Recent Posts

1

PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: Re-Arranging Register Banks

« Last post by overover on Today at 06:43:29 PM »

Hi Bernie,

You can move and/or rename Registration Bank files (.rgt) without any problems. Please note, however, that external files used in the registrations (e.g. User Styles, User Multi Pad files, MIDI files or TXT files) may NOT be subsequently moved or renamed (because otherwise the registrations would no longer find these linked files) .

For example, you could copy your previous registrations from the SX900 User drive to a USB stick: In the Registration Bank Selection display touch "File > Copy > Select All > Copy", select the destination path (the connected USB stick) and touch "Copy here".

After you have connected the USB stick to the computer, you can create new category folders on the stick as desired and sort the .rgt files there as desired. Additionally, you could create a folder "A - Z" into which you copy ALL .rgt files so that you can later access them regardless of the category. In this context, note that a maximum of 2500 files per folder are supported. (However, a maximum of 200 files per folder is recommended.)

You don't necessarily have to copy the newly created folders back to the user drive, but you could also use the registrations directly from the USB stick. The only important thing is that external files used by the registrations are still in their original location in the user drive. (Otherwise the registrations would have to be changed.)


P.S.
If you want to access the SX900 user drive directly from your computer, you would have to use the PC (Windows) program "Yamaha MusicSoft Downloader" as the SX900 does not have a USB storage mode function. However, accessing with the MusicSoft Downloader takes some getting used to and is relatively slow because it runs via the USB-MIDI protocol.


Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Chris

2

DGX Portable Grand Pianos (DGX 620,630,640,650,660,670) / Re: Do freeplay styles work in the DGX-670?

« Last post by pjd on Today at 06:40:35 PM »

Hi Rich --

I've created/modified Free Play styles and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't play correctly on DGX-670.

Technically, there aren't any special features or format within a Free Play style. Details are available here:

https://sandsoftwaresound.net/freeplay-style-deconstructed/

Probably the main characteristics: long MAIN sections that hold notes and MIDI CC expression to change timbre dynamically. No rhythm.

Hope this info helps -- pj

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DGX Portable Grand Pianos (DGX 620,630,640,650,660,670) / Re: Do freeplay styles work in the DGX-670?

« Last post by p$manK32 on Today at 06:22:06 PM »

Graham,

I have another question at the bottom of my long post here. Good to know that freeplays and other styles work. That’s big. I read some of your past comments about the button pushing and see that you got used to it. The interface on the 670 looks well thought out and I find I’m doing a lot of button pushing and touch screen navigating on the SX anyway.

I plan to keep my SX900 and add a digital piano because the SX pianos just don’t cut it for me. I find myself using piano quite often on the SX and thought the DGX would be a great hybrid of digital piano and arranger features. My initial idea was to replace the SX900 with a Genos2, however G2 is just so expensive and the 670 would offer a better piano experience in my opinion. Eventually I might sell the SX if the DGX better suits me, but we will see. I would have to evaluate if I still need the more powerful style & registration flexibility the SX900 has.

I have an old DGX-640 in the house and notice I do like the weighted keys, even for lead instruments like sax I think it’s fine. I find myself using non-piano leads like sax, brass, organ, synth much less than piano. 88 weighted keys just has so much more presence and expressiveness than 61 synth style keys. The 640’s action was always extremely noisy, so hoping Yamaha has improved this on the 670.

I read on this forum the 670 has only 20MB of user memory. I calculated that if most styles average 70 KB per style then I would be able to fit as many as 285 styles in the user area. Probably less than that because I am not figuring in registrations. I prefer to use internal user memory instead of USB sticks when playing. If I could fit even just 50 styles in User I would be happy. Do you find the internal memory sufficient for your needs, or are you relying on USB sticks to access external styles and registrations when playing?

Rich
 

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by mikf on Today at 05:14:55 PM »

Maybe a stupid question, how to play in C?
Is one specific chord the C major chord?

