Drum/Percussion sounds for Roland (FR-1XB)

[jijitrial]

Hi everyone!

Since switching the velocity sensitivity to Fixed (medium) a couple days ago, I've been using the percussion sounds more often.

But I can't help but wonder whether there are just 8 different LH drum sounds available on the FR-1XB (Marching band, V-Dance, Ethnic, etc)

If that's really the case, I gotta say that's surprisingly few in number compared to all the other sounds and options available on the instrument.

Especially when I think about the (3!) expansions free of charge on the official website. Off the top of my head, the Orchestral expansion; for example, got like 3 different Strings sound (Streicher 1, 2, 3 etc).

So it's such a pity we don't get more drum options. Honestly, I would gladly trade a couple of instruments within those expansions, or even an entire expansion (I'm not sure if I'll ever try out the Dallapé or Alpine ones anyway).

Anyway I'm just a beginner so if anyone got some cool ideas or advice or tricks about the drum sounds or Roland FR-1XB, I'd like to know.


I hope I'll get some replies and thank you all for reading this!

 

[jijitrial]

Sorry my post turned out longer than I had planned.
I wanted to ask if there are more than 8 drum sounds available or not.
Like #4 is Marching Band, #7 is V-Dance, and #8 is Ethnic. I don't know what the others are called, but there are 8 in total.

 

[JerryPH]

In the manual... switch it to Free Bass mode, drum activated, and pretty much you will have hundreds of percussive sounds.

 

[Tom]

In the manual... switch it to Free Bass mode, drum activated, and pretty much you will have hundreds of percussive sounds.

Can you trigger drum sounds with pedals? Like a kick drum and hi hat?

 

[JerryPH]

There may be a way to send midi signals from a pedal... but why would you want to do that? Use the bass for the kick and chord for the hi hat.

 

[jijitrial]

Thank you for replying, JerryPH.
I really like your Free Bass idea!
A couple weeks ago, one of the members here sent me a bunch of (out of print) free bass books so I'm learning that too.

 

[Valski]

There may be a way to send midi signals from a pedal... but why would you want to do that? Use the bass for the kick and chord for the hi hat.

Some of the Richard Noel sets are configured this way. I really like them because they add so much to songs that need percussion sounds. Just one warning, don't overdo that feature.