VA-76 Owner’s ManualScratching the surface

3. Scratching the surface

3.1 The general idea

Your VA-76 is two instruments in one: one half pro- vides the backing for the melody you play in the other half.

Left hand:

Right hand: melody (Key-

Arranger control

board parts/VariPhrase

 

part)

There are two main sections you can use for playing live. (The third section, the Song Composer, can also be used for live applications, but is mainly intended for recording and playing back your music.)

AKeyboard parts:

This section consists of parts you need to play via the keyboard, hence the name “Keyboard”. The VA-76 provides eight Keyboard parts, six of which can be used simultaneously: Upper 1/2, VariPhrase, Lower 1 & 2, and Manual Bass (called M.Bass or just MBS). The seventh part, Manual Drums (called M.Drums or MDR), can only be played in isolation, i.e. you cannot combine it with Upper1/2 or the VariPhrase part, though you can assign it to only the right half of the keyboard and use it along with Lower1/2 (that can be played in the left half). See page 42 for details. The eighth part, “MInt”, is what computer buffs would call a “cross-platform part”: it belongs to the Keyboard section but it is in part controlled by the Arranger. See “Melody Intelligence” on page 99.

BArranger/Style section:

The Arranger is your backing band. It plays an accom- paniment (called Music Style) recorded by Roland, third-party suppliers, friends/colleagues, or yourself. In a way, the Arranger works like a drum machine because it uses accompaniment patterns.

Unlike a drum machine, however, you can easily select the desired pattern while you play. So you do not need to program the order in which you intend to use the patterns. Furthermore, the Arranger not only provides a rhythm section but also chords, guitar and synthe- sizer riffs, and so on. The accompaniment can be transposed in realtime. All you have to do is play a dif- ferent chord (usually with your left hand).

You can add vocals to your music using the Vari- Phrase function (see page 29) or by singing live (see page 57).

3.2Easy Routing: quick registration

The Virtual Band page is the first page that is displayed after switching on the VA-76:

You already know what the [DEMO] field is for. Let us therefore have a look at the VA-76’s Easy Routing function. It allows you to tell your V-Arranger Key- board how to behave simply by answering a series of interactive questions.

1.If the above Virtual Band page is not displayed, either switch your VA-76 off and back on again, or press the [VIRTUAL BAND] button.

Note: You can prevent the VA-76 from automatically select- ing this display page at start-up, or from returning to it at power-on. See page 195 for details.

2.Choose your language by pressing the appropriate field.

If your language is supported, it would be a good idea to select it, as that will further simplify the interactive selection process.

Note: This language selection is stored and will be used again next time you switch on the VA-76.

3.Press the [EASY ROUTING] field.

The display now looks as follows:

Given the number of options and the “easy” character of this interactive function, describing every possibil- ity would confuse you and make the Easy Routing function look extremely intricate.

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Roland VA-76 Scratching the surface, General idea, Easy Routing quick registration, Keyboard parts, Arranger/Style section