Thinking about making styles creation tutorial on Youtube

[BogdanH]

My goal is to make a few videos, where I would try to explain how to start with styles creation in an easy to understand way.
Because I'm not some pro Youtuber, there are many "how to do it" obstacles.. the most important being:
1. My spoken english is very bad (yeah, I know)
2. I don't have a studio nor any pro equipment

Regardless, what I'm hoping for is, that audience will still be able to learn something from my videos. But how can I judge that?
And that's why I made this post.
I have already uploaded first video, which at this point is not public yet. Here's the link to that video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i1-QHu4e4s

If you're interested in that topic, then please take time to watch it and tell me your opinion. What I'm mostly interested on is, if my spoken english is understandable enough. And keep in mind, content is meant for beginners.
Making such content is quite time consuming and so I'm wondering if I should continue on that, or simply forget about this idea.

Thank you for commenting
Bogdan

[porterma]

Hi Bogden,
I think this is an excellent project idea for you to pursue.
And yes, I feel your English is just fine to understand.
However, I found the focus of this video was on "understanding chords" not on "style creation" so many people looking at it might be disappointed with the content of this video.
It might be better to start with the actual "style creation" function and then add in a section on chord understanding when it is necessary to the style creation task.
Here is a link to a very good basic style creation video - the only criticism is that he goes too fast through the steps for beginners, assuming that the audience knows more that than they might. here is the link: https://www.keyboarder-forum.de/
Hope this helps and I look forward to your next video.

Mark

[BogdanH]

hi Mark,
Yes, I know.. many would like to jump directly into style creation. When (or if) I make next video, they will have a chance to do that by simply skipping this video -because it's boring 
The reason why I decided for this approach is, so I don't need to jump back and forth while I explain actual style creation stuff. I try to avoid that, because it can easily happen that the viewer simply gets lost in explanation. For example.. In certain stage of style creation, being familiar with chord inversion is crucial and if I then start to explain about that (and some don't know what that is, I assume), many would say "hey, that's too complicated".
The second reason is, I wish to prepare the viewer, so he gets and idea of how much (basic) knowledge is needed for style creation. And finally, hopefully all what's needed to know (before starting) is inside one single video, which viewer can check anytime later.
How to say.. I'm just trying not to forget how it was, when I knew nothing 

Thank you very much for your feedback!
Bogdan

[richkeys]

Bogdan,

Great idea. I have not had a chance to watch your video yet. I can certainly give you some issues I am having with Style Creator from a very beginner's perspective. I can list them out for you when I get the chance.

Rich

[Rick D.]

Bogdan,

This is great for a lot of beginners to start with the basics. Yes most of us are beyond this, but it is good that you started at the very beginning of style creation. Advanced players can jump to the next video when you post it.

Your English is fine, the subtitles are a bit off, but that happens on most videos, it's not your fault.

Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks,

Rick D.

[Bill]

Hi Bogdan

Great Idea and certainly nothing wrong with your english.

However to make a successful series of video's you need to understand a couple of things

1 Make it interesting.
2 Make it sound as though the task is achievable and not going to be very difficult.
3 Introduce some enthusiasm / excitement / fun into the presentation.

I wish you lots of success.
Bill

[mikf]

Bogdan, admirable that you  are willing to put the time in to help people. I have a couple of comments that you can take or leave as suits you.
1. Your English is very good, and more than understandable. But you need to write a script. Your thinking time sorting out what you want to say, thinking of the words, is sometimes a bit too long. This might be a bit worse because you are trying to do it in a foreign language, but my experience in helping people with any kind of public speaking, or making videos, is that it's very common, even when not in a foreign language. People don't realize how many pregnant pauses they are using, or how long they are,  until they hear it played back!
2. Since this is for beginners, I think you may not be starting in the right place with the stuff about chords - ie basic music theory. The fact is that in Style creating for beginners, they should start with simple modifications to styles, like changing and saving voice changes, cutting and pasting between styles, making very small changes to riffs or adding some additional accompaniment lines to existing styles, saving them etc. You dont need to know much about chords or other music theory to do this. You could even say that anyone who needs to understand something as basic as how to play a chord, is getting the cart before the horse if they are jumping into style creation.
To get started it is more about grasping the  basics of the operating system than music theory. In fact there isn't that much need to understand chord theory even for some quite advanced style creation. And even then it becomes more about the wider subject of harmony, not just chords, things like basic bass riffs etc. The only thing a beginner needs to understand relating to chords is that everything has to be done under ONE chord, ie Cmaj7. That is a quite difficult concept to grasp initially. To be able to envisage how it sounds with chord changes in playback, when there are no chord changes in style creation.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your project.
Mike

[BogdanH]

Thank you all!

