A few words about my new PSR/Genos styles

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:

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Free Performance Styles for PSR/Genos

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.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Free DJX-II styles: Version 2

I’m happy to announce version 2 of my DJX-II styles for Yamaha Genos, Tyros and PSR arrangers.

These DJ styles are converted from the original Yamaha DJX-II patterns. If you would like to know more about the conversion process, please see: Mining the Yamaha DJX-II.

These are DJ styles, so they only respond to changes in the root note. The chord progressions are cooked into the patterns (just like intros and endings in regular PSR styles). I tried to find the best mapping from DJX-II patterns to style sections. Therefore, some of the DJXII styles have auto-fill, some do not. Longer “fill” patterns are assigned to the intro and ending sections which can play more than one measure.

Feel free to edit, rearrange and customize the styles in order to make them your own. I recommend Jørgen Sørensen’s excellent tools. Jørgen’s site also has documentation and tutorials about styles and style creation to help you along. Please check it out and support his work!

Click on this link to download the ZIP file.

Version 2 includes all of the files in the first collection. Version 2 adds Drum ‘n’ Bass, Disco, House and Trip Hop styles. The ZIP file includes a README.TXT file which should help you get started with the styles. I have also included PDF notation files for people who read music and want to know about the chord progressions, bass lines, and so forth.

Enjoy! The DJX-II style collection is free.

Copyright © 2021 Paul J. Drongowski

Arpeggio to style conversion

Let’s get one out of the vault… 🙂

The Motif XS/XF (MOX/MOXF) and Montage (MODX) arpeggios and performances are a great source of inspiration. Unlike Yamaha’s arranger series, the built-in phrase library is rich in urban and chill patterns. For some odd reason, one of the classic XS/MOX performances — “Dresden At Night” — never made the leap to Motif XF. And, it’s missing from Montage/MODX, too.

A PSR Tutorial forum member sought help resurrecting Dresden At Night, albeit a recreation for the PSR-SX700 arranger. I thought I would help out since I wrote a series of articles about MOX performance to style conversion:

The end result of that work is a small collection of PSR (Tyros, Genos) styles based on MOX (Motif XS) performances.

If you would like to try Dresden At Night or experiment with a conversion of your own, download the free ZIP file.

MOX performances have four parts (voices). Each part has up to six musical phrases (arpeggios) associated with it. Six front-panel buttons select the currently playing set of arpeggios, i.e., button one selects the first arpeggio for each set and so forth. To get the basic MIDI data, I played each arpeggio (group) for four measures while recording in MOX performance quick record mode. I wrote out the MIDI data as a Standard MIDI File (SMF), transfered the SMF to PC, and imported the SMF into a DAW (Sonar).

Dresden At Night is a downtempo (91 BPM), urban-ish chill performance. It has four parts:

Part# Voice    Name              NoteLo NoteHi VelLo VelHi Level Pan
----- -------- ---------------- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ---
1 PRE8:070 8Z Heavy Hearts C-2 G8 1 127 81 C
2 PRE3:053 Dark Bass C-2 G8 1 127 51 C
3 PRE7:110 Ibiza Groove C-2 G8 1 127 127 C
4 PRE5:121 Smooth BPF Sweep C-2 G8 1 127 73 C

The first part is the rhythm voice and the second part is the bass voice. As we’ll see below, arpegiation is turned for these two parts. The third and fourth voices are a play-along pad layer and arpeggiation is disabled. Thus, the rhythm and bass parts provide a looped backing while the pad voices provide an atmospheric you-steer-it, right hand part.

Here are the arpeggio assignments:

Arp#1 Tempo:91              Arp#2 
----- -----
1 MA_8Z HeavyHrt1 1 MA_8Z HeavyHrt3 ON
2 MB_WestCoastPop _XS 2 MA_WestCoastPop _XS ON
3 MA_Space Arp 3 MA_Space Arp OFF
4 MA_Up Oct1 4 MA_Up Oct2 OFF
Arp#3 Arp#4
----- -----
1 MA_8Z HeavyHrt4 1 MA_8Z GatedBt3 ON
2 BA_Jazz Pop _XS 2 FB_WestCoastPop _XS ON
3 MA_Space Arp 3 MA_Space Arp OFF
4 MA_Up Oct4 4 MA_Down Oct1 OFF
Arp#5 Arp#6
----- -----
1 MA_8Z ChillBrk4 1 BA_Sp SFX ON
2 MB_WestCoastPop _XS 2 MA_WestCoastPop _XS ON
3 MA_Space Arp 3 Off OFF
4 MA_Down Oct2 4 Off OFF

The Arpeggiator is turned ON for Parts 1 and 2 only.

