What can a MIDI keyboard be used for?

technicolourbob · Post by **technicolourbob** » Sun May 18, 2008 11:52 pm

I recently borrowed a MIDI keyboard to use with my SP606. I read through the manual but my understanding of MIDI is basic. I got the keyboard working in conjunction with my 606, ie. pressing keys will trigger samples from pads on the 606. Essentially the keys on the keyboard act as the pads on the sampler do (on/off).

Now, I assumed that by using the MIDI keyboard I could trigger a sample and use the keys to change the pitch of the sound. Am I right in this understanding or have I misinterpreted the MIDI capabilities on the 606. I was hoping I could sample a sound and use the MIDI keyboard to augment the pitch and play a tune/melody with the keys.

Any help would be appreciated.

jbl · Post by **jbl** » Mon May 19, 2008 2:55 am

i think you mean keymapping or throwing one sample across the keys, yeah? if so, well sp's don't do it! the 505 has limited style but that's it.

technicolourbob · Post by **technicolourbob** » Mon May 19, 2008 10:28 am

Yeah that's what I meant, one sample accross all the keys. Ah well, thanks for the help. I'll have to find another use for the keyboard.

ebony.branch · Post by **ebony.branch** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:08 pm

I thought you could do a limited kind of pitch mapping; can't you increase the pitch by a half measure each time as you copy it across pads? I'm sure I used to be able to do something like that on the old SP808.

I've just started using a MIDI keyboard with my 606 and I could do with assigning pads other than the first few banks (which is the MIDI default). Is there a way to do this? The first banks are all stored on the integral memory and I'd prefer to trigger longer samples off my card.

Cheers

enossified · Post by **enossified** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:30 pm

ebony.branch wrote:I could do with assigning pads other than the first few banks (which is the MIDI default). Is there a way to do this?

Yes, each set of 4 banks is on it's own MIDI channel.

So if you have the Pad Base Channel set to ch 1, banks 5-8 are on ch2, 9-12 on ch3, etc.

See p. 78 of the manual.

606man · Post by **606man** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:06 pm

You can use software to spread a sound across the keys. There's a thread I made a long time ago about it here somewhere. It takes about 5-10 minutes from start to playing though, so it's not exactly quick, and to be honest I don't do it much anymore. When I played out live a lot it was a great way to play VSTi instruments on stage with zero latency. Its use in the studio is somewhat more limited.

ebony.branch · Post by **ebony.branch** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:22 pm

enossified wrote:Yes, each set of 4 banks is on it's own MIDI channel.

So if you have the Pad Base Channel set to ch 1, banks 5-8 are on ch2, 9-12 on ch3, etc.

See p. 78 of the manual.

Thanks for that, mate, you're a star.