Category Archives: Music

NAMM 2024: Briefs

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Just “Meh”

So far, I’m feeling just “Meh” about NAMM 2024. Last year’s NAMM opened the floodgates of new, post-pandemic product. Among the daikaiju (大怪獣), KORG dominates with the most new releases.

We shouldn’t forget these new toys:

Both Nord and Casio are collaborating with partners to up the action game — Nord with KAWAI and Casio with C. Bechstein (video).

Studiologic have revamped the Numa Compact product line (new acoustic pianos, tonewheel modeled engine, new rotary effect, chorus and vibrato, new “virtual oscillators” synth engine). These all-rounders look to play against the Yamaha CK series stage instruments. Looks for incentive, clear-out pricing on the older Numa Compact 2 series instruments.

If you’ve been waiting for a new beginner’s keyboard, Yamaha have announced the PSR-E283. Will this appear on the Yamaha NAMM 2024 page later today? 410 instrument voices, 150 auto-accompaniment styles, duo mode for duets and the usual built-in speakers. Yamaha PSR-E283 video tutorial

Akai MPC Key 37?

The day is still young.

Yamaha Montage E.S.P.

I expected to see the Yamaha Montage M Expanded Softsynth Plugin (E.S.P.) today and wasn’t disappointed. There is a new Blake’s take about E.S.P. on the YamahaSynth.com site. Lots of screengrabs.

As this point, E.S.P. is for Montage M owners. You’ll need your coupon code and the Steinberg Download Assistant. E.S.P. requires 10GBytes of free space. Yikes, but it probably needs room for all of the waveforms.

We should start getting field reports about real-world polyphony and so forth. No information on pricing for non-Montage M customers. Here’s the E.S.P. Manual on the Yamaha USA site.

NAMM 2024 Montage M E.S.P. demo video (Blake Angelos) by Sonicstate. E.S.P. is only available to Montage M hardware owners — no software-only retail version. Sorry if you expected a full Montage M on the cheap.

Little things

Although pitched at drummers and percussionists, the No Better Option (NBO) Oneboard provides a way to stash your phone, mini-mixer, tablet and other gizmos while performing. NBO is a boutique vendor who have sold out their original round of Onboards. Register for the next round of pre-orders.

You’ve probably never heard of ROBKOO. They are a Shanghai-based company specializing in electronic wind instruments: the R1 Synthesizer and the Clarii mini digital wind instrument and controller.

The Clarii mini (#300/$400 USD) is about the same size as a clarinet. It fingers like a sax, but fingering can be customized. Synthesis is built-in along with a speaker, screen and Bluetooth MIDI. The Clarii mini has an accelerometer, too, so you can shake it.

The ROBKOO R1 synthesizer is sleeker and has similar specs. The R1 adds RGB lights for pizzazz. Instead of an accelerometer, R1 has an XYZ gyroscope to control expression. The R1 connects with the JamKoo performance app which gives access to internal functions. The R1 is $600 USD — not an impulse purchase, that’s for sure.

Stylophone are going upscale with the CPM DS-2 analog drone synthesizer ($260 USD). The CPM DS-2 will have 2 3340 oscillators, 2 3320 filters, 2 sub-oscillators, 2 LFOs, vintage delay and reverb, and 12 modular patch points. It will be Eurorack compatible. Pre-order at Stylophone.com.

If you ever wanted to strut your stuff like David Bourne and company, check out Walkabout Carriers. “Battery powered, wireless carriers for electronic musical instruments.” Their Web site is under construction, but check back…

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2024: KORG-fest

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Unless you’ve been stuck in a snowdrift with no cell service, KORG have dropped a truckload of products in last few days. KORG have heard the call for “modules” and have announced:

These aren’t baby modules — full 19″ rack-mount, MIDI 2.0 Property Exchange and Polyphonic Aftertouch (PAT) support. If you don’t want to rack and stack, then prop them up on their ears. No tiny knobs for mouse-sized paws.

Buy all three for $2,100 USD MAP (includes a Gator Frameworks 12U metal desktop rack).

More so, my pulse is racing for new KORG Nu:Tekt offerings:

I’m happy that KORG continues to improve and expand the Nu:Tekt product line.

The NTS-1 MKII updates the original NTS-1 adding an 8-step sequencer and an improved 18-key, multi-touch keyboard. The original’s keys are mouse-sized and sensing is ribbon-based, so a better keyboard is much obliged. KORG have also moved up to USB-C. The synth engine is still logue-compatible mono.

I use my NTS-1 as a sound mangling effects box. Thus, I’m super-excited to see the NTS-3 DIY KAOSS Pad. And, it’s very reasonably priced! This one is a no-brainer, impulse purchase. Of course, both of the new NTS models are available for pre-order now. Hope they roll out faster than the NTS-2.

