Grand Piano voice and soundchip of the PSR E363 and E463?

[vbdx66]

Hello to all,

This is a question to the more technically oriented among you.

To me the Grand Piano voice sounds very similar on the PSR E463 (or 453 for that matter) and then PSE E363 (or 353 etc.)

So here is my question: is the piano sample the same on both keyboards, is any effect (apart from reverb) being applied o the patch on the PSR E463 which is not being applied to the patch on the PSR E363, and - last but not least - do both keyboards share the same soundchip?

Thanks,

Best Regards,

Vinciane.

[SeaGtGruff]

I'm not certain, but I believe that (1) the samples for a given voice (meaning a specific bank/program combination) are the same regardless of the model (although there might be some differences such as the number of elements or layers that the voices on a given model can use); (2) the sound chips on PSR-E463 and PSR-E363 are the same; and (3) the only way to tell whether there are differences in settings which are applied to the sound samples would be to monitor the MIDI output as a voice is selected or use "SendInit" to see what settings are being applied.

I know that I've noticed some minor differences in the settings which are applied on my 400-series models, such as variations in the volume setting or the reverb depth from one model to the next. But I don't know how it works with 300-series and 400-series models of the same generation-- i.e., if the E363 and E463 have settings which are the same as each other but which might be a bit different than the settings on the E353 and E453, etc.

And going back to the sound samples, what I said about the same samples being used for a given bank/program combination might not always be the case, because I think that one of the ideas behind "panel" voices as opposed to "XG" or "XGlite" voices is that "panel" voices can be model-specific, in which case it might be possible for two models to use different samples for a particular bank/program combination, although I'd expect the names of the voices to be different from each other to reflect that they aren't the same voices despite using the same bank/program combination. However, I would expect manufacturers to avoid reusing the same bank/program combinations for different voices, because otherwise MIDI files or style files which use those bank/program combinations might sound completely different from one model to the next. Thus, I think they usually use different (and unique) bank numbers for model-specific "panel" voices which exist on one model but not on other models.

But I'm really just guessing about the samples and sound chips. I haven't seen the service manuals for the PSR-Ex63 models yet, or for that matter for the Ex53 models.

[pjd]

Hello Vinciane --

I agree with Michael.

In past models, the E4x3 and E3x3 use the same central processor/sound chip. In the E443 and E333, it's the SWL01U. With this architecture, both the control program and the waveform samples are stored in the same memory device. The E443 prog/wave memory is 16 MBytes and the E333 prog/wave memory is 8MBytes. Yes, that's "Mega bytes."

We should take a moment to reflect on the memory size. That 8MByte memory must hold the entire XGlite sound set and any panel voices which are not part of the XGlite sound set. I don't usually give in to hyperbole, but 8MBytes and 16MBytes are hysterically small. The entry-level keyboards are incredibly cost- and price-sensitive.

The upgrade from 32 voice polyphony to 48 voice polyphony signals a change in processor, possibly the next generation of SWL. The number of Sweet voices also increased from 5 to 8. I'd love to see the service manuals for the latest E-series models. Unfortunately, the service manuals aren't free unless someone has posted them (e.g., ElektroTanya).

My instinct tells me it's the same grand piano sample in both. It's amazing that Yamaha can make these instruments sound so good in such little memory! Good engineers.

Hope this helps -- pj

[vbdx66]

Hi Michael, hi pj and thanks for your input

I recently watched a video on YouTube with a nice comparison between the Casio CT-X700 and the PSR E363 and E463 (https://youtu.be/eB3un92Rfbs see the « Upgrade on the competition... » topic on this board); watching this video, I was really amazed at the sound quality of the Yamaha keyboards and I was really surprised that when recorded digitally (since both the E363 and E463 have an onboard digital audio interface, which I find pretty cool), to my ears the E363 sounded as good as the E463; now, at least, I know the reason (same soundchip).

There was a dispute on Youtube about this particular video as to know whether there was some DPS applied to the Grand piano voice of the E463 which was not used for the E363 Grand piano preset, but I strongly doubt that apart from lots of reverb, Yamaha would apply effects to an acoustic piano preset on this range of keyboards.

I assume that the audio to digital converter would also be the same on both keyboards.

The fact that the polyphony is now of 48 voices is certainly a great improvement. As for the Cool! and Sweet! voices, the Sweet! Classical flute, Trumbon and Harmonica were nice additions to the E453. I'd like very much to see a Sweet! Clarinet and Violin in the E473 in two years, it would be great for jazz and country tunes.

Yes, I'd like to put my hands on the service manuals.

Best Regards,

Vinciane.