Yamaha Corporation After Touch Magazine Archive Apr/May 1989 Issue Aftertouch 04 05

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THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION

OF

THE YAMAHA USERS

GROUP

--------.

FIRST

OF

ALL,

We

would like to

announce

a change in Publishers

for

AfterTouch. It's a

long story,

so

let's begin

at

the

beginning:

We've received many letters

and

calls from

readers inquiring about

the

status of AfterTouch

magazine.

The

interruption

of

this Yamaha pub-

lication did

not

go unnoticed! You've

been

ask-

ing

us

if the publication still exists,

and

if it

does,

when

you

can

expect

to

receive it. We

apologize for

the

delay in getting After

Touch

out

to

all you readers, since you have always

been

so

patient

and

involved

with

the

magazine.

Yamaha

Corporation

of

America

has long

supplied extended literature

and

educational

materials for

their

instruments, free

of

charge.

Anyone working with a Yamaha Digital Musical

Instrument,

or

even

people

who've

simply

wanted

to

increase

their

understanding

of

today's instruments and

their

many possibilities,

have

been

able to receive AfterTouch magazine

free of charge, just

by

asking. Yahama

hoped

this extended support

and

information would

enable all level

of

musicians

to

fully enjoy

and

utilize

the

equipment

to

its ultimate capability.

The

appreciation

and

support

of

all

of

the

readers

of

AfterTouch magazine has always

been

gratifying.

The

people

at

Yamaha wanted

to

keep

the

publication going to

maintain

this spe-

cial

channel

of communications they

had

devel-

oped between themselves and

the

readership

they had discovered with After

Touch.

At

the

same time,

the

cost

of

providing this

publication free

of

charge

was

no

longer eco-

nomically feasible. Due to increases in paper

costs, printing,

and

mailing charges, Yamaha

had

to consider

an

alternative

way

to keep

the

publication going.

These

considerations

took

much time, and are in large

part

responsible for

the

interruption

of

publication over the last

few

months.

After much consideration, Yamaha Corpora-

tion

of

America has decided to

turn

its users-

group publication over to Tesladar

Communica-

tions, which

is

headed

by

the editor

of

their

former publication, Tom Darter.

Dr.

Tom Darter has

been

involved with

the

communications and music industries for over

2 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 Nos.

4-5

&

15

years. Besides

receiving

his

Doctorate

in

music

composition

from

Cornell

University,

Tom presided

as

the

Editor

of

Keyboard

Magazine

for its first

10

years, before his promotion to

Director

of

Publications for

GPI

(which also

published Guitar

Player

Magazine,

Frets

Maga-

zine,

and

other

educational publications

at

the

time).

Tom also

taught

an

Electronic

Tech-

niques

In

Film Music class for four years

at

USC,

and

orchestrated two albums

worth

of

material for

the

Kronos

Quartet.

In

addition,

he

has

been

a studio keyboardist

on

music scoring

sessions for

such

films as

Explorers,

Pretty

In

Pink,

lnnerspace,

The

'burbs,

and

Star

Trek

V.

As

the

Editor

of

AfterTouch (since its first

issue)

and

as a musician

who

works

as

a profes-

sional

on

different music projects, Tom

is

defi-

nitely someone

who

understands

the

many lev-

els

of

musicianship

that

After

Touch

has tried

to

explore

throughout

its years

of

existence.

Under

the

valued

and

expert technical

and

musical direction

of

Dr. Tom Darter, After

Touch

will

continue

to be a

monthly

publication

that

strives to provide information

that

can

help

people

of

all levels

to

utilize

their

Yamaha

instruments

to

their

fullest potential.

Therefore, starting

with

the

July '89 issue,

AfterTouch will become a "paid-for" publica-

tion.

It

will

be

published

independent

of

Yamaha

Corporation

of

America

by

Tesladar

Communications,

at

a cost

of

$12.00

per

year.

For this $12.00, you will receive

12

monthly

issues of AfterTouch . Each issue will be

at

least

36 pages

in

length, almost twice

the

old issue

size

(and

the

same size

as

the

special double

is-

sue you are now reading). Each issue will defi-

nitely include pages

of

Questions

and

Answers,

pages

of

Hot

Tips, pages

of

reader

patches,

MIDI columns,

an

in-depth

artist interview,

material

on

new Yamaha products, coverage of

older Yamaha electrical musical instruments,

and

more.

Please understand,

we

need

to

receive your

new subscription requests by August

15

in

order

to

keep you

on

the

AfterTouch mailing list

and

insure

that

you won't miss any issues. We will

Continued on

page

34

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~

April/May

1989 Volume

5,

Number

4~5

Issues

#43~44

4 Questions & Answers

Answers to questions from readers.

By

Steve Deming

and

Tom Darter.

8 TX81Z Voices

"Classic Syn"

and

"Happy Chord," two new TX81Z voices

by

Eric

E.

Ogier.

9 TX81Z Voices

"Grand Piano," a new TX81Z voice by

Stan

Varnas,

and

"Steel

Drums," a new TX81Z voice by Dave Joyce.

10

DX7

II

Performance

11

12

"Stereo Airport," a new

DX7

II

performance

by

Dan Linehan.

DX7

II

Voices

"Basilica" and PrcEnsemble," two new DX7

II

voices

by

John

P.

Mikowychok.

WX7 & TX81Z

Creating custom WX7 sounds from preset (ROM) TX81Z

voices.

By

Gregory W Yasinitsky.

15

V50

Applications

Understanding

the

VSO

sequencer, part

1.

By

Chris

Cotton.

18

Chick Corea

A musical giant talks about his new film score, his Elektric

Band, his Akoustic Band, and his work with

the

Yamaha MIDI

grand.

By

Tom Darter.

25

SPX Professional Series

An

introduction to Yamaha two new professional

multi~effects

processors:

the

SPX900

and

the

SPXlOOO.

By

Tom Darter.

28 Hot Tips

Reader tips for

the

SPX90 II, CXSM, and more.

32

C1 Users Central

From

the

Finder to DOS, part

2.

By

Scott

Plunkett.

Corporation

of

America.

No

part

of

rh1s

publication may be reproduced, stored m a retrieval system,

or

transmitted

in

any form

or

by any means,

electronically, mechanically, photocopying, recording,

or

otherwise,

without

the

prior

written

permission

of

Yamaha

Corporation

of

Amenca.

Editor

Tom Darter

Operations

Sibyl Darter

Production

Sibyl Darter

Tom Darter

Editorial Board

Steve Deming

Charles Feilding

Bob Frye

John

Gatts

J.P.

Lincoln

Phil

Moon

Jim Smerdel

Gerry Tschetter

Steve

Thatcher

Cover

Photograph

Neil Zlozower

Cover

photo:

Chick

Corea

in

his

home

studio

with

(clockwise

from

top

right)

Yamaha

V50,

Yamaha

MIDI

grand,

Synclavier,

Yamaha

KX88.

AFTERTOUCH

is

pub-

lished monthly. Third class

postage paid at Long

Prairie, MN and additional

points of entry.

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Address subscription cor-

respondence to AFTER-

TOUCH,

P.O.

Box

7938,

Northridge,

CA

91327-

7938. POSTMASTER:

Send form 3579

to

P.O.

Box

7938, Northridge, CA

91327-7938.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/ AFTERTOUCH 3

Answers

To

Questions From

Readers.

By

Steve Demming

& Tom Darter.

TXBIZ

FM digital

tone

generator.

My TX81Z does not respond to control mes-

sages (breath controller, modulation wheel, and

so on) when in Performance mode unless I set

all of the voices to Omni. I've tried setting Con-

trol Change to both Normal and Global modes,

but nothing seems to work.

This

prevents me

from having individual control over the voices,

which

is

a serious limitation of the machine.

Am

I at fault,

or

is

my

TX81Z defective??-Brian

Clevinger, Lawrence, KS.

Setting Control Change to Global should take

care of your problem-it allows control change

messages

from

one MIDI channel

to

affect

all

of

the instruments

in

a Performance. In order

for

this to work, the Global MIDI channel has to be

the same

as

the MIDI channel of the instrument

that

is

sending the Control

messages.

I have been trying

to

get a cassette interface

cable for my

DX2

7.

Where can I find something

that

will

work?-

James Bohn, Manitowoc, WI.

What

you

need

is

the Yamaha cassette interface

cable, part #MI551160.

For

more information,

call the

Yamaha

Electronic Service Division Parts

Department: 1-800-443-3548.

We

have both the Yamaha

CP35

and the CP25

electronic pianos in stock.

Do

you know of any-

one

out

there who can

MIDlfy

them?

We

have

already checked with J.L. Cooper, Forte Music,

and Eddy Reynolds.

They

don't know of anyone

who can help.

Do

you?-

Ron's Penguin Music,

Toledo,

OH

No. Unfortunately,

we

don't know of anyone who

does a MIDI modification

for

the CP35 or CP25.

If any readers

kow

of someone who provides this

4 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 Nos. 4-5

&

service, please let

us

know,

and

we

will

pass

the

information along to everybody.

I enjoy the versatility of the Yamaha RX

17,

espe-

cially its

MIDI

implementation. However, for

more than a year

now,

I have been trying to get

the RX17 System Exclusive format from the

International

MIDI

Association (IMA), since I

am an

IMA

member. Every time I call, they tell

me that Yamaha has not sent them the Sys Ex

documents for the RX17. What's the problem?-

Paul Kovitz, State College, PA

Anyone who wants

RX17

System Exclusive

infor-

mation, or System Exclusive information

on

any

Yamaha MIDI product, can request it directly

from the Yamaha Electronic Service Division.

Calll-800-854-3619, and

ask

for

extension

1.

I have a

few

questions concerning the SPX90

II:

1 ) Why

is

it that the Pitch Shift programs are

not

accurate? Some notes are correct, and some

aren't.

I've

tried

adding

chorus,

and

have

changed the

l/0

levels to attain a better sound.

Nothing works. 2)

On

Pitch Shift programs, the

unit seems to glitch with Feedback levels above

69%.

This

also

happened

with

the

original

SPX90. I know of others who have experienced

the same problems. Please

help.-

Todd Mizenko, ·

Columbus, NJ

Unfortunately, the problems

you

have uncovered

are due to limitations in the unit itself. The

SPX90

is

not

designed to be Pitch Shifter or Pitch

Transposer, per se-these presets appear

on

the

unit

as

effects. On some sounds,

you

won't notice

the glitch in the pitch shift at all, because the

complexity of the sound will mask it.

Earlier this year I bought

an

RXS, and have en-

joyed using it. However, recently, I

bought

a

sequencing

software

package

for

my

IBM

compatible called

"Cakewalk,"

produced

by

Twelve Tone Systems.

The

RXS does not want

to

cooperate

with

the

software.

Here

is

the

problem.

The

sequencer will store

the

data transmitted,

but

it does

not

store any information regarding

detuning

of

specific instruments.

If

I have

the

RXS

set

in

MIDI

Voice Mode,

none

of

the

instruments will be detuned,

but

otherwise will

play

the

song as it should.

If

the

RXS is

in

MIDI

Pitch

Mode,

the

song will

not

be played back un-

less I am in

the

Song mode

and

have

the

song in

memory previous to playback, which cancels

the

whole purpose of having a sequencer! Also,

if

I

am in

MIDI

Pitch Mode, whatever

instrument

is

set

on

the

MIDI

channel I

am

using will auto-

matically play all

of

the parts

the

rest

of

my

instruments play.

The

only way to rid myself of

this problem is to set the volume

of

that

instru-

ment

to zero.

Can

you help me

with

this prob-

lem?-

Rob Coddington, Chicago,

IL

Well,

we

can explain the problem, and perhaps

offer some helpful advice.

In MIDI Voice Mode, each instrument voice in

the

RXS

is

assigned to one MIDI

note

number.

Therefore, even if you have a

pattern

where

you've set up an entire bass line using the Multi

Voice function (Job

#03)

in

Key

Assign,

the

RX5

will

output all

of

those different pitches

as

the

same

MIDI

Note

number (because

that

bass voice

is

assigned to only

one

MIDI note number).

If

you

want to access the

RXS's

ability

to

assign

different pitches to its voices,

you

need to use the

MIDI Pitch Mode. In this mode, up to sixteen of

the instrument's voices can be used: each

one

of

the sixteen

is

assigned

its

own MIDI channel, and

each one responds to different MIDI note num-

bers sent to it

on

its own MIDI channel.

In

order

to

take

advantage

of

MIDI

Pitch

Mode,

it

is

necessary to program the

RXS

from an

external MIDI keyboard. Pick your sixteen instru-

ments and assign

them

each to a MIDI channel.

Then,

progrctm

your patterns, playing the voices

one

at

a time; remember,

you

have to change the

MIDI channel on

the

MIDI keyboard each time

you

want to access another RX5 voice.

If

you

progrctm

patterns in this

way,

you

can

send

them

from

the

RXS

to

your

external

se-

quencer, and the sequencer will record all

of

the

pitch changes

you

played using

the

MIDI key-

board.

In

order

to

take

advantage

of

this

approach,

you

need to

use

a sequencing program

that

will record more

than

one

MIDI channel on

a single track;

you

will also need an interface that

has

multiple

MIDI

OUT

jacks,

and

your

sequencing program must be able to assign spe-

cific tracks to specific outputs. If

you

have these

capabilities,

you

can assign

the

RXS

(in MIDI

Pitch Mode) to

one

track, assign

that

track

to

a

specific output, and keep

the

RXS

data separate

from

the

other MIDI data. Otherwise, since

the

RXS

responds to all

16

MIDI

ch;cmnels

in MIDI

Pitch Mode, there will be problems.

I am a teacher

who

owns

an

Apple

IIGS

com-

puter

because

of

its

compatibility

with

the

school-owned

computer

in

my

office.

I

am

desparately trying to find an editor-librarian pro-

gram

that

will

work

with

my

DX7s,

but

am hav-

ing

no

luck. I would also like editor /librarian

programs for

the

TXSI

Z

and

RXS

that

will op-

erate

on

the

Apple

IIGS.

Do

such

programs

exist?

-David

Harbart,

Strongsville,

OH.

We

do . not know

of

any such programs

for

the

Apple

IIGS.

However, that doesn't necessarily

mean

that

they don't exist. If any readers know

of

a company

that

offers such programs, please let

us

know, and

we

will pass the information along to

everybody.

I own a

QXI,

which I can operate with ease.

However,

when

it comes to using

the

RXS

drum

machine, I have many problems. First

of

all,

can

you explain

how

to save

an

edited voice

to

a

Copy voice location?

Next,

can

you tell me why,

when

I change tempo

on

a

pattern

using

the

Tempo slider,

it

changes all

of

the

pattern

tempos

in

the

machine?

And

finally, why,

when

the

RXS

is

in

Internal

Sync mode, do

patterns

play

via

MIDI

from

the

QXI?

-Paul

Whiting,

San

Francisco,

CA

Lots

of

questions here. Let's get started:

The

procedure for Editing a voice and then sav-

RX5

digital

rhythm

/JTogrammcr.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/ AFTERTOUCH 5

TXl

P piano

cone

ge

nerato

r.

ing it to a

Cop

y location

is

a little bit complex,

because the Copy Voice function

is

Job #09 in

Key

Assign mode, while all voice editing takes

place in

Voic

e Edit mode. In order to copy an

edited voice to a Copy location, you have to store

yo

ur edited voice before

le

aving Voice Edit mode

for

Key

A

ss

ign

mod

e.

