Some Suggestions
for Recording Your Own Styles
By
Simon Williams
Recording Drum Patterns
You can record your own drum patterns on any of the PSR
keyboards that feature style recording, this includes the
PSR-740. Note that you have to record them in real time,
that is, play the percussion instruments live on the keyboard.
When in style record mode, choose either Rhythm 1 or 2 tracks
and then select one of the drum kits. When recording
percussion instruments, you can overdub each instrument (in
a loop). So, for example, you can begin recording a
hi-hat sound and then, on the next loop, record the kick drum
and snare and so on. You can also record an entire percussion
/ drum track live using song record (multitrack) instead of
using a style, I've uploaded some songs in the past doing
this.
Note that most of my style disks (in fact, all of them except
the new creative gold disks) were recorded and created on
the PSR-740! All the drum sounds were played live on
the keyboard using the metronome as a guide, until at least
a hi-hat pattern is recorded. Once you get the hang
of it, it's actually quite fun but easy to "overdo"
it and add too many percussion sounds!
A Few Tips on Recording Styles
Here's a few tips on recording your own styles on the keyboard,
these instructions are generally applicable to any PSR.
- Assuming you are creating a style from scratch, first
delete all the tracks from each part of the style.
Now, as an example, let's choose main A to start recording.
- Turn on the metronome, else you will get totally lost
when it comes to keeping within each bar and getting your
patterns to play in time!
Record Rhythm Track(s)
Choose one of the rhythm tracks and select a suitable drum
kit. Note that if you change the voice usually the reverb
will be set back to zero, so you will get a very dry sound.
You may want to call up the reverb setting and set it to about
30, or, to save time, store the drum kit voice in one of the
registrations with this setting.
Start recording of the style and listen to the metronome
for a few bars to get a feel for the tempo, also note the
bar (measure) number as it records and when the "loop"
begins again. Now try putting down a simple closed hi-hat
sound (usually f# in the 2nd or 3rd octave assuming you have
not transposed) on each beat. Make sure you stop playing
as soon as you reach the end of the loop; the pattern will
continue playing in a loop.
Now you can overdub a kick drum, say, on each 1/2 a bar.
Again be sure to begin playing at the beginning of the loop
and stop playing the keys once it hits the end of the loop
(else you will end up with "double" notes.)
You can then add a snare if you like on every other note
against the kick, now you have a simple 8 beat.
Next Move to the CHORD 1 track
I then usually think about the main chord voice, say, for
example, a piano. You need to think of the rhythm of
the piano as it will play in the style and then once the loop
begins record a CM7 chord in that rhythm. Again, stop
at the end of the "loop". If you make a mistake,
you need to stop the style record and delete the track, then
repeat. It often takes a few goes to get it right.
Now, a Bass Line
Bass line is next. Choose a nice bass voice (I like
the dark fingered Bass in the XG section) and again, on the
start of the loop, play a SIMPLE Bass line, in C though.
And the Rest
You can then continue adding pads, perhaps some twiddly phrases
and so on. This is just the main section A, then there's
sections B, C and D. Oh, and then the intros, endings
and fills.
Some Tips for the Other Bits
Intros
Generally you can improvise around on these quite a bit,
though keep to the Key of C. Any notes can be used,
in fact the intros and endings can incorporate short melodies
like mini songs, but should always finish in a way that they
naturally progress into a C chord.
Endings
Again, lots of scope for improvisation and ad-libs but remember
that the last notes in the ending are just that, so
wind things down!
Fills
Very difficult to do, only 1 bar to play with and should
ideally form a bridge between each section of the style. Again
must be CM7.
Some "Techniques" Useful
for Style Recording
Since you have to record your pads and chords in CM7 for
most parts in the style, try some "open" chords
i.e. leave out the middle notes or simplify the chords using
just 2 notes.
For a nice Celtic pad sound, try playing an open chord of
E and G - leaving out the root.
Quantising the drum sounds and percussion can help to tighten
the Style as it loops, but avoid quantising other instruments
too much as the style will sound machine like.
XG voices are always best to use for compatibility but may
require transposing down 1 octave to match the range of the
panel sounds, especially for the bass voices.
On the 740 and other keyboards that allow access to the registrations
during style record (sadly not the 9000!), keep your voices
and settings in the registration memories for each track of
the style - it makes recording each part much easier than
having to set up voice, level, effects each time.
Avoid adding intricate or strong melodies in the style, such
as the phrases. They will dictate the use of the style too
much in playback.
Since the style is a "backing" to your performance,
use the mixer and effects settings to keep the rhythm instruments
"back" in the mix, unless you deliberately want
particular voices in the style to stand out strong.
Hope these tips will be of help to some of you!!!
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