The NTS-3 has four effects slots. KORG are providing a logueSDK API for the NTS-3. The SYNC port can be switched to MIDI, which makes me wonder, “Can I craft MIDI mangling plug-ins, too?”

Missing the NTS-2 oscilloscope? Look here.

Apologies

Sorry that I’m not issuing as much NAMM content as I did last year. A bunch of physical ailments have conspired to knock the tar out of me. Low energy has reduced my production efforts to playing the same loop over and over, again, while wondering, “Why do that sound like arse?” Take care of you health, including your teeth! 🙂

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha SEQTRAK: Quick reaction

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I’ve already gotten requests to comment on the new Yamaha SEQTRAK™ Ideastation. Mind you, I haven’t touched one, but here goes.

How does SEQTRAK compare to the old QY-70/QY-100? I would say, they are different beasts for different compositional processes. The QYs are the early predecessors of the Motif and PSR, Tyros, Genos sequencers. The QY usage model is based on phrase-oriented composition providing a big internal library of musical phrases. The QYs assembled the phrases into arranger-like styles. Then, one composes songs using either a preset or user style.

The QY workflow is pretty conventional. Motif and PSR people would recognize the line-oriented presentation of sequencer data and the infamous “JOBS” for tasks like quantization, copying sequence data and so on. The Motif series and arranger workstations borrowed heavily from the QYs. In fact, sometimes, I feel like they are running the old legacy code!

I like my QY-70 because I can compose songs in the “traditional way”. The QY beats both Motif and PSR/Genos in the way it handles chord tracks. Oh, how I wish for that in today’s instruments. The QY designers were on to something good, there.

SEQTRAK is Yamaha’s attempt to capture some of the old RM1x and RS-7000 groove box magic. The old groove boxes are in step with modern beat-box sequencers. The workflow is pattern-based — create a pattern in a track, create another pattern in a different concurrent track, and chain the concurrent patterns into a song. (Yeah, this is a gross over-simplification. 🙂 ) This is different compositional process than the QYs which are more “trad”.

Japan’s Lost Decade(s) hit Yamaha hard and made their managers very conservative. The old QYs and groove boxes got the ax in order to survive a moribund Japanese economy.

I think Yamaha got tired of watching other people make money on tech which they pretty much invented back in the 90s and 00s. Teenage Engineering is making outrageous money with the all-in-one OP-1. $2,000 USD (MAP)? Really?

In my quick opinion, SEQTRAK is too timid, too conservative. Yamaha went to the AWM2 and FX technology well One. More. Time. The only upside is the low selling price of $399 USD (MAP). Given the polyphony spec, I would expect to find a single SWP70 (AWM2+FM) tone generator IC and an ARM host processor. How innovative is that? Where is AN-X or even the low-spec AN found in Reface CS?

Is SEQTRAK competitive with OP-1? Time and deep analysis will tell. In the meantime, I see SEQTRAK aimed at the $400 to $500 synth plus sequencer groove box niche. Strap a few KORG Volcas together and you get SEQTRAK — for roughly the same price. I’m thinking Volca Sampler 2, plus Volca FM 2, plus Volca Keys? Take your pick. The Roland Aira Compact series come to mind, too. The SEQTRAK app one-ups KORG (and Roland), however, and SEQTRAK has superior connectivity. Engine-wise, it’s all rather plain Jane.

Hmmm. I still have my Yamaha AN-200. Aside from FM and sampling, would SEQTRAK give me more? SEQTRAK versus the old AN-200 and DX-200 would be a better comparison than QY.

I also question Yamaha’s time-to-market with SEQTRAK. Yamaha needed to extend the trademark’s intention to use (application) multiple times. This tells me that they had trouble finishing and releasing this product on schedule. I’m sure Web comments will trash Yamaha for too little, too late.

As someone steeped and experienced in American high-tech culture, Yamaha engineering needs to have its butt kicked. Hard.

Update: Observations

The Yamaha SEQTRAK specifications state preset waveform memory at 800MBytes, when converted to 16-bit linear format. With a 2-to-1 compression ratio, physical preset waveform memory is about 400MBytes. User waveform memory is 500MBytes, uncompressed presumably. Overall physical waveform memory is around 1GByte.

I quickly browsed the voice and FX lists. SEQTRAK has a slew of drum sounds as you might expect. The AWM2 and FM voices will look very familiar to Montage/MODX players. The keyboard voices are reminiscent of Motif XS; these are not fresh sounds. In fact, if one owns a Montage or MODX, I don’t see the need for SEQTRAK unless you really dig its portability and workflow.