Follow the

se

steps:

1)

Go

into Voice Edit mode, and pick the voice

you

want to edit using Vo

ic

e Edit Job

#01

(Select Voice for Edit).

2)

Edit

th

e voice to suit

yo

ur needs, using Voice

Edit Jobs

#02-#06

(Pitch, Envelope, Pitch

Bend, Leve

l,

and Loop

On/Off)

as

des

ir

ed

3)

Once

you

have the desired

vo

ice edit, store it

using Voice Edit Job

#07

(Store Voice).

4)

Now,

go to K

ey

Assign mode, and use J

ob

#0

9

(Copy Voice) to store your edited voice to

the Copy location

of

your cho

ice.

5)

At

this point, you have two versions of

th

e

edited voice; one in the o

ri

ginal location,

and one in the Copy loca

ti

on. Since

yo

u

want the original, un

ed

ited voice back in

the orig

in

al location, you still have work

to

do.

Return to Voice Edit and select the now-

edited

voice using Voice

Edit

J

ob

#01

(Select Vo

ic

e For Edit).

6) Finally, use Voice Edit J

ob

#07

(Initia

li

ze

Voice) to recall the origina

l,

unedited voice

from the

RX5's

permane

nt

ROM memory

and insta

ll

it again in

th

e

RX5

's

Pl

ay/Edit

memo

ry.

At

this point,

you

have the o

ri

g

in

al

voice

in

its

original loca

ti

on, and the edited

voice

in

the Copy location

yo

u selected.

If

you

kn

ow

what voice you wa

nt

to edit in

advance, it

is

easier to copy

th

e voice to a Copy

location

fir

st (using

Ke

y Assign Job

#09),

and

then perform your voice edits on the voice

in

th

e

Co

py

location.

Two

things to remember here:

1)

In order to be available

for

vo

ic

e editing,

th

e

voice must be

ass

ig

ned

to an ins

trument

key;

therefore, after

yo

u copy the

vo

ic

e to a Copy loca-

6 AFTERT

OUC

H!Vol. 5 Nos. 4-5

tion,

you

must

ass

ign that Copy location to an

instmment k

ey

(using

Key

Assign Job

#01)

.

2)

After

you

perform

voi

ce

ed

its

on

th

e voice in

its

Copy location,

you

mu

st store it (using Vo

ic

e Edit

Job

#0

8) before leaving Voice Edit mode.

())nce

rning the tempo

se

tting and patterns:

The

RX

5 does

not

store a particular tempo with

any

pattern. Tempos are stored only in Song

mode.

Wh

en

you

are

in

Pattern mod

e,

the

RX5

plays at

th

e tempo

you

set with the tempo slider

or

with

the

Tempo

button

a

nd

the

numeric

ke

ypad.

Fina

ll

y,

the

RX5

will

respond to a MIDI Start

messa

ge

even when in Internal Sync mode.

So,

if

you

have it connected to

th

e QX1 and start the

QXI

, the

RX5

w

ill

respond to the Start signal it

recei

ves

, a

nd

will pl

ay

the currently s

el

ected pat-

tern or song.

I

am

writing to inquire

if

there

is

any follow-up

or

backup material

on

the CHX-1 organ.

This

is

a great instrument,

but

a new

owner

could use

some suggestions and more explicit instructions

than

those provided

in

the manual.

Can

you help

me?-Kenneth

Satterlee, Cedar Falls,

lA

Ther

e are no supplemental materials currently

available

on

the CHX-1. For more information,

contact

th

e Yamaha Electronic Service Division's

Product Information service: call 1-800

-85

4-3619,

and

ask

for extension

1.

Is it possible to modify the velocity scaling of the

TXlP

to

make it more compatible with a variety

of

keyboard

controllers??

-Martin

J.

Brien,

Cambridge,

MA

Ye

s,

it

is

possible, but

you

need a ROM update.

Have

yo

ur local dealer or technician contact the

Yam

aha Electronic Service Division Parts Depart-

ment, which will send them the latest ROM

ver-

sion. It will come complete with an owners man-

ual supplement explaining how to access the new

featur

es

(including changing the velocity scaling).

I am a proud owner of a

OX

11

keyboard. I read

in AfterTouch of a manual for the

"DXll

Sys-

tem,"

but

my dealer told me it doesn't exist.

What's the story? Also, I heard of a proposed

Yamaha sound cartridge for the

DXll.

How can

I obtain

one?-

Jean Pierre, Jr., Cambria Heights,

NY

Your

dealer w

as

wrong.

The

OXll

System manual

does exist; it can be ordered by writing to Yamaha

Corpora

ti

on of America ,

SG

D

Di

vision, Lit-

erature Department,

P.

O.

Box 6600,

Bu

ena Pa

rk,

CA

906

22

-6600.

On

th

e o

th

er hand, your other

information is also wrong: at present, Yamaha

o

ffers

no

so

und cartridges for the

OX

11.

I have a Yamaha

MESO

organ that I use and en-

joy very much. I would like to know

if

you can

control voices

on

the

TX81Z

tone generator

separately from

the

MESO's

upper

manual,

lower manual, and pedals? Also,

is

it possible to

transpose the TX81Z from the

MESO

,

or

does

that

have

to

be

done

s

eparately?-

John

G.

Luerssen, Baltimore, MD.

The

MESO

neither sends nor receives any MIDI

co

ntrol

ch

ange messages

-it

just

se

nd

s a

nd

receives MIDI, not mess

ag

e

s.

The

upper manual

sends and rece

ive

s

on

MI

DI channel

1,

the lower

manual

se

nds and receiv

es

on MIDI cha

nn

el

2,

a

nd

th

e pedals send and receive on MIDI channel

3.

Ther

efore, to control voices

se

parately on

th

e

TXSI Z

fr

om

th

e differe

nt

k

ey

boa

rd

s,

yo

u have to

s

et

up

Performances

on

the

TX

8

1Z

th

at

ass

ign the

desired vo

ic

es

to the three MIDI channels that

the

MESO

u

ses.

Since

th

e MIDI impleme

nt

a

ti

on

the

MES

O

involv

es

only MIDI note messages, it is imp

oss

ible

to transpose the

TX

8

1Z

from the

MESO

. Ho

w-

ever, it is p

oss

ible to set up different Performances

on the TXSIZ

th

at have di

ffer

e

nt

transp

os

itions

rel

at

iv

e to the

ke

yboa

rd

s of the

MESO,

and these

Performances can be called up

qui

ckly from

th

e

TXSI Z

's

front pane

l.

Use the Note Shift param-

eters

in

th

e TXSI Z

's

Pe

rf

ormance mode to create

th

e des

ir

ed transp

osi

ti

on

s.

I recently purchased an RX17 drum machine,

and am very pleased with it. Does Yamaha offer

data

ca

ssettes with additional patterns.

If

not, do

you

know of any third-party software developers

who offer any such patterns for the RX

17?-

Peter Tsakle, Methuen,

MA

Yamaha do

es

not o

ff

er any additional patterns

for

the

RX

17,

and we are not

aw

are of any compani

es

th

at do. Ho

we

ver, there are a lot

of

companies out

th

ere o

ff

ering this kind of support,

so

continue to

ch

eck advertiseme

nt

s a

nd

announ

ce

ments. If we

hear of a

ny

companies offering ca

sse

tt

es

with new

patterns for the

RX

17,

we will p

ass

th

e inform

a-

ti

on along to our readers.

DX

11

FM

di

gita

l syn

th

es

iz

er.

RX 17

di

gi

tal

rh

yt

hm

pr

ogra

mm

e

r.

Vo

l.

5

Nos.

4-5

/

AFTERT

OUCH 7

"Classic Syn"

&

"Happy

Chord!'

Two

NewTX81Z

Voices

By

Eric

E.

Ogier.

Notes:

To

lower

distortion,

decrease

output

ofOP

#2

to

around

80,

and

decrease

the

output of

Op.

#4

to

about

70.

Lower-

ing

the

output of

Op

# 2

to

70

and

raising

the

output

of

Op.

#4

to

93-95

gives

a

bell

sound

with

a

distored

sweep.

A note on

the

diagrams:

In

these

diagrams,

the

num-

bers

listed

for

both

Frequency

Coarse

and

Frequency

Fine

do

not

represent

the

actual

settings-instead,

they

repre-

sent

a

value

level

within

the

range

of

values

available

for

both

parameters.

To

set

each

operator's

frequency

value

properly,

start

with

the

Fre-

quency

Coarse

and

Frequency

Fine

both

at

their

lowest

pos-

sible

values;

then,

go

to

Fre-

quency

Coarse

and

Increment

the

value

the

number

of

times

indicated

by

the

number

in

the

chart;

finally,

go

to

Frequency

Fine

and

increment

the

value

the

number of

times

indicated

by

the

number

in

the

chart.

The

actual

frequency

values

for

each

operator

as

shown

within

dotted

boxes

at

the

bot-

tom

of

the

Operator

portion

of

the

chart.

Notes:

Switching

Op.

# 3

to

fre-

quencies

of5.65,

11.30,

or

14.

10

will

change

the

sound

a

bit.

8 AFTERTOUCH/VoL 5 Nos. 4-5

z

OPERATOR~

0

~

1

-==-==~~

on/off

ON

out level

99

90

75

81

freq. type

RTO

fix range

255 255 255

255

freq. coarse 4 0

13

freq. fine 0 0 0 0

detune

+3

-3 -1

·······:·1·~·····T······:·;a·~·····T······:·)·~·····T······~·;j:·······

1.

00

~

0.

50

~

4.

00

~

4 .

00

ENVELOPE------------~.

attack rate

25

decay 1 rate 7

decay 1 level

12

decay 2 rate 3

release rate 6

eg shift OFF

23

25

22

0 8 6

15

12

9

7 2 6

6 6 6

OFF OFF OFF

SCALING/SENS

-----.

rate

2 1 3 3

level

0 2 30 40

ams on/off OFF OFF OFF OFF

sens

eg

bias 0 0 0 0

key vel 5 1 7 7

OPERATOR~

0

~

1

~=-~~~.

on/off

ON

ON ON

out level

99

90

freq. type

RTO RTO RTO RTO

fix range

255 255

freq. coarse

35

26 26

9

freq. fine 0 o 0 o

detune

+3

-3

+0 +3

.......

:·1·~

......

i

.....

··:·:a·~·

...

""i

•••

····:·)·:·.

""""i

.•••.•

·:·;j:·

.....

.

11.30

~

8.48

~

8.48

~

2.82

ENVELOPE----------~

attack rate 23 29 29 29

decay 1 rate

31

decay 1 level

15

decay 2 rate 8

release rate

15

eg shift OFF

31

15

15 15

6 6 5

10 10 9

OFF OFF OFF

SCALING/SENS

--------~.

rate

1

level

0

ams on/off OFF

sens

eg

bias 0

key vel 5

1 1 1

25

46

21

OFF OFF OFF

0 0 0

5 5 1

voice name:

ClassicSyn

algorithm

no.

3

feedback o

LFO-----~--------~.

waveform~

speed

28

amp mod depth 0

pitch mod depth 13

sync

OFF

delay 3

sens 3

sens 4

FUNCTION-------------..

mode POLY mid C = c 3

portamento

FULL

porta time o

·········

vol

99

rev rate 2

pb range 2

·········

pitch 50

'A

amp

41

:"'-1'

eg bias o

L..

.....

p bias +0

~pitch

0

.........

amp 0

~

p~~~~

voice name:

HappyChord

algorithm

no.

6

feedback 6

LFO----------------~

waveform~

speed

28

amp mod depth 0

pitch mod depth

78

sync

OFF

delay 14

sans 3

sens 2

FUNCTION-------,.

mode POLY mid C =

FU

portamento FULL

porta time 0

·········

val

99

rev rate 7

pb range 2

·········

pitch

99

~

amp 0

:"'-1'

eg bias 0

L..

.....

p bias +0

~pitch

0

~

·········

amp o

pitch

99

amp o

OPERATOR~

0

~

1

~~~~~

on/off

ON

out level 97

freq. type

RTO

fix range

255

freq. coarse 4

freq. fine 0

ON

85

RTO

255

13

0

ON

68

RTO RTO

255

22 4

0 0

detune +0 +0

-2

+2

.......

:·s:·;

.....

T

......

:·2·;

......

i

.......

:·)·;

.....

T

......

;·~·:

.......

1.

00

~

4 . 00

~

7 .

00

~

1.

00

ENVELOPE------------~

attack rate

26

22

24 .

29

decay 1 rate 7 1 4 1

decay 1 level

13

12

0 0

decay 2 rate 3 3 3 4

release rate 2 1 1 1

eg shift OFF OFF OFF OFF

SCALING/SENS

rate

2 2 3 1

level 0 99 86 5

ams on/off OFF OFF OFF OFF

sans eg bias 0 0 0 0

key vel 1 4 1 1

OPERATOR~

0

~

1

~~~~~

on/off

ON ON ON

ON

out level

99

70

79

75

freq. type

RTO RTO

RTO

FIX

fix range

255

255 255

freq. coarse 4 1 8 58

freq. fine 0 4 7 9

detune +3

-3

+3

.......

:·s:-;

.....

T

......

:·2·;

.....

T

......

:·)·;

.....

T

......

;·~·:

.......

1.00

~

1.05

l

2.43

l 233H

ENVELOPE------------~

attack rate

20

decay 1 rate

11

decay 1 level

12

decay 2 rate

12

release rate 6

eg shift OFF

18

16

21

9

10

31

13

12

11

12

22

3 6 8

OFF OFF OFF

S

CALl

N G/S ENS

-------------,

rate

1

level o

ams on/off OFF

sans

eg

bias o

key vel o

0

1

0

OFF OFF OFF

0 0 0

voice name: GrandPiano

algorithm no. 3

feedback 7

LFO,--------------------

waveform

~

speed

35

amp

mod

depth 0

pitch mod depth o

sync OFF

delay o

sans o

FUNCTION------------~

mode

POLY

mid C = C 3

portamento

FULL

porta time o

:........

vol

99

~pitch

0

.........

amp 0

~

pitch 0

.........

amp

0

rev rate o

pb range o

r

.......

pitch o

~

amp o

~eg

bias 0

L

......

p bias +0

voice name:

Stee1Drums

algorithm no. 3

feedback 5

LFO------------------~

waveform~

speed

35

sync OFF

delay o

sans o

sens o

amp

mod

depth o

pitch

mod

depth 0

FUNCTION-------------

mode

POLY

mid

C = C 3

portamento

FULL

porta time 0

:........

vol

40

~pitch

o

.........

amp

0

~

p~~~

~

rev rate 4

pb range o

.........

pitch o

~

amp o

.

eg

bias o

L..

.....

p bias +0

1Z

"Grand Piano!'

ANewTX81Z

Voice

By

Stan

Varnas.

Notes:

This one

is

a nice

piano

sound.

