Best Practises For Managing Keyboard Resources

[Nova227]

I am interested in how others manage styles and Registrations on their keyboards.

My thoughts and understanding  so far. (I am using sx900)

1.From reading this form it seems that most people store styles \ reg on a usb stick which they back up regularly. Most users use one reg. bank per song.

2. Once you have selected a style and saved it into reg. and saved the reg. you can not edit the style, move or modify the name or storage location of the style file. (Many songs can be linked to the style.)

3.I have a large amount of styles that i am trying to significantly reduce. Once i have auditioned them i move them into folders ( country, jazz, etc.).

4.When i look at folder of styles that i want to keep i can not tell which are linked to registration so if i want edit or delete a style i may screw up the reg link.

5. As i write this I am considering if creating a folder for each song that contain a copy of the style(s) and registration  memory saved in it.  This would use more memory but with usb storage that is not an issue

    How do you manage your registrations and style resources ?

Thanks Nova227

[Graham UK]

We all adapt in a different way to fit our preferences.
My way is to save the Style & RGT in the same folder (Named STY & RGT).
I name the RGT with its Style Name...I then know which RGT the Style is linked to, this enables me to be able if needed to edit the Style and keep in the same folder STY & RGT.
This method is no good if you want to name RGT with Song Name, but with most genetic styles you can play with many songs.

My method suits this old man's aging brain !!!

[BogdanH]

hi Nova,
Your thinking is correct in all points (about 1st point: I keep everything in User memory and I backup on PC when necessary).

Styles, registrations, pads, settings,.. all that occupies relative small amount of memory and so only the organization matters, And if you know the dependencies between files (how they're linked), then you also know how to organize them -so you can find them fast and don't break everything in case you decide to modify something later.

About point 3... Yes, it's important to keep amount of styles reasonable (at optimal minimum). I only keep styles that I use regularly and not something that i might use one day in the future (if ever). Of course I also have few exotic styles archived on PC, mainly because if find them interesting -but literary: only a few!

Bogdan

[KurtAgain]

There are also some workshops on this topic with best practices here:
https://psrtutorial.com/lessons/workshops/index.html

(The title says "Tyros Workshops", but this also works with other keyboards.)

[DrakeM]

I use the S950 and still have the Music Finder program (thank goodness).

First off all the styles I use are on one USB stick (backed up 4 times).

I currently have created 12 gig folders that each hold 32 styles (enough for 2 one hour sets). The styles are each custom song styles and named as the song. 

I then connect each style into the Music Finder and use the KEYWORD feature to note the set number the song in used in (01 – 24). I can then search the KEYWORD "S09"  (set 9) and call up the 16 songs I will be using to perform for the next hour.

I can modify a style any way and not mess any thing up. If I want to switch it to another set I can simply change the KEYWORD to another set code. If I need to find the style, I use the Music Finder program and the EDIT button will show the location of any style on the USB stick.

I have created several special style folders that contain all the other Yamaha styles not on my keyboard.

Styles – which contains all the unique Yamaha styles that came out before my S950 keyboard by category that are not on my keyboard.

Genos – which contains all the new styles that are on the Genos that are not on my keyboard that I reworked in category folders.

SX900 – which contains all the new styles that are on the SX900 that are not on my keyboard that I reworked in category folders.

CVP809 - – which contains all the new styles that are on the CVP809 that are not on my keyboard that I reworked in category folders.

ThomannAK-X1100 – all the styles in category folders

Genos2 – which contains all the new styles that are on the Genos2 that are not on my keyboard that I reworked in category folders. 

Three free collections offered on the internet:
Piano Bar styles
Pro Styles -  contains 6 packs
Pro Style Music

These are all great sounding styles and I keep everything in order so that I may easily find styles that I can go through to find parts that I can use to create a new custom song style.

Drake

[johan]

Each time, I use a non-preset style in a registration, I make a copy of the style to the internal memory of my SX700 (all copies are stored on the same location) and my registrations refer to the styles stored on the keyboard. In this way, all registrations always work independent of the usb stick, and I can delete/rename/reorganize all I want on the usb stick. I do take a backup of the styles stored on the keyboard from time to time, just in case something goes wrong with the keyboard.

I initially tried the same approach on my S670 but the internal memory was immediately full, so this method only works with SX700/900 and genos because these keyboards have sufficient memory.

