Some desirable improvements in SX900 with a possible new firmware.

[Aquilauno]

Hi Guys
After getting familiar with my SX900 in these first months, I noticed some annoying (at least for me) behaviors that could be improved:

1) the sx900 in the moment we modify or rename a file / style brings the user back to the first syyle of the first page (behavior extremely annoying for me). The user must go back to the previous page where the modified / renamed style is located. It would be desirable to stay on the same page.

1 bis) same thing if a style is not loaded correctly, it returns to the previous style which could be in another folder. The user is forced to navigate the menus to return to the incorrect style page.

2) if you inadvertently enter a folder containing many styles (> 300) the keyboard freezes until all the styles are "processed", if the number is high, the SX900 remains in the processing phase for a long time, preventing any operation. It would be desirable for a warning to appear that the number of styles in the folder is high, allowing the user to cancel the operation.

3) the modification of the OTS is cumbersome. For each single modified voice, the style must be saved repeatedly. It would be desirable to have a function with which to load on the fly a set of OTS, those favored by the user among those previously saved by the user on the USB stick. In practice, manage the OTS as you manage the Multipads
If you agree or have other suggestions it would be interesting and maybe someone at Yamaha could read and find it useful and make it possible to make those changes in the near future.

Pietro

[Toril S]

Agreed. It is the same with the Genos!

[EileenL]

When changing voices in OTS it is only necessary to save style once finished. Each time you complete one section it will ask if you want to save Just say No and carry on doing the next on and so on until you have completed all and then press yes to Save. When modifying third party styles you just press save and save back to the folder or place the style was in. On pressing Exit the style is still loaded in the keyboard ready for use. If modifying an on board style using Style assembly in Style creator when finished Name it what you want and save to User section. Exit screen and that style will be for you to play. It dose not shoot back to anything else.

[Aquilauno]

Hi Eileen, you are right but your solution only applies if you edit OTS in the same style. If you want to copy the OTS from another style you will have to save the 4 OTS one at a time and each time go out and select between one style and the other. it becomes very complicated mosty if the style from which to copy the OTS is in another folder, you will have to wander through the menus (not even Ulysses has navigated that much ...) 

My idea is to use pre-packaged OTS with your own tastes, perhaps divided into musical genres, so as to have the favorite combinations of R1 R2 R3 and left voices ready to import into styles that are free of OTS in a single step. After all, there are .ots files that can be managed with Jørgen Sørensen's program "OTS Editor" (but if it could be managed without a PC directly from the keyboard it would be better).

Pietro

PS: thanks to the aforementioned program it is possible to extract the OTS from a style, save them and import them in a different style, without OTS or by replacing the original OTS.
Lately I used the "Style OTS Replacer" by Vali Maties program's, which in one go allows you to set many styles in a single step, with the OTS coming from a single style source (a fantastic program that deserves a small donation from me). However, it remains a cumbersome operation that requires a PC ...

[Gios]

Hi Pietro,

in fact, the simple possibility of saving the so-called "PACH" used in the common WORKSTATIONS would be enough .....
I hope that this possibility, which for YAMAHA programmers costs them +/- 10 lines of code, can already be implemented
with a simple FIRMWARE update.
In fact, using the SX700 for a week and having had a past as a "workstation user" I realize that they have not
much wasted in the creation of the management software ..... there is no LFO, a CUTOFF ENVELOPE .... the graphic representation of the parameters of the effects .... etc etc ....
Not to mention YAM which perhaps dates back to the ATARI era ... but at the time it was another thing.
I don't know if here 'YAMAHA reads us .......... but I hope so' ......

Greetings from Giuseppe ......

[EileenL]

Sorry I did not realise you wanted to save OTS settings from different style. Myself I use registrations for all my song settings and save them to my gig sets as I call them. Why not save all your favourite settings to registrations and then just copy them from there to your OTS on your styles. Easy way to do this. I much prefer using registrations because I can set other things up that I want to happen when using them. As we say registrations are the heart of any keyboard.

[Gios]

i don't know other models, but the individual sounds of sx700, are not the best by themselves. To have a better sound it is necessary to superimpose 2 or more sounds and create a PACH as happens in OTS. What I think is necessary for YAMAHA to implement is the management of the single or total OTS set, as in reality exists with the PADS. That's all'.

[Aquilauno]

No problem Eileen, the recordings are the next step that I will face given their potential ... For now I would like to prepare for Christmas with what little I know, at least to get to my first song .. I'm thinking of a small midley 4/5 traditional Christmas songs ... don't ask me for more...  .

However, points 1 and 2 are really annoying ...

the second can be remedied by limiting the styles for each folder to 50/60, which I do via the PC with a very useful program that I use and recommend: "Folder Ax". It allows you to splitting a large number of files/styles, creating all the necessary folders with a specific name which will then be numbered starting from 1, each folder created will have the amount of files decided by the user.

While the former is really nerve-wracking, it seems that the SX900 does a check up of the styles in the folder every time, probably checking their alphabetical order.

Pietro

Folder-axe link
https://www.punto-informatico.it/download/folder-axe/

[Enildo]

Congratulations on your suggestions, Pietro!

