Category Archives: Music

Pocket Miku (Thanks, David!)

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I usually unwind with a book or Keyboard Magazine before turning out the light for a good night’s rest. Some of you know Keyboard Magazine as Electronic Musician. 🙂

Imagine my surprise when I read David Battino’s “Adventures in DIY” and it’s about Gakken’s Procket Miku. And further, David gives a shout out to your’s truly and this blog (sandsoftwaresound.net).

Thank you, David! “Adventures in DIY” is one of the main reasons that I keep subscribing to Keyboard Magazine. David has a playfulness in his projects and approach that I really like. Plus, anyone who likes Japanese monsters and toys would fit right into our family.

David continues a long tradition of DIY writing that goes back to Polyphony Magazine, where I really got the bug to create. (There’s still a few treasured issues of Polyphony in our basement.)

So, if you came looking for Gakken Pocket Miku, NSX-39 or Yamaha’s NSX-1 integrated circuit, here’s a quick list of pages related to those topics:

While you’re here, please browse around. This site is my mental storage unit and you’ll never know what you might find. Lately, I’ve been diving into the new Yamaha Genos™. Maybe you need some content like scat vocal samples, converted DJXII patterns, or Motif performances converted to PSR/Tyros styles? Maybe you’re interested in taking a tour inside Montage, PSR/Tyros, or Kronos? Use soft synths on Linux and use Raspberry Pi to bridge 5-pin MIDI and USB.

And then there are reviews of products that I’ve tried or eventually purchased: Yamaha Montage, Genos, Reface CP, Reface YC, Korg Triton Taktile, Roland GO:KEYS, Nord Stage 2ex, etc.

There are several Arduino-based projects to browse (with downloadable code). Heck, there are even notes about data structures, computer architecture and VLSI design from back in the day.

Have fun!

Book-wise, I’m currently reading David Weigel’s “The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock.” Fun stuff.

Genos: Hi-hat happiness

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If you’re following all of the Genos™ hoopla, you know that Revo! drums are one of the major features extensively advertised by Yamaha. You probably know that Revo (I’m dropping that darned exclamation point 🙂 ) drums use wave-cycling to to help remove the mechanical, robotic sound of MIDI drum and percussion parts.

All true.

Revo drums also offer one additional major feature which, in skilled hands, can fend off the MIDI robots: hi-hat drum instruments that help you mimic all of the crazy stuff that drummers do.

Some of us first noticed the new hi-hat sounds while converting Genos styles to other Yamaha arranger keyboards like the Tyros 5, PSR-S970, PSR-S950, etc. Yamaha styles are actually Type 0 Standard MIDI Files (SMF), consisting of a normal MIDI part (regular old SMF MIDI data) and non-MIDI parts (CASM to handle note transposition and OTS to select RIGHT1, RIGHT2, … voice sets on the fly). Whenever a new Yamaha arranger keyboard like the Genos comes along, there is a cottage industry backporting new styles to old axes.

If one installs and plays a Genos style on, say, the PSR-S950, and the style uses a Revo drum kit, you’re entertained by a percussion track that sounds like a Spike Jones novelty tune or a Benny Hill episode. Bells, scratches and other mayhem. What’s up?

For answers, check out the Genos Data List file, a downloadable PDF published and distributed by Yamaha. The Data List file contains the drum kit layout (i.e., how the MIDI note numbers are assigned to individual drum instruments/samples) for all of the drum kits. Many Yamaha drum kits to date approximately follow the note-to-drum instrument layout of the so-called “Standard Kit.” The lowest notes (C#-1 to E0, MIDI note numbers 13 to 28) are sounds like scratch, sequence click, click noise, etc. The highest notes (C#5 to G6, MIDI note numbers 85 to 91) are silent, i.e., no instrument is assigned.

Jump to the new modern age and the Revo “Rock Drum Kit,” for example, assigns ten hi-hat instruments to the notes C#-1 to A#-1. The Rock Drum Kit also assigns four snare drum variations to notes C#0 to E0. The rest of the Revo Rock Drum Kit follows (roughly) the Standard Kit layout.

The Genos styles make use of the new hi-hat and snare instruments assigned to the lowest MIDI note numbers. When a Genos style is played on an old non-Revo keyboard like the S950, the notes bark, ring and wheeze.

Before moving on, I should mention that assigning drum instruments to the highest note numbers is not a new practice for Yamaha or any other vendor, for that matter. Contemporary electronic and dance styles are percussion-rich and the corresponding Yamaha kits often have instrument variations and other fun sounds in the “north country.” Revo drums continue this practice for electronic- and dance-oriented kits.

Back in the day

Even keyboard players are remotely familiar with the real-world hi-hat instrument. The hi-hat is that pedal thing with two opposing cymbals, one platter above the other platter. The pedal controls the top platter, closing the gap between the platters or leaving them apart in the open position.

To appreciate the new Revo world, let’s look back to the MIDI Standard Kit. Drum kits which follow the Standard Kit form have conventionally offered three hi-hat (HH) sounds:

  • Hi-Hat closed
  • Hi-Hat pedal
  • Hi-Hat open

That’s just enough to cover basic hi-hat territory. HH closed is a bright chick or tick. HH open is shimmering and sustained like a ride cymbal. HH pedal is the sound of the pedal closing after being struck.

What drummers do

The top cymbal area is divided (roughly) into three parts: the bell near the center, the edge, and the region between the bell and the edge.

Regular hi-hat sounds are played using the tip of the drum stick hitting the top cymbal somewhere between the bell and the edge. The area closer to the bell has a brighter sound (high frequency tone). Drummers strike the cymbal edge for accents, striking with the thick part of the stick shank (the “shoulder”). Hard rock and metal tend to whack the edge no matter what in order to get an open slushy sound.

Open hi-hat is usually played with the tip on the top of the upper cymbal. For most genres, drummers want a crisp, clean sound. A drummer might hit the edge of an open hi-hat when they want the hi-hat part to stand out in the mix or they want an accent.

As I mentioned, the pedal closes the hi-hat cymbals. Drummers snap the cymbals together as part of their timekeeping (maybe to emphasize quarter notes, for example). It’s not just a binary choice (open/closed), however. Drummers apply more or less foot pressure in order to change the sound, even when the hi-hat cymbals are closed!

Then there are special techniques like choking the hi-hat. The drummer holds the cymbals tight with the pedal, opens the cymbals just before striking the top cymbal, and then quickly clamping the cymbals closed again.

Drummers sometimes look for extra sizzle in the open position and hang a light chain (or other random object) on the top cymbal. Want a completely different tone? Play the hi-hat with brushes or mallets.

Well, combine all of these techniques and the hi-hat is one expressive instrument! The three MIDI Standard Kit sounds don’t even begin to capture the full range of the hi-hat. With all of these playing techniques, the hi-hat has a dynamic sound; it’s no mystery why MIDI hi-hats sound robotic.

This is where Revo comes in.

If you want to learn more about hi-hat playing technique, search the Web. There’s a lot of free info out there. Knowing about real-world instruments is essential knowledge for arranging and orchestration.

What Revo offers

Wave cycling is important, but it only takes you half-way to hi-hat Nirvana.

Here is a table of the new hi-hat instrument sounds in the Genos Revo Rock Drum Kit:

                                     Alternate
Note# Note  RockDrumKit                Group
----- ----  -----------------------  ---------
   13 C#-1  Hi-Hat Tip 00 RD            64
   14 D-1   Hi-Hat Edge 00 RD           64
   15 D#-1  Hi-Hat Tip 10 RD            64
   16 E-1   Hi-Hat Edge 10 RD           64
   17 F-1   Hi-Hat Edge 25 RD           96
   18 F#-1  Hi-Hat Edge 50 RD           96
   19 G-1   Hi-Hat Edge 75 RD           96
   20 G#-1  Hi-Hat Edge 99 RD           96
   21 A-1   Hi-Hat Pedal Closed RD      64
   22 A#-1  Hi-Hat Pedal Splash         96

Even better, the hi-hat instruments (except the splash) use wave-cycling, i.e., there are multiple samples per instrument. The old school hi-hat MIDI note numbers are assigned to Revo sounds in the following way:

                                                Alternate
Note# Note  StdKit     RockDrumKit                Group
----- ----  ---------  -----------------------  ---------
   42 F#1   HH Closed  Hi-Hat Edge 00 RD            1
   44 G#1   HH Pedal   Hi-Hat Pedal Closed RD       1
   46 A#1   HH Open    Hi-Hat Edge 75 RD            1

Given the new-to-old school assignment, I interpret the number in the instrument (sample) name to mean “how open the cymbals are.” This value is the distance between the cymbals where “00” is closed and “99” is open. Warning! I may be totally wrong as Yamaha have not explicitly defined the meaning of the number in the Data List.

Here’s a few more new-to-old school hi-hat MIDI note assignments:

 # Note StdKit PopDrumKit             VintageOpenKit         JazzStickKit
-- ---- ------ ---------------------- ---------------------- ---------------
42 F#1  Closed Hi-Hat Edge 00 PD      Hi-Hat Tip 00 VO       Hi-Hat Edge 00 JS
44 G#1  Pedal  Hi-Hat Pedal Closed PD Hi-Hat Pedal Closed VO Hi-Hat Pedal Closed JS
46 A#1  Open   Hi-Hat Edge 75 PD      Hi-Hat Edge 75 VO      Hi-Hat Edge 99 JS

The closed position is “00” whether the hi-hat is played on the edge or tip. The open position is either “75” or “99”.

These assignment tables suggest a starting point when converting Revo drum parts in Genos styles or songs to legacy, non-Revo kits, e.g., PSR-S950 kits. (More below.)

The Alternate Group controls how an incoming hi-hat note affects an on-going hi-hat sound. Here’s the description from the Yamaha Genos Data List:

  • 1 to 95: Playing any instrument within a numbered group will immediately stop the sound of any other instrument in the same group of the same number.
  • 96 to 127: For these numbers, playing within a specific numbered group will NOT stop other instrument sounds in the same group number. However, the sound of instruments within these numbers are stopped when playing any instrument of a group whose number is that minus “32.” For example, the sound of an instrument numbered “96” will be stopped by playing any instrument numbered “64.”

Revo in action

The image below is a snapshot of the MAIN B section in the Genos “Mr. Soul” style (MP3). [Click image to enlarge.] The DAW is SONAR, which names notes from zero instead of Yamaha’s -2. Subtract 2 from the SONAR note name to get the Yamaha note name.

Section MAIN B plays the following notes and hi-hat instruments in the Revo Rock Drum Kit:

Note# Note  RockDrumKit                 Standard Kit
----- ----  -----------------------     ------------
   13 C#-1  Hi-Hat Tip 00 RD        --> HH Closed
   14 D-1   Hi-Hat Edge 00 RD       --> HH Closed
   15 D#-1  Hi-Hat Tip 10 RD        --> HH Closed
   16 E-1   Hi-Hat Edge 10 RD       --> HH Closed
   17 F-1   Hi-Hat Edge 25 RD       --> HH Open

Section MAIN C starts off with F#-1 Hi-Hat Edge 50 RD. The other drums instruments are:

Note# Note  RockDrumKit                 Standard Kit
----- ----  -----------------------     ------------
   35 B0    Kick 2 RD               --> Kick Tight
   38 D1    Snare 1 RD              --> Snare
   39 D#1   Clap Power              --> Hand clap

These notes carry the kick, snare and clap pattern.

When converting this style to a legacy kit, the kick, snare and clap pattern map to corresponding instruments in the Standard Kit. For the hi-hat, I would first try the mapping shown above for the Revo hi-hat notes. Conversion, though, pretty much sucks the Anton Fig right out of the pattern.

I hope you enjoyed this mini-tour through the Revo drum hi-hats and I encourage you to explore the other extensions in the new Genos drum kits. Yamaha have added variations for snare, brushes, and other drumming techniques. Like the SArt2 acoustic instruments, Genos is a ready-to-play, sample library. The Revo additions greatly enhance the realism of Genos styles. Revo — it’s more than wave-cycling.

Once I get a Genos, or even access to a Genos, I will add audio examples of the individual Genos hi-hat sounds. Meanwhile, give the “Mr. Soul” MP3 a listen

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos: First contact (snap review)

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Before I dive into Yamaha Genos™, I need to send a big shoutout to Frank Ventresca of Audioworks CT. I tested and bought my PSR-S950 from Audioworks CT. I’m ba-ack, having had a good experience the first time — largely due to Frank’s customer service. If you’re interested in trying and buying an arranger keyboard, I recommend visiting Audioworks CT and/or giving Frank a call.

For me, it’s about 140 miles one way from home to Audioworks CT. Preparations are similar to getting ready for a long day hike — only with sheet music instead of boots. The long car trip means that testing time is limited. I try to hit the driving sweet spot between morning rush on I-495/I-290 near Boston and the afternoon rush from New Haven and Hartford, leaving me about two hours to play.

After arriving at Audioworks CT, I found a three tiered stack: Yamaha Montage, Korg Pa4x and Yamaha Genos, from top to bottom. Thanks to a tip from Stephen on the PSR Tutorial Forum, I expected to see the Pa4x. With that foreknowledge, do I A/B the Genos and the Pa4x? I chose to focus solely on the Genos given the two hour window for testing. Frank, BTW, invited me to stay longer, but I knew that I needed to avoid traffic Hell later in the day.

I warmed up while Frank finished a business meeting. No music stand, so I used the Pa4x as a very expensive music rest. Once Frank was available, he quickly installed the Genos music stand.

I decided to listen through headphones rather than use Audioworks’ house system. It’s a good system, but I decided to go with my usual, lightweight headphones (Roland RH-7A). Headphones also freed up the LINE OUT which I connected to a Roland MicroBR digital recorder. This setup let me hit record, play and forget.

At the time of this writing, I pulled a few snippets among the noodling and posted them here. I’m trying to get my first impressions down fast and don’t want audio production to get in the way of my initial thoughts.

Before recording, I set the Genos EQ to flat and turned off the master compression. Audio is recorded direct to MP3 (192 kbit/sec). Not the best quality, but I was afraid of overrunning the rather small SD card in the MicroBR. After setting initial levels, I tried to forget that the MicroBR was there and that the red light was ON.

It’s humbling to listen to my noodling. Hats off to everyone’s main man Katsunori UJIIE, who seems to rip this stuff effortlessly!

Genos is an instrument

One shouldn’t have to say this, but the Genos is an instrument in the same league as Montage or Kronos. With the limited time available, I concentrated on Genos as a performance instrument first and as an arranger keyboard second. This approach is consistent with my musical priorities: church gig first, fun and possibly one man band (OMB) second.

As a liturgical musician, I play with a pianist on acoustic piano and a 12-string guitar. That’s a lot of rhythmic content right there. Much of what I play complements piano and 12-string guitar. Subconsciously, I fill in and hear these missing parts when practicing. Hopefully, you will fill in this context, too. If and when you hear the audio snippets, I’m playing fuller than I would with the group. There is always a tendency to “be the whole band” when playing alone. Apologies in advance.

The focus is on emulation of acoustic instruments, orchestra and pop. You won’t hear any synth and given the short trial time, you won’t hear many styles (unfortunately).

The FSX keyboard is a more robust keybed than the PSR-S950. The FSX action is heavier. You do get what you pay for. The FSX affords aftertouch; the S950 does not.

The Genos has three front panel articulation buttons to trigger voice articulations. The voice display shows the available articulations for each selected voice. (Nice.) The voice display also shows a drawbar icon for organ flute voices. Touching the drawbar icon brings up the drawbar display. (Extra nice.) I made extensive use of the voice DEMO touch button in order to play and sort through voices quickly.

