Can styles from Yamaha MM6 be used on Tyros/PSR?

[Scott Langholff]

I just heard them on a demo and they sound absolutely great.  Wondering if we can make use of them on our Tyros/PSR's?

Scott

[Graham UK]

Scott. The MM6 is a Synth so does not contain styles.  Synths do have Arpeggio so these may be able to download-converted to  pads to load into keyboards.

[Scott Langholff]

These sure sound like styles to me.  Certainly more than an arpeggio. 

http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/460182/My_Yamaha_MM6_New_Demonstratio#Post460182

[SeaGtGruff]

I think that what the gentleman in the video refers to as "Styles" are actually called "Patterns" on the MM6/MM8. I don't know how those patterns are organized in comparison to the different sections and variations of a style, but if the built-in patterns can be exported to MIDI files then it should be possible to create style files from the MIDI files-- although of course the styles would have to use voices and drums from whichever keyboard you're targeting.

[Joe H]

I had an MM6 for 3 or 4 years.  In a way, with its two live assignable parameter control knobs, it was the predecessor to the PSR-E433, which I have now had for 3 or 4 years.  The MM6/MM8 were Yamaha's early experiment with a "bridge" keyboard between "synth" (ROMpler actually) and an arranger.  It had the basic sound engine and operating system of the original Motif, but also had a PSR arranger engine with a very limited sub-set of preset styles from the PSR-2000/2100/3000, as well as some that were unique to the MM6/MM8.  Yes!  It did have a few Mega-voices, but where the PSR-E433 will load up to 5 styles, the MM6/MM8 would only load a single external style file at a time, but with the same excruciating slowness of the PSR-E4XX models.  The style file requirements/limitations for the MM6/MM8 were the same as for the PSR-E433 - they must be SFF-1; they must have a file extension of ".STY";  they must have a file name of only 8 characters to display properly in the keyboard's display, and they must have a file size of about 52Kb or less.  Files of that size or less, but with longer file names and extensions other than ".STY" could be renamed with a computer in order to work in the MM6/MM8.  Most of the styles that I have downloaded from the PSR-Tutorial site for my PSR-3000 worked on the MM6 as well as they do on the PSR-E433, if they were not too large, and those that were, could usually be trimmed down and revoiced with either Michael Bedesem's or Jorgen Sorensen's utilities to work quite well.

Here are links to a couple of demos that Bert Smorenberg did on the MM6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R4T5WJ5WjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxd_UJ1nK-M

Pay particular attention to those Motif voices.  I wish I still had mine.  It would certainly make a nice lead voice companion to rack up under the PSR-E433.

Your problem would exporting the MM6's styles for use on PSR/Tyros.  I don't remember any way of doing that.

Roy

Thanks for the info and links Roy.

I would guess if you just played a CMaj7 chord for all the MM6 style Sections and record them as a MIDI song file you could convert the MM6 styles for the PSR/Tyros/Genos.

It's amazing how Yamaha recycles their technology.  I think there are Motif Voices in the S970 and Genos... some of the arps too! (we could use far more)

But it would be nice to have those 4 knobs on a PSR... but then again you can probably set up the Genos faders to do that , and if you open Voice Set you can access those Multi Part Envelopes, but they are not as good as the Envelopes at the Element level, which is what the MM6 can do.

Maybe Yamaha will go full circle and give us a contemporary PSRx instrument with all the features of the newer arranger with the Motif architecture and access to the Element Envelopes... and a whole lot more.

A Synth Arranger!

Joe H

[DerekA]

I've never seen those videos before ... Bert is a real force of nature.

Joe, you say you'd like a new synth arranger (me too). As Roy said it looks like Yamaha experimented with that idea about 10 years ago with this machine, then decided to stick to separate lines. It would be interesting to know which sales division felt more threatened!

Well what goes around comes around, Genos is not too far away from what this machine did (multiple live controls, arpeggiator, styles) - Genos2 may take us further back to the future.