Yamaha Genos, Montage, sample compression

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Sample compression is a bit of a hot topic among tech heads on the PSR Tutorial Forum and the YamahaSynth.com Forum.

Yamaha recently pre-announced the Yamaha Genos V2.0 update. Features will include:

  • Increased expansion memory from 1.8GBytes to 3.0GBytes
  • Genos V2.0 Superior Pack (50 styles, more than 25 voices including SuperArticulation 2)
  • Chord Looper
  • Style Section Reset
  • Scale Tune Separation

The update will be available during Winter 2019. The scope of the update has caused much excitement as well as a lot of good feeling because Yamaha views Genos as an update-able platform, not a one off. I’m looking forward to the Genos update and the upcoming MODX update, too.

The Superior Pack likely will be an expansion pack containing new styles and voices. Putting the new content in an expansion pack is the easiest way to distribute the content. A user simply puts the expansion pack installation file on a USB drive, inserts the drive into Genos, and runs the on-board Genos installation procedure. The installation process is tried, true and mature.

Of course, this raises the question of expansion memory space and how to make best use of it. Would or should someone install the Superior Pack and always keep it around? Will there be enough space for other packs? Some people are pack rats (pun intended) and want to keep everything loaded. Increasing the expansion memory from 1.8GBytes to 3.0GBytes takes a little pressure off the pack rats.

Naturally, the increase in expansion memory piques the tech heads. How did Yamaha increase the expansion memory space? One cannot snap fingers and add physical memory to Genos. This is a software update, after all.

One theory has to do with sample compression. Yamaha’s expansion packs typically use two sample formats: LINEAR16_FRAME and WXC. WXC is Yamaha’s proprietary sample compression format. WXC is treated like a closely guarded secret. WXC is the way to pack voice waveforms as tightly as possible within the limited physical capacity of wave memory. It’s part of Yamaha’s secret AWM2 sauce.

User samples, on the other hand, are not compressed and are stored in LINEAR16 format. Currently, when Yamaha specifies the size of Genos expansion memory, they mean the ability to store approximately 1.8GBytes of uncompressed user samples in expansion memory. Since users can’t compress their samples via YEM (or whatever), Yamaha doesn’t want to disappoint them by overstating expansion memory capacity and then underdeliver on their spec.

So, is the increase achieved through sample compression, i.e., restating the capacity as 3.0GBytes using the well-known qualifier “when converted to 16 bit linear format?” WXC compression can easily squish 3.0GBytes of samples into 1.8GBytes. Or, have Yamaha found and allocated extra space to user samples? In the latter case, the extra space must be in the NAND flash memory which holds the factory waveforms. This is left-over space and assumes that Yamaha left quite a bit of slack in the 4GBytes holding the factory waveforms.

Now we get to the point of contention among Montage/MODX tech heads. If Yamaha have found a way to support compressed user samples on Genos, can the same technology be ported to Montage and MODX?

The answer partly depends upon the means by which Yamaha provide sample compression itself. (Remember, sample decompression is built into the SWP70 AWM2 hardware.) YEM is an established application in the Genos software eco-system. Yamaha could add the compression algorithm to YEM. In the case of Genos, a user would compress user samples into WXC format when creating a new voice in YEM. The WXC format samples within Yamaha expansion packs would remain untouched by YEM in WXC format and users wouldn’t see any benefits there.

The closest thing to YEM in the Montage (MODX) eco-system is the John Melas tool suite. Perhaps Yamaha will partner with John Melas, who will add sample compression to the tool suite. That’s one possibility. Another possibility is to add WXC compression to SKYLIFE SampleRobot.

If Yamaha wants to protect its secret sauce, they could provide a Web-based service to compress user samples into WXC format. In that case, Yamaha could keep the WXC algorithm hidden from prying eyes (i.e., reverse engineering). The compression service could compress samples for both Genos and Montage voice developers.

