Ok, Roland did not put a vocal harmonizer in BK-9. But since there is a mic in, could it be used to record the vocal harmonies for a particular song, assign them to Audio Keys and save them on USB, within the performance for that song? And of course play them at the right time?

Or is it necessary to use the PC to achieve that?

Or is it possible at all?

That's nice thinking outside the box...

I think the only issue you might have is, how well do the two sync together? Roland, in the BK-9 manual, state that the shorter a loop is, the better it will sync up. So if you are talking about say a 32 bar segment, you might have issues with it drifting against the MIDI clock. Roland also say you get tighter timing and better processor load (less load) if you use .WAV's or AIFF's, so I'd definitely recommend that.

But one of your main issues with your OP is that you can't record ONLY the vocals in the BK-9's recorder. It is going to pick up the backing too. So, if you still want to remain in arranger mode, but have backing vocals (or anything else you feel like) ONLY on the audio loop, you are likely going to have to record the song first (as a .WAV), transfer it to your computer DAW, then overdub the vocals to that, THEN save them as .WAV's there (and crop them up into different sections) and transfer back to the BK for assigning to the keys.

Seems like quite a bit of work to do...

Personally, I think you'd be better off recording the basic backing for the entire song and singing the backing vox (one part wouldn't need any overdubbing, so you could use the BK's audio recorder), then try my trick of chopping the song into its sections, and assigning THOSE to keys, then there would be no issues about drift (other than the basic drift I have yet to test), you play what you feel like on the top, and the BV's come in where they should without you having to trigger them.

But to trim the audio file sample accurately, and perhaps time stretch or shrink it fractionally, so it compensates for any MIDI clock drift (it might need to be 119.997bpm rather than 120bpm, for instance, to line up perfectly), I'd say at some point or another, you are likely going to have to involve your computer...

I'll be testing all this soon, so I'll report back how well the tempo's stay together over longer bar amounts. To be practical, I'd say that a 32 bar (maybe 16 is usable) section with unnoticeable drift is going to be needed.

Mind you, if you ARE hand triggering the loops, but they are only one shots (in other words, not loop), even if they drift off by a tiny fraction by the end of the segment, when you call the NEXT loop, it WILL start one the arranger's 'one' tight as a drum.

So, as long as you aren't expecting these long recordings to loop and stay in sync, you should be good to go.

If I exactly understand your wishes, it can be done using only BK...

further more if you want to use the Vocal Phrases during an SMF playback,
you can setup the SMF to recall the Audio Keys Set and insert using sequencer, on track 13, MIDI note event to trigger the single Phrase.

If you want to use the Audio Keys during a Rhythm, you can use the Performance to recall Rhythm and the Audio Key... then there are some sync options between rhythm and audio-key both for start stop and for keeping sync together and avoid time derivation... try to read the OM ,
but as Diki suggested, only when putting hands on the instrument it will be easy to understand all features....

p.s. you can also record only one vocal wave file, then "cut" several phrases on the same file, because the cut is not a real wave file cut, but only a cue point (start,stop with several loop options), so you can create several phrase on the same wav file...
once again...easier to do than to be explained

Indeed, I'd be interested in such a use... Diki, please do come back with results of such a test. Of course, in this matter, it is really important that the audio will stay in sync with the arranger engine even for the long 32 bars... But maybe all it's a matter of setting those cue points as acurately as possible. I am intrigued about how the possibilities really open, but proper sync it's needed, no doubt. Thanks guys, please report back.

Is this sort of what you are talking about doing on the Roland BK-9? Here is an example of assigning audio clips that are edited with Cubase and then assigned to the multi-pads on the PSR-S950. These audio clips are exported into the PSR-S950 instead of recorded directly from the keyboard itself. There seems to be quite a bit of syncing capabilities going on here with the Yamaha platform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KeLJenWFbs

Thanks, I think at least with Roland, it still needs to be seen if the longer loops stay in sync and how is that achieved. These rather short audio phrases it's one thing, but when it comes about looping, as was mentioned above, the slightest error in length could mess it all up, unless there's a multiple cue points check.

I think this is indeed something for the future of arrangers. BK-9 took it a step forward, if the function will prove to work properly. I am looking forward checking it.

TBH, with vocal phrases, sample accurate lock isn't really quite necessary. While something with sharp transients (like a conga loop or a breakbeat) will show off it's slight drift with some flamming over a 32 bar drift, a vocal part coming in a fraction late will merely feel relaxed... or slightly pushed if early.

You would be amazed at how much you can slide vocal parts forwards and backwards in time and get away with it!

Certainly a LOT more than percussive material...