My first Yamaha arranger was PSR-S670. At that time I didn't really know what's all about and so I decided for the cheapest, just to find out if "arranger" is what I want. It was a good keyboard for what it's meant, but I have soon realized that it's quite limited in style creation (not all options available, tiny display) and so I bough PSR-S775, which was much better in this regard.
Less than a year later SX900/700 came to market and mainly because of touch screen, I decided for SX700 which I still have. It also has other advantages (important for me) compared to PSR-S775: three RH voices, joystick, a bit more memory, etc.
But when I was asked if it's also better sound wise (better styles and voices), I always honestly said that I didn't really notice any difference or improvements in this regard. And so I come to the point of my post: voices.
Specification says PSR-SX700 has 986 voices + 480 XG voices. I didn't count them and so I assume XG voices include GM2 voices. Means, 980 directly accessible voices, plus 480 voices that can be used in styles only (they can also be used as RH voices, but that's not the point right now). That is, 1466 voices in total.
I have mentioned in past, that some voices sound "suspicious" similar to me and so I wondered how many different voices we actually get in our keyboard. And so I decided to check some of piano voices.
Those who are familiar with voice creation (in YEM!) know, that there exist two levels of voice setting: one is Common settings, which apply to whole voice (that's what we can change in Voice Edit); and the second is layer (Element) voice settings, which we cannot see/modify on keyboard -which is important to keep in mind. Why?
Because by using different Element settings, we can create two voices that sounds differently by using the same samples only once (occupies less memory). It's similar as when we edit voice on keyboard and save our "new" voice.
Obviously we can only compare the similarity between voices which have the same Element settings. And that's quite simple: we pick the first suspicious voice, set settings to "neutral" values, disable effects and save the voice. Now we look after another similar sounding voice and when we find it, we apply exactly the same settings and save it.. and so on.
To keep post short (yeah, right), here's the list of voices that (in my opinion) use the same samples and actually sound the same if the same settings are applied (to be sure, also turn Touch sensitivity off):
Main Piano section:
000-122-001 ConcertGrand S.Art
104-011-001 PopGrand S.Art
104-010-001 RockPiano S.Art
104-009-001 AmbientPiano S.Art
104-001-004 CocktailPiano S.Art-octave piano
104-002-004 OctavePiano1 S.Art-octave piano
104-003-004 OctavePiano2 S.Art-octave piano
Legacy Piano section:
000-115-001 ConcertGrand
104-005-001 PopGrand
104-004-001 RockPiano
104-003-001 AmbientPiano
GM&XG Piano section:
000-000-001 GrandPiano
GM2 Piano section:
121-000-001 GrandPiano
Style Piano section:
108-000-001 [DKC]ConcertGrand
All above voices come from a single (root) voice, where only different settings are applied. And yes, they all come from good old GM&XG voice. That is, it's the same as there would only be one piano voice which you then edit according to your liking.
What I'm saying is, when thinking about buying next keyboard, number of styles (is for separate topic) and number of voices shouldn't influence our decision that much -Yamaha is famous for recycling styles and voices.
Thank you for your attention. Now I wonder... when will SX700 successor come?![:D]( "Very Happy")
Bogdan
Less than a year later SX900/700 came to market and mainly because of touch screen, I decided for SX700 which I still have. It also has other advantages (important for me) compared to PSR-S775: three RH voices, joystick, a bit more memory, etc.
But when I was asked if it's also better sound wise (better styles and voices), I always honestly said that I didn't really notice any difference or improvements in this regard. And so I come to the point of my post: voices.
Specification says PSR-SX700 has 986 voices + 480 XG voices. I didn't count them and so I assume XG voices include GM2 voices. Means, 980 directly accessible voices, plus 480 voices that can be used in styles only (they can also be used as RH voices, but that's not the point right now). That is, 1466 voices in total.
I have mentioned in past, that some voices sound "suspicious" similar to me and so I wondered how many different voices we actually get in our keyboard. And so I decided to check some of piano voices.
Those who are familiar with voice creation (in YEM!) know, that there exist two levels of voice setting: one is Common settings, which apply to whole voice (that's what we can change in Voice Edit); and the second is layer (Element) voice settings, which we cannot see/modify on keyboard -which is important to keep in mind. Why?
Because by using different Element settings, we can create two voices that sounds differently by using the same samples only once (occupies less memory). It's similar as when we edit voice on keyboard and save our "new" voice.
Obviously we can only compare the similarity between voices which have the same Element settings. And that's quite simple: we pick the first suspicious voice, set settings to "neutral" values, disable effects and save the voice. Now we look after another similar sounding voice and when we find it, we apply exactly the same settings and save it.. and so on.
To keep post short (yeah, right), here's the list of voices that (in my opinion) use the same samples and actually sound the same if the same settings are applied (to be sure, also turn Touch sensitivity off):
Main Piano section:
000-122-001 ConcertGrand S.Art
104-011-001 PopGrand S.Art
104-010-001 RockPiano S.Art
104-009-001 AmbientPiano S.Art
104-001-004 CocktailPiano S.Art-octave piano
104-002-004 OctavePiano1 S.Art-octave piano
104-003-004 OctavePiano2 S.Art-octave piano
Legacy Piano section:
000-115-001 ConcertGrand
104-005-001 PopGrand
104-004-001 RockPiano
104-003-001 AmbientPiano
GM&XG Piano section:
000-000-001 GrandPiano
GM2 Piano section:
121-000-001 GrandPiano
Style Piano section:
108-000-001 [DKC]ConcertGrand
All above voices come from a single (root) voice, where only different settings are applied. And yes, they all come from good old GM&XG voice. That is, it's the same as there would only be one piano voice which you then edit according to your liking.
What I'm saying is, when thinking about buying next keyboard, number of styles (is for separate topic) and number of voices shouldn't influence our decision that much -Yamaha is famous for recycling styles and voices.
Thank you for your attention. Now I wonder... when will SX700 successor come?
Bogdan
Statistics: Posted by BogdanH — Fri Aug 16, 2024 5:18 pm