The user interface is responsive. I didn’t get a sense of lag as reported by other players. I discovered that the MENU front panel button is your special friend. It brings up two pages filled with touch buttons leading to all internal settings. It’s kind of a “site map” for the Genos.

Strings

The Genos is like having a compact orchestral sample library in a portable, immediately playable keyboard. Think Garritan Personal Orchestra.

There are two major options for strings in addition to legacy voices: Kino strings and Seattle strings. The Seattle strings first appeared in the Tyros 5 before they were explicitly identified and advertised in the Montage. The Kino strings have a different character and the violin sections are panned separately left and right. Both options have multiple bowing and playing techniques (legato, spiccato, pizzicato) plus articulations. The options are also broken out into sections as well as the standard ensemble voices.

The Kino strings have more power and are more in your face than the Seattle strings. Dare I say, more bow? Where is Dave Stewart when you need him? (This review would be wittier if written by Dave Stewart, too.)

The voice DEMO feature is really handy when approaching a deep keyboard like Genos for the first time. I quickly settled on the “warm” variation of the Kino strings and Seattle strings. Either choice (Kino Seattle) would work as a bread and butter ensemble patch. I give the edge to Seattle because, well, they would sit better with piano and acoustic guitar, given our repertoire. Tyros 5 people, hold up your heads with pride.

With the loss of our group’s flutist, I’m play a lot of exposed solo lines using violin, oboe and flute. The Genos offers four Super Articulation 2 solo voices: Celtic Violin, Jazz Violin, Classical Cello and Pop Cello. The Celtic Violin is a good fit with our liturgical repertoire. The Genos cellos are quite good, definitely a big cut above the MOX6 that I currently play. I wish that I had more time to check out the cellos.

Meta-comment: Exploiting the Genos, especially its articulations and ensembles — will require practice, practice, practice.

Woodwinds

In the case of woodwinds, I need both ensemble voices (or layers) and solo voices (mainly oboe and flute). The Genos does not disappoint in either category.

I quite easily built and tried a few layers. It wasn’t difficult to create a workable reed plus horn layer — another bread and butter, every Sunday patch. Less is often more. It isn’t necessary to layer up a preset woodwind ensemble with French horn; sometimes a mellow oboe or clarinet will do.

The Genos has two SArt2 oboes (classical and pop) and an SArt “MOR Oboe.” The Classic Oboe is bright and thin, able to cut through strings. For exposed lines, I would prefer the Pop Oboe or MOR Oboe voices that have a warmer, fuller sound.

The SArt2 Classical Bassoon and Pop Bassoon are quite pleasant without moving into comedic territory. (Peter and the Wolf.)

Brass

The Genos has a mess’o’horns and classical brass. Symphony horns are quite useful in liturgy as pads and mid-range filler. Fanfare brass is too much except for the obvious holidays when all sorts of sonic mayhem can be let loose. The Genos has a wide range of horns from mellow to a brighter more open tone.

The brasher instruments (trumpet and trombone) are available solo and in sections. All quite good. Trombones are especially useful due to their wider range and deeper timbre.

The demo phrases for certain brass voices are way hotter level-wise than the strings or woodwinds. I had to adjust the audio record level way down to prevent clipping. Unfortunately, this affected the level for everything else that I recorded during the day. Sorry, I just spaced out and didn’t reset the level. (Argh!) So, you may need to adjust the audio volume at your end.

Drawbar organ

Huh? That’s not classical. Our church means gospel and a little Hispanic music, too.

I enjoyed getting into the Genos drawbar organ. There’s no undiscovered clone killer here, but Yamaha’s drawbar emulation will work in a lot of churches (and stages, too). I’m already quite familiar with Yamaha’s emulation having played both the MOX and PSR-S950.

The physical drawbars are a treat. The knobs are shaped like, er, classic drawbar knobs. The bars can be changed and played in real time, something that I miss on the MOX and to a large extent, the S950. If you select a preset, the physical position of the sliders does not directly relate to the sound, of course. The sliders are not motorized. When a slider is moved, it won’t change the sound until the slider “catches” the current internal bar value. That’s why Martin Harris “warms up” the sliders before playing the bars in his demo videos.

The new rotary speaker simulation is an improvement, but won’t knock the Neo Ventilator from its perch. Here, Yamaha have some work to do immediately:

  • The Drive parameter doesn’t seem to have any effect on the sound. (Thanks to Uli from the PSR Tutorial Forum for pointing this out.) Pushing the Drive to 10 doesn’t add any overdrive.
  • As mentioned in an earlier post, the rotor slow/fast and fast/slow times cannot be adjusted; only the horn (de)acceleration times can be adjusted.

Yamaha needs to fix these divots.

The rotary speaker sim is set too fast out of the box. This gave me a chance to dive into the DSP effect editing menus. I made the changes without too much difficulty and without a manual. Good job. I just wish that I could change the rotor (de)acceleration times, too.

This seems to be a good place to mention that sound programmers universally tend to set the times too fast, especially the ramp times. Players love it when it takes a while for those old, vintage belts and pulleys to spin the rotor/horn up and down. A lot of real B-players habitually hit the half-moon switch to keep the Leslie in its intermediate, changing state. Watching Gregg Allman do this in 1971 was a revelation that stuck with me for a lifetime!

Wot? No pipe organ? Genos carries over the quite excellent handful of pipe organ voices from Tyros 5. They’re good. Move along.

Pop instruments

Now that the main job is done, it’s time for the funk and blues.

You probably noticed by now that I haven’t said anything about the CFX and C7 acoustic pianos. You’re right and you won’t hear another word about them from me. They’re covered elsewhere, everywhere.

I did try the Suitcase Rhodes (oh, why this charade about names?), the Wurlitzer and the Clav. All will do the business. The Suitcase is still waaaay too polite for my taste in fusion. Think the fuzzed out bliss of “Mahavishnu.” That’s a 70’s Rhodes.

The SArt2 Funk Alto Sax and Funk Baritone Sax are welcome additions. I look forward to exploring those. The Jazz Flute sounds good to my ears and has interesting articulations. The Classical Flute can jam, too.

I took a listen to the new Active Bass (Music Man Stingray?) Sweet. Should provide new options when sequencing.

Then there’s the mess’o’guitars. I presume that 50’s is Telecaster and 60’s is Stratocaster? With all the DSP at hand, the electric guitars are instant “tone” with all of the right pedal-board effects dialed in. The jazz guitar sounds good. I often reach for jazz guitar when playing pop. (Need more technique, though. Practice, practice, practice.)

The sax and brass demos start out with the new funk saxes. The rhythm section demo includes Suitcase Rhodes, Wurli, Clav, CP80, Active Bass, electric guitars and jazz guitar.

Styles

At this point in the day, my ears and hands were getting trashed. I was hoping to try the styles that have been getting short shrift in on-line videos. Given the time that was left, all I could hit was “Mr. Soul” and “Soul Supreme” with the old chestnut “Acoustic Jazz” thrown in. All good for a fun-time jam.

Neither style was harmed by playing over them. I did jam quite a bit and got a decent Fishbelly Black organ tone out of the drawbar organ and rotary sim. Oh, happy day!

Workflow

You should be able to sense my time urgency at this point because my comments are getting shorter and shorter.

I played along with a few MIDI and WAV audio songs in order to assess the workflow for OMB. Even without playlists and registrations, the Genos has a much smoother workflow than the Montage in this regard. Montage designers should take note because many Montage players incorporate audio and MIDI tracks into their performances, too.

I botched a chance to try Revo drums with a MIDI file. I brought the USB drive that contains my WAV audio and MIDI backing tracks. I played along with “Just My Imagination,” a track that suffers from extreme “machine gun” drum rolls. Darn, with time pressing, I forgot to re-voice the file with a Revo drums kit! Bummer.

