Category Archives: Music technology

Another tiny toy from Yamaha: SHS-300

Posted on by

Yamaha keeps cranking out mini-keyboards!

The SHS-300 Sonogenic is squarely in the musical toy category. The SHS-500 keytar is a solid, well-built instrument with 28 melodic instruments, 2 drum kits (House and Power), and DSP effects. The SHS-300, on the other hand, is a plastic, reduced rendition.

Both keyboards interface with Yamaha’s ChordTracker app and implement Jam mode. Jam mode lets an untrained user flail at the keyboard while the software maps the played notes to the musical scale determined by ChordTracker.

The SHS-300 has just 12 instruments organized into four categories:

  • Synth: Saw Lead, Square Lead, Synth Brass
  • Piano: Piano, Electric Piano, Organ
  • Guitar: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Bass
  • Other: Strings, Synth Bass, Dance Kit

The Dance Kit is the sole drum kit. The sounds are definitely entry-level PSR quality with no real effects. The nice solid controls of the SHS-500 are replaced by plastic buttons. Buttons control vibrato and sustain; Pitch bend is the sole wheel.

Street prices should be quite low as Yamaha are aiming for a super-casual, impulse-buy customer base.

Of course, the SHS-300 does not provide 5-pin MIDI out, an alphanumeric display or other niceties. I think I would stick with the bigger sibling SHS-500.

Where in the world?

Posted on by

Been quite a while since the last post, eh? 🙂

All I can say is that moving is a long journey!

I’m currently holed up in a hotel outside Everett, WA — 3,000 miles west of our old home. Fortunately, our former house sold quickly and we found a new house in just two weeks of intensive search. We’re still waiting to move to the new house and nearly everything is in storage. Probably a month to go before we will get our stuff and to try to get back to normal.

Our grandson is a hyperactive package of joy. It’s a real kick to be here as he learns so much every day. I started reading “Child Language” by Mathew Saxton, an easy read that I can recommend already. He is well into the “vocabulary spurt.” [Most grandparents don’t see their grandchildren as science experiments.]

“Nearly everything is in storage” means that I did bring along a few items for amusement…

So, OK, what is my desert island synthesizer? Ta-da, it’s the Yamaha MODX. It’s my regular gig instrument and I need to keep my chops up in order to audition for a new church group. Before moving, I built 30+ Performances for pop, rock, jazz and funk, expecting to play a few favorites over backing tracks. I can’t live on church music alone!

I shipped the MODX ahead, not wanting to check it with the airline. For that, I packed the Yamaha Reface YC, my rehearsal machine. The YC fits into the enormous suitcase which also holds my clothes. The clothes and gig bag held the YC rather securely and like the MODX, it got here just fine.

I guess that makes two desert island synths. 🙂

Blog posts will remain rather sparse in the near term, I’m afraid. We need to plan for delivery, complete the deal and get the job done. Yamaha just announced three new portable toys: the PSS-E30, PSS-F30 and PSS-A50. Might be good for amusement?

Bests.

Yamaha Genos update v1.4

Posted on by

Yamaha have posted Genos™ update v1.4 to their support sites. I’m in the process of downloading and installing the update. [More later.]

Yamaha have also updated the Genos manuals and the AudioPhraser program. AudioPhraser definitely needed some touch-ups. Hopefully, there is a new version of Yamaha Expansion Manager (YEM) and ChordTracker just around the corner.

Looking through the list of changes, v1.4 is not the major update many punters are looking for. However, Yamaha’s strategic decision to issue updates for its flagship products is very welcome. This move brings Yamaha into parity with its major competitors (Korg, especially).

