My thoughts so far on YEM SAMPLES

[markchapman1976]

Hi after spending a few days playing around with PPF samples, I have some thoughts.

Some of the voices that you pay for can be reproduced just as good by using the onboard mixing console of the PSR S975 in my view, particularly string, woodwind and brass sounds.

It's worth purchasing for unique sounds that you couldn't otherwise get like opera singers etc.

The styles leave a lot to be desired in my view. I think what you get for 85 pounds in the case of a voices and styles expansion pack is very disappointing, but obviously we have a choice to buy or not.

How do we know if the sounds have been sampled from real life instruments and are not just elaborate mixes of legacy instruments?

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with me or not? Thanks.

[robinez]

With Yem you can easely create your own expansion packs, just download one of the thousends Soundfont libraries that can be found for free online and import those in your own created expansion pack in Yem. Some of the soundfonts online are really good so it's quite easy to expand your yamaha keyboard with fresh sounds.

Another possibility is to sample your own packages. I do it all the time. There is a program called SampleRobot which you can buy online, if you have a computer and are using VST's then it's as simpel as opening samplerobot and tell the wizards how many notes you want to sample, how many velocity layers and which VST (or hardware synth) you want to sample. Then press the record button in sample robot and go get a cup of coffee. In the maintime your complete sample library is created including looppoints in the samples and complete keymapping per sample for usage in your yamaha keyboard. This way i've added the Alicia Keys Piano from native instruments to my keyboard and also quite some EDM (from vengeance avenger), choirs and Pad sounds from omnisphere. It's very easy to do.

Some of the commercial Expansion packs are sampled from other libraries, but some are also recorded from real orchestra's. For instance the Kapro expansions are very high quality and sampled from real orchestra's or synths.  But these are more expensive which obviously makes sense, since the production costs will be sky high.

[markchapman1976]

Hi Robinez thankyou very much for the fantastic advice. Very insightful. I was wondering if there was any chance you could send me the Alicia Keys sample piano as I love that sound? I'm not so technically gifted as you are so it would take me a while to learn but I will certainly make it a hobby of mine in the near future. 😄👌

[DerekA]

I do think that the expansion packs sold by Yamaha are way too expensive for what you get.

They are about £150 for T5 !

[robinez]

...
I was wondering if there was any chance you could send me the Alicia Keys sample piano as I love that sound?
...

i love that sound too, it sounds fantastic on my keyboard, but i can't share it, it's sampled from my personal NI alicia keys license and sharing that sampled version would be illegal. In my opinion sampling my own libraries for personal use is fine, but sharing it is something that is not allowed which also makes sense since Native instruments created that library.

sorry for that, but i'm sure you will understand this.

But on the good site, there are so many good soundfonts out there. Even great piano sound fonts are available for free where people sampled their own piano. So i think adding new piano sounds should not be hard if you don't want to sample sounds yourself.

[markchapman1976]

Of course I see and understand what you mean. Yes thanks for the great pearls of wisdom .😄😄

[Joe H]

I do think that the expansion packs sold by Yamaha are way too expensive for what you get.

They are about £150 for T5 !

Have taken a look at Easy Sounds?

Joe H

[Pino]

Interesting post guys
I need an Acker Bilk type clarinet and a good solo violin
That's my next project, starting soon
Then I won't need to midi to my Ketron SD40.

Pino

[DerekA]

Yes, I have their 'FM Expanded' pack which is very good, especially the harmonica - instant 80s

I bought it for the S770, but it loads fine into the T5.

It's the price of the Yamaha branded one that is scandalous!

[markchapman1976]

To give you an example, a few voices from my voices and styles expansion from Yamaha Northern Europe Celtic pack, the blues harp and violins, fiddles etc, there's nothing there that can't be done on the actual keyboard itself in my view that's why I thought it was overhyped in retrospect. I will check out easy sounds though thanks

[panos]

I agree with markchapman1976 that the basic voices (except from human-choir voices) are all in our keyboards.What makes a voice to sound a little better sometimes are the effects in the original sample and not the good or better samples I believe.
Can you imagine that Yamaha or Korg are giving us "second hand" samples although we can create on our pc's better samples than they do for their keyboards?
I think not.
Most of the time it's a matter of taste and how the user is trying to find the exact sound that he likes or have in mind or listens to a sound and thinks that is exactly what he is looking for instead of spending hours and hours of searching on voice menu trying to combine different kind of sounds and effects.You need also luck for this. 

Of course on a pc you can have unlimited samples so if you know the process it is easier to load samples from that source which allready have several effects etc.

I remember that the Vst that made the biggest impression on me, was one that had not a single one preset sample and it's sound was just a simple "beeeep".
Then there were several "buttons" and stuff that manipulating the sound and from that "beep" sound you could create a piano sound,or a violin sound etc.