Yamaha VRM vs. VRM Lite

Posted on July 28, 2023 by pj

Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) is one of one of Yamaha’s strongest differentiating technologies. Many of Yamaha’s home and portable digital pianos implement some form of VRM. Up to this point, the CP series stage pianos and other products in the synthesizer (music production) product families do not have VRM. Perhaps this will change in CP Gen 2. Yamaha arranger keyboards do not feature VRM, either. [Some synths and arrangers have a damper resonance insert effect. See “Synthetic fun” below.]

Yamaha Virtual Resonance Modeling [Source: Yamaha]

Sampled piano can sound lifeless even when the damper pedal is depressed. VRM adds a subtle dynamic quality to the overall sound. I tried turning VRM off via Piano Room while holding down notes with the damper pedal applied. There is a subtle difference in the sound. With VRM on, the overall tone (such as the P-515 or DGX-670) is fuller, more dynamic. Personally, I find the effect pleasing enough to regard it as a “must have” feature.

In slightly more technical terms, VRM adds sympathetic resonances such that the piano tone grows (blooms) over the duration of the notes. Acoustic piano makers and technicians go to great lengths to add and tune pleasing harmonics through resonance. Acoustic pianos are incredibly complex machines in the scientific sense!

You’ve probably read Yamaha’s description of VRM on its web site or in an owner’s manual. If you’re unsure of what it all means, then I recommend doing the same experiment yourself and hearing the difference. [Get thee to a dealer.] Whether you like the effect (or not) is personal. If it doesn’t immediately strike your fancy, please read on. Some models let you tweak VRM depth in Piano Room.

VRM technology has evolved since its introduction in 2014. The first models with VRM were the up-scale CLP 575 and 585. Per usual Yamaha practice, VRM trickled out to lower-end models in the 600 series and to the CSP and CVP series. Another thing happened, too. Yamaha began referring to “original VRM” and “enhanced VRM”. Yamaha describes original and enhanced VRM in the following way:

The original VRM (CSP-150/170) calculates the various states of the strings for each of the 88 notes on the keyboard, from one instant to the next, and timing and depth of damper pedals pressed.
Enhanced VRM (CLP-635 / 645 / 675 / 685 / 665GP / 695GP) now also calculates aliquot resonance in the upper octaves, and the full resonance of the soundboard, rim, and frame.

The calculations require some heavy mathematics and are computational intensive. I’ll say more about this in a future post. I will say, now, that VRM is a substantial, technological achievment!

Lately, Yamaha have dropped “original” and “enhanced” in favor of “VRM Lite” and “VRM”. I contacted Yamaha support asking about the specific modeling components supported by VRM and VRM Lite. They replied:

VRM has five components in it:
- Damper resonance
- String resonance
- Body resonance
- Duplex scale resonance
- Damper noise
VRM Lite has two components:
- Damper resonance
- String resonance

As you would expect, VRM Lite is a subset of VRM. I preseume “duplex scale resonance” means Aliquot resonance although technically the two are related, but not identical.

If your Yamaha digital piano has VRM or VRM Lite, you’ll have one or more VRM-related settings at your disposal in Piano Room and/or the Smart Pianist app. The DGX-670, for example, has three settings:

VRM effect ON/OFF
Damper resonance effect depth
String resonance effect depth

Thus, you can ditch VRM entirely, or individually control the amount of damper or string resonance. The latter two settings let you dial in the amount of each effect to suit your preference. P-515 (enhanced VRM) provides five settings:

VRM effect ON/OFF
Damper resonance effect depth
String resonance effect depth
Aliquot resonance effect depth
Body resonance effect depth

Special thanks to Dan (Yamaha Support) who chased down this information for me.

Synthetic fun

Yamaha Montage/MODX, Genos, and other Yamaha synths implement a Damper Resonance effect “that reproduces the rich harmonics and unique sound characteristics of an actual grand piano when using the damper pedal.” [Check the Data List PDF for your particular model.] The Damper Resonance effect depends upon the sustain pedal (Damper Control) — you must depress the sustain (damper) pedal to hear the effect.

For Montage/MODX cheap thrills, select the four-part “CFX Concert” Performance. All four parts assign Damper Resonance to insert effect A. The initial dry/wet balance is set to D21>W or thereabouts. Raise the dry/wet balance to D<W63 — full wet. Now when you strike a note and depress the damper pedal, you’ll hear only the sound of the damper resonance effect.

For further background information about the Damper Resonance effect, check out Half Damper Function, Damper Resonance Effect and Key Off Sample (Motif XF).

