New XR user - am I on the right track for live performance?

Ironically, I use my RD300SX to control my Fantom XR.

Yes, the control pedal on the RD300SX can be used to increment through its "Setups" (ie, Performances). But note that there are only 32 performances. Is that enough for what you're doing? If so, then here's what you do:

Go into the RD300's system menu, and turn "Setup Pedal Shift" to On. This means that every time you press the pedal, it advances to the next Performance on the RD300. When you do that, the RD300 will spit out the 2 Bank Select Controllers, and 1 Program Change messages. Depending upon what those values are, it will select a particular Performance on the XR. So, you've got to go through each RD300 setup, and set its 2 Bank Select, and 1 Program Change, values so that it selects the desired XR performance. Do them in order as you press the control pedal. NOTE: In order to change XR performances, your RD300 must be set to the same MIDI channel as the XR's "Control Channel'. This defaults to channel 16 (but you can change it on the XR's system menu). So you must set each RD300 setup's zone to MIDI channel 16. (It's probably easier just to go into the XR system menu and change it to channel 1. I think all of the RD300 setups default to 1 zone on channel 1).

The RD300 pedal will only move forward -- not backward. But note that the RD300's INC and DEC buttons also step through the setups, so you can use those too.

Thanks jg,

You bring up a good point with the limit of 32 performances. If I purchased a memory card, could I store more than 32 on it? If not, is there some other technique I can use to get a larger series of setups?

The info about using the foot switch will be very useful. That was something I really wasn't figuring out from the manual.

The 32 performances limit is on the RD300SX. There is no memory card expansion on this instrument. Remember that the footwitches are incrementing between setups _on the RD300_. The fact that the RD300 spits out Bank Select and Program Change messages means that you can also switch performances/patches on external gear. But the pedal is still hardwired to the RD300's 32 setup limitation.

About the only thing you can do is configure each RD300 setup so that "Bank Select MSB" and "Bank Select LSB" are both "OFF". In this way, when you increment setups on the RD300, only a program change will be sent. Then, set the 32 setups to transmit Program Change messages 1 to 32 respectively.

Now, you'll need to buy a card for the XR. You can store 64 additional performances on this card, and the XR will play them directly off of the card. (ie, You don't need to load them into internal memory).

When you have the XR set to play the performances in internal memory, then the RD300 will increment among the first 32 (of the 64) internal performances. Then, just press the "Group" button until it shows the first performance on the "user card". Now, the RD300 pedal will increment among the first 32 (of 64) performances on the card. Note that you can also switch the XR into patch mode (via the "Mode" button) and use the Group button to select the User patches. Now, the RD300 pedal will switch between the first 32 (of 256) user patches.

So you have to do a little button fiddling on the XR, but ultimately you can switch among 64 performances (with an additional card), plus 32 patches. But that's about it with the RD300 as your controller (switching patches).

Beyond that, you may have to look for a self-contained pedal product that allows you to program it to switch between more than 32 performances. Or, some other product that does that.

Thanks once again. I guess I'll resort to my good old 10-pedal footboard. I was hoping to downsize, but I guess you have to go with what works.

Perhaps you could use my Fantom X Live Commander software. It requires a notebook or netbook but you wouldn't need your pedal board:

http://forums.rolandclan.com/index.php?action=show_thre...

http://www.livecommander.com

I made this for use with my X7 but I see no reason why it wouldn't work just as well with the XR. I just used it for the first time at a gig last Saturday, I'll be writing about that when I have a bit more time.