Since I can't get any of the current Genesys owners to send me any new samples to post to the site, I thought I'd go ahead and post some WK8 stuff over the next few weeks.

C'mon guys...We need to REPRESENT! GEM is getting lost in the Tyros shuffle.

(just kiddin')

I finally upgraded my computer at home so I can start recording. Here's the setup: WK8 going into the Mackie 1202 then using the tape outputs going into an old Kenwood cassette deck that has a 'monitor' button then the output of the tape deck going into the SBLive and recording with Sound Forge 6. My cable from the SB wasn't long enough to reach the Mackie direct (and I was too lazy to move my gear) and I really wanted to hear this so I compromised and went through the tape deck. Future recordings will have the keyboard going to the Mackie, then the SB.

Here's the WK8 playing the Moon River midi file from SVPworld:
http://genny.lib.umn.edu/wk8piano.mp3

Wow! What a difference in presentation comparing it to the Yamaha's.
http://www.svpworld.com/tyrospiano.htm

Where the Tyros puts you back in the hall listening on center, the WK8 puts you in the first row with the piano slightly to the right. Now before y'all jump on the 'no low end' band-wagon, listen to both again and ask yourself if the presentation of the Yami is realistic. I think it is...If you were sitting back in the hall allowing for the room to add to the bottom end (you hear this even more with the 9000Pro IMO). But in the same breath, I think that the WK8 sounds realistic considering that I'm right behind it. The bass fundamentals are there, just not to the degree of the Yamaha's (again, my opinion).

Let me know what you think.

ms,
Well......hmmmm, I think the only place the WK held it's own sort of was in some of the mid range. Sorry but I thought it really lost it in both the high and low ends of the piece....IMO. Thanks for providing the comaprison.
jam on,
Terry

Hey Terry,

So you think it sounds kind of muted?

Yeah, so did I at first. Not sure if the tape deck being in the chain is padding things a bit or if that simply is the way it sounds. No other tweaks were done, that is Piano 1 from bank 0. No DSP changes, EQ's are flat.

The Yamaha's sound nice, there is no doubt about it.

I wonder if you would allow me to add a relevant fact to all discussions on sound?
I think we have to remember that the sound each person hears is as a result of air movement etc. being presented to the ear and then to the brain via a normally sensitive 'hearing system' (so as not to get too technical)(which I can't anyway!).
Remember that what each individual 'hears' is very much subjective because of several factors. Not the least of which is Age!, then Exposure to a lifetime of noise. As a result most musicians who have been exposed to mountains of decibels perhaps do not realise that their hearing is 'impaired'!
I know from bitter experience that my treble hearing is practically non existent. In my case as a result of exposure to 140dba security alarms. In many other modern cases, exposure to 500watt speakers and all night gigs and hops.
I personally always have my home equipment on full treble and lower bass in order to get some reasonable enjoyment from sounds.
I marvel at the talk of high-end, low-end, mid-range and similar descriptions of sound and I am pretty sure that the audiences we play to have pretty much the same problems with this , particularly the younger (everybody is younger than me!) guys who have spent many hours at discos, having to shout as loud as they can in order to hold a simple conversation.
Sorry for rambling on, but perhaps some of us know what I am talking about.
cheers
Eddie

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info
all mail from this url is virus-free thanks to Norton Antivirus2002

Very interesting. IMHO it sounds like a chorus may be switched on, or the stock piano sound has chorusing in it which makes this sound like the "detune piano" setting on many synths. It also sounds like the same sample was used throughout much of the keyboard (this would be easier to confirm if the other C-scale walk-up files were tested on the WK8). Like many of the Yamahas, I also detect a short decay in the overall sound that doesn't sound natural. But I like the sound of the very final high notes of this piece, which is a weak area in many piano emulations.

My initial reaction is that more multisamples are used in the Yamaha piano emulations giving a somewhat truer and fuller acoustic piano sound than the WK8. Thanks for giving this a try... you might also make MP3's of the walk-up midi files and send those along with Moon River to Simon at SVPWorld for posting.

Eddie: even with all of the factors you've mentioned, it's still an objective exercise to listen to the same midi files played on different instruments with our "impaired" hearing. As long as the listener is using the same playback and auditory system when listening to all of the instruments, the test is fair (or at least as fair as we can make it).

msutliff,

Hello to you. I really liked your performance. The famous melody is very nice. Do you have the chords for it?

Thanks.

Eddie,
Could ya' speak up a bit? I really didn't hear what ya' said.
Terry

That chorus effect the Pro mentioned could have been caused by the wow and flutter of the tape deck. If I were you I would try it again sans tape deck. On the hearing issue Eddie is correct about the damage years of playing can have on the hearing. I know I don't hear as well as I used to. It must be the higher frequencies that go first because my wife thinks that I'm deaf.

Can you possibly record mp3's of the octave runs too? I'll then upload them all to the svpworld site.

Regards
Simon


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