Tag Archives: Yamaha YC61

Floobydust: September 2024

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Floobydust from the the music tech world…

Arturia AstroLab update

Arturia Astrolab got a major update to version 1.3. The update adds several engines: Avid V (Roland TB-303 emulation), MiniFreak V, Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. The Mini V (Moog Minimoog emulation) and Wurli V have remodeled engines, consistent with V Collection X. There are 200 presets for the new engines with 90 new “tribute” presets thrown in for good measure. Of course, there are bug fixes and such.

Analog Lab integration got a boost. Astrolab owners now get a permanent upgrade offer to V Collection and Pigments. You need Analog Lab for detailed editing and the new upgrade offer takes the sting out of purchasing V Collection.

Personally, I’m glad to see Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. I took the plunge for Arturia’s Augmented Collection and still haven’t plumbed its depths.

Arturia AstroLab Update 1.3 playthrough video

Roli October 8

Roli have been announcing and teasing. They have rolled (pun intended) LUMI into the ROLI brand. Probably should have been that way from the start…

LUMI Keys is now called “ROLI Piano M”. As usual, one can expect to see a single unified website for all Roli products.

Roli are teasing a major announcement for October 8. All the usual hype about “there’s music in everyone,” “free the music”, “game changing” and a bunch of Gen [whatever} types reacting to a demo. The words “sleek design” and “talk to it” stand out from the videos. Who knows?

“We changed the piano. What’s next changes everything.
Join the list to be the first to know about the next wave of musical innovation for creators and learners, coming October 2024.” [Roli]

Two screen grabs above caught my attention.

ROLI, what is this?

I don’t know of any existing Roli product that looks like it. Maybe a stand or frame for snapping and holding your Roli modules together/ An integrated synth and speaker? I could really use one of them because I can’t take my Lumi Keys and Lightpad M out of the studio. Magnets alone aren’t good enough for gigging.

I’m happy to see Roli innovating, again, and not just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

Ableton October 8

Well, well, October 8th will be a busy day. Ableton are teasing “Move” for October 8. Ableton’s European trademark (application number 018907095) will be used in the following businesses:

  • Musical instruments, in particular electronic musical instruments; Sound effect devices as musical instruments
  • Computer hardware for music and sound production
  • Digital controllers for musical instruments in the form of audio interfaces
  • Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) controllers
  • Equipment for creating and editing music and sound, namely music sequencers
  • Music and sound samplers; bags for computers

The USPTO approved wordmark “Ableton Move” for publication on September 28, 2024 (serial number 98104829). The U.S. trademark is coming kind of late thanks to the USPTO diddling with the description of businesses. I kid you not — lawyers get paid to play with this nonsense. 🙂 [The new descriptions are mere swizzles.]

Yamaha Synth 50th Anniversary

Yamaha USA have published a special content site Yamaha Synth 50th Anniversary. You’ll find chronologies and Yamaha synth history.

It’s worth reading through the history sections as you’ll learn new interesting tidbits about synth — and stage piano — development. There are eight chapters although chapter 7 is labeled “Coming soon.” I noticed that the chapter about recent history mentions the stage CP pianos, but not the stage YC organs. No mention of Montage M, AN-X or Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM), either. Hmmm?

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha stage keyboards: What’s next?

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Lately, I’ve been contemplating the future of the Yamaha Stage keyboard line: the YC organ and CP digital piano. Both keyboard lines are mature; the CPs were released in January 2019 and the YCs were launched a year later in January 2020. Both models have received updates (including new voices). The latest updates, however, feel like “life extension” updates while new models are in the latter stages of development.

Does it make sense to merge the two product lines and reduce the number of SKUs? That would be a bit of challenge for Yamaha as organ-focus and piano-focus are defining features for the YC and CP, repsectively. In terms of sound, the updates have brought both lines closer together even though the front panels and user interface remain distinct. The YC got a lot of additional AP and EP voices bringing it into CP territory.

Then there is the “CK effect.” The CK is an all-rounder with drawbars, CP-like front panel controls and a set of secondary sounds which, frankly, leave both YC and CP wanting. So, given CK, it should be possible to merge the two stage keyboard product lines. Right?