The FX section is a whole lot better. Yamaha included many of its latest “EDM-oriented” FX like spiralizer, multiband compressor (3-band), Uni Comp compressor, bit crusher, digital turntable, wave folder, etc. Bread and butter FX include the current crop of amp sims, VCM effects, and REV-X, SPX, HD reverbs. Yamaha did a good job here.

SEQTRAK has many function buttons on its side panels.

  • Left side: volume up/down, delete, mute, solo, page, play
  • Rear: bar length, octave, scale, key, record sample, undo/redo, clear FX
  • Front: sound design page, FX page
  • Right: BPM up/down, swing, project

That’s a lot of special purpose buttons to remember. Fortunately, the printed legends are clear. (I prefer the orange/grey model for that reason.) External connections are made on the right end panel: phones, audio IN, MIDI, and USB-C.

The big list of parameters and modes is the “Index”, which replaces any kind of LCD or OLED screen. Yamaha saved money here. A “global meter” is right next to the index showing parameter values and load/save status. The meter indicates key scale (minor, major, etc.) and root key. You’ll need a cheat sheet nearby to know what’s selected.

You can select a sampling source (MIC, audio IN, USB, resampling) and assign incoming samples to the synth keys for playback. Sampling does auto-normalization (if configured), but there’s not much else for sample editing in the native hardware. I didn’t see any ability to assign a sample across the synth keys.

The sound design section lets you adjust the most common, basic parameters: pan, volume, AEG attack (decay/release), filter cutoff and resonance, FX sends, etc. Look to the SEQTRAK app for deep editing.

I noticed that some functions in the SEQTRAK User Guide are marked “[OS V1.10]”. A reasonable inference is that SEQTRAK got a major functional update during its long gestation period.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2024: Yamaha SEQTRAK Ideastation

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Remember, folks, you saw it here first in October 2023. 🙂

As I mentioned way back when, Yamaha SEQTRAK™ comes in two color schemes: black and orange/grey. Yamaha did a decent job on the price: $599 USD (MSRP) and $399 USD (MAP). It’s available for pre-order at on-line retailers.

The front panel is divided into three sections: Drums (left), synth and sampler (middle) and sound design/effects (left). (Click image to zoom in.)

The Interwebs are absolutely plastered with Yamaha SEQTRAK news, so there isn’t any need for a long screed. Just the facts:

  • Four track types: Dum, synth, DX and sampler
  • Eleven tracks: 7 Drum, 2 AWM2 synth, 1 FM synth, 1 sampler track
  • Eight (8) projects
  • 128 sequencer steps
  • Two AWM2 synth engines (128-note polyphony total)
  • One 4-op FM synth engine (polyphony: 8)
  • 2,032 preset voices
  • Built-in sampler (44.1kHz, 16-bit)
  • A/D input (stereo 3.5mm mini jack)
  • Built-in speaker (1W 2.3cm) and microphone (MEMS)
  • AUX audio IN (3.5mm mini jack)
  • USB-C power MIDI to host, MIDI to device, and audio
  • Bluetooth MIDI and Wi-Fi (for big data like WAV)
  • Headphone output (stereo mini jack)
  • MIDI IN/OUT using the included converter cable
  • Internal rechargeable Li-Ion battery (estimated life: 3-4 hours)
  • 13.5″W x 3.8″D x 1.5″H, 1.1 pounds (0.5kg)

SEQTRAK is positioned as an anyplace, anywhere, all-in-one music-making production tool. Yamaha are calling it the “Mobile Music Ideastation”. It is supported by the SEQTRAK app which adds more functions: Visualizer (visual effects), hands-on tutorial and so forth. Detailed sound-editing depends upon the app.

Wonder if they will trademark “Ideastation”?

Here is the SEQTRAK Walkthrough video. In the end, it comes down to workflow and sound. I don’t think Yamaha are breaking new ground with AWM2 and FM, tho’. Kinda tame.

For once, Yamaha got smart and announced a major product just before NAMM. (NAMM 2024 starts Thursday, January 25, 2024). Maybe the early announcement will overcome the big yawn of Prince’s purple piano and flagging NAMM attendance?

Oh, yeah, here’s the spy photo one more time…

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2024: In sight

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It’s that time of year again! NAMM 2024 starts January 25th.

Unlike 2023, the run-up to NAMM 2024 is much shorter. Fewer manufacturers have pre-announced new products.

The daikaiju (Yamaha, Korg, Roland) rolled out a number of major products during the pre-holiday period:

And that’s just a partial list! It’s like the post-pandemic floodgates opened.

Given the out-pouring of goodies over the last year, I don’t expect NAMM 2024 to be super exciting as far as keyboard announcements are concerned.

