HI Simon.

Tks for the dependable post.

Brasilian regards,
Chico

No you can play a megavoice, but you must realise that a megavoice IS a combination of sound elements, each triggered by either velocity or octave range. If you attempt to play a megavoice on the keyboard, you will find that you achieve different elements of the voice according to how hard you hit the keys, and also in which octave you play. To achieve the best effect from these voices, you need to fine tune the phrases you record using a sequencer program, in order that the velocity of individual notes will trigger the required "element" in the voice. So, for example if you record at constant velocity of say 100 (example), you might end up on playback with a few chords of lightly strummed steel string guitar. Now, if you increase the velocity of the first notes in each chord to say 110 (example), at the beginning now of each strum in the recorded phrase you will hear a harder strum sound. Then you might like to add a few extra notes at velocity 120 at the end of the chord to produce a finger release sound from the strings...
Achieving the effect of a real guitar strumming will require a lot of practice and no doubt analysis of both a real guitar performance and some of yamaha's megavoice phrases in their styles and songs. One idea would be to first record the best guitar strumming rhythmn as chords on the keyboard using a standard guitar voice. Then, choose a megavoice guitar instead, and tweak the velocities of the recording to the megavoice, such that harder notes in the recording trigger the hard strum elements, and soft ones trigger the soft elements. This is of course a very broad and simplified explanation, but megavoices fetches a whole new concept in playing technique on the keyboard.
As it was said though earlier, yamaha's main intention is for you to enjoy the sound of these new voices with their already preprogrammed styles. The voices are there for those who have the courage to program musical phrases for them!

Regards
Simon



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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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Simon: I like your explanation and think it is similar to my own, but I question whether you are able to select and play a megavoice from the Tyros keyboard. Page 80 of the Tyros owners manual specifically says that you cannot do this from the Tyros, nor are the megavoices meant to be used at all by the user due to the near-impossibility of using them in live performance. From what I've read by George Kaye, I gathered that the individual "elements" of a megavoice are available as individual voices that are selectable from the Tyros, but not the composite megavoices themselves. Can you tell me where you read that the megavoices are playable from the Tyros keyboard? Is the Tyros manual wrong or have I misread something?

As I haven't played a Tyros yet, I can't be sure but here is what I think. If you edit one of the "megavoiced" styles, then choosing one of the tracks featuring a megavoice will give you the megavoice at the keyboard. Now you could then store this into one of the registration memories.... and recall in performance mode. Maybe it will work? It's quite possible that if the megavoice is in some obscure bank that it may not be accessible from the main voice list, and that a sequence of midi sysex or bank/program change values sent to the keyboard either from a sequencer or from a file on the keyboard would be needed to access the megavoices. According to the Data list page 38, the data saved to a registration memory or OTS in the style is control change, bank MSB, bank LSB and Program change. Therefore as long as its possible to first choose the voice by sending these signals to the keyboard, it should be possible to store them into a registration memory and then recall them.

Simon



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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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Sorry to ruin the party but ...
altough Tyros and/or Genesys are indded an improvement, they are NOT realworld sounding at all. Synth(etic) feeling all over.

My personal fata morgana of Gigastudio-type quality sounds combined with sophisticated auto-acompaniment styles still remains;

I fear there is no alternative than to use harddisk streaming and NOT limited chip-based sounds.

listen to "A little Chopin" at http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/42/john_lewis_grant.html

This is a streaming sampled piano.
Imagine a Tyros build with this level of quality...

Aahh imagine....

elle,
Very nice piece, but if your point was that a Tyros or Genesys piano doesn't even come close to the sound you're getting, I disagree completely.
Terry

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 09-26-2002).]

Could you also explain why?

Elle,
I have to agree with trtjazz... your streamed piece was excellent quality, but as a former sound engineer I can tell that that was NOT recorded straight off the piano to whatever recording medium was used. It sounds much like it was recorded in a sound studio (or mid-size room) with several strategically placed mics, over-dubbed. mixed and a little effect added - natural or otherwise !

Not to say that that detracts from it's quality in any way, but that it makes it difficult to directly compare to the quality of the 'electronic' versions now on the Tyros.
Basically, apples and grapes dude !!

Regards,
Steve

[This message has been edited by S0C9 (edited 09-26-2002).]

elle,
In listening to the piano in your piece to my ears, though excellent I thought it sounded a bit on the airish side or perhaps too much presence would be a better choice of words, hence it sounded a bit thin to me. where I think on the Tyros and Gensys demos both the pianos sound somewhat richer and fuller to me with a more balanced overall tone.
Terry

P.S. Hey Steve, nice to see you here.

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 09-26-2002).]

I do not disagree that fully based sampling systems can produce fantastic results, I use them and also rack mounted samplers and with enough effort, anything can just about be replicated to extraordinary levels of realism. However this is not the point of an arranger keyboard! People who buy arranger keyboards want to switch on, press a button and play the thing, not sit down at a computer loading samples and fiddling around for hours. Arrangers provide immediate access to inner creativity, they inspire with instant backings and now providing ever more realistic voices. Of course there are systems available that can produce even better sounds, but we are talking a portable keyboard which you can take anywhere, switch on and play it straight away!

Simon


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________________________
Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
________________________