Here’s the list of changes from the Version History:

  • Some information displays have been added to the Home display.
  • Many additional functions have been included for assignment to individual controllers on the Live Control display and the Assignable display
  • You can now see the result of operations of the ASSIGNABLE buttons via the pop-up window.
  • It is now possible to output to an external display by connecting a commercially USB-display adapter. For details on the supported device list, download from the “Downloads” tab on the product site.
  • You can now select the content displayed on the external display, from the Utility display.
  • Changes: The maximum capacity per file of MIDI Song has been expanded to about 3 MB.
  • Changes: Disabled switching between Dual Player mode and Song List mode during Song playback.
  • Changes: Changed the buttons for display/operation on the Song List mode to the SONG B buttons instead of the SONG A buttons.
  • Changes: The font settings on the Lyrics display and the Text display are backed up and retained even after the power is turned off.
  • Changes: The “Song” item which can be selected on the Registration Memory window is divided into “MIDI Song” and “Audio Song.”
  • Changes: When operating the on-screen knobs and vertical sliders, the first touch will not change the value immediately, but only select (focus) it.
  • Changes: The Voice Guide function supports display changes of this version. Please download the latest Voice Guide file from the product site for the additional sounds to work properly.
  • Fixed a problem in which, under a certain situation, the Audio Section of Audio Style would not play back.
  • Fixed a problem in which, under a certain situation, an Audio Song longer than 80 minutes would not play correctly.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument would become unresponsive to operations when playing back a specific MIDI Song.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument response would slow down when certain Preset Wallpaper settings were selected.
  • Fixed a problem in which Initial Touch On/Off settings would not function properly when calling up a specific Registration Memory.
  • Fixed a problem in which, under a certain situation, the Registration Freeze function would not work properly.
  • Fixed a problem in which certain Music Finder Record files of Tyros series could not be imported.
  • Fixed a problem in which the Panel Sustain parameter seems to have an effect on the Left part because the Panel Sustain can be edited on the Voice Edit display for the Left part.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument would occasionally become unresponsive to operations when executing Search.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument would occasionally become unresponsive to operations when changing the mode of Wireless LAN.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument would become unresponsive to operations when the pop-up window is closed in certain situations.
  • Fixed a problem in which the instrument would become unresponsive to operations when saving a file in certain situations.
  • Fixed a problem in which characters would occasionally not be displayed correctly.

The previous firmware version cannot be restored after updating the firmware to this version (v1.4).

Well, I can confirm that the v1.4 update did not kill my Genos. 🙂 The Home page definitely displays more useful information. (Check out the link to the video to see what I mean.) I like the visual feedback as to where “the one” (downbeat) is. Some styles do not have a firm downbeat in MAIN A and I easily get lost.

I love having more assignable functions although nothing blows me away initially. The assignable functions are listed in the updated (e0) Genos Reference Manual starting on page 126. I’m glad to see the MIDI file size limit kicked up to 3MB. Controller intensive MIDI files can get pretty big.

Overall, I’m looking forward to improved stability. Yamaha gave us a few functional improvements, but nothing stunning. The list of bug fixes, however, shows attention to detail and quality. I will certainly miss the Genos while it’s in storage during the move!

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

MODX, Ratt, guitar tone

Posted on by

This post is a welcome escape from the mental anguish of cleaning, packing, moving, etc.

A member of the YamahaSynth.com MODX forum asked for help in obtaining a particular guitar tone for Rock/Metal. I confess that Metal is not a genre that I dip into and I was somewhat at a loss to help out. Fortunately, the chap posted a link to a video with an example of the kind of tone he was looking for:

Ratt — Lay It Down

He noted the smoothness of the distorted tone. His attempts to achieve this tone on MODX led to “waves” that were “almost like the strings are not perfectly in tune”, for example, when hitting a power chord.

I passed along links to my two articles about guitar waveforms and effects on MODX (Montage) and Genos:

Single Coil, Double Coil
Which Guitar Is Which?

I wrote these articles when I was trying to achieve Ian Bairnson’s tone during his 1970s Alan Parsons era. Maybe the info would help out.

Folks on the YamahaSynth thread suggested the Telecaster (TC) waves, but I wasn’t so sure. A Telecaster is a single coil guitar and is not used all that frequently in Metal or Heavy Rock — a dual coil (humbucker) is more likely. The typical examples of type are the Gibson Les Paul and SG models (P90 pick-ups). Of course, it still comes down to the MODX factory waveforms and whatever works in a given situation without regard for the actual source instrument.

Well, not being familiar with Ratt meant a little Internet digging. The two guitarists in Ratt of the “Lay It Down” era were Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby. Thankfully, guitarists are obsessive about gear and tone, and it was relatively easy to find information about DeMartini’s kit. Demartini is well-known for his smooth tone, so I dug into his gear. I’ll leave Robbin Crosby as an exercise for the reader. 🙂

DeMartini was fond of playing a Charvel superstrat with a Floyd Rose bridge and Seymour Duncan JB humbucker (dual coil) pick-ups. “Superstrat” in this context does not necessarily mean “Fender.” “Superstrat” is used somewhat generically to mean a guitar which is similar to a Stratocaster, but customized in one or more significant ways. Standard Stratocasters typically employ single coil pick-ups, so humbuckers are already a major departure from the original design.

In later days, DeMartini used Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder and DeMartini Custom Signature RTM (dual coil) pick-ups. All of these pick-ups have big magnets that interact with the strings as well as pick-up vibrations. Those big magnets mechanically damp the strings. Thus, the Custom Signature RTM pick-up “compresses to make evey note smooth and balanced.”

The whole sampling business raises an even larger question. Customizations aside, a multi pick-up guitar can be configured in a nearly infinite number of ways. What pick-ups are switched in or out? How is the tone knob set? Where are the strings plucked? (Near the bridge? The neck? Somewhere in between?) Does the player employ any special technique?

A sampled waveform is just one configuration of all these factors and more! Thus, the MODX waveforms cover an extremely small corner of a very large sound space.

Moving on from the instrument, DeMartini preferred Marshall amplifiers (heads) and cabinets. Marshall heads include JCM800/900, Plexi and JCM2000. He preferred 1960AX (4×12) cabinets: two with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers and two with 25W Celestion Greenbacks. Thus, I would look to the BRITISH LEAD or BRITISH LEGEND DSP effect algorithms and dial in the BS 4×12 speaker type as a starting point. One Web article mentioned that DeMartini often turned down the bass drastically and that might be worth a try, too.

When you need a particular guitar tone, I recommend a little bit of Internet research for inspiration.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Superbooth 2019

Posted on by

Most of my days are now spent prep’ing our house for sale and an eventual move. If you’ve been there before, you know quite well why my blog posts have become infrequent!

Rest assured, my eyes are still gazing at new music technology and, especially, the gizmos announced at Superbooth 2019.

Korg’s recent announcements caught my attention. You’ve no doubt heard about the Korg Minilogue xD module and the Korg Volca nubass vacuum tube synthesizer. The xD module and the nubass will hit the streets at $549.99 USD and $199.99, respectively. The Minilogue xD module looks pretty sweet and gets around the issue of mini-keys.

The other little gem slips out from Japan. Korg have a line of do-it-yourself kits: Nu:Tekt. (I wonder what search engines will do with that punctuation.) The line already includes headphone amplifier (HA-KIT) and nutube overdrive kit (OD-KIT). Soon, there will be a digital synthesizer kit! From the pictures, it will have a 3.5mm MIDI IN, SYNC IN, SYNC OUT and AUDIO IN.

This kit looks like a heck of lot of fun!

Back to the grind. Unfortunately, the lab is packed up, so hands-on electronic investigations will have to wait.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos/PSR organ registrations

Posted on by

I’m deep in another one of those “cross-platform” projects in which I share voice programming between Yamaha Genos™ and Yamaha MODX. In this case, I’m recreating some of the PSR/Genos “organ flutes” registrations on MODX.

“Organ flutes” is Yamaha-speak for drawbar organ emulation. Genos and S-series PSR arranger workstations implement two kinds of drawbar (Hammond B3) organ voices: normal sample playback voices and organ flutes voices. The organ flutes have their own drawbar user interface where the user can move virtual footage drawbars, including percussion. Organ flutes voices make use of a rotary speaker DSP effect while sample playback organ voices may have the rotary effect sampled-in instead of using a DSP effect. The chief disadvantage of sampled-in is the inability to smoothly change rotary speaker speeds (i.e., ramp up or ramp down between speeds). The abrupt speed change is very unrealistic. Of course, you can’t change the drawbar setting of a sampled-in voice either.