A third alternative approach adds the compression capability into the Montage/MODX keyboard firmware. Embedding the algorithm would provide the best security although Linux experts have already plumbed the depths of Montage/MODX update files. Further, Yamaha has shown a reluctance to add low-want or esoteric features to firmware.

Well, this is all quite interesting and highly speculative. We’ll know more when the Genos 2.0 update is released. In the meantime, wadda think?

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha Genos: Tone generation

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After visiting the Genos CPU complex yesterday, let’s take a look at the two Yamaha SWP70 tone generators in Genos.

The SWP70 is the latest generation, top-of-the-line Yamaha tone generator. We know that the SWP70 is capable of both sample-playback AWM2 synthesis and FM-X synthesis as demonstrated by the Yamaha Montage and MODX.

[Click image to enlarge.]

The two SWP70s are organized as a master and slave pair, each with different connections and dedicated memory units. The SWP70s communicate with the TI AM4376 processor over the CPU-SWP70 bus. The bus is arbitrated by a programmable logic device (CPLD). The data path is 16 bits and there are 19 address bits. Bus clock speed is 100MHz.

The main CPU sends control messages, etc. to the SWP70s through this bus. The main CPU also uses this bus to write waveforms (“samples”) in the SWP70 wave memory. Please note that the 100MHz bus isn’t fast enough to sustain so-called sample streaming from bulk storage. As mentioned in my previous article about the main CPU, the embedded bulk memory devices (eMMC) would not be able to supply samples fast enough for streaming either. Plus, write time to NAND flash is quite slow — another strike against streaming.

The Master SWP70 has extensive connections to the serial digital audio bus that interconnects the main CPU, tone generation, analog to digital converstion (ADC) and digital to analog conversion (DAC). Here’s a few notable connections:

  • The main CPU sends five digital audio streams to the Master SWP70.
  • The Master SWP70 sends one digital audio stream to the main CPU.
  • The Master SWP70 sends the MAIN OUT, SUB 12 and SUB34 streams to their respective DACs.
  • The Master SWP70 receives the AUX IN and MIC IN streams from their respective ADCs.
  • The AUDIO-LOOP stream is a loop-back from the Master SWP70 to the Master SWP70.

Genos serial digital audio resources and capabilities are substantially less than Montage. In short, Montage has a Yamaha SSP2 processor dedicated to digital audio much like a Steinberg UR interface. This version of the Genos hardware will never have the extensive digital audio capabilities of Montage.

Another important interface is the Yamaha EBUS. Genos has an ARM M3 microcontrollers that scan the knobs, sliders, buttons and keys. The microcontroller sends these inputs on the EBUS. The EBUS is a slow-speed, serial I2C bus. User inputs are quickly encoded and are sent directly to tone generation. Nifty. The direct connection decreases latency by keeping the main CPU out of the message path. Montage and MODX have an EBUS, too. It’s an essential feature of Yamaha high-end design.

As Gandolf would say, “On to the Forest of Memories!”

Each SWP70 has two working memories:

  • WAVE SDRAM (light blue)
  • DSP SDRAM (orange)

Both working memories have dedicated address and data paths. The data paths are sixteen bits wide. The required memory capacity is too large to integrate on the SWP70 integrated circuit (IC), so separate commodity memory devices are used instead.

The DSP SDRAM is working memory for DSP computations. Certain kinds of effects are memory intensive — reverb and delay effects, in particular. The DSP SDRAM is a fast read/write working memory for effects processing.

The WAVE SDRAM is the working memory which holds the most recently streamed and used waveform samples. Random access to data in NAND flash is relatively slow. The WAVE SDRAM is a fast random access cache for samples in current use. The SWP70 behaves like the controller and cache within a commodity solid state drive. It streams waveform samples into cache as fast as possible via sequential reads to the WAVE NAND. The incoming samples are stored in the WAVE SDRAM and are played back from WAVE SDRAM.

Yamaha’s architecture is often (unfairly) slagged on two points:

  • Why doesn’t Yamaha stream from a commodity SSD?
  • Why doesn’t Yamaha use a commodity x86 motherboard for tone generation?

