Roland FR-7/FR-5

MIDI functions | MIDI parameters for the various sections/parts

FR-7/FR-5 V-Accordion

to “dry” (no Reverb), while “127” represents the maxi-

mum Reverb Send level. Select “Off” if the register

should not transmit this message.

Note: If there is no audible change, you may have to check the

Reverb effect settings on the receiving MIDI instrument.

Note: Not all MIDI instruments have a reverb effect and even

if they do, they may not support this control change number

(this is especially true of older instruments).

■Chorus

(Off, 0~127, Default: 0) This parameter allows you to

specify the Chorus Send Level value (CC93) to be

transmitted by the register whenever you select it.

“0” will set the receiving MIDI instrument to “dry” (no

Chorus), while “127” represents the maximum Chorus

Send level. Select “Off” if the register should not

transmit this message.

Note: If there is no audible change, you may have to check the

Chorus effect settings on the receiving MIDI instrument.

Note: Not all MIDI instruments have a chorus effect and even

if they do, they may not support this control change number

(this is especially true of older instruments).

■Velocity

(On, 1~127) Your FR-7/FR-5 is velocity sensitive. That

is a very learned term for the fact that the volume

and brightness of the notes you play on the Treble or

button keyboard depend on how hard (or fast) you

press the keys/buttons. The accordion sounds do not

respond to these playing dynamics, but the Orchestra

(Treble and Bass) sounds do and so do most MIDI-

compatible sound modules.

Even though the MIDI standard recognizes 128 dif-

ferent velocity values, only 127 can actually be used

for expression purposes. That explains why the set-

ting range is 1~127. Value “0” is usually used to sig-

nal the end of a note (i.e. when you release a key or

button).

This parameter allows you to specify whether the

velocity values corresponding to the strength with

which you press a key/button should be transmitted

(“On”) or whether your playing dynamics should not

be translated as such. In the latter case, you need to

select a value (1~127) that will be applied to all notes

that are transmitted via MIDI. “64” is still relatively

soft, so even lower values are probably not what you

want in most cases. Fixed velocity values can be use-

ful for playing organ sounds on an external module.

Note that the setting you select here has no effect

when the “Note” parameter is set to “Off”, because

note numbers are always transmitted along with a

velocity value (any value different from “0” also

means “start playing this note”). Sending only a

velocity value without specifying the note to which it

applies doesn’t make sense.

■Expression

(Off, Bellows, Pedal) You probably know that the

strength/speed with which the bellows is pressed or

pulled influences the sound – which corresponds to

an acoustic accordion’s response.

This effect can be translated into a MIDI message

most external instruments understand. The MIDI

standard provides a message (“control change”) for

remotely controlling the volume of an external

instrument: CC11. It is chiefly used for expression

purposes (similar to the way in which a guitarist or

organ player uses a volume pedal).

If you want to use the bellows for expressive pur-

poses, set this parameter to “Bellows”.

If you don’t (because the external instrument is too

sensitive and therefore changes its volume too

often), select “Off”.

If you purchased an optional EV-5 expression pedal,

which you connected to the FBC-7’s EXPRESSION

PEDAL socket, you can also control the relative vol-

ume by foot. In that case, set this parameter to

“Pedal”.

■AfterT (only for the Treble and Orchestra sec-

tions)

The Treble keyboard also generates aftertouch mes-

sages. Aftertouch is usually used for temporary

changes to a sound’s volume, timbre or pitch (this

needs to be set on the receiving instrument). Used

right, it can be a very powerful expressive tool.

The downside is, however, that aftertouch messages

usually represent a massive amount of data, which

makes it a lot harder to find the MIDI messages you

want to edit on an external sequencer, not to men-

tion the fact that your song files become a lot

heavier than they need to be.

Besides, many sounds/parts on external MIDI instru-

ments are set to ignore these messages by default, so

that you would end up sending a lot of information

for nothing. That is why we recommend setting this

parameter to “Off” and only select “On” if you really

mean to take advantage of the Treble keyboard’s

aftertouch capability.