Everyone loves new organ registrations, so here is my go-to table of Yamaha presets. Vibrato is OFF in all cases.

Preset         Drawbars     VOL  RESP  4' 2 2/3'  2' LENG  Rotary effect
-------------- -----------  ---  ---- --- ------ --- ----  -------------
OrganFlutes    78 6600 000   8     0   8     0    0    6   DUAL ROT BRT
USDSmile       87 4323 468   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
ReggaeBars     70 0000 008   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
WarmTheatre    80 0605 000   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT WRM
OrganPops      70 8000 000   8     0   8     0    0    8   DUAL ROT BRT
RockOrgan      65 5444 644   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
SoulPercussion 70 0000 530   8     0   0     7    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
GospelTruth    87 6000 568   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
PadOrgan       00 8520 000   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT WRM
FullOrgan      88 7677 788   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT

StringBars     48 0787 532   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
LatinSpin      70 0003 443   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
ShadyBars      68 8600 000   8     0   0     0    0    7   DUAL ROT BRT
FunkOrgan      83 5035 788   8     0   0     0    0    7   DUAL ROT BRT
BalladOrgan    86 7300 000   8     0   0     0    0    7   DUAL ROT WRM
RichBars       63 8457 530   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
TrumpetBars    06 0786 540   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
SoulBars       80 0050 578   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
ClariBars      08 0080 760   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT
JazzSquabble   80 0008 888   8     0   0     0    0    0   DUAL ROT BRT

These are the registrations for Yamaha’s preset organ flutes voices.

The RESP, 4′, 2 2/3′, 2′ and LENG columns control envelope and percussion. The manual describes these parameters in the following way:

  • Response (RESP): Affects both the attack and release portion of the sound, increasing or decreasing the response time of the initial swell and release, based on the Footage controls. The higher the value, the slower the swell and release.
  • 4′, 2 2/3′, 2′: 4′ is second harmonic percussion level and 2 2/3′ is third harmonic percussion level.
  • Length (LENG): Controls the length of the percussion sound.

There is also an Attack switch to apply percussion to the first note or each note. For realism, I apply first note. Always.

The registrations above use the older rotary speaker effect algorithm which had two PSR/Genos presets: DUAL ROTARY BRIGHT and DUAL ROTARY WARM. I recommend trying the “new” rotary speaker algorithm if you got it (Montage, MODX, Genos).

Here are a few bonus registrations, just for grins:

Preset      Drawbars     VOL  RESP   4'  2 2/3'   2'  LENG  Rotary effect
----------- -----------  ---  ----  ---  ------  ---  ----  -------------
SmithPlus   88 8800 000   8     3    0      4     0     0   DUAL ROT WRM
Simmerin    83 0000 378   8     0    0      0     0     0   DUAL ROT WRM
MellowDee   80 4600 000   8     4    0      0     0     0   DUAL ROT BRT
Shoutin     66 8848 588   8     4    0      0     0     0   DUAL ROT WRM
WhistleStop 88 8000 008   8     3    0      0     0     0   DUAL ROT WRM
WhiterShade 68 8600 000   8     0    4      0     0     8   DUAL ROT WRM

If you want to ditch the sampled-in voices and use organ flutes instead, many of the Yamaha organ flutes presets are equivalent to a sampled-in voice. You just need to decode the names: WhiterBars → ShadyBars, Curved Bars → USDSmile, GospelOrgan (Legacy) → GospelTruth, etc. Save the registrations as Genos or PSR USER voices and use them in place of the sampled-in voices. Then, enjoy the rotary speaker ramp up and down!

