Technical Question about sequencing on PSR-S970

[Jay B.]

Hello Forum Members,

I am considering purchasing a PSR-S970. It has been many years since I did MIDI sequencing/programming, but when I did I was fairly expert at it. I have a question about the onboard sequencer. When you record a song that uses accompaniment styles on the onboard sequencer, I assume that does not translate into actual MIDI data for each sound used in the accompaniment, but rather a recording of the actual notes (chords) the player plays to get the accompaniment to play.

For example, let's say I liked an accompaniment style for a song consisting of a bass, drums, and a "guitar." Let's say I record a song on the keyboard  using that style, does the sequencer have MIDI data on the track for the chords I physically played OR does have the actual notes played by the keyboard style for the bass, drums, and guitar?

Why do I want to know this? Sometimes a style will be mostly right, but I want to do some musical tweaking to it. Also, if the actual notes, velocity, etc. are recorded, I can change instruments/voices/sounds, or even export to a DAW and use even more sounds later. This would save me from having to hack out the drums, bass, etc. myself every time I want to capture an idea...

I have tried to be clear with my question, but it seems clear as mud when I read it. I hope one of you good folks that has experience on this or the 770 can enlighten me about how styles are used in sequencing. Thanks in advance,

Jay B.

[Joe H]

When you record a style and are playing along, (Quick Record... just turn it on a play) everything is recorded as you hear it.  All the note data, Pitch Bend and mod Wheel data as well.  But there is a 400k limit which is rather small.  You can easily run of of memory with a long song or too much Pitch Bend use.

R1 is recorded on ch1
R2 is recorded on ch3
Left is recorded on ch2. 
Multi Pads 1-4 are recorded on chs 5,6, 7, and 8
style parts are recorded on chs 9 - 16

Joe H

[Toril S]

Joe H. I didn't know of the limitation, good to know. I also learned that transpose can be recorded on MIDI if you set it to keyboard, but not if it is set at main or master.

[panos]

Hi Jay B,
I have attached a demo midi which comes right from a recording on an s750 (older model).
It records your playing as midi file and then on board you can record the midi file as wav file.

The s9xx series can record the midi files as mp3 files if I am not wrong.
If you play the midi at a DAW you will see exactly what is been recorded.

Here is as how it sounds as a wav file
There is use of the modulation wheel as the song starts.
https://soundcloud.com/user-74537650/cheap-thrills-sia-demo

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Jay B.]

When you record a style and are playing along, (Quick Record... just turn it on a play) everything is recorded as you hear it.  All the note data, Pitch Bend and mod Wheel data as well.  But there is a 400k limit which is rather small.  You can easily run of of memory with a long song or too much Pitch Bend use.

R1 is recorded on ch1
R2 is recorded on ch3
Left is recorded on ch2. 
Multi Pads 1-4 are recorded on chs 5,6, 7, and 8
style parts are recorded on chs 9 - 16

So a couple of other questions:
- Not sure what you mean by R1, R2, and left. are these played parts vs styles? Trying to keep this whole thread about MIDI only no audio
- So if style parts are recorded on 9-16, say drums on 9, bass on 10, and guitar on 11, I should be able to keep the bass and drums from the style and delete the guitar post-recording - am I getting that right?

That's what I am going after - record a whole style to MIDI, then delete, add, change, etc. all keeping it as multi-track MIDI data I can use in other ways, even though it originated from a style. IOW use styles as a base, then completely add, edit, takeaway, replace, etc.

[panos]

R1+R2 are the voices of the right hand and they recorded as midi channels as all the other channels.
Every"organ" of the style(bass,drums etc.) or the right hand and left hand voices are recorded seperatly as individual midi tracks.
You can do whatever you want with them on board on keyboard oor in your pc.
Delete,revoice,change some notes etc
Whatever you can do with a midi song you can find on internet,you can do it also with the midi song you record on your yamaha keyboard.
It records up to 15 individual midi tracks

[Toril S]

Panos: Unfortunately you can't record MP3 on the keyboards, only Wav. i would have liked tha option to record an MP3 also. Maybe later models? But it is nice that we have to option to make a wav recording, and the quality of that is really good

[panos]

Watch that video,
It is not a good as an s970 keyboard but every yamaha keyboard records the same way
He records every track separately because is a cheaper model.
And then he goes to the pc to edit every track anyway he likes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSjyPgKCbHo

We press the start button of the syle while having the rec button on and we just play.
Keyboard records everything we play.
The style parts,the fill ins-voices-pads-pitch bend and modulation wheel.

[Jay B.]

R1+R2 are the voices of the right hand and they recorded as midi channels as all the other channels.
Every"organ" of the style(bass,drums etc.) or the right hand and left hand voices are recorded seperatly as individual midi tracks.
You can do whatever you want with them on board on keyboard oor in your pc.
Delete,revoice,change some notes etc
Whatever you can do with a midi song you can find on internet,you can do it also with the midi song you record on your yamaha keyboard.
It records up to 15 individual midi tracks

Thank you, Panos! This definitively answers the question, along with Joe! Really good answers in the forums so far!

[panos]

You wellcome my friend,
I was looking for a good video with a recording on a tyros or a psr (all work the same)
but I couldn't find something usefull for someone who doesn't know how Yamaha keyboards record and make him understand the entire process:
a)Play with an accompaniment style while recording in just one take,
b)The keyboard is making a midi ready to use,
c)Insert this midi to a Daw,
d)Edit the 16 tracks of the midi the way you like.

Only an Arranger with styles can do that.
Otherwise you have to to play by your self ALL the instruments note by note.

The default recording parts for each channel are:

Channel 1   :   Right 1
Channel 2   :   Left
Channel 3   :   Right 2
Channel 4   :    - 
Channel 5   :   Multi Pad 1
Channel 6   :   Multi Pad 2
Channel 7   :   Multi Pad 3
Channel 8   :   Multi Pad 4
Channel 9   :   Rhythm 1
Channel 10 :   Rhythm 2
Channel 11 :   Bass
Channel 12 :   Chord 1
Channel 13 :   Chord 2
Channel 14 :   Pad
Channel 15 :   Phrase 1
Channel 16 -   Phrase 2


Regards

Ian

[Joe H]

Channel 4 is used by the Tyros and Genos keyboards for R3.  The PSRs only have 2 right-hand Voices but the TOTL arrangers have 3.

Once you have recorded the MIDI on the keyboard as MIDI Type 0 (16 channels on 1 track) you can import into any sequencer for further editing.  Some programs will convert the Type 0 file to a Type 1 file (a separate track for each MIDI channel)

I found that Midiworks is an excellent program for editing Yamaha MIDI files.  There are FREE programs too like Mix Master.

Joe H