Here is a splendid 90-min non-stop concert on the Yamaha PSR SX-920 by Thoralf Abgarjan.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAybx9IlKPA


Thoralf begins his demo with Kraftwerk’s Autobahn complete with the vocoder effects.

Demo of the CFX Grand piano sample

Demo of the Orgel sample, Pirates of the Caribbean.

This Masquerade

More vocoder examples to the delight of the audience.

Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You.

I felt the orchestration on the SX-920 exceeded the original with greater clarity, instrument separation, dynamics and overall definition. Just to be sure I went back to the original official HD video track:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju8Hr50Ckwk


Yes, the instrumentation on SX-920 wins this round. Heck, if we could add an AI Voice for Alicia we would have a complete package!

Hey Yamaha engineers – please bring the Steinberg REVelation reverb to the next version of the SX-920.

Think of the amount of money that was spent on hiring the studio musicians on this Alicia Keys hit song plus the cost of mixing and mastering this track. Now this Yamaha demonstrator outperforms their team effort with a single arranger played live. You have to be amazed how far technology has evolved.

The presentation continued with a demo of the Super Articulation SAX.

I can’t help stop marveling at the sophistication of the accompaniment styles. This is where Yamaha arrangers shine. No matter what song you want to play, Yamaha has a style for you, and yes, they do sound like a polished studio mastered CD. The refinement is breathtaking.

Demo of Englishman in New York with Super Articulated Guitar, Tango Accordion, Ballad Soprano and Sax.

This was a text book example of how to set up the right balance to bring out the texture in every voice.

Demo of Blinding Lights, Tears for Fears, 99 Luftballoons, Don’t you want me Baby.

Demo of Purple Rain.

Demo of SUPER ARTICULATED PLUS Kino Strings, Nylon Pedal, Steel Pedal, Shadows Pedal.

Demo of the Smart Chord feature on the SX-920, not found in the Genos 2.

Smart Chord automatically substitutes your simple chords with complex 7th, 11th and 13th chords depending on the genre you specify bringing sophistication to your arrangement.

James Last happy orchestral demo.

Herb Alpert demo.

Sade – Smooth Operator demo.

Sergio Mendez – Mas Que Nada demo.

Natalie Imbruglia – Torn demo

Bill Haley – Rock Around The Clock demo

Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams demo

Barbra Streisand – Guilty (Full song demo)

Thoralf then invited Musiker Lanze on stage with his acoustic guitar. The duo performed Gundermann with vocals from Musiker.


Shakatak – Night Birds (Full demo)

See how closely Thoralf mimics the original recording.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3ujcQLuGDk


Here is another emulation on the Yamaha Electone ELS-02C by the talented Aki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsUxxJQcnX0

Trouble of course for the gigging pro is, he doesn’t want to sound like a polished CD! He (or she!) wants to sound like a live band..!

And, as styles become more and more accurate to the original CD, it makes it more and more pointless to use a style! If you want to sound EXACTLY like the original, you can either go to Karaoke-version.com and get a multitrack version that’s darn close (still closer than the style can get it) or you use AI tools on the original to remove the vocals…

What used to make arrangers great was HAVING to come up with unique versions because something identical wasn’t available. We now are able to have the original track itself back us after we’ve removed the leads, and we can screw with the structure, the tempo AND key, all on the fly with nothing more expensive than a tablet!