A big factor is the “8Z Heavy Hearts” drum kit. The “8Z” in its name means “eight zone”. Eight zone (8Z) voices are a Motif innovation beginning with the XS (MOX) family. If you would like more information, check out these earlier posts about eight zone voices:

8Z voices aren’t drum kits. They are implemented as synth voices and are just a clever way of using the eight elements which make up a voice. The eight zones (8Z) are divided across specific note ranges. 8Z Heavy Hearts assigns waveforms (zone sounds) in the following way:

Element#  Note Low  Note High  Waveform 
-------- -------- --------- --------------
1 C0 F#0 Bd T9-1
2 G0 C1 Bd Hard Long
3 C#1 D1 Sd Elec12
4 D#1 F1 Sd HipHop6
5 F#1 A1 HH Closed D&B
6 A#1 C2 HH Open T9
7 C#2 C4 Clap AnSm
8 C#4 C6 Shaker Hip2

Yamaha messes with each of the zones in crazy ways and ties keyboard notes to voice parameters (AKA “key follow”). For 8Z Heavy Hearts, the most notable effect is how the Clap AnSm pitch follows the keyboard.

Arrangers (even Genos!) don’t have 8Z voices. They have standard drum kits where each MIDI note is a separate drum instrument. In order to make a PSR style using a DAW, one must translate the 8Z MIDI notes to standard drum kit notes. You need to assign appropriate drum kits (e.g., DrumMachine, Analog T9, House, Break or HipHop) to style parts 9 and 10 (MIDI channels 9 and 10) and copy the Heavy Hearts MIDI data to both Parts. Then, delete the notes that aren’t needed in a style part, compress each zone into a single drum instrument, and map the resulting “compressed” notes to the appropriate drum instrument(s). So, for example, all of the notes in C0 to F#0 might be compressed into the Kick T9 1 instrument (B0) in the Analog T9 Kit, which is one of the target drum kits.

I found two PSR drum parts to be enough. However, styles are flexible and you could assign a third (fourth, …) drum kit to one of the other style parts. There’s nothing in Yamaha styles that prevents this. It’s just that parts 9 and 10 (MIDI channels 9 and 10) are conventionally assigned to drum parts in a style.

I went with two PSR drum kits: Analog T9 kit and Drum Machine kit. Here is one possible assignment:

Note Low Note High Waveform       Instrument        Note#   Kit 
-------- --------- ------------- ---------------- ------ -----------
C0 24 F#0 30 Bd T9-1 Kick T9 1 35 B0 AnalogT9Kit
G0 31 C1 36 Bd Hard Long BD Hard Long 24 C0 DrumMachine
C#1 37 D1 38 Sd Elec12 Snare Analog CR 63 D#3 DrumMachine
D#1 39 F1 41 Sd HipHop6 Snare Hip 1 86 F#3 DrumMachine
F#1 42 A1 45 HH Closed D&B Hi-Hat Closed Syn 91 A4 DrumMachine
A#1 46 C2 48 HH Open T9 Hi-Hat Open T9 46 A#1 AnalogT9Kit
C#2 49 C4 72 Clap AnSm Clap Analog Sm 27 D#0 AnalogT9Kit
C#4 73 C6 96 Shaker Hip2 Analog Shaker 57 A2 DrumMachine

A lot of detail, huh? Nobody said style conversion was easy. 🙂 In the end, I spread each zone across multiple drum instruments of the same type, i.e., assigning the Shaker Hip2 zone to a few different Analog Shaker sounds in the Drum Machine kit. Part of 8Z Heavy Hearts’ charm is the subtle sonic variation provided by each zone.

Trying to keep this all straight in the DAW piano roll is cognitively challenging. Did I say, style conversion isn’t easy? 🙂

Fortunately, one can loop four bar sections and play the MIDI through the arranger (Genos, in this case) just like a MIDI song. Then, it’s the usual tweak, listen, rinse, repeat edit process. When the MIDI is tweezed to your liking, you need to add MIDI markers to delimit the style sections. (BTW, leave a one bar MIDI set-up measure at the beginning.) Style section markers are:

    Set-up measure 1: SFF1 
Set-up measure 1: SInt
Main sections: Main A, ...
Fill sections: Fill In AA, ...
Break section: Fill In BA, ...
Introduction: Intro A, ...
Ending: Ending A, ...

