Yamaha using Registrations vs OTS ?..
On all my Yamaha arrangers I have always used one registration per song with 4 OTS sounds,.....
lately I have been watching some demos on Genos etc, that many players choose to use many registrations buttons for all the parts, and sounds throughout the song changing as they go along. In the past I would always think it was a weird way of doing it with so many reg buttons but after watching these demos I can see the power of using it that way via 8 buttons or less per song seamlessly. That said I would surly consider changing my train of thought setting up a Yamaha arranger if there is a next time to using the Registration method.
May I ask which Method you Yamaha players choose to do this and why?

Ps, I am still on the fence to get a Genos as I saved it for last we'll see soon, it is definitely an amazing arranger KB instrument.

This is an excellent question which I would love to hear input on as well!
In the past,I used the gig disk system, but am slowly warming up to using a registration system.
Right now, my main gig is playing 4 songs every Sunday for worship, so I don’t require anything spectacular . . .
That being said, I have not given up the idea of going solo again for senior gigs, as we have no shortage of places to play here in Florida!
This would require me to decide on a method that works best for seamless sound and timing . . .

My general rule of thumb is I use registrations 1 thru 4 ( on PSR series) that pretty much corresponds to Variation A B C D. 1=A. B=2 etc. On certain style/era of music I generally use my favorite bread and butter sounds. I’ll sometimes use 5 and 6 for just changing to my favorite voices. No exact science but that seems to work for me and the type gigs I play.

A different view. There may be other methods to work with OTS, this is what I used.

The first thing I do when I select a song is to turn off the OTS. Most of my playing in the past was with Technics – I wanted my own instrument and settings. One of the reasons for buying a Korg Pa800 was that I could create my own OTS for a style.

1-One song and 8 registrations that I thought fit the song. Different things happen when a band and vocalist play. Volumes, selected instruments and their volumes and which instruments are playing. I have listened to a song being played with a full everything in the style; when the vocalist came in the setting did not change. A piano does not need a full sound, but a sax section may. = the emotion of the song.

In some ways the Sx900 has adapted some of the Technics ideas; eight regs (I think it’s eight), when loading a song. Nice. Can’t wait until I get my SX.

There is more about Regs and OTS, but not now.
John C.

PS, Gary has me going again
in the area of what THE KEYBOARD CAN DO. Thank You Gary!

Hi
slowly starting to set my sx up. Very slowly, haha. Still distracted by my style library at the moment.

Definitely going to be doing one song per registration bank.
Whether I need all 8 for one song, don’t know, but even if I just start with a couple, I can add more along the way. Extra voices, whatever.

On the other had if I had 8 registrations , ( one bank) for 8 songs, no room for change.

Stephen, that Songbook + you mentioned, I think is going to work out perfectly with the SX. I’ve put in a few of my PDF sheets and managed to link a couple of them to the corresponding registrations.
Great having the sheet music on the iPad, tap the song you want, and up pops the correct registration bank for the song on the sx.

Think it works vice versa too? Haven’t tried that.

Have a lot of work ahead of me as I’ve never really bothered with music on the iPad , or registrations, but at least I can set it up as I want.

Every style setup and all perimeters when I use Yamaha registrations is customized
with all my EQ, Tweaks, My OTS sounds, etc, ..then renamed and saved...
I always used ONE Reg per song.But I can see how using 6 or 8 per song
can be a powerful tool playing live also..I will dabble with that method soon also.

Donny, nice post. Now I would like to see you take your idea, and my idea and come up with a third idea, bringing both of us up a few notches.

Nobody has it all, especially me, John C.

I have always use the Registrations, is the most powerful and efficient way to get the most of the keyboard, you can "contour" them by using in one simple change of registration to trigger a fill/break, sync a Multipad either midi or audio link, change text, key, octave, parameters, effects, Voices, Style or style variation, tempo....etc.....

For either live performance in a gig, or for doing a Demonstration, the Best way to use the keyboard, of course, each one has their way on doing it.

I would not play an arranger any other way. Perhaps is because I came from the "Organ" school....remember all those tabs in the Theatre pipe organs?, but, you will see also those buttons between the keyboards, those are the "Registration" buttons equivalent, you could "program those" so instead of trying to make a 10-20-30 or more changes on real time, that for the amount of tabs would be literally impossible, with those "presets" you can, is the same on the keyboards now.

My 2 cents

Manuel

Hi Manuel,
I had no idea how versatile the registrations were. It’s been an eye opener for me, just how good the sx900 is.

For me , the last 10 years has been all about Korg never got round to really using S950 or if I did play it , I just used piano voice.

Registrations appear to be a very powerful function. Thank you also for the help on psr forum, the help with audio and USB was really appreciated.

