Why Expansion Packs?

[alanclare]

Can anyone say, hand on heart, that after having struggled to unravel the mysteries of the YEM, and managed to gain access to some more voices, styles, etc, that they use these on a regular basis? Or are they like me, one who wonders what all the fuss was about, and can't recall ever having used them?

Alan

[Robert van Weersch]

I've got a few styles in expansion packs which I use very frequently. But indeed, most of the time you can find enough onboard styles or downloadable styles which will also do the job.

[Pino]

From my experience with my students the ones hoarding the most styles and midi files are the "not so good" players, just my observations.

Pino

[EileenL]

I use the Church and Christmas pack as it has some very nice Styles and Voices in it. I also have the Blackpool  Organ samples which I use a lot for dances. 

[alanclare]

I've got a few styles in expansion packs which I use very frequently. But indeed, most of the time you can find enough onboard styles or downloadable styles which will also do the job.

Robert

I've extracted all 110 styles from my collection of 12 packs and put them into a new pack. I saved this as a .ppi file and plugged it into my Psr s970.

There are some interesting Latin American rhythms, but nothing to shout home about. They can sit there in expansion memory, but I doubt that I'll be using any of them. A major problem is the lack of any systematic arrangement. The order is determined by the order I chose to copy each pack's styles into my new pack. The mind boggles at the thought of re-ordering the new pack while it is in the YEM.

Alan

[Pino]

I have the 'Church and Xmas' also, that's the only one I have'

The first thing I would do on a new keyboard is to play every style, all intros ABCD + ending, and take notes if the style was good or if I could hear a song in the style, Then save to USER

On the S975 I have 80 good quality songs from the on-board preset styles.
That's about 3 hours of music

Pino

[DerekA]

I use the Church pack, which I think is a little better even than the excellent Concert Organ voices on T5

I also use the 'FM Expanded' pack which has some nice DX7 pianos.

But I do agree with your main point, which is that many of the expansion pack voices are not that great, especially at the price

[Robert van Weersch]

many of the expansion pack voices are not that great, especially at the price

Very true. The price of all stuff on yamahamusicsoft.com is way too high. I bought some stuff with coupons and sales, so it hasn't cost me much. But I would never have bought the packs for their full price.

[Joe H]

I rarely use the preset styles, Multi Pads or Voices.  I use 3rd party pack Voices, styles and Multi Pads, plus my own styles and Multi Pads.  I've been working on my own synth Voice pack as well. The expansion memory on my S970 is full... waiting to buy the sx900 with more memory, joy-stick, and Chord Looper. I also have 3 synth expansion boards in my MU128... Virtual Acoustic (wind instruments I use with a Breath Controller), Analog and FM (DX7).

I guess it's just a matter of what kind of music we want to play.  I have a LOT of SF2 samples with ethnic instrument sounds from around the world, classic symphony acoustic instruments, as well as vintage analog synth sounds.  I could probably fill up the 1GB memory on the sx900 if I choose to.

Joe H

[DrakeM]

I downloaded all the expansion packs for the S950 and went through them and revoiced the parts in the styles as needed (very few). So now I don't need to install any of the packs with the styles set up that way.

I use parts of the Christmas styles and the Country Musician styles packs.

But I tell you the one with the most interesting parts in the styles I download called "Pro Styles". I just wish they were by category and not by alphabet, it takes a bit to find what I need but it is generally there.

Regards
Drake

[Toril S]

I have not installed any expansion packs yet. Downloaded one free several months ago, not all that interested. The pack loaded into my S975 did not impress me, not my kind of styles and voices. However, I have started to use voice set more to get the voices on my keyboards to sound more natural.

[EileenL]

Pleased to hear this Toril as I think a lot of people just don't use there keyboards to the full and miss out on a lot.

[alanclare]

Pleased to hear this Toril as I think a lot of people just don't use there keyboards to the full and miss out on a lot.

Eileen

I'd be interested to hear your definition of, "use their keyboards to the full". Surely, these instruments have so many features to be explored, that to become expert in them all would be an impossible ambition. My preferred approach is to choose those features which it seems to me will be most rewarding when I come to make use of them. For example, I think that time spent becoming reasonably adept in using the Style Editor is time well-spent, whereas learning the ins-and-outs of The YEM is low on my list of priorities. I should be less than satisfied if I became a "Jack of all trades, master of none".

Anyway, I think that my approach is more fun.

Alan

[EileenL]

I was not including use of YEM. That is something separate.

I was referring more to making your own Multi Pads or mixing them with others. Using voice set to create new sounds. Changing Intros and Endings on styles ete.