About pj

Now (mostly) retired, I'm pursing electronics and computing just for the fun of it! I'm a computer scientist and engineer who has worked for AMD, Hewlett Packard and Siemens. I also taught hardware and software development at Case Western Reserve University, Tufts University and Princeton. Hopefully, you will find the information on this site to be helpful. Educators and students are particularly welcome!

Potential Yamaha P-525 gotcha!

Posted on May 29, 2024 by pj

A few recent posts on the Piano World Forum brought a potential Yamaha P-525 issue to my attention. I like the upper-end P-series models, notably the now discontinued P-515 and the P-525. Both models embody good value and sound.

The P-525 improves on the P-515 by adding Grand Expression Modeling (GME). The GME piano engine responds to nuanced playing gestures. That’s a win, in my opinion.

Folks using the P-525 as a piano-action controller have noted two new MIDI continuous controller messages:

    CC#19  Key Acceleration
    CC#88  Expand Velocity

These messages are produced by the Grand Expression Modeling engine. Poly Aftertouch, key acceleration and expand velocity — whatever that is — are sent with every note ON.

That behavior may seems like a desirable feature until you try to drive a piano software instrument like Arturia Piano V (as cited in a Piano World Forum post). These continuous controller messages would also get in the way when using the P-525 as a “bottom” keyboard driving a synth as one might do in a pop/rock gig situation. The latter use-case is what the P-series is for, after all.

Harrumph! As far as I know, there isn’t a way to turn off these messages, sending only MIDI Note ON and Note OFF. Yamaha need to fix this. Until they do, I must issue a strong caution about using the Yamaha P-525 as a piano-action controller.

The P-525 Piano Room implements a Grand Expression parameter. In addition to the Dynamic and Static settings, maybe implement OFF?

Buyer beware! I dare say, this may be an issue for anyone purchasing a Grand Expression model with the intention of driving a piano software instrument (VST). Look before you leap — you may need to filter or remap these extra messages yourself!

Chord progressions for Yamaha Chord Looper

Posted on May 7, 2024 by pj

Hey, hey, more free content for Yamaha arranger keyboards!

The Yamaha Genos and PSR-SX900 keyboards feature Chord Looper — a chord sequencer that cycles through a user-defined chord progression. Yamaha provides a few example Chord Looper Banks, but folks always wish for more.

So, I collected chord progressions from various public sources and created Chord Looper Banks (and Chord Looper Data files). My Chord Looper Banks have the most common chord progressions and some not-so-common progressions. All are in relatively easy keys and await your creativity.

As an added bonus, I included Java source code for the program that translates Extended ChordPro (CHO text files) to Chord Looper Data (CLD) files. If you don’t care about nerdy stuff and just want to play, then stick with the Chord Looper Banks (CLB) and Chord Looper Data files. 🙂 You don’t need to know anything about Java to use the CLBs and CLDs.

Download the Chord Loops (v1) ZIP file

Check out the README.TXT (in the ZIP file) for more information.

Yamaha Montage M internals: First look

Posted on May 1, 2024 by pj

Thanks to Dmitry Ko on the Keyboard Corner forum, we have the first solid information about Montage M7 internals! Congratulations, Dmitry!

We owe Dmitry a round of applause and gratitude for providing the first — and extensive — information about Montage M internals. He had to take extra steps to find and identify some components (more than I would have been willing to do with a brand new board, that’s for sure).

Dmitry was kind enough to give me a preview and his analysis is spot on.

Here are my own notes:

IC601 SWP70 #1 (Upper left DM PCB)     YMW832-C    FM-X?

