Using Phrase Pads

[casio_style]

It turns out that the phrase pads on the CASIO CT X3000 / 5000 can play the recorded phrase with several voices. This is not written anywhere in the manual, but there is such an opportunity and it can be used on long phrases of 4 - 8 - 16 measures.
So: Record the Phrase - Pattern - Arpeggio to the selected Phrase Pad as usual, selecting one desired Voice. Then select the Voices you want to embed in the phrase and store them in Registration Memory. Next, we turn on the recording of the same phrase pad again, to start recording, press PLAY / STOP, but do not press the keys and do not write anything, we just listen to the recorded phrase and at the moment when you need to change the timbre on the recorded phrase, press the button registration memory with the desired tone stored. So, if necessary, you can embed several timbres, sequentially in one phrase. And so the recorded phrase pad will play the phrase with several voices.

[Mclandy]

So what you are saying is that a Phrase pad can incorporate registration change events as part of the recording and playback?  Interesting.  But then are these registration changes internal to (only affect the playback of) the Phrase, with no effect on the "live play" on the rest of the keyboard?

[Brad Saucier]

The sound engine can sound up to 48 different tones simultaneously. Each phrase pad has it's own dedicated part of the sound engine.  They do not interfere with the tones selected for any other parts.  

[Mclandy]

53 minutes ago, Brad Saucier said:

The sound engine can sound up to 48 different tones simultaneously. Each phrase pad has it's own dedicated part of the sound engine.  They do not interfere with the tones selected for any other parts.  

But isn't that more a statement of polyphony capability?  I think the question here is the implication in the manual that to create a Phrase, you first select a voice, and that is the voice used by all the notes in the Phrase.  The finding here suggests that while you can still only use one voice (with multiple notes) at a time, the voice selection can be changed partway through (by pressing a Registration button), and the Phrase editing remembers that.  What would be interesting to know is whether it actually remembers a full Registration change (but it affects only the Phrase??), or if it just sees and records the equivalent of a MIDI Bank Select/Program Change to another voice.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter.  I guess one way to test it would be to create a Phrase with a voice change as described above, then go change the Registration you originally used to create the Phrase, and see if that affects the Phrase or not.

[Brad Saucier]

9 minutes ago, Mclandy said:

But isn't that more a statement of polyphony capability? 

 

Polyphony is 64 notes on the CT-X3000/5000.  The sound engine is 48 part multi timbral.  

[Mclandy]

Update:  I tried it, and it does in fact change the voice used in the Phrase.  But if I then go change the Registration (the one I used to change the voice while editing the Phrase), it has no effect on the Phrase.  So the Phrase is just capturing the voice change event as part of its recording, without any real reference to the Registration that was used to cause the voice change.  One thing to watch, however, is if the Registration is set to a different tempo (or worse yet, time signature), it can throw you off.  In the end, the recorded Phrase will adapt to the tempo of whatever you're playing at the time, but a tempo/signature change during recording can mess you up.

[Brad Saucier]

To clarify, phrases are recording MIDI program change messages, not registration change messages.  The process of selecting a registration sends a program change message, which is being recorded.  Whenever the phrase plays back, recorded program change messages are sent to the phrase parts of the sound engine.  It is not necessary to use registration buttons to change tones while recording a phrase.  It is also possible to simply press the tone button and select tones normally, as described in the CTX manual. 

[Mclandy]

27 minutes ago, Brad Saucier said:

To clarify, phrases are recording MIDI program change messages, not registration change messages.  The process of selecting a registration during recording generates a program change message which is being recorded.  Whenever the phrase plays back, recorded program change messages are sent to the phrase parts of the sound engine.  It is not necessary to use registration buttons to change tones while recording a phrase.  It is also possible to simply press the tone button and select another tone normally.  

It turns out that it's actually better to use the Registration, because that makes it a quick, one-time event.  What you don't want to do, especially, is press the tone button and use the wheel to select another voice, because it appears to record a separate event for every single voice change you pass through while turning the wheel, as part of that phrase!  I guess you could directly enter the tone number, but that's hard to do very quickly.  Registrations are the easiest, with the caveat about tempo/time signature changes.

[casio_style]

Probably Google translator translated the meaning inaccurately.
I meant that one phrase pad can play one phrase with several voices in sequence, and I explained how to do this.