@Rich
I'm pretty sure that I will probably forget to mention one thing or another -that happens if we try to tell as much possible in very short time. I have no idea how many videos are needed to explain everything, but I do expect additional questions/suggestions, of course.
I think I'll get a better picture after a few more videos.

@Bill
Thank you for suggestions. As I have mentioned, I was aware that this first video (the topic) might be boring for many. And there's my presentation... is my first one and I realize I sound kinda stiff. I hope next video to be more relaxing (thanks to your comments about my english).
Yes, point 2 (and 3) is very important and is the reason why I decided for that: to encourage others.

@Mike -I just saw your post
Thank you for suggestions, I really appreciate.
Yes, preparing with script... I practiced few times what I'm about to explain. The problem is not that I didn't know what to explain next... it's just at at certain point I can't find the right words (in english). I guess that's something that requires a lot of practicing. I really hope for improvement in next video.
As I have mentioned, those who think that they already know basics (about chords), I expect they will simply skip that video after a minute -that's ok.
Now, although I will try to present everything as "easy enough" (to encourage), I will note hide the reality: certain knowledge simply is required for successful style editing or creation. And that includes everything what I said in that video about chords.
For example: I'm aware that no beginner plays songs in B-flat Maj key. However, even if the style is to be used in C Maj only, there is (or may be) the need to know B-flat Maj as well -otherwise style won't work as expected (or the way we wish it to work). The same is true for i.e. chord inversions, which I will try to demonstrate and prove.
What I'm trying to make is not "just another tutorial" about how to shuffle content from one style to another -which only gives "is good enough" result.
Will I succeed? No idea 

Greetings,
Bogdan

[robinez]

Hi BogdanH,

i've watched the video and I think it's a great idea to create a style creation series for beginners.

Here are my tips based on my experience creating tutorials:
- As Mike suggested, create a storyboard upfront, this can be a list but it will keep you focused on the things you want to mention
- When starting the video immediately (very important) start with the topic of your choice, now we have to wait 10 seconds before you start your first word, nowadays within seconds people go to the next video, so start directly with playing or start talking immediately with what you are going to show
- Then the most important part, keep everything as short as possible, the pace of a video is really important, the video now takes around 10 minutes to show how to play a major or minor chord, nobody will watch that, that should be explained in 4 minutes max for both chords together
- create tutorials for the right audience, in this case, if people don't know how to play a major or minor chord then creating their own styles is way to difficult, you are targeting the wrong audience with this video, if absolute beginners with no knowledge how to play is your target audience then you can focus for instance on the style assembly function which is much more easy to learn for beginners.

So my advice would be keep your videos as short as possible and give the information you want to share to the right audience. In my tutorials I've made a different decision, my tutorials are between 20 and 30 minutes each which to be honest is way to long, but my target audience are the more technical keyboard users that want to do the more complicated things on a keyboard, so in one tutorial I simplify a lot of the concepts but I give a lot of extra information on how to apply those techniques. But beginners will find those tutorials way to complicated and people that don't have that keyboard will loose interest within seconds because I don't give demos in them. So this is also an approach you can take if you want, then you accept that the amount of viewers will be lower than usual but the people that do watch it will watch the entire videos (which you can see in the analytics).

So the things above are some things you can consider, but if you have different ideas about it, then just follow your own path. Creating one tutorial can take up till 10 hours, so it's your take on what you want to share and what you think is good for the target audience you have in mind. 

But I really believe that an indepth tutorial series for the yamaha style creation area is a good idea!

[DrakeM]

Your english is fine. I did change the playback speed of your video from normal speed to +1.5 times.
That was a very good detailed lesson on chords.

I don't know what video software you are using but I use Shotcut (which is freeware) in case you were interested as it is easy to learn to edit videos.

https://www.shotcut.org/

[dlepera]

Hello Bogdan.
   I think your project is a fantastic idea!. I say that because for once I am hearing that someone is willing to bring the Sytles Creation down to a level that a newbie like me can understand. I have seen a number of them for our SX700 & Sx900 and at the end of it all one key thing was always missing, and that was the basic understanding of Chords. So you are hitting this nail right on the head.