At a minimum, you need a few MIDI set-up System Exclusive (SysEx) messages at the beginning of the SMF (measure 1, beat 1):

    F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7                 GM Reset 
F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7 XG System ON
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 00 01 16 F7 Reverb type
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 20 16 00 F7 Chorus type

Reverb is the “Light Hall” preset and chorus is the “Tempo Cross 1” preset. The tempo cross delay is an 8-beat echo.

Which brings me to a necessary ingredient: crunch. 8Z Heavy Hearts gets a lot of its appeal from the Lo-Fi effect:

#  Parameter                   Val  Hex   Meaning 
-- -------------------------- --- ---- --------
1 Sampling Frequency Control 4 0x04 8.82kHz
2 Word Length 98 0x62
3 Output Gain 7 0x07 0dB
4 LPF Cutoff Frequency 56 0x38 12kHz
5 Filter Type 1 0x01 PowerBass
6 LPF Resonance 63 0x3F 6.3
7 Bit Assign 4 0x04
8 Emphasis 1 0x01 On
10 Dry/Wet 88 0x58 D<W24
15 Input Mode 1 0x01 Stereo

Since we need Lo-Fi on both style parts 9 and 10, I configured the variation effect as an XG SYSTEM effect. Parts 9 and 10 also require variation send (MIDI CC#94) set to 127. Add a CC#94 message to parts 9 and 10 in the set-up measure. Here are the MIDI System Exclusive messages to add to the set-up measure:

F0 43 10 4C 02 01 40 5E 13 F7       Variation type 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 5A 01 F7 Variation SYSTEM
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 56 40 F7 Variation return
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 58 10 F7 Variation send to reverb
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 59 10 F7 Variation send to chorus
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 42 00 04 F7 Variation parameter 1
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 44 00 62 F7 Variation parameter 2
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 46 00 07 F7 Variation parameter 3
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 48 00 38 F7 Variation parameter 4
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4A 00 01 F7 Variation parameter 5
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4C 00 3F F7 Variation parameter 6
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4E 00 04 F7 Variation parameter 7
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 50 00 01 F7 Variation parameter 8
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 54 00 58 F7 Variation parameter 10
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 75 01 F7 Variation parameter 15

At this point, you could save the MIDI to “DresdenAtNight.sty” and load it into your arranger as an SFF1 format style. The arranger should create the style CASM segment. As an alternative, you can add a CASM segment to the SMF with Jørgen Sørensen’s CASM editor. You might as well download his OTS editor, too, and use it to add OTS voice settings to the new style as well. Or, you can do this sort of work on your arranger itself. Mid- and high-end Yamaha arrangers save styles as SFF2 format, which is one way to convert from SFF1 to SFF2. I highly recommend Jørgen’s site, tools and style creation tutorial.

BTW, you can recreate Dresden At Night on MODX (Montage). Create a new MODX performance with 8Z Heavy Hearts and Dark Bass. 8Z Heavy Hearts has the appropriate arpeggios by default. You’ll need to assign different arpeggios to the Dark Bass part. Modify effects as needed. Choose and add pad or lead voices to give your right hand something to do. Done! Use the Scene buttons to switch arpeggio groups.

Copyright © 2021 Paul J. Drongowski


Mobile Music Sequencer mixer

In recent posts, I mentioned that Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer (MMS) sends MIDI messages which conform to the XG voice and effects standard. Here’s a few screen shots to illustrate my observation.

The first thing everyone sees is the MMS Phrase Viewer. This is where you assemble phrases into sections. (It’s kind of like the Ableton Live Session View turned on its side.) Each section is a group of phrases which fit together musically and can be triggered together. [Click images to enlarge.] The song shown here is a rough attempt at Dub Reggae.

Each horizontal lane is a musical part. There are eight parts and they correspond to MIDI channels one to eight. Voice Link is enabled, so the voice for each part is determined by the pre-assigned voice for each phrase. MMS sends MIDI Bank Select MSB, Bank Select LSB and Program Change messages for each part. (See the Mobile Music Sequencer Reference page for more details including a list of voices.)

For this song, I used only six voices; that’s why there are two empty lanes. I intend to convert the song to a PSR/Tyros style. Thinking ahead, the parts 1 to 8 correspond to the Rhythm 1, Rhythm 2, Bass, Chord 1, Chord 2, Pad, Phrase 1 and Phrase 2 channels in a PSR/Tyros style. Enough about styles and style conversion for the moment.

When you tap the MIXER button, MMS displays its mixer view. From here, you can control the volume, pan, variation effect send, chorus effect send, and reverb send levels for each part.

These knobs are live. Each knob transmits its corresponding MIDI message as defined in the Yamaha XG architecture. The knobs transmit CC#7 volume, CC#10 pan, CC#94 variation send level, CC#92 chorus send level and CC#91 reverb send level. Thus, MMS does double-duty as a MIDI controller!

