MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM/MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM.iso/SYNTHS/INFO/KORG/N-SERIES/NCOPY.TXT

Text File | 1997-05-10 | 6KB | 114 lines

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URL  : http://www.korg.com/ncopy.htm
Title: Korg: N SERIES



Realtime Pattern Play & Record

When first introduced back in the 1980s, the Music Workstation caused a
revolution. For the first time, it was possible to sketch, compose and
perform a complete song, with all of the parts, on a single instrument. The
Music Workstation opened the door to thousands of people who wanted to
develop their musical ideas without investing in multiple instruments and
recording equipment.

Over the next 15 years or so, the Music Workstation improved with better
sounds, more memory enhanced control and greater user interfaces. So now it's
1997 and Music Workstations sound great, have great effects, can record more
notes, have more voices, etc., etc., etc. What now?

How about making the process of composing and constructing a song simpler?
Seems like a good idea, but where do you start?

Let's explore an area that challenges a large number of musicians: drum
grooves and rhythm tracks. This is supposed to be one of the fun and easy
parts, right? How many times have you said, "I'll lay down a simple groove
and build on that," just to find out that you can't get it to feel right, or
you aren't satisfied with the parts you played? Then you have to develop the
rest of the song, finding the parts that will work in the chorus, solo, and
on and on...What if this process could be made easier?

Well, it can. The function of the Pattern has been around longer than the
Music Workstation. Patterns can be used to create and assemble drum grooves
and rhythm tracks, but they haven't made the process all that much easier.

With the new N364/264, Patterns take on a whole new meaning. The Real-time
Pattern Play (RPPR) and Record function of these instruments gives you the
tools to simplify creating those illusive rhythm tracks.

The Real-time Pattern Play and Record tool starts with an old idea and
expands it into to a new and creative device in your song writing arsenal.
Let's look at the basic application.

The N364/264 come with a library of patterns. This library is independent of
any song and can be loaded and saved to disk as its own file. Using the RPPR
function in the sequencer you can select up to 100 patterns and assign them
to keys for playback. Press a key and the pattern starts. Release the key and
the pattern stops. Now comes the fun part.

Pick a basic tempo and press any of the keys that are assigned to patterns.
Play with different pattern types. Or juggle the order. Once your ideas have
taken shape, put the sequencer in record, and just play your patterns by
pressing the corresponding keys (in real-time) into the sequencer. That's it!

Gone are the individual drum hits, and the stubborn battle with timing and
feel. Gone are the multiple passes for different drums and cymbals. Now you
have a wide selection of patterns to choose from. And the ability to
concentrate on the structure of the song.

For more adventures, let's take it a step further.

The library of patterns is great for many situations, but sometimes you might
need something a bit different. That brings us to second R in RPPR: the
Record Pattern Function.

With the N364/264, you can create your own patterns and add them to the
library, or even create a new library from the ground up. Remember, you can
save a pattern library to disk so you can create as many as you like or need.

By using the Pattern Create Function, you can select from the various drum
kits in the N364/264 and record the patterns you need. Save them in the
library and use the Real-time Playback to finish off your tracks. In total,
you can have ten sets of patterns in the N364/264 at one time, giving you a
library of 100 patterns to work with.

So far, we've looked at how RPPR can be used to streamline the writing
process, but how can it be used in a performance situation?

As you will see, RPPR adds a considerable amount of flexibility to live
application settings.

First of all, a Pattern is not limited to drums and rhythms. Any program in
the N-Series can be used in a Pattern. Each Pattern has its own tempo
parameter, as well as a selection for the type of trigger mode. You can set
the trigger mode to play a Pattern once, play continuously, or play as long
as the key is pressed.

Link to diagram of RPPR Play Mode

So with up to 100 Patterns assigned to the keyboard, there can be drum, bass,
and backing parts with different tempos and notes for different sections of a
song. Instead of having a fixed sequence to playback, you now have the
freedom to change the structure of a song in real-time, because you're
triggering and arranging the Patterns on the fly, and not merely playing a
fixed, pre-recorded sequence.

RPPR in a live situation lets you use the power of a Music Workstation, the
sounds and effects, but removes the performance constraints that you get when
using a fixed sequence. You're once again free to be spontaneous, changing
the song based on that particular performance.

Many times, instruments that incorporate new technology or tools can actually
take away from the creative process-not so with RPPR. For both writing and
performance situations, Real-time Pattern Play and Record removes
limitations, brings new options, and streamlines the entire process.


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