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Fantom-G Workstation Keyboard
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Workshop
Power User Control 2: The Pads
© 2008, 2010 Roland Corporation U.S.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the
written permission of Roland Corporation U.S.
FGWS03
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About the Workshop Booklets
Roland’s Fantom G6, G7, and G8—the Fantom-G family—set a new standard
for excellence in workstation keyboards, with spectacular sounds and
incredible built-in effect-processing muscle. A beautiful full-color LCD
display and innovative performance features make getting around a pleasure
and make the G6, G7, and G8 a dream to play. For recording, the Fantom-G
contains a powerful 128 MIDI/audio track sequencer. Each Fantom-G can
also host two Roland ARX SuperNATURAL™ cards whose breakthrough
modeling technology provides sounds with amazing sonic detail, expressive
possibilities, and sound-design opportunities.
Introducing the Dynamic Pads
Each Fantom-G Workshop Series booklet focuses on one Fantom-G topic,
and is intended as a companion to the Fantom G6/G7/G8 Owner’s Manual.
This booklet requires Fantom-G Operating System v1.30 or higher. You can
download the latest Fantom-G O.S. for free from www.RolandUS.com.
About This Booklet
The previous Workshop booklet introduced a variety of methods to help you
take control of the Fantom-G. If there’s one area of the Fantom-G panel that’s
absolutely packed with power user controls, though, it’s the DYNAMIC PADS
area. This booklet is all about the Fantom-G’s pads.
Understanding the Symbols in This Booklet
Throughout this booklet, you’ll come across information that deserves
special attention—that’s the reason it’s labeled with one of the following
symbols.
A note is something that adds information about the topic at hand.
A tip offers suggestions for using the feature being discussed.
Warnings contain important information that can help you avoid
possible damage to your equipment, your data, or yourself.
The pads in the DYNAMIC PADS area can play drum sounds—which are
called “rhythms” on the Fantom-G—and rhythm patterns, as you might
imagine. Really, though, they can do so much more. In fact, the pads are a
key ingredient in mastering the Fantom-G. Once you get comfortable with
them and the things they can do, you’ll be whipping around the Fantom-G
at blinding speed.
Let’s get started.
The ROLL and HOLD Buttons
The ROLL and HOLD buttons affect the manner in which the 16 pads work
when they’re playing sounds. When
• the pad acts as if you’re continuing to press
HOLD is lit—
the pad even after you remove your finger. This can be
especially useful for playing sampled loops.
• the sound produced by any pad you strike
ROLL is lit—
repeats, creating a drum-roll-type effect until you
release the pad or turn off the HOLD button.
These two buttons also perform some other functions, as we’ll see
later on. The ROLL button even has a second label, “BANK,” since you
can use it for changing Favorite and User Group banks.
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Pad Modes
Who Controls the Pads’ Mode?
The Fantom-G’s 16 pads can work together to accomplish a variety
of tasks quickly and easily. Each of these tasks, or “modes,” is called
a “pad mode.” There are 16 different pad modes. The fastest way to
get to the Pad Mode window is to press the PAD MODE button in
the DYNAMIC PADS area.
When you press PAD MODE, you display the Pad Mode window.:
When you’re viewing the Pad Mode window, each of the
16 pads acts as a button that selects a behavior for the
entire set of pads—beneath each pad, you can see the
mode it selects. When the Pad Mode window‘s visible,
the currently selected mode’s pad flashes. To select a
new pad mode, hit the corresponding pad.
Each pad mode has its own settings you can display by pressing
the PAD SETTINGS button.
This is the Pad Setting window for Sample Pad mode.
Each live set, studio set, and patch in the Fantom-G has its own settings for
the behavior of the pads, and the Fantom-G can automatically switch to
these settings when you select a new live set, studio set, or patch. This can
be handy when you know you’ll always want to use the pads a particular way
each time you call up a certain live set, studio set, or patch.
In other situations, you may want to set up the pads and have them retain
that behavior even as you select different live sets, studio sets, or patches.
The System Dynamic Pad parameters set whether the pads use a global
setup or settings belonging to individual live sets, studio sets, and patches.
1 If you’re:
• click F1 (System).
on the Pad Settings screen—
• press MENU, click F2 (System), and
somewhere else—
then click F2 (Group/Down) to select the Dynamic
Pad parameter group.
Select the Pad Assign Source parameter if it’s not already selected, 2
and then set it as desired. To get the pads’ mode to:
•
change to the Pad Mode setting of each live set, studio set, or patch
you select—set the parameter to TEMP.
• set it to SYS.
use the global Pad Mode setting on this screen—
3 SYS, select the desired Pad Mode.
If you’ve selected
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Assign Source and Rhythm Pattern Assign enable the automatic
loading of RPS and/or rhythm-pattern sets. You can set either to:
• so each live and studio set automatically loads its own
TEMP—
RPS or rhythm-pattern set, respectively, upon selection.
• to disable the automatic loading of RPS and rhythm
SYS—
pattern sets, respectively, as live and studio sets are selected.
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The other Dynamic Pad System parameters are always globally set, and don’t
change with different live sets, studio sets, or patches. They are:
• This parameter turns the pads’ velocity sensitivity on or
Pad Velocity—
off. When it’s set to REAL, the pads respond according to the force with
which you strike them. To have them act as if you’re always hitting them
with the same force, select that amount of force with this parameter.
On a synth like the Fantom-G, the force with which you strike a pad or
key is measured in MIDI “velocity” values from 1-127. Sounds are often
programmed to respond to different velocity values, in the same way
that physical instruments respond to soft or hard playing.
Pad Sens—• This parameter select the average force you want to use
when you’re playing the pads. Technically, it sets how hard you have to
whack the pads to reach a velocity value of 127. You can set it to:
• —If you’d like to use a generally softer touch on the pads.
LIGHT
• —if the pads work for you easily as they are (this is the
MEDIUM
default setting).
• —if you don’t want sounds to respond with too much
HEAVY
sensitivity in response to your forceful playing style.
• The Fantom-G pads can produce “aftertouch”
Pad Aftertouch Sens—
data that’s produced by pressing down on a pad after striking it. Some
sounds respond to this type of MIDI message. The Pad Aftertouch Sens
parameter sets the amount of force with which you’ve got to hold down
the pads to reach the maximum aftertouch value of 127.
• sets the speed of the roll you’ll get when you strike
Pad Roll Resolution—
a rhythm- or sample-mode pad with the ROLL button lit.
Saving Your System Settings
To store your Dynamic Pad System settings in your current project, click F7
(Sys Write) to write your new System setting into the Fantom-G’s memory.
Pad Exchange
In some pad modes, you can quickly swap pad
settings. When you press PAD SETTING, and
click F2 (Pad Exchg), the Pad Exchange window
opens, where you can dial in any pair of pads
and swap whatever it is they’re assigned to do.
Click F8 (Execute) to perform the exchange.
Pad Mode 1—Sample Pad
You can play your own samples—or samples you’ve
imported into the Fantom-G—from the pads in Sample Pad
mode. In this mode, each pad plays one of the 16 samples
in a sample set. (A sample set is a collection of 16 samples,
as we’ll discuss further in the Sampling Workshop booklet.)
To play samples from the pads in Live or Studio modes, a sample set
has to first be assigned to the live or studio set’s sample pad part.
As a pad plays its sample, the pad flashes.
Once you’re in Sample Pad mode, here’s what the parameters in the Pad
Settings window do.
Global Sample Pad Settings
With this parameter: You can:
Number/Name select a sample set from the current
project.
Pad Roll Resolution set the speed of the roll created when
you strike a pad with the ROLL button lit.
Exploring the Fantom-G Pad Modes
The following sections explain the pad modes in detail. First, though, we’ll
start with a handy tool you’ll encounter in a number of the pad modes.
When you select a new sample set in Live or Studio mode using the Pad
Settings window’s Number/Name parameter, the sample pad part also
switches to the newly selected sample set.
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Sample Pad 1-16 Settings
With this parameter: You can:
Sample Number select any sample in the current project
to be played by the pad.
Level set the level of the pad’s sample.
Pan set the stereo position of the sample.
Direction set the sample to play forwards or
backwards.
Trigger Mode program the sample to play in either of
two ways. When Trigger Mode is set to:
GATE—• the sample plays for as long
as you hold down the pad. Use this
setting for playing beat loops or
pitched notes.
• the sample plays through to
DRUM—
the end each time you strike its pad.
Use this for short percussive sounds.
Mute Group stop certain sample pads from playing at
the same time. Use this when you have
multiple versions of a single sound—such
as closed and open samples of a hi-hat—
and want only one to play at a time.
Pad Velocity set the pad to respond to your playing
velocity, or not. For velocity response,
set the parameter to SYSTEM and set the
System Pad Velocity parameter, described
earlier, to REAL. To have the pad always
play at a fixed velocity value, select the
value you want.
The Sample Pad mode Pad Settings window is an easy place to construct
a sample set, since you have access to the most important sample set
parameters there. To build a new sample set, select an unused sampleset memory location—one whose name includes “INITIAL SAMPLE”—and
use the Sample Number parameter to dial in the samples you want.
Pad Mode 2—Rhythm
If you’d like the pads to play percussion sounds from a
rhythm set, select the Rhythm pad mode. In Live and Studio
modes, the pads play the sound assigned to the rhythm
part. In Single mode, the pads play the sound assigned to
the current patch’s rhythm part.
Though the Rhythm pad mode is meant for percussive sounds, you can
play single notes on the pads from any kind of sound, not just rhythm
sets, by assigning the desired patch or sample set to the rhythm part
in Live or Studio mode or to the pad part in Single mode.
Once you’re in the Rhythm pad mode, here’s what the parameters in the Pad
Settings window do.
Global Rhythm Pad Mode Settings
With this parameter: You can:
Number/Name select a rhythm set to play on the pads
Pad Roll Resolution set the speed of the roll created when
you strike a pad with the ROLL button lit.
Rhythm Pad 1-16 Settings
With this parameter: You can:
Pad Note Number choose the note—and therefore the
sound—to be played on the pad from the
selected rhythm set.
Pad Velocity set the pad to respond to your playing
velocity, or not. For velocity response,
set this parameter to SYSTEM, and the
System Pad Velocity parameter to REAL.
For the pad to always produce a fixed
velocity value, select that value.
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