Electro plus Roland Boutique

[Lofty]

Hi, cut my rig down from Stage 3 compact and Electro 6 HP to just the Electro, for a few reasons, space, weight, not using the full capabilities of the Stage, (mainly just organ). Cope really well, have to practice my patch changes a bit but the layout of the Electro is good for that.
The band (playing originals) are asking for a bit more synth now, I have some nice pads sampled but not enough, (stage 4 , no way, mainly cos of weight) so, I was wondering if anyone had tried combining an eletro with one of the tiny Roland Boutique synths, (maybe JD 08) that would easily sit on the electro right hand side.
PS This is not a pro band.

[maxpiano]

Technically you can do it but unfortunately NE6 doesn't provide a good MIDI flexibility to manage an External Module (NE5 had some instead), so unless you are OK to just layer the Roland all over the NE6 keyboard you need more.... do you have an iPad or iPhone?

You could just use such a device with the right apps to handle both MIDI routing and also sound generation, to complement your NE6

[harmonizer]

For 5 years I gigged using an Electro 3 plus a Roland XV-5050 module, which is wider than a JD-08. I had my XV-5050 on the top level of my keyboard stand. I'm not sure if the geometry of putting the JD-08 on top of your Electro 6 will work for you, but since the JD-08 is only 12 inches wide, maybe it will.

Don't forget that you will need to have programs/splits set up on your Electro 6 to cause your Electro 6 to not produce any sounds on its own when you are using all (or a portion of) your Electro 6 as a MIDI controller for your external synth. While the Electro 6 is much better at this than my old Electro 3, it's something you would need to plan for. And the Electro 6's split capability is still not as good as a Stage 3 (I have one of these now).

Another thing to consider is what type of MIDI signals will the Electro 6 send to the Roland, based on the type of sound selected in your Electro 6. In my Electro 3, if I set it to an Organ patch, the MIDI signals it would send to the external Roland module were always max velocity, no matter how hard or soft I pressed the keys. I had to make sure to have my Electro set to some AP or EP patch when I was using it as the MIDI controller for my Roland sound module. I have never tested an Electro 5 or 6, but there is a good chance you would need to do something similar when you set up any split to cause the Electro 6 to not make any noises of its own when you use it as a MIDI controller for any external synth.

I don't know how much split flexibility you will need, particularly if there are songs where you will be using both the Electro 6 and an external module to create sounds on the same song, or at the same time. If you need to set an upper split to a Piano bank patch (with zero volume) to act as a MIDI controller for the external module (so it will send varying velocity MIDI signals to that module), but you want to use the other half of your Electro 6 for an actual AP sound, will the Electro 6 allow you do that? Maybe others can answer this question. Maybe there is some other way to get the Electro 6 to send varying MIDI velocity signals from a portion of its keybed, without loading a Piano bank sound (at zero volume) into a split definition for that part of the keybed?

[Tracii]

Thanks guys, some good thoughts there, lots of limitations, not least the volume control is on the back. ,but it may give me extra sonic options without the need for loads of hardware, being an originals band means I'm not forced to look for sounds, I can use what works.
May give it a go though, intresting little project to try without blowing loads of money.

[Lofty]

Technically you can do it but unfortunately NE6 doesn't provide a good MIDI flexibility to manage an External Module (NE5 had some instead), so unless you are OK to just layer the Roland all over the NE6 keyboard you need more.... do you have an iPad or iPhone?

You could just use such a device with the right apps to handle both MIDI routing and also sound generation, to complement your NE6

That's interesting, can you point me to a thread?

[maxpiano]

Technically you can do it but unfortunately NE6 doesn't provide a good MIDI flexibility to manage an External Module (NE5 had some instead), so unless you are OK to just layer the Roland all over the NE6 keyboard you need more.... do you have an iPad or iPhone?

You could just use such a device with the right apps to handle both MIDI routing and also sound generation, to complement your NE6

That's interesting, can you point me to a thread?

Well there are so many, here 's one but just as an example viewtopic.php?p=133144#p133144), for sure there are many more

[ericL]

I have tried on more than one occasion to integrate Roland Boutiques into my live rig, which has been NS3 for the past ~6 years and NS2 for ~7 years prior to this. I was never satisfied and it was a painful experience, even using a sophisticated MIDI controller such as the NS2 or NS3. I tried with JP-08, D-05, and JX-08.

The biggest deal breaker for me was dealing with how to properly supply power to the Boutique...batteries vs. charger pack vs. some kind of power adaptor...very fiddly and required some extra gear to make it work. I also hated the mini output jack on the Boutiques, which also requires an adaptor cable if you want to run stereo. Having that flimsy output cable hanging out the back just didn't seem very sturdy or reliable. The form factor of the Boutiques is not the greatest - it won't fit in a rack and it's kind of clunky to velcro on a keyboard unless you have a lot of space for it.

Finally, setting up the thing to work with existing programs was work and wasn't very intuitive. I'm in a few pro bands and ultimately decided that using true pro rack mount gear is the way to go for getting more synth horsepower.

[Lofty]

Finally, setting up the thing to work with existing programs was work and wasn't very intuitive. I'm in a few pro bands and ultimately decided that using true pro rack mount gear is the way to go for getting more synth horsepower.

Thank you sir, I thought I was maybe too hopeful, it's great someone has tried it, thanks for sharing your experience

[Lofty]

Update guys, got myself a Roland Jupiter XM to go above my Electro 6 Hp, play both together or separately with a midi kill switch, does everything I need and more, unbelievable little synth, picked one up for £675.