Monthly Archives: August 2025

Notating with deCoda and Sibelius

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Mark Isham is one of my all-time favorite composers and artists. I first heard him play with Group 87 (1980) soon followed by his debut solo album, Vapor Drawings. Since then, he has contributed to many recordings and has composed over 200 scores.

I listen to the local KING-FM classical radio station — the HD2 Calm (“evergreen”) channel, in particular. I need calm, these days. Every now and again, a track from October Sky, AKA “Rocket Boys”, will pop up. October Sky (1999) is one of those 200+ scores by Mark Isham.

Unfortunately, scores or reductions are not available for all of this work, including the “Rocket Boys” cue from October Sky. So, what the heck, let’s put zplane deCoda to work. As I wrote in my review, deCoda is a tool to help learning and notating.

I’ve used deCoda to notate a number of small, simple songs. My review shows one example, Space Rock by the Baskerville Hounds. You might know this tune as 2120 South Michigan Avenue, so we’re not talking high art, here. 🙂

deCoda analyzes an audio song much the same way as Yamaha Chord Tracker. Chord Tracker (and Yamaha Smart Pianist) identifies tempo, measures, structure and chords. I ran Rocket Boys through Chord Tracker, and yep, it found the basic chords in the piece.

Chord Tracker, however, does not extract melody lines. That’s where deCoda comes in. deCoda paints squiggles in a kind of piano-roll chart where time unfolds in the horizontal direction and pitches (notes) are arranged in the vertical direction. The squiggles show the pitch and duration for the various tones found by deCoda’s analysis phase. deCoda identifies chords, too, and displays chord names across the top of the piano-roll.

zplane deCoda and Avid Sibelius

A minute or two into the track, a flute plays the main theme. deCoda has a windowing feature that lets you zoom into a range of pitches and a region of the stereo field. I used this feature to close in around the flute line.

I could have used deCoda’s draw tool to mark the individual notes. These notes can be exported as MIDI. Instead, I decided to draw notes directly into an Avid Sibelius score. I resized the Sibelius window so I could compare the deCoda squiggles against the notation. That technique worked out pretty well!

I entered chord symbols based upon deCoda’s analysis. There is a lot going on in the recording, especially when other instruments and sections are brought into play. deCoda gets a bit more “distracted” than Chord Tracker and one needs to use their ears when notating chords. Chord Tracker forces chord changes to beat boundaries and its chord charts are simpler and, thus, cleaner.

zplane deCoda editing the beat grid

Underscores are often written and/or conducted to picture in order to hit specific images. “Rocket Boys” has a lot of rubato and the tempo shifts throughout the piece. Quite often, the deCoda squiggles did not line up with its beat grid.

The deCoda project panel has a button to edit the beat grid. Press this button and you can draw a measure that aligns the grid with the audio music. Thanks to this feature, I didn’t have to guess note starts, stops and durations. Henceforth, I will make frequent use of beat grid editing!

Overall, this has been a fun afternoon project. The process was good for ear training and I have a very simple lead sheet for “Rocket Boys”. Chalk another win for zplane deCoda (and Sibelius).

Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha CE20 FM synthesizer (RIP?)

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I took a whack at repairing my 1982 Yamaha CE20 FM synthesizer. No joy, I’m afraid. I didn’t spot any obviously bad (fried) components, e.g., leaking electrolytic capacitors. I re-seated two fuses on the main logic (DM) board. Nope.

Well, the next step is to test the output voltage from the three voltage regulators. Fortunately, the regulator leads are exposed and I won’t need to disassemble the DM and symphonic modulator (SA) boards, again.

The CE20 service manual sadly lacks circuit schematics or a concept of operation. A few LEDs light up, but I don’t hear the familiar click of the muting relay. I wish Yamaha had published a schematic or start-up flow-chart. That information would assist signal tracing and diagnosis.

