Well, on Wednesday I had Arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn maniscus. I feel like I'm walking in molasas.

I have a gig tonight, Valentines day, with the band that I must attend. I'm going to go ULTRA light tonight and just take the Tyros, single KB stand, seat, and my Fender KDX200 Stereo KB amp. This is about as lightweight a rig as I can muster up.

I normally take another keyboard, powered mixer and two speakers.

What should be interesting is playing with only ONE keyboard. Since I play many brass and Sax parts along with Hammond and Piano, there are many songs that require both patches concurrently. I'll be a patch changing maniac unless I can go through all my songs today and figure out keyboard splits and save some registrations.

How do you guys master this?

Regards,
Al

I am assuming your other Keyboard that your not taking is the Motif ES8?

So your saying that some of the 'patches' you will need are on the Motif ES8 and you need those patches on some of your songs?

>> I didn't know the MotifES's patches (Voices) were compatible with the Tyros Al.

Or if your saying you just need to find substitute patches on the Tyros itself then you should just filter through the Tyros Voices and find something similar that will work. Then set up the Tyros Voices to your liking (R1, R2, R3, Left, the Volume, the Split Point, etc., etc.,) then save everything for each particular setup (Song) to Registration. After you put the setup (each Song) and add it to 'Registration Memory", ie. (push Memory button then one of "8" Registration buttons) you have to then save the Registration bank within the Registration Bank screen, ie. - press the "J" button on the LCD Display Panel. You're then good to go for your Gig. Simply access your Registrations and choose the appropriate Registration. PS: It's a good idea to put a 'name' to each registration so you know which is which.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 02-14-2004).]

Al,
A good trick is to set up your alternate sound on a volume pedal. I used to have piano as my main sound and then add either organ or strings that could be brought in with the pedal. I grew to call these "color sounds" because they would add color to the original sound,but not be a permanent part of it.
Brass hits can probably be layered with the piano with almost NO detectability, as well as organ. The Tyros can accomodate 2 layers on top of a staple sound, so set up a few patches and you're set to go!

Here's a few good "meat & potatoes" patches that comp well with great expression, as you add the pedal sounds....

R1-Piano
R2-Strings
R3-Organ

R1-Rhodes
R2-Organ
R3-Brass

R1-Organ
R2-Brass
R3-saw type synth(really fat)

Depends on how the other guys in your rhythm section carry the ball. You should be able to get along quite well with just the single kb. A little planning and you'll be sittin' pretty. Hope the knee heals up quickly too !

My problem is that I must play a SAX part and an ORGAN part at the same time!!! The only way I can figure out how to do that is with a split keyboard.

Al

I never thought of that. I'm going to have to practice with that this afternoon to see how good I can get at it. Thanks for the great tip!!

The other guys in the band are real good, I could probably hang back and not play as much tonight which is what I may do anyway. Can't get out of singing tho!

Regards
Al

Your right Al. I think the only way would be to use Split Keyboard mode. On the Tyros the Left Hand Voice is Octaved up +1 so maybe the Organ voice[s] would be better suited for the Left. The Sax can be octavely adusted in the Right Hand of course with the Tyros' Octave switch.

UD has a good idea too.

I've found that setting the split point to "B2" is ideal for me on all but a few rare occasions (songs).

Best regards,
Mike

I too set my split point at B2 because I use the same chord fingerings for a lot of my church organ playing, along with reading music, and that way I can use the same positions I do on the organ and not mess up my mind and muscle memory with "new" fingerings.

Tom

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Bigger is not always better

Interesting: After having experimented over time, my preferred keyboard split point is F#2. I find this amount of kb real estate (an octave and a half) sufficient for allowing full voicing of chords (fingered mode), and with decent smooth voice leading as well. Setting a F#2 split point vs B2 allows me to reserve playing those lower notes (G2-B2) with my 'right hand' voice(R1,R2, R3). Curious what note others here set their keyboard split point to when playing in 'fingered' (full chord) mode. - Scott

Well, it was quite an interesting night to say the least. Being cripple is not a good thing for a working musician. Since I could barely walk, I had to rely on my band mates, my kids, and the generousity of friends to help me unpack and setup my gear.

We get to the Restuarant and they are packed to the gills. There is actually NO parking outside. What I didn't know, was they advertised on the Radio dinner specials, Roses and candy for all ladies, and Live music with our band.

We were supposed to go on at 9:00 pm but couldn't setup until 10:00 pm because they gave away the dance floor and part of the stage for diners!!!!!

We finally starting playing and things were going well. Two things that really irritate me about the Tyros and live situations is the following:

1. You cannont change the OCTAVE range of the LEFT hand voice!!! GRRrrrrrrrr!!!!!

2. I was going NUTS all night trying to keep my voices and my patches DRY; without any reverb or chorus. Every voice on the Tyros has some DSP effect. The patches that I commonly use and save to a registration are tweaked with all the DSP reverb effects removed. However, when you select a voice on the Tyros other than your registration voice, that voice will contain Reverb.

I wish the Tyros had a master dsp override to remove ALL REVERB or CHORUS to the voices!!!!!

To the Tyros' credit, using the registrations, voice layering as suggested by Uncle Dave, and that big helpful LCD panel really helps find patches and voices super fast.

I am also now thoroughly convinced that I HATE the Tyros keys. Not enough weight and not enough size. They just do not feel substantial enough and it really translates poorly during my playing. I do not feel expressive enough with the Tyros keyboard. I feel like I'm simply switching sounds on and off.

I am now seriously considering retiring the Tyros and using my Motif ES 88 and the New Korg Triton Extreme for gigging.

Whew, that's quite a few topics for one post!!!

Al

WARNING! If you don't get a Triton Extreme Pro X (the 88 key version) you will have very similar key feel to what is on the Tyros and all the rest of the non 88 key piano weighted keyboards.

Tom

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Bigger is not always better