E433 playing songs from a USB

[Mick47]

Gday
Have put 200 .sty files on a USB.
Load  formatted USB ..press SONG button and hit  111 on the number key button to bring up the USB files...nothing.
Can I only do this with MIDI files..aren't. sty files a type of MIDI?
Help pls.

[overover]

Hi Mick,

A Style (style file, .sty) is loaded on the E433 in a completely different way than a Song (MIDI file, .mid).

For loading Style files (to the internal style numbers 187 - 191) from a USB stick see the detailed information in the E433 Owner's Manual, page 57 ("USB Flash Memory Operations > Loading a Style File").

It is important that the .sty files are located in the root directory of the USB stick, not in a folder on the stick. Only SFF1 styles are supported with a maximum file size of 50 KB. If the styles cannot be loaded as described on the mentioned page of the manual, there may be too many files in the root directory of the USB stick.


Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Chris

[Mick47]

Thanks Chris
So if I load a 100 or so MIDI files on the USB can I then play them somehow?
Ta Mick

[ChrisH]

Hi Mick

I think you would have the same issue on E series keyboards even with midi files .. As Chris has already said you cannot access and play style files from the USB and you however can load a maximum of 5 onto your keyboard.  Below is my story after getting an E Series

I had an E 373 and soon discovered that the E keyboards are more biased as learning keyboards (I suspect the "E" stands for "educational"  I kept mine for less than a month and bought an arranger keyboard ..Although my current S650 is over 10 years old it has a huge array of things that you won't find on the E series like 3 intros, 4 variations, 3 endings ..access to styles direct from the USB ( my 650 can handle 400 sty files on the USB) plus transpose buttons, octave up and down buttons and much much more and that's a REALLY old arranger (they all start with an S or SX if you are wealthy)  For what you are trying to do you really need an arranger keyboard (I found my used S650 for only $400) and it will do me fine until I can find a used Tyros 4 or 5 (my dream)  inside my budget. (I can't afford an SX600/700/800 or a Genos sadly!)

[overover]

Thanks Chris
So if I load a 100 or so MIDI files on the USB can I then play them somehow?
Ta Mick

Hi Mick,

To play MIDI Song files (.mid) that are on the USB stick, you need to load one file at a time onto Song Number 111 on the E433:

Press the Song button and use the dial to select #111. The MIDI files stored on the stick should then be displayed. Important: Only MIDI files that are either in the root directory or in a first/second level folder on the stick are recognized.

See also pages 24 and 53 in the E433 Owner's Manual.


Best regards,
Chris

[Mick47]

Thanks Chris x2
The only reason I mention this is  when I was using the E433 years ago I kept a forum printout saying I could do this using the USB stick. I found a copy recently.
When I loaded the USB and went to put in 111 it never worked..just went to number 11 Latin style.
So .mid files are okay and .sty aren't..in this case. ?

[SciNote]

I don't have much experience with these types of files, either on my E433 or any other keyboard.  But I do know that STY files are for styles, which are different than songs.  Of course, a style is a pattern of drums, notes, and chords designed to be a background accompaniment that plays over and over every 1 or 2 measures or so, with the ability to have different variations, fill-ins, and intros, and endings for different parts of a song.  A song is a multi-track recording that contains the melody and accompaniment of an entire song and is only meant to be played once to hear the entire song (of course, you could play it again to hear the song again).  In other words, a song is like an entire recording of a complete song, whereas a style is a short loop meant to play repeatedly.

STY files can only be loaded in five style locations starting with style number 187 on the E433, and they cannot be accessed directly from the flash drive on the E433.  They can only be accessed and used when first loaded into the blank style slots starting at 187.

However, I thought that songs could be played directly from the flash drive, or at least that more than one can be loaded into memory.  I can certainly be wrong about this, as -- like I said -- I have very little direct experience with this.  I'll have to check it out.

EDIT:

Yeah, I looked at the E433 manual and MIDI references from Yamaha online, and these resources are surprisingly ambiguous about how all this works.  So, I did a general Google search and found this on another forum...

https://www.keyboardforums.com/threads/yahama-psr-e433-mid-load-help-me-out.26726/

Lots of information on post number 2, and those of us who have been here for a while will recognize the author!  Haven't seen him here in years, but he was an expert on these types of things.  If I'm interpreting this all correctly, it looks like both scenarios are possible -- songs can be played directly from a flash drive, and songs can be loaded into the E433's memory, and they have to be MID-extension files.  However, loading songs into memory requires something called Yamaha's MusicSoft Downloader program.  As that information is now over 8 years old, I don't know if this software is still available and/or if there are updated versions of it or not.  In any case -- again, if I understand this correctly and if the information is correct -- it appears that multiple songs can be accessed at once, and that any of these external songs will have song numbers of 111 or greater on the keyboard.

[ChrisH]

Hi Guys

MusicSoft Downloader is still available if needed from Yamaha Sites .. I did download it this year so it's still current.  Not sure about playing midis from a E433 direct from a USB ..I was under the impression that you could ONLY access the USB via file control and load 5 sty files into internal memory and I assume the same with songs (but I could be wrong. The other Chris (overover) is the technical whiz  here so I'll let him answer. Most arranger keyboards will have a dedicated USB button to play files direct from the flash drive (my S650 has one just next to the song control buttons) but my previous E series keyboard had to load into user memory.

Chris

[Mick47]

Actually SciNote i remember SeaGtgruff.
Have loaded some .mid files to a USB today and it was fine.
Goes upwards from 111. My only problem was the files only played for about 20 seconds or so!.
Anyway I'm back to styles as SciNote says above the .mid files play the melody. With styles I can play the melody over it.
Did notice you could flick off melody (track control chord 4 button) with  the .mid files.

[SciNote]

Actually SciNote i remember SeaGtgruff.
Have loaded some .mid files to a USB today and it was fine.
Goes upwards from 111. My only problem was the files only played for about 20 seconds or so!.
Anyway I'm back to styles as SciNote says above the .mid files play the melody. With styles I can play the melody over it.
Did notice you could flick off melody (track control chord 4 button) with  the .mid files.

Glad that you were able to get those files to play, but strange that they only played for about 20 seconds.  I'm not sure what caused that, and I've never tried it on my keyboard for any sort of comparison.  You should actually be able to play along with song files -- at least, as long as they work like the onboard songs that you can record with the 6-track sequencer.  I know I've experimented with playing along with onboard-sequencer songs.  A main concern would be exceeding the 32-note polyphony of the keyboard if you have too much going on at once.  And if you use a song as a backing accompaniment, and you make a mistake when playing, the song will, of course, just keep on playing, and you'll have to quickly realign your playing with that new part of the song.  If you make a mistake with a regular style as your accompaniment, then you can just wait until the proper beat in the style to pick up where you left off, since they style simply repeats.

[Mick47]

Yeah the styles can be played along with much more easily.
Playing around with some settings now to suit some 50's type ballads sounds.
Ta SciNote