Good morning to all

[clsbn]

Good morning to all the members of this fantastic group. I'm a new user and for a few days I've been playing with a yamaha psr sx 700. I'm from Italy. I haven't yet explored the infinite possibilities of the instrument as an arranger, I'm studying the manuals, but every now and then I play it in stand alone mode.
I take this opportunity to ask you what is the best grand piano sound that I can install even by purchasing it to replace the default one which I find too simple. I would like a deeper, fuller, more satisfying sound even if it had to saturate the entire expansion memory.
Thank you

[Roger Brenizer]

Hi Clsbn,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for becoming a member and a supporter. I'm sure you'll learn a lot about your PSR-SX700 keyboard here on our forum and will experience many pleasurable hours playing it.

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:

https://psrtutorial.com/

Because you're a supporter, you'll also gain access to an Excel Song Index database, made available to supporting members by our good friend, Peter (XeeniX) and maintained by another good friend, Runner4Fun, which presently contains 110,248 song titles in 2,887 indexed books. This index is updated often.

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.

[Divemaster]

Hi and welcome

You'll find, as you get to know your new keyboard, that there are all sorts of settings within the 2 Menus.
E/Q and Harmony settings are all set at a factory default, for example, but that just a starting point.
Using different settings can hugely enhance pretty well all the basic voices including piano voices.

I have the same keyboard. The basic Styles, Voices and Pads are all customisable to suit how YOU want to play. Hence why it's called a Arranger.
As you get to be more familiar with your keyboard you will also find that you can download (free) many many other styles, packs and voices to customise (arrange) your keyboard the way you like it.
Other members will no doubt give you suggestions, so take advice.
At least you've studied the manuals.... That's a great start. Well done.

Enjoy making great music....

Keith.

[clsbn]

Good morning, to tell the truth I was hoping for a response like this and in fact starting from S.Art GrandPiano and modifying the EQ parameters in particular by giving a +8db to both the highs and the lows at default frequencies I obtained a significantly fuller sound.
I also added a Compressor in Heavy mode but I think I will remove it because it makes the notes played loudly unnatural because it limits them, while enhancing the notes with low velocity.

Hi and welcome

You'll find, as you get to know your new keyboard, that there are all sorts of settings within the 2 Menus.
E/Q and Harmony settings are all set at a factory default, for example, but that just a starting point.
Using different settings can hugely enhance pretty well all the basic voices including piano voices.

I have the same keyboard. The basic Styles, Voices and Pads are all customisable to suit how YOU want to play. Hence why it's called a Arranger.
As you get to be more familiar with your keyboard you will also find that you can download (free) many many other styles, packs and voices to customise (arrange) your keyboard the way you like it.
Other members will no doubt give you suggestions, so take advice.
At least you've studied the manuals.... That's a great start. Well done.

Enjoy making great music....

Keith.

[Divemaster]

I'm glad you found my reply to you useful, and thank you.
However there are other members here who will, I am sure, also give you plenty of ideas on how to get the very best sounds from your SX700.

Enjoy your playing.

Keith

[BogdanH]

...
I take this opportunity to ask you what is the best grand piano sound that I can install even by purchasing it to replace the default one which I find too simple...

Most of us have personal (subjective) opinion about "what is the best piano sound". That is, what I consider as good piano sound, maybe doesn't sound right to you. And then there's a question: do you look after "realistic" piano sound or "particular" piano sound.
There's another thing that must be said.. even built-in speakers are good enough, they can't reproduce the richness of a real piano. Of course we can adjust voice settings to get the best, but by doing that, we actually try to overcome limitations of built-in speakers and so the result maybe won't sound that good on high quality speaker system.

My personal opinion about PSR-SX piano voices.. most of them are just good enough (whatever that means).. or better than nothing. Especially S.Art piano voices, which are tuned to sound "nice" and are kinda overprocessed. I recommend that you try piano voices in Legacy section, because those are less processed and so you can easier adjust them to your liking.

I don't know where to buy hi-quality piano voices which you could install on keyboard. Right now I see two options:
1. You can download free piano "soundfonts" (here for example), which you can import in YEM and then create install pack which you can try on keyboard. These soundfonts usually unnecessary occupy a lot of keyboard memory and so, if you like some particular soundfont, you can extract samples that you actually need -which makes a voice much smaller.
2. You can buy some piano VST (this for example) -however that requires PC to be connected to keyboard. Anyway, if you like the sound, then you can also extract samples from this VST and create custom voice (in YEM) -which eliminates the need for PC.

Both above solutions can give you "the best" piano voice, but be prepared for a lot of work. I recommend you first try to customize one of existing built-in piano voice.

Bogdan

[richkeys]

I would like a deeper, fuller, more satisfying sound even if it had to saturate the entire expansion memory.

Taking up the whole expansion memory on a piano pack obviously limits the expansion capability when you need other voices beside piano. SX700 has even less expansion than 900. Perhaps a dedicated digital piano would be better if you want a high-end rich sounding piano because tweaking EQ and effects on SX instruments helps but it still might not be enough to meet your expectations. I also suggest playing with the resonance setting and even slightly increasing the velocity parameter to bring out the piano sample more. And of course try adding layers of other piano sounds and adjust the mixing levels. 

Regarding packs, CMS Sounddesign offers grand piano packs that will eat up your whole expansion memory. Whether they can meet your needs is subjective. I personally like the C7 piano from PlaysoundsUSA, it's less than $10, I like to layer it with other sounds. Also the Genos has superior piano preset voices if you can afford it. The truth is the SX700/900 pianos are quite nice and very usable for arrangers in this price level but they won't approach the richer experience of a dedicated digital piano.

[Toril S]

Buy a grand piano There are some limitations to such small instruments as our PSRs. BUT the piano voices are amazingly good if you play a little around with voice set. Give the voice some more reverb, more depth and so on. There is a menber of this forum called David Reed. He has a YouTube channel. He plays a PSR-SX900, and it sounds fantastic. Good luck hunting for the perfect piano sound. Let us know how it goes

[Divemaster]

I've said this more than a few times, and I agree entirely with Toril.
If the PIANO voice is of such importance to a buyer, then truthfully...... Buy a PIANO.....
There's not an electronic keyboard made that will sound 100% the same.
But we compromise, and without expecting miracles, most modern keyboards are pretty close and enough for most players.

Keith.

[jcook980]

Adding a subwoofer made a tremendous difference in the sound of the piano voices on my SX900. I simply connected a subwoofer from an old home theatre set-up that wasn't being used. There is a limit to how full and deep the built-in speakers on a PSR will sound without additional reinforcement, especially at the bottom.

[overover]

Welcome to the PSR Tutorial Forum, clsbn!


All the best from Germany,
Chris