Here's a quick sound demo of a string patch I created on my PSR-S700. It's a combination of two sounds, and the violin used sounds NOTHING like the preset. I had to really dig into the voice creator to make this patch. There's nothing in the S-700's preset list like this sound (so I had to create it myself).

There's a bum note towards the end, but hey it is what it is and I didn't feel like rerecording it again

https://soundcloud.com/d-provost/s-700-custom-strings-patch

Nice, squeak.

Try this, as well (if Yamaha's can do this)... set up the large string layer to be less velocity sensitive, and the violin layer to be more so. This will make the violin section of the strings to 'pop' a bit more as you play harder, giving you more timbral variety as well as volume.

Strangely, the inverse set up can also give you playable results. Play soft, you mostly hear the small ensemble, play harder and the rest of the ensemble starts to dominate.

This is the secret of good string parts... Not only should there be a volume difference as the dynamics change, but the timbre of the patch should change too. That's what REAL string sections do.

Merry Christmas.

Common those are basic things in sound design, surely Yamaha must support them.. right?

Diki.., we're always on the same page man! Yes you can set the velocity depth and offset for each part. I actually made some minor tweaks to those settings, but I probably could pull the sensitivity on the base string patch down a tad more. It is however already set up for the solo violin to stand out with increased velocity. If you listen closely you'll hear the solo violin jump out a bit.

Those darn PSR's keys (in terms of expressiveness/playability) however are another story ;-)

Almost forgot Diki.., I also have another version of this patch set up with a SPLIT rather than DUAL. It has its uses, but unfortunately I only have 10 fingers and and still haven't mastered playing with my feet yet (lol). The dual version helps with that issue

Bachus, Yamaha does allow you to set those parameters (and set them individually). However.., this has to be saved and recalled as a "performance". You cannot simply go into the voice creator and create a patch with two elements and save that to a user patch location.

All this has to be done via the DUAL mode. No real biggie though because you can still record all of this in one shot into the sequencer.

Sounds fantastic Squeak! Great job of putting this together.

Keep em coming,

Gary

Thanks Gary, glad you liked it. The S series might be a bit limited with patch editing, but I'm still amazed at some of the sounds I have been able to create with it. Now if only Yamaha would give the option to sync the LFO to the midi clock (for both user patches and the effects). Here's to hoping :-)

Nice work Squeakster! Merry Christmas!

Very nice squeak ... thank you ...