Yamaha — in particular — has upgraded nearly every major product line. It will be a year, two or three before we see follow-on products to the new flagships. However, I think Yamaha will have a few major announcements at NAMM 2024. Given Yamaha’s secrecy, I’m guessing. [All pundits should be so honest. 🙂 ]

Last year was Clavinova’s 40th anniversary and Yamaha rolled out the CSP 200 series and the CVP 900 series. The CVP 900s are an incremental spiff of the CVP 800 series. The CVP spiff reminds me of Yamaha’s final kiss to the PSR-S series when Yamaha said “good-bye” with the PSR-S975 spiff (“the ultimate S-series arranger”). Having hands-on experience with the CSP Smart Piano line, I’m going to make a bold prediction — CVP is end-of-life. Too expensive and too ugly for a living room. I see Yamaha expanding the P-S500 touch panel concept into a very clean and elegant parlor room auto-accompaniment instrument.

With CSP and CVP accounted for, whither CLP? NAMM 2024. I’d like to see CLP 800 series add the pianos included in Montage M and Genos2: cinematic piano, character piano, felt piano, U3 upright and so on. The upper end 700s have period piano instruments; it’s time to get modern. Will we see Yamaha’s new magnetic induction contactless sensing? It’s time for that tech to trickle down from the AvantGrands.

Moving on from keys, I expect to see the Yamaha SEQTRAK™ groove box or “Music Production Studio” — finally. “SEQTRAK” is the only remaining product name from last Fall’s accidental spill. No doubt, Yamaha have watched others cash-in on the beat production craze, notably Teenage Engineering printing money with the wide-margin OP-1.

The SEQTRAK is about the size of a QWERTY keyboard and cops some teenage attitude in form and color. I expect an on-board sequencer, two synth channels, a sampler, Cubase integration, and a ton of content. Yamaha have been working on this product for quite some time and it needs to begin earning back its development money.

KORG and Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi Foundation have included KORG synthesizers in its collection of Raspberry Pi success stories.

KORG is a company that consistently punches above its weight in sales and size. They achieve this efficiency by exploiting off-the-shelf technology like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. Raspberry Pi is committed to the kind of long-term roadmap that gives potential adopters confidence and stability.

The customer case study (PDF) focuses on KORG’s adoption and use of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3. Enjoy the read!

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

New year, new piano

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Happy New Year!

It’s been a pleasure to ring in the new year with a Yamaha CSP-170 Clavinova Smart Piano. If you’re not familiar with the CSPs, check out my articles about the CSP-100 series and the now current CSP-200 series.

In short, the CSP pianos combine Yamaha’s Clavinova piano technology, learning features (score display and playback, stream lights) and basic auto-accompaniment into a single traditional home piano form factor. The CSPs eschew a complicated user interface, opting for a minimalist, two-button front panel: power OFF/ON button, FUNCTION button, and volume slider.

First and foremost, CSPs are Yamaha digital pianos, as Yamaha likes to say. In this post, I concentrate on the CSP-170 as a home piano. I bought the CSP-170 at a close-out price as Yamaha was clearing inventory when Series 200 deliveries began.

Appearance

I rarely discuss an instrument’s physical appearance in much depth as synth and arranger front panels are “seen one, seen ’em all.” The CSP-170, however, sits in our high-traffic dining room. You can’t miss it!

Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano (matte black)

Our CSP-170 is the matte black model. The matte finish is the best match for our contemporary house. The matte black model costs a bit less than the polished ebony — not really a concern.

The CSP-170 looks like the traditional spinet piano — the old family piano that we ditched just before moving out West. The CSP-170 has attractive clean lines and fits into the contemporary styling of our home. As a piece of furniture, it is constructed solidly and feels like a quality instrument. Definitely a step up from Arius.

I originally considered a P-515 “portable” digital piano and stand. When Yamaha announced close-out pricing, it made sense to step up to the CSP-100 series. A P-515 on its stand is not as physically attractive or formal as the CSP. The CSP cabinet allows for a better more powerful sound system than the P-515 as well.

CSP-170? Heck, yeah.

The CSP-170 piano samples and playability are on par with the P-515. The main pianos are the Yamaha CFX and Bösendorfer Imperial. I played them both during my piano quest and I still enjoy playing them today.

I prefer the CSP-170 sound system over the P-515. The CSP-170 has bi-amplified speakers: woofers in a downward facing speaker box and mid/high ports left and right at chest level. The P-515, like many portables, has bi-amplified upward firing speakers. The P-515 sounds brighter due to the direct sound from its speakers. The CSP-170 sound field is similar to a spinet; the sound is indirect and takes some of the edge off the CFX. My only knock on the sound system — auto-accompaniment lacks air and sparkle. You won’t hear snappy snares.

I should note that I also play MODX and Genos, both through studio monitors. Thus, I’m used to a crisper sound for auto-accompaniment and percussion.