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha MODX gospel organ

Posted on by

I’ve been woodshedding an up-beat gospel tune, “Stop By, Lord” by Doris Wesley Bettis. It needs a brighter B3 registration than my typical church registrations. So, I turned to Genos™ for inspiration.

Two Genos voices stood out: GospelOrgan and UpsideDownSmile. They are similar and the drawbar settings form an arching curve (i.e., the upside down smile). Here are the registrations:

Genos GospelOrgan

     16   5 1/3  8    4   2 2/3   2   1 3/5  1 1/3   1   Perc
    ----  ----- ---  ---  -----  ---  -----  -----  ---  ----
      8     7    6    0     0     0     3      4     5    No

Genos UpsideDownSmile

     16   5 1/3  8    4   2 2/3   2   1 3/5  1 1/3   1   Perc
    ----  ----- ---  ---  -----  ---  -----  -----  ---  ----
      8     7    4    3     2     3     4      6     7    No

The UpsideDownSmile voice is at essence a brighter version of the GospelOrgan voice.

We need to translate the drawbar registrations (range [0:8]) into MODX Element levels (range [0:127]). The MODX factory patches use a range from 0 to 104. My own patches are using the range 0 to 127. Below is a table mapping each drawbar setting to the equivalent MODX Element level:

    1 * 13 =  13   1 * 16 =  16
    2 * 13 =  26   2 * 16 =  32
    3 * 13 =  39   3 * 16 =  48
    4 * 13 =  52   4 * 16 =  64
    5 * 13 =  65   5 * 16 =  80
    6 * 13 =  78   6 * 16 =  96
    7 * 13 =  91   7 * 16 = 112
    8 * 13 = 104   8 * 16 = 128

Take your pick: soft or hot.

I decided to implement each voice in its own MODX Part. Thus, we need to drop one of the drawbar harmonics in order to shoe horn the registration into eight Elements, the maximum number of individual elemental tones per Part. (Each Element is a drawbar footage.) A quick experiment on Genos found that I could drop the 2 2/3′ bar from the registrations without much sonic effect. It was pretty much buried in the harmonic mix.

The next table shows the Element levels for each MODX Performance.

Genos GospelOrgan

     16   5 1/3  8    4   2 2/3   2   1 3/5  1 1/3   1 
    ----  ----- ---  ---  -----  ---  -----  -----  ---
    104     91   78    0     0     0    39     52    65
    127    112   96    0     0     0    48     64    80

Genos UpsideDownSmile

     16   5 1/3  8    4   2 2/3   2   1 3/5  1 1/3   1 
    ----  ----- ---  ---  -----  ---  -----  -----  ---
    104     91   52   39    26    39    52     78    91
    127    112   64   48    32    48    64     96   112

The upper row in each case contains the Element levels over the range [0:104]. The lower row shows the Element levels over the range [0:127].

Starting with one of my church Performances, I created a three Part MODX Performance. There is one Part for the GospelOrgan setting and one Part for the UpsideDownSmile setting. The third part handles rotor noise, etc. I programmed two Scenes, one for each registration setting. Scene 1 mutes the UpsideDownSmile Part and Scene 2 mutes the GospelOrgan Part. Thus, I can switch between registrations by switching between Scenes. [In my next experiment, I’m going to try the SuperKnob to morph between registrations.]

Next up is the rotary speaker effect. Genos applies the REAL ROTARY effect:

                            USD Smile   Gospel
                            ---------   ------
    Drive                   2.5         4.0
    Tone                    8.5         10.0
    Low/High Balance        L<H1        L<H9
    Output Level            100         100
    Mic L-R Angle           180deg      120deg
    Input Level             +6dB        +6dB
    Modulation Intensity    63          63
    Slow-Fast Time of Horn  1.13        1.13
    Fast-Slow Time of Horn  0.97        0.97
    Woofer Speed Slow       43.5 RPM    43.5 RPM
    Horn Speed Slow         47.3 RPM    47.3 RPM
    Woofer Speed Fast       403.7 RPM   403.7 RPM
    Horn Speed Fast         464.3 RPM   464.3 RPM

REAL ROTARY is the “new” rotary speaker effect added in Montage. On MODX, this effect is called “Rotary Speaker 2”. The Tone parameter seems to function like a high-cut filter, BTW.

