Hi Everybody

After 5 years using my Tyros2, I finally upgraded to an Audya4. Short story, a huge dissapointment, but I realise I´m so acostumed to the Tyros OS.

One thing I really, really hate in Tyros2 are the drums. I do program my own styles, large enough in order to avoid repetitive patterns, but still, the drums are weak (I think the overall sound is weak, with phase problems and I tried everything but seems the sampling method used by Yamaha)

I can´t find in the manual but I remember seen in a video that there is an edit sound page for drums, Am I correct?

And by the way, compared to previus keyboards you owned, what do you think about Tyros4?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Best Regards
Jose Pereira

Hi Joe,

The T4 drums are sooooo much better than previous models. You have many more choices to choose. PLUS, you can now create your own drumsets with custom sounds and samples; although I admittedly have not had to do that as yet. The OS in the T4 is pretty much the same as the T2 with some minor exceptions. The entire keyboard, however sounds so much different from the T2. I went from the T2 to the T4 and the sound difference is amazing. The vocal harmonizer is much more powerful and capable.

I too had the Audya 4 and 5 and I returned them for the T4. A decision I have not regretted for ONE minute. As a matter of fact, I'm having a blast playing the T4; moreso than than any of the previous Yamaha's (PSR610, 9000, T1, T2) or Korg Pa2xpro, or Audya 4/5.

Good luck with your decision.

Hi All - I have to totally agree w/Al on his summation - oops...have I mentioned that I am now a T4 owner? The T4 is AMAZING! I had the T2 for several years and believe me the upgrade was well worth it! The drums are indeed mucho better and I love all the new voices. When I pull up an older style, MIDI file, or registration and change the drum set to the new "live" drums, it makes a considerable difference. Every time I turn that machine on I am happy (ELATED!) that I made the upgrade. I, like many of the others, am not totally blown away by the (vocal) voices and voice-laden styles, but having been a Yammie user for over a decade, taking the voices out of the styles is an easy task. Overall, the sound of the T4 is so much better than the T2 I had before! Glad I did it and sorry I waited!

Hi Jose,
As a Tyros 4 owner that upgraded from Tyros 2 to Tyros 4 over six months ago, I fully echo Al and Randy's sentiments.
I continue to be blown away by theTyros 4's awesome live sound and still love playing it "more than ever".

That's great news !
and If you're like me, you're gonna love and appreciate your Tyros 4 "even more" over time.
Tyros 4 is truly an amazing instrument !
Congratulations Randy!

Thanks Al, Randy and Scottyee!!!

Dnj, I´m aware of that post but, it deviates from the main idea...

Uhmmm, Please, can anybody tell me if Tyros4 has a drum mixer, editor page?

Also, does Tyros4 reads samples others than wav format?

Once again, Thanks to all !!!!

Jose Pereira

PS: Please, excuse my poor english, but my portuguese isn´t better either...

Page 24-27 discusses the process of creating a custom Drum voice.