If

you've

tried

others

and

they

didn't sound

exactly

right,

this

is

the

one

to

try.

"Steel Drums!'

ANewTX81Z

Voice

By

Dave

Joyce.

Notes:

While in

college

l

had

the

opportunity

to

play

some

real

steel

drums.

This

is

the

closest

I

have

been

able

to

come

to

replicating

that

sound.

This

voice

is

particularly

useful

with

an

arpeggiator,

playing

one note at a

time.

The

arpeggiator,

when

set

at

the

appropriate

speed,

mimics

the

rolling

of

the

mallets

one

hears

with

steel

drums.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/ AFTERTOUCH 9

"Stereo Air

..

port!' A New

DX7

II

Perfor

..

mance

By

Dan

Linehan.

Notes:

This

voice

sounds

best

when

played

monophonicially

nrar

C3.

II

··-~-~=~=~---~-~-~~~~-~

.....................

1 voice- mode S I

NGLE

e-g

forced

damp OFF

PAN------....

mode-

A/8

range

0

total

volume

99

select

LFO

I

I>.

and 8

voice

I 0 1 I 0 1

note

shift

+ 0 + 0

A:

JelRoar

II

8:

JelRoar

II

~·:~

I~L--··r-·-···!21

4 21 \ \ 1

181

sustain

fs

(64)

181

foot

switch

(55

l

181

CS

1

[drl•

14]

CS 2

[ctrl•

15]

181

PORTAMENTO

NO

EFFECT

NO

EFFECT

level

1

~

1

1 0

~ ~ ~

2

25

~

!

~

3

87

i i i

tuning

select

181

0

PO

1

EQUAL

TEMPER

4 s L

............

l...

........

..J

....----------.-----------,.

r

LFO

....

~=-~~~~!::

...

L~

....

J alg 7

wave~

sync

ON

pms 5

transpose C 2 speed

99

pmd 5

...........

ams

..........

.

feedback 7 6

de

lay

99

amd o

arnrnmrnrn

0 0 0 0 0 0

sync

ON

2

1

4

3

5 mode S I

NGLE

r-FREQUENCY/OUTPUT

on

out ,

..........

freq

..........

, ve 1

key mode U POLY

unison detune 4 ,

.....................................

,

off

lev

crs

fin

mode det sens

random

pitch

1

r

..

·~it-~h

....

·;~·~~~

....

o

....

j

~

' step 0

~

mode

NORM

j

portamento

J

........

r

mode RETAIN

step 0

time

0

CD

ON

99

15

.

00

X + 0 0

11)

ON

75

0.

50

X - 7 0

(I)

ON

99

0.

50

x - 7 0

(i)

ON

50

0 .

50

x + 0 0

®

ON

72

9 .

772

Hz -7 0

rn

ON

99

1

00

. 0 Hz + 7 0

·····································'

r-

SCALING--------,.

,.....

EiNNV~E~LODiPP:Ef=========~

:

.........................................

:

left

break

right

mode ;

dep

crv

point

crv

dep

CD

NORM

; 0 /

A-

1

""'

0

11)

NORM

0 /

A-

1

""'

0

(I)

NORM

0 /

A-

1

""'

0

(i)

NORM

0 /

A-

1

""'

0

®

NORM

0 /

A-

1

""'

0

rn

NORM

0 /

A-

1

""'

0

R 1

L1

:

R2

l2:

R3

L3

R4

L4

RS

CD

14

8o

1

17

99.

37

o

37

o o

Ill

99 99

1

99

99 99

0 0

rn

14

8o

1

15

95

3o

10

99

o o

m

14

99

1

3o

99

25

99

39

o o

rn

15

5o

1

23

85

15

95

1o

o o

rn

1o

94

1

5o

97

99 99

37

99

o

®

"Cj'Cj'"gg''~''gg"'8'3"l'""'()'"58"~""'()'"5'8"l""()''

p range

Boct

p

vel

sens

OFF

10

AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 Nos.

4-5

....

~~::.~.L~.~~

..........

J a lg

29

,_LFO

wave~

sync

OFF pms 2

transpose C 3

feedback 0

sync OFF

key mode POLY

random

pitch

0

.....................................

uoooo

~

pitch

range 2

~

1 , sttop o 1

: mode

NORM

:

:.

.........................................

:

f"""~~·;t~-~~·~t~'""'~

~

J.-_,..r

~

!

modto

RETA

IN !

l step 0 l

l

time

0 l

,,,

...................................

,

speed 1 pmd 4

...........

ams

...........

delay 0 amd 0

arnrnm®oo

mode MULTI 0 0 0 0 0 0

~FREQUENCY/OUTPUT

on

out ,

..........

freq··

........

,

vel

off

lev

crs

fin

mode det sens

m

ON

99

0.50

X -4 0

rn

ON

99

3.03

X -4 0

rn

ON

99

1.00

X + 3 0

m

ON

75

1.00

X + 7 0

@)

ON

58

16.00

X -1 0

®

ON

71

25.00

X + 1 0

~scALING--------------~-EiNVVFEL~OrnP~E~:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=~

left

break

right

mode

dtop

crv

point

crv

dep

m

NORM

14

rn

NORM

45

rn

NORM

99

m

NORM

32

@)

NORM:

72

®

NORM~

49

'\._

(

'\._

/

'\._

0 3

""'\.

21

c 3

""'\.

0

A#2

./

99

B 4

./

32

F 3

~

99

0#2

""'\.