I am with you Rikki, I do know how powerful the registration function is, just have not had too much use for it as of late, and I really need to start digging in again . . I am also in the same boat as you as far as learning to use my iPad along with my 970! Again, some very powerful stuff at our fingertips, just trying to find time to learn it all has been a bit of a struggle for me lately!
I will get there, but as usual, my commitments are taking precedence for the time being!
Jumping from the PSR 910 to the 970 was a big jump, and now adding in more technology, its very exciting stuff! I could literally spend ALL DAY with it!

Play on!!!

Thanx John...what I always did was think of the arranger as my band of which in pre arranger days in the 60s,70's, 80,s I played keyboard in for many many years, clubs, on tour, cruise ships, private affairs etc,...most times with 6 pieces including a lead vocalist. So when I started to go solo and get my OMB act together I wanted a way to keep the sound of the 6pc band but do it alone as I saw what was happening in the music business as computers evolved, DJ's started to appear everywhere, etc,...that said most times my OTS sounds
are including 2 sounds per OTS to switch to giving me a total of 8.. in this family order structure depending on song....
1- Pianos/EPianos, Accordion, 2- Growl Sax/Tenor,Trumpet, Guitars,
3-Organs/Strings/Miller saxes sound ensemble, 4-Brass.
I might add others depending on song but the family of sounds is basically always the same throughout the song progression,
as it was in the band I played in.
This is my BASE foundation set of OTS sounds for almost any song using ONE Reg per song. now that can be doubled easily by using the Multi registration button method only thing that prevents me from doing it that way is always having to remember too much info on what all those reg buts have setup inside them on the fly...where as my way described I can just remember my band members next to me that pretty much stay the same as in a real band.....not saying the other way is wrong and i will certainly try it for sure to see if it works for me better or not to achieve the same outcome when playing a song.
I remain curious...

Additional information on Registrations

Most of the time I use in the Genos the first 5 registrations for one song, and the other 5 for a different song.
BUT, sometimes, in certain songs that I want to be more complex, I use all 10 for one song, or use all 8 on the PSR SX900, remember that we have an unlimited number of registration banks...so, in this case, is a little more polished arrangement, sometimes, a local colleague figure that I was using a midi file, and I was not....

I will upload a registration bank in the other forum.

Manuel

I use one Registration Bank per song. BUT, I start with a Registration that has 2/4 Country on Reg. 2, A Waltz on 3, a slow 4/4 on 4, a Jazz shuffle on 5, a 6/8 Slow Rock on 6, a Latin on 7 and a Rock n Roll on 8. In addition I put my most used sounds on each. In other words, two is a Pedal Steel, 3 in a Fiddle, 4 is a Piano, 5 is a Jazz Guitar, 6 is a Sax, 7 is a Harmonica, 8 is a Strat guitar.
THEN, I set the Freeze function so that when it is on, the only thing that changes when I push a Reg button is the Sound. Not the style, not anything but the sound.
So, say I have the setup for Mustang Sally on one. It is set to pull up whatever sound I like, like Organ, plus the appropriate style for that song. Then I hit the Freeze button, and have the eight sounds to use on the song.
I use the same seven extra sounds on every Registration. In addition to having Mustang Sally ready, with which I can use any of those (or any of the OTS associated with each of the other pads) but I can end Mustang, take the Freeze off, press number 6 for example and be playing a Slow Rock ballad in one second or less.
I save all the Registrations with Syncro Start on.
In conclusion, for each of my songs, one to a Registration, I have eight sounds, each with their own set of OTS, at my disposal, PLUS the seven other go-to song setups.
By saving one main song to its own Registration Bank, the Banks are automatically saved in Alphabetical order, by song title, or whatever you want to name them.
You can press both Reg Select buttons at the same time to see your list of Banks (songs).
Find the song you want, select it, press button one with the Freeze Off, then put the Freeze on and play the song, using all the other buttons to change sounds. The process quickly becomes automatic.
That's just the I do it, and thought it might help someone. Even Donny. HEE HEE!

Don an interesting way to use reg....
I don't really need help but rather want to explore other options available to me... Thanks for the explanation..

It is exciting all the new stuff. Gather you must still be working, there were never enough hours in the day.
Me, I spend way too much time time on my technology, lucky for me hubby has become a PlayStation addict, so he doesn’t notice. Haha

Thank you Manuel.
The mp3 sounds brilliant.
Going to try registrations shortly.

The usage of the keyboard and Registrations is going to be a little different for people that sing like our friends DonM, Donny, etc....

And for the few of us that are only instrumental music, we most likely are to use more sounds for the verses, chorus, verse, etc....since those are our "lead" voices....is also a way to maintain interesting the song,
it gives some dynamics to the song, among other ways like changing style variations, modulation of keys, etc.

This is a common thing to do as an organist....and I just translated it to the keyboard, only that now the keyboards allow us to sort of becoming sort of a musical genre "chameleon".....

If playing a Bing band song, you can assign a solo instrument to play the verse (Clarinet as an example), a woodwind or brass ensamble for chorus, a piano to get back to the Verse, or trombone, etc....

