Two short demos by Bert Smorenburg on Audiolink Pads, and the USB Audio Player.

To me they are very interesting features and more importantly it looks like fun.

Nice bonus's for Yamaha S950 owners, not found in many (probably none) MOTL Arrangers.

Multipad Audiolink




USB Audio Player

Yay,.... Nice demos,..now everyone can play along with
Mp3 backing tracks, multipad tracks, etc, ... at this rate styles will be a thing of the past...like I always said you gotta mix it up and use all the tools afforded to us, especially if your playing today's music for the younger set..
Play along, Sing along, Karaoke along, it's all good.

I love Bert's demos Larry...thanks for sharing.

Although I'm not one to play over MP3's, SMF's, or Wav files (I use styles exclusively), many users, including pros, will find these tools very useful...and a lot of fun!

Ian

Yeah a lot of 'fun' quotient in there for lots of folks. Thanks for the vids. Larry.

Nice find Larry, sounds one hell of a KB. got you thinking now hey!!

Ian, there is a lot that can't be acomplished with styles, so in those cases playing over MP3s or SMFs is the only way to go. Who really cares how the backing tracks are provided as long as what you are playing over them is hot. The audience really doesn't care at all how the backing is provided.

I understand, Nigel...there's certainly nothing wrong with playing over SMF, MP3 etc...it's just that I prefer to play over styles. If I can't do the tune with a style, I simply do not do the tune.

It's a bit like the way I do recordings...I don't record anything on a CD that I can't play live in front of an audience; in other words, no multi-tracking.

That way, the promotional CDs I give away at my gigs are an exact representation of what the listener heard being played at my performance.

The one exception would be if I was recording a video soundtrack for a client, which would be something that I wouldn't play at my gigs.

These are self-imposed limitations, and constitute my own preferences in using an arranger "live".

I can definitely see where these other tools can be used, it's just that I don't like using them. I do, however, make it a point to show their merit during my clinics.

The S950 is a real beauty.

Ian

Yes Tony, I think I'm going for it, but only after I hear Ian's review...that is, if he ever gets his demo board.

The S950 has a lot of features for a MOTL arrangers, and would be a nice upgrade for my arranger playing. Anyone want to buy a near perfect PSR-3000?

Has anyone tried the Multipad Audiolink?

How about the USB Audio player?
Curious...Does the voice cancel work that easy on all mp3's?

This gimmicky feature on most KB units is hit or miss at most depending on how the song was recorded.

Larry, other manufacturers apply this feature, and it may depend on how the original recording was done for it's effectiveness.

However, most Wav. and MP3's appear to work quite well, according to those who have S950's.

No sign of my demo unit yet, Larry...hopefully this month...the S950 is selling extremely well, unfortunate for me, but very fortunate for Yamaha.

Ian

many times this also happened when I demoed Dave's S950 the voice cancel only reduces the lead vocal a bit but you can still HEAR it in the background which is not acceptable IMO don't be fooled by the hype,.....this feature is not perfected yet unless it is done with much more expensive sophisticated audio gear. Your better off using a pro backing track, or recording your own using style or smf, etc,..using in a home situation, might be OK but NOT on a gig in front of an audience.


But If you want to TRY removing the vocals from a song heres a Free program you can fool with.......

As I said, Donny, the effectiveness depends on the initial recording...it's no different a situation than having one midi file (SMF) better produced than another.

Certainly a performer wouldn't be stupid enough to go on stage without trying out the quality of either?

I still think it's a great feature, but as with any other (including a SMF), a bit of testing before using in public, never hurts.

Ian

The reason it does not work,( even on Yamahas Ian ) is that voice cancelling works by removing the centre of the stereo field, which is where 99.9% of engineers place the main vocal...but because there is also some panning to the left and right fields, as well as the effects which are also panned left, right, or both - means that even if the centre is cancelled, the panned vocals/effects audio still sounds.

You also can get some loss of instrument audio if the engineer has centered some of the instrument frequencies as well as main vocal.

This is why NONE of the voice cancelling algorithms actually work (including Yamaha) fully. You get VERY mixed results depending on the original recording...it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove the vocal from any recording. Unless you get the original multi track tapes (or the digital equivalent) and then re-master to stereo with none of the vocal parts in the mix.

Of course, you are correct Dennis...however, most people are quite happy with the results.

Also, I think this feature (yes even on Korg, Dennis ) is meant more for home use than stage...you know, a bit of fun for the user.

Ian

Yeah, I already know I am correct I didn't need validation

I was just pointing out to other readers who may be interested that no matter the spin you put on it for Yamaha, it does not work all that well..even for home use.

I doubt you need to defend the Yamaha Ian, or use your subtle "marketing spin" that does seem to appear in posts that MAY be actually criticising an aspect of a Yamaha Arranger, as I seriously do NOT think you will lose one sale because it

"Marketing spins" even subtle ones, certainly aren't needed to sell Yamaha products...I never use them myself.

I am truly looking forward to my demo YAMAHA S950 just to play around with that cool vocal canceling feature.

Ian

To get back to the OP... if I read the manual correctly (love to be proved wrong, tho!) these audio multipads do NOT loop.

In other words, if you want a pad to go on for 16 bars (and it is a 2 bar phrase) you are going to have to manually ask for it every two bars. Either that, or import the audio into an audio editor, and copy/paste it so it becomes a 16 bar .wav file (and consequently, uses up your RAM faster - or does it read direct from USB?).

Not setting a simple 'loop flag' into the S950's .wav player (which is an old and perfectly standard code) turns what could be ground-breakingly useful feature to one far more suited to being a gimmick or a karaoke feature.

Yamaha's NEXT version of the PSR might be a pretty good arranger if Yamaha fix the audio functions, and change it from a karaoke playback machine into a musical INSTRUMENT. This dumbed down, crippled taster isn't really cutting it, for me at least. Several features with great unrealized promise...

What happens if you set the audio pad to loop in an external mixing program, before importing to the S950?

To answer my own question...according to the manual:

Automatic repeat playback is not available
Only one Pad can be played back at once
Chord Match cannot be applied

Still...it's a step in the right direction, but for now, it's an OK fun feature as used in the above video.