63

....

~~~~~::~~-~.~

..

..J

a lg 2 6

5

4

3

transpose C 3

feedback 4

sync

ON

key mode POLY

random

pitch

1

~~

pitch

mod

44

64

amp mod 0 0

eg

bias 0 0

2

1

portamento

J_.,.....r

mode RETAIN

step 0

time

2

R 1

L1

R2

L2

R3

L3

:

R4

L4:

RS

m

o5

99

99 99

99

45

o 1 o

rn

75

99

99 99

99

5 1 o 1 o

rn

7 1

99

99 99

99

4o

o 1 o

m 7 1

99

99 99

99

o o 1 o

@)

73

99

99 99

99

45

0 l 0

®

80

99

99 99

99

53

0

~

0

®

··9·9

...

so'T'99

...

5.0''1

...

9.9

...

sa·T·99

...

5.o"1

....

o

..

p range

8oct

p

vel

stons

OFF

~LFO

wave~

sync

OFF pms 3

speed

33

pmd 0

...........

ams

.........

..

delay

33

amd 0

arnrnm®®

mode

SINGLE

0 0 0 0 0 0

-FREQUENCY/OUTPUT

on

out ,

..........

freq

..........

,

vel

off

lev

crs

fin

mode

det

sens

m

ON

99

2.570

Hz - 0 0

rn

ON

44

20.80

X + 0 0

rn

ON

99

1.862

Hz -1 0

m

ON

70

1.00

X - 3 0

([)

ON

70

1.00

X + 7 0

®

ON

99

1.02

X + 1 0

~SCALING

____

...

_

....

_

...

_

....

_

....

_

....

_

....

_

..............

~

E:iiNVVEULCioiiP~E~=======~

left

mode

dep

crv

m

NORM

0 /

rn

NORM

0 /

rn

NORM

0 /

m

NORM

0 /

([)

NORM

0 /

®

NORM

99

.....__

break

right

point l

crv

dep

F#2

'./

51

0 2 ..../ 61

c 3

""'\.

0

G 2

""'\.

15

c 3

""'\.

0

G#

1

""'\.

11

R1

L1

R2

L2,

R3

L3,

R4

L4,

RS

m

99

a2

991

65

76

1

57

o 1 o

rn

99

o 7

as

1

55

2 1 1

99

o 1 o

rn

7 1

99

4 1

95

1

54

92

1

53

o 1 o

m

55

99

13

9o

1 s

94

1

27

o 1 o

@)

79

99

82

l

92

90

l

26

0 l 0

®

80

99

60

82

~

43

28

~

24

0

~

0

®

"9'4'"57'T'85

...

4.2"1

...

9.5

...

sa·T·5a

...

4.8"1

.....

,

...

p range

2oct

p

vel

sens OFF

II

"Basilica" &

"PrcEnsmble!'

TwoNewDX7

II

Voices

By

John

P.

Mikowychok.

Notes:

This

voice

is

scaled

so

reed

qualities

are

emphasized

in

the

low

and

high

octaves,

while

/night

pipe

qualities

are

em-

phasized

in

the

mid-range.

It

includes

built-in

reverb.

Here

is

an

optional

Pan

setting

for

use

in a

Performance

memory:

Range

=

45,

Select

=

LFO;

Pan

EG:

RI =

59,

Ll

=

63,

R2

=

30,

L2

=

41,

R3

=

42,

L3

=

47,

R4

=57,

L4

=55.

Notes:

This

is

a

/night

attack,

"wet"

sound with a built-in

delay.

It

is

reminiscent

of

a

patch

on

the

Police's

"Wrapped

Around

Your

Finger,"

bred

with a

PF

10.

It

is

good

for

chord

accompaniment.

Have

a

good

speaker

for

the

low

overtones.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/AFTERTOUCH

11

I

Creating Cus

..

tomWX7

Sounds From

Preset (ROM)

TX81Z

Voice.

By

Gregory

W.

Yasinitsky.

&

1Z

N

UMEROUS

WOODWIND

ARTISTS

have

enthusiastically

adopted

Yamaha's

WX7

MIDI

wind

controller

because

of

the

instrument's

capacity

to

respond

to

subtle

changes in

breath

pressure.

With

a WX7, it

is

possible

to

play phrases

with

a wide variety

of

breath

controlled dynamics,

and

to play sounds

whose

tone

colors (timbres) are controlled

by

the

intensity

of

a performer's air stream.

The

WX7

works well

when

MIDled

with

Yamaha's economical TX81Z tone generator.

The

TX81Z boasts a great deal of power

and

flexibility,

and

these qualities make this

tone

generator an ideal

partner

for

the

WX7. Special

breath sensitive voices, created with

the

WX7

in

mind-such

as

those in Sal Gallina's Expres-

sive

FM

Applications

and

the

Yamaha

Demosoft

for

the

WX7-provide

performers

with sounds

that

will react

to

subtle changes in

air pressure. Unfortunately, though, most preset

(ROM)

TX81Z voices are

not

programmed

to

respond

to

this sort

of

breath control. If

WX7

players

want

to

get

the

most

out

of

their

TX81Zs,

then

they

will

need

to

modify

the

breath

control

parameters

of

those

preset

(ROM)

voices.

The

Setup

Before customizing stock voices,

1t

1s

Impor-

tant that

your WX7

and

TX81 Z are set up prop-

erly. Here

is

the

suggested Dipswitch setup for

the

WX7:

#1

(AT):

on

#2

(Vol): off

#3

(Eb): whatever you prefer

#4

(Bb): whatever you prefer

#5

(Key): off

#6

(Hold):

on

#7

(Curve): off

#8

(Loose):

on

Also,

the

four rotary pots for

Wind

Zero,

Wind

Gain,

Lip

Zero,

and

Lip

Gain

should

be

adjusted

to

your playing style. A suggested pro-

cedure for setting dipswitches

and

pots

can

be

found

in

"Getting

Acquainted

With

Your

12 AFTERTOUCH/Vo\. 5 Nos.

4-5

WX7" [AfterTouch,

March

1989, page

14]

by

this author.

The

suggested setup for the TX81Z involves

setting

the

Master Tune to 0

and

making the

following MIDI control settings:

Basic Rec

Ch:

1

Transmit

Ch:

1

P.

Change:

com

Cont.

Change:

norm

Exclusive:

on

Note

on/off: all

Pitch Bend:

norm

A.

Touch-BC:

on

Save Your I

Bank

If

you like any

of

the customized sounds pre-

sented

in this article,

the

only way you will be

able to save

them

is

by

transferring

them

to your

I

(Internal)

bank; see your TX81Z owners man-

ual for details.

This

transferring process, how-

ever, will erase voices

that

you currently have

stored in your I bank. So, an

important

step

before you begin any programming

is

to

save

your

current

I

bank

to

cassette. Follow

the

directions

outlined

in your TX81 Z owners man-

ual for saving data. Store your I bank

to

cassette

and

then,

to

be safe, make an additional copy.

About

The

Customized

Voices

My

goal in reprogramming preset

(ROM)

TX81Z voices

was

to make

them

more respon-

sive to

the

WX7, without changing

their

basic

voice characteristics. In working towards this

goal, I discovered

that

different "families"

of

voices

required

somewhat

different

reprogramming techniques.

These

techniques,

described below, are

the

result

of

numerous

hours

of

experimentation,

but

they should

not

be viewed

as

gospel.

As

with all musical mat-

ters,

the

success

of

these customized voices must

be determined

by

one's own ear.

My

hope

is

that

WX7 /TX81Z performers will use the following

programming suggestions

as

starting points in

their

individual

searches

for more

perfect

voices.

Keyboard Sounds

To

begin with, let's try voice A17, PercOrgan.

It

is

a nice

jazz

organ sound,

but

one

that

is

dif-

ficult to play with a WX7. PercOrgan does

not

respond to breath control,

and

if you play fast

passages,

the

sound seems

to

be lagging

behind

your

fingers.

This

lagging

occurs

because

PercOrgan

is

a Poly Mode voice. A Poly

Mode

voice

is

one

that

retriggers

every

time

you

change notes,

whether

you rearticulate

or

not.

Play a scale and tongue

each

note,

then

play a

scale

and

slur.

You

will

hear

very

little

dif-

ference because

it

is

impossible

to

slur

with

a

Poly voice.

To

change this situation, follow these steps:

Press edit,

and

then

use

the

right parameter to

key

to scroll until you see "Function?"

on

the

screen. Press

the

right data entry key;

the

screen

should now read "Poly Mode." Press

the

right

data

entry key again;

the

screen will read

"Mono

Mode." Now

play-some

passages tongued,

and

some passages slurred. Voila!

The

lagging prob-

lem

is

gone. In

Mono

Mode, a voice will only be

retriggered

when

you rearticulate. Tonguing,

slurs, and

note

groupings will be based entirely

on

your playing style. Thus,

by

changing

one

parameter

(Poly

Mode

to

Mono

Mode),

we

have transformed A

17

PercOrgan from

an

un-

stable sound into

an

expressive

jazz

organ voice

that

articulates like a wind instrument.

Now let

us

modify PercOrgan so

that

it will

respond to your breath controlled dynamics.

Press the right parameter key

and

scroll until

you see

"C

EG

Bias=

0" (breath control en-

velope generator bias equals 0)

on

the

screen.

Press the right

data

entry key

and

hold

it

until

0

changes to 99.

This

will enable

the

force

of

your

airstream to control the

output

of

the

operators.

Press the left parameter key

and

scroll until you

see "sensitivity." Press

the

right parameter

key

and

scroll until you see "EBS 0 0 0 0" (EBS

stands for "envelope bias sensitivity").

The

ze-

ros represent

the

amount

of

breath control

that

each

operator has

been

set

to

receive (0

is

low,

7

is

high).

To

change

the

volume

of

a voice

with

breath control, the EBS value

of

the

carriers

must be raised.

The

algorithm

of

PercOrgan

is

Alg

8-all

four

operators are carriers. Thus,

to

breath control

the

dynamics (volume) of PercOrgan,

the

EBS

values

of

all four operators must be raised.

With

the

cursor keys, select operator #

1,

and,

with

the

right data

entry

key,

change the EBS

num-

ber

from 0

to

5. Use the same procedure

to

select operators

#2,

#3,

and

#4,

and, with

the

right

data

entry

key,

raise

the

EBS numbers

of

all operators from 0

to

5,

until

the

screen reads

"EBS

55

55."

Now you have something special:. a

jazz

organ

that

articulates like a wind instrument,

with

breath controllable dynamics.

You

could raise

the

EBS values

of

the

carriers further, from 5

to

7,

but

if you did

that,

you

would discover

that

this voice would lose much

of

its keyboard qual-

ity,

and

it would cease to sound like

an

organ.

My experience

with

keyboard voices

is

that

the

EBS

of

the

carriers should

not

be raised above 5.

(Remember

to

save this

edited

voice to

an

I

(Internal)

bank

location before proceeding.)

Next, let's customize

an

electric

piano

voice,

A13 Dynomite EP (Alg 5).

Change

the

mode

from Poly

to

Mono, raise

the

BC

EG Bias from 0

to

99,

and

raise

the

EBS values

of

the

carriers

(operators

#1,

and

#3)

from 0 to 5.

You

now

have a

breath

controllable electric

piano

voice.

The

playing response

of

this altered voice

can

be

further

improved

by

modifying

the

KVS (key

velocity

sensitivity)

values

of

the

operators.

This

step was

not

necessary

in

our modification

of

PercOrgan

because

the

original

preset

· PercOrgan was

not

programmed for KVS. Most

other

keyboard

sounds,

however,

are

pro-

grammed

to

be

touch

sensitive, and my experi-

ence

is

that

these

touch

sensitive

keyboard

sounds are

much

more responsive

to

the

WX7

after

their

KVS levels have

been

lowered. A for-

mula I use

to

modify keyboard voice KVS levels

is

to lower

the

KVS value

of

each

operator

by

WX7

MIDI

wind

controller.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/AFTERTOUCH

13

Continued from page

13

the

lowest KVS

number

of

the

four operators.

Let's adjust

the

KVS values of

our

altered

Dynomite

EP

voice.

The

screen should still read

"EBS 5 0 5 0" from

our

last operation. From

EBS, press

the

right parameter key;

the

screen

will

then

read "KVS 2 3 3 3."

Of

the

four oper-

ators, operator

#1

has

the

lowest KVS

value-2;

so,

all

of

the operators should be lowered

by

a

factor

of

2.

Change

the

KVS values

to

0 1 1 l.

Now play; you will find

that

you have a unique,

expressive electric piano voice.

To

get

the

most

from this voice, (or from any

other

Mono

voice

with a short envelope), you will

need

to use

fairly

constant

articulation. Remember, a

Mono

voice will

not

retrigger unless you rearticulate.

Guitar, Percussion,

And

Harp-Style Voices

The

procedure described above for customiz-

ing keyboard voices also works well for

other

voices

with

sharp attacks

and

short

envelopes,

such

as

guitar,

percussion,

and

harp-style

voices. To

customize

one

of

these

voices,

change

the

mode from Poly

to

Mono, raise

the

BC EG Bias from 0

to

99,

raise

the

EBS

of

the

carriers from 0

to

5,

and

lower

the

KVS values

of

all operators

by

a factor equal to

the

lowest

KVS

number

of

the four operators.

Brass Voices

One

of

my

favorite

preset

voices

is

B03

Flugelhorn (Alg 3).

Although

Flugelhorn does

not

sound much like a real brass instrument, it

is

an

excellent "electronic brass" voice, similar

to

those heard in much

of

today's pop music.

My

first step in customizing Flugelhorn

was

to

reprogram

the

voice so

that

its volume would be

breath controllable. First, I raised

the

BC EG

Bias from 0

to

99.

Then,

after some experi-

mentation,

I

determined

that

brass voices are

most responsive dynamically

when

EBS values

of

their

carriers are raised

to

their

maximum

levels. Since

the

algorithm

of

Flugelhorn

is

Alg

3-only

operator # 1

is

a

carrier-

I raised

the

EBS value for operator # 1 from 0

to

7,

to its

maximum level. After more experimentation, I

found

that

brass voices responded best

when

they were programmed for little

or

no

KVS; so I

lowered KVS values for Flugelhorn from KVS 2

2 2 2

to

KVS 0 0 0 0.

After

these modifications,

Flugelhorn

was

easy

to

play,

and

responded well

to

breath

controlled

dynamics.

The

sound,

however,

was

much

too

bright.

14

AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5 Nos.

4-5

The

Flugelhorn voice so

that

its timbre (brightness)

was controlled

by

breath.

To

breath control tim-

bre, it

is

necessary

to

raise the EBS values

of

the

modulators.

This

procedure must be done

by

ear.

I played Flugelhorn with

the

EBS values

of

its

modulators-operators

#2,

#3,

#4-set

to

var-

ious levels before I arrived at

the

settings

that

worked best

for

me: EBS 7 6 7

6.

I also

experimented

by

playing

my new

Flugelhorn

voice

in

Mono

Mode

and

Poly

Mode.

Although

Mono

Mode responded

to

my

articulation better, I found

that

Poly Mode

was

more suited for Flugelhorn.

To

my ears, Poly

Mode's retriggering

of

each

note

added

an

essen-

tial quality

to

this electronic brass voice.

For brass voices in general, I recommend rais-

ing BC EG Bias

to

99,

and

EBS

of

carriers to

7.

Lower

the

KVS values

as

much

as

possible and

experiment

with

EBS values

of

modulators until

you find settings

that

suit you.

Then,

play your

modified voice in

both

Mono

and

Poly Mode to

determine

which mode sounds best to you.

Wind

And

String Voices

The

general

principles

outlined

above for

customizing brass voices will also work well

for

reprogramming wind

and

string voices.

As

with

brass voices, EBS values

of

modulators must be

set

by

ear

for

wind

and

string

voices.

Modulators

of

brass voices often require high

EBS values (5, 6

or

7),

modulators

of

wind

voices generally

need

to

be set in

the

middle (3,

4

or

5),

and

modulators if strings voices often

sound best

when

values are set low (0, 1 or 2).

Voices

With

Echoes

Some

of

the most beautiful TX81Z voices are

those with echoes, such

as

003 Krstl

Choir

(Alg

7). Generally,

when

a voice has

an

echo, it

is

best

to

leave

it

in

Poly Mode. BC EG Bias

should be raised

to

99,

EBS values

of

carriers

should be raised

to

4 (higher

than

4

and

the

echo

characteristics of

the

voice are lost), and

EBS values of modulators should be left

at

0.

KVS of all operators should be reduced

as

much

as

possible.

The

algorithm for Krstl

Choir

is

Alg

7-oper-

ators

#1,

#2,

and

#3

are carriers. Thus,

for

Krstl Choir, EBS values are changed from

EBS

0

0 0 0 to EBS 4 4 4 0.

Since

preset KVS values

are all

at

zero, they

can

be left alone.

THIS

IS

THE

FIRST in a series of articles

designed to help

you

make

the

best use of

the sequencer section of the Yamaha V50 syn-

thesizer. To get the most

out

of

these articles, it

would be best

for

you to read the V50 owners

manual first, and have a basic understanding of

the instrument. However, it will be possible to

use these articles

as

a quick and painless guide

to the use

of

the

VSO's

sequencer.

Understanding

The

VSO

Sequencer

The

sequencer

on

the V50

is

capable of play-

ing eight individual instrument parts simulta-

neously. Each instrument part goes

on

a track.

The

V50 sequencer has 8 tracks, which

can

all

play together

as

a sequence or a song.

The

8

tracks, are accessed and monitored from buttons

TR1-TR8 in the Edit area.

The

rhythm part

is

located

on

a

9th

track

that

is

completely inde-

pendent of the 8 sequencer tracks.

When

in the

Sequencer mode, the rhythm part

is

accessed

and

monitored from the RHY button in

the

Edit

area.

The

8 tracks

of

the V50 sequencer are like

an

8-track tape recorder.

You

record one instru-

ment

or group of instruments on each track. For

instance,

the

bass line would be

on

Track

1,

pi-

ano

on

Track

2,

the

horn

section

on

Track 3,

and

so on. Each of

the

