There has been a lot of controversy over individual voices with a host of top keyboards. And, while this is subjective at the very least, the following may shed some light on the topic.
Last Thurdsay night I had the privilege to perform a short interlude for the Saint Andrews Society of Baltimore, a consortium of 350 elderly gents wearing kilts and tuxedo tops, carrying swords and drinking copious amounts of Scotch whiskey. Fortunately, I didn't have to do much, the crowd was so loud it was beyond belief, and after an hour of background music the traditional festivities began. Bagpipes and drums, both loud enough to rattle the water glasses on nearby tables, but for those who lost much of their hearing during the Second World War and Korean War, the sound was stiring--especially if you had the stones to wear a kilt on the last day of November. Outside temperature was a brish 29 degrees when the festivities began and dropped to 19 by midnight.
Toward the end of the affair, a beautiful, tall readhead opera singer did an incredible half-hour performance of old Scottish songs. Her voice was beyond compare and was only equalled by her beauty. (Uncle Dave should not be permitted to be within 100 miles of this lady!)
I did not accompany her. Instead, she brought in a concert pianist who plays for the Baltimore Symphony Ocrhestra. The overall rig I supplied was my standard, large-party setup, which consisted of the Bose PAS and PSR-3000, and she was singing through my Samson Q7 mic.
I selected the keyboard's GM mellow grand piano, which I tuned a bit as a custom voice to provide some echo and add a bit of sparkle to the overall sound. To this, a layered strings voice was added and the layer voice volume level was set at 60. The piano volume level was set at 110.
The pianist, who has more training and talent in her little finger than I have in my entire body, said "I can't believe how wonderful this sounds. The keyboard's piano sound is so rich and full, especially when combined with the strings. I wish I had that in the piano I use at the concert hall. What a beautiful sound." The same comments were also expressed by the listening audience, some of which are accomplished pianist and musicians.
My point here is, I personally, and most of my audiences, love the piano sound created by Yamaha's newer keyboards. And, to my aging ears, they do not sound out of tune throughout the usuable range. When I addressed a PSR-Tutorial member's concerns about the piano sounding out of tune in the extreme lower range to the pianist, she said "I rarely use the extreme lower or upper octaves!" When asked why, she said "I just don't like the way the sound. But, I sure love the way this keyboard sounds."
One of the other aspects of the newer keyboards, particularly the Tyros and Tyros2 models, is most folks that own them never take time to explore all of the wonderful things you can do globally with the EQ settings to make the board sound alive and vibrant. During the past several months I have encountered dozens of players who did not know they could tune and save their custom EQ settings, and how much of a difference the settings make, particularly with the drums and piano sounds.
Again, the EQ settings are just as subjective as other sounds produced by various keyboards, and everyone has their particular likes and dislikes when it comes to both styles and voices. Additionally, when using an external PA system only, which is the case with the Tyros and Tyros2, there are lots of other things to consider when it comes to providing your audiences with the highest quality musical and vocal performances.
During the past few weeks, there have been lots of folks purchasing the Tyros2, and for the most part, the vast majority of them loved what they heard. I strongly suspect that those who did not like what they heard did not take the time to tune the keyboard's global EQ settings.
Cheers,
Gary
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Travlin' Easy
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