Knobular Æxplorations, with the Roland SH-4D

First round of experiments in sound design and performance with the Roland SH-4D synthesizer (drums from the TR-8S accompanying beautifully). The four synth voices and one rhythm track of the SH-4D are all controlled via MIDI sequencing on the Akai MPC (additional bass and keys tracks as well). My focus was playing around the layers of an eight-bar loop and getting used to performing with the synth module’s interface eccentricities. The primary one being when I switch control of different voices, I have no idea what the current configurable levels are set at until I turn the respective knobs. This led, for example, to the whooshes of filter sweep a couple times with a new voice. I’m not sure there’s a way around it with the interface design as it stands, and also quite doubtful my memory is good enough to remember the previous setting and spin the knob quickly to that setting enough to not get noticed. The other skill to up is in orchestrating across the three instruments more simultaneously. I currently take a long time to context-switch when moving between controlling any two instruments. On loop-end changes this is simply not acceptable. Trigger control on the MPC helps me prep mutes which gives me two hands on the mutes of the drum tracks of the TR-8S. Patterns in this respect would help as well, since they can also be pre-swapped for cutover at the end of a one-bar loop. I want to next try out the SH-4D on basslines, to see how its low-end functions. I also want to better understand the possible microbeat use cases for the SH-4D rhythm part, as this basically gives me more than double the drum tracks sequencing capability. Also, how do I ADSR and MFX better?