8 tracks in the sequencer

are related to the 8 instrument voices in a Per-

formance. A Performance has 8 voice slots,

each

one

of

which

contains

an

instrument

voice.

The

instrument in each slot

of

the Perfor-

mance

is

played from the same-numbered track

in

the

sequencer. Therefore, each song

on

the

VSO

can

have up to 8 instrument parts, plus

the

independent

rhythm

part

that

plays

concurrently.

Since

instrument

parts are usually

not

as

repetitive in nature

as

rhythm parts, instrument

tracks do

not

have

patterns

that

are linked

together to ma

ke

a song. Instrument tracks are

linear. This means

that

they are constructed

from beginning to end: there are no patterns to

be looped or repeated.

If,

however,

an

instru-

ment

part such

as

a bass line

is

very repetitive, it

is

possible to record the part once and

then

Copy it any number

of

times. For instance, if

the

verse of your song

is

126 bars long and

the

bass line

is

a 2-bar phrase

or

riff which repeats 8

times, you may record the

part

once in measures

1 and 2, and

then

Copy measures 1 and 2 to

measures 3

and

4, 5

and

6, 7

and

8,

and

so

on

up

to measure

16.

If

the

piano part

on

the next

track

is

very expressive and melodic, it probably

will

be

played over

the

entire

16

bars without

copying. In

this

way,

it

is

possible for

each

instrument part to be created independently

with different recording techniques, depending

on

the

type

of

instrument phrasing and the style

of

music being created.

In

the

accompanying diagram, you will see a

graphic

example

of

a

song

on

the

V50

se-

quencer, showing how the instrument voices

and tracks are utilized. In

the

example,

you

can

Understanding

The V50

Se

..

quencer, Part

1.

By

Chris

Cotton.

Here

is

a

graphic

example

of a

song

in

the

V50,

showing

how

the

instrument

voices

and

track~

are

utilized.

Instrument lntro Verse 1

(8

bars) (16 bars) O.orus 1 Verse 2 Chorus 2

(8

bars)

(8

bllrs) (16 bllrs) Bridge Verse 3 Chorus 3

(8

bars)

(8

bars) (16 bars) Tag Ending

(16 bars)

TRACK 1 Bass

TRACK 2 Piano

TRACK 3 Horns

TRACK 4 Strings

TRACK 5 Guitar

TRACK 6 Synth 1

TRACK 7 Synth 2

TRACK 8 Percussion

RHYTHM

Drums

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Repetitive

Pan

Not Playing

Vo

l.

5 Nos. 4-5/AFTERTOUCH

15

Here

is

an

example

of

a

typical

configuration of instrument

settings

that

would

be

stored

in a Sequencing

Performance.

Continued from page

15

see

that

different instruments (tracks) are uti-

lized

at

different times

in

the

song. Also,

each

instrument

uses different types

of

playing styles

in

each

section

of

the

song.

It

is

important

to realize this

concept

in your

own music in order

to

use

the

VSO

sequencer

most efficiently.

The

methods

you use

to

create

parts

on

the

VSO

sequencer will be

determined.

to

a degree

by

your level

of

keyboard playing

ability. For example, if you are

an

advanced key-

board player, you will

be

more likely

to

create

tracks in longer segments in real time.

This

makes it less necessary

to

Copy

and

Paste

short

parts. However, if you are a less advanced key-

board player,

it

is

often easier to record shorter

parts,

and

Copy

them

whenever they are re-

peated.

This

way,

when

you get it right once,

you

can

use it

as

many times

as

you need.

The

recording

technique

that

is

best for your appli-

cation

will also be dictated

to

a large degree

by

the

type

of

music you are creating,

and

whether

it

is

repetitive

or

non-repetitive in nature.

Using

A

Performance

In order

to

create a song with

the

VSO

se-

quencer,

it

is

necessary for this song

to

have a

Performance

that

accompanies it.

This

Perfor-

INST 1

INST2

INST3

ASSIGN MODE

NOTES 0 0 0

VOICE

NUMBER

POl

122

I40

RECVCH

2 3

LIMIT/LOW

C-2 C-2 C-2

LIMIT/HIGH

G8

08

INST DETUNE +0

+1

+0

NOTE

SHIFF

-12 +0 +0

VOLUME

89

92 99

OUfPUf

ASSIGN L+R L+R R

OTHERS

OFF

VIB

LF02

EFFECT OFF ON

ON

16

AFfERTOUCH!Vol. 5 Nos.

4-5

mance

will

contain

the

instrumentation

settings for

the

Sequence. If you are familiar

with

the song you will be sequencing, you may

be able

to

set up the complete Performance at

the

start; otherwise it may be

better

to

set up

the

Performance as you

go.

For instance, if you

know exactly

what

you are going

to

create, you

can

probably

determine

the

different instru-

ments you will need

and

their settings before

you begin the sequencing process.

This

way,

the

actual recording

of

the

sequence will be easier

because

the

Performance instrumentation will

be

pre-determined.

On

the

other

hand, if you

are using

the

VSO

sequencer

as

a compositional

tool or writing

and

arranging as you

go,

it

is

bet-

ter to create your instrument Performance

as

you record your sequence.

The

VSO

has a very powerful feature, which

is

its ability

to

change

the

instrument

Perfor-

mance settings

in

a real time

as

the sequence

plays.

This

makes

it

possible

to

select

and

mix

your instrument voices in context,

as

they play

their

respective parts.

This

application will be

discussed in more detail

in

a later installment in

this series. For now, just understand

that

it

is

not

necessary

to

be overly

concerned

with

the

Performance setting

as

you begin sequencing.

Most

of

the

values will probably change before

INST4

INSTS

INST6 INST7

INST8

DVA

0 0 0 0 0

I 86

Pll

I

61

I61

P37

4 5 6 7 8

C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2 C-2

08

G8 G8

08

+0 +0 -I

+2

+0

+0 +0 +12 +12 +0

85 79 94 94 90

L+R L L R L+R

LFO 1 OFF

LF02

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

you

finish

the

song.

It

is

important, however, to

allocate a Performance number

to

the

sequence

you

will be creating. This Performance location

will

contain

basic settings for

the

sequencing

process, and serve

as

a dedicated Performance

area to accompany your sequence

or

song.

The

VSO

is

capable

of

initializing a Perfor-

mance location for sequencing.

When

this fea-

ture

is

used, the currently selected Performance

can

be

configured

for

one

or

two

basic

sequencing setups, "SEQ4"

or

"SEQ8."

Which

of

these two setups you use will depend

on

the

kind

of

song

you

will be sequencing. If you need

only 4 tracks

or

fewer

to

create

your song,

"SEQ4" will set up tracks

1-4

for instruments.

If

you need more

than

4 tracks, "SEQ8" will set

up all 8 tracks for up to 8 instruments.

Gen-

erally, using SEQ8

is

a good idea to start, be-

cause it initializes all 8 tracks for instrument

parts

just

in

case

you

need

more

than

4.

Initializing a Performance using

the

SEQ4 or

SEQ8 setup will delete any existing data in

the

Performance location currently selected

{00-

99).

When

the

lnit

function

is

performed,

the

selected Performance location will become a

basic instrument template

or

"palette" to start

from, with individual MIDI channel, instru-

ment

on, volume,

note

limit, and

so

on

already

set

at

basic values.

This

is

very useful to begin

sequencing, because you will only need to make

adjustments as they are necessary.

When

a Per-

formance

is

initialized

for

sequencing,

the

Per-

formance Name becomes

the

same

as

the

lnit

template you have chosen. For example, when

SEQ8

is

selected for a Performance,

the

name

of

that

Performance becomes "SEQUENCERS."

To

initialize a Performance location in your

VSO,

follow these steps. First, choose a Perfor-

mance

location

(00-99)

that

is

blank

or

expendable. Next, press

the

Others

button

in

the

Utility area

on

the

VSO,

select the

INIT

function

in

the

LCD,

and

finally select

the

SEQ8

option

in the LCD. For more information

on this feature, see page

177

of

the

VSO

owners

manual, "Performance Initialize." Also, there

is

a

chart

of

all

of

the basic instrument settings for

the

different

INIT

templates, including SEQ4

and

SEQ8

,

on

page 125

of

the

VSO

owners

manual.

If you

use

the

SEQ8 Performance

as

a tem-

plate

to

begin

sequencing,

tracks

1-8

are

already set up for up to 8 individual instruments

on

MIDI channels

1-8.

Therefore, to start, all

you need to do

is

plug in

the

Voice number

of

each instrument

as

you create each part.

You

may also want to adjust

other

settings

for

each

instrument

as

you

go,

such

as

Note

Shift, Vol-

ume,

Output

Assign, and so on. However, since

you

can

adjust these settings while

the

sequence

plays, it

is

often

better

to create your parts with

the

basic default settings {except for Voice num-

ber) and fine tune

the

settings later, so you

can

hear

the

effect

of

each change in

context

as

the

sequence plays.

we

will

continue

our series

on

the

use

of

the

VSO

sequencer,

by

looking

at

tracks in more detail.

We

will also talk about

using

the

VSO's

rhythm

section in

conjunction

with

the

sequencer.

VSO

digital

synthesizer.

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/AFTERTOUCH

17

C

HICK

COREA

needs

no

introduction

to

AfterTouch readers. In his varied projects

over the years, including his legendary work

with Return

To

Forever,

he

has captured

the

musical hearts

of

millions. He continues to do

so

now

with

his two

current

bands,

the

Elektric

Band and

the

Akoustic Band,

both

of

which

record

on

GRP.

For this interview,

we

caught up with

Chick

at

his home studio, where

he

had

just finished

work on his first film score.

The

movie, called

Cat

Chaser, stars Kelly

McGillis

and

Peter

Weller, and

is

scheduled for a fall release.

How

did

you

get

involved with the movie

Cat

Chaser?

It has

been

a desire

of

mine for years

to

get

involved with films. I flirted with a

bunch

of

offers through the years,

but

they always fell sec-

ondary

to

my

touring

schedule, my

concert

schedule, and my recording schedule. So, for a

long time,

nothing

ever materialized. But one

came along this year

that

fit into

the

overall

plan. It

was

timed right,

and

there were a couple

of

months to do it,

so

I

thought

it would be a

good opportunity to get started.

Did you record

the

entire

score

in your home

studio?

Yeah. It

was

a solo deal. It was a score

that

.

needed to be done very quickly. As a

matter

of

fact, I received

the

final

cut

about two weeks

before they needed the final score. I had done a

bit

of

work

on

themes

and

so forth before that,

but

nothing

really falls

into

place for me until I

can

put it to

the

film. It's

one

thing

to read the

story,

look

at

a

rough

cut,

and

write

some

things;

but

it really

starts

to

come

together

when

I see the music locked up with

the

film

and see how well it

works-that's

what I found.

It's mostly

an

all-synth score. Mark Isham came

and

played flugelhorn

on

a couple

of

things;

he

added nice, lyrical melodies.

Did you have many people working with you at

the

studio!

It

was

basically a two-man show: me and

my

equipment

man

Mick Thompson.

Was

Mick running

the

recording?

Here's

the

way

we

worked it: Mick would help

18

AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5

Nos.

4-5

A

Musical

Giant

Talks

About His New

Film

Score,

His

Elektric

Band,

His Akoustic

Band,

His

Work

With

The

Yamaha

MIDI

Grand,

And

More.

By

Tom

Darter.

1 me set up

the

synthesizers a particular

way

for

whatever I

was

going to work on.

Then

he'd

go

home

and sleep

and

I'd come

in

and do the

composing

on

the

sequencer (like

we

usually do

when

I compose).

Then

I'd leave

him

a note

before I

went

to bed about new things

that

I

needed

put

up,

or

any maintenance

that

needed

to

be

done, or any

documentation

of any stuff

that

I'd already done.

When

we finally got

around to recording,

we

rented a 24-track Otari

for

the

studio,

and

Mick did

the

recording: he

actually

took

the

sounds I

had

set up via the

sequencer

and

transferred

them

track-by-track

to

the

tape recorder.

Was all

of

the

sequencing

done

on

your

Synclavier?

Yes,

it was

the

master.

And

then

I used a

menagerie

of

sounds.

And

this time, I added

some analog sounds into

the

feeling

of

the

tex-

ture,

as

well

as

the

digital sounds I've

been

working

with

over

the

years.

What

are

your main digital sounds instruments?

The

Synclavier, for one: I did a lot

of

work

with

the

polyphonic sampling,

and

also with its

FM. My two Yamaha TX816s still took a bulk

of

the

load-

they're

an

easy access for me to a

lot

of

different kinds

of

stuff. I guess those were the

main

digital sounds. I used some Kurzweil mod-

ules for some sweetening here

and

there-some

tympani sounds, some drum sounds,

and

other

various things.

And

then

I

added

in

other

sounds.

About

how much music

is

there

in

the

movie!

I don't know how much total time. We filled

up

an

album,

and

that

was with about

75

per-

cent

of

the

cues. So, there's

at

least 50

or

60

minutes

of

music in this.

There

were about

25

to

28 different cues.

Do

you have another film lined

up,

or

are

you

just considering other possibilities now?

There

are a couple

of

possibilities. I don't

know if there

is

any

point

to mentioning them

now, because if they didn't

happen

....

But there

are possibilities

that

would be nice.

One

in par-

ticular would give me

an

opportunity to com-

bine synths with orchestra, which I would really

like to do.

Next time,

are

you

going

to

set it up

so

that you

have more than two weeks

to

compose

the

music?

Oh

yeah. Well, I'm told

by

my friends who

are experienced

and

have

done

lots

of

movies

that

it's

not

uncommon

to

be squeezed down

to

a couple

of

weeks.

Of

course, I can't envision

doing something as extensive

as

a full orchestral

score for a whole movie in two weeks,

and

then

fitting it

to

the

film-that

would

be

a little

bit

too much. But, for me, it did prove

that

a very

quick solo score

can

be done. It's a lot

of

work,

but it

can

be done.

How

long

have you

had

the

Yamaha

MIDI

grand?

I

think

I first came across it a year

and

a

half

ago,

and

really didn't get close

to

it

and

use

it

on

one

of

my projects

until

last year, for

the

Eye

Of

The

Beholder

touring season. I used

the

7'

4"

model like this one.

And

it

was great to marry

the

two worlds. It's

one

of

the

nicest master key-

board controllers for synthesizers

that

I have

played. So,

that

combined with a really nice-

sounding acoustic

piano

was very comfortable,

to say the least.

On

the

Eye

Of

The

Beholder

tour

we

used it everywhere. I mean, we got a dif-

ferent

one

in different areas,

but

I finally inte-

grated it into

the

keyboard system,

and

it just fit

in great because

of

the

MIDI

implementation

and

the

fact

that

it

addresses

all

of

the

synthesizers.

The next

tour

you're

doing

is

with

the

Akoustic

Band?

Yeah.

This

year, after making

the

Akoustic

Band record, which was

kind

of

a last

minute

decision.

Even

the

album

wasn't

a

heavily

planned

thing

to

do

at

first.

It

all started

when

I

wanted to take advantage

of

the

fact

that

we

were going

to

play a week

at

the

Blue

Note

for

New

Year's

week.

The

trio

had

played several

short

tours before

and

after

the

Elektric Band's

recording

and

touring last year. So,

the

trio was

kind

of

happening,

and

I

knew

that

it would be

a

blowing

affair

at

the

Blue

Note.

So, we

arranged

to

have

it

taped. But

that

turned

into

a

desire from Larry

Rosen

at

GRP

to

make a

record.

We

ended up actually doing

it

in

the

stu-

dio, after

the

Blue

Note

gig.

So, this

is

going

to

be a year

of

Akoustic

Band

gigs,

this

summer

and

fall.

I'm

giving

the

Elektric Band a little bit

of

a breather,

to

help

me develop new ideas

and

new compositions for

it,

so

that

when

we

record

the

new record in

November,

I

will

have

had

some

time

to

develop some new stuff. Because I've

been

on

sort

of

a

no

composing-time schedule for three

years. Well, I've composed,

but

there's

not

a lot

of

practice time in between. We've

gotten

home

and

had

just

enough

time

to

write

the

music

and

make

the

and

then

go

out

on

the

road again. It's

been

fun,

but

I felt I needed

to

take a little

bit

more time

to

prepare the

Corea

playing

his

Yamaha

MIDI

grand;

Yamaha

KX88

and

Sync/a

