I remember when I got a new keyboard home, I spent the whole night reading the manual and experimenting. It is great excitment. What about you?

I NEVER open the book...for weeks,and weeks if I can. I'd rather find out through trial & error. It's sticks with me longer that way.

Dave I agree,

I have to agree and give Uncle Dave credit for teaching me to just "GO FOR IT" with a new keyboard aliviating any fear. I have spent nights with UD till 2AM setting up a new keyboard for performance the next night and I thank him for that!I also made neumerous calls to my buddy in LA. Don Mason for help many times. Being a pro is just that, styles are styles, sounds are sounds on any unit. Pick out the basic ones you need to perform and go from there making changes on the fly and saving them to registrations in real time. Thats the only way you get the correct levels. Then when you get time at home set it up to your liking. I also very rarley use the manual.

good luck

Donny

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 08-21-2001).]

Unwrap it as fast as you can, Plug it in/ fire it up and go for it. Only when I got stuck or needed a very specific function I opened the manual.
Eric

I always take the owner's manual to the bathroom and start reading. I might briefly check the keyboard out first, but I read the entire manual before seriously tackling a new board. I find it saves me time and trouble. Also I can answer the questions asked by the guys on the forum who don't read the manual.
DonM
P.S. This didn't apply to the X1 manual since it was written by the Ketron mailboy on his way to the shipping room to send the first shipment of X1s to the U.S.

I was very rude, and took it to bed the very
first night! Oh no, not the keyboard, the manual...
Always nice to read the cookbook
GJ

I played the thing all night long,& then had to go to work at 8AM, didn't make it to bed
that night.
I also only read the manuel when all else fails
Denny

I find the quickest way to getting up to speed is to FIRST spend an hour or so reviewing the manual (to cover basic OS features unique to that keyboard brand) and then set up the keyboard itself and start playing/exploring, refering back to the manual only if the need arises.

I like to begin exploring the new keyboard's styles/sounds by selecting a style and associated sounds and letting it trigger my creative mood to start playing a song that I think fits that groove. I move from style to style, customizing, tweaking & saving setups to my taste, moving on to another style and repeating. With my Technics KN5000 arranger keyboard's easy to use (intuitive) OS, I was able to customize arranger style templates in a very short time and started taking the keyboard to work (gigging) within just a few short days.

I then later (over time) like to read the manual from "cover to cover". Only by throughly reading the manual, have I been able to discover some valuable 'hidden' features & tips which are not readily apparent when playing/exploring the keyboard alone. - Scott http://scottyee.com

Scott ,
How important is the dynamic arranger feature on your Kn series ? Dano

Dan: Good question. Can you please tell me exactly WHAT the Dynamic Arranger does and HOW it works? I don't believe the KN5000 includes this feature. Maybe that's why I don't miss having that feature (yet ). - Scott

Scott,

The PSR9k has this Dynamic/Groove feature but I have never used it yet. Does anyone have experience using it on the 9k? You can change the rhythmic "feel" of your original style.

donny

I do what DonM do.I take the manuals to the bathroom only.I love to figure out every thing by my own brain just like trying to play a hard puzzle but at the end you'll get it and win it. cause people like "you" and me made this Keyboards and they come up with a new os's.so we are not that dumb to understand those keyboards .even if it takes time you "will" get it any way at the end weather you like it or not.

------------------
vic:)

DNJ,
The Dynamic/Groove function on the PSR is different from the Dynamic Arranger referred to above.
Some Technics, Roland and Korg (there are probably others) have the capacity to change the style in reaction to key pressure. By pressing harder on the chord, extra parts are added, or parts are changed. The PA-80 I just sold had that function, as did one of the Technics. I can't remember if was the KN2000 or 5000.
The Dynamic/Groove function on the 9000 allows you to take an existing style, put it in Style Edit mode, select "Groove" and change the timing of the style according to the parameters you select. Thus, a 4/4 beat can become a shuffle and vice-versa. The 9000 allows extensive editing in this mode. The result can be saved as a Custom Style.
The PSR740 has a button that automatically changes the groove on the style in use. The paramaters are not easily editable as they are in the 9000, but the function is completely automatic and effectively doubles the number of available styles. (All the styles are not conducive to using this function, but a good many of them are.). One of my favorite and most used styles in the PSR8000 is one I made by simply changing the Groove of the Country Swing I, to 4/4. To makes a great Country Ballad. I also did that with the 9000, and stored the result as a user style in the unit that you now have. Don't remember what I named it, and it may have been deleted by you or Uncle Dave by now.
DonM

I get so many new keyboards at my store that I always read the "feature" page to see what's inside and then play a few styles and sounds first and then I try to read the manual while it lies on top of the keyboard and it always gets in my way. I would use the music racks, but all the manuals keep closing by themselves. The only ones that don't are the Generalmusic ( three ring binder) and the Korg (also a binder).
My worst experience ever was with the MZ2000 which was on loan from Casio a few months ago. I read parts of the manual 4 and 5 times and still couldn't figure anything out! Frustrated and confused, I sent it back!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

The KN5000 does NOT have the Dynamic Arranger feature. It was on the 3000, but Technics dropped it. I'm not sure if it is back on the 6000/6500.
My Roland Em2000 has it (as does the G1000). The Korg pa80 does NOT have it.
What it does is to vary the accomp part volumes according to velocity. So, if you hit the left-hand chord hard, all 5 auto accomp parts play at full volume. A softer touch on the left chord might cause accomp1, and accomp2 to mute. On the Roland, you can set up exactly which accomp parts will be affected and what the volume levels should be as a result. It is an incredible feature - but require skill to use & patience to set up.
The pa80 does have what they call Dynamic Arrangement. But all it does is trigger a break, fill or style variation change according to the velocity of your left-hand chords. It is very much more limited than true Dynamic Accompaniment.
Tom

Yeah you're right about the PA-80. I'm getting senile. All it does is trigger the fills.
I think the Roland G800 had it, but I didn't ever get around to using it.
Thanks for waking me up.
DonM

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 08-21-2001).]