   Now so that you understand a little about your audience, you have those that know nothing about the basics of chords or even comfortable playing them due to their lack of understanding and how to create a chord. Then there is me that can grab any key on the keyboard and give you any chord combination in harmony.

  The problem is that I play by ear and I can play anything I hear really well and on key. Can't read a single note of music nor can I play you a chord by name. Odd right? I lack the theory and just by watching your video right now, WOW, now I know what a major, minor chord is and with the simple math behind it.


  Sounds silly right, but there are a lot of us out there that make these instruments dance for us sounding great but can not explain how we do it because we are missing the ingredient, theory. 
Now if I  can, let me give you my comments on the video and please understand that I do not know much about Utube except to watch videos created by others and this is my perspective. 


1. First of all don't worry about your language, it is fine and well understood.
2. Video quality, camera stability, sound/acoustics is really good.
3. Your title for the video may need to be more descriptive as my first impression was that you were going to get right into Style Creator, but the focus was on Chords. It should also state the target keyboard so people know exactly what they are going to view before opening the video to find out that its is for a keyboard that they are not interested in.
4. So maybe something like " Yamaha PSR-SX Style Creator Fundamentals for Beginners  Part 1 - CHORD Basics
5. Now when the video starts Immediately recap the purpose of the video in a short sentence and the audience expectation/take away.
6. Now get into the meat of the video, by starting at a slow pace at first for each subject... ie: Major Chord explanation - re-iterate a couple times but at a slightly quicker pace on the second and or third example of it.
   Then introduce your Minor , Inversion , etc at the same pace.
7. A nice recap a the end would also help showing an example quickly of the chord types.
8. Final comment stating to view Part 2 giving the title of that video and saying please click on my link below to view, or however the viewer can get to the next sequence video.
9. Of course not sure how all that other stuff works with subscribe, thumbs up, etc... I don't  do any of that stuff. Maybe I should to give the authors credit for their work, don't know. I figure the view count does it all.

The mathematical theory is very important and what makes or breaks the understanding of the chords I think.

  If I were to rate your video just on the educational take away for me right now, it would be a 10/10 because I know the basic and most important chord names and the math behind the fingering position.  The 7th, diminished now are even easier for me to understand although I do play they a lot.

  So in conclusion Bogdan, I am impressed not only with your incentive to reach out and educate people at my level, but your tenacity to do this putting aside what you may consider a language limitation. I admire you for that.   GR8888888T  start!
                          dom
 

[rphillipchuk]

Hello Bogdan.
 
The mathematical theory is very important and what makes or breaks the understanding of the chords I think.

  If I were to rate your video just on the educational take away for me right now, it would be a 10/10 because I know the basic and most important chord names and the math behind the fingering position.  The 7th, diminished now are even easier for me to understand although I do play they a lot.

  So in conclusion Bogdan, I am impressed not only with your incentive to reach out and educate people at my level, but your tenacity to do this putting aside what you may consider a language limitation. I admire you for that.   GR8888888T  start!
                          dom

+100000000000 !!!!

[richkeys]

Bogdan,
I viewed your video and have a few comments and a wish list of topics from my beginner's perspective for your project. These are not questions for you to answer now.

My opinion is that you leave out the chord creation video. It can be on your YouTube channel but not part of your Style Creator videos. I agree that you need to prepare an outline for your lessons. And do you plan on showing your SX screen enlarged? That would be very important.

Pattern Length: devote some time on what a measure is (pattern length parameter) in relation to time signature and why we might choose to begin with 1 or 2 or 4 or more lengths for a style

Recording: devote a good amount of time telling us the basic procedural steps to record patterns. Example:  1. turn metronome on 2. press sync start 3. Make sure we record the correct number of measures so that it loops properly without gaps (unenven gaps happen a lot with me). Then what is the best setting to quantize the recording.

Overdubbing: explain how overdubbing works and the proper procedure to do it so that it doesn't erase the first recorded pattern. I had trouble with overdubbing when I tried it. The manual says things like this: "When creating a Style based on an existing internal Style, overdub recording is applied only to the rhythm channels. For all other channels (except rhythm), you need to delete the original data before recording."

Assembly: I love this feature but there are questions. This is where Leigh's recent video helped us to understand how to gradually build up detail going from varA to varD by copying style parts from the previous variation and building on that in the next one.  Also, if we are not building a style from scratch, can for example a Chord 1 track be replaced with a Chord 2 track from another style? Or can a Chord 1 only be replaced with another Chord 1? Can a Bass track be replaced with a Chord track, and if so, is that not recommended?

Drum kits & rhythms: some of us have zero experience creating drum patterns using a drum kit, even simple patterns. What is the best approach to creating these? When would we use a whole drum kit (these seem to usually be on Rhythm 2) and when would we use a single percussion voice (these seem to usually be on Rhythm 1). Why did Yamaha set it up this way? Can the drum kit be placed on Rhythm 1?

Intro & Endings: I am less interested in learning how to do these, at least in the beginning of the learning process. As I mentioned in another post, I believe these involve songwriting skills that can't easily be taught in a style tutorial.

Rich

[dlepera]

Hi Bogdah,
   
   Rich has described a good structure.  I posted a link of someone who has a multi-part video on Style creator that might help I think.  I have watched all of his and they come close to what I can understand, however there are some foundational bricks that are missing for me to fully understand and be able to successfully create a style. Rich's  points to describe what a measure, time signature is, even why use a metronome , as simple thing like that I have no idea why it is necessary for example.  Anyway my dumb revelations.
  Here is the link for all it's worth.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTs5mqxy8TY

         dom

[richkeys]

Dom,

Same for me. The Arranger Tutorial videos are a good reference but he just talks way too fast to fully understand.

Rich

[BogdanH]

Again, thank you all for showing the interest.
Some answers to your comments, so you get a better idea of what I try to accomplish..

@robinez
I have watched some of your videos and all I can say is: compliments for your presentation. About my controversial Chords video.. Yes, 4 minutes would maybe be enough -but only if we already have some basic knowledge. I'm targeting the audience who says "I can can play melodies (by ear) which is mostly C-key I think, because I'm not sure what that means". And so I tried to explain how chords are made up and how to find (remember) them.

How can one play a song (by ear) without knowing even a little about chords? Is possible, of course -it only requires certain musical talent.
But the thing is, in one of the next videos I will say "to accomplish this, you need to record note sequence in C#Maj" -and I need to be sure that the person will know what I'm talking about and able to find that chord. Yes, after a while we forget the troubles that a beginner has.
Other than that... making a video tutorial requires certain talent as well. Some have it and some don't. I will try my best, of course, but I don't expect that audience would enjoy watching my videos. However, I do expect that they will learn something.

@Drake
Thank you for suggesting Shortcut editor. I didn't know about that software and so I will definitely check it. Currently I'm using DaVinci Resolve simply because it's the only one that has hardware re-coding ability (is extremely fast).

@dom

The problem is that I play by ear and I can play anything I hear really well and on key. Can't read a single note of music nor can I play you a chord by name. Odd right? I lack the theory and just by watching your video right now, WOW, now I know what a major, minor chord is and with the simple math behind it.

Is not odd at all! Most hobby musicians are (or were) in that situation and I think that's the audience that I'm targeting.
The video that you're referring to... he made a series of great videos and I also learned from them. But  I agree that he is a bit fast with explanations -I wished he would explain certain things more in detail.

@rich
Chord video will probably stay as it is.. because once I'm in actual style creation, I don't wish make any further explanations about chords. Anyway, I will make it public just before I publish my next video.
I'm aware that keyboard display must be clearly visible (enlarged). Sadly, SX700 doesn't have video output and so I will probably use two cameras.
I plan to cover and answer all topics that you have mentioned (and there's more) -is actually main reason why I decided to do all that.

Next video (in a few days, I hope) will be about actual style creation and I already know: many expect that a single video will cover enough to be able to start creating styles. It won't.. it just can't. I think it will be mostly about explaining Basic page in Style Creator.

Greetings to all,
Bogdan

[dlepera]

Hello Boghan,

   Go with your plan. Only you know the progression that you want to take and how it can be done with all the specifications that you have to consider and work involved to make this happen. 

    I am sure that whatever you put together will bring good value knowledge. I always say "nothing ventured, nothing gained".  You are lucky that you have good support here from others that have done this before and you can not ask for a better group of people to be there right behind you should you need them.

