Tag Archives: Insertion effects

Out Of The Shadows

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I’ve been working on backing and lead instruments for the classic Del Shannon song “Keep Searchin'”.

Yamaha Genos™ is made for this tune. First off, its “ShadowedPop” style is the perfect fit for that old 1950s rock’n’roll vibe. It has just the right amount of swing and attitude.

Next, Genos has very good electric guitars for lead. Want clean Tele or Strat? Genos has them. Genos also has a suite of effects to obtain a complete, authentic guitar tone.

Yamaha arranger styles have “One Touch Settings” which are mini-registrations. Hit an OTS button and Genos will both change song section and bring up an appropriate voice. The Genos “ShadowedPop” style has two OTS mini-registrations that are worth deconstructing to see how the Yamaha sound designers got their Shadows guitar tone: “60sShadowLead” and “ShadowedGuitar”.

Of course, the “shadow” in all of these voice and style names refer to Hank Marvin and The Shadows — one of, or perhaps, THE iconic 1950’s guitar band and sound. The Shadows’ treatment felt absolutely right for the Del Shannon cover. Hank Marvin was perhaps the first English artist to pick up a Fender Strat, usually putting it through a Vox amp.

The PSR “ShadowedGuitar” voice goes back four or five years and is a standard factory preset. If your Yamaha arranger does not have “ShadowedGuitar”, choose a clean, 1960’s vintage guitar preset voice. Change the insert effect to Tempo Echo and set the insert effect send level to 30. Change the effect parameters to:

 Param#  Parameter name       Value 
 ------  -------------------  ------ 
      1  Delay Time           8th 
      2  Feedback Level       +28 
      3  Feedback High Damp   1.0 
      4  L/R Diffusion        +14ms 
      5  Lag                  0ms 
     10  Dry/Wet              D34>W 
     13  EQ Low Frequency     500Hz 
     14  EQ Low Gain          0dB 
     15  EQ High Frequency    4.0kHz 
     16  EQ High Gain         0dB

Reverb is a big part of the 50’s vibe and you’ll need gobs of it on the guitar. Select a hall reverb and set the reverb send level to at least 50. If your arranger has it, I recommend the “Real Medium Hall+” preset. It’s one of Yamaha’s best reverbs, in my opinion.

Only Genos has the “60sShadowLead” voice voice. Fortunately, it’s easy to add a close sound-alike to your instrument. Start with “ShadowedGuitar” or a clean, 1960’s vintage guitar preset. Get into the mixer (or DSP effect page) and change the insert effect to Multi FX Vintage Echo and set the insert effect send level to 127 (if necessary). Then change the effect parameters to:

 Param#  Parameter name       Value 
 ------  -------------------  ------ 
      1  Comp Sustain    2.9 
      2  Wah Switch      Off 
      3  Wah Pedal       0 
      4  Dist Switch     Clean 
      5  Dist Drive      5.0 
      6  Dist EQ         Mid Boost 
      7  Dist Tone       3.5 
      8  Dist Presence   4.3 
      9  Output          110 
     11  Speaker Type    Twin 
     12  LFO Speed       2.103Hz 
     13  Phaser Switch   Off 
     14  Delay Switch    Delay St 
     15  Delay Control   60 
     16  Delay Time      33

We met the Multi FX algorithm once before. This algorithm is like a virtual guitar pedal board:

Compressor -->  Wah --> Distortion --> Phaser --> Delay --> Spkr Sim

The above parameter values dial in The Shadows’ guitar tone.

You’ll need gobs of reverb, again, to complete the scene. Choose the “Real Medium Hall+” preset and set the reverb send to at least 40.

The “60sShadowLead” OTS also configures the chorus system effect. Having listened to the overall tone with and without chorus, this step is optional. (Possibly some other style part may be affected by this change or a change to any other system-level effect including reverb.) Change the chorus type to “Celeste 1” and set the chorus send level to 12. 12 is not especially high, so you can see why this last step is optional; it’s just a little sweetener.

You might consider changing the chorus effect to tremolo (e.g., “E-Piano Tremolo”). Guitarists in the 50s and 60s didn’t have guitar pedals. (Sorry, Edge.) So, folks relied on guitar amp spring reverb and tremolo (often mislabeled “vibrato”) to get space-y effects. I still have the sound of an Ampeg Gemini going through my head. 😎

Select the “E-Piano Tremolo” effect preset, increase the AM Depth to max, and set the chorus send level to 127:

 Param#  Parameter name       Value 
 ------  -------------------  ------ 
      1  LFO Frequency        5.38Hz 
      2  AM Depth             127 
      3  PM Depth             0 
      6  EQ Low Frequency     500Hz 
      7  EQ Low Gain          0dB 
      8  EQ High Frequency    4.0kHz 
      9  EQ High Gain         0dB 
     11  EQ Mid Frequency     2.0kHz 
     12  EQ Mid Gain          0.0dB 
     13  EQ Mid Width         1.0 
     14  LFO Phase Difference +39deg 
     15  Input Mode           Mono 
         Return Level         127

You’re looking for that deep, “Spaghetti Western”, Ennio Morricone effect. Play the lead line an octave down. Have fun!