Tom, Thanks for your EXCELLENT description of the Dynamic Arranger feature. Quite an interesting concept. To answer DanO's question about 'how important' (to me) the Dynamic arranger is: I would say it depended if you could turn this feature ON or OFF. The concept sounds intriguing but I wonder how much I would use it because I usually play in either full keyboard mode or split mode, with BOTH hands assigned to instrument sounds. I almost NEVER have the left hand (chord recognition area) part muted. I don't want the left hand volume changes to somehow cut out accompinment parts unexpectedly. Nontheless, this feature does sound like it could really enhance your performance if mastered. I'd be interested in hearing from other players out there that use this feature in their playing.

Just a followup to what Uncle Dave said on ANOTHER thread. I too prefer the 'minimalist' style (drums, bass, piano with vocals) arranger keyboard performance approach. The main reason I went with an arranger in the first place was for rhythm section (bass line and drums) support to my live singing & realtime keyboard comping/soloing. I could have just used a drum machine and synth (split mode) with bass sound in left hand and piano sound in right hand, but this arrangement of using the left hand for playing bass lines leaves ONLY the right hand for one hand piano comping. With the arranger (in full keyboard mode), I can play MORE full sounding 'two handed' keyboard comping chords while triggering the arranger to automatically play the bass lines. This sounds MUCH more like a REAL LIVE 3 piece rhtym secion (drums, bass, piano) would. I tend to prefer to keep other auto-accomp parts to a minumum as too much auto-accomp can make the performance sound unbelievable for a one band act, like you are playing with a karoke backup which is certainly NOT what I want. You NEVER want the auto-accomp parts to upstage your LIVE (playing/vocal) performance. If I want to step into the audience and sing solo (no keyboard playing), then the rules change and I'll use more elaborate full blown karoke type backup arrangements. Just my personal thoughts.

When I drove home with the keyboard in the car, still packed, I was thinking that I still had to work that day! When I got home.. I called my boss and asked the day off. I got that day off! He even said to me: 'Have fun!'. After that I didn't stop playing the board and reading the manual till about midnight. Still love it to play it everyday.

Sander
The Netherlands

Well, when I brought home my WK8, my wife had just come down with the flu and was wrapped up with blankets on the couch. I set it up in the living room and began playing some of the softer 8 and 16 beat styles just making up silly love songs for her. Poor thing was feeling so bad yet she just smiled cause she knew I was happy with my new toy and drifted off to sleep. Some of you guys can really shake the dance floor and get the crowd up and moving. Me, I put em' to sleep.

First thing I do, is set the thing up and play. Check sounds, styles, feel, features.
Then after a while, I start reading the manual. You always find some cool gadgets in there that you would have never used otherwise. I have to agreen with scot on this.

And yes, i do use the dynamic arranger on my g1000 on occasion. It takes some practise but it sounds real good, specially with rolands acoustic styles.

Scottyee...Following on from TomTom very good explanation above of the Dynamic Keyboard settings on the EM2000\G1000 and you asking for other players using this facility. This has also been carried forward onto the VA's. All of my 192 Registrations have been saved with the Dynamic Arranger ON.
The Drums,Bass, ACC X 6 can individually be adjusted from -127 to +127, so as TomTom states depending on how you set them your style elements come in and out with your changes in velocity playing.

As an example ...In your case just having Drums, Bass from the arranger playing Full Keyboard piano. You could mute all parts accept say ACC3 Mute Trumpet which would only come into play when you reach your set velocity.

using it all the time it quickly becomes second nature to adjust your velocity playing.

Graham UK EM2000

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 08-22-2001).]

When I took my VA7 home the first thing I did was, of course, to start playing; then I realized that, to master such a complex keyboard, I HAD to read the manual and so I did. The VA7 is a great keyboard, with tons of great sounds, but you have to tweak it to suit your needs, especially because it is not easy to do that in a live situation. I was not happy with some of the styles (especially the latin ones), so I replaced them with the equivalent styles (mainly from the G800 and the G1000) found on the zip disk, creating my user programs.
If you take the time and the pain to get familiar with this keyboard it will repay you with exceptional results.
One final consideration: being a gear addict I am constantly looking for the "next" toy, but now I think that if you dig your keyboard really in depth you will probably realize that, after all, you don't need that toy so much.

There is NO substitute for familiarity......
or boredom.

What did I do???
Oh Boy..a NEW TOY a NEW TOY!!
As much as I prefer to read the manuals front to back, a few times, I must admit, usually, the frist day, I'll crank it on and experiment...Hey, when all else fails, I've still got the manual. Experimenting can go on for hours. When I want to do something, I'll try and rfind it first, without the manual, you know the old "a guy will never ask directions" cliche' . I haven't come across any that have stumped me after going through the manual extensively.

When I get a new toy I do as Don does . I read the manual[bath room, kitchen, where ever]. Then at bedtime, I spend 15-20 minutes with my wife[if you know what I mean], then into my music room and play the new toy till daybreak....Opps, I got to go, my wife is calling for me. This might be longer since I have no new toy tonight...

...you WISH it was longer!