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VA-76 Owner’s Manual—Scratching the surface
22
3.1 The general idea
Your VA-76 is two instruments in one: one half pro-
vides the backing for the melody you play in the other
half.
There are two main sections you can use for playing
live. (The third section, the Song Composer, can also
be used for live applications, but is mainly intended
for recording and playing back your music.)
A
Keyboard parts:
This section consists of parts you need to play via the
keyboard, hence the name “Keyboard”. The VA-76
provides eight Keyboard parts, six of which can be
used simultaneously: Upper 1/2, VariPhrase, Lower 1
& 2, and Manual Bass (called M.Bass or just MBS).
The seventh part, Manual Drums (called M.Drums or
MDR), can only be played in isolation, i.e. you cannot
combine it with Upper1/2 or the VariPhrase part,
though you can assign it to only the right half of the
keyboard and use it along with Lower1/2 (that can be
played in the left half). See page 42 for details. The
eighth part, “MInt”, is what computer buffs would call
a “cross-platform part”: it belongs to the Keyboard
section but it is in part controlled by the Arranger. See
“Melody Intelligence” on page 99.
B
Arranger/Style section:
The Arranger is your backing band. It plays an accom-
paniment (called Music Style) recorded by Roland,
third-party suppliers, friends/colleagues, or yourself.
In a way, the Arranger works like a drum machine
because it uses accompaniment patterns.
Unlike a drum machine, however, you can easily select
the desired pattern while you play. So you do not need
to program the order in which you intend to use the
patterns. Furthermore, the Arranger not only provides
a rhythm section but also chords, guitar and synthe-
sizer riffs, and so on. The accompaniment can be
transposed in realtime. All you have to do is play a dif-
ferent chord (usually with your left hand).
3.2 Easy Routing: quick
registration
The Virtual Band page is the first page that is displayed
after switching on the VA-76:
You already know what the [DEMO] field is for. Let us
therefore have a look at the VA-76’s Easy Routing
function. It allows you to tell your V-Arranger Key-
board how to behave simply by answering a series of
interactive questions.
1.
If the above Virtual Band page is not displayed,
either switch your VA-76 off and back on again, or
press the [VIRTUAL BAND] button.
Note: You can prevent the VA-76 from automatically select-
ing this display page at start-up, or from returning to it at
power-on. See page 195 for details.
2.
Choose your language by pressing the appropriate
field.
If your language is supported, it would be a good idea
to select it, as that will further simplify the interactive
selection process.
Note: This language selection is stored and will be used
again next time you switch on the VA-76.
3.
Press the [EASY ROUTING] field.
The display now looks as follows:
Given the number of options and the “easy” character
of this interactive function, describing every possibil-
ity would confuse you and make the Easy Routing
function look extremely intricate.
3. Scratching the surface
You can add vocals to your music using the Vari-
Phrase function (see page 29) or by singing live (see
page 57).
Left hand:
Arranger control
Right hand: melody (Key-
board parts/VariPhrase
part)
VA-76.book Page 22 Friday, January 12, 2001 12:35 PM