Changing sounds , changing effects , is great, but not being able to alter just say a bass line, or a piano track, ie the midi part of a style , doesn’t work for me.
rikkisbears,
not sure what you mean with "being able to alter .. the midi part of a style".
Actually you CAN alter the midi part of a style. Let me explain, maybe it is just what you are looking for.
In the mixer, below the volume fader you have two buttons: one with the name of the track (i.e.: "BS" = bass), you use it to select the corresponding mixer strip, another one with a letter (A÷D) that tells you what pattern (within those preprogrammed within the style, for that part, is currently assigned to that part AND that Main section).
If you push that button, you cycle through all the patterns A->B->C->D ---> back to A and so on. While cycling through the patterns the style engine in
REAL TIME and SEAMLESSLY will play the selected pattern. Like a real player that improvises on the fly different riffs while the whole band still pushes hard the groove! You can change the pattern as often as you want: the style engine will keep changing the riff naturally and seamlessly as the continuous change was preprogrammed into the style.
Now think about it: for each of the 8 MAINS you have 8 parts (drum, percussion, bass, chord1, chord2, pad, phrase1, phrase2) whose pattern can be independently varied in any possible combination.
Just pressing a single button with the style running and seamlessly playing the result.
When you find something you like (you have 4^8 = 65536 possible combinations to try !!) you leave that variation as it is. Move to another variation (let's say MAIN2) and repeat the process. You can customise the midi part of all the 8 MAINS.
Additionally for
each section (Intro, Ending, Main, Fill, Break),
and for each part within a given section, you can customise any parameter, for example:
1) Part enable (= if the part should play or not)
2) Volume, pan, sends to var, chorus, reverb, dry level
3) The voice and/or any voice edit parameter (i.e.: filter cutoff, eq, octave shift, detune, ADSR, ....)
4) The DSP algorithm and/or any parameter (i.e.: you could increase the guitar stomp box overdrive). Or even if the DSP should be applied or not.
All the editings are done by turning knobs on the main Mixer screen or Voice/DSP edit screen with the style running and real time feedback from your speakers.
Now think about it: because the fun starts here. You have customised the patterns for a couple of MAINS that in the preset style were not just right for your specific song. They are now much better. You have 8 MAINS to match each section of the song (chorus, verse, intermezzo, .....).
You want to improve them even more. You notice that the guitar track has a nice Amp Simulator applied throughout the style sections. Yes it's nice, but a little boring having it from the beginning to the end of the song.
You go to (let's say) MAIN2 and apply a different Guitar Effect to just that section. You then go to MAIN3 and increase the drive and cabinet type just for that section. You go to MAIN6 and you also change the Guitar Voice to a completely different one. The new voice has by default associated a suitable effect (which is probably different from any of those already in your style). Let's say you want to keep the effect you earlier applied to MAIN2. You go back to MAIN2, copy it (one button push), return to MAIN6 and re-apply it here (another single button push). Done!
Now your guitar part is nicely varied throughout the style, it always changes. Not only the midi pattern, but also the actual guitar and/or the effects applied to it!
In Intro2 there is a nice Brass riff. I want it more memorable! Go to that section, change the DSP to Ensemble Detune (just for that section), adjust the effect to taste (even sourcing from customisable preprogrammed presets), then increase the send to the global VAR bus, that has a killer Ping-pong delay. Step up a little bit the volume, and tweak the pan. Now that brass riff really shines! I could edit it in just 10 seconds!! And all the tweaks just apply to that section. The same brass part in all the other sections stays unaffected.
If I want to change a parameter globally (for all the Sections) I can do that. Do I want to revert a parameter from the local customisation to the global setting? One click: done! NO!! It was better before! Another click: done!
Did I say that the sequencer NEVER stopped and you always were hearing in real time what were going on?
Now multiply this for every part and for any of the parameters you can change and now you discover the REAL power of our software.
It is easier to be done than said!
You will end up with a style that could resemble the original one as little as you wish (listen to Henni's customisation) and as close as you wish to what you have in your head and the song calls for.
Registrations are supported, but given the availability of 8 Mains, 8 OTS and all the customisations I showed you, most of the time you absolutely do not need to touch them!! KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
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Compare all this with your typical Yamaha's workflow and start crying!
Not only most of this is simply not possible. But even when something is possible, the procedure is so convoluted, with no effective visual and audio feedback, and with so much monkey button pushing, that you give up. And anyway your creative moment has already vanished long before you reached the end!
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