Roland Piano owner manual About the Sequencer, What Is a Song?, What Is a Track?, Phrase Tracks

Overview of the Fantom

In the Performance Mode or

Multitimbre Mode

The multi-effects, chorus and reverb effects can be set individually for each performance and multitimbre. The intensity of each effect will be set for each part (Fig. 1), but the Send Level setting for each tone can also influence effect intensity (Fig. 2).

When you apply effects in Performance mode or Multitimbre mode, the effect settings of the patch or rhythm set assigned to each part will be ignored, and the effect settings of the performance or multitimbre will be used. Thus, the effects for the same patch or rhythm set may differ when played in Patch mode and in Performance/Multitimbre mode. However, depending on the settings, you can have effect settings for a patch or rhythm set assigned to a part applied to the entire performance/multitimbre (p. 173, p. 174). In addition, when using the multi-effects settings of a performance or multitimbre, you can use three different multi-effects simultaneously, depending on the effect type (p. 175).

Fig.1 – When Output Assign parameter is set to “MFX” (the output settings for Tone are ignored)

Performance/Multitimbre
Part 1
Patch
Part16
TONE	Multi-Effects
	Chorus
	Reverb

Fig.2 – When Output Assign parameter is set to “PAT” (the output settings for Tone are valid)

Performance/Multitimbre
Part 1
Patch
Part16
TONE	Multi-Effects
	Chorus
	Reverb

About the Sequencer

A sequencer records keyboard performance and controller movements as MIDI messages (sequencer data). As the data plays back, the recorded MIDI messages are sent to a sound generator which will produce the required sounds. The sequencer actually plays instruments instead of the musician, and since it can record a musical performance, it is a tape recorder as well.

But in reality a sequencer doesn’t record sound, but actually the steps that cause the sound generator to produce sound, so it offers several advantages. Sound quality is always excellent, the equivalent of first-generation tape, no matter how many times the data plays back; tempo changes have no effect on pitch; detailed editing is possible, etc.

What Is a Song?

For the Fantom, musical performance data for one song or composition is referred to as a song. A song combines sequencer data recorded on Phrase tracks 1–16, a Tempo track, a Beat track and a Pattern track, as discussed below.

Song

Phrase track 16

Phrase track 2

Phrase track 1

Tempo track

Beat track

Pattern track
Pattern	Pattern	Pattern
1	2	100

What Is a Track?

Each section of a song which stores musical performance data is called a track.

Phrase Tracks 1–16

Phrase tracks record the musical performance. Each Phrase track records musical performance data for 16 MIDI channels. Totally, up to 16 tracks x 16 MIDI channels of data can be recorded. It’s helpful if you’ve made decision prior to recording such as recording melody on Phrase track 1, bass on Phrase track 2, drums on Phrase track 10, and accompaniment on the remaining Phrase tracks.

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