But I also have a suggestion that I think would help a lot in live performances.
I would like to have the feature "Parameter Lock on the Assignables buttons.
Would it be possible for yamaha to give us this gift in the next firmware???
See the images below:

Enildo

[attachment deleted by admin]

[DerekA]

A registration where all you have memorized is the R1 / R2 / R3 sounds *is* what you are calling a patch. You can create a registration bank with 4 of these and save it as a kind of re-usable OTS if you want to have them available in lots of styles. Why not push the boat out and store 8 of them in a bank.

[Fred Smith]

i don't know other models, but the individual sounds of sx700, are not the best by themselves. To have a better sound it is necessary to superimpose 2 or more sounds and create a PACH as happens in OTS. What I think is necessary for YAMAHA to implement is the management of the single or total OTS set, as in reality exists with the PADS. That's all'.

Gios,

Whatever you can do in OTS, you can do in registrations.

Cheers,
Fred

[Fred Smith]

But I also have a suggestion that I think would help a lot in live performances.
I would like to have the feature "Parameter Lock on the Assignables buttons.
Would it be possible for yamaha to give us this gift in the next firmware???
See the images below:

Enildo,

You're absolutely right. Being able to Parameter Lock assignables should have been implemented right from the very start. And it's something Yamaha could do with an OS update. Let's hope they do.

My workaround is I never memorize Assignables in my registrations. They they never change them.

Cheers,
Fred

[blackpool]

I use freeze a lot of the time, with this activated for my 'global' prefs , it helps a lot if i maybe only want to change style of voicing but keep everything else in a new registration version. For me it is the easiest option.

I have several 'bread and butter' banks set up ready with the different voicing i like which i can then just assign a style to, song title and then just copy while freeze is activated.

Although freeze is not memorised, when you re-save - i think i am correct in saying, the individual functions you have frozen at the time are.

Keith

[Enildo]

Enildo,

You're absolutely right. Being able to Parameter Lock assignables should have been implemented right from the very start. And it's something Yamaha could do with an OS update. Let's hope they do.

My workaround is I never memorize Assignables in my registrations. They they never change them.

Cheers,
Fred

Yes Fred, I also don't save the assignable buttons, I prefer to use them as buttons with fixed functions. On the other hand, I also saved some configurable button configurations, which I eventually use differently. The assignable buttons, shortcuts and live buttons were an excellent idea for yamaha, but like everything, they need improvement and we as owners and musicians are discovering other needs that appear.

Enildo

[overover]

Hi Gios,

I recommend that you work primarily with Registrations. You should definitely study the Registration Memory feature, i.e. how you save Registrations on buttons 1 - 8 and how the Registration BANK is then saved as a file.

I myself see (and use) the OTS of the Styles primarily as suggestions for Voice combinations. (The Voices of the Preset OTS can sound different (mostly better) than when the same Preset Voices are called up directly.)

You can create special "Voice Regs" (e.g. you can save your preferred OTS in them). The procedure would be:
- Call up a Style and press the desired OTS button (or make the desired Keyboard Voice settings manually)
- Press [Memory] button.
- Make sure to have ticked only "Voice" and "Keyboard Harmony/Arpeggio" in the Memory window.
- Press the desired Reg Memory button (1 - 8 ) on which you want to store the current Keyboard Voice settings.
- Repeat these steps for other OTS or manually made Voice settings and store them on the other Reg Memory buttons in the same way.
- Press [Regist Bank -] and [Regist Bank +] buttons at the same time to call up the Registration file selection display.
- Save your current Registration Bank as a file in the User drive or onto a USB stick.
- Use a meaningful file name here. The file names of my "Voice Regs" always start with "v", e.g. "vPiano&Strings".

Important:
- If you check "Voice" (in the Memory window), only the Right Voices are memorized to the registration.
- "Keyboard Harmony/Arpeggio" should ALWAYS be ticked, even if these functions are not currently being used. This is the only way to ensure that a newly called up Registration correctly DISABLES "Keyboard Harmony/Arpeggio" if it was enabled by a previous Reg or OTS.

Note: The LEFT Voice is saved in registrations with the checkmark "Style". If you also want to save the LEFT Voice in a "Voice Reg", you have to use a little trick:
- Make the desired Keyboard Voice settings
- Copy any (Preset) Style into the User drive and rename it, e.g. to "dummy1".
- LOAD this renamed Style.
- Press [Memory] and make sure that the checkmark is set for "Style" (if the Right Voices should also be saved, of course also for "Voice" and "Keyboard Harmony / Arpeggio").
- Memorize other Voice settings to the other Reg buttons, but make sure that the "Dummy" Style is always loaded before pressing [Memory].
- Save the Reg BANK.
- Now you delete the "Dummy" Style from the User drive. (You can also just rename it, in this case e.g. to "dummy2".)
- If you call up these Regs in the future, the originally linked Style will not be found, and therefore the Voice Regs created with this trick will NOT change the currently set Style.


Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Chris

[Gios]

Hi Chris

thanks for your exemplary explanation.
This is my first arranger experience.
I will try your advice, which I am sure will help me a lot.

Thanks again.....

Gios

[overover]

Thanks for your quick feedback, Gios!

P.S.
I forgot to mention: If you work with Registrations, the OTS LINK function should be switched OFF. (Otherwise each Main Variation would call up the corresponding OTS.)


Best regards,
Chris