Here are my working definitions for Aliquot resonance and duplex scaling.

“Aliquot is a stringing method for pianos that uses extra, un-struck strings in the upper octaves to enhance the tone. These strings sympathetically vibrate with other strings in an acoustic piano, resonating with overtones, and adding richness, brilliance and complex color to the sound. Since they do not have a damper, they will continue sounding even after you release your hands from the keyboard.” [Source: Yamaha P-515 Owner’s Manual]

“Duplex scaling, built into some grand pianos, can be found on that portion of the string in the treble section between the back bridge pin and the hitch pin which is normally the non-speaking part of the string and dampened with a strip of cloth. Where there is duplex scaling this section is deliberately left open to resonate in sympathy with the speaking part of the string and add brightness to the upper partials.” [Source: Cambridge Piano Tuner]

These two Yamaha videos are still informative after 13 years: Stereo Sustain Samples and String Resonance.

MODX: Character Pianos

Posted on July 20, 2023 by pj

As part of the Yamaha MONTAGE bon voyage, Blake announced the availability of a free MONTAGE expansion pack: Character Pianos. The pack contains three pianos: U1 Upright, Nashville C3 and Felt Piano. There are fifteen Performances based on the new pianos.

I really dug the Felt Piano from the get-go, so I had to get this for myself. One of the beauties of MONTAGE and MODX is the ability to share content between the two platforms. Let’s see what happens on MODX.

Installing a library – quick and dirty

Here is my quick and dirty guide to install an MODX library (expansion pack). Further details are described in the MODX Reference Manual.

If you’re looking for content, including the new Character Pianos, , browse the Yamaha USA shop. You will need a free account in order to download. Add a library to your cart and check out. Once you get a transaction confirmation, download the library from the “My Libraries” section of your account.

If you’re deciding how to use your expansion memory, here are the installed sizes of a few popular libraries:

    Library name        Size 
    ----------------   ------ 
    Bosendorfer        409MB 
    Chick Mark V       401MB 
    Montage_expanded   175MB 
    CS80               471MB 
    Character Pianos   140MB

Copy the new library (file extension X7L) to a USB flash drive. Oh, yeah, make sure the library file is unzipped!

In order to load a new library you need 1. sufficient free waveform space and 2. a free library slot. MODX allows up to eight libraries (library slots).

To check free waveform space:

    Utility -> Contents -> Data utility -> Waveform

Display libraries and check number of slots

To display installed libraries and to check number of used library slots:

  Utility -> Contents -> Data utility -> Library

To install a new library (assuming free waveform space and library slots):

    Utility -> Contents -> Load
    Choose Content Type: Library File
    Tap the library file to load (X7L file extension)

To import a specific, new Performance from an installed library into
the User Bank:

    Utility -> Contents -> Library Import
    Touch Import to User Bank (moves Performances and Waveforms)

Don’t want to read? I recommend Yamaha Montage MODX FAQ 10 Install a Sound Library on Rudy’s Hobby Channel. It will show you the way.

So, what up?

The Felt Piano is truly nice and gentle. Of course, I’m now using it on everything whether it needs it or not. 🙂

MONTAGE/MODX Character Piano Performances

I like the Nashville C3 more than I care to admit. It should cut through a mix. The U1 Upright is OK, but I don’t have much need for it by itself.

Some of the Performances layer the C3 or U1 with the Felt. These combinations sound pretty darned useful as the Felt Piano adds depth and ambience while the C3 or U1 cuts through.

A word of caution, tho’. The “Felt Mono-SP Piano” Performance is possibly broken. It produces snap, crackle and pop as soon as it is selected before a single key is struck. Now, that ain’t right. I haven’t tried to troubleshoot the problem by deleting the library, re-installing and so forth. Hmmm. It is free and intended for MONTAGE, after all.

Update

Special thanks to Kevin at the YamahaSynth forum. He investigated the “Felt Mono-SP Piano” Performance and isolated the snap, crackle and pop to its vinyl record noise effect:

Edited: I played with the performance a bit and found the noise is there with the Superknob turned all the way to the left but goes away as the knob is turned to the right (clockwise). Going further into effects I found the noise is coming from the “digital turntable, old record” effect in the “B” slot. the noise goes away when that’s disabled. I guess that’s the way it was designed but I have to ask “why?”: sounds like a defect rather than “effect” in this case.

A few other punters thought it was a defect, too!