These thoughts prompted me to take a look under the hood of both YC and CP. Gigantic, purpose-built front panels aside, YC and CP are brother and sister as far as digital electronics are concerned. There are a few differences on the analog side such as CP’s balanced XLR outputs. Of course, the keybeds are different, too, in keeping with organ-, EP- and AP-focus.

Yamaha Stage CP block diagram (click to enlarge)

Let’s tour stage CP first. The primary digital components are:

  • Yamaha SWX09 CPU and DSP (248MHz internal clock)
  • Yamaha SWP70 tone generator (191.9232MHz internal clock)

The SWX09 integrates an ARM Cortex host processor, an unspecified DSP core, and a raft of external interfaces. SWX09 also contains an AWM2-compatible tone generator and effects/mixing section. In stage CP, the wave ROM, wave RAM and DSP RAM interfaces are unused. Board real estate is wired for DSP SDRAM; the board position is unpopulated.

Without SWX DSP RAM, the CP models cannot implement Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM).

The SWX09 is a mainstay in the Yamaha CLP digital piano line. The SWX09 is the primary workhorse component in the CLP-685 and P-515 digital pianos, for example. The P-515 and CLP-685 each have 256MBytes of wave ROM which should give us a rough idea of the size of the CFX and Bösendorfer waveforms (samples). [The CLP and P-515 EPs are relatively old and probably aren’t very big in comparison.]

We see the SWP70 tone generator throughout Yamaha’s many product lines, so it’s not surprising to see it in the stage CP, too. The CP has 2GBytes of NAND flash waveform memory. Its SWP70 has DSP RAM and wave RAM. DSP RAM supports effect processing and Wave RAM caches in-flight (most recently used) waveform samples. The SWP70 has its own unpopulated DSP RAM position, labelled “For future model”.

Yamaha Stage YC block diagram (click to enlarge)

Not to leave anyone in suspense, the future model is YC. The YC SWX09 gets DSP SDRAM and the SWP70 gets its second DSP RAM channel filled. The CP is mainly a sample-playback engine while YC implements a Virtual Circuit Modeling organ engine in addition to sample-playback. I’m guessing that the SWX09 DSP hosts the all-important rotary speaker effect.

The YC’s waveform memory is the same capacity as CP: 2GBytes total waveform NAND flash. 2GBytes may seem gargantuan versus P-515’s 256MBytes. Pianos are memory hogs and with all of the updates, those 2GByte waveform memories may be full up (or close to capacity).

It will be interesting to see where Yamaha takes the Mark II stage keyboards. Here’s a few thoughts.

The CK61/CK88 gave Yamaha valuable experience with integration of organ, piano and other sampled voices. They have a lot of available content (voices, waveforms) and software IP (organ and rotary speaker simulation, AWM2, FM, VRM). If they combine their experience with existing technology, they could issue three models:

  • 61 Semi-weighted waterfall keys (organ focus)
  • 73 BHS weighted keys (EP focus)
  • 88 GEX piano-action keys (AP focus)

Unifying the YC and CP designs into one reduces the number of separate SKUs from five to three and increases economy through scale.

There’s a lot of competitive pressure to produce an all-in-one stage keyboard. Nord (Clavia) have not been sitting on their hands and the Nord Stage (4) marches on! Yamaha’s own Montage M series shows the way, packing all-rounder functionality into a single keyboard.

As to new technology, announcements for the CLP-800 series Clavinova pianos are touting “a new tone generator chip with increased computational power” and imply that the new TG chip enables enhanced Virtual Resonance Modeling. An SWX10, perhaps? I’d like to see both VRM and VCM organ technology in the same package.

      
                 Physical
    Keyboard   Waveform Mem  Expansion mem
    ---------  ------------  -------------
    CLP-685      256 MBytes
    P-515        256 MBytes
    PSR-SX900      2 GBytes     1 GByte
    PSR-SX700      1 GByte    400 MBytes
    DGX-670      512 MBytes
    CSP-170        1 GByte

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Roasted and toasted

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If you’re missing the old PSR Tutorial Forum, C’mon over to Yamaha Musicians Forum. You’ll recognize many of the familiar faces. 🙂 Saul’s site has the same colleagiality as the old forum and chances are good you’ll get answers to your questions.

