This has mostly to do with setting the touch sensitivity to the level that works best for what you're doing and your specific touch. But, you will have to see how the different effects respond to your touch and learn to work with what is there.

Lee:

Yes, The T3 has Aftertouch on its Keyboard for the voices that allow you to increase volume after the note has been sounded. The SA2 type effects are triggered by how you strike the keys (velocity sensitive) plus you can add other effects on startup notes and ending notes with the ART buttons. As a Tenor Sax player I find the velocity aspect of the keyboard similar to how I would play the sax so I am very satisfied with the results on the SA2 Sax voices and it was the main reason I bought the Tyros 3. Unfortunately T3 does not have a good Bari Sax or Alto Sax voice IMHO. But I do find the Soprano Sax voices very good on T3 even if they are not SA or SA2.

Joe

tyroschuck and Diki:

You can edit the Velocity Effects on Tyros:

The SA effects will still be present if you strike the keyboard in certain ways even if the ART buttons are off. If you want to eliminate them you need to select Voice Set and decrease the Depth and Offset parameters. If those are set low it will be difficult to trigger the effects even if you strike the keyboard hard on certain notes. Conversely if you increase these parameters you will trigger the effects very easily and often.

Joe

Thanks Joe...OK does the T4 have a killer Bari?
If not it would be a great user voice to add...
I went to a live performace of Tower of Power...wow!
When he hit that Bari...the room shook, I loved it.

But Joe, that's not removing them... that's just arbitrarily reducing the velocity sensitivity, so it's harder to get them, but you don't get back the full range of the sound in exchange...

Diki:

Yes, technically you are correct. I was showing how you can eliminate them from triggering. In my case the SA2 effects (velocity sensitive as they are)are what make the voices so real so I never try to eliminate them. Rather I increase the sensitivity. This allows me to emulate the Sax, Clarinet and guitar sounds quite accurately. So I'm not sure why you would want to eliminate them entirely since they add to realism. Of course Tyros gives you many non SA voices that do not have the effects such as Live Tenor Sax, etc which are also very good but IMHO not as real.

Joe

Joe, as I said earlier, things like hammer-ons, growls, and things like that, in real life, are independent of volume. But set up to be triggered by velocity, you ONLY get them on the loudest notes (and can't play loudly without them).

If they are tasked to a footswitch rather than velocity, you get to CHOOSE when they come in. And choice is a good thing, isn't it?

Diki:

You can do what you want by either just using a non-SA voice (which are quite good and removes all effects) or by reducing velocity to slightly below average on the SA voice and increasing the volume. However the whole point of the SA voice is the velocity controlled effects that add realism to the voice. You wouldn't select an SA2 SAX if you didn't want those velocity controlled sounds. You would pick a different sax voice. At least that's what I do. Also the kinds of SA effects associated with the sax are typically ones that would be louder when playing the real instrument. The feature you are suggesting, controlling the effects with a foot switch, would be interesting, but it's not something I believe a Tyros player would ever use as it would really just make the SA voice non-SA and IMHO you can already do that by just reducing velocity. In fact many of the voices out of the box are set to a slightly below average velocity making it difficult to trigger the effects. This was especially true on Acoustic Guitars. I had to increase velocity on all SA2 voices so I would be able to easily trigger them when needed.

Joe

The thing is, I DON'T want to lose those SA effects. I would just like them tasked to footswitches rather than velocity, so I can do hammer-ons at low velocity and straight notes at high, should I want to. I know there are voices without them on AT ALL, but that's not what I'm after (if I had one!)...

This is one area where at least Korg's comprehensive voice editing trumps the better (AFAIK) Yamaha samples. Yamaha give you NO (zero, nada, zilch) editing of SA2 voices whatsoever, at least as far as the effect triggers.

It is often stated that detail editing tends to intimidate the more casual user, and this is why Yamaha chose not to do it, but I think there is a solution. An option (in the 'Global' section) to HIDE the more advanced parameters from the casual user, and simplify the interface achieves this without penalizing the more advanced user.

I think Yamaha could easily pick up quite a few more customers by doing this, rather than forcing them to choose between preset simplicity and full editing by leaving the line altogether.

Diki:

I think you are right about Yamaha. While they do offer a lot of Voice and Style tweeking it is not to the detail level of Korg or Roland. Yamaha know their market and that feature, while of value to some, is not at the top of the enhancement list. Their basic MIDI implementation is in the same category.

Joe