® ®ÂØÒňΠV-Combo VR-09 Workshop The Performer’s Solution © 2013 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.
About the VR-09 Workshop Booklets Roland’s V-Combo VR-09 is designed for today’s performing musician, with everything he or she needs in a single, affordable instrument that weighs just a little more than 12 easy-to-carry pounds. All of the must-have sounds are here, from Roland’s acclaimed piano, electric piano, and Virtual Tone Wheel organ to synths, horns, strings, drums, and anything you’d want to pull off a gig in style.
• SYNTH section—True to its name, this area’s where you’ll find synth sounds, as well as related acoustic sounds via the SYNTH OTHERS button that reveals pitched percussion sounds and key orchestral sounds. Here’s the link to the sound-list PDF again if you didn’t click it earlier. • DRUM section—In the DRUM section you can select drum kits for playing on the keyboard, and also select and play built-in rhythms.
Running the VR-09 on Batteries The VR-09 can operate on eight Ni-MH AA-size batteries, making it a great instrument to take anywhere. Though battery life depends on the quality of the batteries themselves, the VR-09 will typically run continuously for about five hours on batteries if you’re not using the USB Song Player, or about three hours if you are. Listening to the VR-09 Demos The VR-09 ships with two demos onboard to give you a taste of what it can do. Let’s start by listening to them.
Exploring Piano Mode If you don’t already see the screen below, press the PIANO button in the PIANO section. The display shows the GrandPianoV piano sound. Play the keyboard to try out this beautiful piano. GrandPianoV is automatically selected when you first power up. If you’ve been selecting other sounds in Piano mode, the lastselected sound is re-selected when you re-enter the mode. Press the E. PIANO—for “electric piano”—button. Take a moment to try out Vintage EP, a famous Rhodes sound.
This piano sound’s been shifted up by one octave. Let’s start by checking out the third registration in the first bank, Registration 3-1, Blues B3. 1 You can quickly tell if there’s any octave shifting going on by glancing at the OCTAVE DOWN and UP buttons—when the keyboard’s pitch has been moved up or down by octaves, the corresponding OCTAVE button is lit. Select the bank we want by pressing the REGISTRATION BANK button to light it. The display shows the currently selected registration bank number.
As with the rest of its organ features, the VR-09’s rotary speaker is highly customizable. You’ll find the details starting on page 43 of the V-Combo VR-09 Owner’s Manual. When you’re done with Blues B3, let’s listen to another one, Registration 1-3, Bay Area B3. 6 Press BANK button again. This time, all of the registration buttons flash except for REGISTRATION 3—that’s because Bank 3 is the currently selected bank. 7 Press REGISTRATION 1 to select the first registration bank.
About Harmonic-Bar Names and More About Their Pitches Tonewheel organs were themselves a simulation of still-older organs that used pipes. As a result, harmonic bars are named for the pipes that had been previously used to generate each of their pitches. Each pipe on those still-older organs was a different length. Here are the lengths, and pitches, associated with each drawbar: Lengths 16 ’ 5 1/3’ 8 ’ 4 ’ 2 2/3’ 2 ’ 1 3/5’ 1 1/3’ 1 ’ Surface Scratched...
The sound waves that together make up a sound vibrate at different speeds, or “frequencies.” Slower, “low-frequency,” sounds produce lower pitches—they’re the bass in a sound. Highfrequency waves produce higher pitches in the treble range of a sound. We refer to different speed ranges as “frequencies.” To restore a sound you’ve changed with the sliders to its original settings, re-select the sound. Envelope sliders Filter sliders The envelope sliders adjust the volume behavior of the sound.
The Other Side of Synth Mode The Pitch Bend/Mod Lever Push the pitch bend/mod lever to the right and left to lower or raise notes, or push it forward to add modulation—this is typically vibrato, but can really be anything depending on the programming of the sound you’re playing. Bend note pitches While the BRASS button—as we’ve seen—does get you to the VR-09’s synth brass, it also provides access to great acoustic brass sounds. 1 Press the BRASS button again.
Technically, what’s going on here is that each of the EFX knobs controls one of six always-on effect processors: Creating a VR-09 Layer or Split • Overdrive • Tone control • Compressor Here’s how to layer sounds in the VR-09 and split the keyboard. • MFX • Delay • Reverb 1 The sound passes through one of these effects after another. To layer or split the keyboard using: • PIANO and SYNTH sounds—press the PIANO and SYNTH buttons that select the sounds you want to use.
Perfecting a Layer or Split Changing Layer or Split Sounds The two sounds in a split are labeled as Upper, or “U,” and Lower, or “L.” You can create a split with two ORGAN sounds in Organ mode by pressing the ORGAN section’s SPLIT button. You can choose different sounds for a layer or split even after you’ve begun setting it up. Here’s how. 1 In the display, press the CURSOR sound you want to change.
Shaping a Layered or Split Sound 1 Highlight the sound you want to modify on the display and use the sliders to make the changes you want. By moving from one to the other layered or split sound on the display, you can use the sliders for realtime control of either sound. Saving Your Layers and Splits You can store any layer or split as a registration, as described on page 15 of the Owner’s Manual. (For much more on registrations, see the VR-09 Workshop booklet Using Registrations.
Exploring DRUM Mode 2 Press the CURSOR / buttons or turn the VALUE dial to select any kit you’d like to play from the keyboard. After a few moments, you’re returned to the DRUM screen. Sounds in the kit you selected can be played from the entire VR-09 keyboard. As a complete solution for the performer, the VR-09 contains a collection of high-quality drum/percussion/sound-effect kits you can play from the keyboard, as well as a comprehensive library of beats you can play along with.
The first press of the SONG/RHYTHM button displays the SONG list, which shows you any songs currently stored on your installed USB stick. 2 Select a rhythm you’d like to use, and press the START/ STOP button to hear it. You can select different rhythms as they continue playing—the VR-09 seamlessly switches between them. As a rhythm plays, you can have fun playing along on the keyboard using an ORGAN, PIANO, SYNTH, or DRUM sound. 3 To change the volume of the rhythm, use the DRUM section’s LEVEL buttons.
3 Select the song you want to play from the list. This app has two sides to it. You can: 4 Press the START/STOP button in the DRUM section to begin playback of the song. • program VR-09 ORGAN sounds—graphically on the iPad screen. • dig down deep into the VR-09’s SYNTH sounds—with every underthe-hood setting easily editable on the iPad screen. Navigating Songs Two additional buttons in the DRUM section let you get around within songs and in the song list.
Connect Via USB You can also connect your iPad to the VR-09’s USB COMPUTER jack via USB if you’ve purchased the required connector(s) for your iPad. • If you have an iPad 3 or earlier—you’ll need the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. • For iPad 4 or iPad mini—you’ll need an Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. The End We hope you’ve found this Workshop booklet helpful. If you’re interested in learning more, we’ve got some great VR-09 video articles in our Knowledge Base.
