All of the Yamaha arranger keyboards come with "files" built right into the keyboard. Every one of the preset styles is, in fact, a style file. The Music Finder database is a file containing many Music Finder records. If you create and save your own registration bank, you have created a registration file. If you create and save a song, you have created a song file (often referred to as a "midi" file.)

The preset files are always available in the keyboard. But you can alter them using built-in functions of the keyboard and save the altered versions to user memory or to a USB drive or, for some keyboards, to an internal hard drive. Using the USB drive, or by connecting your keyboard directly to your personal computer (PC), you can also move these files to (or from) your PC.

One of the greatest advantages of these arranger keyboards is that, while they do have preset files immediately available, you are not restricted to the files that come with your keyboard. You can download, or purchase, a wide variety of files that you can then move to, and use, on your Yamaha. In addition, instead of using the, sometimes rather limited, functionality of the Yamaha to modify a file, you can move the file to your PC and modify the file there using more effective software designed specifically for the task. And this is where these PC-based utility programs come into play.

What Do These Programs Do?

There is an incredible variety of utility programs available for owners of Yamaha arranger keyboards. Below is a brief list of some of the capabilities available to you with these programs.

Section Organization

I have organized this section based on the source of the utility program. Recently, Yamaha has made available some conversion programs that are very useful for owners who purchase a newer keyboard and want to bring with them the files that they had developed on their previous keyboard. Historically, however, these utility programs have not come from Yamaha or any commercial source, but rather from individual talented keyboard owners who have created programs to solve problems they encountered and then made these programs freely available to other Yamaha keyboard owners. Each of these program authors have their own section where you will find a list of their programs and links that will take you to additional program information and download instructions.

This page updated on February 15, 2024.

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