vier

in

background.

So,

after

the

Akoustic

Band

tour

you'll

have

time

to

work

on

things

for

the

Elektric

Band?

Yeah. In

October

will be my preparation time

for

the

of

scratching

the

surface

of

that

kind

of

live per-

formance thing. I didn't spend

that

much time

last year

in

putting

my live keyboard perfor-

mance

setup together,

so

I stayed pretty well

confined

to

a

certain

number

of sounds.

the

Elektric Band, I'm going

to

have

more preparation time,

to

put

together some

synthesizer sounds

that

I'm going

to

be able to

play live.

Does

some

of

that

include

trying

to

figure

out

exactly

what instruments

you're

going

to

have

in

your

setup,

or

have

you

figured

that

out

already?

I'm

not

sure how I'm going

to

approach it this

time. I mean, generally, if I had more time, I

could

think

about how to

plan

a keyboard setup

that

would work for

the

recording

and

then

translate itself directly into a live performance.

But

usually

the

way

it

works

is

that

when

I

arrange

the

recording, I don't

think

at

all about

how I'm

then

going

to

turn

it

mto

a live perfor-

mance-

I just go completely for the record.

And

then,

after

that

I prepare

the

live show. I choose

what

the

music will

be

on

the

new tour, and

then

set

up

the

keyboards

to

accommodate that.

At

one

Elektric

Band

concert,

I

had

the

feeling

that

you

were

focusing

more

on

the

composing

side

of things-the

showcase

was

more

on

the

composi-

Vol.

5

Nos.

4-5/ AFTERTOUCH 19

tions

and

some

of

the

other

band

members.

You

played

solos,

but

it

seemed

like

the

spotlight

was

on

you a

little

bit

less

as

a

performer.

Was

that

a

con-

scious

choice,

or

just a

false

impression

I

picked

up?

No, no: I

think

that

is

the

case. I

think

that's

the

case generally with

the

Elektric Band,

and

has

been

with most

of

the

Elektric Band. It

was

the

case

with

Return

To

Forever too. I

think

my

strongest performance

is

more

in

the area

of

acousic piano

when

I'm a solo performer, so I do

put more emphasis in

the

band

on

arranging

and

composing

and

having keyboard parts

held

strongly. Plus,

the

synthesizers,

in

the

style

of

music

that

I'm writing so far for the Elektric

Band, don't always

lend

themselves

to

becom-

ing melody lead instruments. It's just a

matter

of

me developing

an

electric

keyboard perfor-

mance

setup,

which

I've

never

really

done,

thoroughly.

Is

that

something

you

want

to

do?

Yeah, I do. It's something

that

I'm going

to

develop

into

the Elektric Band. I've got a lot

of

elements going now,

in

the

Band,

and

this

is

one

that

I'm going to

go

for.

It's a

matter

of

prep-

aration time. It's a

matter

of

sitting down

and

getting

the

sounds

on

the

keyboard,

and

getting

the

combinations together,

and

then

putting

them

into practice. I mean, it's

one

thing

to

do

it in your practice room,

but

it's

another

thing

to

turn it

into

a real powerful voice

by

taking it

out

and performing

with

it. I

want

to develop a

more fluid keyboard performance.

I

think

part

of

the

problem

for

trained

pianists

is

that,

while

piano

is

always

going

to

be

there,

elec-

tronic

instruments

present

a

whole

new

vista

every

six

months.

There

is

always

something

new

that

you

have

to

check

out in

order

to

keep

up

with

what's

happening.

Does

that

seem

like

a

pressure,

or

is

it

just

something

exciting

to

explore?

It doesn't feel like a pressure,

but

sometimes it

feels like a confusion to me. That's

why,

when

I

first put

the

Elektric Band together, I just

took

a

certain

amount

of

time playing around with

new electronic instruments

and

new synthesiz-

ers. But

then

I made a cut-off

point

to

that,

and

I stayed

with

several

main

instruments:

the

TX816s, two sets

of

816s, which are still in

my

setup, became a staple;

the

Synclavier became a

staple;

and,

at

the

time,

the

Kurzweil

250

became a staple. Now it's the Kurzweil

KlOOO

modules

that

I'm using.

And

these instruments

haven't changed for me, for years. So, in

that

sense, there's

been

a

bit

of

stability. But, even

within

that

limited set

of

instruments, there

is

20 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 Nos.

4-5

Continued from page 19

what

seems to be

an

infinity

of

possibilities. So

yes,

the

new instruments

can

be a confusion,

but

I don't

want

them

to

stop. I don't

want

the

development

to

stop. It's too creative,

and

it's

too

fun.

The

other

problem seems

to

be

that

you look for

the

instruments

that

give you most

choice

and

most

possibility,

but

sometimes

companies have to

put

instruments together

that

appeal to a more nonprofessional market-

place.

Not

all

of

the

developments are in

the

forward direction; they're more in

the

marketing

impact direction.

That's

true.

Do

you

think

there

are

people

who

have

developed

a

pretty

fluid

keyboard

performance?

Vangelis has. I only know Vangelis' music

from a distance. I know a

few

of

his film scores-

Blade Runner,

which

is

one

of

my

favorite

scores,

and

the

one

he became best known

for,

Chariots

Of

Fire.

I also know

the

music

that

he

made

with

Jon

Anderson.

Vangelis

is

an

example, it seems to me,

of

a musician who has

really developed as a multikeyboardist, through

the

years. It's his sound,

and

his choice

of

or-

chestrations

and

instruments

that

are recogniz-

able;

they

don't

vary

much

from

project

to

project:

He

has created a sound for himself in

that

way.

And

Patrick Moraz has,

as

well. But

there are

not

an

overwhelming

number

of

mu-

sicians

who

develop a multikeyboard sound like

that.

That's

true.

I think most

people

would

say

that

you have a recognizable style electrically and

electronically,

but

you're

talking

about

trying

to

develop

it

so

that

it

is

able

to

cover

all

of

the

musical

bases

you want

to

cover.

Yes,

I'm just going

to

take it

and

see where it

goes. Because I

spent

so many years

of

develop-

ment

as

a pianist, my best performance and

strongest

statements

as

a soloist usually come

out

on

a mechanical keyboard, like a piano or a

Rhodes

or

something like

that,

and

then

also

on

monophonic

solo-voice

synthesizers like

the

early

Minimoog

that

I used,

and

now

the

KXS

that

I use for a

similar

kind

of

sound

and

approach. So, for me, even though I've used

synthesizers for years, it's still new terrain to

develop performance using

other

sounds: sus-

tain

sounds,

string

sounds, more orchestral

sounds.

And,

if you're working in a

band

like I

am, these things take it immediately

out

of

the

realm

of

being a soloist

and

put it in

the

realm

of

orchestration.

This

is

the

way

I

hear

it

as

a com-

poser, unless I take

ten

minutes in a

concert

and

develop some kind

of

electronic solo piece. But

I'm going to go

for

it, and take it where I

can

with

my

music. I did have a nice opportunity

to

make multikeyboard music doing Cat

Chaser.

Did

you

feel

that

you

were

essentially

doing

elec-

tronic

orchestration

for

that?

It

depended

on

the

cue,

but

sometimes

the

most effective thing I found

was

to set up a

multikeyboard setup

and

play it live, rather

than

layering things sound

by

sound. So it got into a

bit

of

performance,

as

well,

on

the

movie, in

addition to composing a piece

by

layering each

track with

one

sound

at

a time.

Was

it

the

kind

of

film

where

there

was

a

lot

of

requirement

for

very

precise

timing

with

events

on

the

screen,

or

did

it

call

for

more

of a

through-

composed

sound

that

doesn't

mimick

the

action?

There's a

bit

of

both

used in Cat Chaser.

There w

as

some music

that

just depicted

the

emoti

on

and kept rolling

and

let

the

action

alone; and

then

there

was

some music, a couple

of

things

that

actually "spiked"

the

action,

that

I

thought

helped

the

scene. In a

couple

of

scenes, it was specifically asked for by

the

producer.

You

mentioned

things

like

the

Rhodes

. Are

you

still

using

the

MIDI

Rhodes

in

your

setup

at

all,

or

are

you

planning

to?

I don't know what

the

next setup actually will

be. I didn't use the Rhodes sound

on

this partic-

ular mov

ie.

It's interesting how a sound like

that, so unique

as

it

is,

gets dated very easily in

people

's

minds. It sounds like the 70s,

and

so

forth, although it has a certain punch. So, I'll

have to find a

way

to reintroduce

the

Rhodes, so

that

it has a good effect.

Have

you

ever

used

any

of

the

zillions

of

digital

Rhodes

imitation

sounds

that

the

DX7

and

most

of

the

other

instruments

have?

Yeah, but it's interesting: As soon as you try

to copy the Rhodes

sound-not

copy it, but get

something similar to

it-then

it takes it right

out

of

the

ball park. If it's

not

the

actual punchy

Rhodes, it has a different effect, and a different

flavor.

And

the

essential

elements

of

the

Rhodes sound are

so

basic, anyway: You've got

this mellow sustain sound, you've got

that

high-

pitched attack, and

then

there

is

something

that's a little

bit

more gritty,

as

you bear down

on

the

keys.

That's

an

essential part of any kind

of

a Rhodes-like performance.

And

you

can

take

that

concept,

and

develop millions

and

millions

of

Rhodes variations

on

it.

What

kinds

of instruments

do

you

see

in

your

new

setup!

One

of

the

things I'd like to do for the

is

use

MIDI master controllers

that

have

the kind

of

flexibility

that

the

Yamaha MIDI

The

Chick

Corea

AkoU5tic

Band

( L w

R):

bassist

J

ohn

Patitucci,

Corea,

drummer

Dave

\Xkckl.

grand piano has,

the

KX88 has, and the MIDI

Kurzweil Midi Board has. They're powerful, you

know:

They

can

send

program changes,

and

they

can

give

you

different kind

of

setups with

various kinds

of

split keyboards.

And

then, be-

cause

of

the

way

the

KX88 or Kurzweil Midi

Board

is

configured, it's easy to change from

setup to setup,

so

you can have one setup for one

tune and application, and

another

setup for a

different one.

So,

would

you

set

it

up

with

those

master

key-

boards

on

stage,

and

put

the

rack-mount stuff off-

stage,

so

you

wouldn't

have

to

look

at

it

all

!

It

would be nice. Now you're ahead

of

where I

am in

my

planning-

I'm

not

sure what we're go-

ing to produce for this

the

1990s

stage. I would like that. We went in

that

direc-

tion

last year, where

we

removed

the

bulk from

my

keyboard area, and put things I didn't need

to

put

my

hands

on

back

in

Mick Thompson's

area.

He

eventually ended with three

or

four

times

the

equipment

that

I gathered around me

on

stage.

What

master

keyboards

do

you

think

you

will

use?

I

think

the

master

keyboards will

be

the

Yamaha KX88,

the

Kurzweil Midi Board, and

probably

the

Yamaha MIDI grand.

Do you think you'll

be

touring with the

Synclavier

also?

That

"also"

is

dependent

on

location, trans-

portation,

and

all

of

that

kind

of

thing. I now

have a two-pronged approach: If

the

transporta-

tion

is

easy enough to do, I can take the full

Synclavier with me; if there are some places

that

are harder to reach with all

the

gear

we

have, I record

the

Synclavier sequences

on

OAT

tape and leave

the

Synclavier

at

home. I used

that

approach last year. Continued

on

page

22

Vol.

5

Nos.

4-5/ AFTERTOUCH

21

Did it work out

well?

It worked

out

okay. We

had

a handful

of

se-

quencer

pieces

that

we

used,

and

actually

it

was

very reliable.

The

only

thing

about

it,

of

course,

is

that

once

it gets mixed, that's

it-there's

no

way

to change

the

mix

on

tour, which

is

one

of

the

down sides. But

the

up side

is

that

it's very

reliable. It works every time, you don't have

to

worry

about

MIDI

connections

or

any

of

that

sort of thing.

All

the

stuff that

keeps

everyone

busy

for

two

hours

before

the

concert.

I'm looking forward

to

a wireless setup. I'm

looking forward

to

all

of

these

connections

go-

ing

either

through

the

air or through

another

technology that's being used now, fiber optics.

One

of

the

most troublesome areas

of

a

band

setup

is

wires.

They

get stepped on,

and

plugs

get

pulled. If you

want

to

look

anyplace

to

troubleshoot something that's

not

working,

one

of

the first things you do

is

test wires.

V\kll,

we've

got

three

different

kinds

of

wires

now:

AC

wires,

audio

wires,

and

MIDI

wires.

That's right,

and

many different

kind

of

con-

nectors:

Cannon

connectors,

phone

jacks,

RCA

jacks, MIDI jacks,

and

so on. It's pretty

complex. I've heard

about

some very wild things

being

done

with fiber optics. Between

that

and

using computers, I know

that

we have

the

capa-

bility now to really streamline

an

electronic

setup.

It

would

be

nice.

You

have

a Macintosh computer

in

your

studio.

Do you

use

it

to

do

a lot

of

syn-

thesizer

voicing?

Yes

I do. I have most

of

the

OpCode

programs

that

relate to

the

instruments I have. So, any

time I have editing to do, I normally call up

the

editor

on

the

screen. I mean, since it became a

necessity

to

have instruments

with

small LCD

readouts

and

put

menus

on

top

of

menus, it

is

really a necessity

to

have

the

whole thing put

on

a screen,

so

that

you

can

see

what

you're doing.

That's

one

of

the

things

I

miss

about

the

good

old

analog days: there was a always a knob for

everything?

Absolutely!

One

of

the

things

I like very

much

about

the

Synclavier keyboard,

the

way

it's arranged,

is

that

it's got all

of

the

essential

buttons in front

of

your hands,

and

you

can

work very quickly.

I know

that

you

have

been

very

interested

in

get-

ting

the

Yamaha

VSO

synthesizer.

My

impression

is

that

the

reason

for

this

was

that

you wanted a unit

you

could

compose

with

while

on

tour.

22

AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5

Nos.

4-5

Continued from

page

21

Yes.

It's very portable,

and

it's a "work station"

kind

of

instrument.

The

idea

of

a work station

is

really great. I mean, they should have made one

of

these things

ten

years ago. It's finally come

around

to

have all

the

things

in

it

that

you need

to

make a piece

of

music, including

reverb.

As

any

musician

knows, reverb

is

a must

when

you're working

with

electronic sounds.

There

are a lot

of

manufacturers,

and

it took them

years

to

find

that

out!

But

the

VSO

is

great-especially for these long

road trips.

You

can

feel very, very unproductive

on

the

road.

Even

through

we're playing

to

thousands

of

people every night, and are having

great fun making music, all

of

that

occurs in a

three-hour

period

during

the

evening.

And

then

there's

the

rest of

the

day,

the

sluggish day

that

goes on.

There

is

"Airport Hell,"

and

get-

ting from

one

place to another.

So,

when

we're

on

the

road, we find means

of

trying

to

keep productive, reading books

and

lis-

tening

to

music. But

the

main

thing

that

drops

out

for me

when

I'm

on

the

road

is

composing. I

can't compose

when

I'm

on

the road. I mean, I

can

sit down

and

work

with

things in my mind

and

set

them

down

on

score paper,

but

I

can

never develop

an

idea far enough for

it

to be

useful. Work stations like

the

VSO

will allow me

to

do

that,

with

the

8-track

sequencer,

the

rhythm

section,

the

sounds,

and

the

memory. It

allows you to pick up where you left

off.

What

are

your

current

feelings

about

acoustic

pianos?

I've recently gone more

and

more towards

using Yamaha pianos

in

concert. I've

had

expe-

riences playing solo piano

that

showed me

that

the

best brand

name

on

a piano

can

be mean-

ingless if it shows up in bad shape,

or

if

the

technician

is

not

good. But especially if the pi-

ano

is

old, it doesn't

matter

whether

it's a a

Steinway

or

a Bosendorfer; it

can

be a real drag

to

play.

What

I found was that, however it

was

organized,

when

the

Yamaha CF3 would arrive,

it

was

always in great shape for me,

and

it

was

there more reliably for me to use.

Beyond that,

the

CF3 has qualities

that

I like

from

the

Steinway,

and

it has qualities

that

I

like from