Yamaha combined the best parts of a commodity SSD and hardware tone generation in one component (the SWP70). This is a strategic low-latency advantage. The SSD SATA bus is quite unnecessary. The Yamaha architecture lowers power consumption, component count and most importantly, latency.

As to commodity motherboard, see Korg Kronos (big, heavy and hot).

WAVE NAND memory (light green) is implemented using commodity Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) devices. This is the same NAND flash employed in commodity, SATA-based SSDs. The Slave SWP70 has four gigabytes (4GBytes) of waveform memory while the Master SWP70 has two gigabytes (2GBytes). Storage is split into upper and lower bytes for a total data path width of 16 bits. The SWP70 accesses the upper and lower bytes in parallel. (Each ONFI channel is 8 bits wide.) Thus, Yamaha double the transfer bandwidth from NAND flash.

Presumably, the Slave WAVE NAND contains the Genos factory preset waveforms and the Master WAVE NAND contains user expansion waveforms. The Genos specifications split polyphony between preset and user voices. Expansion memory is limited to something just shy of 2GBytes. So, this inference is reasonable.

Now that you’ve read this far, you should have solid footing in Yamaha synth and arranger hardware architecture. Of course, there are many additional details about clock speeds, displays, touch panel, etc. However, you should have a better appreciation for and understanding of the basic data flows and storage units.

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Source: Yamaha Genos Service Manual (Copyright Yamaha)

[Update: 18 October 2019]

Just a quick addendum about the SSP2 chip and the Steinberg URs. The SSP2 is built into the UR242, UR44, UR28M and UR824. Steinberg have a spiffy iOS app, dspMixFx, which exposes the SSP2’s functionality. Quoting Steinberg:

dspMixFx brings the flexibility and sound of Yamaha’s SSP2 DSP chip to your iOS device. Built in Steinberg’s UR824, UR28M, UR44 and UR242 interfaces, this custom-designed DSP chip runs the acclaimed REV-X reverb, Sweet Spot Morphing Channel Strip and Guitar Amp Classics effects. The free dspMixFx app allows you to control all DSP features and create your own latency-free mixes on your iPad and iPhone with effects, ideal for live recording sessions where getting exactly the right sound for performers is paramount. dspMixFx is also compatible with other iOS audio apps, offering full operation when using third-party apps with the DSP-powered interfaces in Steinberg’s UR range.

The REV-X reverb built into the UR824, UR28M, UR44 and UR242 is a complex reverb algorithm developed by Yamaha. Renowned for its high density, richly reverberant sound quality, with smooth attenuation, spread and depth that work together to enhance the original sound, the REV-X features three types of reverb effects: Hall, Room and Plate simulations with reverb time and level control.

Thanks to its SSP2 chip, the Montage provides conversion to and from a DAW roughly on par with a Steinberg UR interface.

Yamaha Genos: Main CPU

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After a long move and a hiatus from writing, it’s time to dig into digital design.

I get a little anxious when I see people speculating about the internal operation of synthesizers and arrangers. They often assume that:

  • A keyboard instrument is organized just like a PC.
  • Samples are streamed from some kind of magnetic or solid-state disk.
  • The main CPU runs the tone generation software.
  • Samples are held in the main CPU’s memory during tone generation.

These assumptions are not true for Yamaha Genos, Montage or MODX.

These musical instruments are organized internally like an embedded hardware device. Sure, there is a main computer inside, but it is an embedded processor with many input/output (I/O) interfaces integrated onto the same integrated circuit (IC). This kind of organization is often called an “SOC,” or “System on a chip.”

[Click on image to enlarge.]

The diagram (above) shows the main CPU in Yamaha Genos. It is a Texas Instruments AM4376 embedded ARM processor. You can see that it has many integrated I/O ports: two USB ports, three serial interface ports (UART), parallel digital pins (GPIO), serial audio (McASP), real-time clock (RTC), and display and touch panel ports. Of course, there are also RAM (EMIF) and bulk storage (MMC) interfaces, too. Finally, there is a 16-bit bus connecting the main CPU to the two Yamaha SWP70 tone generator chips.