I prefer to slow the horn and rotor (woofer) down. Here is my LeslieChurch USER EFFECT preset on Genos:

    Woofer Speed Slow         40.2 RPM   0.67Hz
    Horn Speed Slow           48.0 RPM   0.80Hz
    Woofer Speed Fast         343.2 RPM  5.72Hz
    Horn Speed Fast           403.8 RPM  6.73Hz
    Slow-Fast Time of Woofer  47
    Slow-Fast Time of Horn    20
    Drive Low                 17
    Drive High                42
    Low/High Balance          L=H
    EQ Low Frequency          100Hz
    EQ Low Gain               -2dB
    EQ High Frequency         14kHz
    EQ High Gain              -12dB
    Mic L-R Angle             162deg

When moving between MODX and Genos, be prepared to convert RPM to Hertz and vice versa! Divide RPMs by 60 to get Hertz.

To complete the picture, let’s take a look at the MODX Rotary Speaker 2 presets. The MODX (Montage) has five presets:

  • Clean and Wide
  • Vintage Mono
  • Slow and Dirty
  • Full Drive
  • Broken Motors

The following table shows the parameter values for each preset.

                       Clean     Vint Mono  Slow Dirt  Full Dr  Broken
                       --------  ---------  ---------  -------  ------
Drive                  0.0       1.9        4.6        10.0     1.9
Tone                   6.0       4.4        5.4        8.0      7.5
Low/High Balance       R=H       R=H        R7>H       R=H      R<H11
Output Level           111       111        111        111      111
Mic L-R Angle          180deg    0deg       90deg      120deg   180deg
Input Level            +1.5dB    +1.5dB     +1.5dB     +1.5dB   +1.5dB
Modulation Intensity   63        20         25         19       63
Slow-Fast Time Horn    0.95      0.78       0.98       0.98     0.95
Fast-Slow Time Horn    0.92      0.78       0.92       0.92     0.92
Horn Speed Slow        42.3rpm   40.4       33.4       42.3     59.9
Horn Speed Fast        398.7rpm  403.7      398.7      398.7    270.0
Slow-Fast Time Woofer  1.22      1.43       1.38       1.21     1.33
Fast-Slow Time Woofer  1.86      1.78       1.87       1.87     2.00
Woofer Speed Slow      40.1rpm   39.4       30.6       40.1     22.7
Woofer Speed Fast      323.0rpm  338.1      323.0      323.0    254.9

If you have a Genos, you might want to give these a spin. As of Genos update v1.3, it isn’t possible to set the Slow-Fast and Fast-Slow times for the woofer. I hope that Yamaha fix this oversight.

With respect to the gospel organ Performance, I started with the “Clean and Wide” preset values, then dialed in a few tweaks.

Changing the effect algorithm affected the rotary speaker speed control routing. I needed to drop into the Part Common Mod/Control parameters to select the Mod Wheel source and to set its destination to “InsA SpdCtrl”. (Insert A is the rotary speaker effect algorithm.)

If you’re looking for a gospel organ sound on MODX (Montage), I hope this information will help you out.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

“Joy, beauty, confidence, and discovery”

Posted on by

I’ve been reading Yamaha’s 2018 Annual Report to investors and would like to pass along these observations.

Yamaha, the business, is in transition. It reorganized its by-product line structure into a function-specific structure: production, sales, marketing, R&D, design. These functions have centralized management and are not distributed into product line units. Hopefully, this change and Yamaha’s Innovation Center will break down stove-pipes between arrangers and synths, for example.

Worldwide, Yamaha has many factories: Japan (3 factories), Indonesia (5), China (4), and Malaysia (1). Yamaha will be adding two new factories in 2019: Chennai India (January) and Jakarta Indonesia (July). The Chennai factory will produce products for the local Indian market. The new Jakarta factory will produce digital musical instruments (DMI) as well as pianos.

