Henni

I have the vArranger and Dan is adding to it faster than I can keep up. He can answer the technical questions, but I see one thing regarding using the Audya alone for control.

When you first configure your master kb to control all of your parts and functions, you can use midi learn by going to the control parameter and moving a midi active slider or button. These can be assigned to a master kb or the laptop keyboard.

What I am saying is that the Audya, nor any other arranger has enough midi active buttons to use for control unless you use a touch screen, assign some to the laptop keyboard, or, use a Korg Nano to supplement your control sliders and buttons.

vArranger with Dan is the best investment I have made, but you need to be aware of the hardware requirements also. My old Axiom 61 does it all, but it is an additional piece of gear.

Bernie

Hi Henny,

1. I load i.e. Tyros 5 styles into vArranger. YES
2. I set up some midi & Sysex channels via USB to vArranger on my laptop.. No need to setup anything. Just set USB/MIDI in audya, and sends full keyboard on channel 1
3. I play my Audya normally using internal styles. YES
4. I can also play my Audya using Tyros 5 & other styles from vArranger on my my PC. YES
5. All my intros, fills, variations etc works direct from my Audya. YES and NO. There is not so much problems to assign the VARIATION , INTRO, FILL buttons to vArranger. But, If you assign the START button, it will also start the audya, and sends tons of messages to vArranger
6. I can add part of Audya styles to play along with vArranger. You can't play audya styles in vArranger, you can syncro vArranger, and audya styles playing together, but it seems that audya sync does not work with audio styles. only with midi styles
7. I either use voices from my PC soundcard or via USB cable direct from my Audya or mix & match to my liking,. YES
8. I can set up my registrations so that all I do is select a new registry. That will determine whether vArranger, the Aydya or both will play back. I can always mute all style channels on the Audya for that specific registry. vArranger registrations will only select everything to play styles of vArranger, not in Audya
9. There are no noticeable latency problems. NO
10. vArranger will reckognize & respond to all normal chords played on the Audya. YES
11. Can I select the vArranger specific style to be played direct from the Audya using registries? Not really. Maybe, if your style can be called from a program change message, you can create a VOICE in vArranger, with that number, and when you call this voice in varranger, it will call your style in Audya. I don't know...

Hi Dan & Bernie,

Thank you for your answers. Pity the Audya & VA cannot be synched - just think of the possibilities if they could...

So then, apart from selecting, starting & stopping the style from VA, all the rest could be controlled from the Audya. Can the Audya be the only source for the sounds without using a PC sound card? Thus, I would need ONLY the USB cable between the PC & Audya.

Regards,

Henni

apart from selecting, starting & stopping the style from VA, all the rest could be controlled from the Audya. Every Audya button can control vArranger, but be carreful because this will also select things on the Audya. So for example, if you press VARIATION B button, it will ask to vArranger to change variation B,but will also do it on the Audya. It's not a problem, but imagine for example the DISK button of the audya it can control vArranger, but will also go in the disk page of Audya. So not every button can be used

Can the Audya be the only source for the sounds without using a PC sound card? YES

Thus, I would need ONLY the USB cable between the PC & Audya. YES

Sounds like you need better filters in vArranger, to stop MIDI commands coming FROM the Audya getting looped back into the Audya...

And possibly some better MIDI implementation in the Audya to determine if a switch or slider sends on MIDI only, or whether it should control the Audya only, or both...

I don't often get much support here when I go off on one of my rants about how BAD most arranger's MIDI implementation is, and how much more the manufacturers could do to standardize the MIDI codes for most basic arranger operation, but here is a perfect example of why we NEED this kind of stuff. The minute you want to use your arranger with something else, anything else, you start bumping into this kind of thing.

Keep the pressure up on the manufacturers to NOT turn arrangers into standalone products that are very difficult to integrate into an entire MIDI system...

The problem is not filtering in vArranger or loopback.

It's simply that when you press a button on the arranger, it does what it has to do.

Ketron is better than other, because it sends a SYSEX every time you press a button.

So you can assign the PIANO button of the Audya to the PIANO button of vArranger, but when you press this button, it will select the piano section in vArranger, but also in the Audya.
It's not a problem.

But some buttons, like MENU or DISK, etc... it's better to not assign them, because you think you will control vArranger, but in fact you are removing some files in your Audya together

Is there a feature that disconnects the Audya from it's front panel? Local off, I think many WS's called it...

Strikes me that that, combined with a loop through filter on vArranger might solve the issue.

I have to confess, I'm also not really keen on sys-ex over regular MIDI CC's and MSB/LSB codes for arranger functions. Longer sys-ex strings can interrupt the timing clock functions, and make the MIDI stream a bit jittery...

Both Korg and Roland do most arranger operational codes with CC's and PC's. Yamaha use a combination of CC/PC's and sys-ex. It's this lack of any standardization that makes hooking one thing to another fraught with problems. We really need the major manufacturers to get together and standardize this stuff...

Local OFF doesn't disconnects any synth from it's panel.
It's only disconnects the notes played on the keyboard to the internal synth
Sending a short SYSEX when you press a key will not cause problems.
Sending 30 midi notes on the first downbeat of the style is more problematic

Trouble is, those 30 notes are no problem, it's the tons of CC's and sys-ex that try to get sent out BEFORE the notes get sent that's the issue.

One sys-ex, unless it's a complex string, yes, no problem. But nowadays, a ton of the style editing, offsets, things like that tend to get sent as sys-ex, and can add up to a ton of stuff if a lot of work on many Parts is being sent at each Division boundary.

Interesting thread, but I see no point trying to run Tyros 5 styles through software or any other sound module or keyboard brand.

I bought a Tyros 5 for its realistic voices and styles and an all in one arranger to create my music and take to my gigs. All my style tweaking and saves are done ahead of time, as well as necessary registrations and midi files.

Yamaha programmed even more realistic Mega voices and SA voices into the styles. A lot of the choir and vocal Mega voices were reworked with more complex velocity variations. New DSP effects were assigned to voices, especially many new guitar voices in both the acoustic and electric categories.

These complex voices and high quality DSP effects are what make the styles sound more natural and real. They will only sound good or the best on a Tyros 5. It is also well known that the Audio parts from the Audio Styles cannot be copied or converted to midi.

Marcus