  IC602 Winbond W9812G6KH-5  SDRAM 128 Mbit Parallel 200MHz (8M x 16)

IC401 SWP70 #2 (Middle)                YMW832-C

  IC501 Winbond W9812G6KH-5 SDRAM 128 Mbit Parallel 200MHz (8M x 16)
  IC402 Winbond W9825G6KH-6 SDRAM 256 Mbit Parallel 166MHz (16M x 16)
  IC403 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)
  IC404 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)
  IC405 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)  DM PCB rear
  IC406 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)  DM PCB rear

IC201 SWP70 #3 (Right)                 YMW832-C

  IC301 Winbond W9812G6KH-5 SDRAM 128 Mbit Parallel 200MHz (8M x 16)
  IC202 Winbond W9825G6KH-6 SDRAM 256 Mbit Parallel 166MHz (16M x 16)
 *IC205 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)
 *IC206 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)
 *IC207 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)  DM PCB rear
 *IC208 Winbond W29N08GVSIAA NAND flash 8 Gbit (1G x 8)  DM PCB rear
  XL201 02238 SWP70 clock

IC701 SSP3                       YJ496A0

  XL701  SSP3 clock
  IC706  TI LV08A 2BK ATPZ
  XL801  SSP3 clock

  XLB02 USB hub clock
  ICB04 GL852G  Genesys Logic 4-port hub USB 2.0 (SSP3 hub)
  Q1102 TPC812S ??? USB2_VBUS

  IC702 SDRAM    No mount?

ICA01 Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728BABCXA

  IC001 NANYA 2245 NT5CC128M16JR-EK DDR3 256MByte
  IC002 NANYA 2245 NT5CC128M16JR-EK DDR3 256MByte
  XLE01 CPU clock

ICB03 GL852G USB 2.0 hub controller (DM PCB rear, CPU hub)

  XLB01 USB hub clock

ICC02 eMMC (Yamaha YN240B0)

ICC01 Fast Ethernet PHY

ICA03 THine THC63LVD1O3D LCD controller (LVDS)

IC904 Texas Instruments TPS659037 Power controller

IC101 Texas Instruments PCM1795 32-bit stereo DAC   DM PCB rear
IC111 Texas Instruments PCM1795 32-bit stereo DAC   DM PCB rear

IC121 Texas Instruments PCM1804 24-bit stereo ADC   DM PCB rear

In a few cases (marked with “*”), copyright labels obscure the chip ID information on the IC package.

Here are a few additional observations.

Yamaha gave the Montage M a major league host CPU: Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728BABCXA. The Sitara is multi-core:

Dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 MPU (1.5 GHz)
Dual TMS320C66x floating-point VLIW DSP (750 MHz)
2 x dual-core ARM Cortex-M4 co-processors (213 MHz)
Dual-core PowerVR SGX544 GPU (532 MHz)

This is a major step up from the single core 800MHz ARM in the original Montage. The Sitara is given twice as much primary memory than the original: 512MBytes of DDR3 RAM.

Thus, folks, you’re going to need a fan. Montage M’s digital logic board (DM) has a substantial metal cover, probably to control RFI. The Sitara has a vanilla heat sink. An opening in the metal cover lets heat escape from the heat sink. The fan draws air from beneath the metal cover/heat sink. This design is different than what I expected, i.e., a very small heat sink plus mini-fan cooler a la Raspberry Pi. This Sitara ain’t no RPi!

The two integrated TMS320C66X DSP cores likely synthesize AN-X. 16 voice AN-X polyphony feels just about right for two TMS320 cores. (Reface CS employs an SSP2 DSP and has 8 voice polyphony.) With compute-intensive AN-X going on, you’re gonna need a fan. I don’t buy the cooling pipe solutions proposed by some and it would be very difficult to position the Sitara in contact with the metal chassis. End of story.

The factory waveform NAND flash is Winbond W29N08GVSIAA. That is the highest capacity ONFI compatible NAND flash made by Winbond. The factory waveforms are compressed (10GB when converted to 16-bit linear format) and reside in 4GBytes of physical NAND flash. User waveforms are uncompressed (3.7GB available capacity) and reside in 4GBytes of (separate) physical NAND flash.

In the original Montage, factory and user waveforms are co-resident in 4GBytes of waveform NAND flash. Yamaha added a third SWP70 tone generator/effects IC and, as we know, dedicated one SWP70 to factory waveforms and another SWP70 to user waveforms. The third SWP70 doesn’t have waveform memory and synthesizes FM-X.

A label covers the top of the eMMC device which provides bulk storage (OS, software, presets, etc.) for the Montage M. The original Montage has a 4GByte eMMC device.

