Instruction manual for Roland FR8X Accordion

[Valski]

Thanks Valski, I will bear that in mind.
I was thinking not so much as a drum kit but drum "voices.
Example, maybe bass drum on bass note and brush or hi hat with chord. To be used with accordion voices on musette waltzes etc.
I will post examples later from Pieter Bosma a Dutch accordionist

Perhaps it might work or it may turn out to be a little more than you wanted.

 

[Mockie]

Thanks Valski, I will bear that in mind.
I was thinking not so much as a drum kit but drum "voices.
Example, maybe bass drum on bass note and brush or hi hat with chord. To be used with accordion voices on musette waltzes etc.
I will post examples later from Pieter Bosma a Dutch accordionist

Perhaps it might work or it may turn out to be a little more than you wanted.

Hello again Valski
This is a video of Dutch player Pieter Bosma , at times you may hear a hi hat or whatever on the chords, it sounds tasty.
I hope to explore other possibilities for percussion on the left hand and of course it has to be suttle and not too obtrusive.

 

[dyusupov]

Congratulations! It's a great choice and I'm sure that you will love it. Two things to consider; purchase the sets by Richard Noel because they will get you started with this complex instrument and provide you with instant enjoyment of the full potential of the accordion. Secondly install the set editor once you have made yourself familiar with your Fr8x. This will make it easier to create your own user sets once you need to create something to meet a specific requirement, or it helps you to move them to different buttons and even rename them to suit you.

I've owned my FR8X for 5 years now and only regret not purchasing it sooner. My accordion shop included the Richard Noel sets because their experience showed that some people are intimidated with the complexity and potential of the Midi accordion and were frustrated that they could not find a custom sound easily as a novice user. Those two pieces of advice saved me a lot of potential frustration and made the entire package so much better. The Noel sets are not free but the set editor utility for your computer is.

Sorry for off-topic, but are Richard Noel's sets available for FR4X? Cannot seems find it on his page... hm

 

[dyusupov]

Sorry for off-topic, but are Richard Noel's sets available for FR4X? Cannot seems find it on his page... hm

never mind, found it - it is on the right side of the page!

 

[Mockie]

Valski thanks for info.
"I'll be back"............

Hello Valski, it's me again,just small point.
When I buy the sound sets and the arrive on my computer, do I put them on a USB memory stick before transferring to the FB8X
Thanks

 

[Valski]

Hello Valski, it's me again,just small point.
When I buy the sound sets and the arrive on my computer, do I put them on a USB memory stick before transferring to the FB8X
Thanks

My sound sets were already loaded into my FR8X when I purchased the instrument. I'm sure that you will get detailed instructions with the purchase of the sets however I think that you can use the USB method or the Roland utility for managing sets via your computer.

 

[Valski]

I decided on the Fr8x because of the larger size and a number of other things like it's louder than the 4X which makes it more useful on small gigs, there are more one touch buttons, midi in and out, and a nicer grille in my opinion, not to mention the chin switches. There are more reasons for me to choose the Fr8x which don't come to mind at the moment but if Mockie feels that he can afford the flagship model, all the more power to him.

 

[Mockie]

Valski thanks for info.
"I'll be back"............

I decided on the Fr8x because of the larger size and a number of other things like it's louder than the 4X which makes it more useful on small gigs, there are more one touch buttons, midi in and out, and a nicer grille in my opinion, not to mention the chin switches. There are more reasons for me to choose the Fr8x which don't come to mind at the moment but if Mockie feels that he can afford the flagship model, all the more power to him.

I'm like a kid looking forward to Christmas......I have to have the FR8x. I never imagined that I would want to play a digital accordion but when I heard the quality of the accordions on the FR-8x I have to have one.
I'm only really interested in the accordions, yes there some other great sounds but I want to think of it as accordion and play accordion music on it not pop songs

 

[Mockie]

I'm like a kid looking forward to Christmas......I have to have the FR8x. I never imagined that I would want to play a digital accordion but when I heard the quality of the accordions on the FR-8x I have to have one.
I'm only really interested in the accordions, yes there some other great sounds but I want to think of it as accordion and play accordion music on it not pop songs

Here is an example of the accordion on the FR8x button version played Dutch wizard Pieter Bosma

 

[JerryPH]

Hello Valski, it's me again,just small point.
When I buy the sound sets and the arrive on my computer, do I put them on a USB memory stick before transferring to the FB8X
Thanks

Yes, and there is an order of precedence... required expansions must be installed first, and then UPGs and SETS are next, those are not order sensitive. If you are getting the sets from Noel, he gives you precise step by step instructions. Follow them exactly as written, and you will be fine.

 

[Mockie]

Yes, and there is an order of precedence... required expansions must be installed first, and then UPGs and SETS are next, those are not order sensitive. If you are getting the sets from Noel, he gives you precise step by step instructions. Follow them exactly as written, and you will be fine.

Thank Gerry

 

[Valski]

I'm like a kid looking forward to Christmas......I have to have the FR8x. I never imagined that I would want to play a digital accordion but when I heard the quality of the accordions on the FR-8x I have to have one.
I'm only really interested in the accordions, yes there some other great sounds but I want to think of it as accordion and play accordion music on it not pop songs

Yes, I appreciate the accordion sounds most of all. I also don't mind some of the orchestral sounds because they're very good but the accordion is the instrument that I like the best although the sounds played with the left hand really enhance my experience because they add depth. I find myself using the orchestral sounds less on the treble side unless they're nicely layered with the sounds of the accordion.

