In my previous post, PSR effects for electric piano (Part 1), I give some tips and ideas for improving PSR electric piano sounds through customized DSP effects.

Before going any further, you need to know how to edit and save a DSP effect. Newer Yamaha arranger workstations (e.g., PSR-S970) have a graphical interface for guitar effects and the ability to store edited effects in OTS locations and Registrations. Older model workstations store edited effects in the USER EFFECTS memory locations. See the “Parameter Table” in the Data List manual for your workstation to see the capabilities for your particular instrument. Look under:

    Main > Mixing Console > Effect

to see where “Effect Parameters” can be stored. On the S950, you may store an edited effect to either the USER EFFECT memory locations or a SONG. This is typical for older model arranger workstations.

Not being able to store an edited effect to OTS (within a style) is a major bummer. This limitation makes it hard to share new effect settings with friends. It also means that you cannot directly customize a DSP effect for a particular style. You must first save the edited effect to a USER EFFECT memory location. Then, the OTS in the style is set to refer to the USER EFFECT memory location. On the up side, the USER EFFECT can be assigned a meaningful name. On the down side, the style cannot be transfered to a different keyboard without moving the USER EFFECT data, too.

The Yamaha reference manual does a decent job of describing the “push this, select that” of editing and saving a user effect. Read the chapter about the MIXING CONSOLE for detailed information. The Yamaha manual is a little short on “big picture.” Hopefully, this short note provides a strategic overview that makes all of the button pushing a little more understandable. It might also save you the frustration of trying to save an edited effect to an OTS button and failing. I tried saving to an OTS button (and style) for an hour before checking the parameter table in the S950 Data List and realizing that it ain’t possible.

I included a brief outline of the process of editing and saving an effect at the very end of this blog entry. It should help you to find the parts of the reference manual with the details.

The other part of “the big picture” that you should know is how to save and restore USER EFFECT memory to a USB file. The USER EFFECT memory is part of a bigger package of stuff that is all saved to a single file. That package of stuff contains:

    USER EFFECT types and associated parameters
    User master EQ types
    User compressor types
    User vocal harmony types

All of this is stored in a single USER EFFECT file. So, if you want to move your user effects to another workstation, write a USER EFFECT file to the USB drive. Then, take the USB drive to the other workstation and load the file. The bad news is that you are forced to load the user master EQ, compressor and vocal harmony types, too, thereby overwriting these settings on the target machine.

Saving and loading a USER EFFECT file is handled on the CUSTOM RESET page. Navigate to the SYSTEM RESET page:

    FUNCTION > UTILITY > SYSTEM RESET

and press [H] USER EFFECT FILES. Then TAB over to the USB drive page and press [6] SAVE. The usual file dialog box displays where you can rename the file. The default name is “UserEffectPreset”. The file extension is “.eff”. If you don’t change the name, the PSR writes the file “UserEffectPreset.eff” to the USB drive. (More stuff the Yamaha manual didn’t tell you…)

The subjects of factory and custom reset remind me that it’s a good idea to make a full system back-up to a USB drive. See the:

    FUNCTION > UTILITY > OWNER

page in the Owner’s and Reference manuals for further details. Full system back-ups have saved my bacon on the MOX on the few occasions when I had to perform a complete factory reset. Also, make sure to save the back-up file on a PC or Mac. You never know when that USB drive will fail or get lost!

The PSR-S950 writes a back-up file to the USB drive. The back-up file is named “PSR-S950.bup”. Presumably, other workstation models name the back-up file after themselves, too.

MIXING CONSOLE

Changes to REVERB, CHORUS and DSP effects are made on the EFFECT page in the MIXING CONSOLE. The knobs on the EFFECT page control the effect sends. Press [F] TYPE (in the upper right corner) to change the effect type assigned to each part or channel.

USER EFFECTS

The EFFECT TYPE SELECTION page is a four column browser that lets you choose the effect BLOCK, PART, CATEGORY and TYPE. After selecting the effect type, press [F] PARAMETER (in the upper right corner) to change the effect parameters.

The EFFECT PARAMETER page has a scrolling list of parameters for the chosen effect type. Use the buttons below the LCD display to set the effect BLOCK, CATEGORY, TYPE, PARAMETER and VALUE.

Press [I] SAVE to save the edited type and parameters as a new USER EFFECT. The USER EFFECT page displays the memory locations where you can store the new effect. The number of available memory locations depends upon the chosen effect block:

    REVERB   3 locations
    CHORUS   3 locations
    DSP      10 locations

Choose a memory location using the buttons below the LCD display and press [I] SAVE. Enter a name for the new user effect and confirm the save.

Once a user effect is saved, it appears in the EFFECT TYPE SELECTION page under the USER category. The user effect is recalled just like a built-in effect preset.

SYSTEM RESET

USER EFFECT: Restores the User Effect settings including the user effect types, user master EQ types, user compressor types, and user vocal harmony types created via the Mixing Console display to the original factory settings.

CUSTOM RESET

For the items below, you can save your Original Settings as a Single File for future recall.

    SYSTEM SETUP FILES
    MIDI SETUP FILES
    USER EFFECT FILES
    MUSIC FINDER FILES

The User Effect settings including the user effect types, user master EQ types, user compressor types, and user vocal harmony types created via the Mixing Console displays are managed as a single file.

The USER EFFECT settings can be saved to a file and loaded from a file.

OWNER

BACKUP: Lets you backup all data on the instrument to a USB storage device. Refer to the Owner’s Manual.

RESTORE: Loads the backup file from the USB storage device.

PSR effects for electric piano (Part 1)
Editing and saving PSR effects (Part 2)
Multi-effects for electric piano (Part 3)
Copy PSR DSP effects (part 4)