As expected, the SSP2 is out of production and is replaced by SSP3. The SSP3 inherits the digital audio routing and rate conversion chores performed by the original’s SSP2. The SSP3 has its own integrated USB interface and associated USB2.0 4-port hub. All are co-located with the external USB connector.

The THine LVDS handles LCD display duties. The Sitara has serious graphics chops with its dual PowerVR SGX544 GPUs. I haven’t worked out the interface to Montage M’s OLED subdisplay as yet. Genos1 communicates with its subdisplay via SPI.

Thanks, again, Dmitry! This more than enough for the next round of Internet speculations. 🙂

Arturia AstroLab: Yes, I played one!

Posted on April 24, 2024 by pj

Right from the git-go, I thank Guitar Center Lynnwood for letting me plink away at an Arturia AstroLab. I dropped in to play before sufficient caffeine had kicked in and I wasn’t really feeling the music. Nonetheless, I was glad to actually play an AstroLab and not watch its demo videos. 🙂

Arturia AstroLab

AstroLab and I are not quite ready for each other yet. I really need the Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. The Augmented series are pretty sweet instruments and acoustic woodwinds, especially, are essential to what I play live. Still, thanks to playing AstroLab now, I will keep AstroLab on my radar screen.

AstroLab or Analog Lab?

In case you haven’t watched a few videos, AstroLab is Analog Lab in a stand-alone keyboard. That’s the short of it. Sitting down to AstroLab is exactly like sitting down with Analog Lab. Most of Lab’s collection of instruments are there along with a number of recognizable presets. I couldn’t perform a systematic check, but I believe Arturia have cooked up additional presets for AstroLab itself.

The big elephant in the room: If you have Analog Lab (or V Collection) on a laptop, why AstroLab? AstroLab is not cheap at $1,599 USD (MAP/street). You can get a pretty decent laptop and Analog Lab for $1,600. For that matter, you can buy Analog Lab V bundled with a KeyLab Essential MK3 for only $270 (MAP). Add on a laptop and you’re ahead of the game. [Analog Lab V is integrated brilliantly with the KeyLab controller series, BTW.] So, AstroLab needs to have significant value-added.

From my own perspective, I’m not wild about using a laptop in a live church setting. I once had a laptop balk in church and when I’ve got to play, I’ve got to play. I like the idea of Analog Lab running on a reliable, dedicated keyboard. On the down-side, AstroLab gives up KeyLab’s sliders, having no sliders at all. (To me, pads are MEH.) On the up-side, working at AstroLab is Analog Lab V déjà vu. And that’s a good thing…

Build

AstroLab is an attractive looking instrument. Visually, it would grace any stage. Dimensionally, it is not much wider than the 61-key keybed and, as a result, is quite compact. That’s why AstroLab’s heft is so surprising. At 22 pounds (10 kg), this instrument has some weight and you won’t be throwing it around with palm swipes. The KeyLab Essential 49 and 61 are only 6.1 and 6.8 pounds, respectively. I love my KeyLab Essential 49 for its light weight and portability. Thus, the relatively weighty AstroLab is a double surprise.

Arturia AstroLab Color Display Encoder

The build, encoder knobs, buttons and keys feel solid and durable. The integrated display knob, not so much. The display knob — what Arturia calls the “Color Screen Encoder” — feels like it rocks around and I feared a bit for its safety in my under-caffeinated hand. I would rather confirm selection with one of those solid-feeling buttons near the display knob.

One near-term suggestion: Ditch the cheesy-assed music stand shown on the Arturia AstroLab “Details” web page. It’s not up to the usually superb Arturia design aesthetics.

Display and UI

I was quite amazed by the amount of detail shown by the color display. You can easily recognize all of the virtual synths and keyboards by their familiar appearance. I didn’t have any trouble reading the instrument, patch, and parameter names. Text is legible.

As to the user interface (UI), you can dial around the menu system (literally). Patches are organized by virtual instrument, sound category (strings, etc.) and artist. The artist category lets you dial in a patch based upon a popular song or what have you, a feature that will be welcomed by cover-band players.