The EQ parameters in the tremolo algorithm make this a good guitar tone mangler — swept mid EQ with Q (width)! Mid boost or cut is right at hand.

Here are short demos (MP3) on Genos with tremolo and without tremolo. Yamaha Montage and MODX have the same effect algorithms, so you should be able to apply the same techniques on those instruments, too.

Links to a few other posts about chasing tone on Yamaha gear:

Copyright © 2022 Paul J. Drongowski

Critique: Genos™ drawbar organ

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I like the Korg Module Pro “GospelOrgan” patch, so I tried to create a sound-alike voice on Yamaha Genos. Genos and MODX share the same waveforms and DSP effects, and I may port the result to MODX, too.

The experience recalled my previous misgivings about the rotary speaker simulation and limitations of the Genos DSP effect implementation. I will amplify those comments here.

Mid- to upper-level Yamaha arranger workstation have long had a drawbar organ feature which Yamaha calls “Organ Flutes.” This feature dates back to 1999, appearing in the PSR-9000 keyboard. Although a few details have changed over the years, Yamaha has not substantially overhauled Organ Flutes. It’s time, Yamaha — the world has moved on. I’d love to see the new YC organ technology in Genos. It’s the flagship of the arranger line and YC organs would definitely differentiate Genos from its lower-cost brethren.

Yamaha Organ Flutes main voice editing screen

The main, tweakable organ parameters are:

  • Nine drawbars
  • Percussion (first note/each note, length)
  • Percussion pitch (4′, 2-2/3′, 2′)
  • Response (onset delay of drawbar and percussion sounds)
  • Vibrato (on/off, depth, speed)
  • Rotary speaker speed (slow/fast)
  • Volume level (1 to 8)
  • DSP effect (e.g., rotary speaker)

For B-3’ers, the 4′ percussion pitch is the 2nd harmonic setting and the 2-2/3′ percussion pitch is the 3rd harmonic setting. The 2′ pitch supports non-Hammond organs which require it.

Compared with a contemporary clonewheel, one immediately notes a few missing features:

  • Vibrato only, no chorus
  • No key click
  • No rotor noise
  • No leakage

Overall, the Genos B-3 is super clean and polite — not vintage. MODX (Montage) provides key click, rotor noise (grit) and rotor whistle waveforms. Why does Genos lag behind? Although MODX is AWM2, not modeling, these extra waveforms are better than nothing at all.

The Genos synthesis engine is also AWM2 sample-playback and AWM2 provides the Organ Flutes vibrato. Organ Flutes does not simulate the one-of-a-kind Hammond vibrato/chorus scanner. The Korg Module “Gospel Organ” voice incorporates C-3 chorus and the AMW2 vibrato just doesn’t cut it (head-to-head comparison). I had to substitute Genos’ V-2 setting and move on.

Simplified, graphical rotary speaker interface

If you want to change the rotary speaker type, you need to dive through the effect setting button at the top of the Organ Flutes screen. After selecting the insertion effect, Genos displays a skeuomorphic (graphical) rotary speaker cabinet with a few knobs. In the screenshot above, we get rotary speed, horn and rotor balance, and microphone left/right angle. Like many (most?) rotary speaker simulations, the rotary effect emulates the sound of a mic’d up, stereo recording of a Leslie, not a horn and rotor moving air in a room.

Additional rotary speaker (DSP) parameters are changed by tapping the “Detail” button in the lower right corner. deep-diving reveals a few more deficiencies:

  • Missing parameters due to a limitation on the number of DSP effect parameters (16 parameters maximum)
  • Only one insert effect (typically the rotary speaker)
  • Volume control is post-effect and does not affect overdrive

Here is a little more information about each issue.

First page of rotary speaker parameters

At heart, the Genos (PSR, Tyros) sound engine implements the Yamaha XG synthesis and effects architecture. The XG architecture allows up to sixteen (!6) parameters per DSP effect unit. Unfortunately, Yamaha’s DSP engineers are creating effect algorithms (AKA “effect types”) with more than sixteen parameters! The MODX ROTARY SPEAKER 2 algorithm has eighteen (18) parameters. The Genos REAL ROTARY effect type is the same algorithm as MODX. However, only 16 parameters are accessible or stored on Genos. The two missing REAL ROTARY parameters are:

  • Slow-Fast Time of Rotor
  • Fast-Slow Time of Rotor

You cannot change these rotor ramp times on Genos, yet, you can change them on MODX.

