Creating a Multi Pad with Audio files

[brucerez]

Hi,

I am creating a Multi Pad with my own Audio Percussion Loop, I converted my loop to 44.100 kHz, 16 bits, saved in the user area (in the keyboard) and
successfully created an audio multi pad and assigned to Pad 1 through Audio Link Multi Pad.
It plays back fine when I hit the Pad button 1 but I encountered 2 problems.

Problem 1- The audio percussion is not playing in loop, it plays two measures and it stops, couldn't find any option like Loop On/Off in the keyboard.
Problem 2- The Volume and Pan are not saved in the Mixer (M.Pad).
In the past I could save individually the volume and Pan of each M.Pad in OTS. But apparently this is not working with Audio Link Multi Pad.

It would be very helpful for any advice or guide me in the right direction to achieve this task.

Thank you

[Jeff Hollande]

IMHO, as far as I am aware of, all multipads are to be made in midi to achieve this task.

Best regards, JH

[brucerez]

Thanks JH for your reply.

I've already done the process explained in the reference manual for creating a Multi Pad with Audio files.
Is there any other explanation in the manual that I might missed?

That would be very helpful if you can provide any link to a tutorial or any page number in the manual that explain the process to create a Multi Pad with Audio files through midi.

Thank you

[Jeff Hollande]

Sorry, I cannot help you out.
I am only familiar with midi multipads.

If you'd mention the name/number of your Yami kb, there might be another member of this group who is willing to answer your question (s ).

Good luck !
JH

[DerekA]

Unfortunately, the repeat function is not available for an audio link multipad.  See the various ref manuals, under 'multi pads', 'Playing the audio link mutipads'.

I guess the pan option is not available because the wav is already a stereo file.

[brucerez]

...If you'd mention the name/number of your Yami kb, there might be another member of this group who is willing to answer your question (s ).

Good luck !
JH

My keyboard is PSR-A5000.

[brucerez]

Unfortunately, the repeat function is not available for an audio link multipad.  See the various ref manuals, under 'multi pads', 'Playing the audio link mutipads'.

I guess the pan option is not available because the wav is already a stereo file.

Thanks DerekA for your reply.

I've heard it's doable by using YEM and REX files.
Do you have any experiences in that area?

Best Regard

[DerekA]

I have not tried it. I think the idea is that you break the audio file up into a number of smaller files, then create a custom voice in yem where each of those smaller files is allocated to a different note. Then you can create a midi multipad which uses those notes with the custom voice to effectively play back the whole audio file. Since it's midi, it can be looped.

I think this method is really best used for something like a percussion track, where you can break the original file up into small repeating sections, then string them back together. Otherwise youd get into terrible trouble if the tempo changed.

[brucerez]

I have not tried it. I think the idea is that you break the audio file up into a number of smaller files, then create a custom voice in yem where each of those smaller files is allocated to a different note. Then you can create a midi multipad which uses those notes with the custom voice to effectively play back the whole audio file. Since it's midi, it can be looped.

I think this method is really best used for something like a percussion track, where you can break the original file up into small repeating sections, then string them back together. Otherwise youd get into terrible trouble if the tempo changed.

Agreed. I think this is the way to go.
Thanks for your advice.

[Mark]

How about loading the original wav in some audio processing software (like Audacity for instance) and "copy-paste" the wav file  parts to prepare a longer file thus making an "artificial" loop:
For example, if your wav file contains a wave W, you should create a file that will look like:
W|W|W|W|W|W|W|W|W...
Of course you will end up with a bigger wav file, but on the other hand, no need to create a package, install it, create a multipad in midi, etc.

This might serve you well if you know in advance the number of bars your loop should last for.
Of course if you make it longer than needed you should be able to stop it with the registrations.

If your WAV is a percussions/drums track, then another direction that might be interesting is creating an Audio Style out of the WAV file (again you'll have to do it on your computer), but at least it will become an "integrated" into the style variations... I don't have an experience with A5000 but I hope it can load audio styles.

[Jeff Hollande]

Hey Mark,

Apparently the A5000 is comparable to the SX900 ?

The SX900 cannot load any audio files to my ( poor ) knowledge.
But ... it looks like the A5000 can ( according to Brucerez' experience ).
Best wishes, JH

[Mark]

Hi Jeff, I believe both PSR 900 and A5000 can load audio styles, although with some limitations.
I don't own any of these keyboards so can't confirm out of my experience, but at least the reference manual explicitly states so (SX900 - page 18, A5000 - page 20).
In my understanding this feature used to exist in 9XX series for a long time (I owned S950 - and it had this feature), and of course recent Tyros / Genos models can also play audio styles. SX700, for example, can't play audio files AFAIK.