Creating Drum Voices (Custom Drum Voice)
By assigning the instruments (drum/percussion) of Preset Drum Voices and Wave files to each key, you can create your
original Drum Voices—not only by creating the Voice from scratch, but also by adding/replacing the instruments within
existing Drum Voices with other instruments of Preset Drum Voice and your own Wave files, and by editing selected
parameters of each key. The resulting Voice is called a Custom Drum Voice and can be selected and played in the same
way as all other Tyros4 Voices.
Drum Voice (Custom Drum Voice)
1 Turn the PART SELECT [RIGHT 1] button to on, then select a
Drum Voice.
When you are creating a Custom Drum from scratch, select an “empty” drum
Voice by pressing the [EXPANSION] button, then pressing the [8 ] (UP) button
and selecting the “CustomDrum” category. If you are creating a Drum Voice by
adding Wave files to an existing Drum Voice, press the [PERC./DRUM KIT] button
and select the desired drum Voice.
2 Press the [VOICE CREATOR] button to call up the Voice Creator
Menu.
To create your original Drum Voices
from Kit Edit of the Mixing Console
function (Owner’s Manual, Chapter 9),
proceed to step 3.
NOTE
Creating
from
Scratch  Add instrument from Preset Drum Voice
 Add your own Waves from Flash Memory Expansion Module
Existing
Voice
 Replace with instrument from Preset Drum Voice
 Replace with your own Waves from Flash Memory Expansion
Module
Flash Memory Expansion Module
Wave files (WAV or AIFF)
Expansion Voice Bank (Library)
Tyros4
Drum Voice
qAssign to specific key(s)
(steps 1–5 below)
eStore the created
Drum Voice. (step 9)
wEdit the entire Drum Voice
(steps 6–8)
r(If necessary) Re-edit
the entire Drum Voice
(page 27)
qAssign to specific key(s)
(steps 1–5 below)
The instrument (drum/percussion) of Preset Drum Voice
3
NEXT PAGE
Tyros4 Reference Manual 25
1
Voices – Playing the Keyboard –
3 Press the [G] (CUSTOM VOICE ASSEMBLY) button to call up the
Drum Mapping display.
4 Specify the key to be edited.
Press the desired key on the keyboard or use the [1 ]/[2 ] (TARGET) buttons.
5 Select the desired instrument (drum/percussion) of Preset
Drum Voice or Wave to be assigned by following the procedure
below.
5-1 Press the [F] (SELECT WAVE) button.
5-2 Use the TAB [][] buttons to select the desired tab page: PRESET or
EXP.
• PRESET: contains the instrument of Preset Drum Voice
• EXP.: contains the Wave files in the expansion module
5-3 If you selected Preset tab on step 5-2, use the [F] and [G] buttons to select
the category which contains the desired instrument.
5-4 Select the desired audio (instrument/Wave) files by using the [1 ]–
[5 ] buttons, then press the [ENTER] button to confirm your selection.
PRESET
5
4
[F] CATEGORY Calls up a popup window, allowing you to select the desired instrument (drum/percussion)
category, if INST. is selected in KIT  INST. below, or the Drum Kit
Voice, if KIT is selected. While the popup window appears, use the [G]/[H] buttons
to make the selection.
[G] KIT  INST. KIT: Sorts the sounds according to the containing Drum Kit Voice.
INST.: Sorts the sounds according to the instrument (drum/percussion) type.
[J] EMPTY Disables the selection.
[1 ]/
[2 ]
PAGE Up/Down See page 19.
[3 ]–
[5 ]
Up/Down
[6 ] AUDITION
NEXT PAGE
26 Tyros4 Reference Manual
EXP.
6 Set the parameters for the selected key in the Drum Mapping
display.
[F] CATEGORY See page 19.
[J] EMPTY Disables the selection.
[1 ]/
[2 ]
PAGE Up/Down See page 19.
[3 ]–
[5 ]
Up/Down
[6 ] AUDITION
9
8
[A] ALL SOUND
OFF
Stops all sounds.
[C] VIEW NOTE When this button is held down, the notes which are currently performed by the Style
function are shown.
[1 ]/
[2 ]
TARGET Selects a key to be edited.
[3 ] VOLUME Adjusts the volume.
[4 ] PAN Sets the stereo pan position: 0 (Random), 1 (Left)–64 (Center)–127 (Right).
[5 ] REVERB Adjusts the applied reverb effect.
[6 ] RECEIVE NOTE
OFF
Determines whether the key receives Note Off events or not. When this parameter is
set to ON, Note Off events will be received. When this is set to OFF, Note Off events
will not be received.
[7 ] ALTERNATE
GROUP
Assigns the key (TARGET) to a specific group. This lets you separate certain sounds,
such as open and closed hi-hat sounds, so that one will cancel the other.
This button appears only when using Kit Edit of the Mixing Console function.
NOTE
When the [DSP] button is on, a setting of “0” here results in no panning.
NOTE
NEXT PAGE
Tyros4 Reference Manual 27
1
Voices – Playing the Keyboard –
7 Repeat steps 4–6 to edit each key.
8 Press the [8 ] (VOICE SET) button and edit the Voice Set
parameters (page 12).
After you finish editing the Voice Set parameters, press the [EXIT] button to show
the Drum Mapping display again.
9 Store the created Drum Voice.
Press the [J] (STORE) button to call up the Custom Voice display, then press the
[6 ] (STORE) button to store the Voice.
10 Press the [EXIT] button.
If you want, you can continue adding waves. Repeat steps 3–8.
(If necessary) You can re-edit the entire Voice. For details, refer to the section “Re-
Editing a Custom Voice” below.