This issues affects the Genos UNI COMP compressor algorithm (MODX: UNIVERSAL COMPRESSOR DOWN). Dare I mention the inability to specify a side-chain part, too? People are trying to create EDM on arrangers.

The XG architecture allows only one insert effect per part. The Organ Flutes insertion effect is typically a rotary speaker simulator. The MODX effect architecture, on the other hand, allows two insert effects per part. Yamaha synths take advantage of the second insert effect to add overdrive or vintage EQ:

  • Rotary speaker 1 → Multi FX (Distortion Solo)
  • Rotary speaker 2 → VCM 501 EQ (Flat)
  • Amp Simulator 3 (Tube) → VCM 501 (Flat)
  • Amp Simulator 1 (Stack 2) → Rotary Speaker 1
  • VCM 501 EQ (Flat) → Rotary Speaker 1

The rotary speaker drive alone is not enough to warm up the basic sound nor is it enough to get a sweet, realistic overdrive with guts. I experimented with the Genos REAL ROTARY effect and got some very squirelly results at high drive levels. The algorithm can be pushed in unexpected, undesirable ways while searching for true funk.

Unlike a real Hammond/Leslie combination, the Genos expression pedal controls post-effect part volume. This is like putting the volume control after the Leslie speaker. A Hammond B-3 pedal controls the level into the Leslie pre-amp. Thus, the pre-amp frequency characteristics and overdrive track the Hammond pedal. The Yamaha YC61 modeling gets this right. Putting the volume pedal before the pre-amp lets the player get clean or dirty in the same way a guitarist uses picking and/or the guitar volume knob to distort or clean up their tone.

If the Genos developers must work around the XG architecture, they should consider a new effect algorithm that combines overdrive with the rotary speaker simulation. The algorithm should allow foot pedal control over the Leslie pre-amp input level. Genos and other PSRs allow wah pedal control, so they obviously know how to achieve this capability within the current architecture.

Copyright © 2021 Paul J. Drongowski

Insertion effects for MIDI songs

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The new Yamaha Genos™ platform greatly expands the number of DSP insertion effects for styles and MIDI songs. No doubt, you would like to put these insertion effects to work in your own styles and MIDI songs. This blog post should help you get started.

There are 28 insertion effect units at your disposal:

  1. Insertion Effect 1 to 19: Keyboard parts (RIGHT1, etc.) and Song channels 1 to 16.
  2. Insertion Effect 20: Microphone and Song channels 1 to 16.
  3. Insertion Effect 21 to 28: Style Parts (except Audio Styles).

Within the constraints of these three groups, any Insertion Effect unit within a group may be assigned to any audio source associated with the group.

I will use the terms “Insertion Effect” and “DSP effect” interchangeably. This is true when you delve into the Yamaha XG parameters, too.

With all this flexibility, effect resource management can easily get out of control. I’ve developed a few personal guidelines to help keep things organized:

  • Genos assigns RIGHT1, RIGHT2, RIGHT3, and LEFT to Insertion Effects 16, 17, 18 and 19. Avoid using these Insertion Effect units in a MIDI Song.
  • Assign the remaining Insertion Effect units on a 1-to-1 corresponding basis: DSP unit 1 to Song part 1, DSP unit 2 to Song part 2, etc.

These simple guidelines make it easier to manage track DSP usage when doing the busy-work of Song editing.

Genos also provides a Variation Effect which can be configured as either a System effect or an Insertion Effect. Let’s not even go there for now. The Variation Effect offers additional opportunities for signal routing and control. Unfortunately, opportunity comes at the cost of complicated configuration.

If you want more information about using the Variation Effect, here’s a pair of blog posts for you: PSR/Tyros XG effects and XG effects: SYSTEM mode.

It’s simple then — each DSP unit (Insertion Effect) corresponds to a single Song part. Each unit and its part have the same identifying number.

If you’re sequencing on the Genos itself, you can assign Insertion Effects to Style and Song parts using the Mixer. Go to the Mixer, touch the “Effect” tab at the Left of the screen, and then touch the “Assign Part Setting” button. Genos displays the insertion effect assignment dialog box where you can make assignments. This dialog box is a good way to check that your MIDI sequence is making the correct assignments, too.