Arturia need to divide a few categories into separate, smaller categories. For example, brass and woodwind instruments are in the same, combined category. In order to find a clarinet, I must scroll through a bunch of brass instruments. It’s bad enough to scroll through a list of instruments, but, hey, lets focus the list and reduce scroll time. How ’bout separate categories for woodwinds and brass?

Splits and layers

My only other source of frustration was trying to create a split. I didn’t have time to browse the AstroLab manual before heading down to the music shop. Intuition alone didn’t cut it and I never succeeded in creating a split. Bummer.

Sounds

I took along this week’s music and a few of the jazz tunes that I’ve been working on. Genre-wise, it’s pop, not electronica.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a large number of patches that could fill-in for the Augmented Brass and Woodwind instruments. That’s a relief. Generally, patches sounded bright and I raised this point with the store manager. The staff had compared AstroLab vs. Nord and found more mid- to low-range with the Nord through the same monitors. Tweaks needed?

Some of the acoustic pianos sounded too bright and brittle. Fortunately, they could be tamed with the “Brightness” and “Timbre” knobs. I felt much better once I got into the Augmented Pianos. Nice work, there. I couldn’t assess piano sustain, not having a sustain pedal attached to the demo unit.

As to the keybed, it is comfortable to play. It’s another one of those “Compromise” keybeds which aim for a sweet-spot between acoustic piano, electric piano, organ and synth. I much prefer the AstroLab keybed to KeyLab Essential — by far. The keybed made playing electric piano enjoyable (something I dread on Yamaha MODX6). B-3 organ didn’t feel bad under the fingers, either.

I have only one small, probably correctable, quibble about the key touch. Sometimes a patch wouldn’t trigger (produce any sound) when using my lightest touch. This seemed to occur with synth-y patches and maybe setting the key touch sensitivity would make the instrument more responsive.

I did notice a delay when switching between “sampled” instrument patches. Arturia acknowledge this delay due to sample loading. Plan for it when playing live. Switching between modeled instruments is darned quick. I didn’t notice any drop-outs due to polyphony limits, but then I wasn’t pushing AstroLab very hard with splits or layers.

Conclusion

Earlier, I addressed the big elephant in the room — what you get for what you pay. Arturia want to compete with the Yamahas, Korgs, Rolands and Nords. In terms of build and keybed, they are on par. As to sonic value-added, the AstroLab is a work in progress (WIP).

Arturia are smart enough to know it’s a WIP. They need to fill out the brass and woodwind offerings, for example.

The big value-add is Arturia’s sound design. AstroLab is Analog Lab V (temporarily minus some goodies). If you want Analog Lab V in a dedicated keyboard, you got it now.

Arturia AstroLab announced

Posted on April 9, 2024 by pj

Arturia have announced its new Arturia AstroLab featuring many (most?) of their AnalogLab instruments and presets: 34 instruments, 1,300 presets. You’ll find lots of pre-release demos on the Interwebs. I recommend the Arturia playthrough video which doesn’t have any yakking.

I’m excited by the AstroLab if, for no other reason, it’s the first significant alternative to the all-in-ones offered by the kaiju (Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Nord, etc.) The current sound set is very comprehensive even though a few Analog Lab instruments for AstroLab are still in development.

A few quick observations. The AstroLab is bi-timbral. That means splitting two independent voices or layering two voices. That might seem limiting, but I rarely use humungous stacks when playing live. The knobs (endless encoders) light up with the color matching the assigned layer or split voice. Neat. Piano and organ polyphony is 48; poly synth polyphony is 8.

There are four endless encoders to control voice parameters and four encoders to control the effects: effect A, effect B, delay and reverb. No sliders. The lack of sliders may raise eyebrows, but you can add a secondary MIDI controller through a USB-A port.

Speaking of encoders, you probably noticed that dial-like thingy in the middle of the front panel. Arturia have invented an innovative control which merges a big wheel with a high-resolution color display in the middle. The wheel turns left and right, and responds to clicks and pressure from the top. One may need to be a little careful so as to avoid inadvertent clicks while turning the wheel.

