Tony,

Personally, I like the pan-flute I hear coming from the PSR-3000, and I assume that it's not much different on the T4. However, one of the great aspects of Yamaha's arranger keyboards is the Voice Creator program, which allows you to modify any existing voice and make it the way YOU want it to sound. It's a fantastic feature that is incredibly versatile and user friendly. I posted this on the PSR-Tutorial forum a few weeks ago and a lot of folks are now having fun working with this program:

During the past several months I've received numerous requests for step by step guidelines to modifying Yamaha's Grand Piano voice so it can be used on a mono sound system such as the Bose L1 and Bose L1 Compact. Today is a cold, rainy day, I didn't have a music job scheduled, and it was too nasty to work on my boat. Therefore it's a good day for this kind of project.

In my case I use the PSR-3000, which by today's standards, is somewhat antiquated. Fortunately, the onboard keyboard programs remained pretty much unchanged, so the following instructions should apply to all keyboards since the inception of the PSR-3000.

The problem is not limited to just Yamaha's Grand Piano voice--it applies to all voices that use complex, stereo sampling. The Grand Piano voice, however, provides a classic example, particularly when the keyboard's audio output is fired into a mono sound system. The piano tends to sound somewhat thin and tinny. The option is to purchase a full, stereo sound system, which in my case would amount to a pair of Bose L1s, or modify an existing, mono, piano voice. Obviously, the second option is far less expensive. So, here we go:

1. Select a piano voice from the GM & XG or GM piano voices. You'll find them by pressing any voice button, such as piano, then press UP. You'll usually find the GM & XG and GM voices on the 2nd page of voices.

2. Select the Grand Piano and press Exit until you get back to the keyboard's Main Screen. Keep in mind that this is the same procedure for every voice you wish to modify, therefore if you were going to modify a steel guitar, you would take the same steps.

3. After exiting to the main screen, press the Sound Creator button. In some of the newer keyboards this particular program may have to be accessed by going through the Digital Recording page.

4. When the Sound Creator program opens you will see Sound Creator: Grand Piano at the top of the page. Just beneath that line you will see a series of tabs you can work with: Common, Controller, Sound, Effect/EQ, Harmony. All of these pages provide you with an enormous amount of editing capability for nearly all the sound parameters.

5. As you work your way through the editing tools, you can compare your results to the original voice by merely pressing the "D" button next to the black box that says COMPARE.

6. On the Effects/EQ Page there are three levels of effects that can be accessed by scrolling up or down using the "A" and "B" buttons on the upper left side of the display. The tools on this page are very powerful and it's here where you can be very creative. Again, using the Compare button allows you to hear the results of your modifications.

7. When you've finished modifying the voice, you must now save it to a specific location used for USER voices. User voices are those that you can readily access during a performance, the location of which varies between keyboard models. In the case of the PSR-3000, there is a USER VOICE button on the right side of the keyboard where you find all of the other preset voices. The SAVE button is next to the "I" button on the right side of the display. Press SAVE, then select where you wish the voice to be saved by using the TAB Button. It can be saved in the keyboard's onboard memory in the USER area, or you can save it to your Smart Media or USB Thumb drive, or all three. After selecting the area to store the file, Press SAVE at the bottom of the screen, then provide the sound with a name and press OK. The file is now saved to that location.

Accessing those modified voices during a performance is relatively quick and easy. Again, the PSR-3000 has a User Voice button where I store my modified voices, which provides instant access to those modified voices.

Lets assume that you are planning on playing a song that has the normal, stereo, grand piano voice. That voice will be displayed in the R1 location on the keyboard's main screen. Merely press the button next to R1, which on the PSR-3000 is the "F" Button, then tab to USER and select the modified Grand Piano--it's that easy.

I hope this information is helpful to those who requested it.

Good Luck,

Gary