the

Bosendorfer.

It

is

a real tight,

bright

piano,

with

a very friendly

action-a

lighter action

that

I really like. So, I got into

using

the

9'

CF3 grand last year

on

the

few

solo

dates

that

I did, and I

had

a great time. I also

used it

on

the

Akoustic Band record. Even

on

the

7'4" Yamaha grand

that

I have in my studio,

which

is

the

MIDI grand,

the

acoustic

part

of

it

is

really nice. It's tight, and has a wonderful bril-

liance

that

is

very attractive.

What

things

attract

you

to

the

CF3?

I know

that

there

are differences

in

what

materials are used,

and

there's a difference

in

craftsmanship, in how

the

action

is

regulated,

and

in

how it's

put

together. I

think

it's a piano

that

rivals

the

very best pianos.

By

the

way,

I

still love

the

Bosendorfer Imperial

that

I've

had

for

years and years-they're just completely dif-

ferent instruments.

Is

the

action

similar?

No, the actons are

not

at

all similar.

The

Bosendorfer

action

is

not

as friendly as

the

Yamaha

is.

It takes a little

bit

more effort to get

those

keys

to move down.

Stiffer,

do

you

think?

I wouldn't call it stiff; it's just

that

they're

heavier.

Not

stiff,

at

all-they're

very fluid,

and

once you get rolling

on

it, it becomes

one

of

the

factors

of

the

piano. But for overall perfor-

mance, I like a lighter action.

Do

you

sometimes

enjoy

having

the

challenge

of

meeting

up

with

pianos

that

have

totally

different

feels?

Does

it

bring

out a

different

kind

of

music?

It does.

And

that's why

the

differences be-

tween

the

Bosendorfer and

the

Yamaha, for in-

stance, are

an

aesthetic thing. I mean, I like any

piano

that

sounds good, any

piano

that's

in

good

shape

and

good

tune

and

has

an

even

action. Every piano will feel different to play;

and yeah, it does bring out different things. For

instance, because

the

Bosendorfer has

so

much

sonic power, its strings really

resonate

and

there's

no

cutoff

point

for its upper frequencies.

So, there's a different approach

when

I play

the

Bosendorfer. It's a very different instrument,

and I have to restrain myself from striking

the

piano in

certain

ways, because it

can

produce

nasty sounds where I don't want nasty sounds,

just because

of

the

response.

When

you

use

the

TX816,

do

you

usually

use

it

in

the

mode

where

you're

playing

all

8

modules

at

once

and

getting

the

big,

massive

sound,

or

do

you

use

the

eight

modules

separately

for

different

things?

I

do

both.

When

putting

a

sequence

together, you can use each module

as

a different

synthesizer, with a different MIDI channel. I do

that

sometimes: I'll use

one

module for flute

and

another

module for bass,

and

so

forth. I find,

because

of

the

way

I've got my

Cooper

MIDI

Boxes set up,

that

I

can

be very flexible with

it-

it doesn't take a lot

of

patching,

and

I

can

do it

quickly. But I also use it to get 8-module sounds,

and make

them

thicker

and

detune

them,

and

make one slightly different from

the

other,

and

get a chorusy kind

of

things going.

The

Chick

Corea

Elektric

Band

(L toR):

drummer

Dave

Weeki,

guitarist

Frank

Gambale,

Corea,

saxophonist

Eric

Marienthal,

and

bassist

John

Patitucci.

Do

you

work

with

available

sounds

or

work

out

your

own?

Well, there are a lot

of

sounds available. I'll

tell you, though:

in

the

last couple

of

months,

as

I worked

on

this movie project, I found a very

mysterious

thing

about

synthesizer patches.

Actually, my thinking got spurred

on

this

by

reading

an

interview Vangelis did years ago in

Downbeat.

He

said something,

and

I agreed

with it, and I thought, "Yeah, I've never heard

anyone else say that."

The

point

is

this:

When

you finally sit down with a patch and play it,

whatever it

is-it

is

how you

think

about it

at

that

moment, your consideration

of

how pow-

erful it

is,

or

how beautiful it

is

or

isn't,

that

does it. I mean, you know how you

can

sit down

with a patch, and it immediately inspires vou;

you get into making

that

new musical phrase,

and it's just

the

right sound for

the

phrase? Well,

that

patch could

be

on

a consumer-model syn-

thesizer. It could be a one-voice sound. It could

be a sine wave. It could be anything. Do you

know

what

I mean? It doesn't have to be some

elaborate overlaid thing. But when you have

found a

use-musical

use-for

that

particular

sound,

then

you've got a winner. That's it.

So, I found

that

I

can

go through bank after

bank

of

sounds

that

a friend has laid

on

me,

or

that

I've found somewhere else,

that

are obvi-

ously

the

result

of

hours and hours

of

program-

ming

work-but,

because it

doesn't

apply

to

what I'm trying to do

at

that

moment, or it's

not

along

the

creative line

that

I'm trying to

go,

it

will sound wrong to me. Too high,

or

too

low,

or

sound too synthy,

or

too

not

synthy.

So

I found

this funny little

principle-that

when I take

the

extra little

bit

of

time to take a sound that's

Vol.

5

Nos.

4-5/ AFTERTOUCH 23

close to

what

I want, or

to

start from scratch

and

program something myself, I always come

out

with the usable sound. Or,

when

I occasionally

find

that

patch

that's from

the

factory,

or

from

wherever,

that

totally fills the bill, it inspires me

to

make

the

phrase.

Then

I'm home. But I've

long since given up

on

the

idea

that

the

ulti-

mate

patch

is

out

there, in

the

world, because

it's not. It's a

matter

of

your application

and

what

you want.

There

are millions

of

sounds

out

there

but

I like

to

tweak

them

a bit. As soon

as

I

start to work with them, even a little bit, I find

that

they come

out

more into

what

I want. I

mean, I

can

just take

one

or two parameters and

change

them

very slightly, and all

of

a sudden,

I'm feeling more comfortable.

Do

you

fell

equally

comfortable

tweaking

sounds

on

all

the

instruments

you

have,

or

are

there

some

that

you

feel

more

at

home

with

than

others?

Well, you know, I'm a user-friendly advocate.

I like it

when

it's easy

and

accessible. So the

instruments

that

are easier and more accessible

have tended to become more my friends, obvi-

ously. Instruments like

the

Roland D-50

or

the

Korg

M-1

are popular,

but

their

technologies are

not

immediately accessible to me; so it will take

me longer.

The

Synclavier

is

a very user-friendly

programming instrument.

And

I've

been

work-

ing long enough with

the

Yamaha OX,

with

the

FM system, to know how to get around

on

it

and do things

with

it.

What

is

your

feeling

about

the

DX7 II,

the

new

version?

Well,

as

soon

as I

heard

the

DX7 II, my

immediate response

was,

"Wow, this

is

step up

from the DX7; it sounds better." So, my reaction

was,

"Convert my

DX7,

babe."

And,

"Get

my

816s

and

do it

to

them." But

that

wasn't in

the

offing. So, I use

the

DX7 II. I like it,

and

it's got

very good sound potential. But I only wish

that

I

could

get

the

sonic

improvement

into

the

816s.

Then

I'd be happy

as

a lark.

I've

learned

that

you

can't

deny

your

strengths.

If

you do, you weaken youself. If you

develop a strength, why deny it? I've made

that

mistake, I

think,

in my life. I would try

to

get

away from my strengths,

to

look for new ground,

just because it was more fun

and

more

of

an

adventure, and there seemed

to

be more

of

a win

at

the

other

end-to

win with something

that

was

unfamiliar rather

than

something

that

was

familiar. But, in actual fact, after you spend

time

to

build a strength

and

an

ability, it be-

comes

another

strength

and

ability

to

know

24 AFTERTOUCH/Vol. 5 Nos. 4-5

Continued from page 23

how to use the power

that

you've already devel-

oped,

you see. I

think

Yamaha developed a

strength

and

an

ability

with

their FM synthesis,

and

the children

of

FM

synthesis were

the

DX7

and

the

TX816s.

And

that

was

their

strength in

the

keyboard

department.

It still

is.

Just

before

the

Elektric

Band

started,

you

were

writing a

fair

amount of

chamber

music.

Right.

The

Sextet,

the

Septet, and finally

the

Piano

Concerto.

The

Concerto

never did

make

it

to a recording;

it

might someday.

Was

the

problem

logistics,

or

was

it

too

expensive

to

record?

Not

really.

It

was more a

matter

of

wrong tim-

ing. I

went

down

the

road

of

chamber

music and

small group playing for a

few

years,

and

it

ended

off

with

my involvement in some

of

Mozart's

music

in

several projects.

The

last project I did

was my

Piano

Concerto

together

with

the

Mozard D

Minor

Concerto

on

several concerts

in

New

York

and

Japan. But I found myself un-

comfortably away from

home

base.

The

experi-

ence

was good for me;

it

was like practice, and a

refreshing look

into

another

area, via classical

music

and

chamber

music. But I really missed

having

a

band

on

the

road, so I came back

to

what

I felt was more

"home

ground" for me,

which

was

the

Elektric Band.

So,

you don't

have

plans

to

do

any

more

chamber

music composing

in

the

near

future?

Well,

I

hope

movies

will afford

me

the

chance

to

do

the

unusual orchestrations, which

is

one

of

the

reasons

that

I

want

to get into

them.

Depending

on

what's needed for

the

film,

it

may be possible for me

to

use my abilities with

orchestra

and

chamber

music as well

as

my

abilities

with

synthesizer,

and

combine

them

in

some

way.

Earlier,

before

we

started

the

"official"

interview,

you were

talking

about a

couple

of

books

you've

read

recently

that

have

to

do

with

marketing.

You

said

they

talk

bout

things

that,

as

a

musician,

your

first

thought

is,

"No, I don't want

any

part

of

this!"

But

you

also

said

that

it

was

useful

information,

because

it

was

true.

I

was

wondering if

there's

any-

thing

you've

gotten out

of

those

books

that

will

help

you

in

dealing

with

that

side

of

music,

with

the

busi-

ness/marketing

side

of a music

career?

Well,

the

books were actually recommended

by

L.

Ron

Hubbard

in

his

management

writings, which I've

done

a study

of

through

the

years, as

an

interested

amateur.

One

of

the

books

is

called

Positioning,

and

the

other

is

Continued on

page

36

Y

AMAHA

HAS

INTRODUCED

TWO

new digital multi-effects processors in its

highly-successful SPX line, the SPX900 and

the

SPX1000.

Both

units

were specifically

designed for the demanding needs of profes-

sional audio, broadcasting, recording, post pro-

duction, and live performance users.

Both

units

utilize a second generation Yamaha proprietary

LSI processing integrated circuit,

the

DSPII,

which yields many new benefits, including

enhanced processor performance and "simulta-

neous processing"-with up

to

5 effects

at

one

time

in

both

"series"

and

"parallel"

com-

binations.

Both the SPX900 and the

SPXlOOO

are one

rack-unit high. They feature 16-bit linear quan-

tization, a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz, a 90

dB

dynamic range, and full frequency response

on all effects from 20

Hz

to 20 kHz.

Both

units come

with

a

number

of preset

effect programs, which will be listed later.

Any

of these presets

can

be edited, re-titled, and

stored in

one

of

the

RAM

(user memory)

locations.

Each program has a total

of

four parameter

groups,

for

great programming versatility. Each

preset program has a range

of

"main" parameters

that

tailor the effect to any application, individ-

ual two-band parametric EQ and dynamic filter

parameters are also provided for each effect pro-

gram.

In

addition to these, the units offer a

group of "internal parameters," which provide

fine-tune control over each effect. Finally, a

group

of

level parameters allow precise balanc-

ing between

the

direct and effect sound.

In

both

units, MIDI control reaches a new

level

of

sophistication. Of course, all programs

can

be selected via MIDI, but now they

can

also

be

controlled

via MIDI: For each program, any

two parameters

can

be selected for real-time

control over MIDI,

or

they

can

be controlled

using

either

an

external

rocker

pedal

or

footswitch.

In

addition to a MIDI IN jack,

both

units

have a switchable MIDI

OUT

/THRU

jack; when switched

to

OUT, edited programs

stored in internal

RAM

can

be

dumped to a sec-

ond

unit

or

to

a MIDI data recorder.

SPX900

The

SPX900 comes with 50 preset effects

programs,

as

follows:

1)

REV 1 HALL

2) REV 2 HALL & GATE

3) REV 3

ROOM

1

4) REV 4

ROOM

2

5) REV 5

ROOM

3

6) REV 6

WHITE

ROOM

7)

REV 7 VOCAL 1

8) REV 8 VOCAL 2

9) REV 9 PLATE

10)

REV

10

PLATE & GATE

11)

REV

11

TUNNEL

12)

REV

12

CANYON

Continued on

page

26

•

-....

fAAAill . L..-.'--';><...

900

"'"''

•

• < ' .

c.

"!:

-=-

-

c.

...,

0 ....

_ l • I

.l

... • -

-..

-

~

·

u

• - • •

-.

Q - • • •• .

..

v 0

--

<

--

- •

An

lntroduc

..

tion

To

Yamaha's New

SPX900And

SPXlOOO.

By

Tom Darter.

SPX900

professional

multi-

effects

processor.

VoL

5

Nos.

4-5/AFTERTOUCH 25

13)

REV

13

BASEMENT

14)

PERCUSSION

ER

15)

GATE REVERB

16)

REVERSE GATE

17)

PROGRAMMABLE

ER

18)

DELAY

L,

R

19)

DELAY

L,

C,

R

20) STEREO

ECHO

21)

STEREO FLANGE

22)CHORUS1

23)

CHORUS

2

24) STEREO

PHASING

25) TREMOLO

26) SYMPHONIC

27) ADR-NOISE GATE

28) PITCH

CHANGE

1

29) PITCH

CHANGE

2

30) PITCH

CHANGE

3

31)

MONO

PITCH

32)FREEZE

33) PAN

34) TRIGGERED PAN

35) COMPRESSOR

36) DISTORTION

37) EXCITER

38) MULTI (ECH & REV) 1

39) MULTI (ECH & REV) 2

40) MULTI

(CHO

& REV) 1

41)

MULTI

(CHO

& REV) 2

42) MULTI

(CHO

& REV) 3

43) MULTI (SYM + REV) 1

44) MULTI (SYM + REV) 2

45) MULTI

(SYM

+ REV) 3

46) MULTI (EXC & REV) 1

47) MULTI (EXC & REV) 2

48)

PLATE+

HALL

49)ER

+REV

50)

ECHO+

REV

In addition, the SPX900 has

49

RAM

(user

memory) locations, where edited and re-titled

programs can be stored

for

later

use.

An

optional

Remote

Control

Unit,

the

RCX1, has been designed specifically

for

use

with the SPX900.

The

RCX1 allows direct con-

trol

of

all SPX900 functions, and features its

own backlit LCD,

so

control and programming

information

is

right where you need

it.

The

RCX1 actually enhances

the

SPX900's own

control capabilities

by

providing a fast, efficient

data entry dial. This new feature lets

you

spin

through memory locations and parameters fast

26 AFTERTOUCH!Vol. 5 Nos. 4-5

and with greater control.

The

RCX1

is

ideal

for

convenient

console-position control

of

the

SPX900.

The

stereo inputs and outputs

on

the SPX900

can be switched to match -20dBm or + 4dBm,

providing compatibility with a broad range of

sound equipment.

The

SPX900 professional multi-effects pro-

cessor

is

now available from authorized Yamaha

Professional Audio dealers, at a suggested retail

price

of

$995.00.

The

suggested retail price

of

the

RCXl

remote control unit

is

$295.00. For

more information, contact Yamaha Corpora-

tion

of America, Professional Audio Division,

P.O.

Box 6600, Buena Park,

CA

90622-6600.

SPXlOOO

The

SPXlOOO

comes with 40 preset effects

programs,

as

follows:

1)

REV 1 HALL

2)

REV 2 ROOM

3) REV 3 VOCAL

4) REV 4 PLATE

5) REV 5

ECHO

ROOM

6)

EARLY

REF.

1

7)

EARLY

REF.

2

8)

EARLY

REF.

3

9) GATE REVERB

10)

REVERSE GATE

11)

DELAY

L,

C, R

12)

STEREO

ECHO

13)

STEREO FLANGE A

14)

STEREO FLANGE B

15)

CHORUS

16)

STEREO

PHASING

17)

TREMOLO

18)

SYMPHONIC

19)

ADR-NOISE GATE

20) PITCH

CHANGE

1

21)

PITCH

CHANGE

2

22) PITCH

CHANGE

3

23)

FREEZE

1

24)

FREEZE

2

25) PAN

26) TRIGGERED PAN

27) DISTORTION

28) MULTI

(CHO

& REV)

29) MULTI (SYM + REV)

30) MULTI (EXC & REV)

31) PLATE + HALL

32)

ER

+ REV

33)

ECHO

+ REV

34)

CHORUS

+ REV

35) PAN + PAN

36)

COMPRESSOR

37) LOW

LVL

EXPANDER

38) EXCITER

39)

STEREO

PITCH

40)

STEREO

FREEZE

In

addition,

the

SPXlOOO

has

59

RAM

(user

memory) locations, where edited and re-titled

programs

can

be stored

for

later use.

The

SPXlOOO

offers unprecedented interfac-

ing versatility, with

both

analog

and

Yamaha-

format digital inputs and outputs, plus a mov-

able digital insert

point.

The

stereo

analog

inputs and outputs

can

be switched to

match

-20dBm or + 4 dBm, providing compatibility

with a broad range

of

sound equipment.

The

digital inputs and outputs permit direct inter-