The keyboard is described as semi-weighted piano keys, channel aftertouch. Natch, one really needs to get the keys under the fingers to discover if the key-feel is really for you. In such a premium-level keyboard, I doubt if Arturia built in a cheapo keybed.

Internal storage is 22GBytes and only 7GBytes are used. That leaves plenty of room for expansion including the new instruments coming to AstroLab at some future date.

Sound editing is generally limited to what is assigned to the encoders. For deep sound editing, you’ll need a licensed copy of the relevant AnalogLab instrument (bundled or individually). In other words, separate software licenses are needed in order to deep-edit.

Physically, AstroLab is an attractive package weighing 22 pounds. That’s a little hefty for me, but is well within reason for a full 61-key instrument. The chassis is metal with molded end-cheeks. (That ain’t natural wood you’re seeing.) The goes-ins and goes-outs are well-provided for including 1/4 inch pedal jacks and 5-pin MIDI.

I see AstroLab priced at $1,600 USD (MAP or “street”) putting it up against Yamaha MODX, Korg Nautilus, Roland JUNO-X and Fantom-0, just to mention a few other products in this pricing tier.

I — for one — would like to try AstroLab and get a feel for the keybed. I’m also curious to hear and control the Hammond B-3 emulation. Would be nice to have sliders for drawbar control, but there is a nice, big flat area on the AstroLab front panel for my Crumar D9U.

A full demo on the new Arturia AstroLab with Bert Smorenburg — good to see and hear Bert!

Ain’t no April Fool: piano evoce ß

Posted on April 2, 2024 by pj

The Japanese Yamaha site posted information about a new app called “piano evoce ß”. I’m going to quote the site as translated by the Google:

This is an AI ensemble app that extracts the vocal part of your song and plays it back along with your performance. Feel free to enjoy playing together with your favorite songs!

Practicing the assigned songs alone will not increase your motivation. I want a session buddy who can arrange things freely! I want to be able to play my favorite songs with chords!

This software is a beta version service released primarily for technical verification and service experiments. We hope to continue to make improvements based on the opinions of our users.

piano evoce ß appears to be the next evolutionary step in the Chord Tracker family:

1. Connect your electronic piano/keyboard to your Mac via MIDI.
2. Analyze your own songs.
3. Start playing! When you play the chord displayed on the screen, the vocal part will follow your performance.

To use piano evoce ß, you need to register for a Yamaha Music ID account (free of charge).

Now, that’s pretty neat. Here’s my guess: Yamaha combined a vocal stem extractor with Chord Tracker. The screens look very similar to Chord Tracker. Given the reference to “service” and the need to have a Yamaha account, the heavy lifting (vocal stem extraction) is performed by Yamaha software running on one of its servers. There’s a bunch of terms and conditions to read and accept — Yamaha and its friggin’ lawyers.

The app has two ways of following the vocal part (quoting the usual minimalist manual):

Gentle tracking mode: This mode gently follows your playing. The high degree of freedom allows you to arrange and play chords. Even if the performance stops in the middle of a song, the tempo will slow down, but playback will not stop. The AI listens to your chords and sense of rhythm, understands your playing pace, and sings in a way that feels natural to the AI. Avoid sudden tempo changes, and try playing together to create an ensemble.
Perfect tracking mode: This mode waits and follows your performance. It will wait until you play at least one note that makes up the correct chord. AI will play according to the timing of your performance. Be sure to play in time with the chord changes.

Can’t wait to try this! I’m guessing it will be available for Clavinova digital pianos and Yamaha arranger keyboards. Bad news for Windows users: “piano evoce ß can be used with macOS 12.0 or higher”. Not a word about Windows.

Anavi Macropad8 for MIDI control

Posted on March 29, 2024 by pj

Every now and again, ya need a simple, small device to send MIDI commands. The V3 Sound Yammex XXL sound module is one such use case. It requires full Bank Select plus Program Change message sequences to select a voice. You’d be surprised at how many MIDI controllers are incapable of sending a full three message selection sequence! [This is one of my pet peeves about some MIDI controllers,]

So-called “macro keypads” are one possible solution. Typically, macro keypads are used by gamers to send repeated, complicated key sequences. [Hadoken!] The trick is getting the macro keypad to send MIDI instead of ASCII or whatever.

