Best practices for using the SX700 in a band (not as an arranger)

[FrankJaco]

Hello all,

I am enjoying my SX immensely, working alone on arrangements. But once a month or so I get together with friends  (guitar player, bass, drummer) to play together (for enjoyment only, not a gig). When I do, I need to keep the keyboard in a very manual state, using only a handful of fixed keyboard voices and ensuring styles do not activate etc. Inevitably during our playing I inadvertently hit something that turns on a style and ruins the performance.

Can anyone recommend some best practices for setting up the arranger keyboard to work well as a "manual" keyboard? I am pretty sure it is possible, perhaps setting up a special registration bank and maybe even a "style" with no sound.  But I am wondering if anyone has done this and has already figured out what works best.

Thanks,

FJ

[EileenL]

Yes your best way is to set up a Registration with the voices you want to use and put your keyboard in Full keyboard mode and make sure Accoump button is in the off position. As a double back up make sure all volumes on style are set to nil before saving the registration.

[overover]

Hi FJ,

keep the ACMP button switched off in this case. If you want  to ensure that no Drums are played when the Style Start/Stop button is (accidentally) pressed, turn down the Style Volume to zero. If desired you can memorize these two settings in all Registrations you use to play with the band.

But I do it a little differently when I play with a band: I switch ACMP off manually (or I just leave it off after starting the Genos / Tyros5). I leave the Style volume at 100 (and just don't press the Start button ).

For playing "with a band" I use specially created "Voice Registrations", which I mark with a preceding "v" in the Registration Bank filename (e.g. "vPiano&Strings"). When memorizing these "Voice Regs" I only check the boxes "Voice" and "Keyboard Harmony" and, if necessary, "Pedal" as well. Important: So that the Left Voice and the Left Split Point is also memorized in your Registrations, the "Style" checkmark must also be set! In your case, you can also set the Style Volume to zero.


Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Chris

[ticktock]

Hi all,
I turn the ACMP off, plus I set one knob to style/voice volume and turn the knob so that the style volume is zero. So if I accidentally hit the style start/stop button, the style will play but no sound.
Ted

[kampot]

I always prefer to use an arranger keyboard in the band. It's much easier and FASTER to layer and split  sounds, especially in psr-sx series with 3 parts for right hand: I can have 3 different sounds for the right hand and switch between them by muting unmuting them.
Ironically on non-arranger keyboards this is more limiting.

[Enildo]

Hello Frank!

From your description, I don't know, but it looks like you're using OTS (One Touch Setting) voices. Even if you turn off the ACMP,
when you select any of the OTS voices, the system will be "armed" to operate in the accompaniment mode.
If you want to use the programmed OTS voices, save them to the Registrations without accompaniment.

Enildo