Post by Admin on Jul 28, 2017 11:57:56 GMT
An arranger for workstation people. Let me start with saying that i am a strong believer that many workstation owners dont see how an arranger section could be usefull to them. They get the shivers when they think of one finger accompanies combined with the typical ballroom and 30's swing styles. But when you look how many use the Motifs arps in more arranger typicall way, it makes you understand they have no clue what a typicall arranger can do for them
So my plan is to disguise the arranger into a beast that will feel like the next big thing in keyboardland.
Imagine 16 drum pads with 16 scene buttons (2 rows of 8) below the drumpads.
Meaning we have 16 scenes with each 16 arranger tracks.
An arranger track can either be a simple midi pattern or an audio loop.
But also a more advanced midi with different patterns for different chord types
And even an advanced audio file with different audio loops for different chord types.
A scene can be set to play once, play once and then play next scene, loop scene and other options
Inside the scene for each track you can choose the same options, so you could have a scene where just the drums and bass play looped while another drum pattern only plays once.
All tracks inside a scene can be of different lengths and even different patterns. So having a 4/4 and a 3/4 pattern in the same scene would work. The scene tough does have a main pattern.
You can offcourse also start/stop tracks manually by just pushing a drumpad in the selected scene. The patterns can start immediately, on the beat, or on the measure.. depending on settings.
There would be no, build in styles, only build in loops and riffs and patterns, allowing the workstation users to build their very own flexible backings. However there would be a few examples of styles.. and a downloadable database of styles created with these patterns. So people can fill up their own database based on needs and wants
Chord recognition would be a choice as with any current arranger these days, type and range can be set for this..
For each scene and even for each pattern in that scene, you can set if they will be following a recorded chord pattern. Or use the real time chord recognition.
You can also set a song progression, which says how many times what scenes and in which order are played.
( just to give an example, you could load in a midi file as a single or multiple scenes, have auto chord recognition, and have song progression set. This would play back the midi file as any midifile). Same goes for an audio file, thats a single scene with one pattern...divide it up into several scenes and you have your markers back...
Another example, you have a single scene, set for looping, drums, bass, guitar and piano channels set for auto looping and auto start. Now this would be like a variation 1 with only 4 tracks. The other 12 tracks could be used as multipads, switch on on the beat and loop for a midipatter, or switch on and single shot immediately for an audio file with applause.
Another huge thing would be an option while looping for example scene 2 to allready start the drum pattern of scene 3(by keeping the scene button pressed and then selecting the drumpad representative for the drumtrack, replacing the drums of scene 2 with the drums of scene 3)
You could also import a standard style of any brand and load it. Making 3 scenes for intro(play once jump to programmed scene. 4 scenes for variation, 4 scenes for fills, 3 scenes for ending(play once and stop) and even 2 scenes left for breaks (play once and return to previous scene)
In my vision this engine would offer anything a pro musician needs as backings.. if you have 2 "arrangers" you could even mix between them.. 2 flexible arrangers, where now some keyboards have 2 players. Just combine this with a controll section like the Kronos has (9 sliders, 16 switches, 8 knobs) and 8 or 16 parts for keyboardsounds including advanced arpegiators for each of them.. with seamless soundswitching and you have the performance workstation of the future.
(What i did is actually combining ableton live with an audio capable arranger..and some other features, its something i have been saying for years now. Its good to see Ketron taking a step into this direction with their latest launch-pads feature, but thats still far from what i described above)
So my plan is to disguise the arranger into a beast that will feel like the next big thing in keyboardland.
Imagine 16 drum pads with 16 scene buttons (2 rows of 8) below the drumpads.
Meaning we have 16 scenes with each 16 arranger tracks.
An arranger track can either be a simple midi pattern or an audio loop.
But also a more advanced midi with different patterns for different chord types
And even an advanced audio file with different audio loops for different chord types.
A scene can be set to play once, play once and then play next scene, loop scene and other options
Inside the scene for each track you can choose the same options, so you could have a scene where just the drums and bass play looped while another drum pattern only plays once.
All tracks inside a scene can be of different lengths and even different patterns. So having a 4/4 and a 3/4 pattern in the same scene would work. The scene tough does have a main pattern.
You can offcourse also start/stop tracks manually by just pushing a drumpad in the selected scene. The patterns can start immediately, on the beat, or on the measure.. depending on settings.
There would be no, build in styles, only build in loops and riffs and patterns, allowing the workstation users to build their very own flexible backings. However there would be a few examples of styles.. and a downloadable database of styles created with these patterns. So people can fill up their own database based on needs and wants
Chord recognition would be a choice as with any current arranger these days, type and range can be set for this..
For each scene and even for each pattern in that scene, you can set if they will be following a recorded chord pattern. Or use the real time chord recognition.
You can also set a song progression, which says how many times what scenes and in which order are played.
( just to give an example, you could load in a midi file as a single or multiple scenes, have auto chord recognition, and have song progression set. This would play back the midi file as any midifile). Same goes for an audio file, thats a single scene with one pattern...divide it up into several scenes and you have your markers back...
Another example, you have a single scene, set for looping, drums, bass, guitar and piano channels set for auto looping and auto start. Now this would be like a variation 1 with only 4 tracks. The other 12 tracks could be used as multipads, switch on on the beat and loop for a midipatter, or switch on and single shot immediately for an audio file with applause.
Another huge thing would be an option while looping for example scene 2 to allready start the drum pattern of scene 3(by keeping the scene button pressed and then selecting the drumpad representative for the drumtrack, replacing the drums of scene 2 with the drums of scene 3)
You could also import a standard style of any brand and load it. Making 3 scenes for intro(play once jump to programmed scene. 4 scenes for variation, 4 scenes for fills, 3 scenes for ending(play once and stop) and even 2 scenes left for breaks (play once and return to previous scene)
In my vision this engine would offer anything a pro musician needs as backings.. if you have 2 "arrangers" you could even mix between them.. 2 flexible arrangers, where now some keyboards have 2 players. Just combine this with a controll section like the Kronos has (9 sliders, 16 switches, 8 knobs) and 8 or 16 parts for keyboardsounds including advanced arpegiators for each of them.. with seamless soundswitching and you have the performance workstation of the future.
(What i did is actually combining ableton live with an audio capable arranger..and some other features, its something i have been saying for years now. Its good to see Ketron taking a step into this direction with their latest launch-pads feature, but thats still far from what i described above)