Tap the EEFECT button and MMS displays the effect connection view. This view shows the signal routing through the variation, chorus and reverb effect units. These knobs are live, too, and send XG MIDI messages to tweak the internal signal levels. This display is very handy if you’re an XG guy trying to spiff up a song.

The blue boxes with the left and right arrows select the effect algorithm assigned to the unit. (See the MMS Reference for details.) These buttons let you scoot quickly through different effects until you find the effect that strikes your fancy. MMS transmits the XG MIDI message to select the effect and it sends sixteen additional messages to set the effect parameters.

Speaking of effect parameters, tap the VAR button. (Tap CHO or REV.)

MMS displays sliders allowing you to tweeze the effect parameters. The screen shot (above) shows the parameters for the TEMPO DELAY effect algorithm.

Well, there you go. MMS is not only a sequencer, but it doubles as a MIDI controller. If you would like to know more, please read my earlier article Make music with MMS on PSR/TYROS.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Getting started with style files

The question of getting started with the creation and editing of PSR/Tyros/Genos style files arose on the PSR Tutorial Forum. I’m re-posting my reply here.

The best suggestion that I can make is reading Jørgen’s style creation course:

If folks don’t like PDF, there are on-line versions of the same articles:

Honest to goodness, Jørgen has done a super job!

Another excellent resource is “Style Files – Introduction and Details” by Peter Wierzba and Michael Bedesem:

This document and other very useful information are published on Peter’s site:

Anyone who is interested in creating new styles really needs to know what is inside of a style file — not just hand-waving, but to know in enough depth to start editing.

Another alternative is the high-level tool MidiSoft Style Magic:

Even then, a modest amount of background information is needed.

Once someone has the background, I encourage them to read a few existing articles at my site. Parts 2 and 3 of the series:

describe translation of a Standard Midi File to a style. Another potentially useful article is about converting the Yamaha DJX II patterns to styles:

So, there are already quite a few resources available. Jørgen, Michael and Peter have really shown the way!

One more suggestion.

Crack open a style file with a DAW and look inside. First, change the file name extension to “.mid” by renaming the file. Then, open the file in a DAW like Sonar or Cubase. Poke around.

A Yamaha style file consists of “chunks.” A style file must have a MIDI chunk and may contain a CASM chunk and an OTS chunk. The CASM chunk holds the NTR/NTT information that you can see and edit in PSR Style Creator. The OTS chunk holds the OTS information.

DAWs ignore the Yamaha chunks, so if you change the MIDI file, it won’t have the original CASM and/or OTS chunks. That’s where Jørgen’s style split/splice tool comes into play. The tool splits a style file into MIDI and non-MIDI parts. After editing, the tool splices the MIDI and non-MIDI parts back together again to make a complete style file.

If someone gets this far, they can move mountains. 🙂

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Mobile Music Sequencer revisited

Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer (MMS) is an app that doesn’t seem to get as much love as it deserves. MMS is a rather complete MIDI sequencing tool to create new songs using a phrase-based approach. (Cost: $15.99USD) The MMS user interface has a superficial resemblance to Ableton Live. It has a phrase screen which lets you assemble preset or user phrases into song sections, e.g., phrases that play as a group. Once you have one or more song sections, you then assemble the sections in the linear song screen. You may also create new phrases of your own in a piano roll editor/recorder and you may record solos and such directly into a song track.

MMS includes an XG-architecture sound engine although the voice set is limited to a General MIDI (GM) subset and a collection of MMS-only voices. Voice quality is “just OK” and may be why MMS adoption is slow. However, as I’ve recently discovered, there are a few hidden gems like a Mega Voice clean electric guitar! DSP effects are basic and follow the XG effects architecture. I have summarized the sound set, DSP effects, etc. on my Mobile Music Sequencer Reference page.

Of course, you can mixdown and export full audio songs from MMS. MMS supports SoundCloud, Dropbox, and iTunes file transfer. You can also export a song to a Standard MIDI File (SMF). The SMF has eight parts — one part for each of MMS’s eight song tracks. If you choose one of the supported targets (Tyros 5, Motif XF, MOX, etc.), MMS inserts bank select and program change MIDI events to select an appropriate voice for each track. Unfortunately, MMS doesn’t export volume, pan or effect data, so the resulting SMF is quite naked. Ooops! This is one area where MMS could be and should be drastically improved.

