This is almost like a never ending question....

Don't be bored guys...this is another story of a guy (long devoted Technics fan) who is seriously considering crossing the border to Yamaha-land. ONLY ONE THING that is preventing me from getting the Tyros at this point. I'm so used to Technic's Composer that I'm hesitant in using different keyboards...sound wise, I like Tyros a lot (a refreshing change after 10 years of technics).

I tried the PSR 1000, the "new style recorder" (or something like that) works very similarly to Technics' composer. NOW....if Tyros has a BETTER feature, PLUS at least 12-16 PROGRAMMABLE user pattern/memory, I'm sold. Anybody can give me detail comparison about Tyros' feature and Technic's composer?

Much appreciated.
KN_Fan.

KN_Fan: Having 12-16 style pattern variations per single style is a definite advantage of Technics Composer Memory, but with Yamaha this can also be achieved in a round about way on the Yamaha arrangers as well. Yamaha styles support only 4 style pattern variaitons per style, but what you can do is create 4 individual styles and name them the 'same name' with a numbered extension, like: teststyle1,teststyle2, teststyle3, teststyle4. You would then have 16 style paterns. To store/call up a specific variation, you can use Yamaha's Memory Registration (equivilent to Technics Panel Memory feature) to store specific style patterns linked to one of the teststyles. Of course all these style variations are completely programable & editable. The BIG difference between sequencing on the Technics kbs (Technics song format) and Yamaha is that with Technics format song making, instructions tell the kb to play a specific style pattern via a special control track. The Yamaha instead, actually records the style pattern as midi data. There are distinct advantages to both methods. With the Technics format song creation method, it offers you MORE flexibility while recording (trying out different variation scenerios, and easily changing them later on, while with the Yamaha system, once you've recorded you're more locked in, as editing must be done by actually changing the midi note data recorded, not just the instructions in a dedicated control track like Technics provides. For better control during initial recording, I prefer the Technics method, but for creating more compatible standard GM midi files (without requiring often times unacceptable Technics format to standard midi file format conversion), Yamaha is better. Hope this provides some perspective and helps you make the arranger keyboard choice best for YOU. - Scott

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http://scottyee.com

Yamaha styles have always been a firm favourite with arranger enthusiasts. First off, there are literally thousands upon thousands of them freely available on the internet for downloading - and its not difficult to create them using midi files and sequencing software. Infact the style file format is almost identical to a midifile, plus some markers and sysex type data. The latest yammy styles have 3 intros, 4 main sections each with fills, 3 endings and a break section. What's great is they are completely backward and forward compatible with other yammy keyboards that dont support all these bits. The Tyros has a comprehensive style editor built in, and there's lots of useful tools on my site that can help you build styles using your favourite pc midi sequencer. You can create many styles and store them in the 3MB+ of flash memory that the Tyros offers, so you could easily have a hundred or so of your own styles on the board at any one time. Of course you can also add any 2.5" harddrive to the Tyros and play the styles direct from the disk, without having to load them. You can keep your faves in specific directories which you can assign the paths to the style banks, and then call up as you would with different style genres or variations.
I don't think you will be dissapointed at the functions and features on offer, especially when you hear those sounds!!!

Regards
Simon



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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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I may be confusing others as well as myself on this composer thing...

I meant to say, Technics got 4 banks of composer, with 4 user memory, 2 fills, 1 intro, and 1 ending. (gotta hate this different terminology.."composer", "variations", "user's memory"...which may or mayNOT mean the same thing...argh!)

At this point, (until i try the keyboard myself) I'm not interested in knowing how much "presets" Yamaha (or Technics) can offer as I usually build everything from scratch anyway. Something about being "original"....

Well, i'm totally confused now...better drive to the nearest store (which means, I'll have to drive to either Vancouver or Seattle!! Stupid Portland music dealers! I couldn't even find PSR 2000! they said "Only available through advance ordering" If I don't play it first, how can I order it? Duh!) to see the products itself.

KN_Fan (will perhaps change my name into something else...Tyros_fan perhaps?)

You'll find that the Tyros will have more room for original styles than what you have now. We're not certain how much memory the Tyros has on board yet, (are we?), but even the 2000 has about as much room for custom styles as the Technics. Of course, with a hard drive, you have virtually unlimited storage.
I have around 20 User styles in the 2000, but it will also read very quickly from floppy, so in effect you could have all you want there too.
DonM

The Tyros has 3.3 MB of onboard user memory. Certainly more than the measly 1 MB we got on the PSR2000, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. If you get the Tyros, better count on purchasing a hard drive too.

I think Tyros' spec says something about 300 presets styles..but THEN it says "unlimited"

"1 UNLIMITED User style"? I don't get this...say, you can record about 20 different patterns, are there any assignable buttons you can program these patterns into?
My objective is not only you can program the patterns, but you can also play them LIVE.

KN_Fan.

Okay...I think I can translate this into "tyrosese"...

Anybody can give me details (in comparison to Technicese) about "style creator"?

If you have the hard drive you can store as many as you want and play them live. The 2000 loads them instantly from User Memory, and it only takes a couple of seconds to load styles from floppy. I'm certain the Tyros will load them almost instantly from HD.
DonM