Scannie, it's not a stupid question, but it is a question with no useful answer. It's like asking how do you do brain surgery - well you train to be a brain surgeon.
Thats why you need to get into lessons, and understand the basics. No one here is going to teach you how to play, not matter how well intentioned they appear to be. They can answer very specific questions about arrangers, like how do I save a voice or a registration, but not how to play. You have to either learn by yourself - not a great idea - or get lessons.
Some people here will tell you they managed in their golden years to learn to play an arranger without taking lessons, but hardly any of them started on the arranger from point zero. They either had taken lessons in the dim distant past, when young, but stopped, - or played another instrument, at least a little, - or had friends helping.

Mike

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PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re-Arranging Register Banks

« Last post by Bernie9 on Today at 04:23:40 PM »

Over the years I have been sloppy about my files in "User" in particular. I was thinking of making general category files like Midi and Christmas etc, and putting them in these master folders to start.  I am with the understanding that I can move these files as they are self contained.  This is a slow process, moving these files around in the keyboard.  Would it be better to use a computer program ?

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PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: How can I quickly switch on/off the "vocal harmony" function

« Last post by overover on Today at 04:19:20 PM »

Selecting a playlist entry just activates a registration. There's nothing stopping you then calling up *another* registration on top of it to control other things, apart from the inconvenience of having to find it again from the list once you've selected the playlist entry.

Hi Derek,

That's exactly the problem: You can't have two registration banks active at the same time, you can only access them one after the other. If you use a registration bank with multiple registrations to play with a style (as Yamaha provides), it is very inconvenient to switch to another bank during the song to control, for example, vocal harmony on/off.

It would be ideal, as we suggested to Yamaha many years ago, if there were two independent instances of reg banks that could be active at the same time (one bank for normal playing and a global bank, e.g. for basic settings such as pedal settings or reverb/VH settings). Unfortunately, this request has not yet been taken up by Yamaha ...


Best regards,
Chris

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PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: How can I quickly switch on/off the "vocal harmony" function

« Last post by DerekA on Today at 04:01:51 PM »

Selecting a playlist entry just activates a registration. There's nothing stopping you then calling up *another* registration on top of it to control other things, apart from the inconvenience of having to find it again from the list once you've selected the playlist entry.

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PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: How can I quickly switch on/off the "vocal harmony" function

« Last post by overover on Today at 02:41:53 PM »

... I never use a registration to control how the style is setup to sound. I always setup each STYLE so I can perform it using just the style and not a button on the registration. 

I use a registration to control the reverb mic settings and vocal harmony backup singers only. ...

Hi Keith and Derek,

Drake obviously only uses Registrations (normally just one) to switch the Mic Reverb and Vocal Harmony settings. This means that this registration is always active. He saves all other “voice-relevant” settings directly into his styles (which he calls up either directly or via the Music Finder).

This system is not possible if you work “normally” with registrations, i.e. use a registration bank for each song title or use the Playlist feature. Theoretically, you could assign (only) Mic/VH ON/OFF settings to a few registration buttons for each individual bank, but if you make later changes you would have to edit all reg banks (which of course is not particularly useful and is quite time-consuming).


Best regards,
Chris

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by mikf on Today at 02:34:18 PM »

In fact I don’t think many on this forum are truly ‘ear ‘ players. They may not read music, but are really memorizing the song. They pick out the melody, learn the chords and repeat it until it sticks. Nothing wrong with that if it works.
But as I said in a previous post, that is not truly playing by ear. True ear players hear everything in their head, the melody, the correct harmony, the arrangement, and maybe even for very advanced players, alternative harmony - all while playing in real time. It is partly a gift, but can also be learned. But to do it well requires significant musical knowledge and experience, especially if playing songs with complex chord patterns.
In fact, even great ear players will use a combination of memory and ear playing. Some songs have very tricky harmony or melody in small parts, so they will often just memorize those few bars, but the rest they don’t need to memorize.
But we are now an awful long way from dealing with Scannie’s near term needs. Scannie, you are way back at the beginning  here, and just need to work through some basics. Then even your questions will be more informed. Learning to make music late in life is no easy task.
Mike

10

Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by BogdanH on Today at 01:44:30 PM »

hello scannie,

Maybe a stupid question, how to play in C?
Is one specific chord the C major chord?

Maybe this video will help you understanding chords.
No, I don't think it's a stupid question.. otherwise I wouldn't make that video 

Bogdan