Pete from MO, USA

[PSRPETE]

Hey everyone,
I'm Pete from the Midwest, USA.  I'm a saxophonist but I've played keyboards for a few years, though nothing serious.  I decided to purchase an arranger simply because I like the ability to either play  piano/keyboard,  with style backing, or compose accompaniment via a DAW and let the keyboard(s) back up completely.  It's also cool to do this while playing drums.  Because of my love of  jazz, old school r&b, pop, soul, and neo - soul, I decided upon a couple older Yamahas:  the PSR's 8000 and 630.  I've found the forum very informative in general.  Even though the newer of my Yamahas is over 20 years old, it's a bad boy:D.  I love it.  (I plan on adding a USB emulator drive to both and a friend says he can help me upgrade the HDD in the 8000 beyond its spec'd limit). Because of wanting to diversify my array of instruments, I also own a Casio WK-7600, a WK-500 and am eyeing a Casio MZX-500.  (The WK-7600 is a really good instrument, especially for composition).  I prefer the rhythms on the Casios because even on the WK-500, which is over 10 years old,  they seem more suited to the genres of music I play.  I'm going to dive into rhythm creation via the DAW and exporting it as a SMF 0 or 1.  Can these be converted to a .sty file?  I also want to find out how to change instrumentation (is that possible?), in SMF's via the 8000's mixer.  Idk if that's possible the manual doesn't say and I haven't figured it out.  Thanks for the welcome!
Pete

[Roger Brenizer]

Hi Pete,

Welcome to the forum and as a fellow Missourian.  Thank you for becoming a member.  I'm sure you'll learn a great deal about your older Yamaha keyboards here on the forum.

You'll want to be sure to visit the Home page and check out some of the tutorials you will find links to there.  The following link will take you to the Home page of the website:

http://psrtutorial.com/

Should you later decide to become a supporting member, which will include lifetime membership, other forum boards will become available to you, as well as a wealth of additional musical knowledge; however, there is absolutely no obligation to do so.  You may also use the following link to discover the full benefit of becoming a Supporting Member of the PSR Tutorial.

http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,15536.0.html

You'll also gain access to an Excel Song Index database, made available to supporting members by our good friend Peter (XeeniX), which presently contains 85,000 plus song titles in 2,463 indexed books.  This index is updated often.

In lieu of making a donation only, you may also order any of the websites resources, which can be found at the following link:

http://psrtutorial.com/cdrom/productsum.html

Joe Waters updated "Supporting the PSR Tutorial", on August 27, 2017, which can be found here:

https://psrtutorial.com/cdrom/index.html

We're so glad you've decided to become a member and very happy you've decided to become a part of this great forum family.  If you have any questions, then please just ask.  Many of our members are always very willing to help you.

[PSRPETE]

Roger,
Nice to know there's a fellow Missourian here!  Go Cards/Royals/Blues/Chiefs!
Lol. 
I plan to either purchase styles collection or midi collection.  Any way to find out what' contained in the midi collection and/or which collections are most compatible with the. PSR 8000 and PSR 630?  I downloaded a few style collections, but much of them are incompatible with the two boards ai have.
Thx Roger

[Roger Brenizer]

Hi Pete,

Joe Waters will be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning the styles and midi collections.  His email address may be found near the bottom of our Home page at the following link:

https://www.psrtutorial.com/

[Toril S]

Welcome Pete😀😀

[MINKYCATS]

Hi Pete,

Welcome to the Forum.

From Walsall in the UK.

Enjoy the friendliness advice available here.

Trevor (MINKYCATS)

[pedro_pedroc]

Hello, Pete.

Nice to hear from you! Welcome to the Forum. This website (and this forum) is the best repository about Yamaha Keyboards you can find.

I have the flagship Genos, as you can watch in my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/pedromseleuterio
If you want to check it, will be nice.

I hope you enjoy the forum and share your skills too.

Regards from Brazil,
Pedro Eleuterio

[ekurburski]

Welcome from Mo.  But where in Mo are you?  Its a big state.  I'm from just across your Southern border in Mtn Home Ark

[PSRPETE]

Welcome from Mo.  But where in Mo are you?  Its a big state.  I'm from just across your Southern border in Mtn Home Ark

Hey ekurburski,
Just saw your post.  My apologies.  I'm in the suburbs of the Gateway Arch.  I know people down that way...

[panos]

Hi Pete,

In order a style can play on your models it has to be in a format called SFF1
The newer models are using the SFF2 format for technical reasons.
They have more capabilities and stuff like that, I guess.

Anyway,
you can still use the Style Format 2 Converter of Jørgen's Sørensen:
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/sf2c/index.htm

Afterwards you should do some re-voicing and equalizing on the Mixer Console in order a style to sound as good as possible on your model.

There are plenty of free programs there to check them out that you can use concerning styles and midis on our keyboards.

You could also try the "Midi2Style" program and see what you can achieve on creating a style.
You could start with just the drum part.
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/midi2style/index.htm

If there is an assembly function on the style creator on your model, you could try to mix some style parts that you have made on the DAW and work on the keyboard and replace with parts from other styles when they don't work in all chords.

[mikf]

Welcome Pete.
Some of those older arrangers were very good. And of course great if you are happy with them, but some of your comments seem to indicate you may think they are more suited to your kind of music because they are older. But that is not the case and the newer ones handle all the genres, and have some advantages on sound quality and features. Especially if you want to transfer your compositions to audio formats.
Mike

[PSRPETE]

Hi Pete,

In order a style can play on your models it has to be in a format called SFF1
The newer models are using the SFF2 format for technical reasons.
They have more capabilities and stuff like that, I guess.

Anyway,
you can still use the Style Format 2 Converter of Jørgen's Sørensen:
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/sf2c/index.htm

Afterwards you should do some re-voicing and equalizing on the Mixer Console in order a style to sound as good as possible on your model.

There are plenty of free programs there to check them out that you can use concerning styles and midis on our keyboards.

You could also try the "Midi2Style" program and see what you can achieve on creating a style.
You could start with just the drum part.
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/midi2style/index.htm

If there is an assembly function on the style creator on your model, you could try to mix some style parts that you have made on the DAW and work on the keyboard and replace with parts from other styles when they don't work in all chords.

Thanks Panos.  Your suggestions are great!  🙏🏾