The CSP-170 provides plenty of volume. I don’t practice at thundering volume and setting the volume slider somewhere near the middle is adequate.

I’ve been playing the CSP-170 for one month, mainly piano. It is so convenient to push the ON switch and play. I can sneak in short playing sessions while waiting for my spouse to get ready for our daily walk, etc. The minimalist user interface is not an issue for quick play as one can select one of the main voices (CFX, Bösendorfer, Suitcase Rhodes, Wurli) by holding the FUNCTION button and hitting the appropriate key. I keep a function cheat-sheet on top of the piano for reference.

Full functionality requires the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. The app is handy, but most times, I haven’t needed it. I’ve tried a few of the Smart Pianist features: stream lights, score display, song and score playback, and auto-accompaniment. I’ll have more to say about them in future posts. So far, my only knock against them is the rather poor written documentation. Yamaha provides the bare minimum and neglects to explain certain notable features (e.g., adaptive styles). The written documentation understates the advanced capabilities built into the CSPs and the Smart Pianist app!

Smart Pianist Piano Room lets you set the lid position, brilliance, Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) and more. Once you get the desired piano tone, save all the settings in a Registration for recall later.

NWX keyboard action

I suspect that the CSP-170 is the last instrument which Yamaha will make with the Natural Wood Escapement (NWX) action. If you browse the forums, you’ll see all kinds of comments about NWX, or this, or that. My advice is to go out and play a variety of brands and actions. Then choose. Ignore “action trolls.”

I find the NWX to be smooth with a weight letting me control the piano sound — to play in a nuanced way. (It might not work for you and that’s OK.) The NWX does not trash my hands unlike GH3X, GHC and, yes, the new GEX Montage M8X keyboard. When you try and test, be sure to play for an extended period of time. Then ask, “How do my hands feel?” NWX passed this test for me several times over.

Dealers provide a valuable service in this regard. It took me months and multiple playing sessions to arrive at my choice. Be sure to patronize the dealers who help you out even if the price is a little higher. They’ve earned it.

Summing up

Would I buy the CSP-170 again? At the close-out price ($3,600 USD), absolutely. The CSP-200 series models have a number of improvements (GrandTouch, more voices, more styles, both CFX and Bösendorfer binaural) at a higher price. If you try an NWX (maybe a P-515?) or a GH3X and you like it, there are still CSP-100 series pianos available at close-out pricing. It’s first come, first served, limited quantity only.

Yamaha would need to completely blow me away with the CLP-800 series in order to get me to upgrade. Seriously, I’m good.

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos2: Behind the scenes video

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Yamaha’s Genos2 Story – Behind the scene video is now available on Youtube.

As you might expect, it’s a combination of useful, factual information and sales puffery. So, here is my summary of the actual informational content minus marketing B.S. 🙂

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:04 Martin Harris, R&D Center London
00:03:41 Junichiro Murata, DMI Strategy Planning Group
00:05:25 Stefano Ivan Scarascia, Design Laboratory
00:06:20 Yoshiyuki Hirai, Mechanical Design Group
00:07:53 Ryuichi Izumi, Mechanical Design Group
00:08:29 Tomoya Michiba, Hardware Design Group
00:10:00 Martin Harris, R&D Center London
00:12:45 Kyoko Ohno, Sound Design Group
00:16:08 Taichi Hiyama, Sound Design Group
00:19:19 Ending

R&D Center London is an extension of the Sound Design Group in Japan.

The sound development process is roughly:

  • Planning which instruments and their playing techniques to develop
  • Sampling using different microphones and articulations
  • Mix-down from the different microphones
  • Denoise the samples
  • Loop the samples
  • Map the samples to the keyboard
  • Sound design (tweak voice parameters, add DSP effects, etc.)

New samples in Genos2: pianos, electric pianos, brass, tuned percussion, orchestral percussion and more. More layers, longer time before a loop.

Genos2 adds Style Dynamic Control: Full energy control over auto-accompaniment. Dynamically adjusts both velocity and volume.

Tilted the main screen to improve visibility by the user. Mitigate sun glare using anti-reflective film. Added LED lights to see the slider position on a dark stage. 360-degree rotating knobs use the set values as the starting point for control. Slider catch function to prevent jumps in value.

Industrial design: Try to adhere to the graceful lines of the original design. Increase visibility of the main screen and subdisplay.

Different shapes and coatings. Increase quality. The biggest problem in mechanical design is to accommodate the protrusions on the upper case (necessitated by the tilted displays). The case is created using two large molds. The top and bottom must be carefully aligned.

The LED lenses are designed to minimize light loss. The lens shape is optimized on the order of 0.1mm and allows light to disperse efficiently.