     Good Luck and can't wait to see what is next.

             dom

[Amwilburn]

Your English is great, sounds cool! (Bogdan is a traditional Romanian name, but your accent sounds Russian/Ukranian, which is one of the coolest accents around).

I agree with Mark (porterma) I was expecting actual intruductory steps, not explanations on chords, but you're quite clear and easy to understand

Mark

[BogdanH]

hi Mark,
Hahaha... you're quite right, slovenian language has slavic roots and so to most foreigners it sounds like russian language -which I don't understand at all 
Ok, I assumed that I won't sound like George Clooney, but I'm happy to know that I'm at least understood.

Yeah, chords. I know it looks so unnecessary for styles creation, once we know what's all about -but isn't that always the case? Anyway, I plan a surprise in one of next videos which will prove the opposite: to make a style in the right way (to sound properly), we just need to know about chords -even if style is used only in C key. And to demonstrate that, I wish to be sure that audience knows what I will talk about.
Actually, that surprise (or secret, for many) is the main reason why I decided to make the tutorial.

The main problem I have is, how to squeeze as much as possible into few minutes of video. Because everything what I will try to explain should also be shown with examples -otherwise it's pointless, I think.

Thank you very much for kind feedback!
Bogdan

[mikf]

I'm interested to hear this chord 'secret', because currently I don't see how the different key (I think this is what you mean when you say chords) has that much effect in beginner style creation. The whole concept of auto accompaniment is that it works in any key. In fact, chord knowledge really hardly matters initially because everything is programmed around one chord Cmaj7. The firmware calculates how that works when live playing Ebdim.
Yes, later, you need to understand about setting range parameters so inversions don't trigger a different octave. And when programming intros and endings it can get complicated because they include chord changes. But that is really quite an advanced issue and seldom a problem for beginners in style creation. People who get to that point are usually pretty sophisticated in their arrangements, understanding of harmony, chord structure etc, and would already grasp this.
Mike

[BogdanH]

hello Mike,
Ok, the word "secret" is probably a bit exaggerated. What I mean is just something that I never heard someone would mention. It doesn't make a difference to me if style creator is beginner or advanced user: important is, it should be done properly. That is, result should sound exactly the way style creator wish. Means, not depending on luck or on "well, that's how Yamaha happens to work".

For example... there's a preset style on SX700/900 called Beguine. If we check Pad channel, we can see that it's set for CMaj7 and only contains three notes playing simultaneously: B2-E3-G3 -which is Emin chord! If we play style in Cmaj the chord will sound as Cmaj (as expected). The question is, why is the Pad recorded in Emin and not in Cmaj (C3-E3-G3)?

It doesn't make a difference who creates a style (beginner or expert).. without knowing the answers it's impossible to create proper sounding style.
On the other hand, it's quite possible that majority already knows the answer. Well, in this case I can only say "I couldn't find it in manual" 

Greetings,
Bogdan

[mikf]

Bogdan
To be honest, I am not sure what you think you see here. 
When a style is created the creator decides which notes will play against each selected chord. In this case the style creator has decided to play the notes B E G on the pad channel when a Cmaj7 is played. The pad is created in Cmaj7 not E min and these are all allowed notes in Cmaj7. Those are notes that the creator decided were appropriate to his style arrangement. The sequence of the notes is decided by the style creator. He probably chose them because the bass was covering the C.
If it is not a pad channel they could use any notes that are scale tones in Cmaj7, but in a pad channel they are restricted to the notes of the Cmaj7 chord, C E G B, but not the order of the notes.
It is true that B E G are also the second inversion of the Emin chord, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't mean the pad was created in E min. If  you play Emin chord it will not play those notes, it will play different notes in line with the  note transposition table.
The fact is that the Pad channel is the simplest thing there is in style creation. It's hard to go wrong because it only allows you to play 4 notes, and they are all part of the Cmaj7 chord. And they play continuously, with smooth changes. Basically it is almost impossible to get it wrong and child's play compared to programming riffs and phrases on other channels that not only have to work smoothly with every chord played, but with rapid chord changes in the same bar. That takes a good grasp of how note transposition works.
Note transposition and how it works when you play minor chords, extended chords, altered chords, is a complicated thing within the firmware on Yamaha arrangers. The way you typically confirm that the style is sounding the way you intend with different chords played is to keep checking as you program parts by saving, then dropping into live playing and trying a variety of chords and chord changes.

