I'd like to share a voice I created with all the WK-3000/3500 users on the forum. Here's what I did....

What I wanted was a lush and thick string ensemble that didn't require a lot of notes pressed at one time. I wanted something that you could use a single note with the left hand and one or two notes with the right, but still have a thick string sound.

What I did was edited a version of a cello I got from the Casio site. The voice from that site was decent, but I felt it needed some touch up because it was quite harsh, and I want something softer, and with a smoother transistion between notes (a portamento function on the Wk's would be very useful..hint hint Casio). I created this voice by layering my custom cello voice with voice #133 string ensemble. I then adjusted the two voices and man what a difference It's a very deep and strong string ensemble. You can really hear how well they compliment each other by turning off the layer function and listening to each voice by itself. I only wish I could save it as a (true) custom voice, but the WK's synth only allows one element per voice. I could have really done some damage with this voice if I still had my old MZ-2000. So I had to save this voice under a registration. If any WK owners are interested reply to this post and I'll email it to you. I'd really appreciate any feed back on it too or any suggestions. Oh when I send you the voice it will be a registration file, but I will also have to send you the custom cello voice. There will be instructions in the email on how it works.. (it's really simple_.

Thanks,
Squeak

Sounds like you have been hard at work! Can you post me the details (and maybe a short note for beginners on how you did it) and I will add it to my website. I think you have my email address.

As you probably know, many Casio wk3xxx owners have migrated to the WK-Studio forum at http://www.originalz.com/casio/casio_bbs/. And in general, they don't seem to check this forum out very much. I suggest you copy your post there are well.

Stephen

Squeak, harsh is the right word. I'd appreciate a copy of good strings.

I think i'll make it voice #637, "SqueakD-TweakD Strings"

Ed

I'll be happy to share how I created the voice. I'll post it here in a bit. I'm still on campus and haven't gone home yet. I'll have it up before the end of the night... You'll both have the voice this evening as well.

Squeak

OK, I sent the voice to all who replied to me by email and this post. Here's how I made this voice. It's actually quite simple.

First after downloading the Cello voice from the Casio web site.., from the first note I felt this sound was way too harsh and how should I say...., completely in your face So I wanted to mellow it out because it was too bright and the sound of the bow on the string was too strong, then smooth out the note transition because it was to pronounced between notes, and a few other things such as DSP allocation ect.

To remove the overly pronounced note change I adjusted the attack level to 15

To mellow or soften the sound more I set the C-OffFrq to 15, and then set the Reson. to 09.

I'm not sure if I used the same DSP as the original voice, but here's the list for the settings. I think the only thing I changed on the DSP was the Rev Send Level.

Effect: Reflect
Type: 3
Wet Level: 110
Feed Back: 100
Tone: 100
Rev Send: 127
Cho Send: 000

That's pretty much it.... The edit was simple. If you have the cello from the Casio site compare the two and you'll notice the difference. After I edited it to my liking I dumped the original voice and kept the edited version.

Here's how I combined the two (again this was very simple)

You have to keep in mind that when creating layered voices on the WK's that there is only one (1) DSP resource--so when combining sounds make sure you don't run into any conflicts.

First I selected voice #133. This will automatically bring up the DSP for that voice, but since I don't want to use the DSP for #133 I selected this voice first. This way when I select my custom cello voice to layer it will automatically shot off the DSP for the first voice I selected and use the DSP for the cello voice.

After selecting the two voices for layer I then went into the mixer (because when layering, the first voice you select is on part 1 and the second voice on part 2).

Under part 1 that was assinged to voice #133, I did the following:

Rev: 065
Pan: -15
Vol: 090

Under part 2 that was assinged to the custom cello voice I did the following:

Pan: +15
Vol: 100

I'm pretty certain this is all I did to that voice because it already had DSP assinged to it so there was no need to adjust the reverb ect.

Well that's it. The entire voice was easy to create, and didn't take long. It's amazing what slight changes can do to a voice or voice combo. Hope I didn't leave anything out.

Squeak

I forgot to add that the reason I created this voice is because even though I do like the ensemble voice #133 I felt this voice lacked the depth and thick texture of an ensemble. I created thie voice to replace #133, and to be honest when I listen to #133 and then my version I'm so pleased with my results. Also I haven't done the headphone test on the voice yet so there's the possibility that I may change it after doing that test.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 10-19-2004).]