Monthly Archives: March 2026

Pop demo styles for Yamaha

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The new Yamaha PSR-E483 and PSR-E583 have new styles which have not yet been released for Genos and the SX series.

Since folks might be interested in hearing the new styles, Mark Wilburn and I teamed up to create a few quick and dirty Yamaha arranger styles based on the new E-series styles.

Please think of these styles as “demos“. They are far from perfect:

  • Two MAIN variations just like the E-series
  • One INTRO and one ENDING just like the E-series
  • E-series voices not the stellar Genos/SX voices
  • No effects beyond the basic E-series chorus and reverb
  • No chordal variations for INTRO/ENDING

If you have ever attempted style creation, you know how much work it is to add these features. That’s not an excuse — just admiration for Yamaha’s style developers! We expect Yamaha to bring these styles up to Genos/SX quality in the future. Thus, these styles today are “demos”.

If you would like to try the demo styles, here is the ZIP file (E-pop-v1.zip).

The ZIP extracts into a directory named “E-Pop”. E-Pop has three subdirectories:

  • Styles: What you have been waiting for (.STY files)
  • Source: Raw MIDI files and Cakewalk projects
  • MIDI: More raw MIDI song files (SMF Type 0)

If you want to try the styles, copy the .STY files to your arranger, load them up and play. The README.TXT file has some suggested chord progressions.

People who want to try their own hand at style creation will be interested in the Source and MIDI subdirectories. These subdirectories contain the raw MIDI files which we used to create the demos. Be sure to read the README text files for additional tips and information.

As to suggested song names, we drove ourselves crazy trying to match songs with the demo styles. Sometimes everything matched up, sometimes not. Please post your guesses on the Yamaha Musicians Forum where we lurk. 🙂

Have fun!

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Anavi Macropad8 QMK MIDI code

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Two years ago (March 2024), I posted an article about using the Anavi Macropad8 for MIDI control. Everything worked, however getting there was a complete bear. The QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) toolkit is a huge download and it is difficult to use.

Thus, by way of the Yamaha Musician’s Forum, I received a request from another frustrated user. In response, here is a ZIP file containing my code: anavi_macropad8.zip.

The Anavi Macropad8 is Arduino compatible. Going forward, I will shift to the Arduino IDE and save myself many gigabytes of unused storage. This comment is not a slam on the Anavi hardware itself — quite reasonably priced for what ya get. The QMK toolkit, on the other hand, is massive and unwieldy.

Where to put the code

I found the source code in:

    qmk_firmware\keyboards\anavi\macropad8

If I remember right, this is where the QMK Toolkit keeps the default keymaps and code for Macropad8. The subdirectory:

    qmk_firmware\keyboards\anavi\macropad8\keymaps\pc

has the keymap source, config, and rules files:

    config.h    keymap.c    km.c        rules.mk    yammex.txt

I think the km.c file is the original default keymap code.

The ZIP file contains everything from “macropad8” on down. You should take care to not overwrite anything that you want or need!

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski