Recording live Vocals and programming them in the Synth

Discussion relating to the Korg Triton LE and Korg TR

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wleo1017
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Recording live Vocals and programming them in the Synth

Post by wleo1017 »

Hello everyone, this is my first time on the forum so let me just give you some background info on my situation.

I am a band director in Texas and we purchased the Triton LE and two other synthesizers (Roland Juno's) for our marching band. This is our second year with the equipment and the addition of these electronics has been great for adding effects and color sounds to our marching band.

However, that said, I will admit that I am completely a novice at all of this and I would love to be able to utilize our electronics to their fullest potential (A tutorial DVD or something along those lines would be appreciated if anyone knows of where I could find something like this). I also have two really important questions as they pertain to our marching show.

1. One of our pieces contains an important solo piano line. The piano sound on the Triton is great, but it I'm trying to emulate the sound of a real grand piano as much as possible, and the Triton one is a little dry for my taste. We have an effects processor, and I've added a Large Concert Hall 4 second delay to that synth channel, but any other tips on getting the sound I'm looking for would be great. I have the original sound track (this piece is from a movie) and if anyone wants more detail, I could e-mail it to you.

2. Here is the most important issue. We are also looking for a vocal and full chorus sound in the show (again I have the original soundtrack if you are interested). We are using one o the other synths for the vocal sounds, but it still lacks the depth of that full chorus sounds that we want...so here is where I need some serious help. The plan is to get our high school choir to record the parts we want from them, then set those sounds into our Triton Le and then have the Triton player "play" the recorded sounds on his keyboard. I tried reading the instruction manual but it is a bit over my head for me.
-First off, after we record what format does the file need to be in?
-Second, what do I need to purchase (as far as a smart media or the EXB-SMPL) in order to make this recording readable by the Triton.
-Last, how would I program our recording into the Triton so that the student can just press a key on the board to play the recorded sounds?

I know this a detailed post, but I'm trying to give you as much info as possible. This is an integral part of our show, and since our choir has already learned their parts, I will welcome as much help as possible on this please. Thank you all so much.
Tell Tommy
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Post by Tell Tommy »

With respect to the vocal sample(s). My TR will accept wave files. I'm not sure what the le is capable of, but I can access up to eight different samples at any one time. I use an sd card to store and transfer the wave files from my computer to my TR. With the SD card in the keyboard, I simply press the media button and load the sample. Then I press the sampling button, cursor down to SMPL and assign the sample to a note. It took forever to figure this out as the manual is very hard to follow. I do have the EXB-SMPL card installed and you need it to perform this operation. I have the maximum amount of ram installed as well as samples, of course, take up a lot of memory. I generally use this in sequences to enhance the backing vocals for my band. It works flawlessly.

Good luck
xmlguy
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Post by xmlguy »

Buy a used Roland SP-404 sampler, which is much better for this task than these keyboards. The 404 can directly record and play samples from 1GB Compact Flash. The band marches with a Triton LE and Juno-G's????
wleo1017
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Location: Texas

Post by wleo1017 »

Thank you all for the responses.

Tell Tommy. You keep saying SD Card? Is that like a flash card? Aren't those really small, like postage stamp size small? The slot for the SmartMedia looks to be the size of a post it note.
Ok, so I need an SD Card (just not sure on what kind) and the EXB-SMPL card (Just sent the info to the head guy to get that ordered). Since we won't be storing a whole lot of audio files on there, there shouldn't be a need for any additional memory right?

The other question I have is once it is stored to a key on the keyboard how will the sound work when this key is depressed? Will the sound keep playing until the recording is over? Or if the student holds the key indefinitely will the recorded sound keep playing until he releases it? I guess what I'm asking is, will it act like a real note like any other sound patch so that the student has control when to start and release the note? I don't want a endless loop playing cause then we run into the problem of the band decides to take the tempo slightly slower that day than the recorded tempo and then we have major issues.

Any one with any cool ideas, feel free to throw them out there. Again if you want more info on what exactly the sound we are looking for is I can email you the original soundtrack files that contain the portion of music we are playing (it's not an entire soundtrack in case you worried about me sending a huge file. this is an 8 minute show).

xmlguy. The Roland sampler is more expensive and I actually need to set the recorded vocals to a note on the keyboard that can be controlled by a student, which appears the Triton will do.

No, the band does not march with synthesizers. The three synth players are located in the Front Ensemble of the band. My Front Ensemble consists of 3 Marimbas, 2 Xylophones, 2 Vibraphones, a bell player, Chimes player, a timpani player, and two kids on a percussion rack. These 15 students and instruments are set up on the front sideline of the field, along with my sound board and speakers. None of them march. Now back in the olden days, 60's-70's, they did used to march some of these instruments which seems completely ludicrous to me. We've evolved from those days, including show design. Just trying help you all understand our environment a little bit more and let you know how serious we actually take our marching show. Things are little different down here in Texas.
xmlguy
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Post by xmlguy »

First of all, are those Juno-D or Juno-Gs? Juno-G have sampling built-in and you can add an SRX card for a top tier grand piano. The Juno-G also has a superior effect for piano called sympathetic resonance.
wleo1017
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Post by wleo1017 »

xmlguy wrote:First of all, are those Juno-D or Juno-Gs? Juno-G have sampling built-in and you can add an SRX card for a top tier grand piano. The Juno-G also has a superior effect for piano called sympathetic resonance.
We are using Juno-D's. But the piano part is written on the Triton, since the others two are playing something else. What about a foot pedal? I'm really looking for more resonance. Also still confused about that SD Card.
Tell Tommy
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Post by Tell Tommy »

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you, three kids, a job and a band to deal with.

I'm using a Kingston sd card. here's a link to the company:

http://www.kingston.com/flash/securedigital.asp

Yes it is a flash card.

DISCLAIMER! I am using a Korg TR not a Triton. I assume they have the same basic system inside, but can't promise this is the truth.

The memory and the EXB-SMPL inside the keyboard is needed to load and manipulate the samples. The more memory you have, the larger the amount of samples you can load. The keyboard will not retain the samples in it's memory, so you have to load them every time you turn on. The memory cost me $20 (Canadian) at a used computer store. It's an older type of chip ... DRAM SIMM ... and the store owner literally had to search through an old bag of them to find the type I was looking for. He gave me two pair just in case one didn't work. In fact, the first pair didn't, the second pair did and I use them to this day.

Once you have loaded the samples, they will play exactly as you recorded them. running up the scale increases the pitch ... but also increases the speed (similar to speeding up an audio tape). I have not researched it much further than that, however, the Triton may have more powerful processing than the TR.

If I might make a suggestion. You have a marching band full of bright young minds. Perhaps you might delegate a task force to pour over the manual and find out what your Triton can really do :)
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nikola81
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Post by nikola81 »

And one more thing TR uses SD cards and Triton LE uses Smart Media cards, they are different, you will need also a card reader for PC to transfer samples and sounds to a card.
Nikola
Korg pa-800, Korg TR61, Roland g-800
Korg Kronos 61, Korg PA3X
wleo1017
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Location: Texas

Post by wleo1017 »

Tell Tommy wrote:Perhaps you might delegate a task force to pour over the manual and find out what your Triton can really do .
Well I do have a student who runs the sound board (since UIL, our governing body, only allows a student to manipulate the sound in any way during the performance) who has been very helpful with this stuff. But as I mentioned, that instructional manual is tough to read, which is why I am wondering if there are any CD/DVD Tutorials out there. Thanks for your response.

nikola81 wrote:And one more thing TR uses SD cards and Triton LE uses Smart Media cards, they are different, you will need also a card reader for PC to transfer samples and sounds to a card.
The slot does say Smart Media on my Le-88 I just assumed that meant SD Card, so thanks for the clarification. I'm assuming I can purchase this and a card reader at my local Best Buy or Fry's?
wleo1017
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Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:08 pm
Location: Texas

Post by wleo1017 »

After some research around this forum, I have some more questions regarding SmartMedia.

First off, I am not planning on recording extensive amounts of sound files to input into the TR Le. Like I said, we will be recording our choir, and it will most likely not be anything longer than 1 minute of singing. That said, what size (data storage wise) would be appropriate to purchase on the SmartMedia. I've seen 128MB for $50 and 32MB for $30. Ideally I'd like to save our school money and purchase the less expensive one if possible.

However, I also read that the TR Le will only accept the 128MB. Is there some validity to that statement?

Lastly, do I need to purchase additional RAM, or will the 32MB/128 MB SmartMedia be sufficient for our situation?
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nikola81
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Post by nikola81 »

You need to check how much RAM memory you have, it's displayed on a startup screen. There can be none or 64Mb max. then you can decide witch card to buy.
There are couple of options for the case you want,
1 You could buy smpl exp and sample your choir directly into a keyboard
2 This would be better, record choir in some studio, find Awave program, it converts sound formats so you can convert the recording into Korg format and load it to keyboard.
Keep us posted if you need help.
Nikola
Korg pa-800, Korg TR61, Roland g-800
Korg Kronos 61, Korg PA3X
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