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to get started making a song, first create a new project. press project to open the project view.
once in the project view, press and hold M1 to create a new project.
by default, instrument tracks 1 and 2 will have drums, 3 will have a bass, 4 a pluck, 5 a lead, 6 a soft pluck, 7 some strings and 8 a pad.
lets start by sequencing some drums. press instrument to make sure you are in instrument mode, then select track 1.
the musical keyboard will now have 24 different drum sounds. one on each key.
press the lowest ‘f’ key to select and start sequencing the kick drum. OP–XY will always remember the last pressed key.
press the first, fifth, ninth and thirteenth sequencer buttons to record a four on the floor sequence with the kick drum.
now press play to hear what you have just sequenced. press stop when you have heard enough.
press the ‘g’ key adjacent to the kick drum to select a snare.
we are going to place it on the fifth and thirteenth step, but as you have a kick drum already recorded to those steps hold the snare drum key down and press the record button. this will show you only the steps with the snare drum recorded, which are none so you should see an empty sequence.
while continuing to hold down the snare drum press on the fifth and thirteenth steps. this will form a backbeat. let go when you are done.
now press play to hear the kick and snare pattern.
now lets add a hi-hat. press the ‘c#’ key to hear and select a hi-hat.
once again, as we have our kick and snare recorded but only want to view the hi-hat pattern, hold down the hi-hat key and then press record to view only it’s sequence.
while continuing to hold down the hi-hat press every other step. let go when you are done.
now press play to hear the kick, snare and hi-hat pattern.
now that we have a simple drum beat, let’s spice it up with some step components.
press and hold the shift then press the seventh step (which should now be lit up, as the hi-hat has been recorded to it).
it will start to blink, letting you know that it has been selected.
continue to hold shift and then press the lowest ‘a’ key. this is the natural key that represents the multiply step component. you should see a text box on the screen with the name multiply. multiply will take a step and divide it into multiple shorter steps, creating a ratchet effect.
continue to hold shift then press the accidental key labelled ‘3’ (a#). this will change the text on screen to say “divide into 3 trigs” meaning that the one hi-hat step will be split into three shorter ones.
now you can finally let go of shift and press play to hear your finished drum beat.
now lets add a bassline. press instrument to make sure you are in instrument mode, then select track 3.
the musical keyboard will now play the 24 different notes.
try playing some notes on the keyboard. you can use the ( - ) and ( + ) buttons to change octaves.
press play to hear your beat and practice playing a bassline over it.
once you have something you are happy with you can try recording it in. press record and play to arm the track for recording.
the first sequencer button will start to flash red, letting you know the sequencer is armed to record.
play the first note of your bassline to instantly start recording it and the following notes. or alternatively, press play to start recording without playing a note.
once you are done recording press stop.
you may notice that your bassline is longer than the pattern it has been recorded to, causing you to play over yourself.
to extend your pattern hold bar and press ( + ) to add another bar. you can add up to three extra bars, totalling four bars in total.
if you want an even longer pattern, you can hold bar and use the accidentals to increase the track scale, this will multiply the length of each step giving you a longer pattern.
to delete the current recorded sequence on a track and start over just hold record and stop until the sequencer row fills up red. you should then see an empty sequence.
you can then go ahead and record your new, longer sequence.
as a bonus, lets record some automation on the bassline.
play your sequence.
while playing, hold record and turn one of the encoders. this will record that movement.
you may notice that this movement is stepped. to smooth it out hold bar and rotate the white encoder.
time to add some chords. press instrument to make sure you are in instrument mode, then select track 7.
the musical keyboard will play the 24 different notes.
press play to hear your beat and practice playing some chords over it.
take note of where you want the chords to play and how long your sequence might need to be, counting the first beats in your head.
now we are going to increase the track scale so that each step represents four steps and every four steps is one bar. to do so, hold bar and press the accidental key labelled ‘4’ (the c# key).
now press play and take note of how each step blinks four times rather than once. you can practice your chords, once again making note of what steps they play on.
now, lets sequence the chords to those steps. play the chord on the musical keyboard and hold the notes down.
if you want to have the chord hold across multiple steps, just hold the step with that chord down and then press whatever step you want it to be held until.
continue holding chords and sequencing them in, extending them as needed.
if you need a longer sequence you can add another bar by holding bar and pressing ( + ).
now let’s perform the song with some punch-in FX™. press auxiliary to go to auxiliary mode then press track 2 to open the punch-in FX™ track.
press play to start your song.
then press and hold notes on the musical keyboard. each note will have a different punch in effect. they can be combined for greater effect.
you can, as with any other track, sequence the punch-in FX™ with all the same techniques used already.
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