What can a blind person do with the touch screen display?

[musicalman]

Hi everyone, sorry for the wall of text but this has been on my mind for a period of time.

I have been thinking about upgrading my Yamaha PSR-S970 at some point. Probably not right now, but in the next few years. My plan right now is to wait a bit and see how the SX series advances. This will make the upgrade drastic when I eventually go for it, as well as give me time to find answers to my questions and see if those answers may change in the near future.

The hardest part of upgrading for me is the touch screen. Because I am completely blind, I will have a lot of difficulty making use of the touch screen display independently, so far as I know.

The good news is that even if I get a new keyboard, even one I can barely use, I would still find the purchase worthwhile. Most of what I would use it for is midi sequencing with an external sequencer. As long as the keyboard can be a plug-and-play midi device (and all recent psr-s keyboards seem to be), I'll be largely okay, at least while I'm at home.

But there are other things I'd need which make this a bit more difficult. I'll just make a list of things I know how to do on the S970 which I fear I will lose on the Sx900 or a similar touch screen model.
1. Recording. For the best quality, I like to record my sequences natively using the audio recorder. It's easy to do once you know the button sequence on the S970.

2. Live play. When I use the keyboard at a gig, I often use the audio player as a backing band of sorts, while I play live on top. I am routinely switching voices, or advancing to the next song on my flash drive. Thus, I need to be able to switch voices and songs independently.

3. Expansion content. I never seriously got into expantion packs, but I do take an interest in it. One day I might make some expansion sounds of my own or purchase some. I know how to import content to the S970, again it's just a matter of memorizing the button sequence, then waiting for the unit to restart.

I know there are potential workarounds: Instead of using audio recorder, I could just use an aux cable or an audio interface and record that way and get a good recording even if it's not perfectly clean. Instead of using the audio player, I could use an external device for playback. Instead of switching voices, I could have someone help me set up registration banks maybe. Instead of dealing with expansions, I could just forget them; I find them interesting more than I actually need them. In a way it's kind of a bleak outlook to have, but the new sounds do get me excited enough to purchase the keyboard anyway, even if all I'm using it for is midi sequencing and a midi controller. For live play, I'll just use the S970, until it dies... I'm trying not to think about that as I won't really have a plan b at that point.

I remember doing a bit of research on this a while back, and reading that voice guidance was an option on the PSR-SX series now, but that blind people found it clunky/unfinished. I also downloaded the Genos voice guidance files just to see why it as so big, and I found that all the voice prompts were just ordinary wav files so that alone could pose problems for unrestricted access. I wouldn't want voice guidance blaring over the speakers at a gig, and if it is just using wav files, I wouldn't be able to use it to browse custom content, though the audio recording concern might? be solved and I would certainly be grateful for that.

So in closing, I guess I'll just ask for your thoughts on my questions, whether good, bad or just speculative. And those who have experience with the voice guidance, how does it work and what are its limitations?

This is a big stepping stone, and I need all the input I can get.
Thanks in advance for your help!

[Joe H]

 musicalman,

After reading your post, I would say that there is NO good reason to upgrade from your S970 to even the PSR S975, which has Panel buttons. Since you don't use the expansion memory at all, which is main advantage of upgrading to a sx900, why make life more difficult for yourself? I have a S970 myself, it is a very nice keyboard. Just enjoy what you have. I don't see any advantage for you in you upgrading.

Kind Regards,
Joe H

[Toril S]

Hello Musicalman!
We are several visually impaired people on this forum, myself being one of them. However, I have not really tested VoiceGuide on my Genos yet, because I have a little eyesight, and use mignifiers to read the screen. But I remember posts by a menber called STLPianoman, and remember that he wrote he was using Voice Guide on his Genos. In addition he had made some templates that he placed on the screen, to guide where to put fingers when in menues. Under is a link to his profile. Maybe he can help you decide.
VoiceGuide can be turned on and off be a physical knob, and you can navigate in many screens using the INC and DEC buttons both on Genos and the XS models.
Hope this helps you a little on the way of deciding.

https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=39248#

[musicalman]

I have a S970 myself, it is a very nice keyboard. Just enjoy what you have. I don't see any advantage for you in you upgrading.

Valid perspective. I definitely intend to hang onto my S970 for as long as possible. Like I said, I'm not upgrading today or tomorrow. I'll wait and see how the SX series advances. At minimum, I'm going to wait for at least one more SX generation, but I'll probably end up waiting 2 or 3 before I purchase one.

