is this possible?

[maryslittlesecret]

I'm a keyboard/MIDI novice, so I don't even know if I can do this, but here's my question....

I have an old Roland U20 as a my keyboard/controller right now. The only reason I'm holding on to it (and not upgrading to something from a more recent decade) is because there's one voice on there that is absolutely integral to one of my bands original tunes. Have a couple of sound modules (Roland JV-1010 and Alesis QSR) but I haven't found anything close enough to that sound to make me happy...

Is there any way to transfer that sound to a different keyboard/module? Or at least to my computer so I can keep it for recording, etc. (I'm running Cakewalk and have some other related software)? If anyone can tell me if and how I can do this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

J
http://www.mp3.com/30sos/

P.S. Suggestions on new keyboards in the $500-$800 price range are welcome as well (please keep in mind that our style of music is electronic metal/industrial).

 

[rjt]

The only thing I can think of is to sample it. There are some software samplers, but I don't know if they actually sample or just playback samples. Also, sampling can be a ton of work. Must be a kick-a$% sound to keep a module for. Good luck!

 

[AlChuck]

Yeah, sampling it is about all you can do. Do you have a SB Live, by chance? You can make your own Sound Font out of your U20 sound. Though you might head over to http://www.hammersound.com/ and look first -- perhaps someone has already done the hard work and posted it on the 'net.

If you don't have a Live card, there's some software synths that can open Sound Fonts... or other formats, too, you might even find one that already exists that has your sound in it. Of course, running a softwynth on the same computer uses some resources and might compromise the number of tracks or plug-ins you can use in Cakewalk while you are using it.

Finally, you can buy a nice hardware sampler or sampling synth and go that way.

The thing with all this is, if the sound you like does all kinds of groovy things in response to aftertouch and stuff, this makes it much harder to sample in a satisfactory way. If that's the case -- why not just keep the sucker?

Good luck...