Johan

[mikf]

Everyone has slightly different needs and preferences, so they approach things in a way that suits them. But I think home arranger players fall broadly into two categories.
There are those for whom the style and panel set up is very important, and they put a lot of effort into style selection and editing and registrations. And the way they store and categorize reflects this.
Then there are the others who don't care  so much about the perfect set up or style, and just want an accompaniment and or voice that works fine, and doesn't detract from their playing/singing. They probably put a lot less effort into categorizing and storing styles and registrations.
Of course, gigging players always have to be pretty organized, so they look professional.
Mike

[Toril S]

I am a little of both. I name the styles after the song and put them in folders. But I rarely use registrations. I edit the OTS of the style, volume etc, to my liking, and that is that.

[AndyMark]

Hi Nova227
I am currently using my thoughts on sx900 and sx700.
Just as you suggest in point 5, I use a USB memory stick. The amount of USB memory is not a problem.

In the main directory of the pendrive, I create separate directories:
STYLES, REGISTRATIONS, VOICES, TRACK LISTS (based on registrations), as well as other auxiliary directories.

For each song I create a separate subdirectory (STYLE) with the name of the song and I save (copy) in it the styles that are suitable for this song. Sometimes it is difficult to immediately decide which style is the right (best). In addition, it gives you the opportunity to occasionally use another selected style, or continue working on changes to another selected style in this directory.

Usually, I save the styles selected from such a catalog in the registration bank under items 1, 2, 3, etc. I give the registration bank a name of the song and save it in the REGISTRATIONS directory.
Selected styles can be combined using subsequent registration banks.
By registering, I change the parameters of the selected style, e.g. tempo, voices, instrument volume, acoustic parameters, etc.
There are usually more than 8 (or 10) registration banks of these styles in the STYLE subdirectory. But this is not a problem, because after selecting any registration bank, the entire catalog of styles selected for a given song opens. You can then recall another previously selected style from the screen.

Moreover, by collecting styles in separate catalogues, you can freely change them and adapt them to a given song. The same styles in different catalogs may have different modifications, and there is no fear of a collision when using this style for another song.

It's hard for me to imagine a more transparent way of managing styles, registrations and, subsequently, track lists.

Regards,
AndyMark

[MadrasGiaguari]

Dear friends,

the method I use is finalized to create SongStyles.

To do that I first use the internal User area, I named "Styles" with the following process:

A. I load all Styles (Preset + any other Style downloaded from the Web) in a Folder named "To do"

B. I adjust the A Styles to my test/needs, and once I'm satisfied with the modifications I save the Style in a Folder of the corresponding genre (8 Beat, 16 Beat, Latin, Jazz, ecc.). When saving the Style I rename it partially to better identify it among the huge amount of Styles of that genre ("16 064 70sGlamPiano"): where 16 is the genre, 064 is the Tempo, 70sGlamPiano is the original name of that Style. This naming helps a lot afterwords, when you need to know from which original Style it comes. It is also quite convenient the tempo information, since Genos list the Styles in alphabetical order: this way I have the Style sequence automatically listed by the Tempo.

C. From Style to SongStyle. To select the best Style to fit a specific Song the B layout helps a lot: I know the genre of the target SongStyle, so I just open the Folder for that genre, and go straight to the Styles having a Tempo near to the one of the target SongStyles. Start playing the Song with one Style, and while playing change to another Style, and more other Styles, until I feel I found one that fits quite well.

D. Save the selected Styles in a Folder I named "NewSongs" with a new name: "CloseToYou 6 GuitarBlues"

E. Work on D StyleSong to furtherly adapt the Style to the target Song: edit the Style (if needed, specially the Drum Track, and/or use the Assembly function), change some accompaniment Voices (including DrumKit) and their volume (muting some Track by setting to 0 the volume of that Part).

F. Review existing OTS, by creating new ones or replacing from a wide library of Voice settings I have in Registration memories.

G. Save the StyleSong (again in the Folder named "NewSongs".

H. Save the new SongStyles in a free space of a specific Registration Bank (that I previously created and named "BurtBacharach"), naming that registration as "Close to you". In the same Registration I'll have other SongStyles as "Arthur's theme", "Raindrops keep falling on my head", ecc. Save the Registration Bank.

So far I have more than 450 SongStyles that I can easy recall by calling the RegistrationBank related to a certain artist. I also have more generic RegistrationBanks that include songs from various artists, grouped by genre (as "Light Rock", "Ballads&Boleros 1", "Ballads&Boleros 2", "Italian 60s", Italian 70s", "French", ecc.).

All that means that when I sit and play I can easy decide what to play and recall the wished artist or genre very fast.

Ciao

Angelo