New FA-08 user

Hi, Proclivitas,

Congrats on the new-to-you FA-08. Reading the manual is not actually as helpful as reading the Parameters guide and all the song lists in the expansion packs, in my opinion. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable than me will kick in some about your specific issues. Q and A at the Roland support site is also useful.

1. I haven't had a headphone issue. I use an M50X-SE, and it sounds the same as my monitor speakers when I switch. There are some settings in there, but have you tried a factory reset? I'd think a refurb would be back to factory, but you never know.

2. My theory is that another MIDI device will have headroom if you have it at 100 instead of 127. The sliders on my RD300nx will reset CH 1 to 127 or all the way down to zero.

3. I understand that this keyboard is shared on the Juno 88, RD300, RD700, RD800, and FA-08. It was called a "high-end feature at a moderate price" when it appeared on the RD300. I may have some of those numbers wrong. Anyway, I can't outplay it. I was getting some joy out of my Juno 88 this afternoon banging out gospel songs. OK - it was making a joyful noise, but I like it.

4. I agree. The panning for the presets is all over the place. The first organ in the first organ is panned far right for some reason, and I get a creepy panning effect where the center is going from side to side with some of the presets when I space my amps or listen with the headphones - fortunately not the default piano. Note though that I do not have an -08 - mine is the -06, and I play it from my RD300nx. Some reviews on YouTube and online said that RD300nx keyboard was slow to respond. Have you watched any FA-08 reviews? And, yep, there's an abundance of stuff online for these things.

I bought my little Juno DS-61 (and then the DS-88) because they were little jack of all trades. I bought the FA-06 because it had so much more so much more.

1. Typically, there is no problem with the headphone output. May be you have to release the idea, that sound is best, when you set all parameters to default. The FA is a musical instrument for creative minds, not HiFi gear. Use EQs, leveling and gain when ever appropriate. Taste and outboard equipment is different in every place. There is no 'best' setting for all situations.

2. Starting at 80% level as default leaves some room to increase the volume. Just make your own default studio set and enjoy.

3. When you come from classical (mechanical) piano, the FA's key action might feel as you describe. Repetition IS slow. But there are mechanical pianos out there as well, which are worse than the FA.

4. Similar to 1. Use factory presets as starting points. Tweek to your own liking. I think due to the price tag, Roland did not spend much effort on polishing presets. They just threw a ton of material of different origin into the memory. Be assured, there is a lot to explore.

Regards,
RoDi

Proclivitas wrote:

Hi,

1. Headphone output seems really low. I have to turn it up significantly beyond 50% for me to have "good" volume with a Philips Fidelio X2HR or SHP9500 (haven't tested some of my more janky headphones I use at work, I'll do it tonight when I bring them home), so I don't think it's a high impedance issue.

With mine maxed, the Full Grand 1 Patch is loud - louder than I'd like to listen to, but it's not like deafening or anything. It's on the loud side of comfortable. At half volume it's "too quiet" with Sony MDR 7506 with some kids rummaging around in the kitchen, a fan on, etc. - jut turned the fan off an it's much better, but it's what I'd call "not too loud" and I could stand a touch more.

Press Menu, then go to System and click Select (#7 button) then scroll across to Sound and then down to Output Gain. You can increase this to +12 db and it would be more in your headphones as well as the main outs.

Just so you know though, some of the Organ and Synth sounds will distort at those levels (at their default volume - you can always turn them down!). I keep mine at +6 for the most part.

Make sure if you change it you do System Write to store it! Don't poke around in there and change other settings (but also make sure the Master Level is 127) ans System Write! If you've tried some things you can always just cancel and exit out and no harm done, then go in again specifically to set the Master Level and Output Gain and store just those.

I read that some people recommend to put "gain" or "eq" on the default studio set, but I strongly dislike having to put "artificial +gain" on an output which I feel should be well-balanced by default...

Actually there's already an EQ on the FA Preview SS - it's got a +2 db boost in the Low Frequency.

MANY people go in and customize their piano sound this way so it's not unheard of - but yeah I agree just going in there and bumping up all the frequencies isn't going to do anything but make it sound worse because of course you're only boosting certain ranges.

From FA Preview press and hold shift then click Effects Edit - #3. You'll see the MFX EQ is on. Press 2 and you'll see the settings - that +2 at 400 Hz.

There's also a Master EQ but that TMK affects the entire device! It should all have no gain on it.

Now here's something fun: Where you're looking at that MFX screen where you can see the +2 at 400 Hz, go to the top and scroll over 1 for MFX control and look at it - you'll see that CC18 and CC19 are assigned to Low and High gain!

So try this (you can just not save the patch and these changes will revert so don't worry about messing anything up):

1. In the 6 knob matix, press the Select button to get to the 3rd Assign row.

2. Press and hold Shift and turn the Assign 1 knob. You'll get a screen that says Sound Modify Knob 1 with the others as well (release shift now) - should be Off.

3. Select it and scroll to CC 18. Know if you move knob 1 you'll hear the low frequencies get boosted and cut!

If you scroll around the Matrix by selecting the rows and turning the knobs you'll see what they're assigned too - the ones that are labeled are obvious but if you are in that same screen where we started all this and press the Reverb button at the bottom (#4) it'll bring up its controls and if you turn knob 4 with the bottom row selected you'll see the values change - TWO of them in fact - it'll add reverb to a point, but it'll also add stereo spread too! So some of these two two things at once which could be desirable (though you could edit them independently and save the patch of course).

At this point I'm considering getting some kind of mixer or amp and routing the FA-08 through it just to have decent headphone output levels which really shouldn't be necessary -_- .

No, it shouldn't be necessary.

2. Default studio set piano is at 100 (not 127) overall "volume/send" whatever it's called? Why not 127?

So you have some room to grow :-)

I feel like all instruments should be at max and balanced at that volume by default, and should only be turned down when necessary. Apparently someone at Roland disagrees?

Well, the whole world disagrees :-) It's common mixing practice to set levels on faders at like 75% or Unity with audio.

Piano is tough because it doesn't sustain, so it may have a loud strike but then fall away - whereas an organ just "seems" or "feels " louder because it's got that sustain happening. But they may peak at the same volume. So going through, the Pianos and EPs and stuff like that all do seem to be much quieter - but that's because their attacks can run away if you're not careful.

So there needs to be room to balance all instruments so you have room to mix when doing Piano with Bass versus Piano with Organ.

FWIW, I do agree - I wish they had patches more balanced overall though - the SN-S patches are stupid loud in many cases. I think it's because they're doing them like they do in the real world, but I'd rather them be more generally balanced across the board with the 100 level being a good starting point for a decent overall studio volume.

Also FWIW when using the audio output into my DAW, the Plug Ins in Logic are like all way louder than the audio input from the ROland - even with the +12 db Output Level and the volume knob all the way up! I have to increase some gain from the Interface!!!

Just accept that sometimes you might want a loud synth play quietly in the background, so you need that travel on your sliders. The pianos do tend to be on the quiet side compared to the other things - I've got my Pianos set to 100 in my gig patches (and a Bright Piano at that so it cuts through the mix) and the organs are down around 65-75 depending on the organ.

Also, you have to really, I mean REALLY press hard for the keys to register "maximum pressure." I guess I'll get used to it eventually, but in a real acoustic piano if I were playing with the kind of pressure that I am playing with to have the volume bar register "medium" on the display, it would be very, very loud. Maybe I'll experiment with the pressure curve settings and see if I find something better, I was just surprised how hard you have to "bang" the keys with the default setting to get medium-high volume registration.

Be happy. Or rather, ecstatic. Though of us stupid enough to by the 06 (or who had to because of price or footprint, etc.) are stuck with the opposite problem in the worst possible way!

You can just fart on the key and it will go to 127 and "KLANG". And none of the velocity curves will help. Maybe in your case they will (there's an overall setting, as well as Velocity curves per part you can set in each SS) I have mine as high as it will go and it will still register velocity of 127 by just striking the key a little harder than normal...

I have to use another Controller with a somewhat better range (at least it'll keep the 127s from getting through) to get a more even playback.

Can't help you with the repeating notes and "mush" - that stuff is what it is. But I think you'll get used to that.

4. This is kind of subjective, but all the sounds are a bit too "centered/mono" -

Hmmm... well, it is subjective I suppose. The SN sounds like Piano will move from left to right as you go up the keyboard just like in real life - so some of them are not supposed to be "wide" for the whole sound, but move with register.

As I mentioned above, you can do some of this with Reverb (and delays). You could even potentially toy with putting the same sound on Parts 1 and 2, turning the keyboard switch on for both, then panning them hard left and right and bringing them apart to see what you get. I actually just tried it and it's not half bad...

Don't forget that if you use the Left/Mono jack out the back, it should sum to mono and will sound different - some sounds actually will be louder or quiter in stereo versus mono because of the way they're summed (and this is typical). Headphones should always reflect the stereo sound though.

Overall, I'll probably keep it, and it kind of accomplishes the role of "jack of all trades, master of none" that I was hoping for, except maybe not as well as I was hoping.

It's actually a monster. Remember in the old days you could have 3 or 4 synths and they'd all be different volumes so there's always balancing things out. It's just something you have to deal with. I play Piano at a gig and you can't really hear it in the mix, but with an organ - man if I set it to the same number it's going to blow the PA! Some of those Synths will cause the bridge crew of the Enterprise to pass out.

It really is a jack of all trades and master of none, and for the price it's really hard to beat.

If you're into synthesis at all, the Sn-A editing stuff is really useful and fun - though again two issues - no editor, and aliasing on some sounds. But again some of these shortcomings are due to it being that jack of all trades.

Have fun.