I did a search last year and found the Anavi Macropad8. The Macropad8 has eight keys, a micro USB connector and an optional OLED display. I planned to plug it into the USB host port on the Yammex module and send voice selection messages to it over USB — while the Yammex 5-pin MIDI IN port handles notes from a brain-damaged MIDI keyboard controller.

Anavi’s fulfillment via Tindy.com was really fast. Then, I let the Macropad8 languish for almost a full year. Until now.

First off, I like the Anavi Macropad8 hardware. I bought the Developer Kit which requires some minor assembly. It’s no more complicated than assembling a KORG NTS-1 or NTS-2. Unlike the KORGs, the Macropad8 does not fully enclose the electronics. Still, the final assembly is decently robust. The OLED is probably the most vulnerable component as it sits on top of the plexi top cover. I’m good with this for home use.

After assembly, I wrangled with the QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) development environment. I figured a few bytes here and there, and the Macropad8 should be good to go. Ha! Two gigabytes of development environment later, I was ready to run the QMK compiler and flash software. Yikes, that is bloated. QMK downloads with the default keymap definitions, etc. for every QMK-compatible macro keypad known to man, woman and dog.

Plus, QMK is, at best, user-hostile for QMK n00bs. Even figuring out where source code goes is an adventure game. Then, the default Macropad8 keymap is too large to flash. QMK doesn’t offer any real hints about reducing code size and one is quickly in the deep water. I turned off tap dancing, N-key rollover and backlighting in order to get the code size down.

Fortunately, there is the shell of an “advanced” MIDI keymap.c file in the documentation from which I did extensive copy and modify. You’ll need to dive into the MIDI library source code to suss out the MIDI API. The API is complete, but it is undocumented.

At long last I had a QMK app ready to go. The concept of operation is pretty simple — respond to key codes and send Bank Select MSB, Bank Select LSB and Program Change for each key press. User code runs in the middle of an infinite loop provided by the QMK infrastructure. QMK calls process_record_user() when a key code is ready for processing. If the OLED is enabled, QMK calls oled_task_user(), so your code can update (redraw) the display.

I did a quick check out with MIDI-OX to make sure the MIDI messages were being sent correctly. The Macropad8 exposes two USB ports — one to send characters to the keyboard stream and one to send MIDI. Fortunately, both Windows (MIDI-OK) and the Yammex immediately recognized the MIDI port.

Hooked up to Yammex, the Macropad8 worked as expected. I couldn’t get the arrangement to glitch even once while practicing. Overall, I would call Anavi Macropad8 a success and I recommend it.

The Macropad8 can run Arduino sketches, too. My back-up plan, in case QMK failed, was to program the Macropad8 as an Arduino (Leonardo). As an Arduino, the Macropad8 makes a neat application-specific system. I wish there was direct hardware access to the Arduino pins, but that would push Macropad8 into a different product direction entirely. Would make an interesting hack, anyway…

I noticed that newer Anavi products have moved to the Raspberry Pi RP2040 Pico. So, exercise care when ordering if you want a Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller.

A few words about my new PSR/Genos styles

Posted on March 11, 2024 by pj

I promised to say a few words about the new styles in my free Performance Style Collection (Version 2).

Motif/MOX, again

Five of the new styles are converted from Motif/MOX Performances:

Bubbly Dub         77  Dub reggae (Long live King Tubby!)
Dresden At Night   91  Chill
Poppyhanger        90  Mid-tempo electronica (minor key best)
See The Show      100  Prog rock (ELP, Yes, Emerson, Wakeman)
Ticking Away      120  Prog rock (Pink Floyd)

In case you’re not hip to Motif/MOX terminology, a Performance is a style-like group of voices and arpeggios (musical phrases). Most of these Performances are available for Montage and MODX, too — load the “MOTIF XF Performances for MONTAGE” library.

“Bubbly Dub” is my homage to King Tubby. Dub is totally under-represented in Yamaha styles. Reggae, yea, but give me those funky effects! If I have a slam on “Bubbly Dub,” it doesn’t go far enough.