Summary

Genos is waaaaaay too much for two hours. Two weeks, two months, maybe.

There you have it. Genos? Yes, I played one. As you can tell from this quick review, I’m more enthusiastic than ever about Genos.

Need more information about Super Articulation voices? Please look here.

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos quick hits 1

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Just a few quick Genos™ hits to get the day started.

Thanks for Gerard on the PSR Tutorial Forum and Frank at Audioworks CT, we have the Yamaha Genos Product Guide. This is a slick brochure put out by Yamaha Europe and went out to dealers. A lot of the information is known, but the brochure is more in tune with a professional product launch.

In a small measure of thanks for the product guide, I’d like to slip in a shameless plug for Frank and Audioworks CT. When the Tyros 5 was released, I tested the T5 at the Audioworks store. Eventually, I bought my Yamaha PSR-S950 from Frank. Overall, an excellent customer experience. Frank specializes in arranger workstations and gigs with gear.

We’re still waiting for the Genos Data List PDF. In the meantime, I will update the list of new Genos voices and styles in my earlier post.

Last week, I re-recorded several MIDI backing tracks to WAV audio. Silly me, I had recorded and converted these to MP3 format the first time around. Worse, I deleted the intermediate WAV files in order to save space.

This task gave me a chance to listen critically to the tracks. I quickly got tired of the monotonous TAT-TAT-TAT of the snare drums. Give me Revo drums, please! I definitely foresee Revo drums in the Montage future, too.

After freezing MIDI backing tracks to WAV audio, I play over the audio. Which leads me to a major concern with respect to the assignment of DSP effect units to Genos song parts. Yamaha assigned 16 DSP units to the MIDI song parts, one DSP to each keyboard part, one DSP to the microphone, and one DSP to each style part, etc. for a total of 28 insertion DSP effects.

The 16 DSPs assigned to the MIDI song parts don’t do much for me once I freeze MIDI to audio. So, I’m wondering if those DSP units could be reassigned? Ideally, Yamaha would allocate the DSP units dynamically out of a resource pool. A dynamic assignment (or even a manual reassignment) might free up enough DSP units to implement Seamless Sound Switching (SSS) on Genos.

In SSS, one needs to have reserve DSP units in order to switch to a second voice without a glitch. The Montage SSS scheme effectively forces the voice programmer to reserve adequate DSP resources for the second voice. Seamless Sound Switching is a high demand, user want. I’d love to see Genos SSS in a future update.

Keep playin’ and havin’ fun!

Genos has landed

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Thanks to Frank at Musik City for a video showing the Genos™ user interface in action. Aside from seeing the Genos UI, the screenshots reveal a number of new styles and voices. With respect to the styles, some of the new styles may be a reworking of a previous Tyros 5 style. We’ll see and hear as soon as we can test.

We already know about the CFX concert grand, C7 acoustic grand, steel acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, electric pianos (from the Montage), Kino strings, and Revo drums. New to the list are accordians, synths, and Super Articulation 2 (SArt2) cellos.

Funksters, rejoice! There is an SArt2 Baritone Sax. Excuse me while I put my shades on. 🙂

A few lucky people in the United States have received a Genos. Currently, firmware version 1.02 is shipping. It’s still early days.

List of new Genos styles and voices

Updated: 24 October 2017 AM

The “JS” in a voice name means “Try the joystick!”

Genos new R&B styles
  Mr. Soul
  SuperGroove

Genos new 80s RetroPop
  80sMonsterHit     80sClassic6-8
  80sTeenDisco      80sFunkIcon
  80sPopDiva        80sRetroDisco
  80sEuroPop        80sBritishPop
  80sSynthPop       80sSynthDuo

Genos new Pop styles
  SkyPop            SongwriterBallad
  KissDancePop      UnpluggedBallad
  BoyBandPop        6-8GuitarBallad
  CinematicPop      12-8PopBallad
  BritishDancePop   EpicDivaBallad

Genos new Rock styles
  80sClassicRock    IndieRock
  HighRoadRock      Summer8BeatRock
  70sHardRock       80sEdgyRock
  70sShuffleRock    80sRockDiva
  70sStraightRock   60sBritishSoul
  60sRockGuitar

Genos new Dance styles
  PartyAnthem       HardTrance
  Reggaeton         EDM Anthem
  DubStep           Slow'n'Swingin'
  DangerDance       ChartEDM
  ElectroPop

Genos new styles
  BigBandCrooner    RomanticMovie (Free Play)
  LushBallad        BlockbusterTV
  NashvillePop      AcousticBluegrass

Genos new drum kits (including Revo)
  RockDrumKit       JazzBrushExpanded
  PopDrumKit        AfroCubanKit
  VintageOpenKit    BrazilianKit
  VintageMuteKit    PopPercKit
  JazzStickKit      VocalBeatBox

Genos new woodwind voices
  PopSopranoSax SArt2        SoftAltoSax SArt2
  AltoSax SArt2              SmoothTenorSax SArt2
  FunkAltoSax SArt2          BreathyTenorSax SArt2
  BigBandAltoSax SArt2       BigBandTenorSax SArt2

  BaritoneSax SArt2          FunkBaritoneSax SArt2
  PopOboe SArt2

Genos new acoustic piano voices
  CFX ConcertGrand SArt      CFX WarmPad SArt
  CFX StageGrand SArt        CFX Shimmer SArt
  CFX AmbientGrand SArt      CFX CocktailGrand SArt
  CFX TwoOctaves SArt        CFX PadProduction SArt

  70sBalladUpright SArt      UprightTwoOctaves SArt
  HonkyTonkUpright SArt      ChilloutUpright SArt

Genos new brass voices
  FlugelHorn SArt2

Genos new 70s EP voices
  70sSuitcaseClean SArt      70sSuitcasePan SArt
  70sSuitcaseAmped SArt      70sSuitcaseTremolo SArt
  70sSuitcaseWarm1 SArt      70sSuitcaseWarm2 SArt
  70sSuitcasePhase SArt      70sSuitcaseAmbienceEP SArt
  70sSuitcaseBallad SArt     70sSuitcaseMeditationEP SArt

Genos new string voices      
  KinoStrings SArt           KinoStringsWarmVc SArt
  KinoStringsWarm SArt       ClassicalCello SArt2
  KinoStringsLow SArt        PopCello SArt2
  KinoStringsSlow SArt       SeattleViolins SArt
  KinoStringsNatural SArt    SeattleCellos SArt
  KinoStringsViolins SArt
  KinoStringsViolas SArt
  KinoStringsCellos SArt

Genos new acoustic guitar voices
  SteelAcousticFinger SArt   ResonatorSlapBack SArt
  SteelAcousticPick SArt     ResonatorBluesAmp SArt
  SteelThumbPick SArt        ResonatorMuteVel SArt
  ResonatorGuitar SArt       

Genos new electric guitar voices
  50sVintageRock             50sVintageSpring
  50sVintageDelay            
  50sVintageWarm             
  50sVintagePure             
  50sVintageAmp              
  50sDriveWah

  60sVintagePalm             50sVintageSolo
  60sShadowMute              50sVintageStage
  60sCountryMute             50sHeavyRock
  60sFunkPick                50sDriveWahWah
  50sVintageFull             50sVintageBlues

  60sShadowedLead SArt       PedalSteelGuitar SArt
  60sRockHero SArt

Genos new bass voices
  ActiveBassFinger
  ActiveBassF.Mute
  ActiveBassPick
  ActiveBassP.Mute
  ActiveBassSlap

  80sArpPulseBass            VeloTaureanBass
  80sSynthPopBass            80sUnisonBass
  80sSeqBass                 Powerdrone
  80sArnoldBass              BPF Buzz JS (replaces MW)
  80sRetroPulse              Wobble JS (replaces MW)

Genos new accordian voices
  SuperMusette
  SteirisheHarmonika
  BajanAccordian             
  ScotsAccordian             
  SteirisheHarmonika         

Genos new synth voices
  80sSmallPulsePoly          HyperTrance
  DanceSurvivor              TranceGates
  80sPolyPop                 80sUnisonFat
  PowerOfEmotion             PizzyDanceChords
  SinoSphere                 MiniClassicSoft
  GreenFlash                 80sDreamyVox
  80sDreamStrings

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

The future looks bright

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After reading the owner’s manual and watching the first demonstrations, it’s clear that the Yamaha Genos™ is a beautiful face-lift over the Tyros series, but where is the sonic breakthrough?

