Olá do Brasil from an old former Roland addict...

[RagJose]

Hello fellow Yammers... maybe some of you will recognize my nickname from the old Roland Arrangers Group, started as an e-mail list in the early nineties and active for more than 10 years.  The group was created by Bob Richie, Marsha Summers, Jim Blackman and other early pioneers, to exchange views, questions and hints among owners of Roland arranger keyboards.  Roland's manuals were often unclear and incomplete, and the collaboration among members proved itself essential, mainly as each new model reached the shelves.  For several years the group supported owners of E70, E86, E96, G800, G1000 and VA7 keyboards.  I consecutively owned each of these models except for the VA7, and served as a FAQ/TnT (Tips&Tricks) Editor for the group for several years, until the site that hosted our content was deactivated.

By that time, we were getting disappointed about the shortcomings of Roland's models as compared to Yamaha's, and the group kind of faded away as more and more participants moved on to the competition.  The last messages were exchanged in 2006.  Anyhow, I recall with pride and nostalgy our collaborative struggle and names like Bob Rockwell, Tom G., Luc Janssens, Serge Stodolnik, Mike Cover, Luke O'Malley, Silvano Marucco, Okan Altug, Frank Bertram, Vallury Prabakhar, Marie Alicata, Marcel Pertus, Hugh Barwell, Willem Schaaij, Jure Klancar, Kim Winther, Fran Carango and many others.  I know that quite a few of them are no longer among us.  On the other hand, I once in a while came across some of them in Yammy groups, after having myself made the move and started as a Yammer with a PSR-640, then a PSR-2100, then a PSR-3000 (still a favorite).

Recently I was able to get a PSR-SX900 and guess it has a good chance of being my final acquisition.  I gigged a lot for almost 30 years, but now I'm considering mostly studio work, although keeping the 3000 for church services and elderly home singalongs I still perform.

The SX900 is quite a step from its predecessors, and a complaint I have is about how Yamaha reorganized the Styles.  "Ballad", "Country" and "Swing&Jazz" are gone, and the related styles were scattered between "Pop and Rock", "Dance" and "Jazz" categories.  The latter includes Pops and Ballads.  Moreover, as Yamaha' creativity traditionally has it, many 16-beat and 6/8 style names bear no hint about their time signature.  Also, like in previous models, under "Ballroom", "Movie&Show", "Entertainer" and "World" we find styles belonging to all categories.  It's quite a challenge to find the most suitable style for a song, at least before an extensive experience with the particular keyboard model is achieved.  The 3000 has "just" 240 internal styles.  The SX900 has 525.

I eventually took over the task of classifying each of the SX900 styles under one of 12 categories:

• Free (no noticeable beats)
• 3B (Waltzes)
• 8B (Ballads, softer Pop)
• 12B (6/8 by convention, but 12/8 in fact)
• 16B (Ballads, slower Pop)
• Dance (mostly with Bass Drum on every beat)
• Lat (all colors of Latin except Brazilian)
• Mch (Marches)
• MPB (Brazilian popular music - Bossa, Samba etc.)
• MRB (Brazilian regional music - our "country" styles)
• PRk (Pop and Rock, faster styles)
• SJz (Swing and Jazz)

The job took me several days, but the resulting list proved quite useful to expedite finding a style for a given song, either a new one or one played on a previous keyboard.  The default tempo of each style, which I recorded along with its assigned category, helps in further narrowing down the choices.  I will be happy to share this list, as an Excel spreadsheet, with anyone interested.

Cheers -- José

P.S.: About me... I'm 70, graduated in Electronic Engineering, worked my whole professional career at INPE (Brazilian National Institute for Space Research), and retired in 2005.  Gigged as a second job since 1990.

[Roger Brenizer]

Hi José,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for becoming a member.  I'm sure you'll learn a great deal about your new PSR-SX900 keyboard here on the 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:

http://psrtutorial.com/

Should you later decide to become a supporting member, which will include lifetime membership, other forum boards will become available to you, as well as a wealth of additional musical knowledge; however, there is absolutely no obligation to do so.  You may also use the following link to discover the full benefit of becoming a Supporting Member of the PSR Tutorial.

http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,15536.0.html

You'll also gain access to an Excel Song Index database, made available to supporting members by our good friend Peter (XeeniX), which presently contains 85,000 plus song titles in almost 2,300 indexed books.  This index is updated often.

In lieu of making a donation only, you may also order any of the websites resources, which can be found at the following link:

http://psrtutorial.com/cdrom/productsum.html

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.

[RagJose]

Thanks for the welcome, Roger.

On your suggestion, I looked up Joe Water's page on Supporting and, not ruling out other forms of support, I guess I could contribute the Excel spreadsheet I mentioned in my introductory post - the "map" to help finding the most suitable internal style for a song, amidst Yamaha's somewhat mixed up Style categories and names.  I have it for the SX900 and also for the 3000.

I just noticed Scott Langholff published an Article in 2003 where he mentions his own ad hoc style categories (which resemble mine, BTW, though more detailed), but the article focus seems to be on what to do after you have made your style choices.  I feel the spreadsheets I put together are useful for making the choices themselves, not requiring (though facilitating) to copy the internal styles to dedicated User folders.

If I may, I would appreciate knowing how to submit these spreadsheets as an Article to the site, along with some hints on using them.

Regards - José.

[Roger Brenizer]

You may submit your spreadsheets to PsrStyles.com.

The contact information may also be found on the Home page of our main website, near the bottom of the page.  The link follows:

https://psrtutorial.com/

[Toril S]

Hello Jose!
Welcome to the forum!
I believe a few of your Roland friends are here, at least Maria Alicata is here, and has a Performers page, and she has beautiful music. I have my PSR 2100 still, but have upgraded to newer models as well.
Hope to hear your music here All the best from Toril in Trondheim.

[RagJose]

Hello Jose!
Welcome to the forum!
I believe a few of your Roland friends are here, at least Maria Alicata is here, and has a Performers page, and she has beautiful music. I have my PSR 2100 still, but have upgraded to newer models as well.
Hope to hear your music here All the best from Toril in Trondheim.

Thanks for the warm welcome, Toril.  Visited your pages here and at YouTube.  Quite nice and enjoyable.  Congrats!  I intended to respond with a couple of examples of my music, but as mp3 attachments are not allowed, I copied them to the "cloud", at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hFg-2agmM0RjJMuTQGWJSlM5ktIkkxPD?usp=sharing, for your (and anyone interested, BTW) audition when convenient.  "TicoTico..." was recorded with the S950 which I no longer have, as I traded it in for the SX900.  The other two were recorded with my 3000.  Oh, and the prefix in each title is the release year of the song, not the year of my recording .

Cheers -- José.

[Aquilauno]

  Nice songs.... great job... what styles you used?...

[attachment deleted by admin]

[RagJose]

Thanks, Aquilauno!

For "TicoTico" it was BrazilianSamba from the S950; for "GreenFields", 3K's 12-8Ballad; and for "AndIloveHer, 3K's 8BeatBallad.

[tomtomsf]

Hi and Welcome Jose!

I certainly remember you from a long time ago when I also played a Roland (along with my Technics, Korg and Yamaha keyboards). I am still here but not very active anymore. I'm not playing as much these days, so not much to contribute. I still like to see what everyone is up to and many members, like us, have been acquainted around the world for many years.

Tom G.
Roland E-96
Roland EM-2000
and the list goes on 

[RagJose]

Well hello Tom!!  How nice to meet you again!

I still have the photo you sent me time ago and use now as your profile picture.  And the attached photo showing 4 keyboards staged at your home around 2000.  You had already a PSR back then...

I also keep (sentimental reasons) files exchanged during our joint quest, along with Luc Janssens, to support Okan Altug in writing a program to manage the G1000/EM2000 registration memories (User Programs, in Roland's lingo).  Silvano Marucco provided the hex editors we used in mapping their internal file structure.  Can't recall whether anybody else also contributed, but there was a cheering crowd following the development.  Fond memories...

Hope you are in good shape.  Keep playing, it's good for your health 

Cheers -- José

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Toril S]

Hello Jose. Thanks for your kind words about my music! I listened to your songs. Very nice! And outstanding vocal! Keep them coming!

[tomtomsf]

That is very cool, Jose. Thanks for the memories! I don't have any of those boards any more, but I do have my Tyros 4 and my Korg Pa1X.

I intend to make it a plan to get back to them more regularly. I miss playing.

Well hello Tom!!  How nice to meet you again!

I still have the photo you sent me time ago and use now as your profile picture.  And the attached photo showing 4 keyboards staged at your home around 2000.  You had already a PSR back then...

I also keep (sentimental reasons) files exchanged during our joint quest, along with Luc Janssens, to support Okan Altug in writing a program to manage the G1000/EM2000 registration memories (User Programs, in Roland's lingo).  Silvano Marucco provided the hex editors we used in mapping their internal file structure.  Can't recall whether anybody else also contributed, but there was a cheering crowd following the development.  Fond memories...

Hope you are in good shape.  Keep playing, it's good for your health 

Cheers -- José

[pedro_pedroc]

Hello, José.

Welcome to this Forum and this great website.
I'm from Brazil too, I live in Campo Grande/MS, and I have a Yamaha Genos. I have a channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/pedromseleuterio, with a lot of Genos live performances, mostly pop, rock and ballads. If you like it, please subscrive and share to your friends. I play yamaha keyboards for more than 30 years (and I have only 43) .