facing with Yamaha digital equipment such

as

the DMP7 digital mixing processor, and DEQ7

digital equalizer, and with

other

digital equip-

ment via

an

appropriate format converter (such

as

the

Yamaha

FMCl

format

converter).

Of

course, two

SPXlOOOs

can also be digitally cas-

caded

for

extra signal processing power. Direct

digital

interfacing

provides improved overall

sound quality, because intermediate

AID

and

D/

A conversion stages are eliminated.

The

SPX 1000 also allows selection

of

a num-

ber

of

Digital

1/0

modes, which

determine

the

operation and position of its analog and digital

inputs and outputs,

as

follows:

• In

ANALOG

mode, the digital In

connector

is

inactive,

and

the

SPXlOOO

receives

input via the analog L

and

R input jacks.

Both

the

analog L

and

R and

the

digital

Out

connectors

are active, so

that

the

SPXIOOO's

output

can

be fed

simulta-

neously to analog

and

digital equipment.

• In PRE mode, input

is

received via

the

analog

input L and R jacks.

The

digital In

and

Out

jacks function

as

a pre-effect insertion

point.

A

second

SPX

1000

or

other

Yamaha-format digital device

can

be in-

serted into

the

signal path prior to

both

the

input

selector

and

effect processor.

Output

is

delivered via

the

analog

output

L

and R jacks.

• In

POST

mode,

the

SPXIOOO

receives

input

via the analog input L and R jacks.

The

digital In and

Out

jacks function

as

a post-

effect insertion point. A second

SPXIOOO

or

other

Yamaha-format digital device

can

be inserted

into

the

signal

path

after

the

effect processor.

Output

is

delivered via

the

analog

output

L

and

R jacks.

• In DIGITAL mode,

the

analog input

Land

R

jacks

are

inactive,

and

the

SPXlOOO

receives

input

via

the

digital in connector.

Both the analog

output

Land

Rand

digital

Out

connectors

are active, so

that

the

SPXIOOO's

output

can

be

fed

simulta-

neously

to

analog and digital equipment.

In addition to the digital

l/0

configurations,

the

SPXIOOO

offers a choice

of

input

modes

that

provide increased system flexibility. Stereo Nor-

mal

is

the

standard mode of operation, in which

the

left-channel and right-channel signals are

passed

on

to

the

SPXlOOO

processing section

on

the

same channels

on

which they were received.

In Stereo Reverse,

the

left-channel

input

is

fed

to

the right-channel processor,

and

the

right-

channel

input

is

fed to the left-channel proces-

sor. In

Mono

R mode,

the

input

signal received

at

the input R jack

is

fed

to

both

processors,

while

in

Mono

L

mode,

the

input

signal

received

at

the

input

L

jack

is

fed

to

both

processors.

The

SPXlOOO

professional multi-effects pro-

cessor

is

now available from authorized Yamaha

Professional Audio dealers,

at

a suggested retail

price

of

$1, 795.00. For more information,

con-

tact Yamaha

Corporation

of

America, Profes-

sional Audio Division,

P.O.

Box 6600, Buena

Park,

CA

90622-6600.

SPX

1000

professional

multi-

effects

processor.

Vol.

5

Nos.

4-5/AFTERTOUCH 27

Readers Tips

For

The SPX90

II,

CX5M,

And

More.

G

10

Midi

guitar system.

Setting

Up

Synthesizers

And

Tone

Generators

To Respond Correctly

to

G 10 Velocity

Curves

By

John

McEnary

The

Yamaha G 10

MIDI

guitar

controller

allows for intricate

adjustment

of

picking sen-

sitivity, velocity curves,

and

many

other

param-

eters

that

control

the

resulting MIDI output.

This

is

a wonderful

thing,

but

it requires some

careful

planning

to get the best response from

the

instrument. After carefully analyzing

the

G

lO's

MIDI

data

output

with a MIDI monitor

program, I have discovered

what

I feel

to

be

the

best

way

to set up

the

G

lO's

velocity curves,

as

well

as

something

equally

important-the

best

way

to

set up

the

connected

MIDI synthesizer's

response to velocity.

When

I first used

the

010,

it didn't seem

to

be tracking everything I

was

playing. Some

of

the

softer notes I played-especially soft

trills-

were

not

sounding.

When

I looked

at

the

G

lO's

MIDI output, I noticed

that

it was sending some

notes

with

a MIDI velocity

of

l. Very

few

key-

28 AITERTOUCH/Vol. 5

Nos.

4-5

boards send MIDI velocities

as

low

as

I. There-

fore, most synthesizers

and

tone

generators don't

respond

to

velocities

that

low,

or, if they do, the

sound

they

produce

is

barely audible.

That

explained why some notes were

not

"tracking"

properly.

The

G

10

was

sending

everything

I

played,

but

some notes were being sent

at

a ve-

locity

too

low

to hear.

I assumed

that

I could just adjust

the

G

lO's

velocity curves

and

everything would be fine.

So

I did some experimenting with the velocity

curves.

The

G

10

has eight velocity curve levels.

They

are displayed in Parameter #

ll

(System

Setup

of

the

Utility Mode).

As

a test, I set all

eight levels to

the

same value,

to

see if

the

G

lO

would send the same MIDI velocity value for

each

note

played-like a MIDI keyboard

that

is

not

velocity sensitive.

When

I viewed the GlO's

MIDI output, I discovered that, while most of

the

notes were

at

the same velocity, some were

much lower.

The

G

lO

was again sending some

notes

with

a MIDI velocity

of

I. Either some

notes were being muted (even though I had

the

Mute parameter set

to

a minimum value

of

l)

or

the G

10

has a

ninth

velocity curve level

that

is

not

programmable

and

always sends a velocity

of

1.

My

solution

was

simple: limit

the

velocity

sensitivity

of

the receiving synthesizer or

tone

generator. I set

the

G

lO's

velocity curve

to

a

smooth linear curve starting at

an

imaginary

value

of

1

and

going up

to

99.

With

FM syn-

thesizers

or

tone

generators (such

as

the

DX7 II

FD

or the TX802

),

I lowered

the

key velocity

sensitivity

on

all

of

the

carriers

and

optionally

lowered

the

key velocity

sensitivity

on

the

modulators.

(The

carriers are

the

bottom

row

of

operators

on

the algorithm

chart-they

affect

output volume;

the

modulators are

the

upper

row(s)

of

operators-they

affect timbre.)

With

LA synthesizers (such

as

the

Roland D-

50), I lowered the velocity

in

the

TVA

(am-

plifier) for

each

partial

in

a

patch.

On

the

Kurzweil K1000, I lowered

the

dynamics

on

each layer

of

a program

to

about

24db. Every

synthesizer manufacturer uses different terms,

but

the

effect

is

the

same.

This

approach

takes a great

deal

of

time,

since every synthesizer patch must be edited

and

saved,

but

it

is

definitely worth it. I

can

now

hear every

note

that

I

play-including

all

of

the

wrong ones! Because the

GlO

is

sending

data

over

the

entire MIDI velocity range, lowering

the velocity sensitivity

of

the

receiving syn-

thesizer or

tone

generator does

not

limit my

ability to play with a wide range of dynamics.

In

fact, I'm probably playing

with

a wider dynamic

range

than

ever, because I'm confident

that,

whether I play softly

or

loudly, whatever I play

will be heard.

Creating

Song

Chains

Using

The

QXS

By AI

White

I

own

a

QXS,

and

use a

CXSM

II

with

TWEO

1 ROM update for storage.

One

dis-

advantage

that

I tried

to

overcome with

the

QXS

was

the

inability to

chain

songs. I have

found

a way

to

chain

three

or

four

songs

together,

depending

on

how much memory

is

needed.

Load the first song in from the

computer

and

mix down all

of

the

tracks

to

Track

1,

and

store

that

to Macro 1 (leaving all

of

the tracks blank).

Then

load

the

second song,

and

use

the

same

procedure

to

store

it

to

Macro 2.

The

third song

is

stored to Macro 3.

Now Exchange Track

1,

which

is

blank,

with

QXS

digital

sequence

Macro 1 (which

contains

song 1

).

Play Track 1

recorder.

to

see how many measures it uses.

At

the

end

of

Track

1,

go

into

Measure Edit

and

create

enough

measures to cover Macro 2

and

Macro 3.

Then

go

to

Event Edit at

the

end

of

the

first song

and

put

in a different

tempo

(if

need

be) followed

by

Macro 2.

At

the

end

of

the

first song, Macro 2

(which

is

the

second song) will begin

to

play.

At

the

end

of

the

second song, go to Event Edit

again

to

insert

whatever

tempo

change

is

needed

and

Macro 3 (which

is

the third song).

All

three

songs

will

end

up

playing

in

succession.

The

interesting

thing

about this procedure

is

that

the

measures created after

the

first song

can

be in any time signature.

The

first song could be

in 4/4,

the

3/4, and

the

third in 12/8

or

whatever.

By

changing

the

tempos, you

can

make

an

interesting chain.

In order

to

store

the

chain, you have to store

it

in two parts, unless you use a cassette. I have

found

that

three or more songs

contain

more

memory

than

the

CXSM

II

will hold in

one

lump. However,

when

you load the two parts

back

into

the QXS, it remembers where every-

thing

fits in Track

1,

and

the

Macros will all be

in

their

correct place.

Building

Front

Legs

For

Yamaha Electronic

Pianos

By

Bruce

L.

Hammond

The

Yamaha Clavinova

and

PF2000 series

of

electronic pianos

each

weigh

about

ninety

to

one-hundred pounds,

and

are quite stable

on

a

tile

or

wood floor.

On

a thick carpet with pad-

ding, however, some slight wobble

can

be expe-

rienced

when

using

the

pedals

or

when

playing

rapid, forceful passages.

While

this slight in-

stability does

not

affect the sound quality, it

is

Vol.

5 Nos. 4-5/AFTERTOUCH 29

Continued

from

page

29

noticeable if you are accustomed

to

playing

an

acoustic piano.

Most

of

this wobble

can

be eliminated

by

fabricating simple front legs for these pianos.

For

about

five

dollars

and

an

hour's

labor,

matching black legs

can

be built

and

installed.

The

additional

support

under

the

relatively

heavy key action easily relieves

the

movement

of

the stand

on

the carpet.

First,

purchase

a

six-foot

section

of

unwarped, 2-by-2 pine. Measure

the

distance

from

the

floor

to

the

undersurface

of

the

piano

at

the front left and right corners. Now carefully

saw

the

2-by-2 to the correct lengths to create

the

two spindles (front legs).

Next,

remove

the

small

screws

that

are

already installed in

the

front corners

of

the pi-

ano,

and

insert steel

or

aluminum

1-by-1

corner

braces (used in furniture construction) using

the

existing screws. Now, insert

the

spindles

under

the

front corners

to

test for

the

proper fit.

If

necessary, use

coarse

sandpaper

to

remove

excess from

the

spindle

to

create a perfect fit.

Now

sand

and

paint

the

finished

spindles

using a latex gloss finish

to

match

the

piano.

Install

the

spindles

with

the small braces facing

the rear

of

the

instrument.

The

vertical

portion

of

the

corner

brace should lie

on

the

back side

of

the spindle. Install

them

with

the

screws pro-

vided

with

the

instrument,

using

1"

wood

screws

to

secure the spindles

to

the

braces. Most

people will

think

the

new front legs were

part

of

the original instrument.

Four

New

CXSM

Voices

By

P.J.

Otto

The

complete

parameter

listings for

these

four new voices are given in

the

accompanying

diagrams. Here are a

few

notes

on

each

program:

eguitar:

This

is

an

authentic

electric guitar

sound.

Setting

the

AMS

to

2 creates a

classic tremolo effect.

th

pia:

This

is

a

thick

electric piano sound. It

works well

with

sustain.

e organ:

This

is

a powerful electric "pipe or-

gan" sound.

fbsynth:

This

is a

feedback

synthesizer

sound. Increasing

the

decay

of

the first

two operators increases

the

speed

of

the

feedback effect.

30

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Creating

A

Vibrato/Tremolo

Effect

With

The

SPX90

II

By Todd Mizenko

For a long, long time, 1 (as well

as

other

guitarists) have

been

looking for a vibrato/ trem-

olo effect

created

without

the

hindrance

of

modulation.

The

effect I was searching for

was

similar to

the

60's Ventures sound.

Well, after much searching, I ended up

at

the

Compressor program

of

the SPX90 II. This pro-

gram

is

ideal because there

is

no modulation.

The

first important

element

in this tremolo pro-

gram

is

setting the

Attack

and

Release times to

the

same value.

The

lower

the

value,

the

faster

the

vibrato.

The

second

important

element

involves the settings

of

the

Trigger Mask and

Hold Time parameters: Hold

Time

regulates

the

time between vibrations,

and

Trigger Mask sets

the

time

that

must elapse before

the

signal

can

be triggered again.

Here are two possible tremolo programs:

Medium Tremolo (From preset

#19)

Trigger Level: 1

Trigger Delay: 0 ms

Trigger Mask: 150

ms

Attack:

19

ms

Hold:

55

ms

Hold Level:

Oo/o

Release:

19

ms

MIDI Trigger: OFF

Slow Tremolo (From preset

#19)

Trigger Level: 1

Trigger Delay: 0 ms

Trigger Mask: 260

ms

Attack: 32

ms

Hold: 90

ms

Hold Level:

Oo/o

Release: 32

ms

MIDI Trigger: OFF

One

of

the

great things about sound

is

that

the

application of simple mathematics

can

keep

things sounding good. For this effect, some

of

the parameter value are preset amounts apart,

but

as

a general rule the Trigger Mask value

should be in about a

2.

7-to-1 ratio to

the

Hold

time. Also,

the

Hold time should be

in

about a

3-to-1 ratio to

the

Attack

and Release rates.

Sometimes

the

tremolo effect will cut

out

when ending.

This

will usually occur when

the

Trigger Mask drops below a certain level for a

given set

of

parameters. For example,

on

the

Medium Tremolo program above,

the

tremolo

effect will

cut

out if the Trigger Mask drops

below 87

ms

(this also occurs

on

the

Slow Trem-

olo program

when

the

Trigger Mask drops below

150 ms).

One

solution

is

to recall

the

program

and

go through it with trial

and

error.

Another

solution

is

to judge how fast a tremolo you want,

set a base value

on

one

parameter (like Trigger

Mask),

and

obtain

the

rest

of

the

values math-

ematically.

Four

New

Harmonizer

Patches

For

The

SPX90II

By

Brian

W.

Hunsberger

I would like to share some

of

the

patch pro-

grams I've developed for

the

SPX90 II. These

are all harmonizer effects, which vary from a

slight

pitch

change to a full octave above and

below

the

input

signal. Also utilizing delay,

these programs work great with guitar and a ste-

reo amplifier setup, or

by

'going direct to a mixer

and

panning

the

two channels right and left.

You

will find

that

these patches are superb for

both

the

studio and

the

stage:

Angel's Flight (from preset

#23)

L Pitch:

+0

L Fine: +

10

L Delay:

7.

7 ms

R Pitch:

+0

R Fine:

-10

R Delay:

7.

7 ms

Eloquently

(from preset

#23)

L Pitch:

+0

L Fine:

+8

L Delay:

5.0

ms

R Pitch:

+0

R Fine:

-8

R Delay:

50.0

ms

Lower

Horizons

(from preset

#23)

L Pitch:

-12

L Fine:

+0

L Delay:

5.0

ms

R Pitch:

+0

R Fine:

+0

R Delay:

25.0

ms

Balance: 65%

Divided We

Stand

(from preset

#23)

L Pitch: +

12

L Fine:

+0

L Delay: 125.0

ms

R Pitch:

-12

R Fine:

+0

R Delay:

25.0

ms

Balance: 40%

Vol.

5 Nos, 4-5/AFTERTOUCH

31

C1

From

The

Finder

To

DOS,

Part

2.

By

Scott

Plunkett.

L

AST

MONTH

we

took

a look

at

how MS-

DOS

duplicates some

of

the

common

tasks

of

the

Mac

Finder-checking

disk

contents,

changing

the

default disk drive,

and

creating

folders (or subdirectories,

as

they're known in

DOS).

This

month

we'll finish our quick

tour

of

DOS

by

examining ways to move files

and

navi-

gate through subdirectories.

Moving Files

On

any

computer,

moving

files

is

a fairly

common

practice. For instance,

when

you cre-

ate a new folder

on

the

Mac, you usually wind

up moving files into it from

other

folders.

The

procedure

is

simple: you just select

the

desired

files

with

the mouse

and

drag

them

over.

Unfortunately, this procedure

is

slightly more

difficult in

DOS

because there isn't a single

command

that

moves files from

one

Yamaha Corporation After Touch Magazine Archive Apr/May 1989 Issue Aftertouch 04 05

Yamaha Corporation AfterTouch Magazine Archive Apr/May 1989 Issue AfterTouch-1989-04_05 Yamaha Corporation - AfterTouch Magazine Archive - Apr/May 1989 Issue

Yamaha Corporation AfterTouch Magazine Archive Apr/May 1989 Issue aftertouch-1989-04_05 Yamaha Corporation - AfterTouch Magazine Archive - Apr/May 1989 Issue

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