Congrats my friend Tapas, just got his T2..!!!

Hi Manuel,

Thanks for making me an excellent deal on the Tyros 2. I opened the factory sealed box last evening and set it up in my studio. I am delighted with this purchase. Overall the Tyros 2 is the best portable arranger in the market when you consider the quality of the voices and styles.

I am using a Casio Celviano AL-150R 88 key hammer action digital piano to drive the T2. It makes a great MIDI controller with lighted keys to help you track difficult sequences. This combination actually worked out a lot cheaper than my original plan of getting the Yamaha Clavinova CVP-307. Besides, I get to enjoy the new Super Articulated voices and gain portability.

I have connected the line out to a pair of Behringer Truth powered monitors. I am surprised how good the T2 sounds through these inexpensive monitors ($340 a pair).

I checked the Video Out on a table top LCD TV. The Lyrics/Score/Text shows up fine. I had to change the output to NTSC from the default PAL setting.

Here is a picture:
http://www.land.state.az.us/alris/transfers/html/images/t2.jpg

Thanks for the registrations and styles. You are the best resource in Arizona for Arranger Keyboards!

Hope to catch more of your electrifying live performances on your T2 like your 3 hour News Years Eve bash last Saturday! You got the crowd swinging and dancing.

I am still baffled how you could memorize 600 songs.

Tapas

Congratulations Tapas! You, me and Charley "make 3" (new T2 owners) - in the last 24 hours! It is a great board! The SA sax (among the other SA voices) gives me plenty to smile about!

Have a great new year with your New T2!
Randy

Tappas: Congrats to U on getting your Tyros2, and a great big welcome to you to the ever growing Tyros2 FAN club. Looking forward to hearing music created by you on your new instruments.

Reminder: Tyros2 OS Update 1.10 is now available for download. Details covered by me on this thread: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/012489.html


Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for posting the link to the OS 1.10 upgrade and detailed instructions. We all value your continuous contributions to this forum.

I downloaded the 7MB zip file and ran the update. Worked without a hitch.

I am thrilled with the Tyros 2. I have hardly slept a few hours since I got it last Wednesday. This thing is incredible. The add on speakers that Yamaha sells does not do it justice. I have listened to these in the music store. I was in for a surprise when I connected the mains out to a pair of Behringer monitors. All the midrange that was missing came back in full glory. Big improvement in clarity.

Then I decided to try connecting the T2 to my 6.1 surround sound setup. I was shocked at the results. This was like listening to a major label CD created in a professional mastering facility. Now I could appreciate the sheer brilliance of the new styles. Every part was in perfect balance - the deep bass, the smooth midrange and the ethereal high end - it was all there captured perfectly in the stereo field with subtle use of variable reverb to create the progressive depth of field.

Yamaha engineers must have spent a fortune to capture and render these authentic styles and must have taken them hours to tweak each part to perfection. You simply cannot appreciate the sound quality if you are planning to play the T2 through Yamaha's optional speakers or a PA system. This baby deserves a high-end playback system.

I am using 4 Mirage M3-si bipolar monitors - 2 in the front, 2 in the rear, plus a pair of B&W Rock Solids mounted high on the ceiling for front effects and a Paradigm Servo-15 subwoofer. I am not using the center channel. All the multi-channel processing is done through a Yamaha DSP-A1 surround sound processor. I am using a pair of Adcom power amps to drive the Mirage pairs.

Straight stereo from the T2 main out sounds spectacular but when I turn on the Tokyo Church setting, the walls in the room just vanish and you are left with this delicate heavenly sound all around you. The sound I am getting from this keyboard is too good to be true. The lush strings and saxes are in a class of its own. I ran another test placing a Sony DPS-R7 reverb between the T2 and the DSP-A1. It refines the sound to another level.

At this point, I am overjoyed. This silver wonder has exceeded all my expectations so far as styles and sound quality are concerned. The user interface and operating system is very simple. It allows for extensive customization. Since I am using an 88 note hammer action digital piano to control it, I explored the possibility of duplicating the functions of the MFC10 controller. It was a piece of cake.

The transport/style controls need to be on a MIDI port on a single MIDI channel. I used a Digital Music MX-8 MIDI patchbay/processor to map the output MIDI stream of the 88 note piano into 2 zones.

Zone 1:
Range = A-1, to E1
Channel = 16

Zone 2:
Range = F1 to C7
Channel = 1

I have set up the T2 to interpret the MFC10 controls on MIDI port B, channel 16 while the Right-1 part receives on Channel 1.

Essentially, I have sacrificed the lowest 20 keys on the piano for triggering style changes,
intros and fills. This is not a problem because you can trigger almost all common full fingered chords using just the 14 keys spanning F1 to F2#

My split point for styles is set at F2# on the T2. I can use the remaining range from G2 to C7 for the right hand parts. This was the big advantage of using the 88 key controller besides the joy of having real weighted keys. I could now use the lower keys to control the T2 for hands free operation.

After some experimentation, I found this mapping to be the best fit for my needs:

The Lowermost 12 White Keys:

A-1 = Synchro Start
B-1 = Tap Tempo
C0 = Registration 1
D0 = Registration 2
E0 = Registration 3
F0 = Registration 4
G0 = Registration 5
A0 = Registration 6
B0 = Registration 7
C1 = Registration 8
D1 = Ending 2
E1 = Ending 3

The Lowermost 8 Black Keys:

Bb-1 = Intro 2
C#-1 = Intro 3
Eb 0 = Main A
F# 0 = Main B
Ab 0 = Main C
Bb 0 = Main D
C# 1 = Break
Bb 1 = Fill to Self

Now, I have complete control of styles and registrations without having to lift my fingers off the piano. When I need to have access to all 88 keys, I press a foot pedal that switches the MX8 to a second preset that takes Zone 1 out, leaving all 88 keys transmitting on Channel 1 for the Right Hand part.

Yamaha has gone to great lengths to make the user interface appealing. The 235 page Owners Manual is well written. This thing looks stunning over a polished ebony piano.

This is the pinnacle of audio engineering and industrial design. If I had to improve on it, I would look at two areas.

1. Expand the note range.

A 76 keybed would be welcome. Personally, I would be delighted if Yamaha went all the way and made a Pro version that came with the exact same key mechanism as the 88 note CVP-309GP with its system of counter levers and weights. I found this to have the best key action of any digital piano on the planet. It surpasses Roland's RX700SX key action. The 309GP is a statement of luxury.

2. Introduce a killer piano sample.

The piano on the T2 is decent. The piano on the Roland G70 is better. The standard Piano on the Korg OASYS sounds even better. The CVP-307 piano sounds stellar. The real winner is the Korg OASYS 512 MB piano sample. It is not a sample of a Yamaha Concert Grand. It is most likely a Steinway Sample. This is the one to beat. Once you hear this, it leaves everything in the dust. The only way to better this is to use software piano samples like Ivory that is sized in GBs.

There should be a way to capture/convert this OASYS piano sample and use it on the T2.

Well, these are the only 2 shortcomings of this otherwise outstanding arranger. An icing on the cake would be to include the Karma functions of the OASYS. Listening to Stephen Kay's Karma Generated Effects on the OASYS is like flying an arranger through a time warp.

Who will be the first manufacturer to combine an Arranger with Karma?

Interestingly, if you wanted to add the 88 note capability, the killer piano preset, and Karma functionality - your best bet is to add the Korg OASYS 88. This would make for a setup to die for.

Thanks to Yamaha for making the world's best fun machine for under $3000!

Tapas

Hi Tapas,

congrats to your new T2.
I'm glad that you finally got it.
You definitely deserve it.

Enjoy and play lots of beatiful music.

Eric