Genos (12 Boards) > Genos Recording & Song Player
Editing the Chord Track
Wim NL:
Jerry,
There is some sys/ex data there but not from the chord step record.
Its only display chords.
The chord step edit record now only works with the preset styles
Not with modified user styles.
pjd:
Hi Jerry --
Hope I can explain this one without confusing lots of folks.
Step Recording Chords is good for roughing out an arrangement from a lead sheet. Enter the style, chords and section changes, push the EXPAND button, and voila, you have a full MIDI song where the accompaniment has been fully expanded for you.
Usually I save the "chord track" in a MIDI file before pushing EXPAND. Then I can load the SMF back into the arranger and edit the "chord track."
That's all good news. The not so good news is that Yamaha has (at least) two different ways of dealing with chords and neither the twain shall meet.
The Chord Step Record representation (and feature) is separate from the chord annotation feature which is used to actually display chords as you play. The reasons for this separation are probably historical (going back to at least the QY-70). However, the actual representations of the chord information are quite different.
The Chord Step Record data is saved in a Yamaha proprietary data chunk in the Standard MIDI file. The chord annotations are stored in the MIDI part of the SMF as Yamaha XF Meta Events. A third representation (!) is Chord Control SysEx.
In the mysterious ways of Yamaha, they don't map or translate between representations for us.
Sorry, if all of this is TMI -- pj
Music technology blog: http://sandsoftwaresound.net/
jerrythek:
Hi PJ:
Thanks - I completely understand what you're explaining. I kind of surmised as much. Let me be open and candid here. I'm reviewing the Genos for a magazine. I've worked for keyboard companies for over 30 years (Casio, then Ensoniq, and then Korg). I know this stuff very well from a design standpoint, from limitations, and most importantly from long-standing designs that can sometimes make it hard to modify to do what seems "easy" on the surface. And sometimes something was just never thought of, because a feature was designed for one purpose, and the designers never consider a different workflow.
This issue falls into a few of these groups I think. And one of the harder ones is that they are using SYsEx to capture/store some of the information, and no one wants to have to edit MIDI Sys. Ex. to get something seemingly simple done.
During my time at Korg I worked with our engineers to try to "humanize" working with Sys. Ex., and I'm very proud of the way we did it in the M3 Music Workstation upgrade. Let's be real - the Sys. Ex. is representing a parameter that we see on the screen, and it's written in clear English. So if the user wants/needs to edit it, why doesn't the system simply present that name again, with the correct range of values possible? It can be done, we did it for the M3. (See the attached screen shot - events 3-6 are actually MIDI Sys.Ex. - isn't it easier to work with the screen on the left versus the binary data on the right?) But it's a LOT of code to write and debug for the interface, so there needs to be a clear demand/need from the user base to prioritize that type of work over other features.
I'm not trying to spam the forum, or promote a Korg product here, just using it as an example.
Back to Genos: I actually use Step Entry of chord not to copy from a score/leadsheet, but to be able to experiment with different chord choices and even the amount of harmony used per measure when coming up with song ideas. So being able to go back and change a chord, add a few chords, whatever, is a wonderful way to experiment. Genos allows this to be done, but I think it can be improved to also allow it to happen from real-time recording. And if they were to deal with this issue (and if I'm right that being Sys. Ex. is a major part of the difficulty) then you'd also be able to insert Style changes into the Chord Track as well. Wouldn't that be nice?
Thanks for your informed input, I appreciate it!
Jerry
pjd:
Hi Jerry --
First, I've gotta say that I'm looking forward to your review! I enjoy reading your comments and analysis. Thanks for taking the time from your writing to send such a thorough reply.
Needless to say, your suggestions are right on and I like the approach which you described for working with SysEx (and other difficult low-level data) in a "humanized" way. Hopefully, Yamaha will adopt this approach (and other techniques) now that they are free of the old UI and its legacy code. You're right -- it will take more work and effort on their part to craft all of the dialogues.
I'm not much of a songwriter myself, but I see the need to try different chord progressions. Again, your observation is spot on. Since Yamaha are pitching the Genos to songwriters and composers (in addition to its traditional customer base), your observation might encourage them to improve the chord track.
Yamaha received a patent (U.S. 9,142,203) on a method that translates a textual chord chart to an accompaniment. A chord chart might look like:
Title: AAAAA
Composer: BBBBB
Key: CMajor
Style name: Pop1
Musical time: 4/4
Tempo: 120
[A]
| C | C F | F G7 | C_G7 C |
| C | C F | F C | F G7 C_ |
| C | C | F C | C G7 |
| C | C | F C | G7 C |
Not that different from chord charts found on the Web.
I mention this because it would be so much easier to enter a lead sheet or experiment with chord progressions if the incoming representation was more compact and musical than the chord track editor in Song Creator.
Perhaps Yamaha envisions the chord chart translator as a tablet-based tool that sends the accompaniment to an arranger workstation? I guess we won't find out until Yamaha finally releases a tool based on the patent. Yamaha's Chord Tracker app can send an accompaniment to an arranger workstation, so the transfer part is definitely do-able.
The discussion got me reminiscing about the QY-70. The QY's chord and pattern track inspired me to check out Yamaha's arranger workstations and that got me into this whole thing!
Thanks, again -- pj
Wim NL:
Why can I only select preset styles in song creator chord step edit?
I can't select modified styles in Genos.
In Tyros I could.
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