Before moving into important details, here’s a few quick observations:

  • The USB1 port connects to an internal 4-port USB hub. The hub provides external interfaces: TO DEVICE (front), TO DEVICE (bottom), USB TO DEVICE, and an internal wireless LAN module (UD-WL01).
  • The USB0 port provides the external USB TO HOST interface.
  • UART1 provides the 5-pin MIDI A data signals and and UART2 provides the 5-pin MIDI B data signals.
  • Digital audio is transferred on an internal serial audio bus using time division multiplexing (TDM). Serial digital audio is 2 channel, 24-bit I2S compatible, allowing direct communication with the audio converters (ADCs and DACs)

Montage has a more extensive digital audio subsystem — one of the reasons why Montage supports studio-level audio conversion.

RAM capacity is modest: 512MBytes. The Linux operating system and Genos control software reside in this memory during operation. Suffice it to say, this is no where near enough to store samples for tone generation. Tone generation is handled by the SWP70 integrated circuits.

There are two embedded bulk storage memories: 4GBytes and 64GBytes. Linux boots from the 4GByte device. The 64GByte device provides the user expansion memory. Please note the data clock speed (52MHz) and data bus width (4 bits), which adhere to the eMMC protocol. There is enough bandwidth to support a single digital audio stream, but not near enough bandwidth for tone generation. I might add that the 100MHz 16-bit bus to the SWP70s is not enough bandiwdth either.

I hope this short article provides a bit of insight about the modest computational and memory resources of the Genos main CPU. When I get a chance, I’ll give a short tour of Genos’s tone generation section.

Source: Yamaha Genos Service Manual (Copyright Yamaha)

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Another tiny toy from Yamaha: SHS-300

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Yamaha keeps cranking out mini-keyboards!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where in the world?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I guess that makes two desert island synths. 🙂

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

Bests.

Yamaha Genos update v1.4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

MODX, Ratt, guitar tone

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

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

Ratt — Lay It Down

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

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

Single Coil, Double Coil
Which Guitar Is Which?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Superbooth 2019

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

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

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

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

This kit looks like a heck of lot of fun!

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

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos sound alike voices on MODX

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I love kicking back in the afternoon and playing some old classic tunes from the 60s and beyond. The Yamaha Genos™ is a great machine for producing backing tracks and for jamming against them.

I spent a fair amount of time selecting the appropriate instrument for each cover tune. Now, I’d like to play the MODX over the same backing tracks and perhaps keep the same voices.

Time to play “What’s that voice?”

The Yamaha arranger keyboards and synthesizers share a lot of the same sonic DNA. This is a theme that I’ve written about in earlier blog posts. Sometimes the arranger voice and the MODX Performance share the same name. Sometimes you need to find a sound-alike. And, as I’ve learned, sometimes I need to do some MODX programming to get what I want.

The table below is a quick, rough correspondence between my favorite Genos voices and a MODX Performance (or two, or three). In the case of multiple mappings, the preferred Performance is marked with a star (“*”).

    MODX Performance         Genos Voice
    -----------------------  -----------------------
    TC Clean Pick            SingleCoilClean
    Clean Ballad Pick        SingleCoilClean
    TC Clean Pick            VintageAmp (BRITISH LEGEND CLEAN)
    Dual Coil Slap Vel       Slapback (ROCKABILLY))
    Clean Fingers            50sVintagePure (MULTI FX OLDIES DELAY)
    Melodic Jazz             JazzGuitarClean
    Fat Oil Jazz AF1&2       JazzArtistGuitar
    Jazz Blues               JazzGuitarAmp (MULTI FX OLDIES DELAY)
    Jazz Guitar              JazzGuitarClean (JAZZ COMBO)
    Crunchy Guitar           MetalMaster
    Hard Drive               MetalMaster
    Hard Ramp                MetalMaster