I’ll continue to post my long opinion pieces here. Sorry if there hasn’t been much lately. I took time away from the PNW and visited with family in Arizona. Hot with afternoon thunderstorms. Cue “No Rain” by Blind Melon. “Oh, good is raining, again.”

New stuff

Now that Labor Day (USA) is past, it’s the Fall launch season — back-to-school and pre-holiday in full swing.

Not too many kids will tote these to school, but Korg have announced the FISA SUPREMA “Aero Digital Instrument”. Hey, it’s a full-sized digital accordion! Forty-one keys with velocity sensitivity and aftertouch, and 120 velocity sensitive bass buttons. [Gives the phrase “Free Bass” a new meaning.] 320 voices including tonewheel organ. 100 drum instruments. Man, that’s one heck of an all-rounder. Weighs in at 23.3 pounds (10.6kg).

Fais pas ca! At $8000 USD, I don’t know if I’ll be getting on my Buckwheat. (The occasional accordion tune does come up at church.) Korg also offer a button model at $8,300.

New MIDI controllers have been sprouting like August weeds. Arturia sprung the KeyLab Mk3 Universal MIDI controller. It has the usual French Arturia styling with a semi-weighted keyboard and aftertouch. Yes, real wood paneling. $499 USD for the 49 key model and the 61 key is $599. The Mk3 comes with the usual Arturia bundle of sounds and effects. The 49 is 17.4 pounds (6.1kg) which sounds a tad heavy for me.

Novation have launched (pun intended) the Mk4 Launchkey range, five models going from mini to full-size 49- and 61-key models. Pricing remains modest: $250 USD for the 49 and $300 for the 61. The Mk4 models have a small OLED display, rotary encoders and semi-weighted piano-shape keys. Only the pads have aftertouch, but at these prices, we beggars cannot be choosers. The new Mk4 Launchkeys do two zones (split and layer). Faders are on the left where they belong. The pads have an innovative “Chord Map” mode giving you a 5 by 8 matrix (Adventure x Explore parameters) of built-in chord sets to wander around in.

Weight (9 pounds / 4.08kg) and price put the 49-key model on my radar. Ableton Live provides cheap late afternoon entertainment (better than Candy Crush), so Live integration is attractive. Plus, our son copped my Launchpad and I could use a replacement. 🙂 My biggest knocks on the mk4? It doesn’t do expression pedals and it cannot send a full MIDI Bank Select plus Program Change message sequence. I hope to try one out.

Here’s a shout out to a local company — Mackie (Bothell, WA). Mackie announced two additions to its Thump line of powered PA speakers: Thump210 and Thump210XT. Both models have a 10 inch woofer and 1″ compression driver driven by 1400W Class D amplification. The input section has a two channel mixer and app integration for remote mixing. The XT model adds Bluetooth connectivity for audio streaming and speaker linking. Prices are reasonable: $349 USD and $399 (XT). The new Thumps weigh about 25.4 pounds (11.5kg).

Not a new product per se, but the Yamaha YC stage organ got a new update (OS v.14). Jazzing YC owners will appreciate the new VCM organ type, H4. Quoting Yamaha, the “H4 has more mids and lows with a darker, wider percussion that’s great for playing left-hand bass.” The update adds new Live Sets (e.g., Soft Jazzy, Loudest, Ballad Organ, Gospel Layer, WR+Organ) and the ability to store Master EQ settings in a Live Set.

New stuff not here yet

PSR folks are eagerly awaiting the Yamaha PSR-SX720 and PSR-SX920. Information trickles out, but nothing official. One on-line retailer may have jumped the starter’s gun putting both models up for pre-order. (No apparent price increase.) The retailer claims a September 9 launch date. Another on-line retailer believes the old models are discontinued. Something is definitely afoot.