Yamaha have been actively revising selling prices. This explains why we have seen price fluctuations in certain regional markets. One important goal of note to customers, Yamaha are working to establish appropriate pricing at time of product launch. Personally, I throw out Reface as an example, where everyone said “Are they nuts?” after seeing the initial high street price.

Yamaha list their primary competitors:

  • Pianos: Steinway & Sons (Germany and the U.S.); Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co., Ltd. (China); Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Japan)
  • Digital music instruments: Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Roland Corporation, and Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing (Japan)
  • Wind instruments: Conn-Selmer, Inc (the U.S.); Buffet Crampon (France); Jupiter Band Instruments, Inc. (Taiwan)
  • String and percussion instruments: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Gibson Brands, Inc., C.F. Martin & Co., and Taylor Guitars (the U.S.

Gearheads will be surprised to see who’s missing. Korg? Nord?

In terms of R&D, Yamaha have a central Technology Unit responsible for advanced technology research and intellectual property (IP) management. The Technology Unit spins results into the technology development departments of each business field such as musical instruments, audio products, etc.

Every Yamaha annual report highlights a few technological stars. This year, it’s the Venova wind instrument (which uses branched pipe theory first seen in the VL1 virtual acoustic sound source), the Rivage PM10 digital mixing system and the SST-102 desktop ultrasound scanner.

The Yamaha Innovation Center was completed in June 2018. This new building centralizes the R&D staff, who were scattered over multiple locations. Surely, Yamaha is looking for new synergies. The Innovation Center also brings together specialized laboratories (e.g., anechoic chamber), recording studios and reverberation chamber. I’d love to visit!

Periodically, I browse recent patents filed by Yamaha and other technology leaders. Yamaha group has about 4,00 patents in Japan and roughly 4,000 patents in the United States, Europe and China. Patents, trademarks and copyright are important tools in defending its intellectual property. Increasingly, Yamaha have been filing design patents in the USA to cover industrial product design, too.

Speaking of industrial design, the annual report spotlights the NS-5000 bookshelf speaker, Venova, the SX series of grand pianos and Genos™.

I’m a little too fried to dive into the P&L right now. However, I hope these observations are enlightening.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

PSR-EW410: Tour of its electronics

Posted on by

Last August, I took an in-depth look at the internal design of Yamaha’s entry-level, low-cost keyboards.

Up until the last few years, Yamaha’s low-end keyboards were based around its proprietary SWL01 processor. The SWL01 is a high volume LSI part which combines a microprocessor, tone generation and DSP resources into a single integrated circuit. The embedded software program and sound waveform data (AKA “the samples”) are stored together in a single flash memory device. Polyphony is limited to 32 voices due to the relatively low memory transfer bandwidth between the SWL01 and flash memory.

Newer entry-level keyboards, such as the Piaggero NP-32 and the PSR-EW410, have received a boost in polyphony (and DSP effects) over their respective predecessors. This boost in spec is due to a new central processor, the SWX03:

  • SH RISC instruction set architecture (ISA)
  • Internal clock: 135.4752MHz (external 16.9344MHz crystal)
  • System/CPU bus interface
    • Bus clock: 67.7MHz
    • 24-bit address bus
    • 16-bit data bus
  • Parallel digital inputs and outputs
  • USB to Host interface (USB1.1 full speed)
  • USB to Device interface
  • Low resolution analog-to-digital conversion (ADC)
  • Serial I2S interface for incoming and outgoing digital audio

The digital I/O pins sense the key and front panel switches and encoders. They also send data to the LCD panel via an LCD driver. Yamaha designs typically sense the presence of AUX IN and PHONE connections, too. The ADC pins sense the front panel knobs, pitch bend wheel, master volume and battery condition. The SWX03 microarchitecture is shown in the block diagram below. [Click image to enlarge.]

The internal clock and bus clock are derived from an external 16.9344MHz crystal. 16.9344MHz is a multiple (384) of the sample word clock (44,100Hz). Digital audio is transfered serially in I2S format (24-bits per sample word). Thus, the CPU operates in lock step with the serial audio input and output interfaces.

