Alan Townsend, Roland's answer to Anna Raeburn, looks at those little problems that arise even out of the most sophisticated and well-balanced electronic relationship. If you wish to contribute a problem, or even a solution or an idea, write to Alan at Input, Roland (UK) Ltd., (Contact Details).

The Rack for Porta studios

Dear Alan,

I am in the process of putting together a home recording studio. However, due to the expense of items I am forced to buy a section at a time, and have opted for 4-track cassette type recording.

I like the Boss micro-rack range of effects as they are reasonably priced and after reading various reviews, I am confident that they are quality products.

What I would like to know is if they are compatible with a Tascam Portastudio 1 and can I play live with the effects using some sort of footswitch to bring the units in and out separately.

Could you please send me some information regarding this.

Yours faithfully,
M. Harmer.E. Yorks.

Dear Mr Harmer,
The Boss micro-rack effect system would seem perfect for your needs because, as you say, they are reasonably priced, good quality and take up very little space.

They are completely compatible with your tape machine and each individual unit can be silently switched in and out by using Roland FS1, 2 or 3 footswitches.

We enclose a Boss Micro Effect catalogue.
AT.

Discharged Jupiter?

Dear Sir,

Having purchased a Jupiter 8 polysynth in 1982 I find that soon, according to the owners manual, I must replace the internal battery.

Firstly, can I do it myself and if so how? If not, where can I take it to be done? I would be very grateful if you could advise me on this matter.

I must add that I have had great satisfaction in using my JP8 and hope to be using it for a considerable time to come.

Yours sincerely,
L.N. Jones, Gloucs.

Dear Mr Jones,
I can understand your concern as the manual states the back-up battery life as being approximately five years. It would seem to be very conservative, however, as our service department have never had to replace a low battery.

If, for your peace of mind you would prefer that a new battery was fitted to prevent the possible loss of patches, most Roland main dealers are qualified to fit the replacement.
AT.

Changing Masters

Dear Sir,

I am the quite delighted owner of a new Roland TR707 Rhythm Composer but have a major problem with my home studio tapes which I hope you may advise me on.

My master recordings all have analogue drum backing tracks which I wish to erase and replace with the real drum sounds of my Roland TR707. The question is, how do I ensure complete synchronisation with the remaining keyboard and guitar parts (after the erasure of the analogue drums) which will be on the master tapes? Is it possible to sync in the TR707 to musical parts laid down on tape, for instance after using a click track?

As you are probably aware, many musicians like to add the final drum parts after laying down guitar tracks etc. I'd be very interested in your comments on these questions and thank you for an excellent product.

Yours faithfully,
W.J. Evans

Dear Mr Evans,

The best way to synchronise a rhythm unit to tracks already recorded is to use the Roland SBX80 sync box. This involves recording SMPTE time code from the SBX80 onto a spare track. The tempo is then programmed into the SBX80 by sending the recorded SMPTE back to it and tapping on a button in time to the pre-recorded music which you can hear on the monitors.

When the SBX80 is subsequently controlled by the time code it will synchronise the TR707 to the tape, either by the Sync 24 system or through MIDI real time messages. An advantage of using MIDI is that, as the TR707 can read position pointers, it enables you to start at any point on the tape as opposed to stepping from the beginning each time.
AT.

TR-707 Ram

Dear Roland,

I have a TR707 and would appreciate some information about the Ram facility.

Can you tell me if the pattern information is also held in the two cartridge banks or if this is only track sequences?

Thanks in advance.
Rob Cumberland, Essex

Dear Rob,
The information for both patterns and tracks is held in the M64C cartridge for the TR707.

As the cartridge holds twice as much memory as the rhythm unit this will expand the memory capacity from four tracks to twelve.
AT.