I cannot verify the authenticity of this picture

[Update] If the Yamaha trickle-down theory holds, the SX720 should be a lot like the now deprecated SX900 minus vocal harmony and the usual 900-level stuff. The retailer leak mentions a new SX920 sound system called “”Expansive Soundfield Speakers (ESS)”. If the picture above is genuine, there will be cosmetic changes (e.g., a few grey buttons in place of black, more attractive speaker covering), and the PSR-SX720 will get Chord Looper (controlled by the new buttons next to the Live Control knobs a la the SX900).

See, all reasons to come over to Yamaha Musicians Forum. Let’s talk. 🙂

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha YC series: Tonewheels

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overall Speculation about future Yamaha product reminded me of some unfinished business — analyzing the design of the Yamaha YC stage organ series.

Design of the YC series put some of Yamaha’s best minds to work including Dr. Toshifumi Kunimoto. “Dr. K” and his team are well-known for Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM) and physical modeling (VL). Before reading ahead, it’s worth reviewing my post summarizing YC61 Developers’ comments. The article has link to a (subtitled) interview with Dr. K, Takashi Mori and Akinobu Shibuya. One big take-away is how the developers took a system-wide approach to emulation the Hammond sound.

The YC61 Owner’s Manual cites six specific innovations:

  • Natural, organic harmonies when playing chords — thanks to a matrix circuit that connects the keyboard, tone wheels, and drawbars.
  • Percussion sound with presence — based on vacuum tube circuit analysis.
  • Key clicks and leakage sounds — based on electrical circuit analysis.
  • Natural sound distortion — simulating vintage vacuum tube pre-amplifiers.
  • Vibrato/Chorus effect — from scanner-based vibrato circuitry.
  • Changes in frequency characteristics and drive amount that responds dynamically to operation of the expression pedal.

These innovations are all in the realm of VCM and are needed to re-create the overall Hammond sound.

I assumed that Yamaha modeled the tonewheels, too. Now, I’m not so sure. I think the tonewheel waveforms are sampled and a modified form of AWM2 synthesis generates the basic, uneffected tonewheel signal (in digital form, of course). Here is my justification.

The interview and YC-series documentation

Yamaha are always honest about what they say even if they don’t say everything. Neither the developers’ interview or Yamaha documentation mention modeled tonewheels.

The YC specifications provide an important clue. Yamaha specify YC polyphony as:

VCM Organ + AWM2: 128 (Total of VCM Organ and AWM2), FM: 128

YC series keyboards have a single SWP70 tone generator (TG) integrated circuit (IC). Like the MODX design, the YC splits AWM2 and FM-X tone generation duties. It’s clear from the polyphony spec that the “VCM Organ” and AWM2 voices split resources, i.e., the AWM2 tone generation channels.

In AWM2 synthesis, each active voice element is assigned to an SWP70 tone generation channel. Genos and the upper-end PSR — also AWM2- and SWP70-based — assign a single drawbar waveform to an element (so-called “Organ Flutes” mode). Organ emulation on MODX (Montage) is similar.

Clearly, the AWM2 pipeline is involved in “VCM Organ” synthesis in some way.

Oh, the complexity!

Everyone is familiar with the 100,000 foot view of the Hammond tonewheel generator. A synchronous motor drives an assembly which spins the tonewheels. Each tonewheel has a pick-up that produces a fluctuating sine-like waveform. The waveforms pass through a key switching matrix and drawbars producing a mixed-down, composite organ tone. The tone is sent to the vibrato scanner, reverb, Leslie speaker, etc.

When it comes to modeling, the devil is in the details. I highly recommend reading one of the excellent Hammond tonewheel deep-dives on the Web:

When reading, please think about what is would take to write a mathematical model of this wonderful electro-mechanical contraption! It ain’t as trivial as summing up a bunch of sine waves. 🙂

The tonewheel assembly itself is closer to Charles Babbage’s mechanical Analytical Engine, than it is to an electronic home organ. The twelve (24, really) fundamental pitches are determined by integer gear ratios which approximate equal temperment. The tone wheels themselves have 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 192 notches, producing subpitches at (near) octave intervals, derived from the fundamental scale pitches.

We know from our own experience that other aspects of the Hammond and Leslie organ system affect the final sound more than the basic tonewheel tones. If I were a developer, I would say, “Memory is cheap,” sample the tonewheels, move on and concentrate on the scanner, vacuum tube distortion, rotary speaker, etc.