As usual, the answer was right in front of my face all along. First, a few facts and figures:

    Feature                        Tyros 5    Genos
    ---------------------------    -------    -----
    Mega Voices                       54        82
    Super Articulation voices        288       390
    Super Articulation 2 voices       44        75
    Live voices                      138       160
    Articulation buttons               2         3

Back before the specifications were officially announced, I saw a leaked version of these specs. Given the big leap in Mega Voice (MV), Super Articulation (SA) and Super Articulation 2 (SA2) voices, I didn’t think the leaked specifications were credible. Now, I believe.

In short, the new tone generation hardware in Genos enables a very large SSD-sized waveform memory capable of holding all of the waveforms needs for the boost in MV, SA and SA2 voices. The end result is greater musical expression, detail and realism for both the Genos player and audiences.

This blog takes a focused look at Mega Voice, Super Articulation (1 and 2), and why the “great leap forward” is possible in Genos. For PSR/Tyros purists, I hope that you don’t mind my shortened abbreviations for Mega Voice, etc. The short abbreviations are much easier to type without extra punctuation marks.

Background information

MV, SA and SA2 are the trinity of highly detailed, expressive Yamaha voices. All three kinds of voices are based on Yamaha’s sample playback technology AWM2 (Advanced Wave Memory). Super Articulation 2 is based on Articulation Element Modeling (AEM). Both AWM2 and AEM are covered by many Yamaha patents.

Yamaha did not introduce these voices in one fell swoop. Mega Voices were the first to appear. A Mega Voice divides a voice into two or more velocity ranges and assigns a different waveform to each range. A trumpet voice, for example, is divided into:

    Velocity range    Waveform
    --------------    ----------------------
         1 - 20       mf trumpet
        21 - 40       f trumpet
        41 - 60       ff trumpet
        61 - 90       Legato
        81 - 100      Straight
       101 - 110      Shake
       111 - 120      Falls
       121 - 127      Glissando up

MIDI notes above C6 and above C8 are mapped to valve noise and breath noise, respectively. For other examples of Mega Voices, see the Mega Voice mapping table in the Tyros 5 Data List file for details. (Also, learn how to create a Mega Voice using Yamaha Expansion Manager.)

The first three ranges and waveforms correspond to velocity switching as we know it. The second five ranges correspond to articulations as we know and love them in software instruments. The articulations and noises are the sonic sweeteners that make sequenced music sound more human and natural.

Mega Voices are intended for sequencing. They are used in arranger keyboard styles to make them sound less MIDI-ish. Unless you have the finger control of a god, you cannot reasonably play a Mega Voice through the keyboard.

But, wait a minute! What if you put some smart software between the keyboard and the tone generator? The smart software watches and analyzes your gestures (i.e., key presses, releases, button pushes, etc.), and plays either a regular note or an articulated note. This is the basic idea behind Super Articulation.

In the case of the trumpet, for example, the SA software watches the notes that you play and if you push the right articulation button while playing a note, the software selects and plays a shake instead of a regular trumpet sound. The SA software also analyzes note timing and plays a legato waveform when you strike a second key while holding the first key. SA software even responds to note intervals such as playing a glissando when the interval between two notes is big enough.

In the end, Super Articulation makes Mega Voice articulations intuitively playable. I thoroughly enjoy playing the SA voices on my PSR-S950. I don’t have too think to hard at all — just let it rip as I hear it in my head.

Montage and late model Motif- and MOX-series synthesizers implement Expanded Articulation (XA). Take a look at my deconstruction of the Tenor To The Max voice.

Super Articulation 2 takes SA up another notch. Real musical tones are not discrete sonic events. Tones tend to blend together due to the characteristics of the musical instrument itself and/or playing technique (e.g., legato). SA2 performs a digital blending between notes by analyzing gestures and selecting the appropriate waveform from a very large database of waveform segments. Broadly speaking, these segments belong to three categories:

  1. Head: Attack portion of the sound
  2. Body: Main body of the sound
  3. Tail: Release portion of the sound

Consider two notes where the first note is detached and the second note is legato. SA2 plays the head segment for the first note, sounding the attack. This is followed by the body of the first note. SA2 does not play a head for the second note. It blends the body of the first note into the body of the second note. When the second note is released, SA2 selects and plays a tail for the second note.

All of this blending is computation heavy and is very sensitive to timing and latency. The technology behind SA2 is Articulation Element Modeling (AEM). AEM is actually a deep subject and is patented. (See my related post about Real Acoustic Sound.)

Technical breakthrough, sonic breakthrough

Folks who are familiar with software instruments and sound libraries know that all of this comes with a cost. Sample libraries for orchestral instruments are enormous because there are so many different ways to bow, pluck, strike and generally mess with acoustic instruments. Tens and even hundreds of gigabytes are needed to store the highest quality sample libraries. Then, one needs to have a fast streaming device like an SSD and a computationally husky CPU to play the samples without a glitch or hiccup.

Before Montage and Genos, Yamaha’s mainstay tone generator (TG) integrated circuit (IC) was the SWP51L. This venerable chip carried the load in Motif, MOX, CP, Clavinova, and other mid- to high-end Yamaha products.

Like all things electronic, the SWP51L’s time eventually came and went. The SWP51L communicates to waveform memory over a CPU-like bus with a fixed width address. The SWP51L is limited in three ways. First, the fixed width address is not big enough to address the very large sample library needed to support today’s articulation-heavy voices. Second, the address bus cannot be (easily) made wider. Third, the bus protocol is not directly compatible with relatively inexpensive commodity NAND flash memory. Conclusion, the SWP51L does not scale to a big waveform memory.

The Montage and the Genos deploy the new generation SWP70 tone generator. Unlike the SWP51L, the SWP70 is compatible with commodity NAND flash memory — the same kind of memory used in solid state drives (SSD). The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) bus protocol — and the Genos — is scalable.

Thus, Yamaha is finally free to expand waveform memory to sample library scale.

People make much of “SSD, SSD, SSD!” SSDs use a SATA bus for communication, a bus that can become a bottleneck in itself. Yamaha have found a way to integrate SSD functionality into the SWP70 without the need for a SATA bus. The integration promises greater speed (i.e., memory bandwidth) without the cost and latency of a SATA bus. This design approach is patented. Please read one of my earlier posts about the SWP70 for the gory technical details. Hope you know a bit about computer architecture before diving in!

I’ve also speculated about the role of the SWP70 in the implementation of the Genos file system. This post is highly speculative and has not been verified by reading the Genos service manual.

What does this mean for the player?

The bottom line for the player and audiences is rich sound filled with detail and realism, thanks to big waveform memory, AWM2/AEM synthesis and Yamaha’s sound development expertise. Big waveform capacity and the new mono/stereo tone generation channels in the SWP70 also mean greater use of stereo samples (“Live voices” in PSR/Tyros-speak.)

Please look at the chart at the beginning of this article. No previous generation-to-generation Tyros upgrade has had such a big jump in the number of Mega Voice, Super Articulation and Super Articulation 2 voices. It can only get better from here as the SWP70 is the Yamaha platform for the next 8 to 10 years.

The Genos promises to be an expressive instrument which will be fun to play. The knobs, sliders and articulation buttons afford a great deal of real time control. I can’t wait to play one of these!

