I've got a Yamaha S03, finally getting good enough to play a little with the band. There are only a few presets/patches that I use most of the time. But it's difficult to navigate to them using the on-board cursor keys, and nearly impossible to do it in real time while playing.

What I'd like to be able to do is change the patches on the fly to my favorites. Ideally I'd like to have some software running on my PC to select the ones I want. Tonight I got the new version of XGWorks Lite that actually works in WinXP, I think it might do what I want, but it looks pretty cumbersome.

Is there an easy way to do this?

Do it like the pros; have six S03s all around you in a massive rig. I don't know really, but be careful with having a PC on stage. You might end up using the cursor keys anyway

-tek

I finally managed to get control over the S03 using a program called Midi-Ox, http://www.midiox.com/. It's a little overkill, but it works like a charm - shows the MIDI messages transmitted in each direction, knows the standard XG settings, etc. It also lets you save your favorite patch/bank settings in a folder. It's a real nice diagnostic tool, bet it could come in real handy if you had multiple MIDI devices connected.

I'd still like to have a little simpler program optimized as a controller only.

LarryB,

Are you saying that you use a computer to send a "patch change" to your S03? In real time? As if you must start some MIDI file, then you play in time with it, and at the pre-defined time, the "patch change" is sent from your PC to the S03 on the same channel the S03's keyboard is transmitting on?

I've gone the Roland route just so changing patches live in the middle of a song was as easy as touching just one button. The Performance or "multi" would have to have been saved prior though. One reason I never went with Yammy was because of this.

Peace
<><

Thanks RW. I didn't explain myself very well (maybe I need to look at things a little differently too!).

I only have the one keyboard, so to change patches I have to do some pretty serious navigatation with cursor keys. So I thought I would use my PC to give me random access to any patch. I'm not doing any MIDI recording with it just yet, so the trasmit from the S03 isn't an issue (yet anyway).

I think I see what you mean now. Sorry 'bout that. So basically you click the mouse on your PC in order to change patches on the channel/track/part that you're keyboard is sending on.

So without the PC, you have to navigate through the S03's menus.

I was looking very seriously at buying the S03's big brother the S08 and for the very trouble you're having, I did not buy the S08. I did really like the feel of the S08 but changing patches on the fly without cut-out is a big need for me.

I play one one board live so I need to change patches in real time with ease. If I used two boards I wouldn't worry about it because I would just switch boards in the middle of a song.

Ya know... it did seem possible to change patches (but very troublesome) on the S08. I was in Multi-Edit mode. You can change patches that way. But you would have to play in edit mode and it's very tricky. You hit one wrong button and you're no longer changing patches but changing some other parameter and maybe even in another part.

Best of luck to ya on this one.

A second board, even if it's just a simple Fatar SL61 controller, would allow you to set the two boards to two different sounds, before starting the song. Then you just change boards live, that might be one immediate solution. Or even, using an older casio or something sitting around for this porpuse. Of course you would need to select the transmit channel and turn local off so as to not play the casio's sounds. Or just keeping it's volume off may do it.

There are a couple cheap 61 key midi controllers out there for under 150. But it may be a waste of money in the long run. That would depend on you.

And perhaps maybe someone else can offer a better solution for your live dilema.

Peace
<><

I'm really suprized to hear that many of the pro boards don't have "one touch settings" for live changing of patches/voices.

Maybe this is why my only friend who gigs bought a TYROS instead. He doesn't need the styles/auto accompany, but he did need to change patches quickly.

Of course the tyros is overkill on that, any yamaha arranger over $500 price has one touch settings. The more expensive, the more "user slots" you have available for the settings. The settings include not just patch but layers and effects or whatever else you choose to include. (Kind of like taking a snapshot of the keyboard with all your settings for a song, or a part of a song in place.)

Food for thought....

Cathy http://www.roncat.net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/keyboard-synth-module-club/

I thought the S03 had performance set ups...??? It doesn't make sense to have to go through all that to pick a patch???

Aren't there 32 user multi settings on the S03?

Squeak

If you want to use the board in a band your best set up would be using the multi sets.. These consist of 16 parts for assigning voices. You can select up to 16 voices, and the pull up that performance set and switch back and forth between your voices as you choose.. Check out page 24 in your manual and also go to page 55... Playing live and making these changes can be a little more difficult, but it just takes practice with the set ups and mastering the functions. The S03 would have benefited from what Yamaha put on the EX series (which the Motif replaced), and that was 16 buttons on the panel where the user could create, store, and recall user set ups with ease.. If you like the Yamaha S03, I'd also suggest you check out the Alesis QS6.2... I think someone told me that this board is much easier to use in live set ups.. Also it sounds great too...

Squeak

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-05-2003).]