I've been getting to know the board over the last few weeks, but my performance schedule has been a hindrance, to say the least.

A bit of background:

I'm transitioning from a Tyros 2 to the 970.

I work with registrations. (I pick a tune , let's say "It had to be you." I find a suitable style, determine my two different instruments, key, tempo, multi-pads (if any) and save the registration as "It had to be you." I save all of the songs/registrations I create to folders which helpl keep things organised. My folders are typically STANDARDS, ROCK, COUNTRY, OLDIES, POP, GOSPEL, CHRISTMAS, PATRIOTIC, ETC...)

So far, I have my folders set up on the 970. I've created roughly 120 registrations/songs and saved them to their various folders.

Finally had some time to play around with the vocal and harmony feature and am really impressed with the improvements Yamaha made since the 3000. I look forward to using the on board speakers and skipping the PA system for my smaller venues.

I understand that if I want the registrations I use to ALSO contain the pedal settings, I can do that OR, I can choose to NOT have the pedal settings be a part of any registration, and simply save the harmony settings as a global thing that will exist seperate from my registrations.

When I'm done creating "new regs" , I'll have roughly 900 - 1000 regs in the 970. I'd really appreciate some advice before I add too many more regs to the new board. Depending on the answers to my 1st question below, I may have to go back and edit each of the new regs I've already created.

Question 1: What would the best way to proceed be with regard to the harmony settings? Saving a specific harmony setting for EACH registration OR Not saving that info to ANY registration, and working with the harmony/vocal functions independent from the regs?

I can tell already, I'll probably use a handful of different harmony options through my repertouire...

Question 2: I have a sustain pedal plugged into FOOT PEDAL #1... Can someone walk me through the exact steps to set up a pedal to turn on/off the harmonies for the FOOTPEDAL #2 INPUT?

Thank you in advance for your advice/expertise/assistence!

Bill

Question number 2: Plug in the pedal. Hold Direct Access Button and press the pedal. You will see a menu to scroll through to select the function you want.
Question number 1: I used the same harmony setting on everything, and if I ever wanted to change it, did so on the fly.

Basically the same as your Tyros?

Never used either on the Tyros...

Not working for me on the Question 2.

I followed the instructions, and I scrolled down to the vocal harmony setting. I then pressed EXIT which I hope saved the command.

If I then play the kb 'live" no accompianment, the pedal toggles the harmony off and on, but once I fire up the ACC or load a registration, it does not toggle any more.

Thoughts?

Bill you have to set and Save EACH VH setting to EACH Registration song,...then don't forget to Save it all to the the "folder too".

My problem with using the mic thru the S970 is maintaining the EFX settings when switching registrations.....the Yamaha lock system needs to be revamped big time.

Hey Donny,

That's interesting... I thought I read somewhere that there were two prefferred ways to handle managing vocal harmonies.

1) Save each VH setting to EACH registration I use, which would be several hundred regs.

or

2) Deselect the vocal harmony setting in the list of "what's saved" as part of a registration. Then, set up a global vocal setting that would be controlled independently from ANY registration.

I'd go with #1 Bill..........this all needed to be done when your initially setting up each registration so you don't have to go back and do it all over again...yes it takes time but once your homework is done its finished..

BTW what vocal efx settings for singing are you happy with on the S970...type/levels/etc, etc..and r u using the live control knobs also to adjust voc/VH?..

Ok, thanks...

It won't take that long to go back and add in the VH settings for the songs that I use harmonies on. Any new regs I make I'll add it in from the start. Soon, it'll be second nature to me I bet.

re: vocal effects, I have boosted the EQ very slightly on the high end and other than that, left every thing alone. I'm still aways away from taking this out on a gig and once I do, I'm sure it'll sound different than it does here in my office.

As far as the harmony types... I'll probably find a duo, a three part and maybe 1-2 others and run with those.

Q: Have you made changes for your vocal EQ? Our voices are similar and would be interested in knowing what your EQ is set at. Also, do you reccommend any particular harmony presets?

Thanks Donny...

Bill, back when I was using the onboard harmonizer, I only used a single harmony style, so there was no need to save harmonies in the registrations. Same goes for other mic settings, I used the same reverb, EQs, etc... all the time. As for pedal settings, I used one on the left pedal for the vocal harmony on/off and one for the right hand voice, which was triggered with right pedal.

Now, all of this was saved to a setup registration, which I accessed as soon as I turned on the keyboard. The next step was to lock this information in place, which I do using the Parameter Lock feature and placing a check mark in the Mic Settings box.

On all my registrations, which I have several hundred, I no longer check the Pedal or VH/mic boxes, therefore, changing to another registration has no effect on either parameter. It's very easy doing it this way.

The Vocal Harmony style I used was the Quartet On Stage, which seemed to work well for my bullfrog deep voice. This is something you will have to customize for your vocal level.

Now, when you use the parameter lock feature, that automatically resets to factory default vocal effects when you turn off the keyboard, so you will have to save the information to a registration, name it setup, or anything else you prefer, then before turning off the keyboard, press funtion/settings/parameter lock and uncheck that box for the VH/Mic settings. When you fire up the keyboard again, merely select the setup registration, press the registration button, and all those settings will be instantly selected, the place a check mark in that Parameter lock box for the VH/Mic and you're ready to go for the rest of the time until you have to shut down. That big change that Donny was referring to is a minor software change that Yamaha will soon be addressing, at least that's what I've been told. It's really not a big deal, at least for me.

Hope this helps,

Gary

Bill I never use the kb for vocals anymore just not happy with the sound... Or VH also.

Donny, maybe it's just your particular settings. Here's a song that I just recorded using nothing but the keyboard.

Promises

Gary

Let me first say I'm pretty sure the 970 vocal settings aren't even close to being optimized.

On the other hand, even allowing for some adjustments, the 970 harmonies are light years from what I hear every day using my TC Helicon Voice Live Rack unit. Which they of course, should, right?

Not really a fair comparison...

What I'm hoping for is that for my smaller venues (Assisted Livings where I'm in a medium to small living room or parlor for 20-25 people) I'll come up with a handful of tunes that sound ok. If I don't, I may simply avoid those tunes where harmonies are a must and sidestep the issue entirely.

Bill

It wouldn't be so bad if you can just set up the mic fx and never have to touch it but that's not the case with Yamaha kbs .....

Donny, it's a single, registration button push - what's so hard about that?

Gary: Doesn't your method limit us to using one vocal harmony? What if we wanted a bank of 4-6 let's say?

Gary I know but it seems to be a hassle every time to remember the check the box unchecked the box on top of that you have to find a microphone effects setting that doesn't sound like you're in some kind of tunnel

Bill, you could set an entire bank of mic effects if you wished, that would provide you with up to eight vocal effects and harmony types to select from anytime you wish. However, in order to do this, it would mean going back through all your registrations and removing the mic settings, then resaving them. This would allow you to not worry with the Parameter Lock and leave it unchecked all the time. Of course, you would still have to select one of the 8 registrations right after firing up the keyboard in order to recall the vocal and pedal settings.

Donny, I've been doing this for so long that it's an automatic thing, same as turning on the keyboard or amp - no big deal. And, the selection of effects is almost endless. You can set it any way you wish, from nearly flat to tons of reverb - it's up to you, then once saved, it's instantly recalled with the touch of a single button, no different that selecting any other feature or registration.

All the best,

Gary

I'll work on it this week just for fun... Thanx

WHY!!!! Doesn't Yamaha simply offer a power on setup like all the other arranger companies? Or at least locks that work...

Yea right Don.. Grrrrrrrr

OK, three hours later and I still don't seem to have the process figured out. I saved all the harmony settings to my registration for a song hours ago... I turned off the kb and turned it back on to see if it would work, which it did at the time.

Now, after a few more hours of work, I pulled up that same tune from hours ago and now the harmonies don't work. I had to hit the DIRECT ACCESS button, scroll down to pedal harmony, hit EXIT. Then it worked.

I have no earthly clue if any of the harmony info I saved to the songs I've worked on today will work when I pull them up tomorrow.

This is nonsense and is bringing back some not too good memories of the last time I tried to set this stuff up with a psr-3000.

I feel like I've wasted several hours and I don't have time to blow like this. The kb is great, but the vocals sound like I'm either in a big concrete tunnel or singing through a pillow.

UGh!

Bill I understand that's why I use an external vocal processor instead of singing through the keyboard at all..

I appreciate you and everyone's help on this today...

It'll be fine. I'll keep working up new regs and probably take it out sometime this week on a few gigs. The number of gigs I wanted to sing through the on board speakers is only a few each month, but they add up, you know?

Of the 42 gigs I have scheduled in February, 5 are those "small type gigs" I described earlier today. I have 11 such gigs in March. Let's take an average of 8 gigs a month where I could leave the PA behind and just use the 970. That translates to almost a hundred gigs over the course of a year or 20% of my 2016 schedule.

My regular set-up isn't too rough to work with at all. But, if I can have a handful lof gigs a month where I do a little less work, require a little less time but still sound great, well... why wouldn't I be interested in that?

Sorry, don't mean to be cranky... I'm as frustrated with myself as I am anything else.

Have a good night, Donny!

Good luck Bill keep us posted..

Bill, I'll give you a call tomorrow morning about 11:00 a.m. and try to walk you through the process over the telephone. If there is a more convenient time, let me know, I'm semi retired and right on schedule. I planned on doing nothing tomorrow, and so far, I'm right on schedule.

Good luck,

Gary

That is awfully nice of you, Gary!

My number hasn't changed...

I took a few hours yesterday with some down time to investigate my S970 fuhrer and dig into the OS a bit to try and satisfy myself with an alternative Mic/Voc processor/VH2/ Live Knobs setup that I was happy with and possibly use it if I had to on a very small gig vs my current setup though my Mixer. YOU really have to dig in and set up your gain at Pre maximum distortion and really tweak the heck out of the setting types and levels to get a decent FX on your voice. I found that the standard trio & country VH types work pretty good. NO where as good as TC Helicon/Digitec units but surprisingly better then previous Yamaha VH processors that I had in the past...its possible they worked on this and improved Vh2 a bit in the S970 as tracking is a bit better and now usable also. I set the Live Knobs at #1- Audio level....#2- Mic/VH level for now which gives my full real time control over the volume of each independently every little bit of navigational independence helps with each model released..