The earlier generation SWL01U typically has a 33.8688MHz internal clock. Thus, the SWX03 is quite a bit faster. Yamaha must be taking advantage of fabrication process improvements that allow a higher clock speed while keeping power low enough for battery operation. The higher clock speed of the SWX03 supports greater voice polyphony and the addition of new features such as Quick Sampling and audio playback/record over USB (See the Yamaha PSR-EW410 site for details).

The USB interfaces are clocked by an external 48MHz crystal resonator. The USB interfaces operate at full USB 1.1 speed. The SWL01 required an external USB interface component. The SWX03 integrates the USB interfaces on chip and eliminates the external USB component. This change reduces cost, board real estate and wiring.

The I2S digital audio converters are external. Entry-level products typically use the Asahi Kasei AK4430ET 24-bit DAC followed by an RC filter.

The NP-32 and PSR-EW410 implement audio conversion and amplification differently. The NP-32 sends serial audio data to an AK4430 DAC. The analog signal is then sent to a TDA7266 analog power amplifier (2 x 6Watt). The PSR-EW410 sends serial audio data to a Yamaha YDA176 digital power amplifier, which handles conversion as well as amplification. The EW410’s AK4430 produces an analog signal for both the PHONES output and the stereo line out (OUT L/L+R, OUT R).

While on the subject of audio, the PSR-EW410 has, in addition, a PCD1803A 24-bit stereo ADC which converts the buffered, analog AUX IN signal.

Both the NP-32 and PSR-EW410 store the embedded software and waveform data in a single flash ROM device. The flash ROM device communicates with the SWX03 CPU on the system bus provided by the SWX03. Physical storage devices are quite small by today’s mega standard:

  • NP-32: 8M x 16-bit words (64Mbits)
  • PSR-EW410: 16M x 16-bit words (256Mbits)

The CPU runs code and fetches waveform sample data from the same flash storage device. Thus, code and samples share the available transfer bandwidth. The EW410’s PROG/WAVE memory is twice as large as the earlier PSR-E443 (128Mbits). Hopefully, Yamaha are using the extra space for better instrument samples.

The NP-32 is dirt simple. The only memory attached to its SWX03 is the PROG/WAVE ROM. The EW410 is more sophisticated having an 8MByte SDRAM and a 16MByte flash ROM.

I’d love to take a look inside the SWX03 and see how it ticks. The internal design of the Yamaha NSX-1 may have some clues and I need to revisit the NSX-1 documentation.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

The PSR-EW410 block diagram — in all its glory — appears below. Click the image to enlarge it.

Sampleson Reed200 and Markus88

Posted on by

I like to give shout outs to companies and people who are doing unique work.

Sampleson® have developed and are selling two spectral modeled electric piano VST instruments:

They are modestly priced and I recommend giving them a listen.

Spectral modeling came into light through the Yamaha CP1/CP40 and the Yamaha Reface CP. Spectral modeling admits a nice continuous controlability without audible velocity switch points. A lot of folks would love to see Yamaha Spectral Component Modeling (SCM) electric pianos in their synth and arranger products. SCM includes spectral modeling, of course, as well as Virtual Component Modeling (VCM) effects.

Spectral modeling breaks a sound down to its harmonic components. The “sample size” is insanely small by modern standards. The Reed200 is just 30MBytes and the Markus88 is 25MBytes. I like the modeling approach because I really don’t want to deal with gobs and gobs (gigs and gigs!) of sample data. I’m currently using AAS Lounge Lizard EP-4 for that reason alone.

If you’re interested in spectral modeling, please read this short summary.

Additionally, Sampleson have a number of inexpensive recreations: Electrix EP (Hohner Electra T), Melox PRO (Melodica), etc. $20 USD a shot! The Melodica demo is totally Stevie…

Sampleson offer a free Dyno MOD effect (“Dyno my Rhodes piano”) which you can add to your signal chain. Download it here.