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!!!