MMS’s voicing for Tyros is not very adventurous. On the up side, SMFs targeted for Tyros should work quite well on other PSRs, too. There is one voicing issue which should be fixed. The MMS clean electric Mega Voice (“Clean Guitar 2”) should be mapped to the good old PSR/Tyros clean guitar mega voice. Right now, it’s mapped to the regular clean guitar voice and the guitar FX sounds are whack.

Yamaha have rather quietly enhanced MMS’s capabilities. MMS is now up to version 3, including chord templates, extraction of chord progressions a la Chord Tracker, and more. The last minor update made MMS compatibile with Apple iOS 11. I hope Yamaha add Genos and Montage support because MMS can communicate directly (via wired MIDI, Bluetooth MIDI or wireless LAN) to its supported synths and arrangers.

Given the amount of kvetching about the shortcomings of the Montage sequencer, I’m surprised that more Montage people haven’t picked up MMS. Same for Genos or PSR, for that matter. Maybe its the lack of direct Montage or Genos support?

Where you from, boy?

Recently, I got the itch to create a few new PSR-compatible styles. I’ve always felt that MMS would make a good base for a style editor. You can quickly slam together phrases into a song section and see if they play well together. (Same as Ableton Live, I might say.) I mix and match phrases into song sections then export the sections to an SMF. Each MMS song section is a PSR style section (MAIN A, MAIN B, etc.) I load the SMF into a DAW where I add style section markers, SysEx set-up data, volume, pan, etc. When satisfied, I add a style CASM section using Jørgen Sørensen’s CASM editor. [Be sure to check out all of Jørgen’s excellent tools.]

Given the content, I can just about do this in my sleep. It’s a fairly mechanical process once you understand it and do it, say, fifty times. 🙂

About that content…

MMS comes with ten styles (i.e., groups of phrases) in the initial download. Please see the table at the end of this article. The ten styles are rock and pop. If you’re looking for R&B, dance, jazz, electronic or hip-hop, you’ll want to buy one of the content packs offered as an in-app purchase. I’ve include a table for these packs, too, at the end of the article. The genre packs are $3.99USD each. Yamaha also offer the multi-genre QY pack ($7.99USD) with phrases taken from the Yamaha QY-70 (QY-100) handheld sequencer. I did a little QY-70 mining myself.

Now for the usual Yamaha archeology…

The “MM” in “MMS” is a little bit ironic. The MMS phrases are lifted from the (infamous) “Mini Mo” mm6 and mm8 keyboards. The Mini Mo touted voices taken from the Motif series, but the mm6 and mm8 didn’t really know if they wanted to be an arranger or a synthesizer. In that regard, the Mini Mo is a unique functional hybrid in Yamaha’s bipolar world. (“You’re either a synth or you’re an arranger.” Digital pianos excepted, of course.)

So, yep, MMS offers almost all of that old (ca. 2006) Mini Mo goodness. You don’t get the fun ethnic patterns (Turkish, African, Indian), tho’.

If you break into your rich neighbor’s house to steal his stereo, you might as well take the TV set, too. The Mini Mo arpeggios are incorporated into the the Yamaha Synth Arp & Drum Pad app. If you still can get the Synth Arp & Drum Pad app, snag it right away. It’s being discontinued.

How does it sound on Genos?

Not bad. Even though the target voices are rather vanilla, an MMS-derived style on Genos sounds pretty darned good.

List of MMS drum kits

Bank MSB Bank LSB Prog# PC# Drum kit
7FH 00H 1 00H Standard Kit
7FH 00H 26 19H Analog T8 Kit
7FH 00H 27 1AH Analog T9 Kit
7FH 00H 28 1BH Dance Kit
7FH 00H 41 28H Brush Kit
7FH 00H 84 53H Break Kit
7FH 00H 85 54H Hip Hop Kit 1
7FH 00H XX xxH Hip Hop Kit 2 (Hip Hop)
7FH 00H XX xxH Hip Hop Kit 3 (Hip Hop)
7FH 00H 88 57H R&B Kit 1 (R&B)
7FH 00H 89 58H R&B Kit 2 (R&B)
3FH 20H 1 00H SFX Kit
3FH 20H 2 01H Percussion Kit
7FH 00H XX xxH Dubstep Kit (Electronic)
7FH 00H XX xxH Elct.Dub Kit 1 (Electronic)
7FH 00H XX xxH Elct.Dub Kit 2 (Dance)
7FH 00H XX xxH Epic FX (Electronic)
7FH 00H XX xxH Gate Drum Kit (Electronic)
7FH 00H XX xxH Short FX (Electronic)
7FH 00H XX xxH New Pop Kit (Dance)
7FH 00H XX xxH Trance FX Menu (Dance)
7FH 00H XX xxH Trance Power Kit (Dance)

List of styles

The following preset styles are installed with Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer when you buy MMS.