Patents

Except, there is the issue of phase relationships when samples are played back. The Hammond tonewheel generator is a mechanical system with fixed relationships between tonewheel positions. This must be taken into account. Naive sample playback moves phase all over the place in an un-Hammond-like manner. Sample playback should be positionally aligned to preserve the fixed relationships present in a real, physical Hammond tonewheel generator.

Dr. K refers to “phase interference:”

“While collecting a range of different pitch waveforms, combining them, and including some non-linear additions, we also had to deal with phase interference between them. It turns out that this interference is not constant, and while balanced over the entire pitch of the instrument, the pitches do shift in subtle and inconsistent ways. … [T]his disordered yet harmonious behavior” is essential and necessary.

I believe that Yamaha have solved this problem by fetching and combining sampled tonewheel waveforms in a different way than everyday AWM2. Here are some patents to consider:

  • US Patent 10,388,290 B2 Multifunctional audio signal generation apparatus, August 20, 2019, Inventor: Taro Shirahama, Yamaha.
  • Japanese Patent 6360692 B2, Audio signal generation apparatus, July 4, 2018.

Yamaha could be aligning tonewheel waveforms when samples are fetched, thereby eliminating phase errors with respect to Hammond behavior. The sampled waveforms, of course, must also preserve the near-equal temperment of integer Hammond gear ratios. The end result is “Natural, organic harmonies when playing chords.”

I also want to draw attention to:

  • European patent application 20214572.8, Rotary speaker emulation — Device, musical instrument, method and program, December 16, 2020, Inventors: Yuji YAMADA and Takashi MORI, Yamaha.

This patent may summarizes Yamaha’s most recent work on rotary speaker emulation although the patent seems to be written as to obfuscate its intent. Yamaha has covered this territory before including:

Please note the inventors!

Copyright © 2022 Paul J. Drongowski

YC61 Developer’s Comments

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I just finished watching the “Yamaha Stage Keyboard YC61 Development Story” on Youtube. It’s a twelve minute video of three developers behind the new YC61 organ:

  • Takashi Mori – Sound Synthesis Algorithm
  • Toshifumi Kunimoto – Sound Synthesis Algorithm
  • Akinobu Shibuya – Software Engineering

Dr. K, of course, is well-known for his work in physical modeling and Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM). Both types of modeling are essential to the YC61 sound.

Yamaha YC61 (top view)

The developers knew that physical modeling and VCM would be important during development. They began by studing real-world instruments to find the best way to deploy these techqniues. They eventually arrived at an implementation which unifies physical modeling and VCM — the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Quoting sensei Dr. K, “Real instruments feature a lot of undulation” not just pure sine waves. “While collecting a range of different pitch waveforms, combining them, and including some non-linear additions, we also had to deal with phase interference between them. It turns out that this interference is not constant, and while balanced over the entire pitch of the instrument, the pitches do shift in subtle and inconsistent ways. … [T]his disordered yet harmonious behavior” is essential and necessary.

“Real sounds are affected [by] a lot of instability in circuits and component devices, and sampling alone — which is the equivalent of taking a static photo in the audio sense — could not be used to replicate these instabilities.”

Rock players, in particular, know that good overdrive is essential to the Hammond sound. “When the expression pedal, for example, is pressed down hard, the distortion component can become an exquisite noise.” Virtual Circuit Modeling has a role here.

Rotating speaker emulation is also a suitable role for VCM. However, VCM alone is not enough. Physical modeling is needed to capture the properties of rotating speakers including the acoustics and physics of sound reflection. “The noise component of an organ’s sound is really effective when combined with the rotary speaker.”

Existing Yamaha instruments use a separate AWM2 tone generator and an effects section. The YC61 takes a unified approach and combines tone generation with effects to produce an accurate, overall sound.

The character of real world instruments changes from day to day with temperature and other factors. The developers needed to study materials and the effect of those materials on the behavior of electrical circuits. They measured actual organ circuits and tried to understand how materials and other factors affected their sound.