[Jeff Hollande]

Hey Mark :

Thank you for your reply. 

As far as I remember the S950 has approx. 25 built in audio styles which cannot be extracted. The SX900 has none.  Am I correct ?
Plse advise. Thank you.

Best regards, Jeff

[Mark]

You're welcome, Jeff

According to this link (https://psrtutorial.com/sty/yamaha/psr-s950.html), indeed s950 has 25 audio styles so I believe you're right

I don't know whether its an issue to extract an audio style (I don't have s950 right now to check), I assume you're right here as well: since the same link has all the styles of s950 available for download, and I don't see any audio styles among the downloaded files

I can say, however, that After Tyros 5, Yamaha kind of took a different direction and abandoned the idea of audio styles in favor of more realistic but midi based Drum Voices. So Genos/SX series do not have "factory" audio styles anymore.
See this link:https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php?topic=41956.0#:~:text=Yes%20there%20are%20no%20Audio%20styles%20on%20Genos.

Having said that, I know that there is a pack of many audio styles available on Tyros 5 for Genos distributed by Yamaha itself. So you can play them, you can create them on pc mainly but you don't have factory audio styles anymore.
Regarding the extraction in general, I've installed that pack on my genos and copied these styles to USB via USB Mass Storage mode - it worked fine. Another way that worked for me - is downloading this pack and them  via a specialized software. This way is described by @casper already - so I've learned it from his excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKtXrQ1Ar_4
After all, audio style is just a style file that has an audio track "baked" into the style file - so the only difference between the audio style and a regular style file is the size (audio styles are much bigger - can occupy tens of megabytes).

[EileenL]

Audio Multi Pads seem to be used mainly for vocal parts as you will find in a lot of Demo's. They are usually just a one shot Audio.
  If you want more orchestral or melodic sounds you must use Midi and you can then chord match and repeat.

[brucerez]

How about loading the original wav in some audio processing software (like Audacity for instance) and "copy-paste" the wav file  parts to prepare a longer file thus making an "artificial" loop:
For example, if your wav file contains a wave W, you should create a file that will look like:
W|W|W|W|W|W|W|W|W...
Of course you will end up with a bigger wav file, but on the other hand, no need to create a package, install it, create a multipad in midi, etc.

This might serve you well if you know in advance the number of bars your loop should last for.
Of course if you make it longer than needed you should be able to stop it with the registrations.

If your WAV is a percussions/drums track, then another direction that might be interesting is creating an Audio Style out of the WAV file (again you'll have to do it on your computer), but at least it will become an "integrated" into the style variations... I don't have an experience with A5000 but I hope it can load audio styles.

Thanks Mark for your suggestion.
Since I do live performance gigs with different singers, it's almost impossible to know the number of bars my loop should last.
I will consider your other suggestion (creating audio style) after finishing my experiences with multi pad.

Thank you

[brucerez]

Audio Multi Pads seem to be used mainly for vocal parts as you will find in a lot of Demo's. They are usually just a one shot Audio.
  If you want more orchestral or melodic sounds you must use Midi and you can then chord match and repeat.

Thanks EileenL for the information.

I could finally make working my audio percussion (Multi Pad) playing in loop with the style, nice and clean But unfortunately as soon as I change the tempo of the style,
it does not follow the tempo change and it's not playing in sync with the style. It's a shame!

Anyway I will continue to see if I can find a way to assign my audio percussion in one of the style track.

[overover]

Thanks EileenL for the information.

I could finally make working my audio percussion (Multi Pad) playing in loop with the style, nice and clean But unfortunately as soon as I change the tempo of the style,
it does not follow the tempo change and it's not playing in sync with the style. It's a shame!

Anyway I will continue to see if I can find a way to assign my audio percussion in one of the style track.

Hi brucerez,

The ways to work with tempo-variable Audio drums / Audio percussion loops are:

1. Creation of an +Audio Style using the Yamaha program "Audio Phraser V1.0.1":
>>> https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/arranger_workstations/genos/downloads.html#product-tabs

2. Creation of a REX file (= sliced Audio) from the original Audio drums/percussion loop file using a suitable program like "ReCycle".

The REX file (.rx2) can then be imported into a new, empty pack or into an existing, not protected pack with "Import Content" in YEM. A Custom Normal Voice, a Custom Drum Voice, two Style files and two Multi Pad Bank files are automatically generated in this pack. You can now play the original Audio drum/percussion loop with variable tempo.

Please watch this YT video:
>>> https://youtu.be/bObx-jaxiUs


Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Chris

[brucerez]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the valuable and straight to the point information as usual, very helpful.

Best regards