Control (also called “Ribbon”). With the exception of Off (that deactivates the Ribbon control- ler), the parameters are identical to the ones of the...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Miscellaneous 190 LFO2 Rate, LFO2 Pitch, LFO2 TVF, LFO2 TVA— Same setting range and meaning as the corresponding LFO1 parameters. Note that not all Tones use a second LFO, which is why these settings do not always yield the desired effect. Note: Except for Rate, the LFO parame...

191 VA-76 – Choosing the performance functions (Controllers) Foot Switch This parameter allows you to specify the function of the optional DP-2, DP-6, or BOSS FS-5U connected to the FOOT SWITCH socket on the rear panel. The default setting is Start/Stop, which allows you to start and stop Arranger p...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Miscellaneous 194 Orchestrator 1~4— These functions allow you to select the corresponding Orchestrator level (see page 62). Break Mute— This function can only be accessed via the FC-7. When you press the assigned footswitch, Arranger playback will be muted for the remainder of...

195 VA-76 – Global parameters (for the entire VA-76) MBass/Keyboard Arranger— Allows you to set the Arranger Chord parameter to “Off ” (chord recogni-tion as well as ABS recognition off, see page 102) and, at the same time, select the SPLIT Keyboard mode and activate the M.Bass part – and vice versa...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Miscellaneous 196 Factory Resume The Factory Resume fields allow you to select all or only certain settings of the “Free Panel” User Program so as to initialize the section in question. Why would you need such a function since you can also select the “Free Panel” memory by sim...

197 VA-76 – MIDI in general 14.1 MIDI in general MIDI connectors MIDI messages are transmitted and received using three connectors and special MIDI cables: MIDI IN— This connector receives messages from other MIDI devices. MIDI OUT— This connector transmits MIDI mes- sages generated on your VA-76 MI...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 198 Control change messages These messages control parameters such as modula-tion and pan. The function of a message is determined by its control change (e.g. ID) number. Modulation (CC01) *— This message controls vibrato. Volume (CC07) *— This message controls the volume...

199 VA-76 – MIDI in general All Note Off message *— This message causes a note- off message to be sent to each note of the specified channel that is currently on. However, if Hold 1 or Sostenuto are on, the sound will continue until these are turned off. Reset All Controllers *— This message returns...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 200 14.2 Preparations for using the MIDI functions Receiving MIDI data (RX) To take advantage of the VA-76’s sounds while playing on an external keyboard or using a computer or sequencer, you must make the following connections: Transmitting MIDI data (TX) To have another...

201 VA-76 – Keyboard MIDI, Style MIDI, Song MIDI exactly like the Free Panel buffer for User Programs: it is a buffer memory where your changes are stored temporarily. The VA-76’s ROM chip also contains pre-set settings for this memory: those are the ones you select by pressing the [Factory Resume] ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 202 equipped with a Soft Thru (MIDI echo) function – and only if (i) you connect the VA-76’s MIDI IN and OUT connectors to the external sequencer or com-puter, and (ii) use the VA-76 as MIDI master keyboard for sequencing – you may have to set this parameter to Off to avo...

203 VA-76 – Utilities MIDI The VariPhrase part is an altogether different tone generator. That explains why it doesn’t respond to CC32 messages and why the two filter pages look a lit-tle different: See above for an explanation of these parameters. The new or different functions are: CC16, 17, 18— C...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 204 Style RX Sync, Song RX Sync The Style RX Sync and Song RX Sync parameters are used to specify whether and how the Arranger or Composer should be synchronized to external sequencers or drum machines. The available options are: Internal— The Arranger or Song Composer wi...

205 VA-76 – Utilities MIDI Style selection via MIDI The MIDI address of a Music Style consists of three elements: a Program Change number, a CC00 num-ber, and a CC32 number. CC00 and CC32 are Bank Select messages. The values assigned to CC00 and CC32 define the Style, whereas the Program Change numb...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 206 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-ta...

207 VA-76 – MIDI Sets 14.5 MIDI Sets MIDI Sets are memories for the settings you make in MIDI mode. The VA-76 has eight MIDI Set memories on board that you can use to change your MIDI con-figuration. You can also save your MIDI Sets to disk and load them whenever necessary. Furthermore, you can link...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — MIDI 208 3. On the display page that appears now, press the [Save] field in the bottom row and the [Midi Set] field in the left column. Before saving a MIDI Set to disk, you should name it. Press the [Name] field and choose a name that tells you something about the contents. (...

209 VA-76 – Autoload This is where you will find functions and parameters relating to saving, loading, deleting files, and to for-matting new disks or disks previously used on other instruments or devices. The word “disk” refers to both floppy and Zip disks. 15.1 Autoload The VA-76 provides an Autol...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Disk functions 210 Selection— Press the field of the song you wish to load. If the desired song is not displayed, use the [ o ][ k ] fields to scroll through the list of available songs. You can also use the [TEMPO/DATA] dial. Execute— Press this field to confirm your settings...

211 VA-76 – Disk Save (saving data to disk) 15.3 Disk Save (saving data to disk) In this manual and while designing the VA-76, we tried to make a clear distinction between saving and writing / memorizing data. The terms write / Memorize are used to describe actions that cause certain settings to be ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Disk functions 212 Save MIDI Set [FUNCTION MENU] → [Disk] field → [Save] field → [Midi Set] field This function allows you to save all 8 MIDI Sets as a set. The Size value indicates the capacity required to save the “MIDI Set-Set” to disk, while Free Disk tells you something a...

213 VA-76 – Delete 15.4 Delete [FUNCTION MENU] → [Disk] field → [Delete] field The Delete function allows you to erase the selected file, which may be necessary if the “Disk Full” message is displayed when you try to save a file to disk. Be care-ful to select the right file type using the fields in ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Disk functions 214 Copy functions You can copy from Zip to floppy (and vice versa), or from one floppy disk to another floppy disk, which requires changing disks. Let’s have a look at a few hands-on examples: WARNING— Copying files from a disk means that the VA-76’s Style RAM ...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Disk functions 216 4. Insert the floppy disk that should contain the cop- ied data into the floppy drive. 5. Press the field that corresponds to the file type you wish to copy. To copy Styles, for example, press the [Style] field: 6. Press the [ZIP] field below the “From” mess...

217 VA-76 – Disk Utility 8. Press the [PROCEED] field. For Styles, and Songs, you can enter two names: the File Name and the Style/Song Name. The first is the file’s “address” on the disk, while the second some-times appears on the VA-76’s display (see also page 68). For the remaining files, only th...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Specifications 218 16. Specifications VA-76 V-Arranger Keyboard Keyboard 76 keys, weighted synthesizer action, velocity-sensitive, Aftertouch Controllers Tempo/Data dial, assignable PAD buttons x2, D Beam Controller, Bender/Modulation Lever, Touch Controller (Ribbon Controller...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Reference 222 18.1 Tones GBN Var PC CC00 CC32 Name A11 1 0 4 Piano 1 1 1 1 4 UprightPiano 2 1 2 4 Mild Piano 3 1 8 4 Piano 1w 4 1 9 4 Mild Piano w 5 1 16 4 European Pf 6 1 24 4 Piano + Str. 7 1 25 4 Piano + Str2 8 1 26 4 Piano+Choir1 9 1 27 4 Piano+Choir2 10 1 45 4 MonoAc.Pian...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Reference 226 GBN Var PC CC00 CC32 Name B78 120 0 4 Reverse Cym. 1 120 1 4 Reverse Cym2 2 120 2 4 Reverse Cym3 3 120 3 4 Reverse Cym4 4 120 8 4 Rev.Snare 1 5 120 9 4 Rev.Snare 2 6 120 16 4 Rev.Kick 1 7 120 17 4 Rev.ConBD 8 120 24 4 Rev.Tom 1 9 120 25 4 Rev.Tom 2 10 120 26 4 Re...