Hi Jose,
Though it's possible with Tyros 2 & 3 to edit & create your own drum kit, it could only be done with the help of a PC computer and PC voice-editor software. With Tyros 4, you can now do this all on the keyboard itself.
In addition to Al's above well detailed instructions for creating a drum kit from scratch, here's how you can edit/remix an 'existing' drumkit via the T4 mixing console.

Mixing Console button > Mixing Console (Style Part) > Vol/Voice Tab

1. Press C button to highlight voice selection section.
2. Press upper toggle of buttons #1 or #2 below LCD screen to open up Voice (Revoice) Window for Rhythm 1 & 2 respectively.
3. Pres upper toogle of button #5 to access "drum kit" mapping & editor

Tyros 4 only reads UVN samples and supports importing & converting WAV to UVN format, but with Extreme Sample Converter 3.60, along with the Yamaha Tyros 3 file converter (converts TVN format to UVN), you will be able to convert most all of the popular sample formats (Akai, etc) to UVN format for playback on Tyros 4.

Hey Scott and Jose - Glad to be among the T4 crowd! I studied it for quite a while before taking the plunge. There are so many videos out there and once you get past the frills of the vocal sounds (which are indeed amazing too), there is so much more to be excited about. I know how things sounded on the T2...and all I can say is they sound "MO MO Betta" on the T4. Took a bit of a loss on my T2 but I am elated that I made the upgrade. To date, I have not had the time I would have liked to thoroughly familiarize myself w/all the new features, but that's mostly because every time I turn it on and start playing it... time flies and it's midnight! The board is a wonderful instrument for sure. I have really not regretted a single dime I've invested in all the keyboards and upgrades I've made along the way. Heh heh - But that's cause my brother collects motorcycles...so, hey, I feel great! Oh, and I don't need no helmet to play the thing! HA HA! But seriously, the T4 has inspired me to play more and more keyboard - something that I also enjoy tremendously. It was a great purchase! Thanks Frank!

Randy,
What types of music do you play most?
Do you do any orchestral stuff? Singing?
Do you like a lot of what Telmo has done with the T3/T4?

Hi Lee - Telmo's the man! Love his work! He makes it look sooo easy! I'm a former music educator though I majored on sax. Spent 5+ years in the Air Force band program and then moved on to computer programming. So these days I play sax mostly (wedding gigs as a soloist and working in a restaurant a time or two a month). When I get booked for an inside reception I usually take my keyboard along to add some variety. I also use the Tyros for building backing tracks when I'm not "just enjoying playing it". Most of the music I play is light jazz/cocktail music which you can check out on my web site if you would like a listen. Here's a version of "Imagine" that I did using the T2 and my tenor sax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TtpUDx0qPI

Bottom line - as a person who loves all kinds of music, I have found that all arrangers provide a wonderful option for creating music when you are not working w/a band.

PS - the very impressive stuff Telmo has posted helped seal my decision to go ahead and get myself a T4.....

Randy,
Now that's a superb performance! You are really a great PRO musician!
Just no way an arranger will ever sound like the real SAX...at that level anyways.

Thanks so much Lee! I really do love music and though I'm mostly a horn player, I love playing the arranger too. Glad you liked my "tribute" to the master, Mr. Lennon. When I get some time to clear out the packing stuff I'll put together a little video of the T4. I also agree with you that the sax is such an expressive instrument that there will always be a challenge associated w/getting the emotion working w/the sampled sounds. Thanks for checking out my song and for the kind words! Have a great week!

Brilliant

Col

I,ve sold my t4 for the new korg pax3 muzikant,i have also the Audya,
Audya is much more live on stage with huge pressure on drums and sounds,also the styles gives you an live experience.
The t4 has no pressure at al,and the eq is not deep enough,bassamples are not deep,Audya is much deeper,basedrums gives you much more pressure than the T4.
Recordings with both instruments,difference is hughes,Audya is live on cd and t4 is and still stays an home keyboard.
My opion,Yamaha go for an other direction,the tyros series are at the end of there latin.Much to expensive for what it gives.
Audyaplayer.

