Tag Archives: expansion pack

Scat voices the newest Yamaha arrangers

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The original Jazz Scat voices expansion pack for the Yamaha PSR-S950 arranger workstation remains a popular part of the site. With the Tyros5, Yamaha took a different direction and format for expansion packs. The new approach to expansion pack development and use is embodied in the Yamaha Expansion Manager, or “YEM” for short. Up to now, Tyros5 users have not been able to load and use the original Jazz Scat voices expansion pack.

That’s all changed! I’m pleased to announce the alpha test version of the Jazz Scat voices expansion pack for YEM-compatible Yamaha arranger workstations. The list of YEM-compatible arrangers include the Tyros5, PSR-S670, PSR-S770 and PSR-S970 workstations.

Why “alpha test?” At this time, I do not have access to a YEM-compatible workstation in order to do my own testing. (I’m happy with the S950, thanks.) In response to requests, however, I have produced a new YEM-compatible expansion pack. I’ve done as much testing as I can in YEM. Now, it’s your turn!

The expansion pack is in YEM project file format, sometimes called a “PPF file” because of its file extension. The PPF file must first be loaded into YEM. Once it is in YEM, you can send it to your keyboard, generate an install file (PPI format), copy voices to your own custom pack and even edit the voices themselves. That’s a lot of flexibility!

If you encounter problems, please post your issues to the PSR Tutorial Forum . If you are a PSR/Tyros user, you really should participate at the forum anyway. It’s a great place to meet other PSR/Tyros users and to learn new techniques.

Here is a link to the expansion pack. You need to download and UNZIP this file, read the README_PACK_YEM.TXT file, and then load the pack into the Yamaha Expansion Manager.

Both the scat voice expansion pack and the scat voice samples are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
ScatVoices and ScatVoice samples by Paul J. Drongowski are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You are free to use the expansion pack voice or samples (even for commercial purposes) as long as you provide a link to http://sandsoftwaresound.net from your own web site AND/OR explicitly credit me in your creative work, e.g., “Scat samples/voice by Paul J. Drongowski”.

If you would like to know more about the sampling and voice design process, please read this post. The original S750/S950 compatible pack is here. Or, feel free to listen to the MP3 demo.

Scat voice expansion pack

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I’m pleased to release version 1 of my jazz scat voice expansion pack for Yamaha PSR-S950 and PSR-S750 arranger workstations. The expansion pack has five PSR voices which let you create “Take 6” style, a cappella arrangements and other kinds of jazz voice performances. Give the MP3 demo a try!

Four of the PSR voices are individual syllables: DOO, DOT, BOP and DOW. The DOO syllable is looped and let’s you create sustained chords for backing. The DOT, BOP and DOW syllables are short and provide scat-like expression. All four syllables are combined into a velocity-switched voice where you select and play one of the syllables based on how hard you strike the keys (i.e., MIDI note velocity). You will need to adjust touch response (and practice!) to get the most playable and musical result.

Here is a link to the expansion pack file. You need to download and UNZIP this file, then install the YEP file by following the directions in the Yamaha PSR-S950/PSR-S750 Owner’s Manual. See the section titled “Expanding Voices”.

I am also releasing the multi-samples that I used to create the expansion pack in case you would like to create a scat voice for your own synthesizer or software instrument. If you are curious about how I created the expansion pack voices and the samples, please see this blog post.

Both the scat voice expansion pack and the scat voice samples are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
ScatVoices and ScatVoice samples by Paul J. Drongowski are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You are free to use the expansion pack voice or samples (even for commercial purposes) as long as you provide a link to http://sandsoftwaresound.net from your own web site AND/OR explicitly credit me in your creative work, e.g., “Scat samples/voice by Paul J. Drongowski”.