If I can’t find anything easy to fix, I’ll have to give the CE20 a proper burial. 🙂 The Yamaha Reface DX beats the old CE20 in many ways except for the CE20’s aftertouch keyboard, which was a real pleasure to play. Here’s how the CE20 and Reface DX FM implementations stack up:

                         CE20        Reface DX
                     ------------  ------------  
    Keys             49 full size  37 mini keys
    Key response      Vel sense     Vel sense
                      Aftertouch
    Polyphony
        POLY voices       8             8
        MONO voices       1             1
    Patches
        POLY voices       6          32 total
        MONO voices      14
    Ops per voice         2             4
    Effects               1             7
    Display              No            Yes
    Programmable         No            Yes
    MIDI                Nope           Yes
    Pedals           Exp, Sustain    Sustain
    Speakers             No          2 x 3cm
    Battery power        No            Yes

The CE20 voices are preset-only and cannot be reprogrammed. The Reface DX, on the other hand, has a spiffy user interface and 32 patch locations.

Even mentioning MIDI is a bit of a joke (1982!) and USB wasn’t born yet. Aside from the technical challenge, it’s hardly worth the repair. I ain’t gonna spend money on it…

I took pictures of the main DM board and the SA symphonic modulator board. Enjoy! No surface-mount devices inside. The SA board has the muting relay, BTW, in the upper right corner of the picture. Enjoy the view!

Yamaha CE20 main logic (DM) board

Yamaha CE20 symphonic modulator (SA) board

Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski

Bored ape: Go:keys revisited

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All I can remember from grade school religion classes: “Avoid the near occasion of sin.”

Thus, I rolled into my local music store with trepidation. I had to get out of the house. 🙂

First, I want to say a few good words about Kennelly Keys, our local musical instrument chain. They have a decent selection of bread and butter keys on the floor. I always have fun chatting with their staff. Kennelly hires true laid-back PNW types.

I would say, “Go to Patchwerks for synths.” Unfortunately, Patchwerks has closed. Major bummer, that was one sweet store. RIP.

I wanted to check out Roland Go:keys 5 (or 3). When the August dolldrums hit, we go in search of new adventures.

Kennelly has a Go:keys 3 on the floor. The 3 has the same keybed, styling, sounds and patterns as the 5. The 5 adds two passive radiators (better bass), 1/4″ stereo OUT, and microphone IN. The 3 is good enough for me because, today, I just want to touch the keys and hear the tones.

Roland Go:keys 3

Tone-wise, the gen 2 Go:keys does not disappoint. If you want Roland tones, the gen 2 Go:keys delivers them on the cheap (3: $385-ish, 5: $550 USD). The featured acoustic and electric piano voices are quite good for this price range. The patterns (styles?) are relatively hip and current by typical arranger standards. (Yamaha take note.)

The gen 2 keybed is much improved since my close encounter with gen 1 Go:keys. The keys are piano-shaped, but in no way feel like a piano. At this price point, were you expecting linear-graded with escapement? Roland kept the nice texturing. I’m not sure if I could bide the slight sponginess in the long run. Still, the Go:keys keybed is good competition for the Casio CT-S1000V.

The Go:keys 3 and 5 styling is very contemporary. I could see having one in a living room or family room. My only knock is the front panel legends. I tried a turquoise Go:key3 and the legends were very hard to read — not enough contrast. Roland should change the legends to black and save our eyesight.

Well, that was pleasant. I spent a few moments with a Yamaha CK88 and that was pleasant, too. Yamaha have developed two fine instruments in the CK61 and CK88. The CK61 FSB keybed feels better than MODX6. The CK88 GHS felt connected to the main CFX grand piano voice. All good. For their respective price range, I see why the CKs appeal to a lot of players.

Still, I’m awaiting the mark 2 Stage YC61. The CK secondary sounds surpass the current Stage YC series and I hope mark 2 does better. Overall, I wonder if I could live with Live Sets as the sole means to layer/split? The MODX (Montage) Performance organization is far more flexible and satisfying. Also, the CK MIDI implementation seems limited and rigid as far as external control is concerned. I hope Yamaha take note of forum comments and make gen 2 Stage YC MIDI as flexible as possible.

I was struck by the aesthetic difference between Go:keys and CK. Go:keys looks very modern; Yamaha looks industrial. One can accept an all-business look for a professional instrument. However, I hope Yamaha ups its game in the next E-series models for home. The current E-series looks tired next to the Rolands.

Well, I didn’t buy an instrument. I did buy a cool LEGO Ninjago Ice Tank Set (30427) at Bricks and Minifigs. At least I didn’t go home empty-handed. 🙂

Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski