Audio styles

I keep wondering why Yamaha choose the easy way out with their audio styles.... Because i dont think they are true audio styles but audio drums.

Personally i dont think audio drum tracks add all that much, because i am absolutely sure that if i would let the same drummer play a midi drumset instead of a real drum over audio, the result would be just as sparkling and live.. If only the drumset samples would be of the highest quallity.. But Drums and percussion are in my humble opinion some of the easiest things to sample in high quallity.. And even the resonance created by a drum on the other parts of the the drumkit can be implemented by a good effects system

I dont see audiio drums as something sensational...


Personal, i think if you add audio to a style, you can get most of it on natural accoustic things.... Like a realistic strumming guitar, brass and wood instruments... And even accoustic and electric basses.... Or just full orchestra sounds...

This is something Yamaha realised to see with their Audio styles in the s950 and the T5, adding audio drums to a style does not make it an audio style...


As an owner of a ( mostly living in the ketron repair system ) audya, i can tell you that having real audio tracks for basses guitars and such adds much more then audio drums. But all this comes at a cost of these tracks only reacting based on the major chord changes... Maj/min/sept, but not on the more subtle things like advanced chord progressions.. It also lacks a lot in the department of creating your own styles... But overall the Ketron implementation of audio styles by far exceeds what yamaha has done in the S950 and T5


There really is a future for audio style parts, and i am wondering if Ketron will add another step with their upcomming products or if they allow the likes of Korg to catch up ...


But in general i would prefer if everyone talked about Audio drums ( wersi has them for almost a decade now) when they talk about the Yamaha styles..... And about audio styles when they talk about the Ketron styles..

I completely concur with what Bachus says. Better still I prefer Midi drums over audio drums any time. Both on my Korg PA800 and even more on the old Ketron X1 I can manipulate the drums in a way you can't even get close with audio drums.
How about indvidual settings for each part of the drumset for volume, reverb, panning, on/off, etc. But if you are happy with the audio drums that's fine by me!!!

regards,
John

Yammy should dump the audio drums and redesign the VH. & MFD.

OK guys, just fire up those word processor programs and send Yamaha USA via Steve Demming a letter stating what you think they should do - who knows, you may get your wishes. Think about it: You asked for a black keyboard, you got it. You asked for a 76-key TOTL arranger, you got it. You asked for a better vocal harmonizer - you got it. You asked for an onboard audio recorder - you got it. You asked for an MFD that could access style files from any storage area - you got it. You asked for a better onboard sound system - you got it. You asked for a better LED display - you got it. In fact, Yamaha is probably the only company that had their company rep put a questionnaire on various forums and request input from the membership. "Yamaha Listens" Within reason, Yamaha pretty much did everything that everyone asked for. All you had to do was ask. So, step up to the plate and spend a few minutes compiling a written list in the form of a letter, send it to Steve Demming, and who knows, you may get exactly what you asked for. With Yamaha, it's not all that uncommon.

Thanks Yamaha,

Gary

Oh yes, Gary, they are real good about listening to what we want.
Is there an icon about having your tongue in your cheek?
We've been complaining about the drum kits and vocal harmonizer for a lot of YEARS now.
Steve is great, and maybe Yamaha Japan listens to him a little, but don't hold your breath. Still, it certainly can't hurt to try.

Don and Donny, I really cannot complain about any Yamaha arranger keyboard I've owned in two decades. I'll admit, they could have done a better job with the vocal harmonizer in the past, but the new one on the S-950 seems to do a bang-up job. It really sounds good, in fact, almost as good as my TC Helicon Harmony-M, but not quite. The drum kits have never been a problem for me or my audiences. Keep in mind, though, that I really don't rely heavily on the drum kits - my best attribute is my vocal ability. Today I performed at the oldest retirement community in the nation, Pickersgill Retirement. I was in their auditorium, had about 125 people in the audience, and one of the assistant ADs came in with a half-dozen college girls from Towson State University - damned those gals were purdy! The assistant AD asked my to play Hot Hot Hot, which I did live, using the Zuke style on the keyboard. Within a few minutes I had 50 people in a conga line winding through the huge room and out into the halways. Later, a young lady from the book keeping department came in, walked up to me while I was playing Elvira, and asked if I would perform "He Stopped Loving Her Today." She said I sound a lot like George Jones and thought I could really belt out the song. When I finished the song, she came up and gave me a big hug and kiss - God I love this job.

In all the years I've been playing, both with bands and when I picked guitar with a Roland drum machine, no one has ever come up and said anything positive or negative about the drums - not one person, including a lot of musicians. So for me, it's a non-issue.

All the best,

Gary

Some of us have highe/ woops I mean different standards!

Yeah, but I've Got Friends In Low Places!

Gary

Definitely rework the Vocal Harmony, If it was any good I'd be playing an S 950 instead of my PSR S 750.

God Bless,
Don

If I recall, Korg had a questionnaire on their web site, although not through a rep. I filled in requests, but can't remember what I asked for

Don't let it bother you, Jim - my wife said the mind was the second thing to go. Sure wish I could remember what the first thing was.

Gary

Joke telling.

chas

The MFD vs the songbook is another story also...

Back on topic...

Who thinks that audio styles are the future? (No i am not talking audio drums, but full fledged audio styles aka ketron...

Its not a Yamahas fault that they tried only to improve their weakest style part the drums with some audio, i think they succeded very well there..

But none of the other arranger brands have taken as much as a single step in that direction, just wondering why? Because the processor power required comes cheep, as are the mathematical algorythms required to transpose in real time.

so glad we have choices...but for how long?

I'd rather have the full MIDI based styles than either full audio (Ketron) or audio drums (Yamaha).

These two latter style types are still too restrictive (especially Yamaha) to be of any real use to someone like me who does a lot of editing.

The Ketron are obviously more flexible, but the fact that they don't use all audio parts for all possible chords is not acceptable to me.

With Yamaha, it is not possible to share edited audio drum styles, even with those with the same instrument...big drawback.

So, I'll stick with an instrument that uses only MIDI based styles, thank you very much, until the technology comes along to overcome these non-acceptable (to me) disadvantages.

Ian

I would rather have both... Sometimes guitartracks add things which arent possible yet with todays midi technollogy... However there are vsts allready that come really really close..

But indeed most of the times espescially with advanced chords midi is much more dynamic..

And while you can get a lot of audio stuff from huge libraries of audio loops, i agree that midi is so much more edditable..


Almost allways having more options allows for better endresults..


Both are not mutually exclusive, and you dont have to choose, you can have both, but if i had to choose based on current technollogy, i agree that i would choose midi based styles..

Bachus, you know, when you think of it, our MIDI based styles are actually audio in nature, since the midi notes are triggering/playing samples or multiple samples, which are audio recordings of the instrument.

Yamaha and Korg added more power, flexibility and realism by using Mega Voices and DNC technology respectively...nothing really "new" but still far more powerful than basic one-shot samples.

I also feel that most arranger users only use about one-third of their instrument's editing abilities, hence the clamor for third party styles and sounds, but that's another topic for another time.

Ian