“Dresden At Night” and “Poppyhanger” are upbeat electronica. Feel free to tear them apart and use the phrases.

“See The Show” and “Ticking Away” should tickle prog rock fans. “Ticking Away” is obviously based on “Time.” “See The Show” is a mash-up of ELP and Yes. If you figure out how to tame “See The Show,” please let me know.

Swizzle them phrases

Ableton Live always seemed like a natural tool for style assembly. Finally, this dreary winter, I gave Live a try in this role. The end result is six new downtempo and funk styles:

Cool Revibed      85  Downtempo
DownTime          71  Downtempo
Funkin Style     114  Jabo funk 
Slow Walker       75  Downtempo (minor key best)
Slow Walker DJ    75  Downtempo DJ style (chord progression built-in)
Street Genos      90  Hip-hop (needs Vocal Beat Box)

These styles are based on mixed and matched MIDI patterns from various collections. I want to shout out Groove Monkee, Apollo Sound and Equinox Sounds. If you want to do downtempo, chill or the hippity-hop, look at these brands.

Mostly, I banged MIDI loops together in Ableton and adjusted a few notes here and there to put melodic parts into the same scale. “Slow Walker” was a challenge in this regard. Pushing the notes into the same scale took character out of the sound. So, I did a “DJ” style with the original notes/changes cooked in. “Slow Walker DJ” follows the root note, but not the chord type.

“Cool Revibed” has a slightly different process. I started with the rhythm patterns in the Genos “CoolR&B” style and then hung phrases on it like Christmas tree ornaments. Having the rhythm down is a good way to start composition, if the rhythm is inspirational.

As to Live and sound generation, sometimes I started with Live software instruments, got the MIDI patterns going, and found sound-alike Genos patches for the final assembly. Other times, I drove Genos directly from Live, picking out voices and DSP effects by hand in the Genos mixer.

Jam away

I’m a long-time fan of Jean Luc Ponty’s “A Taste For Passion”. I caught Ponty live sometime around 1980 — great concert! Keyboardist Allan Zavod (RIP) was under-recognized for his contributions.

“Sunset Drive” is one of my favorite tracks from the album. The “Sunset Drive” style is a jam-along style with the bass and chords cooked in.

Sunset Drive     136  Jammin' jazz by Jean Luc Ponty (Cm scale)

The style will follow the root note. So, start out in Cm7 and modulate down to Am. Then, up to Cm7, again. Fun, fun, fun!

One of these days, I will give “Beach Girl” the same treatment. Beautiful tunes, all.

Don’t forget, I have additional free content for Yamaha PSR, Tyros and Genos:

Free Performance Styles for PSR/Genos

Posted on March 5, 2024 by pj

Been a while since I’ve posted. 🙂 That means I’ve been busy with a few hunker-down, wintertime projects.

At long last, I pulled together the second version of my “Performance Styles for PSR/Genos” collection. The second version has all of the V1 styles plus a dozen new V2 styles.

The V1 styles were translated from Motif XS/MOX Performances to Tyros/PSR. If you would like to read about the translation process, check these links:

These articles are still a good read if you are interested in creating original styles of your own. There is a short Getting Started With Style Files post, too.

The V1 style files target PSR-S950, which by now is old hat. So, the original V1 styles should be reasonably compatible with any post-S950 arranger.

The V2 style files take the collection into new territory. The V2 styles include contemporary genres like downtempo and make wide use of DSP insert effects. I developed the styles on Genos (gen 1) which supports a single insert effect on each style part. The V2 styles are compatible with Genos2. Some voices and DSP effects may not be supported by earlier arrangers. Genos1 still leads the pack in many dimensions!

Nonetheless, I encourage you to download the new collection. You might need to re-voice a style part or two and maybe redirect the DSP units which are available on your music machine. The styles are SFF1 even though a few new styles use Mega Voice. Being SFF1, you should be able to edit the styles with Mixmaster or any of the wonderful tools created by Jørgen Sørensen. I owe Jørgen a debt of gratitude since his CASM editor, OTS editor and Style Split/Splice programs are essential tools for any style developer.

