PSR E363 Space for Midi song storage in the keyboard

[WilmaRogers]

Hi there

I have recently bought a PSR E363 and I am trying to learn about storing Midi files on the keyboard itself.

I managed to transfer one Midi song which I purchased from the Musicsoft website via the USB to host cable, using the Musicsoft Downloader software. I have stored it in the keyboard as Song 160. However, there doesn't seem to be a location where I can store any other songs. Is this right?

It seems that I might be able to store "Style" files in another location but I am confused about whether or not I can store further song files.

I would love to be able to do this - especially for Christmas fun with the family.

Any advice or ideas would be very welcome.

Many thanks indeed.

[Ed B]

Hi
A quick look at the manual suggests you can record 5 songs in the user area and transfer 10 songs from the computer. The later capacity came from page 14 of the document "Computer Related Instructions" available...
https://ca.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/9/1094839/computer_en_rm_m0.pdf
or equivalent Yamaha site.
Regards
Ed B

[SeaGtGruff]

A quick look at the manual suggests you can record 5 songs in the user area and transfer 10 songs from the computer. The later capacity came from page 14 of the document "Computer Related Instructions" available...

I believe the 10-song limit is only for the YDP and CLP models listed, with each song being selected using one of 10 keys (D#6 through C7) on those keyboards.

I managed to transfer one Midi song which I purchased from the Musicsoft website via the USB to host cable, using the Musicsoft Downloader software. I have stored it in the keyboard as Song 160. However, there doesn't seem to be a location where I can store any other songs. Is this right?

I think you might be confused because the keyboard isn't displaying any songs above 160. That's simply because you haven't transferred more than that one song to the keyboard's memory. If you were to transfer another song to its memory, it would show up as Song 161.

Actually, I'm not sure whether the songs would be shown in the order you transferred them to the keyboard, or arranged in alphabetical order according to their file names. If the latter, the song you transferred second might become Song 160 and the song you'd transferred first might become Song 161 if that was their alphabetical order.

On page 48 of the Owner's Manual it says that "Files that can be transferred to this instrument is up to approx. 1.3MB total for Songs and Styles." So there isn't a specific number of files that you can transfer, because it depends on how large each file is.

However, there may be a limit on the number of files that the keyboard can display. For instance, the song number is a three-digit value, so the highest possible song number would presumably be 999. That would mean that you could theoretically load up to 840 song files (999 minus 159, the last User Song number), as any more than 840 would not be able to be listed. But the actual limit on how many songs can be displayed might possibly be smaller than 999. For instance, I think the manuals for some models mention that a file directory can contain no more than 250 songs, but I'd have to go hunting through the manuals to verify that-- and it might not apply to the PSR-E363's internal memory.

It seems that I might be able to store "Style" files in another location but I am confused about whether or not I can store further song files.

Yes, you can transfer roughly 1.3 MB of both song files and style files (combined) to the keyboard's internal memory. For example, if you were to transfer 0.6 MB of song files, then you could transfer up to about 0.7 MB of style files (0.6 plus 0.7 equals 1.3).

Note that you do not need to "load" a song file in order to play it; you simply scroll through the list of songs and whichever one is currently listed will be played when you press the PLAY button.

On the other hand, you cannot use a style file until you have "loaded" it into the keyboard's system memory-- a process that is sometimes called "registering" a style (as described on page 23 of the Owner's Manual). The keyboard has two different kinds of memory-- its "flash" memory, comparable to your computer's internal hard drive; and its "system" memory, comparable to your computer's processing RAM. Just as your computer must first load a program file from its internal hard drive into its processing RAM in order to run that program, your PSR-E363 cannot play a style file that you've transferred to its internal memory unless you've loaded (or "registered") that style file to one of the keyboard's 10 User Style numbers-- Style 166 through Style 175.

There are two more important factors with respect to style files:

(1) The PSR-E363 can play only style files which are in the SFF1 style file format, so if you find any SFF2 style files that you'd like to use, you would first need to convert them to SFF1 style files-- which is easy to do using a free utility called "Style Format 2 Converter" by fellow member Jørgen Sørensen:

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/sf2c/index.htm

(2) There is a size limit of about 50 KB for style files that can be loaded into the PSR-E363's system memory, as mentioned on page 48 of the Owner's Manual. You can transfer style files that are larger than 50 KB to the keyboard's internal memory, but they won't be listed by the keyboard when using the "StyleReg" function to register a style. The Owner's Manual says (on page 23) that when you select (or scroll to) the "StyleReg" function in the Function menu "After about two seconds, a registerable Style file name will appear in the display." Note that word, "registerable." Any style files larger than about 50 KB aren't registerable, so you shouldn't even bother transferring them to the keyboard's internal memory because they'll just be taking up memory space that could be used for storing other style files or song files.

[WilmaRogers]

I really appreciate the responses. Thank you so much. With your help, I have got it working!! I can't believe it. You are quite right. Songs above 160 appear in alphabetical order - transferring across another file proved the point.

I am delighted. Merry Christmas!

[SeaGtGruff]

You're welcome, and Merry Christmas back at ya!

Also, thank you for confirming that the songs in the internal memory will be listed alphabetically, as that was what I thought I remembered, but my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be (if it ever was) and I was too wrapped up in something else to test it for myself last night when I posted.

You'll find a lot of style files [EDIT: and MIDI song files] available on this site, both on the main site and in the forum. You can download them for free, but you can also purchase large collections of style files that Joe Waters (this site's owner) has put together from the style files which were posted to this site over the years. The advantages of buying one or more of the large collections are that you don't need to download a lot of individual smaller collections, Joe Waters has gone through the styles to remove any duplicates, and your purchase helps to support this site-- plus, your purchase makes you a "supporting member," which grants you access to an area of the forum which is open only to "Charter/Supporting Members."

- Here you can find smaller style collections, free to download:

http://www.psrtutorial.com/sty/index.html

- And here you can find the larger style collections which are available for purchase:

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

Note that just last month (November 2018) Joe released a new collection of style files and other resource files-- the PSR Tutorial Christmas Collection:

http://www.psrtutorial.com/cdrom/xmas18.html

You can order two different versions of this collection-- one version that you can download as a zipped file after your purchase, or another "physical" version that will be sent to you on a USB flash drive. The flash drive version includes the same content as the other version, but in addition it includes almost 900 MP3 song files of Christmas music performed by many PSR Tutorial Forum members on their keyboards. [EDIT: I think you may be able to download the flash drive version yourself while you're waiting for delivery of the flash drive, but I'm not certain of that.] Your PSR-E363 doesn't have a USB TO DEVICE port for inserting a USB flash drive, but you can insert the USB flash drive into your computer and use a couple of options for enjoying its contents:

- You can copy individual style files [EDIT: and song files] to your computer and use the Yamaha MusicSoft Downloader program to transfer them to your PSR-E363's internal memory. But first make sure you have backups of the files on your computer or on the USB flash drive, because I can't recall whether the Yamaha MusicSoft Downloader actually moves the files from the computer to the keyboard or just copies them-- that is, it could end up removing the file that was on your computer. Besides, it's always a good idea to keep backups of any files you don't want to accidentally lose through things like hard disk or flash drive failures, and it's smart to keep backups of your backups just in case. So if you purchased a song file from Yamaha MusicSoft and then transferred it to your keyboard, you might want to make sure you still have one or more backup copies of it on your computer so you won't lose it in case you ever clear your keyboard's flash memory.

- You can use a computer program to play MIDI song files or MP3 audio files on your computer, and send the playback to your keyboard. For MIDI song files this would cause your keyboard to play the notes in the song as though it were a player piano, similar to if you had transferred the song to the keyboard's memory but with the difference that it doesn't use up any of the keyboard's internal storage and you don't need to select the song from the Song list-- so you could play thousands of MIDI song files that way, without being limited by your keyboard's internal memory space or the maximum number of songs that can be displayed in its Song list. And in the case of MP3 audio files you can listen to the song through your keyboard's speakers.

By the way, note that the large style collections may also include other types of files, such as [EDIT: MIDI song files,] Registration files, OTS files, Multi Pad files, Music Finder files, User Voice files, etc. These are generally specific to a particular model of Yamaha keyboard-- Genos, Tyros5, PSR-S975, etc. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use them with your PSR-E363, although that won't prevent you from being able to enjoy the style files [EDIT: and MIDI song files] and MP3 files in the collections.

And remember that the PSR-E363 cannot play [EDIT: SFF2 style files, only] SFF1 style files. Many, if not most, of the style files in these collections are probably going to be SFF2 style files which were tweaked and tailored for the voices and effects on PSR-S, Tyros, or Genos keyboards, so you'll need to convert them to SFF1 style files, then use one of the available free utilities to "revoice" and tweak the styles for the specific voices and effects which are available on your PSR-E363.

Note that I purchased the Christmas Collection last month, and I have a number of PSR-E models, so if you do purchase the Christmas Collection and would like to convert, revoice, and tweak any of its style files or MIDI song files for the PSR-E363, I should be able to help with that.

[davie_b1972]

This is an interesting topic as I have the same keyboard and trying to get to grips with it!! I exported a patch from Arturia Stage 73 which is a STAX file but I dont know if I can add this to my keyboard and how to do it if I can!!