Rotary in split mode

[Mark A]

Hi, I'm three days into WK 7600 ownership and having great fun so far.  A fairly specific question around Hammond emulation (very impressed so far).  

What I'm trying to do is split 2 Hammond sounds so I can emulate a 2 manual keyboard, so when playing bass the percussion harmonics still work.  So far so good, but the rotary button doesn't work in this mode - not so good.  Sorry if this is covered else where, but is this a "feature" of the keyboard, or is there way round this.

By the way this is a great forum, that's already saved me much time

 

thanks 

[- T -]

Mark

 

When running the CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX models in SPLIT mode, the rotary effect is transferred to the left hand (Lower) split part.  This is part of the basic keyboard design, and can not be changed.  An alternative would be an external rotary effects pedal like a Ventilator-2, but those designed specifically for keyboard use get kind of pricey ($200-$400).  Guitar rotary effects pedals are much more reasonable, and should sound at least as good as that built into the keyboard.  Digitech offers the Ventura Vibe for $150, but there are some available for about $90.  Obviously, this could not be used with Auto-accompaniment or onboard drum sounds.

 

[Mark A]

Thanks for the advice, I'll probably put up with managing without the split and compromising the percussion effect. One thing puzzles me though, the rotary switch just doesn't work in split mode, so I'm confused how it works on lower part.

[- T -]

Mark

 

You have to assign a tone to the LOWER zone that has ROTARY as its DSP type.  Power your keyboard on and press the Drawbar Organ (L) button.  That assigns the Drawbar Organ Tone (L:001) across the entire keyboard.  Turn ROTARY on fast (furthest left button - blue light on). Veryify that you have fast rotary across the entire keyboard.  Now SPLIT the keyboard.  A bass tone will be assigned to the LOWER zone by default.  Assign the same tone (L:001) to the LOWER zone as for the UPPER zone and raise it two octaves, so that it doesn't growl at you.  Most of the time when you turn SPLIT on and off, it knocks ROTARY back to slow.  If it did here, turn it back on fast.  Now, play the UPPER zone and note that you no longer have rotary.  Now play the LOWER zone and note that ROTARY is in that zone.  If you want a lower tone that does not use rotary by default, you will have to edit it to add ROTARY DSP to it and save it as a USER TONE.  Now turn SPLIT off, turn ROTARY back on fast, and verify that it is across the entire keyboard.

 

There is a rationale to all of this.  These are moderately priced keyboards, so they do not have extravagant DSP capabilities.  DSP is assigned on a tone-by-tone basis, and you can only have one DSP incidence active at a time.  When SPLIT is on, the UPPER and LOWER tones are two separate tones, even though they may be using the same "sound", they are still two separate tones.  To apply ROTARY to both would be two active incidences of DSP, which we can not have.  So ROTARY defaults to the LOWER zone, the idea being that loss of ROTARY on single or dual notes in the UPPER registry would not be as noticeable as long as it was being supplied by the left hand chord drone as played by the "average" player. Yes, it would have been nice if the user could assign the ROTARY to either UPPER or LOWER, but that would add another display menu page and up the manufacturing costs.  The only exception to the above limitation is REVERB.  REVERB is a stand-alone effect.  You can have REVERB along with any other effect, but CHORUS is a regular DSP type, so you can not have CHORUS along with any other effect, except REVERB, of course.

 

Enjoy !

 

Ted

 

 

[Mark A]

Thanks - really useful information.  It's a great keyboard for the price!

[H-D]

Can Casio provide a software update with a menu to switch the default lower rotary setting to the upper split?

[- T -]

NO !  Firmware in the CTK/WK models is not software (user) updateable.  Their firmware is permanently burned into a Read Only Memory (ROM) chip at the factory.  Firmware updates would require returning the keyboard to a service center to have the firmware ROM chip replaced with an updated chip.