Download Performance Styles for PSR/Genos (Version 2). The ZIP file includes a README text file. Be sure to check it out.

Yamaha Reface DX in the house

Posted on February 13, 2024 by pj

UPS surprised me and delivered Yamaha Reface DX one day early. Hurray!

As I’ve mentioned before, I owned and played a Yamaha DX21 back in the late 80s and early 90s. (The 4-op, FM DX21 was released in 1985.) The DX21 was the first synth that I took to church. I remember playing string, brass and organ patches.

After I unboxed the Reface DX, my head was spinning. Did Rock Moranis’s mad-scientist dad hit my old DX21 with a shrinking ray? The styling and feel is so DX21 that it was a definite case of déjà vu.

The Reface DX has the same solid feel and build as my well-worn Reface YC. I bought Reface YC in 2017 and I’ve played the snot out of it. I take care of my tools and the Reface YC has held up pretty well. I expect the same from Reface DX.

One difference tho’, the Reface YC keys have become clacky (for lack of a better term). Playing the new Reface DX reminds me of how smooth the YC felt at first. The DX velocity response is nice. The DX is still three octaves, so my major complaint about mini-keyboards remains valid. The Reface HQ mini-keys have a more substantial feel than the Yamaha PSS-A50.

After turning this bugger on and playing — Wow, this is a real instrument, a real synthesizer. The DX stores patches unlike its Reface brethren. I went through the presets and found roughly 20 keepers. I’m not into aggressive so patches like “Wobble Bass” got the ax. I made a chart and took note of target memory locations.

Sound-wise, it’s a very nice 4-op implementation. Eight note polyphony is enough to be dangerous. In comparison, Modal Skukpt SE is four voice polyphonic and I always get frustrated when the fifth note causes note theft. I’m putting the Reface DX through a Yamaha Stagepas100 and it sounds great. The built-in speakers are the same old “courtesy speakers” and aren’t meant for serious use.

The effects section is strong. Reface DX implements two post effects in series. The workflow is simple and direct: Hit the EFFECT button and use the data entry strips/switches to make your choices. There is a lot you can do through effects alone without getting into FM programming.

You all might say, “Late to the party, PJ.” However, I made a conscious decision in 2017 to buy one Reface and the YC filled most of my needs. With YC, it’s organ or nothing and that has always felt limiting. Reface DX is a true synth and covers a lot of sonic territory. Maybe I would have been happier with Reface DX from the start? It just doesn’t matter…

Yamaha Soundmondo

Being late has one advantage, Yamaha’s Soundmondo patch-sharing site is full to the brim with Reface DX programs. I decided to start with Manny Fernandez’s patches — go pro. I honestly don’t have time to wade through a lot of, well, crap.

Speaking of which, there are so many DX programs that Yamaha’s tagging scheme is not sufficient to efficiently filter out irrelevant dreck. People can tick off as many tags as they like — inappropriately so. Worse, Soundmondo game-ified contributions, encouraging people to use more tags than necessary in order to win more ears and likes. These factors make efficient search impossible. Yamaha should limit the number of tags per sound to three, max.

Beyond those negatives, Soundmondo works like a charm with Reface DX. I never used Soundmondo with the YC since pulling drawbars is so natural and immediate. With Soundmondo, I quickly found useable string and brass patches. The workflow is smooth and it’s easy to store a new voice on the DX as long as you know which memory locations to sacrifice. No problem.

My only remaining quibble with Soundmondo is, again, due to scale. Soundmondo uses the scrolling reveal approach to search results and does not return to the last selected result. That means you have to re-scroll through search results all the way from the beginning! Since people over-tagged their entries, that makes for a lot of dreck to scan through over and over again. Tedious.

Quick summary

So, Reface DX is now on sale for $250 USD (MAP). I stayed good to my word and waited for close-out pricing before buying a second Reface. If you can find a Reface DX for $250, buy it. You won’t regret the decision.

What’s next? I’m going to try loading converted DX21 patches from the Reface DX Legacy Project. Soundmondo is a little short on FM woodwinds and I’m going to give the old DX21 sounds another shot at glory.

Sand, software and sound

Electronics and computing for the fun of it

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