Mike

[BogdanH]

hello Mike,

...
In this case the style creator has decided to play the notes B E G on the pad channel when a Cmaj7 is played...

-wrong. Even creator chose B E G, if Cmaj is played, notes C E G will sound (if we play Cmaj, then we don't wish to hear some channel playing Emin). That is, creator wished C E G to sound, so why didn't he simply record C E G notes?

...He probably chose them because the bass was covering the C.

-probably is wrong guessing in this case. As I just said, Cmaj is playing C note.

The fact is that the Pad channel is the simplest thing there is in style creation.

-everything is easy once we understand how it works... but many don't and that's why I decided to try making a short series of videos.
Actually, this discussion changed my mind: I think will start with exactly this topic.

Bogdan

[Graham UK]

Bogdan. I applaud you for wanting to take the Style making challengeYour test video was fine, English is good and has the benefit of you speaking slowly.
All Styles are made using a CMaj7 so to construct styles it's not necessary to learn general chords.

All forums face the same problem of Forum members not appreciating / giving a thank you to replies.
If you decide to go ahead with style making tutorial it's important that you enjoy the process....I'll follow your article with interest.

[mikf]

Bogdan
The style creator builds the arrangement and harmony from individual notes. He decides which notes are played in which order in which channels within the rules. That is the art of arranging. The notes do not have to be in triad sequence - that is the arrangers decision. They only have to obey the rules. In the pad and chord channels they only allow the 4 notes of the Cmaj7 chord. But they do not have to be played in triad order or even in the same octave. In fact he doesn't even have to play a chord, it can be just one note, as long as it is an allowed note.
When chords are played in real time, the NTT algorithm replaces these notes to suit the chord played. That will then duplicate the intended harmony in every chord. I don't believe it will replace his chosen notes with simple first  inversion triads - it replaces them with equivalent notes in the chord being played via NTT algorithms and that way the arrangers intended harmony is reproduced in every chord.
So if in real time playing he plays Cmaj7 he should get the B, if he plays C 7, I believe the the algorithm will change the B to Bb, and if he plays C maj it should eliminate the B and replace it with C. I think this is how NTT works,
If the arranger wished to use a simple first inversion triad he would indeed play C E G. Then he will get that first inversion triad even when he plays C maj7. But in the case you quote he apparently did not want that. That doesn't change the chord. It's still Cmaj7.
It gets more complicated in non chord channels where all the scale tones of Cmaj7 are allowed. So for example a bass riff needs to work as intended when the chord changes to diminished, minor etc. And there are more rules regarding range which can do peculiar things, shifting notes by an unexpected octave if not set properly
This can actually all be quite difficult. And it is this kind of difficulty that makes style creation complicated. It is why most people never get beyond things like style assembly, instrument and mix alterations and simple edits of existing styles.
I am not saying you shouldn't go ahead, but that you may need to spend some time understanding exactly how NTT  algorithms work before you jump into this. You don't want to give misleading information.
Mike

[NativeAngels]

Congratulations on your first tutorial,credit to you for your time and effort.
Hope you continue with future projects.

[BogdanH]

Here's my next video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRYIV7F5i6c

Same as my first video, this video isn't published yet. I will publish both after I make my next video.
I'm sorry for poor display quality -that's all I could get from my camera. I've tried using separate (older) camera to record display only, but it has focus issues. Anyway, I hope you will understand what I'm doing.

I hope you'll find this video more interesting than the previous one 

Bogdan

[Rick D.]

Bogdan,

Thank you for being so detailed in your explanations. I am really enjoying your tutorials. Can't wait for #3.

Thanks,

Rick D.

[Amwilburn]

Nicely done! Although I wish your PIP screen were larger, but your explanation and walkthrough are very clear, Bogdan!

Mark

[BogdanH]

hi, Rick & Mark

Mark, yes I know! I first tried with a bit larger PIP (there's enough space on the left upper area), but that didn't improve clarity
I was hoping my older camera would do better job, but it was even worse. I guess I don't have enough light in my room (cloudy days lately). I can only use what I have and sadly, SX700 doesn't have hdmi output.

Thank you both for commenting,
Bogdan