Electronic design of the audio output required a lot of experimentation. They tried so many different components, they wore out (broke) the PCB! The goal is to present the internal waveforms faithfully without distortion (good trackability). Designs are evaluated by listening and electrical analysis. Listening was performed in venues of different sized. Genos2 includes an USB audio interface.

FM synthesis adds dynamic capabilities. FM has seemless dynamic curve.

When the Yamaha LSI (SWP70) was designed, they wanted multi-timbral tone generation using both AWM and FM voices together to generate sounds.

Super Articulation and Super Articulation 2. SA2 voices use Articulation Element Modeling (AEM) tone generation. [SA2 demonstration] The SA2 voices were almost all recorded in Japan. To honor Japan, the team added Shakuhachi. The acoustic instrument tone seems to be constantly in motion, posing a challenge for sound design. You need to leave the original instruments flavor in the voice without making it intrusive.

Every waveform is evaluated for quality (technical check): presence of noise in the waveform or deficiencies in timbre, style, or voice parameters. Then, the waveform is evaluated musically, i.e., is the processed waveform musically natural? The behavior of an instrument must be realistically reproduced. Finally, there is a consistency check: Do the timbre and style data work together consistently.

Sound designers consider the musical genres to be played. A voice must perform musically whether its played by a musician or an auto-accompaniment style — even when the musician uses the voice in an unexpected way. Playing techniques are taken into consideration to determine the articulates to be sampled.

Genos2 waveform memory is big. It allows all 88 piano notes to be sampled. A little bit of noise in each note adds realism.

The new Genos2 drum samples leave more atmospheric components (a kind of noise) in the sound. A key decision is how much “noise” to leave in.

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos2 R&B styles converted for Genos1

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Styles got a major update in Yamaha Genos2. The original Yamaha Genos (generation 1) had 550 styles when it was released. Genos2 grows that number to 800 preset styles. Although many people use styles for cover songs, the 800 styles comprise an amazing library of musical phrases and ideas for songwriting.

If you live in North America, it may be a while before you have a chance to test drive a Genos2 in person. That’s my situation even though I don’t live in a “backwater” community! Yamaha is pressing sales in Europe where the arranger market is broader and hotter.

What to do? Convert some Genos2 styles to Genos1 and check them out!

With 250 new-to-G2 styles to choose from, I concentrated on the genres of most interest to me: R&B, Soul, Jazz and a little Dance. Some of the styles are brand new; some were taken from other Yamaha keyboards (PSR-SX900, CVP-909 and even CSP-170). All of the styles got a make over using new voices, new DSP effects and new drum kits.

If you would like to try these converted styles, download the ZIP file:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/G2_RnB_styles_G1.zip

Please remember, you’re still not getting the REVelation reverb and Ambient drum kit goodness. If you want to play, you gotta pay. 🙂

My conversion notes (TXT file) detail the Genos 2 voices and effects that were used in the style parts and OTS. Substitutions are suggested. There is a huge amount of low-level detail which illustrates the level of effort required by Yamaha to update styles.

A few general considerations are worth mentioning.

  • Several styles use the new Genos2 FM voices. I did my best to substitute G1 voices, but, hey, voice names like “SynthLead4” don’t offer much clue as to how the original FM voice sounds.
  • Yamaha preset styles use “Style Voices” which are ordinarily hidden in a separate “StyleVoices” directory. These Style Voices substitute for SArt2 voices.
  • REVelation reverb is used almost everywhere. Comparable Real Reverb presets are substituted.
  • Many styles use the new multi-band compressor effect. Uni Comp compressor presets are substituted. Genos1 expanded the use of per-part compression and G2 follows suit.
  • Several Ambient (Ambi) drum kits are based on Revo kits. The equivalent Revo kit is substituted.
  • Two Ambi kits (Production kit and Dirty kit) assign kick drum sounds to the lowest MIDI note numbers. The MIDI notes are transposed to a Revo kick drum.
  • Genos2 has new Mega Voices: acoustic bass, electric bass and nylon guitar, among others. Mega Voices with the most similar velocity maps are substituted. The maps do not always align, but I left the original MIDI note data unmodified.

I hope my notes and observations help other adventurous souls with their own style conversion projects.

Before closing, I’d like to suggest an experiment for some lucky Genos2 player. I would love to hear an A/B comparison of one of these converted styles against the full-phat Genos2 version. Any takers?

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha CSP-170 in the house!

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At long last, my Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano arrived!

Classic Pianos Bellevue

Before saying anything else, I want to give a shout-out to Classic Pianos in Bellevue, Washington. I got a friendly and welcoming reception when I visited their showroom in August during my piano quest. I like to support local dealers when possible and Classic Pianos left me with a very positive first impression. [They had to endure my banging around, too.]

Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano (matte black)

So, when I heard about close-out pricing on CSP-100 series pianos, I gave them a call. They checked out the situation with Yamaha and offered the reduced price on the Yamaha CSP-170B (matte black) model. The only catch was availability because they needed to place an order with Yamaha. Classic Pianos staff were helpful and courteous during the wait — even checking on the status of their order with Yamaha.

Classic Piano rolled in “white glove” delivery which I did not expect at the close-out price. CSP pianos are quite heavy and assembly would have been a real chunk for two 70 year-olds. Thus, I’m really grateful for the extra service. Martinson Piano Moving handled delivery and in-home set-up.

At this point, all is well. Thank you, Classic Pianos (Bellevue).

Why CSP-170?

Yeah, why? The CSP-170 is the “old” CSP-100 series, right?

If you read my reviews of the Yamaha P-515 and CLP-785, you’ll know that I like the NWX keyboard action and the CFX/Bösendorfer piano sounds. I would have loved to buy the CLP-785, but its price is above my target budget.

My biggest beef with the P-515 (and the CLP series, for that matter) is the relative paucity of secondary sounds. Once you’ve tasted Yamaha MODX or Genos, you know what Yamaha is capable of. The P-515 XG sounds are sufficient for playing back XG MIDI files, but the voices aren’t up to the same quality level as mid- to upper-range Yamaha arranger keyboards or synths.

When the CSP-100 series was first announced, they struck me as innovative, but price-y. The CSP-170 (and 150) secondary sounds are roughly the same as the PSR-SX700 arranger. The extra sounds pushed the initial CSP-170 price ($5,400 USD) above the somewhat comparable CLP-745 (as far as base piano and sound system are concerned.)

Yamaha announced and began shipping the CSP-200 series last Summer. The second generation CSPs have a larger secondary sound set and GrandTouch keyboards. Pricing with respect to CLP remains high due to the CSP’s extra features.

For whatever reason, CSP-100 series were (are?) overstocked. [You can still find close-out CSP-150 and CSP-170 pianos today.] Yamaha reduced the price of the CSP-170B (matte black) model to $3,600 USD. A P-515 package for home costs about $2,000. So, the $1,600 delta above the P-515 buys a very nice cabinet, a superior amplification system, auto-accompaniment, learning features (stream lights) and a wealth of high-quality secondary sounds. Buying a CSP-170 for $3,600 is a bit of a “no brainer”, if you don’t want or need quasi-portability.

As I mentioned, the only catch is availability and waiting time. In a recent earnings call with financial analysts, Yamaha admitted that they have inventory issues and are over-stocked in certain specific product categories (e.g., entry-level digital pianos). Some of the glut is pandemic-related; some excess inventory is due to a slowed Chinese economy. Yamaha may be shifting stock from far away, for all we know. My CSP-170 was manufactured (Indonesia) in November 2022. I’d love to know its history!

Here I am today, a happy camper. I’ll be posting my initial impressions as a new owner/player and will have more to say about the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. Please, stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos2: ¿Si o No?

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A bit tardy with my first take on Genos2. I’ve spent waaay too much time on forums and need to get back to work. 🙂

Genos2 information and videos abound on the Web, so I’ll be skipping a lot of details here. I recommend getting your information from reputable sources, not the self-appointed experts on Internet forums. Given the misinformation that I’ve seen, I don’t think some of these people have ever touched an arranger keyboard, let alone Genos1 or Genos2.

It will be some time until I can actually get hands-on with Genos2. That’s a disadvantage of living in North America where guitar is king. When I do play Genos2, I will post comments. So, please take my initial opinions with a grain of salt.

Genos2 leaves me feeling a bit like Dr. Jekyll and a little bit Mr. Hyde, depending upon Genos2 being your first top-of-the-line (TOTL) arranger or an upgrade from Genos1.

Let’s hear from the kindly doctor first.

Your first TOTL

If Genos2 is your first TOTL arranger, you’re on good ground. Genos2 builds on the solid Genos1 foundation. Genos1 has been a reliable, great sounding instrument and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in G2.

Genos2 adds many new voices and styles to Genos1. (Some of the Genos1 voices and styles are available with the Genos2 Complete Pack, free after registration.) I made a list of the new Genos2 voices.

Genos2 significantly improves on the G1 CFX piano. It has more strike (velocity) levels, now 7 levels up from 5. The sustain is longer (doubled). Check out this video which focuses on Genos2 pianos. The G2 piano sounds are lovely.

Like the Montage upgrade, G2 received “character pianos“:

  • Character piano: A rough and wooly sound (think “ragtime”)
  • Cinematic piano: An air of mystery about it (think “Halloween”)
  • Felt piano: A sound softened by felt woven in the strings (think “Titanic”)

Unlike Montage M, all of these pianos are enriched by the stunning, new REVelation reverb from Steinberg. Genos2 also adds a new multi-band compressor.

