SX900 workflow advice & OTS questions

[richkeys]

I'm a beginner on the SX900. I can get around the interface pretty easily and have a general understanding of Registrations vs. OTS but I still have a lot of confusion about them as you'll see below.

My creative workflow procedure may be different from other arranger players and I am aware I may not be using the keyboard as it was intended. My interest is to create as many layered RH1, RH2, RH3 Voice combinations as I can, either from existing OTS combos or from my own combos, with effects and pitch settings applied to them. For now I am saving each combo set to a single Registration without specifying any particular Style for each one. Later on I would want let's say up to 4 of these full layered voice combination sets available on the panel (similar to OTS) to easily experiment trying them with various Styles for various songs.

First question is, I know the 4 OTS buttons can be saved as part of a Style. But can voice combinations be saved to the 4 OTS panel buttons as part of a Registration without saving them as part of a Style? Or would multiple registration buttons need to be created for the up to 4 sets of voice combos?

My second question is, what is the recommended & easiest workflow for what I describe above? It sounds like from past posts here that OTS, while conveniently managed in just 1 Style file, may make more sense but be more restrictive in the long run in terms of power and limited number of parameters allowed. Also it seems too labor intensive to program in all my OTS voice combos in the various Styles. However, I do like the idea of having just one Style file with OTS as opposed to multiple registrations buttons that is needed to switch to different voice combinations. Hope this makes sense.

thanks

Rich

[Graham UK]

My way of saving Favorite Voices as RGTs my be of interest to you.

This is the way I Use OTS.
I save my favorite voices with adjusted volumes & DSB settings in banks of RGTs with STY Unticked.
Now I can select any style to play with my favorite voices from my RGT Voice Banks.
NOTE...OTS Link switched OFF.

[DerekA]

Hi Rich

I agree with Graham. When you save the RH voice combinations to a registration slot, just make sure you've only ticked the box for saving the voices. Then, when you select a registration later, all that will be affected is the voices.

You can put up to 8 totally different setups into a single registration bank, so you can have effectively 8 buttons that work like OTS for each bank. Give the bank(s) suitable names so you can easily find them again later when you are changing registraion banks (e.g. OTS01, OTS02, OTS03 etc etc)

You've said you only want to save the RH voices - just to note that you can't save the LH voice unless you also save the style. That's just an unfortunate limitation of the way Yamaha has always done it.

[BogdanH]

Graham's method (above) is simple and effective way for storing favorite voice combinations, which you can later use for any style or free playing (for example, if you often use particular flute in combination with particular strings). Of course, being your favorite combination of voices, it's expected you only have handful of them -I mean, it makes no sense to have hundred of "favorite" combinations. By making too many of them, one just becomes registrations "slave" (a lot of work for useless result).

If dealing with song specific styles, then I think the only right solution is, to adjust voices accordingly and store them in OTS. Inside single style we can already have four voice (OTS) combinations (12 RH voices in total), which in my opinion, is a lot. But if it happens you wish to have the same style in two voice versions, then it's easy to simply make a copy of style and assign new voices in OTS. In this case you get two style versions, i.e. "Spanish eyes-guitar" and "Spanish eyes-sax" (and both will sound perfect).
Yes, you can make two registrations instead (i.e. "Guitar set" and "Sax set") and call them for any style later. But the thing is, voice settings won't necessary match particular style.

Bogdan

[Joe H]

Here's how I do it. I place a User Style on my USB1 drive. Then save each registration with my combination of right hand voices and then save the registration bank. I then DELETE the User Style on the USB drive.  When I load the registration bank and select each one I can try the various right hand voices with any style I choose and save them as an OTS.  By deleting the User Style on the USB drive the registrations will not find it and load it that style because it isn't there anymore.  This allows me to play any style I choose and select any of the registrations with the saved right-hand voices.  I actually have several registration banks saved this way to easily access lots of possible OTS combinations.

Joe H

[richkeys]

Thanks all for the responses. This helps a lot, I really needed to hear approaches to this before I start making registrations.

Graham: Makes sense. Unticking the Style box was one of the tips I needed, plus OTS link off. Will try this method for sure. What does DSB stand for?

Derek: Good tip to check only the voices. And good to know the LH voice doesn't save without the style.

Bogdan: very good point about having too many favorite combos. Now that I've thought about it I probably won't have as many as I thought, perhaps 24 at the most. Making a copy of the style w OTS to get a different OTS for that style is also a good tip. I probably won't use song styles too much.

Joe: I want to try yours as well. I think I got lost at the part where you delete the style off the USB. Not sure if there is a missing step in that explanation: are you saying the registrations you saved previously included the style from the USB drive that you later delete?

Rich

[overover]

Hi Rich,

The method mentioned by Joe H (memorizing any user style and finally deleting this style) is only necessary if you also want to memorize the Left Voice. Otherwise, it's easier to uncheck the "Style" box.

By the way, to memorize the Right Voices, I recommend checking always "Voice" and "Keyboard Harmony", even if the latter function is not used at all. This ensures that "Keyboard Harmony" is always turned OFF by that registration if it was previously turned on (manually or by another registration).


Best regards,
Chris

[richkeys]

Chris,

Will do the voice and kybd harmony check boxes, thanks!

Regarding Joe's method, thanks for pointing that out, as I typically won't need to include the LH voice as part of my voice combos, and I am certainly looking for the easiest method.

I'm not an arranger expert, but I was thinking if Yamaha somehow included a  "combo" voice mode in the UI, similar to some Korg products, it would make it easier for people who like to focus on voice layering during the creative process. Maybe for most people here OTS and registrations is sufficient. But that's another discussion.

Rich

[NativeAngels]

It's quite important to have a naming system for each registration button of your favourite combination banks something meaningful to you. It's quite easy once you make adjustments to your existing combinations to have many more variations.