229 VA-76 – Tones GBN Var PC CC00 CC32 Name 4 119 11 3 606 Tom 5 119 12 3 909 Tom 6 119 127 3 Taiko Rim B78 120 0 3 Reverse Cym. 1 120 1 3 Reverse Cym2 2 120 2 3 Reverse Cym3 3 120 8 3 Rev.Snare 1 4 120 9 3 Rev.Snare 2 5 120 16 3 Rev.Kick 1 6 120 17 3 Rev.ConBD 7 120 24 3 Rev.Tom 1 8 120 25 3 Rev.To...

231 VA-76 – Tones GBN Var PC CC00 CC32 Name B74 116 0 2 Woodblock 1 116 8 2 Castanets 2 116 127 2 Elec Perc 1 B75 117 0 2 Taiko 1 117 8 2 Concert BD 2 117 127 2 Elec Perc 2 B76 118 0 2 Melo. Tom 1 1 118 1 2 Real Tom 2 118 8 2 Melo. Tom 2 3 118 9 2 Rock Tom 4 118 127 2 Taiko B77 119 0 2 Synth Drum 1 ...

251 VA-76 – Internal Music Styles 18.3 Internal Music Styles ROCKA11 LightRk1 4/4 = 86 A12 LightRk2 4/4 = 100 A13 LightRk3 4/4 = 105 A14 PowerRk1 4/4 = 120 A15 PowerRk2 4/4 = 130 A16 PowerRk3 4/4 = 136 A17 Rock 4/4 = 172 A18 ShRock 4/4 = 135 DANCEA21 House 1 4/4 = 134 A22 House 2 4/4 = 136 A23 Dance...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Reference 252 18.4 Chord Intelligence Cm7 ( 5 ) C C# D E E F CM7 C#M7 DM7 E M7 EM7 FM7 C7 C#7 D7 E 7 E7 F7 Cm C#m Dm E m Em Fm Cm7 C#m7 Dm7 E m7 Em7 Fm7 Cdim C#dim Ddim E dim Edim Fdim Dm7 ( 5 ) Em7 ( 5 ) Caug C#aug Daug E aug Eaug Faug Csus4 C#sus4 Dsus4 E sus4 Esus4 Fsus4 C7...

253 VA-76 – Chord Intelligence F# G A A B B F#M7 GM7 A M7 AM7 B M7 BM7 F#7 G7 A 7 A7 B 7 B7 F#m Gm A m Am B m Bm F#m7 Gm7 A m7 Am7 B m7 Bm7 F#dim Gdim A dim Adim B dim Bdim Gm7 ( 5 ) Am7 ( 5 ) Bm7 ( 5 ) F#aug Gaug A aug Aaug B aug Baug F#sus4 Gsus4 A sus4 Asus4 B sus4 Bsus4 F#7sus4 G7sus4 A 7sus4 A7...

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Reference 254 18.5 MIDI Implementation Chart [V-Arranger Keyboard] Date: January 2001 Model: VA-76 Version: 1.00 Function... Transmitted Recognized Remarks BasicChannel DefaultChanged 1~161~16, Off 1~161~16, Off 32 Parts1 VariPhrasePart *3 1 Audio In Part *3 4 Logical Parts Mo...

255 VA-76 – Owner’s Manual Numerics 00 Free Panel 128 1 Ch Limit 205 1 Channel Rx 205 1st Style 63 2 Ch Limit 205 2 Channel Rx 205 2nd Drum Track 145 2nd Style 63 2nd Trk 66 3.5", see Floppy A A. Drums 95 A.Bass 95 On/Off 187 A/a 68 A: 135 , 156 Abort 168 ABs&ADr On/Off 187 Absolute 205 ACC ...

Index 256 F Factory 28 , 85 Resume 196 Fade 195 Fade In/Out 78 Faders (VariPhrase control) 49 Family 105 Fast 171 , 181 Favorites 40 FC-7 8 , 54 FDD 111 , 215 Style Options 110 FFW 31 , 135 File Name 109 , 139 Fill 26 Half Bar 97 , 194 Rit value 104 Ritardando 104 To Previous 98 To Var/Or 187 Filter...

259 VA-76 – Reference Notes VA-76.book Page 259 Friday, January 12, 2001 12:35 PM

VA-76 Owner’s Manual — Reference 266 Information VA-76.book Page 266 Friday, January 12, 2001 12:35 PM