Genos2 adds Ambient Drums to the original Genos1 Revo drums. (Ignore the Internet misinformation about Revo being dropped.) Ambient Drums mix close-mic’ed samples with room ambience samples consistent with sampling techniques employed in modern percussion VST libraries. You (or the style) dial in the amount of ambience, thereby adjusting the sense of space in the sound.

One shouldn’t forget the new true FM voices. Yamaha enabled the FM-X hardware in the Genos2 tone generators. [BTW, the FM hardware is locked away in Genos1.] Now you get real dynamic FM sound. Genos2 does not support FM voice editing, but, really, how people are going to create FM voices from scratch? Not to mention how notoriously hard it is to get one’s mind around FM programming. A free DX7 expansion pack awaits those who register. With a little deep diving, I can safely say there is real FM-X in there.

No doubt, Yamaha have produced new styles and revamped old styles to use the new effects and voices. There are now 800 styles, which in itself, is a staggering big MIDI phrase library.

Ambient Drums illustrate the Genos ethos — producing a refined, “like the recording” sound. I’m sure this gives hobby players a lot of pride and pleasure. I like it because I can produce great sounding demos without a lot of effort!

Genos2 includes other enhancements worth mentioning. The style Dynamics Control improves on G1 dynamic control. The new Dynamics Control provides knob control over the volume and velocity of style parts, letting the backing band more realistically sit out or dig in. The front panel adds two more assignable buttons (3 total above the articulation buttons) and two buttons to control the ever-useful Chord Looper.

If you don’t own a Genos and want one, buy it. Given Yamaha’s long development cycles, it may be five or six years before the next major Genos release.

Upgrade to Genos2?

The decision to upgrade from the previous model is always a difficult one, whether its Montage M, MODX+, Genos2, Korg, Roland, whatever. There might be a few of us who are made of money, but most of us punters need to lay off old gear in order to afford the new. If it’s a trade-in or a re-sell, we’re going to lose value and we’re going to pony up cash for the shiny new object. In the case of a premium product like Genos2 or Montage M, the delta might be $1,800 or more. And then there’s the hassle of dealing with the villains on Craigslist or Ray’s Music Exchange.

This is when and where Mr. Hyde makes an entrance.

The decision to upgrade is a personal decision and choice. Objectively, does the delta enable us to meet our personal musical goals, that is, fulfill a genuine need? Otherwise, I cannot objectively account for enthusiasm, fan-dom, FOMO, or just plain desire (G.A.S.).

Which leads me to…

Generation skipping

When it comes to electronics, I’m a “generation skipper.” I rarely buy the next generation of anything. I don’t find the value proposition — increased utility per upgrade dollars — to be enough to justify a purchase.

So it is with Genos2. My Genos1 is still a rockin’ keyboard. It isn’t used up in the economic sense.

By the way, now is a terrific time to buy a new old stock (NOS) or re-sale Genos1. North American retailers have not sold through and are selling NOS Genos1 at a reduced price. [I took my own advice and have made a deal for an NOS Clavinova CSP-170.] European customers are switching to Genos2 in droves and they need to unload their Genos1 keyboards in order to fund a new G2. Buy a reduced price Genos1 now and upgrade to a Genos3 later. Many different ways to make a play.

Need over want

What would it have taken to make me decide otherwise and buy Genos2? Or, letting Mr. Hyde loose, what is Genos2 missing?

Right now, my most pressing need is an 88-key piano action keyboard for practice. I need to raise my piano skills and I need to transition to an acoustic grand when necessary. The FSX action is not up to snuff — I’ve tried with Genos1.

Compared to Clavinova (for example), Genos2 is missing:

Even Montage M8X left me up short.

What really disappointed me is the other biggee — no Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM) rotary organ simulator. This is a big omission as far as upgrade is concerned. With two really fine synth-action instruments (Genos1 and MODX) in hand, I just can’t justify an upgrade to G2 based on what G2 is and isn’t today.

Yamaha product silos

Looking at Montage M and Genos2, Yamaha’s product silos get in the way of making all-rounder keyboards. Yamaha product groups protect their turf and abhor cannibalized sales. This attitude and market strategy drives a lot of customers crazy, including me.

Reading the forums, there is demand for an 88-key Genos. The P-S500 is not enough to scratch the arranger itch, DGX-670 is feature-light and CVP prices are way out of sight.

Yamaha need to pick up the pace and roll out new features faster. Will Genos2 people need to wait five years to get the VCM rotary sim, Bösendorfer piano, or VRM? At age 72, I’ve got about 11 years left (male, life expectancy, U.S.A.) Let’s get going, Yamaha! 🙂 My time is running out…

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski