John,

In many ways, my setup is similar to Ed's. I use the laptop primarily for lyrics. The files are stored in a single folder and stored by song title. Therefore, by merely pressing the first letter of the title, the PC takes me to the first song in that letter.

Now, Ed using registrations to access his song settings, where I mainly use the Music Finder Directory. However, I also use about 300 registrations - depending upon the song.

In order to use registrations and have everything on a single, scrollable page, you will have to use an entire bank of registrations for a single song. In doing this, it allows you a great amount of versatility with each song selected, thus allowing you to select a host of parameter changes on the fly at the push of a single button.

Using the Music Finder Directory limits you to some degree, but not as much as some folks would like you to believe. With my setup, I indicate the key that I sing the song in within the song title on the MFD in parenthesis. The beauty of the MFD, of course, is that all the song titles are on a single page and selection is instantaneous with the push of a single button. This provides you with a seamless performance with less than a second of dead time between songs if you wish. The downsides, if any, is that you cannot store the transpose. Therefore, for those that only play in the key of "C" but sing in another key, you will have to use the transpose button, which is quick and easy. Additionally, you will have to use the OTS settings, which I frequently find are very, very good selections for the associated variations. Now, if you do not want to use those OTS settings, you can merely turn on the OTS link and select any voice you wish. I have a half dozen or more of them in my custom voice page, which I can quickly select from.

Now, I don't read music, therefore, for the songs that I need to know the chord changes, I have the guitar tabs over the words of the songs in my lyrics pages. Usually, once I have performed a song a few times, I no longer have to look at the lyrics again, but then there are those times when the brain farts occur and I cannot remember the first word of the song I have performed hundreds of times - that's when I have to use the PC.

Here's a link to how I use the MFD. Please excuse the mistakes as I was trying to explain what was doing and not concentrating on playing at the time.



Hope this helps, but if you need more help, email me your phone number and I will be more than happy to call you at your convenience.

Gary

Gary uses the MFD VERY effectively....and while I find his system of saving one song to one of the eight registration buttons to be confusing....he has it nailed. And his Console...as seen in his post above, is genius.

I prefer using an entire registration bank per song giving me the ability to save transposes, go to different voices, activate harmonizer, even change styles within a song, link MP3 and MIDI files to individual song registrations....etc.

John's multiple systems for the multiple keyboards he has or had all work for him. And he is always looking for alternate systems from which he could benefit. In my visits to his home he has shed light on the concepts he uses for different boards...but I have not worked with some of those concepts long enough to feel comfortable with them. He uses Encore...which doesn't apply to me. But he put me onto OnSong and OnSong console, which I have come to use a lot for lyrics. I love his PA 4x....and bet I could learn to us it given a little time. He even offered to let me take it home to learn more about it. What a guy....but I couldn't do that for the same reason I would never borrow his car.

I admire Steve's, DonM's and Donny's abilities to move seamlessly from one KB to another. But it has taken me years just to get where I am with Yamaha.

Ed

Ed you wanted my car too?

John C.

When I had to 'convert' from technics to KORG I found the OS difference daunting the first week ... with the help of people on this forum, especially Donny (Dnj), within a couple of weeks I was doing ok with it ... then I started applying the 'logic' from one OS to the other, and everything fell into place ...
I have never owned a Yamaha, but I would THINK that using the same approach I would be able to get a handle on it before too long ...
No, I am not thinking GENOS ...

I will say that my 'business world' experience working with different computer OS over the course of 40 years MIGHT give me a slight edge ...

Tony, I am confident that you could easily learn the Yamaha OS in no time at all, especially with your computer background.

Now, if I sell the sailboat before I'm dead, then Frankie will be getting a phone call. Everything I have heard on You Tube has been fantastic sounding, IMO.

All the best,

Gary

Tony you did well Grasshopper ......enjoy KORG it's an amazing instrument.