Totally confused with registrations vs styles

[lmederos]

Hi everyone

I am (very obviously) a newbie beyond just playing the keyboard like a piano.

I have scoured through the lessons and watched videos about how to save registrations, and I'm missing the why a registration vs a style and when.


Is there some post or video I may have missed that compares/contrasts these?    I would appreciate any help you can offer.


Thank you!

-- Luis

[Fred Smith]

A registration can store a lot more than a style. Transposition, multipads, pedal settings, sequences, keyboard harmony, vocal harmony, etc.

You can learn more about registrations from my videos (link in signature).

Cheers,
Fred

[Ed B]

Hi
A style is basically a midi file with special markings, midi notes, and information contained in a section called the CASM. This information along with the chord you play on the keys using the chord fingering setting you have selected is  recognized by the keyboards style engine to provide the accompaniment of an arranger keyboard.

Registrations are small scripts which allow you to automate your performance by recording various panel settings of the keyboard. Such things as style, song, pedal settings, voice, transpose, effect, etc. can all be recorded and recalled at the push of a button. This enables you to create some very complex arrangements including using a combination of two different styles or not using parts of a style with out altering the style permanently. Fred's videos will help you on how to use them.

Some helpful tips are available.
https://psrtutorial.com/lessons/faq/PSRFAQ.htm
https://psrtutorial.com/lessons/workshops/H4-registration.html
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/articles/style_1.htm

Regards
Ed B

[panos]

Hi Luis,
some practical examples for the usage of Registrations and why:

a) More than 4 main parts needed for a song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vfX9R-VJDY

b) When you don't have the time(or the will) to learn the same tune in many scales in order to play a song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zliBet3boVY

c) When there is a slow and a fast part of a song, so you need two styles with different tempos and musical styles.
(e.g. you need to combine a slow soft rock style with a fast hard rock style):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D2A_sJ2uTQ

d) When a song is in written in different tempos or you want to use many voice combinations or for both reasons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv6yr9Smysw

And as our friends already have said, there are many reasons that you need to use registrations over styles.

[mikf]

Luis,
A style - as I am sure you are well aware by now - is essentially what enables the automatic accompaniment. It is one feature on the keyboard, albeit a very important one. But there are many features on the keyboard - voices, effects, pedals, harmonies, fingering methods etc  etc etc. A registration is a way of storing and calling  up all of these features the way you want for a particular performance. That can include the style and voices if you wish, but doesn't have to.
The style itself does allow also for association of particular voices with that style, using the OTS feature. And I guess you may be confused because surely this means it is doing the same thing as a registration??. But it is not the same because  1) there are many other features besides voices and style that can be stored in the registration, and 2) the OTS voice is tied to the style regardless of where and when you use the style, whereas the registrations will call up the voice you stored only when that registration is activated.  The difference will become obvious as you experiment.
The keyboard, like computers, does allow alternative ways of doing similar things. And some people favour one way over another. Don't get too tied in knots about what's and why's at this stage. Most of these things become obvious as you use the keyboard, and you don't have to use every feature to enjoy the keyboard. There are many of us who seldom use registrations, while others swear by them. That is the beauty of these very versatile keyboards, they provide a wide range of possibilities.
In fact I would go as far as to say that if you are at the very early stage of learning the keyboard, I wouldn't worry too much about registrations at this point. As you get more and more familiar with playing the keyboard, it will probably become obvious to you when you might need a registration, and you can start to get familiar with them at that time. For example, you might want a start up registration, or a variety of start up registrations, which sets the keyboard the way you want at start up. Many people have these and they can include things like pedal set up, fingering mode, without any style or voices.
The other thing at this stage is to experiment, you can't do any real damage, and you will learn. When you are trying to do something and not succeeding, then come back to the forum and describe what you want to do and someone will help. 

Mike

[EileenL]

One very good use of registrations is that you can set your own favourite voices to a song you like playing and there are eight voice selections to each bank. We don't always want to use the ones Yamaha give us in the OTS so if we have a registration of our favourite voices we can use these instead.