Roland Atelier

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Roland Atelier

Postby Hugh-AR » 27 Jul 2018 22:36

Do you have the Roland Atelier AT-80SL or AT-800SL organ?

This is the AT-30 organ, but it gives a good idea of how the Atelier sounds, and he plays with several 'Styles' .. which is what I want to ask about.



You can use a Rhythm; and you can use a backing Style. Each of these you can have ON or OFF, and control the Volumes. So if you just want drums to accompany you then you can do this.

What I want to know is ....

With Yamaha keyboards and organs, the backing Style is made up of PARTS eg. RHYTHM 1, RHYTHM 2, BASS, CHORD 1, CHORD 2, PAD, PHRASE 1 and PHRASE 2. Do Roland have the same system? On the Yamaha Keyboards (Tyros, Genos) and on the AR organ you can turn any of these 'PARTS' to OFF so you don't hear them. A thing you would want to do if the overall Style is too 'busy', and then maybe bring them in as you get towards the end of the song and want to build up the backing.

Am I correct in saying that on the Roland Atelier you can't do this? It's either all the 'parts' ON, or the whole Style OFF ???

Can anybody answer this question please?

Also, on the AR one can alter the 'balance' between the various PARTS (and even change the instruments being used for the backings),but have to do this 'on screen'. On the Tyros and Genos there are 'sliders' so you can control the balance between the PARTS in real time. Can you alter the balance of the PARTS on a Roland Atelier ???

Hugh
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Re: Roland Atelier

Postby andyg » 28 Jul 2018 10:28

We have my granddaughter with us for the day, but once she's gone home (and we've recovered! :) ) I'll check this out and report back.
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Re: Roland Atelier

Postby andyg » 28 Jul 2018 19:05

OK, now recovered fully! :lol:

Now I must admit that I don't use the auto accompaniment that much on the Atelier organs, preferring to use just drums, but there are times when it's handy. So I had to check out what's possible and what's not.

Firstly, there is not a way to simply mute the various parts in a style, apart from the bass part. The bass part of an Arranger pattern will only play if you don't have either of the two pedal parts switched on. As soon as you do press one of the buttons, ready to play your own bass line, the automatic bass will be silenced.

Secondly, when it comes to style part balance, I can only speak for the Platinum models, i.e the AT900 Platinum and any of the 800/900 models that have had the Platinum upgrade installed. On these models, it is possible to adjust the volumes of the accompaniment parts and therefore, by setting the volume to zero, mute them.

There are two ways to get to this screen and I've shown the more logical one in the screenshots. There's also a 'hidden' one that's explained in the 900 Platinum supplementary manual.

Image

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Image

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Looking at the AT900's owner's manual, there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the part balance, which I must admit is a surprise. Perhaps another hint that the Ateliers were deliberately pitched at the 'organist' rather than the 'organ player', who uses automatics all the time for accompaniment - as a large number of current model Lowrey owners seem to do.
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Re: Roland Atelier

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 Jul 2018 22:45

Andy,

Thanks for this. You have certainly answered my question, and it does not look an easy thing to do! I have noted that the 'PARTS' on the Roland are not given specific 'names' as Yamaha do (Bass, Chord 1, Chord 2 etc.), but call them Acc1, Acc 2, Acc3 etc. No indication of whether its the 'Bass Part' or the 'Chord Part' etc. And looking at your final image it looks as though all the 'parts' are set at a maximum of 12. Does that mean one can only reduce the volume of a 'part'? On a Yamaha screen the volumes are all over the place, giving the true volume of each 'part' so one can either increase or decrease the volume that you hear and customise the 'balance'.

Also on a Yamaha screen one can PLAY, MUTE, DELETE or RECORD a 'PART', so it is easy to MUTE them all and bring them in one at a time (ie. PLAY) to hear what that 'part' consists of. The screen also shows the 'default' instruments used for the various 'parts', which one can change, as well as showing Volumes, Pan .. and one or two other things besides.

So maybe as you say, the Roland is more for the 'organist' than for the 'keyboard player'.

Hugh
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Re: Roland Atelier

Postby andyg » 29 Jul 2018 10:33

It's easy enough to do, in fact there's yet another way to get to that screen. Press any of the up/down balance buttons on the organ and you get the main balance screen. Press the > arrow icon and you get to the part balance screen. The screenshot is 'startup' before any style was selected, I assume that once you select a style the balances will change as required. It would have been nice to see the part names there instead of Acc1, 2 etc. I haven't dug into this, but it's possible that Roland use those parts in a different way to Yamaha.

You can do the things that the Yamaha's mixer screen allows you to do such as changing instruments in a style, but in the 'Customise' option. Something of a rigmarole, but doable, nonetheless.

But, as I said, it's something that's seldom used chez moi! If I want a style playing along with me, I have a Yamaha PSR-S970 and, in theory..... , it should marry up and run from the lower manual of the Roland via MIDI. Something to try out in the summer hols! All I need is a wet afternoon with nowt to do. Hang on a minute......... :D
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