Can I save one of the four pre-programmed one-touch sounds, as a favourite or is there an easily accessible way to recall it

thanks

It's ok guys I have worked it out thanks

Which way? There's a couple of different ways of recalling Favorites on the BK9... One for recalling single Tones, and one for recalling whole OTS layers and splits.

Maybe I jumped the gun a wee bit. I did it as per the manual. I had the particular sound loaded from one touch then called up favourites an scrolled down to the number I wanted and pressed the centre button.
Happy with that but I then read I have only saved the single tone without any FX or whatever.
Because I am still concentrating on getting it gig-ready I haven't experimented much with FX on guitars etc so maybe you could give me a couple of pointers on that one. It would be nice to have some kind of sound bank saved somewhere rather than individual performances to copy from. I suppose the whole idea is to have everything tailored withing the performance but it's nice to take the odd notion when your are bored or playing to a different crowd etc. I am pretty close to getting the keyboard the way I want it and continue to be impressed. As it stands I think I will have a couple of Ketron keyboards for sale.

To give yourself a set of different whole setups (all 4 KBD Parts with MFX's) freely loadable, you need to get familiar with the HOLD's.

The basic idea is that you save a Performance with all the sounds the way you want them. So, e.g. you could call up a factory OTS for a particular style, then save that with a name that helps you remember it. If you really like all the other OTS's for that style, save them as Performances as well. So you now have up to four Performances. Named...

You now load up the resource you want to use (style, SMF or .wav/mp3) and put the HOLD on for style and tempo if a style and then call up the Performance WHILE IT IS PLAYING. The trick is, if you change Performances while a sequence or audio file plays, it doesn't load up the resource. Only in style mode will the style from your template Performance load up. That's where you need the Style Hold and Tempo Hold on.

But, once loaded in, you can now save that new Performance as your gig setup for the song. If you need more complete setups for the same song, repeat the process with the other layouts and store the sections in order in the Performance List. So, song Intro, song Verse, song Solo etc.

Because the BK9 makes seamless transitions you can jump between setups freely. If you hear a hiccup, it's usually because the MFX buffer is being reset for a different effect. Mitigating that is a story for another day!

Yes, it's a total PITA, but it's the way Roland have always done it.

But the SIMPLEST way to recall tones with their ROM MFX (send FX get stored in the Performance) is to use the Favorites feature. As long as you have UPR 1/2 MFX Link ON (in Globals, I think) then the factory MFX gets recalled with the Tone.

One of the undocumented features is that you get a completely different set of Favorite Tones to recall with each different KBD Part... so you can have for instance a set of leads on UPR1, a set of rhythm sounds (pianos, e pianos, Clav's etc) on UPR2, pads on LWR and basses or more LH pads on MBS. (Or whatever you find you like to put on each Part).

Setting these up can also speed up setting up Performances by putting your most used sounds where you can get to them quickly without scrolling through dozens of string sounds or synths etc. This can save you a fair bit of time!

Lastly, lead guitar sounds...

For me, the only place to start is the SN Jazz Guitar patch. This is a brilliant piece of programming that helps keep single lines clean but still allows chords. Feed it into the full MFX Amp Sim (not at my keyboard right now, so can't tell you it's proper name) but it's the one with all the different models... Twin Reverbs, Soldano's, Marshall's etc.).

From here on out it's just mess around with the different models until you find what you're looking for. I'd recommend not having the volume on the Part too high. The input feels a lot more alive not overloading the input. But there's a ton of variety in there. Try to find an overdrive setting that doesn't muddy up chords TOO much but gives nice sustain on the held notes and just grunges up the chords about right.

Now, effects... Rock guitars are nothing without echo! But you just used up your one MFX! What to do? Here's where it gets good. Leave your reverb send alone (you'll need that for other Parts) but change your Send Effect #2 from chorus to Delay. But... DON'T SEND TO REVERB AND DELAY FROM THE MIXER. There are sends from WITHIN the amp sim MFX. The sends from the mixer are pre-MFX. The sends from the MFX are post-effect. You want to echo up the distorted sound!

One last caveat... input AND output level of the and sim can change the sound, so if you get a great sound but it's too loud, dial back the 'mic level' parameter in the sim. Plus, it does change the sound a hair, but you can put MFX output on one of the Control sliders, so you can shade its volume a hair in realtime.

Just remember, mixer volume or expression pedal changes the PRE-MFX send, so riding it with your feet will definitely change the amount of distortion. So the only place to make a simple post-MFX volume change is the slider.

Now, back to the echo... For styles and SMF's that have a defined tempo, set your delay repeats to the needed division for the tune... 1/8, 1/4Triplet etc. For an audio file, you either need to set up the correct tempo (using a style) BEFORE you load up the audio file, or tap the tempo as the track plays every time. This is cool because you can change the echo timebase during a song, or 'push or pull' the repeats slightly to get a pushy or laid back echo effect. Plus great for playing with bands to set echo timing to match a live drummer....

This ought to get you going!

Yep that will keep me busy for a while. All good fun ! Thanks for the tips