Longer term, what do the technical breakthroughs hold for the Montage series? You ain’t seen or heard nothin’ yet.

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Creating a Mega Voice in YEM

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With all of the Genos™ hoopla, let’s not forget about technique and skills! A few interesting questions popped up on the PSR Tutorial Forum and I’m reposting my answers here.

Today’s blog describes how to create a Mega Voice for PSR/Tyros using Yamaha Expansion Manager (YEM). With this background information in mind, I go on to discuss maximum polyphony in AWM2 and how to count voices against maximum polyphony.

The discussion has a PSR/Tyros focus, but a lot of the information applies to Motif, MOX and Montage, too. If you want to learn more about the Yamaha AWM2 voice architecture, I recommend reading the first chapter of a Motif- or Montage-series reference manual and the corresponding synthesizer parameter manual. (Download these manuals from the Yamaha manual library.)

Creating a Mega Voice in YEM

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.

Mega Voice guitars (and other Mega Voices) are different. Please look at the Mega Voice 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 Mega Voice map, again, for the 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.

Put this knowledge into action with YEM

Now you need to figure out how to do this using the voice editor in Yamaha Expansion Manager (YEM). Each voice has up to eight elements. Think of each element as a mini, controllable synthesizer.

You will need one element for each of the velocity ranges that form the main body of your Mega Voice. In the case of the Mega NylonGuitar voice, that’s eight elements!

In YEM, build one element at a time. Layout the samples for one velocity range of the many body. You may have one waveform or you may have several waveforms. Each waveform occupies a key range. Do not map any waveforms onto the keys C6 and above (yet). These keys are reserved for the noise notes.

When you select a waveform belonging to an element, YEM highlights the color and displays eight resizing dots on the edges of the waveform. Use these dots to resize the waveform. Moving left or right changes the key assignment for the waveform. Moving an edge up or down changes the lower or upper limit of the velocity range to be assigned to the waveform.

If you have a lot of samples, be prepared to do a lot of work! Now you’re learning how much work Yamaha puts into voice development!

Once you have assigned the waveforms (samples) for the main body of your new voice, you can work on the noise notes, that is, any keys C6 and above.

Select the first element. Assign the waveforms for the noise notes to the keys C6 and above. The actual layout is up to you, but you must use only the keys C6 and above.

If your noise notes have only one velocity range, 1 to 127, then you must set the velocity range for only those waveforms (1 to 127). If your noise notes have two or more velocity ranges (not recommended), then you must use more than one element.

So, you can see that YEM has enough editing power to create a Mega Voice. Be prepared to study carefully how Yamaha voices are constructed. Please don’t expect to just jump in, clap your hands, and be finished. I regard Mega Voice development as a fairly advanced, expert job. If you haven’t created a voice before using YEM, then I suggest trying something simple until you understand elements, waveform layout across keys, and velocity ranges.

Counting voices against maximum polyphony

Now that you’re schooled in voice structure, it’s a good time to discuss maximum polyphony and counting voice elements against maximum polyphony.

This has always been a somewhat confusing topic because of the way polyphonic voices are counted.

As I mentioned above, a Tyros or Motif or Montage (AWM2) voice consists of up to 8 elements. Assume that only the RIGHT1 part is enabled and thus, only one Tyros voice is enabled. When a key is struck, the AWM2 engine determines the active elements and assigns each active element to a physical-level, hardware tone generation channel. One or more elements may be active simultaneously for a given note under the assumption.

Assignment and channel use is additive. If RIGHT1 and RIGHT2 are enabled (i.e., two layered voices), then there are one or more active elements from the RIGHT1 voice and one or more active elements from the RIGHT2 voice. This is why layers chew up polyphony.

The number of tone generation channels determines the maximum number of active tones playing at any time — the maximum polyphony.

Be prepared to be confused!

Even if all eight elements are defined in a Mega Voice, not all eight elements may be active at a time. One to eight elements may be active depending upon the incoming MIDI note and the element programming (i.e., the velocity range and note range for each element.) When the synthesis engine gets a MIDI note (consisting of a MIDI note number and velocity), it decides which elements to play. If only one element matches, then only one polyphony voice is used up. If two elements match, then two polyphony voices are used up, and so on.

Thus, depending upon the combination of note ranges and velocity levels, a voice may use anywhere from one to eight voices of polyphony. It all comes down to the particular design (programming) of a user voice.

If you’re not confused yet, hold on, there’s more. In the past, a stereo voice would use two tone generation channels while mono uses one channel. The left waveform is assigned to an element and the right waveform is assigned to its own element. Montage and Genos have the new tone generator, the SWP70. The new tone generation hardware supports 128 mono/stereo voices (channels) of polyphony. That is, stereo elements get mapped to a stereo channel. This is a big deal because it allows greater use of stereo waveforms without cutting too deeply into the available polyphony.

Think like a coder

By now, if you’re a programmer, you’re thinking of pseudo-code somthing like:

    if ((MIDI note number >= lowest key in key range) &&
        (MIDI note number <= highest key in key range) &&
        (MIDI note velocity >= lowest velocity in velocity range) &&
        (MIDI note velcotiy <= highest velocity in velocity range))
    {
        Generate the tone for the MIDI note
    }

This conditional statement summarizes what I discussed earlier.

As usual, there's more.

The AWM2 synthesis engine defines and evaluates other conditions:

  • Detached (non-legato) or legato
  • Articulation button ON or OFF
  • Jump in note interval less than one octave

Motif and Montage people will recognize the first two conditions as Expanded Articulation (XA). PSR and Tyros people will recognize all three conditions as part of Super Articulation (SA). These additional conditions also control element triggering. Think about extending the pseudo-code's condition with other conjunctive terms.

The Motif and Montage voice editors expose the XA conditions. Yamaha Expansion Manager does not expose these conditions. Thus, it's not possible to create Super Articulation voices using YEM.

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos news from Germany

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Heidrun Dolde is a musician, performer, composer and music educator in Stuttgart, Germany. Heidrun has a wonderful Web site dedicated to technique and workshops with an arranger keyboard focus.

The epicenter for the Genos™ roll-out is Rellingen, Germany, So, it makes sense that Heidrun would be right in the middle of the action. She collected questions concerning Genos from members of the European Yamaha forum and sent the questions to the Yamaha team in Rellingen. She has summarized the answers in a PDF available here: http://heidruns-musikerseiten.de/keyboard/vergleiche.

I am in Heidrun’s debt for all of the information in this post. I cranked her PDF through Google Translate and used a little bit of my “viewgraph German” to learn more about Genos. Here are a few items that I have not seen prominently in English language sources. I wrote a few editorial comments, which appear between square brackets “[]”. I’ll take the heat for any errors.

New voices and drum kits

There are 14 “Revo” drum kits including: Rock Drums, Pop Drums, Vintage Open, Vintage Muted, Jazz Sticks, Jazz Brushes, Vocal Beatbox. The drums are recorded with room ambience. [I’ve been freezing MIDI songs to WAV audio on PSR-S950. I desperately need the wave-cycling in Revo drums.]

New voices include:

  • Revo! Drums
  • Resonator guitars (Dobro)
  • Flugelhorn and other brass sounds
  • Pedal Steel (authentically playable because only the lower part of a chord responds to pitch bend)
  • CP-80 (e.g., for classic Freddy Mercury and Foreigner songs)
  • Many strings of a large orchestra to cello, viola, violin in a small ensemble
  • New piano sounds (from Montage)
  • Many synth sounds (from Montage)

[Country and folk players appear to be big winners with Genos. Dobro, pedal steel, new acoustic steel guitars. Wow!]

There are new OTS for all 550 styles. [Yamaha usually updates styles to use the latest voices. They outdid themselves this time.]

Layers, splits and editing

Up to three voices can be layered. You can not control voices [in a layer] by velocity level as with a synth.

