Roland 2 manual Initializing the GW-8 Song, About Song Parts, Starting a New Song with a Style

Initializing the GW-8 Song

Initializing clears the GW-8’s song memory, erasing the current song. If the song hasn’t been saved and you want to preserve it, save it as described on Page 29 of the GW-8 Owner’s Manual, or Page 30 of the GW-8 Version 2 Supplementary Manual.

To initialize the GW-8 song:

1 From the Main screen, press the SONG button to light it.

2 Press PART VIEW to display the SONG TRACK screen.

If you don’t see this screen, press PART VIEW repeatedly until you do.

3Use the 3, 4, 5, and/or 6 buttons to highlight “INIT”:

4Press ENTER to display the Song Initialize window.

5In the Song Initialize window, set the tempo you want to use for the song, as well as its time signature.

6Press 6 to select INIT, and then press ENTER. When the GW-8 asks if you’re sure you want to proceed, press ENTER again. (If you’d like to cancel the initialization for some reason, press EXIT instead.)

About Song Parts

Each GW-8 song has 16 “tracks,” each of which holds an individual MIDI recording. When the 16 tracks play back alongside each other, it sounds like musicians playing together, and adds up to a complete musical arrangement of a song. Every track has its own “part” with a setting that determines the sound the track is to play.

Track 1	Part 1	Rich Grand
Track 2	Part 2	Sonic AC Bs
Track 3	Part 3	Uncle Martin
Track 4	Part 4	Marcato
Track 5	Part 5	Philly Hit
Track 6	Part 6	Horn Chops
Track 7	Part 7	R Trance
Track 8	Part 8	Gr Lead
Track 9	Part 9	Voco Ri￿
Track 10	Part 10	DigitalDream
Track 11	Part 11	Vox Pad
Track 12	Part 12	Phat Strings
Track 13	Part 13	Wired Synth
Track 14	Part 14	Evolution X
Track 15	Part 15	Harpsichord
Track 16	Part 16	Aerial Harp

Each part also has settings that determine how it plays its tone. When we refer a song track/part, we’re talking about a song track and the part that plays its sound.

If you’re planning on playing along with the song when it’s done, avoid recording on Parts 4 and 11, which are used for the Upper and Lower parts of the keyboard, respectively.

As of Version 2, the sound each part plays can be sent through a dedicated song MFX, separate from the keyboard MFX. We’ll explain how to do this on Page 31. If you’d like to jump there now, you can click the button to the right.

Starting a New Song with a Style

The new Chord Zone parameter lets you select the keyboard region to be used for style chords. See Page 7 in this booklet for details.

When you record a song based on a style, you begin with a freshly initialized song. You then trigger the style’s chords and variations for the entire song, up to the end of the song, capturing it all in the song recorder.

Before recording, select the style and tones you want to use.

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