    Tenox Max                Rock Sax
    SoftTenorSaxLegato       SmoothTenorSax
    Sweet Flute AF1          JazzFlute
    Concert Flute            OrchestralFlute
    Latin Flutist*           OrchestralFlute
    Oboe1 AF1                OrchestralOboe
    Oboe2*                   OrchestralOboe
    Clarinet 1 AF1           OrchestralClarinet
    OrchClarinet             BalladClarinet
    Flute & Clari            Clarinet&Flutes
    Bluz Distort             BluesHarp
    FM Accordion 1           JazzAccordian

    Dynamic Brass            DynamicBrass
    Mixed Sax Section        SaxSection
    FM JP Brass              80sSynthBrass
    Simple Saw Brass         80sSynthBrass
    Flugelhorn               Flugelhorn

    Soft Case                70sSuitcaseTrem (E-PIANO TREMOLO)
    Rd Old                   70sSuitcaseClean
    Contempo*                SuitcaseEP
    Hard Vintage             SuitcaseEP
    Wr Rock                  70sVintageEP

    Vibraphone               Vibraphone
    Vibes                    JazzVibes

    Soft RnB                 SoftR&B
    Singleline 1             WireLead
    SingleLine 2*            WireLead
    WindSynth                WireLead
    VeloMaster               VelocityMaster
    Bleep Lead AF2           BleepLead
    Detuned Vintage          DetunedVintage
    FM Syn Lead 2*           FusionLead
    Straight RB              FusionLead
    Saw Lead                 FusionLead
    Dynamic Mini             BrightMini
    Whistle                  Whistle
    Early Lead               Oxygen
    Saw Lead                 Oxygen

    Big Strings              ButterStrings
    Analog                   AnalogPad
    Dark Light               DarkFatSaw
    VP Soft                  VPSoft
    Feeling                  LightPad
    Dark Atmo Pad            NewAtmosphere
    Angel Eyes               DarkAngelPad
    NighttrainToMunich       NightMotion
    Gospel Hmm               Mmh, GospelVoices
    Boy Choir MW Xfade       GothicVox

    All Out None             AllBarsOutFast
    Fully                    AllBarsOutFast
    Bowed Bars CV            CurvedBars, UpsideDownSmile
    Draw Organ               BalladOrgan
    Whiter Bars              WhiterBars
    Jazz 2nd Perc + C3       RotarySwitch
    Vx Full Bars*            60sOrgan, Italian60sOrgan
    Clean                    60sOrgan
    1967 Keys                60sOrgan

Even when the name matches (e.g., Bleep Lead), you’ll find slight differences in programming. The basic sound is there, but maybe one implementation will open up the filter dynamically, or maybe it will have a longer portamento time. These differences are easy to iron out, if they’re important at all.

Occasionally, a Performance and its corresponding Genos voice responds differently due to Expanded Articulation vs. Super Articulation programming. Such differences are fundamental to the arranger or synthesizer design. I’ll just need to keep mental notes about what to do where when playing, that is, push an assignable function button or some other gesture. If a Super Articulation voice is based on a Mega Voice, then chances are good that one can find a way to get a similar result on MODX using Expanded Articulation (XA).

Of course, the Super Articulation 2 (Articulated Element Modeling) technology does not carry over to MODX (Montage). Super Articulation 2 (SArt2) stitches successive notes together, blending tone heads, tails and bodies in real time depending upon the playing gesture. SArt2 requires additional samples and computation which are not implemented in MODX (Montage).

Not so easy are a few of the electric guitar voices. Electric guitar tone depends heavily upon the DSP effect chain. The Genos VintageAmp voice is a good example. It’s a single coil guitar driving the British Legend Clean effect. I couldn’t find a MODX preset to match. However, I quickly cooked up a Performance starting with the TC Clean Pick Performance (a single coil Telecaster). It was a piece of cake to put the British Legend clean effect into the signal chain. Voila — a new sound-alike Performance!

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski

Genos/PSR organ registrations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a few bonus registrations, just for grins:

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

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

Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski