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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 71
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OP
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 71 |
Hi
I have been looking at buying a Roland BK7M to use as a backing track, mostly drums and bass, for live playing (guitar & vocal duo). We play mostly jazz standards, ballads, Bossa and some blues.
Will it work for me to create a song in BIAB, select a suitable style and then export as midi. Then load that midi into the BK for live use?
I am not keen on taking a laptop into a live gig, too much to go wrong and it is not really set up for live use. The BK has foot switches for stop start next etc.
Be keen to hear of anybody has done something similar with a BK7 or some other sound module.
Many thanks
Mark
If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all...
BIAB 2019 Mac on a MacBook Pro. All paks & Styles.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Hi Mark. Welcome to the forum! Frequent contributor, Bob Norton of Norton's Music ++ Click HERE for Norton's Music ++ is one person that regularly uses midi backing tracks with midi sound modules with his live performances. I believe he has some performance tips at his site.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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That unit uses .smf (not .mid MIDI files) so there may be other steps involved in getting the MIDI data in a readable format.
Also, I don't see any mention of a GM soundset, so you may have to save a group of sounds as a 'Perfomance list' or such in order to get the expected sounds.
BiaB relies on the GM soundset to assign the patches (instruments).
For the price, I'd consider a synth only(without the built in arranger features, as BiaB is doing that for you).
You may find better options for an equivalent price.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 71
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OP
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Joined: Dec 2013
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Hi
Many thanks for the helpful replies.
On reflection I have been looking also at the Roland Sonic Cell.
Has a full GM patch set, plays GM midi, mp3, aiff, wav etc
Any thoughts on this unit?
I read the Norton article about what he does. He is more of a pro musician than I. I think if I turned up with laptops and the gear he uses it would be frowned upon. More of a small cafe bar, pub club thing. The less gear the better.
So if anyone has any ideas on doing things this way with the Sonic Cel, be great to hear from you
Cheers
Mark
If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all...
BIAB 2019 Mac on a MacBook Pro. All paks & Styles.
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Mark,
The Roland Sonic Cell is discontinued.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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It DOES play .mid files http://www.rolandus.com/support/knowledge_base/203843129and IT IS a GM/GS module (look at pic) https://www.roland.com/us/products/bk-7m/tone list starting on page 91 of owners manual (when CC00 = 0 those ARE the GM base patches) but for JUST playing back GM files it probably is OVERKILL since it's more a standalone and "generate your own songs" kind of device. on the other hand, if you want to make BIAB songs that have RT's and RD's (actual audio) that may also include some MIDI tracks, or mixes of songs with nothing but RT/RDs, mixed RT'RD's & MIDI, and just MIDI files and DO NOT want to use a LAPTOP at gig- it looks like a nice solution. too bad it doesn't expand with a SRX slots or have/allow Roland SN sounds. Good Luck Larry EDIT - had to go listen to it on YouTube since I had never even heard of this module let alone HEARD it. Actually sounds pretty good - better than my SC-8850 but not as good as my Integra 7 or even my XV-5080. When I listened to the Jazz/blues demo you can tell you are listening to a Roland module the brass just has that Roland "sizzle" (I was going to say "pop" but didn't want reader to infer I meant pop as in "POP songs.") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnEjdWUPizQI could defiantly see me using it as a, or even the, sound module on a gig (but again I'd probably never use the song arranger part unless you took my PC, laptop and other sequencing equipment away)
Last edited by Larry Kehl; 08/21/16 10:14 AM.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2013
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OP
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Hi
Thanks again for the advice.
I realise both the BK7M and Sonic Cell are discontinued by Roland but they come up fairly regularly on good old eBay!
I guess the BK7M is overkill in that I don't play a MIDI equipped instrument so the on-the-fly arranging it offers won't get used.
My main interest was
1. The quality of the sounds. Some midi backing tracks I have heard used are cheesy at best, some are downright awful, others sound virtually like the real thing.
2. Ease of use for what I want to do. Selecting tracks, playing, stoping, playlists etc. Dont want to be fumbling around between songs and break up the flow.
Thanks
Mark
If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all...
BIAB 2019 Mac on a MacBook Pro. All paks & Styles.
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