You can create up to 3 voice areas next to each other on the keyboard by splitting split points (Left Voice, Right Voice 1 + 2, Right 3).

Onboard sound editing is through “Voice Set”, which influences the overall sound of a voice (filter, envelope, effects, etc.) In addition, there is sound modification in live mode (“Live Control”) which are made by knobs and sliders. The OLED sub-display shows the parameter value changes in real time.

If you want to get into detailed voice editing, the new Yamaha Expansion Manager (YEM) will provide advanced ways to change the individual components of Voices. YEM 2.5 will be released in November 2017. Information about voice editing will be available then.

DSP effects

There are three system-level effects automatically called by MIDI files or styles: Reverb, Chorus, and DSP 1.

Of the 28 insertion effects, eight DSPs are reserved for styles. Each part has its own separate DSP.

The remainder of the insertion effects have a fixed assignment. Voice parts LEFT, RIGHT1, RIGHT2, RIGHT3 can each have an insert DSP (+ Part EQ) and are routed to the system reverb and chorus effects. Song parts 1 to 16 each have a separate insertion effect. Song parts 1 to 16 and Style parts 1 to 8 can be routed to a single variation effect (effectively forming a 2 DSP insert chain).

Multipads do not have their own DSP effect.

Operating system and user interface

A maximum of 2500 files can be in a folder. MIDI files can be a maximum of 300 KB. [Several people on the European forum made note of the 300KB limitation. EDM, in particular, makes heavy use of MIDI continuous control (CC) and the 300KB limit may be a deal breaker. Yamaha, please take note.]

Playlists work best with Songbook+. An entry can be linked directly without having to know the MSB / LSB of the Voice. [Sounds like there will be tight(er) integration between Songbook+ and Genos. Songbook+ is free through the US Apple app store, but there is a 15 song limit. Unlimited Songbook+ is an in-app purchase. I’ve already downloaded Songbook+, but haven’t had the time to try it.]

Genos takes about 20 seconds to power up the operating system (as of October 2017).

[I anticipate faster expansion pack loading time. Blake Angelos (Yamaha) reported that Montage load times were measured at 6 to 7 times faster than Motif XF. For example, a 500MB load took 5 minutes on a prototype model. Like Montage, Genos incorporates the new tone generator hardware and flash interface.]

Controllers

The Yamaha MFC10 foot pedal is supported by Genos. The settings are made via Menu> MIDI> External Controller.

The front panel gateway buttons are:

  • Home: Main Display
  • Menu: Basic
  • Style: Styles
  • Voice: Instruments
  • Songs: MIDI and audio files
  • Playlist: Repertoire list

[I love that name, “Gateway.”]

MP3 format

Genos supports MP3 audio playback with lyrics. Given an MP3 file with the appropriate embedded information, the Genos provides a karaoke function with song text and chord display. The MP3 formats are Midiland Lyrioke (DKE format, fits all Midiland players) and MP3 + G. Heidrun and folks tested CDG format.

Both Genos song players can display MP3 with song lyrics.

Internal file storage

Geno has no internal hard drive and no SSD drive. Hard drives are vulnerable to fairure due to their mechanics. The moving parts in a hard drive also affect the lifetime of a hard drive. There is a solid-state user memory (= Flash ROM) with 58 GB of memory.

[People are having a hard time getting their minds around this one. Wot? No hard drive, no SSD? What is it? Yamaha have cleverly used the flash memory attached to one of the tone generators as explained in my post. Yes, it’s flash, but it will be a heck of lot faster than USB flash. Trust me.]

Appreciation

I just want to thank Heidrun, again, for collecting questions and answers, and summarizing the responses. She did a superb job!

Vielen Dank!

Genos: After the fireworks

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So, how do I feel about Genos now that the Genos manuals are rolling out and emotions have cooled down?

The Yamaha Genos™ is a significant update on the Tyros 5. The brand new user interface (UI) should be easy to navigate through the brand-spanking new touch screen. The assignable knobs and sliders are very welcome, and probably give some Montage owners FOMO (fear of missing out). The sound set has gotten the usual and expected boost: CFX piano, C7 piano, electric pianos on par with Montage, new acoustic guitars, and so on.

Scratch the surface of the new UI, however, one finds few feature enhancements. The new Playlist capability replaces the Music Finder Database (MFD). Yamaha are in competition with Korg’s Songbook and only real hands-on experience will determine who has the edge.

The lighter weight is definitely appreciated as well as the modern stage styling. Yamaha have chosen to offer Genos in a single 76-key model. The 76-er weighs less than the previous 61-key Tyros 5 and that’s all to the good.

Before I discuss a few specific points, I want to describe how I feel: methodically enthusiastic. Huh?

When I buy a new keyboard, I think carefully about need — what would improve my experience and skills as a musician and what would improve the experience of those for whom I play. I do not currently perform with my Yamaha PSR-S950 arranger. Gig-wise, I can cover what I need to cover with a sample-playback synthesizer. I need section/solo orchestra strings, woodwinds and horns. I need B-3 organ and pipe organ. The Yamaha MOX6 — my main gig instrument — is sufficient in this regard.

I do play the S950 as a practice instrument. I also have aspirations of performing as a one man band (OMB). I would be very happy to have a single instrument that fulfills gigging, practice and OMB situations.

In terms of sound, I’m ready for a major update. The MOX6 and the S950 sounds are roughly the same vintage as the Motif XS, first released in 2007. That’s ten years. As a car owner, I tend to hold and drive the same car for ten years. Then I realize how far the technology has progressed and update. My attitude is the same for instruments. I prefer to hold and play an instrument for five years or longer, learning it in depth. I make an exception if the front panel buttons are worn and broken. 🙂

At this point, I know for sure that I want a better keyboard action such as the FSX action in Montage and Genos. This is similar to moving from a “student model” sax to a “pro” sax. I think the better action will help me as a player.

If you stuck with me this far, you probably realizing that I’m considering either the Montage or the Genos as my next gig and home ax. Even though I respect the Kronos, its orchestra instruments are not as expressive as Yamaha’s. Roland seems to have given up on orchestral instruments. After a quality/reliability issue with Kurweil, I’m off of them for life.

So, I am methodically enthusiastic about the Genos. It’s Genos vs. Montage; Godzilla vs. Mothra. Is the Genos value proposition sufficiently atractive that I will pay its premium price? That comes down to the playing experience and workflow. To be decided over the coming months.

I’m reluctant to give anyone advice. Every musician must carefully weigh their needs, the Genos value proposition and the Genos price. I will say that the Montage, Kronos, Tyros 5 and PA4x remain very fine, capable instruments. The PSR-S970 is no slouch, either. I tend to skip a generation before updating. Should you? Can’t say.

Drawbar organ

The Genos drawbar organ engine is substantially the same as Tyros 5, and S950, for that matter. The drawbar organ page is a skeuomorphic representation of the drawbars, rotary speed switch, etc. When Yamaha adopted a touch screen, thank heavens they added real sliders for drawbar control. This is doing it right.

I play the bars constantly. When I test drove a CVP-709 touch screen piano, the virtual, on-screen drawbars were impossible to play. Kudos for adding real physical controls to the Genos.

Also, thank you for porting the new Montage rotary speaker effect to the Genos.

Speaking of DSP and control, I have another suggestion for Genos 1.1. Many DSP effect algorithms have a parameter which can be controlled from an assignable controller (e.g., AC1). The Genos is too limited in this regard. Any physical controller — including a foot pedal — should be able to tweak a controllable DSP parameter in real time. Currently, for example, a foot pedal can only control the WAH effect. One should be able to control any DSP algorithm with a controllable parameter.

Ready for the studio?

Quite a few pros immediately noted the lack of balanced outputs and asked “Is Yamaha serious about attracting pros to the Genos?” Another question often raised is, “What happened to PAC?” The S/PDIF digital output is good enough to connect to home audio equipment, but the professional studio (and stage) expects balanced outputs.