“Felt Mono-SP Piano” Digital turntable effect

Using the vinyl record effect is a cool notion by itself, but why does the effect persist into other performances when they are selected? That seems like inappropriate behavior, AKA a bug in handling the effect pipelines, maybe? I wonder if this is an unwanted side-effect of Seamless Sound Switching (SSS) where the synth engine keeps the previous Performance alive after a switch?

Montage: Thank you for playing!

Posted on July 18, 2023 by pj

Splashed all over the Interwebs — Yamaha Montage is discontinued after a seven year run.

A tribute

I quite liked Montage from the moment I played it. I opted not to buy it because I need a light-weight gigging instrument and the 61 was simply too much to schlep and set up every week (and/or rehearsal). Thus, I was positively elated when Yamaha announced the MODX as the younger sibling which had all of the Montage sounds I was craving.

As a MODX player, I had the benefit of Yamaha’s new “platform” approach to product development and lifetime management. Instead of forcing customers to buy a new instrument every few years in order to get new features, Yamaha provided periodic updates to Montage. Because Montage and MODX share large amounts of code and content, I got the new stuff as it trickled over to MODX.

I also got the benefit of all the Montage usage tips, explanations and other content posted by Phil Clendennin and Blake Angelos. Thank you, fellows!

The parsing

And, now, everyone is parsing Blake’s announcement. 🙂

“As much as we would have liked to, we cannot develop the current MONTAGE any further.”

Yep, the current hardware platform has run its course. (Even more about the internal design here.)

There is huge expressed demand for a virtual analog engine. The AN-X trademark drove the feeding frenzy throwing chum in the water. For quite some time, I’ve maintained the argument that SWP70 alone is not enough to implement VA synthesis with multiple channels (polyphony). Yamaha tried grafting AN/VL into an AWM synth — the wonderful EX5 — and know the limitations of that approach. Plus, would a punter really be happy controlling VA through the MONTAGE front panel?

“And one more thing… the next generation MONTAGE synthesizer is coming in October.”

October is the important fact, here. If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you know I’m looking for an 88 at home in the studio. If the new ax has wonderful pianos and a decent 88 action, count me in.

Will the new synth bear the mark “MONTAGE”? After a lifetime of choosing variable names, I don’t really care what it’s called. 🙂 How does it play? How does it sound? What’s inside?

Wither MODX+? I think we will see, again, a major split between the MODX product line and the future MONTAGE line. Yamaha is going to monetize those new features (AN-X) and I expect MODX+ to be left behind. That’s marketing for ya.

A gift

“As a thank you we are providing a final set of content free of charge for all MONTAGE owners.” The pack includes three of the character pianos that were released for the YC/CP product lines: Yamaha U1 upright piano, Yamaha C3 grand piano and Felt Yamaha U1 upright piano. I love that felt piano!

I expect to see all of these pianos on the other side along with CFX and Bösendorfer Imperial. Pretty please, Yamaha, with all that extra DSP, may we have VRM, too?

The waiting

So, there you go.

As to the Interwebs, it will be groundhog day all over again as people churn the same bloomin’ rumors, half-truths and nonsense.

As to me, I was getting set to spring for an 88 digital piano. Maybe this is the kick I need to be patient? Yamaha have been rolling out new product like Christmas morn. October isn’t that far away, is it, Santa?

Korg Nautilus AT — Upgrade!

Posted on July 14, 2023 by pj

Korg have announced the Nautilus AT music workstation. As the name suggests, Nautilus AT 88 and 61 have aftertouch. For some reason, the Nautilus-73 doesn’t get an AT version.

Well, of course, you can read all about it on Korg’s web site. Two points to be made here.

First, I was smacked by the first two statements on the Nautilus AT page: “NAUTILUS is KORG’s flagship workstation. The successor to the wildly popular KRONOS, …” Yep, Kronos is dead, long live Kronos. No point in pining away for a successor as Nautilus AT is it. No point wishing that Elway will return and put an end to Russell Wilson, either.

Kronos was an interesting build, being based upon a commodity Intel Atom motherboard. The weight and heat dissipation of the Kronos demonstrated the limitations of such an approach — essentially putting a mini desktop computer into a box with a keyboard. The Raspberry Pi-based models (e.g., Wavestate, OPSIX) are technologically more viable.

Second, Korg are finally doing what I’ve wished for a long time — upgrade your existing keyboard instead of discarding it:

Existing owners of 61 and 88 key NAUTILUS* need not miss out. KORG is rolling out an upgrade service that updates both the hardware and software of your keyboard, transforming your NAUTILUS into a NAUTILUS AT. For more information, and pricing of the upgrade service where you are, contact the KORG customer service team in your territory.