 

[Mockie]

Thank Gerry

How are the User Programs related to the Sets ?
I now have the user manual, can I read up and get an understanding of the relationship of UPs to Sets.

 

[JerryPH]

Per Roland, sets are designed to represent different kinds of accordions from the factory (I think the factory has like 50 different kinds of accordions), while UPG are exactly what their name us USER PROGRAMABLE. It is a series of up to 1400 individual Justin sound registratons (accordion/other instruments together or individual), that we as owners of the 8X can change to our heart's content. Here is the nice part, we can modify the sets too, which gives the V-accordion a range of sonic options not possible on any other digital accordion in the world.

The one place that Roland is globally useless in is their manuals, they are pretty much good for nothing except telling you what the tech specs are (but never clearly explain what they do), for all their products, but in the case of the 8X, it is REALLY of no practical use at all, which is why I started to make the FR-8X Mild to Wild Series of videos.

Too bad that Roland doesn't care enough about it to advance the project.

 

[Valski]

Per Roland, sets are designed to represent different kinds of accordions from the factory (I think the factory has like 50 different kinds of accordions), while UPG are exactly what their name us USER PROGRAMABLE. It is a series of up to 1400 individual Justin sound registratons (accordion/other instruments together or individual), that we as owners of the 8X can change to our heart's content. Here is the nice part, we can modify the sets too, which gives the V-accordion a range of sonic options not possible on any other digital accordion in the world.

The one place that Roland is globally useless in is their manuals, they are pretty much good for nothing except telling you what the tech specs are (but never clearly explain what they do), for all their products, but in the case of the 8X, it is REALLY of no practical use at all, which is why I started to make the FR-8X Mild to Wild Series of videos.

Too bad that Roland doesn't care enough about it to advance the project.

Thanks for making me feel better because I also find the Roland manuals virtually unusable. I had attributed this to my lack of knowledge with electronic technology but now realize that it's not just me. I have been able to muddle through and create a few custom sets and have also edited some of the Richard Noel sets to suit me because although his work is very good, it contains a lot of styles that don't work for me.

 

[JerryPH]

Thanks for making me feel better because I also find the Roland manuals virtually unusable. I had attributed this to my lack of knowledge with electronic technology but now realize that it's not just me. I have been able to muddle through and create a few custom sets and have also edited some of the Richard Noel sets to suit me because although his work is very good, it contains a lot of styles that don't work for me.

It's an unfortunate but well known fact.
I had actually downloaded the manual a good 2 months before even finding my 8X as I am the kind of guy that researches the heck out of anything when I have an interest for it, so that by the time I did find my 8X, I had not only read through the entire manual 4-5 times (and found it pretty much as useless as everyone else), as well as having read every post on the (at the time), Yahoo Groups of the FR-8X (about 5000 or so posts since 2013).

The day that I got home with the 8X, it held absolutely no surprises for me (just lots of challenges, and that prompted me to decided that I wanted to start the Mild to Wild series), only lots of confirmations about all the good and bad that everyone had already voiced. This was likely a big reason of why I was able to pick it up, and after about 3 weeks do my first public performance in 35+ years with it.

 

[Mockie]

Per Roland, sets are designed to represent different kinds of accordions from the factory (I think the factory has like 50 different kinds of accordions), while UPG are exactly what their name us USER PROGRAMABLE. It is a series of up to 1400 individual Justin sound registratons (accordion/other instruments together or individual), that we as owners of the 8X can change to our heart's content. Here is the nice part, we can modify the sets too, which gives the V-accordion a range of sonic options not possible on any other digital accordion in the world.

The one place that Roland is globally useless in is their manuals, they are pretty much good for nothing except telling you what the tech specs are (but never clearly explain what they do), for all their products, but in the case of the 8X, it is REALLY of no practical use at all, which is why I started to make the FR-8X Mild to Wild Series of videos.

Too bad that Roland doesn't care enough about it to advance the project.

Hi Jerry checked out your YouTube videos very helpful.I did some reading on the manual and that helped too.
Looking to Jan as I want to get stuck into understanding more and playing my FR8.
Happy Christmas and here's to 2022....... let's do it !

 

[JerryPH]

Mixing and matching the abilities of the 8X and BK-7m is a fun "problem" to have. There are songs that I will play with the BK and songs that I play without it. this all depends on how you want the song to come out.

As some advice, I'd *really* get to know the 8X before tossing in the BK on top of it... I purchased the 8X and within a month of that I purchased the BK, but did not use the BK on purpose for 6 months before I started to play with it, and it was a smart thing to do. Had I not done that I would be depending on the BK way more and not exploiting the 8X anywhere near as much as I did taking my time.

Also, once the programming is done, its GREAT... but on average I can "waste" hours finding the best beat, speed, settings for any particular song, so here is another piece of advice... DOCUMENT everything that you find and like.

 

[JerryPH]

...here's to 2022....... let's do it !

Okay... let's do it!