Category: Rock/Pop Jazz/World
BluesRck Funky Jaz
ChartPop JzGroove
ChartRck Reggae
FunkPpRk
HardRock
PianoBld
PowerRck
RkShffle
RockPop
RootRock

Here are the styles included in each optional, in-app purchase pack:

R&B Electronic Dance HipHop
IzzleRB Ambient Dncehall AcidJazz
JazzyRnB Analog Dncfloor Amb Rap
RB Chrt1 Chillout E-Disco ButiqHH
RB Chrt2 Dubstep E-DubPop EastRap
RnB Bld1 ElctDub EleDance HipHopPp
RnB Bld2 Electron ElktPop1 JazRemix
RnB Pop1 Minimal ElktPop2 SouthRap
RnB Pop2 Techno FunkyHse WestRap
RnB Soul Undrgrnd LatinJaz
M-Trance

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Java note mapper (v0.1)

Here’s a little bit of Java code to brighten your day.

Two weeks ago, I described the additional hi-hat notes in the Yamaha Genos™ Revo drum kits. The hi-hat sounds replace noises like sequence click, etc. in the lowest numbered notes of the MIDI scale. Thus, a Genos factory style wheezes, zings and clicks when it is played on a legacy PSR or Tyros arranger workstation.

Quite a few people would like to try the new Genos styles, but the hi-hat notes pose a major barrier to conversion (i.e., porting a Genos style to legacy PSR/Tyros). Jørgen Sørensen’s Revo Drum Cleaner suppresses these sounds, but does not remap the Genos hi-hat notes to General MIDI (GM) standard notes.

That’s where note remapper comes in. Note remapper is an experimenter’s kit, not a finished tool. Jørgen (and Michael Bedesem) have written many rather nice tools for the PSR/Tyros arranger workstations. Note remapper gets the job done from the command line, so don’t expect a graphical user interface (GUI) or even a nice installer! It’s an experimenter’s kit.

However, what you do get is source code. Here is the ZIP file containing source, precompiled Java classses (executables), map files and examples.

What else can you do with note mapper? Well, note mapper operates on any Standard MIDI File (SMF). Thus, it’s not just a PSR/Tyros utility. Maybe you want to write a Java program of your own. The source code will give you a good starting point. Copy and modify to your heart’s content.

If you are into converting PSR/Tyros styles, take notice (pun) that note mapper changes both the MIDI note number and velocity according to maps in the files keymap.txt and velmap.txt, respectively. Therefore, you can also map to and from Mega Voices.

Interested? Then please read on. The following text is taken from the README files.

Description

This Java program maps the notes in a standard MIDI file according to a key (note number) map and a velocity map. Use it to map the Yamaha Revo hi-hat/drum sounds. Or, use it to map to and from Mega Voice. It’s all up to you and how you design your key and velocity maps.

The note mapper is launched from the command line (no GUI). There are two command line options:

   -v  Verbose flag
   -w  Write default keymap.txt, velmap.txt and hhmap.txt files

The -w option gives the user a quick start by writing a few default map files. Both -v and -w are optional.

The rest of the command line consists of an (optional) MIDI channel number and the name of the MIDI file to be mapped. The channel number must be an integer in the range [1:16]. Only notes in the specified channel are mapped. The default channel is 10 (the GM/XG drum channel).

The note mapper writes a new file named mapped.mid. It’s up to the user to rename or save this file. If the file in not renamed or saved, it will be overwritten when note mapper is run again.

The note mapper assumes there are two files, keymap.txt and velmap.txt, in the working directory where the note mapper is launched. The note mapper reports an error if it cannot read these two files. The default key and velocity maps preserve the input; the input notes are sent to the output without change.

A map file consists of 128 positive integers in the range [0:127]. Each integer defines how its corresponding note or velocity value is mapped to a new value. Essentially, each integer in the file is loaded into a 128 byte map array indexed by either the incoming MIDI note number or the incoming MIDI velocity value.

The hhmap.txt maps the Revo hi-hat note numbers to General MIDI hi-hat note numbers.

    Revo notes        GM notes
    -------------     ----------------
    13 14 15 16   --> 42 Hi-Hat Closed
    21            --> 44 Hi-Hat Pedal
    17 18 19 20   --> 46 Hi-Hat Open
    22            --> 55 Splash Cymbal

The Examples directory contains two example Genos styles. Be sure to read the READ_THIS.TXT file in that directory, too!