My performers page is: https://www.psrtutorial.com/perf/pedroEleuterio.html

Well, if you need anything, you can contact me.

Best wishes on your SX900.

Regards,
Pedro Eleuterio
Brazil

Hello fellow Yammers... maybe some of you will recognize my nickname from the old Roland Arrangers Group, started as an e-mail list in the early nineties and active for more than 10 years.  The group was created by Bob Richie, Marsha Summers, Jim Blackman and other early pioneers, to exchange views, questions and hints among owners of Roland arranger keyboards.  Roland's manuals were often unclear and incomplete, and the collaboration among members proved itself essential, mainly as each new model reached the shelves.  For several years the group supported owners of E70, E86, E96, G800, G1000 and VA7 keyboards.  I consecutively owned each of these models except for the VA7, and served as a FAQ/TnT (Tips&Tricks) Editor for the group for several years, until the site that hosted our content was deactivated.

By that time, we were getting disappointed about the shortcomings of Roland's models as compared to Yamaha's, and the group kind of faded away as more and more participants moved on to the competition.  The last messages were exchanged in 2006.  Anyhow, I recall with pride and nostalgy our collaborative struggle and names like Bob Rockwell, Tom G., Luc Janssens, Serge Stodolnik, Mike Cover, Luke O'Malley, Silvano Marucco, Okan Altug, Frank Bertram, Vallury Prabakhar, Marie Alicata, Marcel Pertus, Hugh Barwell, Willem Schaaij, Jure Klancar, Kim Winther, Fran Carango and many others.  I know that quite a few of them are no longer among us.  On the other hand, I once in a while came across some of them in Yammy groups, after having myself made the move and started as a Yammer with a PSR-640, then a PSR-2100, then a PSR-3000 (still a favorite).

Recently I was able to get a PSR-SX900 and guess it has a good chance of being my final acquisition.  I gigged a lot for almost 30 years, but now I'm considering mostly studio work, although keeping the 3000 for church services and elderly home singalongs I still perform.

The SX900 is quite a step from its predecessors, and a complaint I have is about how Yamaha reorganized the Styles.  "Ballad", "Country" and "Swing&Jazz" are gone, and the related styles were scattered between "Pop and Rock", "Dance" and "Jazz" categories.  The latter includes Pops and Ballads.  Moreover, as Yamaha' creativity traditionally has it, many 16-beat and 6/8 style names bear no hint about their time signature.  Also, like in previous models, under "Ballroom", "Movie&Show", "Entertainer" and "World" we find styles belonging to all categories.  It's quite a challenge to find the most suitable style for a song, at least before an extensive experience with the particular keyboard model is achieved.  The 3000 has little over 400 styles.  The SX900 has 525.

I eventually took over the task of classifying each of the SX900 styles under one of 12 categories:

• Free (no noticeable beats)
• 3B (Waltzes)
• 8B (Ballads, softer Pop)
• 12B (6/8 by convention, but 12/8 in fact)
• 16B (Ballads, slower Pop)
• Dance (mostly with Bass Drum on every beat)
• Lat (all colors of Latin except Brazilian)
• Mch (Marches)
• MPB (Brazilian popular music - Bossa, Samba etc.)
• MRB (Brazilian regional music - our "country" styles)
• PRk (Pop and Rock, faster styles)
• SJz (Swing and Jazz)

The job took me several days, but the resulting list proved quite useful to expedite finding a style for a given song, either a new one or one played on a previous keyboard.  The default tempo of each style, which I recorded along with its assigned category, helps in further narrowing down the choices.  I will be happy to share this list, as an Excel spreadsheet, with anyone interested.

Cheers -- José

P.S.: About me... I'm 70, graduated in Electronic Engineering, worked my whole professional career at INPE (Brazilian National Institute for Space Research), and retired in 2005.  Gigged as a second job since 1990.

[RagJose]

Olá Pedro, thanks for the welcome and kind words.  Hope you and your close ones are doing ok.  Took a look at your page and performances, they are great.  The video clips as well.  Parabéns!

I began playing piano and guitar at about 8, and came across the first arranger keyboard ever in a trip to the States in 1978, so I guess they came to light about the time you were born  .  It was love at first sight, but I could not get my first one until 1980.  I went through several models since then, and began playing for audiences around 1988, but the first pro-level keyboard I had was the Roland E-70, in 1990.  The other models I gigged with are mentioned in my introductory post.

I just moved my first performance examples to a different URL and added a couple more; if you'd like to hear them, they are now at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1B3L_cN1et1MVoaM6r7R1L8LAayGH1SAo?usp=sharing .   Like you, I am fond of rock (light), pop and ballads (I had a "conjunto" during the Beatles' era), but like also MPB and some Latin genres.

Well, if you need anything, you can contact me.

Likewise!  Regards -- José Luiz.