When Manuel speaks, LISTEN to him. He is THE Yamaha man!

I think both of you have shared a wealth of knowledge. Thank you both.

Bernie

I uploaded some registrations (the other forum)....

One for the SX900 (That one is in my first opening subjet) along with a MP3 that I recorded with that registration for that song....

And, if you scroll down go to the bottom of the page, you will find my Genos "generic" registrations and some explanation.

I hope that helps...

Manuel

Manuel

I had my first encounter with a Sx900 in Guitar Center, played about an hour. I tried the playlist.
I understand Music Finder and Song Book. There is a list of song with a style, and Instruments; and I know I can create my own songs and save them in the list.

When I pushed Playlist on the Sx900 I only found a few demos.

My questions:
1- Does the Sx900 come with an empty playlist?
2- Do I have to download a completed Playlist from Yamaha?

And so the fun begins, John C.

PS, I would love to have a post which deals with Sx900 questions and answers--- AND no other stuff. Opinion?

Yamaha SX900


Hope these links helps John enjoy

John I downloaded three playlists from Yamaha and they are installed.

I viewed the video, and I understand. My question is almost answered by the video.

A Play List must be downloaded from a memory device. Does that mean that a Sx900, out-of-a-box, does not have a list of songs in the Play List until I download or create one????

You’re always there to help, thanks, John C.

God Don, you’re precious. ha ha ha ha ha

Take care good friend, John C.

Yes they don't put anything in at as shipped. Your will have three in it. Some of the songs are in places you wouldn't expect, so go through each one.

John I would suggest starting from scratch and create your own registration of songs the way YOU want them to sound with your own OTS and use the factory playlists just as a reference or to get idea inspiration, or sound combinations, fx, etc, or draw some of their sounds combinations to use with YOUR songs.....
after that load all YOUR registrations into
YOUR playlist for use when playing live.

The factory lists are useful for starting points and ideas mostly.

This has been a very informative post. It’s really the first time I’ve dabbled with registrations to any serious degree. Thanks to all for sharing your setups.

John...The playlists are available at the Yamaha website. They have one specifically created for the SX900. You have to download the zip file and extract the files to a usb drive. You can then load them into the SX900. Sorry if I sound ignorant...but I’m still learning this keyboard myself. If anyone has other ideas to simplify the playlist loading...Please share.

I didn’t download the Genos playlist for fear of compatibility issues. If there is no problem in doing so please share. If the playlists are the same...probably not necessary to download.
Thanks,
Mitch

Agree DonM. 👍
The downloadable PlaylistForGenos has something within every stylecategory,
and when create 1 new list of everything and save to usergroup, it contains 54 pages, total 539 entries.
Also there is an 'example' list to demostrate the potential in the preset from factory.

Myself, I'm too lazy and have no pressure since I'm only playing at home, so after two years,
I've only 'scratched the top of the iceberg'. 😁

They are already on John's SX900.

John...I should have guessed you got the SX from Don and he got it all setup for you. Congratulations!

Don...are there other playlists available other than the SX900 I downloaded?
Thanks,
Mitch

Congrats John and welcome aboard the Good Ship DX900! Think will enjoy the voyage!

Donny, that is how it will end up. Until then I’ll just keep learning and asking.

Thanks, John C.

Mitch, thank you for your impute. I will go through the play list Don has put in and work from there. BUT I will limit anything that has country flavor. aaah, I feel good when I give Don a nudge. (smile)

I learned a long time ago that you can say anything to another person if it is said in love. If I know you love me, then do it, I love it.

Wow, I’m preaching again, and this a Sz900 topic. OUCH!
John C.

Randy, thank you.
If I come this way again it will be as a sax player. Why? Because the sax and the violin are tops when it comes to putting your feeling into the instrument.

John C.

Thank you John! You know when my Mom said I was going to play the sax I told her I didn't want to. I am sooooo elated that my Mom knew better than me. You are exactly right - instruments like the sax (and violin) are such wonderful vehicles for conveying expression and personality.. they are among the few instruments that allow the player to develop their own individual sounds. Have fun with the SX! Love mine!

Think that would be a great idea. Wonder if it would work better on the Yamaha section of Synthzone, ? only problem could be trying to remember to check it.

Congratulations John.
The fun begins

And to expand the horizon, it's a dedicated forum for the new SX models at PSR Tut:
https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/board,91.0.html

It don't have to be any competition, just a wider views of things.

Gunnar, thank you ---
I am open to your suggestion about the psrtutorial.

I would like to have the Sz900 topic here because of the many friends. It can become crazy at times, but at the end of the day it’s a great place to be.

John C.

Kind of like home. Haha

Yes John, I know, and understand it fully.
I'm mostly here at SZmyself, but there are many of the members here that also is on PSR forum.
The Yamaha part of SZ has always been mostly here at GenArr, sometimes this part of SZ looks more Yamaha'ish than the SZ Yamaha Forum. 😁😁😁