Example command lines

Map the notes for channel 10 in the MIDI file named “Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid”.

    java MapNotes 10 Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid

Write the default keymap.txt, velmap.txt and hhmap.txt files before mapping:

    java MapNotes -w 10 Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid

The default keymap.txt and velmap.txt files do not change/map notes, i.e.,
they are the “identity mapping.”

How to use note mapper to change a style

To use the note mapper on a style, you must split the style into its MIDI and non-MIDI parts using Jørgen Sørensen’s Split/Splice tool. Note mapper, like most commercial MIDI tools, does not recognize or retain non-MIDI data. Thus, you need to run the style through Split/Splice to save the non-MIDI information.

After splitting the style, run the style through the note mapper. The note mapper writes a file named “mapped.txt”. Splice mapped.txt with the non-MIDI data produced in the preceding step. Splicing the mapped MIDI data with the non-MIDI data produces a complete style file (MIDI+CASM+OTS).

Transfer the style file to your PSR/Tyros and revoice the style parts, test the style, edit the OTS, and so forth.

If you don’t like how the mapped file sounds, then you can reuse the non-MIDI data and do another map/splice, assuming that you didn’t modify the OTS.

Compiling

The distribution comes with source code (*.java files) and precompiled class files (*.class files).

You can, of course, modify the source code and recompile. You need the Java development kit which includes the Java compiler, package definitions, and so forth. To recompile, just enter:

    javac MapNotes.java
    javac NoteMapper.java

I have included source for a quick and dirty MIDI file dumper:

    javac QuickDumper.java
    javac QuickDump.java

You may prefer to dump MIDI files using one of the much better tools written by Jørgen Sørensen or Michael Bedesem. See:

The Examples directory

The Examples directory contains two example styles: Mr.Soul and SoulSupreme. Each style has several files, so here’s a little guide.

    Mr.Soul_factory.T552.prs    Original Genos factory style
    Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid    Original Genos MIDI part
    Mr.Soul_factory.T552.nmi    Original Genos non-MIDI part
    Mr.Soul_mapped.T552.mid     MIDI with mapped hi-hats
    Mr.Soul_mapped.T552.sty     New style file with mapped hi-hats

The *.class files are the Java executable files. Example command line:

    java MapNotes 10 Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid

The note mapper produces a file named “mapped.mid” which you may rename to something else, e.g., Mr.Soul_mapped.T552.mid.

keymap.txt and velmap.txt are the key (note number) and velocity map files needed by note mapper. hhmap.txt is my initial hi-hat note map.

Workflow

The overall workflow is:

               Mr.Soul_factory.T552.prs
                          |
                          |
                          V
              Jørgen's Split/Slice (split)
              |                          |
              |                          |
              V                          V
  Mr.Soul_factory.T552.mid   Mr.Soul_factory.T552.nmi
              |                          |
              |                          |
              V                          |
         Note mapper                     |
              |                          |
              V                          |
      Rename mapped.mid                  |
              |                          |
              V                          |
  Mr.Soul_mapped.T552.mid                |
              |                          |
              |                          |
              V                          V
             Jørgen's Split/Slice  (splice)
                          |
                          |
                          V
               Mr.Soul_mapped.T552.sty

Copyright (c) 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Mega Voice in PSR/Tyros styles

Yes, this site still answers questions and doesn’t just publish rumors and FUD. 🙂

Recently, a member of the PSR Tutorial Forum needed help using a Megavoice in a custom Tyros style. My answer seemed to be useful to a broader audience, so I decided to post my answer here. The information applies to PSR arrangers, too, because the Tyros and PSR share the same SFF1 and SFF2 (SFF GE) style formats.

Megavoice guitars are very different than regular guitar voices.

Regular voices are the usual MIDI voice: 128 velocity levels and only one basic sound. For example, nylon guitar is just the pitched, melodic sound of the notes either louder or softer depending on note velocity.

Megavoice guitars (and other Megavoices) are different. Please look at the Megavoice Map starting on page 16 of the Tyros Data List PDF.

Let’s take a look at the Mega NylonGuitar voice. For MIDI notes B5 and below, the MIDI velocity is broken into eight (8) ranges:

    1- 20 Open soft
   21- 40 Open med
   41- 60 Open hard
   61- 75 Dead
   76- 90 Mute
   91-105 Hammer
  106-120 Slide
  121-127 Harmonics

Each range plays a different kind of sound. So, the MIDI velocity determines which guitar sound. Then, the velocity within that limited range determines how loud it will be.

Example 1: MIDI note A4, velocity 38 makes an Open Med guitar sound which is loud.

Example 2: MIDI note A4, velocity 2 makes an Open Med guitar sound which is quiet.

Example 3: MIDI note A4, velocity 110, makes a Slide guitar sound.

Now, let’s look at the last two columns in the Megavoice map, again, Mega NylonGuitar voice. For MIDI notes between C6 and B7, the Tyros plays a Strum noise. The velocity in this case determines the Strum noise loudness over the full range 1-127.

For MIDI notes above C8, the Tyros plays a Fret noise. The velocity determines the fret noise volume and is full range 1-127.

Example 4: MIDI note D8, velocity 127 plays a very loud fret noise.

The Megavoice mapping makes it more difficult to program (sequence) guitar parts than regular voices. The user needs to make sure that the MIDI note is in the desired range (B5 and under, above C6, etc.) and that the MIDI velocity controls what you want.

Yamaha’s proprietary CASM has a few settings to control Mega Voices. The bad news — you can’t change some of these settings.

When I program Megavoice into a style, I use two parts for each Megavoice:

    Part 1: Pitched notes -- all note B5 and below
            NTR: ROOT TRANS or GUITAR
            NTT: MELODY or CHORD
    Part 2: Noise notes -- all notes above C6
            NTR: ROOT FIXED
            NTT: BYPASS

You want the pitched notes to transpose. You don’t want the noise notes to transpose. (Please think of the noise notes like drum notes/sounds.)

I wrote a three part series of articles about capturing Motif/MOX arpeggios and converting them to PSR/Tyros styles:

If you don’t care about Motif/MOX, then skip part one. Parts two and three are more generally useful and describe the conversion of a MIDI file to a style. Part three concentrates on Megavoice conversion.

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

FreePlay style deconstructed

Yamaha FreePlay styles for PSR and Tyros are terrific for music without rhythm instruments and strong rubato (variation in tempo to achieve a musical or emotional effect).

I’m customizing a few FreePlay styles with the intention of using them for liturgical music. In the first pass, I’m changing the OTS voice settings and I’m making a registration that calls up my go-to voices for traditional and contemporary church music.

Of course, my curiosity took over and I had to take a look inside of a FreePlay style or two using a DAW and Michael B’s StyleDump program. I have attached a text file with my working notes. The notes may be too much detail for most readers, so here is a quick summary of what I found. I’ve looked at only two styles so far: EtherealHymn (taken from the CVP-609) and OrganPlay1 (taken from the Church Organ expansion pack).

First off, how does it sound and feel to play a FreePlay style? The accompaniment is triggered and guided by the left hand as usual. (I haven’t tried FreePlay with AI fingering, etc. yet.) The accompaniment plays a gentle pad-like chord and a simple bass. The simplicity provides a blank canvas on which you can embellish to your heart’s content.

You might guess that the MAIN and FILL IN sections are quite simple and you would be right. The MAIN sections in the OrganPlay1 and EtherealHymn styles hold notes for 8 and 32 measures, respectively. The chord source in each case is CMaj7. The BASS track holds a single note (e.g., C2) through the entire section. The chord or pad tracks hold the rest of the notes that make up the CMaj7 chord: E, G and B. Harmony-wise, that’s it!

The FILL IN sections are similar and hold notes for just one measure because FILL IN sections are only one MIDI bar long.

Without a rhythm track, those looooooooong notes have a timeless quality. A musician would rarily — if ever — hold a chord that long. Thus, MAIN sections typically do not re-trigger.

Yamaha’s genuine contribution lies in the INTRO/ENDING sections and the fun MIDI stuff that happens during the MAIN sections. The INTRO and ENDING sections have more “orchestration” and consist of style appropriate introductory and ending phrases. For my own purposes, I will probably stick to the simple INTRO A and ENDING A sections as it’s generally hard to match up more complicated musical phrases with the main theme itself.

The “MIDI stuff” must have been fun to program. The EtherealHymn style has string and choir tracks. The string track has MIDI expression data (Control Change 11 or “CC11”) that repeatedly ramps up for two measures and down for two measures. The ramp pattern creates alternating string swells up and swells down. Other control change patterns are rather unusual and I’ll leave that for you to explore with a DAW! (All you need to do is to change the “.STY” or “.FPS” extension to “.MID” and import the renamed file into a DAW.)

One could create a basic FreePlay style from scratch. The MIDI notes in the MAIN and FILL IN sections are dirt simple. The fun part would be selecting instrument voices and effects with dynamic elements that give life to the accompaniment. Then there is the creative aspect of driving the voices and effects with MIDI controller data. For INTRO and ENDING sections, a little Bach or Mozart would do.

Hmmm, sounds like a fun wintertime project!