Hey there. First off, I know nothing about keyboards. I used to play the piano and now am thinking of buying an electronic keyboard. I have my eye on a second hand Roland keyboard EXR7. This keyboard has a '16-track recorder with “minus-one” function for education purposes.'. Could someone please help explain what this means in jargon free language? I'd really like to be able to record tracks. And be able to play over recorded tracks. Is it possible on this keyboard? Are there any keyboards that people can recommend? My budget is around £150 Again, jargon free language is appreciated! Many thanks for any opinions!
It sounds like they're referring to the onboard sequencer being capable of recording sixteen tracks in MIDI file format 1, but I may be wrong. If it's a MIDI sequencer then you can't record audio into the machine. One keyboard that can definitely do what your after is the Alesis Fusion HD, but second they still rock up at around £300. Definitely a better piece of kit though as it has a fully functioning 16 track recording system built in. I think it's 16, it might be 8 but I can't remember now. It can also load up 3rd party samples which is very handy.
If you can play a midi-song from or record on a keyboard (that recording is in midi-format as well) and play it back, minus 1 means that you can mute 1 (or more) channnels. Usually you mute the melody channel. You can use the rest as a backing track and play the melody yourself. That's what MINUS 1 means (minus 1 channel or as said more than 1). See it as a sort of KARAOKE machine where you can switch off the vocals. You can, for example, just use only the drum part and the bass or more instruments if available in that midi-song. Drums are always on channel 9 or 10, depending on the keyboard-system. BTW it is seldom or never that ALL 16 channels are used for instruments in a midi-song. That has to do with 'polyphony' meaning how many instruments can sound together. Polyphony number of 48 (or higher) is the minimum to have a good backing-band playing. If less you have a change that the sound 'clips' some notes DickR