Hi audyaplayer
I concur that Audya live sound, specially styles is amazing, but feel that the right hand sounds are very weak, destroying the illusion after all.
I remember a few years ago that I put several drum samples in my tyros2. Despite the almost an hour for loading them, the sound changed dramatically. And I also do my own styles, specially Latin ones. By the way, the Audya Latin styles are excellent but too dated.
So, I think I'll go with Tyros4 and a flash ram card. I already heard the Alto sax premium voice which I think is above anything other keyboard. I also do a lot of smooth, modern jazz (spyrogyra, ewf, sanborn, etc) and this sax sound is very close to the real deal. Put a good style with enough groove for 16 bars and voila! The Audya killer! Hehehe. Nah, just kidding
Thanks for your comments!
Best regards
Jose Pereira

Hey Jose,
Ít's only my feeling between these boards,i like the Audya and you go for the t4,btw i also plays sax as full pro musician,t4 nah,not even close.
But this is my opion.
have a nice day and keep on playing.
Audyaplayer.

Ooh I almost forgot!
STABILITY. I had the Audya4 for 5 days and a the third day, it hangs with a very loud sound. Had to turn of. The nex days it worked ok
In 5 years using my Tyros2, NEVER failed. I think it says a lot...
I have to say that I owned a PA2X too. I liked the synth-workstation part of it, but as an arranger, sorry, not for me. The PA3X now have autofill and 4 fills which is closer to Yamaha and Ketron, but the overall sound I heard thru videos and mp3's seems so PA2X: too synthetic for my taste (for other music not synth based)
Well, it's just my opinion.
Thanks again!
Jose

Audyaplayer
I'm a professional Jazz pianist, in the end, I HATE ARRANGERS! I'm the pianist, arranger and director of a 10 members Latin band (3 trombones) I know that neither keyboards or vst can replace a live band experience, it's just to "confuse" our brain that when the job is only for a omb or duo, you are behind a "good band" only that. I think the Audya is a great "player" with an attitude problem. I see Yamaha as a good player, with an easy caracter. Nothing special but you can count on it
Jo

Hi Joe,

I love your choice of music. Spyro Gyro is one of my all time favorite bands; just pure genius. Great synergy of smooth jazz and latin roots.

Where do you get your material/sheet music from for smooth jazz titles? There's not much out there or maybe i'm not looking in the right place.

Hi Al
I transcribed myself over the years, absorv the style, then I play a lot of standars and latin in a smooth jazz "fashion" if you know what I mean. Altough I love to share a lot of music, since I move to Portugal I left a lot of paper behind (almost a houndred kilos of paper from the last 30 years! Man I write a lot of music... transcribing and arranging for salsa and merengue bands and for my own) To much to carry here. Where they are? I don´t know really...
Emigrate isn´t a good thing.
Best Regards
Jo

Each one of us needs/wants something specific.....Me, I don't want in your face drums all the time...I wand very realistic instruments. for accomp and melody lines.

I don't play for dancers, or anyone else...I play for myself & Family/Friends. I play the quality music with feeling...standards/show tunes/musical theatrer/50's-60's and many intrumental renditions.

I am not a PRO gigging musician, I am a computer IT consultant/programmer.

My inspiration comes from playing a beautiful songs I like... with an instrument that has superb voicing.

I play mostly slower music where you can actually HEAR the sounds, and they can not have problems in timbre/vibrato etc.
Mu PA2 had LOTS of tech. issues with the sounds mostly bad samples...& sloppy programming...I won't go there again.

From what I heard the T-4 sounds richer, more fuller than previous T's

For me, drum patches are near the bottom of the list when considering an arranger. Nice to have cool drums, but #1 is Sounds #2 Styles, and Support #3 Sounds like a Yamaha T-4 to me


Side bar: audyaplayer (or anyone) What is the difference, if any, with the Korg pax3 Muzikant, and the PAX3 Pro?
sorry for the slight hijack