First PSR E373 video by Jeremy See!

[vbdx66]

Hi everyone,

Jeremy See has posted a first video to do a showcase of the new sounds of the PSR E373. I find this pretty impressive 

https://youtu.be/AZcpF2SlWF0

So what do you all think?

Regards,

Vinciane

[SeaGtGruff]

Very impressive! We can only hope that the next 400-level models come out soon with these new SArtLite voices and expanded DSP effects.

[SciNote]

Very impressive for the E300 series.  The piano sounds more realistic without having to adjust the tone.  The strings sound very realistic.  Those gospel choirs are amazing for a keyboard of this price.  And the organ and electric pianos sounded very nice, as well.  If this is the E300 series, then I can only imagine what Yamaha will do with the E473 -- and if it has a decent keyboard feel, maybe then it will be time to upgrade from my E433... maybe... !

I like what the Super Articulation Lite can do, but I do not like the implementation.  That button looks very awkwardly placed where it is in the middle of the keyboard, as you could see that he had to awkwardly reach over with his left hand to activate it while playing a melody with his right hand.  I think that button should be on the left, where a pitch bend or modulation wheel would normally go.  I guess the only reason I can see for putting it in the middle of the keyboard is if you want to activate S.Art.Lite while playing a bass line with your left hand.  Additionally, many of those S.Art.Lite effects could have just as easily been incorporated into the velocity sensitivity of the keyboard -- and in fact, the Sweet Flute already does this in my E433 (and I'm sure in the other E400 keyboards above that one, as well).  With the Sweet Flute, if you hit the keys lightly, you get a normal flute sound, but if you hit the key hard, you get that aggressive, "overdriven" flute effect.  Like with that gospel choir -- I think they could have easily made it so that you get the "hmm" sound while playing lightly, but the "wow" sound when hitting the keys harder.  This way, you don't have to use one of your hands to hit a button.  But, with the separate button, I guess you can activate the S.Art.Lite effect at any volume, whereas putting the effect with velocity sensitivity would naturally require the sound to be louder when the S.Art.Lite. effect is generated.

I do like how the S.Art.Lite button has a modulation feature when it is used on a non-S.Art.Lite sound, but again, like with the modulation control of most keyboards with this feature, the button should be on the left side of the keyboard.

[vbdx66]

Hi Bob,

Actually, you can also trigger the SArt Lite! voices with the sustain pedal, which is pretty cool. 

And : the nice thing is that, actually, you don't need to upgrade your trustworthy E433. You can simply buy the E373 on top of it to have all these cool new sounds at your disposal.

As for the keybed, don't dream to loud out. I strongly suspect that the keybed of the E373 is the same as that of the E363 and that of the E473 will be the same as that of the E463 

The fact that the articulation button is also used for modulation is great. It means we eventually will have a usable Leslie effect on an E3xx keyboard - now isn't that brilliant?

I don't now about you, but I feel like a kid at Christmas time, with all the parcels under the Christmas tree 

Regards,

Vinciane

[SciNote]

Yeah, I'm aware of the sustain pedal option for the S.Art.Lite, but then, of course, you lose the sustain pedal functionality, which I use quite a bit.  And, yes, modulation control is something that has always been lacking in the Yamaha E-series keyboards -- even the E463/EW410 -- you have some modulation control with the DSP effects and knobs, but not a true vibrato.  This S.Art.Lite button -- when used with a non S.Art.Lite voice -- looks to finally change that, though I'm not 100% sure if that modulation is a true vibrato or another type of modulation.  In any case, it's nice that it's there -- especially on the E300 series.

As far as a Leslie effect, it is already available on the E463/EW410, and was also included in the E453/EW400.  It's one of the 10 DSP effects, and it's speed and depth can be controlled by the live-control knobs.  It's been a while since I played with it, and been quite a while since I've even seen an E453 or EW400, but I remember that the effect was too subtle on the E453/EW400, even on its highest depth setting, whereas Yamaha seemed to correct that on the E463/EW410.

I did find another video from Jeremy See on YouTube about this keyboard, and there, he explained that Yamaha made the S.Art.Lite effects controlled by a button, instead of by keyboard velocity, to allow beginners (who might not yet have developed much control over the force used to hit the keys) to more easily take advantage of these effects.  Still, a the ability to select whether hard velocity triggers S.Art.Lite would've been nice.

Another thing I saw, which I believe I saw in the other video that I found, is that Yamaha is including a freeze function with this keyboard.  Apparently, you can select to freeze the style, transpose, and maybe even the voices when switching between registrations.  That is a very nice feature.  On the E400 series, I kind of program a freeze function for styles by saving each registration without a style (by simply making sure that the "song" button is selected before saving a registration), which allows me to easily change registration sounds while playing without changing the style at the same time.  The freeze function should make that more intuitive.

As for transpose, that makes perfect sense.  I always thought that it was strange that, at least on the E400 keyboards, Yamaha saves the transpose setting to a specific registration.  Normally, if I play a song in, say, the key of D, the main reason that I'd want to play it in another key is if I'm playing along with a singer or band that sings/plays that song in a different key -- and in that case, I would want all of my sounds/registrations to be transposed, not just one or two of them, and I would not want to go into each registration and reprogram them for a different transpose key.  So, transpose freeze should make this possible, as well.

Here's the other video I found...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrxrWUizI2c