The organ sound in seventies British prog rock was a key influence. They wanted to achieve an overall musical sound. The developers wanted to create an instrument which organists could play naturally and intuitively. The instrument itself should reveal its “amazing sounds” when it is simply played “without any upfront explanation.”

Well, most of us must wait until June 2020 to play and to decide for ourselves. The YC61 is expected to be in stores by then, costing $2,499 (MSRP) and $1,999 on the street (MAP).

The YC61 is slightly smaller than the MODX6 and just a touch heavier (15.6 pounds). Given the range of non-organ sounds, I’ll be giving the YC61 a serious try when it’s available. Maybe it’s time to trade in the old NE2?

Copyright &copy 2020 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha YC61 stage organ

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Not to be out-done, Yamaha have announced the YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard. MSRP is $2,499 and MAP (Street) is $2,000.

Yamaha YC61 Stage Organ

The YC61 has waterfall keys and drawbars with VCM out the wazoo. The YC61 also includes FM synthesis for FM electric pianos. Speaking of pianos, the YC61 has acoustic pianos as well as electric:

  • Acoustic pianos: CFX, S700, C7 and U1 upright.
  • Electric pianos: Real FM, CP80, 78 Rhodes, 75 Rhodes Funky, 73 Rhodes, Wurlitzer.

The voice list in the Owner’s Manual shows:

  • Acoustic pianos
  • Electric pianos
  • Synths (pad, strings, Brass, Lead, Bass, Chromatic Percussion)
  • Strings
  • Guitar
  • Brass
  • Sax/Winds
  • Basses
  • Chromatic Percussion (Glock, vibes, etc.)
  • Accordions

The selection of voices is very rock, pop and jazz-oriented as one might expect in a keyboard of this type.

Tone generation technology is specified as: VCM Organ, AWM2, and FM. Looks like Yamaha has finally issued a modeled B-3. Polyphony specs are:

  • VCM Organ + AWM2: 128
  • FM: 128

There are 32 effect types including rotary speaker and amp sims, of course. The amp sims are British Combo, British Lead and Small Stereo, all of which are recent vintage. I can’t tell right now if the main rotary speaker effect is brand new or not.

Quoting the Owner’s Manual about the “VCM Organ tone generator:”

The VCM Organ tone generator was developed to faithfully reproduce the sound of a tonewheel-type vintage organ.

VCM stands for “Virtual Circuitry Modeling™,” and is technology that uses DSP to emulate the functions of an analog electric circuit. This technology enables the instrument to reproduce sound with an analog-like depth, which cannot be reproduced by a simple digital sound. By applying this technology, the VCM Organ tone generator fully reproduces the following characteristics of a vintage

Natural, organic harmonies when playing chords — thanks to a matrix circuit that connects the keyboard, tone wheels, and drawbars

Percussion sound with remarkable presence — based on vacuum tube circuit analysis

Key clicks and leakage sounds — based on electrical circuit analysis

Natural sound distortion — simulating vintage vacuum tube pre-amplifiers

Vibrato/Chorus effect — from scanner-based vibrato circuitry

Changes in frequency characteristics and drive amount that responds dynamically to operation of the expression pedal

Adjustment of these detailed parameters makes it possible to accurately recreate the distinctive characteristics of the original instruments — including all of their specially attractive imperfections, faults and even deterioration.

Organ models are H1 (standard vintage organ), H2 (mid- to low-emphasis), H3 (percussive), F1 (simple sine waves), F2 (Vox combo), F3 (Farfisa combo).

Dimensions are 35.25″ wide by 4.25″ high by 12.2″ deep. It weighs 15.6 pounds (7.1kg) which is quite reasonable!

I just downloaded the Owner’s Manual. It will take a little study to figure out how the effect units are allocated — the spec is not exactly clear by itself.

It looks like there is good MIDI control — lots of CCs. Naturally, the devil is in the details. One doesn’t always know what’s missing until you get down to the nitty gritty of voice and rig configuration. The YC61 has master keyboard functionality (four zones including organ).

Well, that’s enough to get you started. Download the manual. Then pop the popcorn, sit back and watch the usual Web mania.

Copyright © 2020 Paul J. Drongowski