Let’s face it, not that much changes inside most New! Improved! synths. Usually the digital logic board is a new design, but the keyboard, display and other peripherals are largely the same.

Instead of dumping the old synth into a landfill, why not upgrade the electronics (or keybed) in the old platform?

Korg UK are somewhat ahead of the USA having a Nautilus AT Upgrade page:

Available exclusively from Korg UK to customers in the UK and Ireland, the service includes a hardware and software upgrade by a Korg service engineer alongside the collection and return of your Nautilus.

Must be nice to live on a small island. 🙂 I don’t think USA folk will get pick-up and return by a friendly Korg rep. The price quoted is £429 or about $560 USD depending upon currency fluctuations. If the hardware mod involves changing out the keybed, that’s a pretty reasonable charge.

Yamaha? Roland? Casio? Kawai? Nord? Are you watching? We are.

Yamaha CSP Gen 2 digital pianos

Posted on July 13, 2023 by pj

Yamaha are on a tear. In recent months, they have announced major additions to their digital piano product lines:

That is an impressive list of new product announcements. Clearly, Yamaha’s engineering and manufacturing teams were quite busy during the pandemic and global slow-down.

Yamaha have not yet updated all of its regional Web sites. If you can’t find the new Piaggero models on the USA site, check the European site.

Yesterday, Yamaha announced the second generation CSP series 200 digital pianos! I’m awaiting a P-515 successor — shouldn’t be long now that Yamaha have updated virtually every other digital piano offering.

Yamaha are reinventing the home digital piano. Yeah, every manufacturer offers a range of models from value-oriented entry pianos to mid-life crisis parlor toys. 🙂 The Yamaha CSP series are an interesting take on home players. The CSP front panel has exactly one button — the ubiquitous Yamaha FUNCTION button. The button is a minimalist’s gateway to the internal functions within, if you want them.

By minimizing front panel controls, customers aren’t confronted by a panel full of buttons, lights, knobs, sliders and other off-putting (and confusing) gizmos. A player can walk up to a CSP, turn it on and play a decent digital representation of an acoustic piano, both touch and sound. CSPs aren’t stripped down and have all the good stuff like CFX, Bösendorfer Imperial, Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) and GrandTouch.

A CSP piano really comes alive through the Smart Pianist app. In fact, the Smart Pianist app is required in order to make the most of the CSP’s capabilities. The CSP is designed for people who want to learn piano and have fun doing it. A matrix of LEDs above the keys create a waterfall display showing when and where to strike the keys. Smart Pianist knows the score [pun] and controls all of this. When the player is ready for reading, Smart Pianist displays the score. Thanks to Chord Tracker and other software smarts, Smart Pianist can generate a score from audio. Thus, Smart Pianist and CSP gamify the experience of learning piano.

Play-along is an important aspect of the CSP approach. I don’t know about you, but I have the most fun playing along with other people, a backing track or creating my own backing through auto-accompaniment. Yes, the CSP has auto-accompaniment with a zillion styles.

The new CSP models are CSP-295GP, CSP-295, CSP-275 and CSP-255. Judging from the initial pricing, I expect these models to replace the CSP-150 and CSP-170.

I read through the data list PDF. The new CSPs have more voices and styles than the Yamaha DGX-670. In terms of voices, drum kits, styles and chord recognition, you have all the main elements of a Yamaha mid-level arranger (PSR-SX700 and PSR-SX900). In this respect, the new CSP models are a terrific value and, frankly, I’m jealous! I doubt if the forthcoming P-515 successor will have such outstanding non-piano voices.

If you own an arranger keyboard, you’re already set although you probably don’t have Bösendorfer, GrandTouch, VRM, streaming LED lights or Smart Pianist. You might think that the CSP is lacking for style control buttons and such, but please consider this notion — Yamaha are evolving the CSP and other digital pianos to be “adaptive instruments.” An adaptive instrument follows chords across the entire keyboard (i.e., AI Full Keyboard fingering) and changes style sections depending upon your playing strength and the number of notes you play (i.e., Adaptive Styles). Brilliant! The instrument should and can follow the player instead of the other way around. Who needs buttons?

The Yamaha P-S500 has many features in common with the CSP series including the streaming light note display. The P-S500 puts it all into a quasi-portable form factor. I would jump at the P-S500 except for its Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) keyboard. After playing P-515 (NWX action), I just can’t return to GHS. I need to switch to a for-real Petrof acoustic grand at church and I don’t want to compromise. [Stubborn me!]

I’ve collected links to my remarks about CSP Gen 1, DGX-670, etc.:

Thanks for reading!

Yamaha P-145 and P-225 digital pianos

Posted on July 12, 2023 by pj

Last week, Yamaha announced two new members of the P-series portable pianos: Yamaha P-145 and P-225. The Australians got to roll out new models first this time around. The P-145 replaces the old P-45 and the P-225 replaces the old P-125.

Both pianos feature a new slim, minimalist design with forward-firing internal speakers. Yamaha must have observed Casio’s success with slender slabs and decided to join the party. The slim design reminds me of my first electric “piano”, the Crumar Roadrunner. 🙂

The dawn of Yamaha P-225 — touch the GHC monolith!

Unlike the Roadrunner, the new P-models sound darned good. The P-225 features the CFX grand and the P-145 features the CFIIIS. The CFIIIS samples are tried and true, having finally trickled down to the entry level. The P-225 CFX is warmer and has more depth (to my ears) than the CFIIIS. The P-225 also has VRM Lite and key-off samples. Polyphony is 256 (P-225) versus 64 (P-145). The P-225 is further enhanced by “Wall EQ”, Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC), and Stereophonic Optimizer.

Speaking of outputs, both have two stereo headphone jacks. The P-225 adds left and right AUX OUT jacks. Amplifier output is 7 Watts per channel for both models. The P-145 has two oval 12cm by 8cm speakers. The P-225 has two oval 12cm by 8cm speakers and adds a 5cm high frequency driver.

The P-225 has 24 voices to the P-145’s 10 voices. The voices cover the usual range of Yamaha tones: acoustic piano, electric piano, pipe organ, strings and pads. However, things do get interesting! There are actually four new models: the 143/145 pair and the 223/225 pair.

The 143/145 have two grand pianos, a tines (Rhodes) electric piano, an FM (DX) electric piano, strings, principal pipe organ and tutti pipe organ. The 143 has two harpsichords and vibraphone. The 145 has one harpsichord, accordian and Di Zi. Di Zi is a Chinese transverse flute. So, depending upon your region, you will be getting either the 143 or the 145!

The 223/225 pair have different voice groups and voices, too:

     P-223 Others     P-225 CLV/VIB 
    --------------    -------------- 
    Harpsichord 8'     E.Clavichord 
     Harpsi 8'+4'       Vibraphone 
      Accordion       Harpsichord 8' 
       Guzheng         Harpsi 8'+4'

P-223 has an “Others” voice group and 225 has a “CLV/VIB” group. Guzeng is Chinese zither. Strange that 145 has a flute and the 223 has a zither. Yamaha have clearly targeted models for Asia and models for “Western” regions. Gotta make a buck somewhere…

User interface on both models is the minimum. Neither have a display. Settings are made by holding down front panel buttons (METRONOME+RHYTHM) and striking the appropriate key. There is some feedback like a voice announcing “on” or “off”. Frankly, I can’t see doing this at a gig, especially a church gig when absolute silence is expected. OK, for home use.

The P-225 has a bunch of other extra features over the P-145: Bluetooth, recording, split voices, etc. Good news — Yamaha brought back the USB audio interface functionality that went missing in the P-125A. Both models have Smart Pianist and Rec’N’Share support.

The big news is the new Yamaha Graded Hammer Compact (GHC) action. GHC replaces the Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) action in the previous models. The reduced front-to-back depth of GHC allowed Yamaha to design and deliver a slimmer slab piano. (Front-firing speakers help reduce depth, too.) Since none of us have played GHC (as yet), it’s impossible to comment. However, I wonder if we will see GHC in other Yamaha products like synths or arrangers?

Ludlow, VT (7/10/2023)

Posted on July 10, 2023 by pj

My heart and prayers go out to family, friends and other folks in Ludlow, Cavendish, Perkinsville and Weathersfield VT. I just spent several days in Ludlow and the surrounding area.

Today, Ludlow and the region have been devastated by heavy rain and flooding. The area was struck hard by Hurricane Irene (August 2011). The steep canyons channel rain water, which quickly rises to flood level.

I drove Vermont 131 between Ludlow and Perkinsville quite frequently over the last few days. Today, the road is flooded out and blocked in many locations.

Please keep these communities in your prayers and send assistance.

Sand, software and sound

Electronics and computing for the fun of it

Monthly Archives: July 2023