Monthly Archives: February 2019

Sampleson Reed200 and Markus88

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I like to give shout outs to companies and people who are doing unique work.

Sampleson® have developed and are selling two spectral modeled electric piano VST instruments:

They are modestly priced and I recommend giving them a listen.

Spectral modeling came into light through the Yamaha CP1/CP40 and the Yamaha Reface CP. Spectral modeling admits a nice continuous controlability without audible velocity switch points. A lot of folks would love to see Yamaha Spectral Component Modeling (SCM) electric pianos in their synth and arranger products. SCM includes spectral modeling, of course, as well as Virtual Component Modeling (VCM) effects.

Spectral modeling breaks a sound down to its harmonic components. The “sample size” is insanely small by modern standards. The Reed200 is just 30MBytes and the Markus88 is 25MBytes. I like the modeling approach because I really don’t want to deal with gobs and gobs (gigs and gigs!) of sample data. I’m currently using AAS Lounge Lizard EP-4 for that reason alone.

If you’re interested in spectral modeling, please read this short summary.

Additionally, Sampleson have a number of inexpensive recreations: Electrix EP (Hohner Electra T), Melox PRO (Melodica), etc. $20 USD a shot! The Melodica demo is totally Stevie…

Sampleson offer a free Dyno MOD effect (“Dyno my Rhodes piano”) which you can add to your signal chain. Download it here.

Winter NAMM 2019: Random Youtube videos

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I’m going to post a random selection of Youtube videos here as I stumble into them.

First up are a couple of Yamaha Sonogenic SHS-500. The first video featuring Gabriel Aldort from Yamaha is funny, but shows the essence of the Sonogenic — a fun instrument to play along with tunes. One tidbit — Android support is coming down the line. Does this mean a version of Chord Tracker for Android? Chord Tracker is an important ecosystem cornerstone for several Yamaha digital instruments.

The second Sonogenic video is in Polish. The demonstrator is clearly having fun and there are a few snippets of the instrument sounds. Gratefully, they ducked the vocal and ambient noise during the snippets so you can hear how the SHS-500 really sounds. The drums and eleectric piano aren’t bad.

Everybody’s main man Katsunori UJIIE gives us the run down on the Yamaha MODX synthesizer. Also, check out this blast from the past: UJIIE’s Reface CP demo. Man, that guy is creative! Can’t wait for his demo of the new Yamaha CP73/CP88 digital pianos. It’s no wonder that the street price on the CP and YC have remained firm while the DX and CS are heavily discounted from their initial price. The Reface CP is still a quick and cheap way to get SCM electric pianos (Spectral Component Modeling).

BTW, UJIIE has really mastered those Reface mini keys. I still use the Reface YC at rehearsals. So easy to schlep! I can set up and be ready to go in 60 seconds. Just give me a music stand with the Reface YC across my lap.

On February 12, Frank Ventresca at AudioworksCT hosted a Yamaha Genos™ demonstration and workshop featuring Yamaha Product Specialist Heratch Touresian. (Heratch was assisted by Maio Obregón, Yamaha District Manager.) Frank has posted the video on Youtube. It’s almost three hours long! Thank you Heratch and Frank.

Full disclosure: I purchased an PSR-S950 and Genos from Frank. A great experience both times.

Overall, you get a terrific overview of Genos and current owners will learn new tricks. The last half-hour or so shows off Genos as a songwriting tool. Today’s arrangers — especially Genos — are not your grandfather’s boom-chukka.

If you’re new to Genos, check out my Genos quick start. Also, click on the Genos tag to find all the other Genos-related content on my site.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha SHS-500 follow-up

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The Yamaha SHS-500 Sonogenic keytar won a Winter NAMM 2019 Best In Show “Gotta Stock It” award. Congrats!

The for-real (PDF) Yamaha SHS-500 Owner’s Manual and Reference Manual are available on Yamaha’s Web site. Yamaha just published text manuals at launch. Now that I can see pictures (!), there’s a few things worth mentioning.

The SHS-500 does not have a 5-pin DIN MIDI connector. It has a multi-pin MIDI terminal to which you connect a MIDI breakout cable — just like Reface. So, the SHS-500 supports both 5-pin MIDI IN and MIDI OUT.

Side comment: I hope the MIDI manufacturers do not butcher MIDI 2.0 with ridiculous complexity. I like 5-pin MIDI because of its simplicity, both messages and electrical signaling. MIDI over USB, to me as a hardware/software developer, is a nightmare.

The SHS-500 has both headphone out and LINE out. The LINE out is 1/4″ mono. Plugging into the LINE out does not silence the internal speaker. The volume knob does not change the LINE out level.

In the nerd humor department. The Reference Manual recommends “Use audio cables and adapter plugs having no (zero) resistance.” Get out your superconductors.

The display format is clear and simple once you see an explanation of the icons (shown below). [Click images to enlarge.]

The keytar neck puts numerous controls under the hand:

  • OCTAVE buttons INC and DEC
  • TRANSPOSE buttons INC and DEC
  • SONG CONTROL: Fast reverse, Play/pause, Fast forward
  • JAM button (enables JAM function)
  • SUSTAIN button
  • PITCH BEND wheel
  • MODULATION wheel
  • FUNCTION button

I don’t see any lefties playing the SHS-500 like Hendrix, i.e., left-handed and upside-down. If you’re a Yamaha PSR person, you know that the FUNCTION button is your gateway to MIDI settings, etc. Some of the other things you can change are the tuning, EQ type, pitch bend range, portamento (ON/OFF and time), DSP type, MIDI port (Bluetooth, USB, wired), MIDI channel, local control ON/FF, audio loop back, battery type and auto OFF.

Although there is an EFFECT CONTROL knob for adjusting the currently selected DSP effect, effect control can be assigned to the MODULATION wheel. Just one of those things that you can change using the FUNCTION button. EFFECT CONTROL aside, the MODULATION wheel is assigned to Vibrato Depth. No other options.

The MIDI connection diagram shows that Yamaha is thinking ahead to Android support.

The specifications describe the keyboard as “37 HQ (High Quality) Mini Keys.” They must be using the Reface key bed.

The SHS-500 can send audio over USB to a receiving computer/device. Funny, the $5,000+ Genos still cannot do this.

There is no voice editing per se other than effect control. You can control the filter (cutoff and resonance) and keyboard dynamics (touch sensitivity). The SHS-500 appears to have a three stage effects chain: Reverb, chorus and DSP. You can control only the reverb and chorus depth, not type.

There are nine DSP effect types: Distortion 1, Distortion 2, DSP chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Rotary speaker, Low pass filter and high pass filter. Each effect type has one type-specific parameter under user control.

I can make a practical case of the Sonogenic even if I never prance and jeté with it. The SHS-500 is like a polyphonic, sample-playback Reface. I play a Yamaha Reface YC at rehearsals and often wish for other voices like flute or strings. The Sonogenic would be excellent as a very light-weight rehearsal instrument — something that’s easy to throw into the car.

Interested? Then check out these postsl about the Sonogenic:

The Yamaha SHS-500 Sonogenic is based on the Yamaha VKB-100 Vocaloid™ keyboard:

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski