I'd like to show you how to create a simple sound using the Roland GAIA
I'm going to aim for something like a
trumpet - something that we can all identify with.
I'm going to start with a very basic sound.
To create that on the GAIA you just press these two buttons and you have this sound (plays)
But this doesn't sound like a trumpet, so you start to ask yourself 'why not?'
I would like to point out that in
my mind there are three basic units of sound
There is Pitch, Tone and Volume
When you look at the GAIA, it's broken
up into three basic sections;
The first one is the Pitch section
you can prove it by turning this first dial (plays)
Clearly that's the pitch section
The first dial in this section adjusts the Tone
The first dial in this section adjusts the Volume
So its very obvious - Pitch, Tone & Volume
So now we can use that. For example,
I wanted to play this as a trumpet. What's wrong with this trumpet?
Well, to my ears it is the wrong octave, it should be an octave higher
So, where would you go? Straight to the Pitch section
...much better.
Now what's wrong with the trumpet?
To me it sounds like I'm hitting the
trumpet, rather than blowing the trumpet
and that's to do with the shape of the sound, the shape of the volume
I go to the Volume section and I adjust the beginning of the sound
like that, and that's way too slow to sound like a trumpet
So I'll get something like a puff
There - I'm reasonably happy with that
Now whats wrong with this trumpet? Well the volume is sort-of right,
but the tone is not changing - it should
be evolving, just like the volume is
so I'm would try to copy this shape from
the volume
and put it into the Tone section
I'll take the tone down and shape the tone
not bad
I'm reasonably happy with that, but now
what's wrong with our trumpet
well basically, it's too static
after you play the note a trumpet
player would normally
play the note and then introduce some vibrato
I did say they were three sections to the GAIA
but there actually is a forth one and it is dedicated to things like vibrato.
so I would go to the vibrato control (plays) and there is clearly something wrong with that
and what is it? Well there's actually two things. First of all it is way too wide, and
secondly, it starts the moment I play the note.
A trumpet player would normally blow the
note, and then introduce the vibrato.
Now we have another control here that's called 'fade time', so we can fade it in.
... like this (plays)
and it comes in (plays) that's a bit slow.
Now add a bit of reverb
It's very very simple
and you know exactly where to go to
create that sound.
This is the Roland GAIA