Another missing feature is audio over USB and/or DAW integration. Fortunately, these features can be added through a software update; balanced outputs cannot.

Really ready for EDM?

Now, I’m not really an EDM person. I like down-tempo and I’m hoping to compose down-tempo tracks once the snow flies and the weather keeps me in. A few common themes recur in on-line forums.

The Genos adopts arpeggios and arpeggio control features from the PSR-S970. True EDM people are expecting more, however. At the very least, Yamaha need to add user-defined arpeggios, maybe in release 1.1. User-defined arps were a much-requested item for the Montage punch-list; Genos is no different.

Yamaha, if you’re listening, there is an active thread about arpeggios in the Genos section of the PSR Tutorial Forum. Please read through it.

If you want to attract younger composers and players to Genos, Yamaha need to be bolder and faster.

Built-in expansion memory

Yamaha are committed to built-in flash expansion memory which cannot be expanded by the end user. Not to put too fine a point on it, the flash memory expansion modules are dead. If you’re getting rid of your Tyros, Motif, or MOXF, get rid of the modules, too. If you’re looking for a bargain Tyros 5, Motif XF or MOXF, be sure to get flash expansion modules thrown into the deal. (If you’re buying a MOXF, keep an eye on the Yamaha promotions web page.)

As I explained in another post, I believe that the Genos internal file system resides in the same physical memory unit as the user expansion waveform memory. The total capacity of this memory is 64GB and is partitioned into the 58GB internal file system and the 1.8GB voice expansion memory. If 1.8GB is too small, I wonder if Yamaha could be persuaded to repartition the memory and make the voice expansion memory bigger (at the expense of file system size)? This is all speculative, of course.

Audio styles

Audio styles have not disappeared — just deemphasized. Audio styles were not universally popular. So, audio styles have been dropped from initial factory content and will be provided at a later date. Users will be able to load audio styles, if they so desire.

I still believe that Yamaha will introduce full audio styles, that is, styles with melodic parts that follow the current chord type and root. When Yamaha re-launch audio styles, they will be “audio styles done right.” I think they learned a lot from the S950, S770, S970 and Tyros 5 in this regard. Release date? Who knows?

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos genesis

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After fits and starts due to early leaks, Yamaha have launched the Yamaha Genos™ digital workstation. You can check out Yamaha’s content through the Genos concept site or the Genos product pages. [Click images to enlarge.]

There’s no point in regurgitating Yamaha’s on-line content, so I will just summarize highlights here.

  • Size: 48-9/16″W x 5-7/16″H x 17-15/16″D
  • Weight: 28lb, 11oz (13.0kg)
  • 9″ color touch screen (TFT color WVGA 800 x 480 pixels)
  • Live Control display (OLED 589 x 48 pixels)
  • 9 sliders and 6 knobs that are fully assignable
  • 76-key FSX keyboard
  • Joystick with modulation and joystick HOLD
  • Synthesis: AWM2 and Articulation Element Modeling (AEM)
  • Polyphony: 256 (128 for preset voice + 128 for expansion voice)
  • 550 styles total (punchy drums and DSP effects)
  • 1,652 voices + 58 drum/SFX kits
  • 216 arpeggios: instrument arps, e.g., strums and control arps automate Live Control
  • 28 insert effects including VCM effects
  • Vocal Harmony and Synth Vocoder
  • Audio recording: Audio (WAV 44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo) and MIDI SMF
  • Audio playback: WAV (44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo) and MP3
  • MultiPads (both audio and MIDI)
  • Internal memory: 58GBytes (approximately)
  • Connectivity
    • S/PDIF digital audio output
    • Three USB TO DEVICE ports (front panel, back panel, bottom)
    • Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b/g/n) depending on regional type acceptance
  • 32-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC)
  • 1.8GBytes user voice expansion memory built-in

The Genos looks to be a nice overhaul of the now staid Tyros product line. If you’re familiar with Tyros — and I’m assuming that you are — then you are not super surprised at some of the features while being pleased (or not) to have a color touch screen, lots of assignable knobs, sliders and buttons, a secondary OLED display to show parameters, doubled polyphony, S/PDIF, wireless LAN (maybe, in your region), and a 32-bit DAC.

Yamaha have chosen to issue only a single 76-key model; no 61, no 88. This gives them interesting options for line extension. Go small and save weight, or feed the world’s almost insatiable hunger for 88-key piano-like objects?

You might also be surprised to not see audio styles. I think the original audio styles confused most users. Can I save them to USB drive? No. Did they fit many tunes other than the “reference” song? No. Handling REX format via the Yamaha Expansion Manager (YEM) should resolve these issues for advanced users. Yamaha punched up the drums to improve the live feel. (Hey, don’t Yamaha actually make drums? Just kidding.)

Featured instruments include:

  • CFX piano
  • C7 grand piano (newly sampled)
  • Kino strings
    • Newly sampled movie orchestra
    • Violins hard-panned left and right
    • Violas, cellos and contrabass center
  • Revo drums (waveform cycling)

If rumors hold true, there should be a new Strat in there somewhere as well as Gibson and Martin steel guitars and a pedal steel guitar. The electric pianos have gotten the ambient noises from the Montage EPs.

The Live Control view is nicely done. Change a knob and the display shows the new assigned parameter value. Change a slide next and the display switches to the slider settings. Good, no button needed to switch displays while playing. The knobs and sliders are integrated with drawbar settings, making the Genos could be a worthy clone competition or a close substitute for a clone. The new rotary speaker effect (from the Montage?) sounds good. But, Yamaha, you left out the chorus (vibrato only). Don’t chuck your Reface YC.

The playlist feature looks to be a very useful addition. The playlist organizes registration banks for quick access. The PSR/Tyros registration concept is a very powerful one and I wish that Montage had a similar capability. I love registrations because, bang, in one button press, I have a song ready to play. (More about this another day.)

Having a USB device port hidden under the unit is a great idea. Ever have a drunken chucklehead at a bar try to pull out your USB drive? Ever be a chucklehead yourself? 🙂 More manufacturers should do this.

A new release of Yamaha Expansion Manager (version 2.5) is planned for November 2017, roughly in sync with first deliveries. YEM will have support for WAV, AIFF, SoundFont and REX formats.

A new release of MegaEnhancer (version 1.5) will be available in November, also. MegaEnhancer changes the MIDI data in a Standard MIDI File (SMF) to use Yamaha’s MegaVoices.

The iPad app SongBook+ is also on the way. SongBook+ organizes songs with lyrics, notation, and other information. A song may also be linked to a registration — a very handy feature for performers who need to home in on the complete set-up for a song during performance. I play with charts; I like this.

The USA manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is $6,799 and MAP is expected to be $5499.

From a hardware guy’s point of view, there are a few things to think about. The 32-bit DAC is a first for Yamaha. Even Montage does not sport S/PDIF. No mention of Pure Analog Circuit, so the audio back-end must be new, new, new.

The polyphony spec is très intéressant: 128 for preset voices and 128 for expansion voices. Hmmm, how did Yamaha arrange (pun intended) the SWP70 tone generators and NAND flash memory?

So, Yamaha have 1.8GBytes of flash left over for voice expansion. There simply is not enough information to infer waveform memory size, so we’ll all be waiting for the service manual.

Speaking of manuals, there aren’t any available at the time of this writing. No owner’s manual, reference manual or data list. Nada. The early leaks forced Yamaha’s hand to launch the Genos two weeks early and now we will wait. First deliveries are anticipated for November. Déjà vu all over again.

I am literally weighing the Genos (13kg) versus the Montage (15kg) as my next ax. There is still a huge amount to learn about the Genos as it is revealed. Has the sequencer gotten an overhaul? Does the Genos support deep voice editing? The user interface does look inviting and I look forward to seeing more.

Sometimes a little bit of information just leads to more questions.

Copyright © 2017 Paul J. Drongowski