I do my MIDI sequencing and editing in BandLab Technologies SONAR (formerly Cakewalk SONAR). This means configuring DSP effects via System Exclusive (SysEx) MIDI messages. Many people fear SysEx because the messages are encoded in hexadecimal numbers. Fear not! I’m going to give you a head start.

At a minimum, we need to create two SysEx messages for each Insertion Effect:

  1. One message to assign the DSP unit to the Song part, and
  2. One message to select the DSP effect type (e.g., British Legend Blues).

This is enough to assign a DSP effect preset (and its algorithm) to a Song part. Once assigned and the MIDI sequence is loaded, you can edit the effect parameters in the Genos GUI by spinning the faux knobs and such. When you hear a setting that you like, you can translate the settings into additional SysEx messages and incorporate the messages into the sequence using a DAW like SONAR.

First things first. The SysEx message to assign the DSP unit to a Song part has the form:

F0 43 10 4C 03 XX 0C YY F7

where XX is the DSP (Insertion Effect) unit number and YY is the Song part number. The only potential gotcha is MIDI unit and part numbering — it starts from zero instead of one. For example, let’s assign DSP unit 6 to MIDI part 6. (I’m assuming that the MIDI part and channel numbers are the same; the usual default situation.) In this example, XX=5 and YY=5, so the final SysEx message is:

F0 43 10 4C 03 05 0C 05 F7

Straightforward.

You may already be aware that hexadecimal (hex) is a way of counting (i.e., representing numeric quantities) in base sixteen. The hex digits 0 to 9 have their usual meaning. Hex digits A, B, C, D, E, and F represent the numeric quantities 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, respectively, when those quantities are written in base 10, decimal notation. You’ll need those hex digits when connecting DSP units 10 to 16 and Song Parts 10 to 16.

In case you’re still unsure of yourself, here’s a simple table to help you out:

DSP#  Part#   SysEx message
----  -----   -----------------------------------
   1      1   F0 43 10 4C 03 00 0C 00 F7
   2      2   F0 43 10 4C 03 01 0C 01 F7
   3      3   F0 43 10 4C 03 02 0C 02 F7
   4      4   F0 43 10 4C 03 03 0C 03 F7
   5      5   F0 43 10 4C 03 04 0C 04 F7
   6      6   F0 43 10 4C 03 05 0C 05 F7
   7      7   F0 43 10 4C 03 06 0C 06 F7
   8      8   F0 43 10 4C 03 07 0C 07 F7
   9      9   F0 43 10 4C 03 08 0C 08 F7
  10     10   F0 43 10 4C 03 09 0C 09 F7
  11     11   F0 43 10 4C 03 0A 0C 0A F7
  12     12   F0 43 10 4C 03 0B 0C 0B F7
  13     13   F0 43 10 4C 03 0C 0C 0C F7
  14     14   F0 43 10 4C 03 0D 0C 0D F7
  15     15   F0 43 10 4C 03 0E 0C 0E F7
  16     16   F0 43 10 4C 03 0F 0C 0F F7

Find the row in the table for the Insertion Effect (DSP unit) number and Song Part that you want to configure. The third column is the SysEx message to use.

Once the DSP unit is assigned to the Song Part, you need a SysEx message to choose the DSP effect type (e.g., British Lead Dirty). The SysEx message to accomplish this job has the form:

F0 43 10 4C 03 XX 00 MM LL F7

where XX is the DSP unit number, MM is the MSB of the effect type and LL is the LSB of the effect type. The effect types are listed in the Genos Data List PDF file. Look under the “Variation/Assertion Block” section of the Effect Type List. British Lead Dirty is a distortion effect with MSB=102 and LSB=32.

The next step is to convert the MSB and LSB to hexadecimal. I think this is the part that scares some folks the most. Actually, Yamaha have made it easy. While you’re in the Geno Data List PDF file, go to the first “MIDI Data Format” page. You’ll find a table that converts between decimal, hexadecimal and binary. Look up 102 and 32 in the table. The equivalent hex values are 0x66 and 0x20. (The “0x” is my way of marking hexadecimal values.)

After converting, it’s time to select the DSP effect type for unit 6 (and by way of assignment, Part 6). Plug XX=5, MM=66 and LL=20 into the template message above, producing:

F0 43 10 4C 03 05 00 66 20 F7

This message sets the effect type of DSP (Insertion Effect) 6 to British Lead Dirty.

That’s it. At this point, you’re ready to assign DSP preset effects to any of the Song parts. Style parts work the same way. No calculator involved, just a few easy tables.

Changing the DSP effect parameters via SysEx is a little bit more complicated. I’ll save that topic for another day.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski