Saturday, October 17, 2009

Easy breaks with Key Shift

Just discovered an easy way to make drum breaks using Key Shift. It just takes a single knob assignment...no other programming hassles required.

Setup:

First hit "Part Select" and choose the R (rhythm) track. Then hit the "Knob assign" button up top, choose a knob using F1-F4, and then hit "Set up (F1)". You'll get a list from which you'll be able to choose from reverb, delay, etc. Scroll down and choose "Key Shift" by hitting "Enter", and then exit out of the menus.

(One thing to note: Your knob choice will then be saved to the U.01 group of knob assignments, meaning it will be available right when you boot up the 307, as long as you move the red arrow to the left of the four knobs up to its topmost position. You can save it to U.02 - U.10 if you'd rather this not happen.)

Now for the fun part:

While a pattern plays, tweak the knob you chose (again, make sure Part Select is set to R and the red arrow is at the top). You'll get some cool percussion effects. I tried this with the preset pattern "Hiphop East 3" and found that tweaking it down gave some heavy big-break style drum hits, while all the way up resulted in a bunch of reverse percussion/scratching. To get your original sound back, return the knob to its center position.

1 comment:

  1. Indeed, the key shift is a great feature you won't find much on other gears the the MC-Series, also in most Software you've a lot config work to get this effect. I've discovered this feature at the Yamaha RM1x and work now also on my MC-307 with it. Put some Reverb on and Distortion and you get "cool" Industrial/Noise music.

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