The main reason I am concerning myself with it now is that the touch screen isn't going away, so far as I know. True, I most likely don't have to worry about that for years to come, but I don't want to be in the unfortunate situation of having the change thrust upon me and stressing myself to no end because I have no choice. While accessibility is getting better, it is still a tricky business and we are nowhere near the point of taking it for granted, so it's a good idea for people in my situation to try to prepare ahead of time. Button sequences are easy to memorize with a bit of sighted assistance first time and carefully reading a well-written procedure guide. But touch screens are much more difficult, yet they are going to be thrust upon blind people sooner rather than later, and it can only be avoided for so long especially for those who don't have an older button-operated model as backup. So I figured I'd start inquiring about this on the PSR series now, at a time when I at least can afford to approach it with a relaxed mind.

Toril S, thank you for that! I will certainly give those links a look. If the inc/dec buttons can be used to increment through the elements on the touch screen, that is already considerably improving my outlook. Of course, we can only hope that these buttons aren't taken away too haha

[kampot]

Many functions of the touch screen can be done using buttons tho, correct ? Like style category selection and selecting thru styles and voices by - / + buttons

[Janus]

divide the display with a raster to separate the touch points
give every touch point a number after some time you can find these spots
make a list of functions belong to a numbered zone
Gr.Jan

[pika-san]

Hello, it seems you can't rename registration banks, styles, songs etc, the voice guide doesn't tell characters on screen.

[Toril S]

That is not good! However, it is much more convenient to put the files on a USB stick and rename them on the computer. Then put them back on the keyboard.

[mikf]

Each generation of arranger has incremental improvements on sound quality and adds new features, styles etc. The sound quality on these keyboards has been so good for such a long time, that sound improvement even over several models may be pretty minimal. The old psr 3000 for example still sounds good. New styles can usually be imported anyway onto older models, so is not really a big driver for upgrade. And in your case one of the the biggest feature additions - the touch screen - may actually be a step backwards. So unless your keyboard is falling apart, I would resist the urge to jump to the latest and greatest.
Mike

[pika-san]

Hello, i wanted to re arrange some styles especially highroad rock and orchestral transs, but the voice guide doesn't seem to let me change the voices. I have a psr-sx900, and i downloaded some great styles such as the first epic ballad version from the psr8000, this sounds even more realistic than the psr8000.

[gabrielschuck]

The S970 is a really great keyboard! In your case, there's no need to upgrade to an even better one, as everything you mentioned is available on your instrument and in a way that you don't have to worry about the touchscreen, at least for now until the Voice Guide matures.
I fully understand your fear because I am also blind.
Before I managed to buy the keyboard of my dreams (Tyros5), I thought a lot about having an sx keyboard, like the 900. But after researching how Voice Guide works, I won't lie saying I was excited because I wasn't .
Anyone who has the slightest technical knowledge realizes that this is a palliative for Yamaha and that the project needs many improvements and, mainly, feedback from blind users.
The kickoff has already been taken and in that sense Yamaha deserves my congratulations. Now we need to move forward, improving accessibility even further.
About the other operations you commented, with a little persistence, patience and willpower we can do very well independently.
I can create my registration banks on both Tyros5 and S910 independently and they are ready and programmed for use in my performances.
I can use the recorder to make simple recordings although I prefer to do it with an audio interface, especially when it also involves video.
I've already managed to create some styles by myself using style creator, although I've forgotten some details because I haven't practiced more often. But it's a matter of remembering and, mainly, writing everything down in a notepad.
I was thrilled when I was able to create my first packs with YEM and run on Tyros5, and even more so when I saw a minimal version of the packs running perfectly on an SX600 from a blind friend. But for that I had to create an accessibility script to facilitate the use of YEM and, even if blindly, explore the interface to reach this result. And also look for other solutions to sample easily, like samplerobot.
And, for my part, the discoveries will not stop there.

And about Voice Guide, there's not much more to be said about it... For our part, there's not much we can do other than try a dialogue with yamaha, especially from someone with technical experience to point the way.
Greetings,
Gabriel

[Jeff_M]

I would add that the operating systems are a little different on the SX900 compared to the S970.  I went from an S950 to the SX900 and struggled for a while, whereas the transition from my S710 to S950 was very easy.  Just thought you should know about that, too.  Best of luck. 

[Luis Carlos GM]

Mine being blind wanting to purchase the PSR-A5000, I can tell yes it has a touch screen, although with some help of the voice guide I can get enough with the advanced features of the keyboard.

[jcm2016]

There's a shop in the UK called epianos that has done several tutorial videos, called Casual Keyboarda.  In one of them, they mention a customer that is blind, and I think uses a Genos.  The video is very complimentary of that individual.  Perhaps epianos can put you in touch with that person (maybe it is the same person as on here!)