MessageQuinten, It’s Damien here, we’ve communicated before, I believe. I have used QWS over the past eight years, although I have lain low on the list...there are still many things even I don’t know and I feel completely idiotic among many MIDI tech gurus. However, since you are using the Tyros series as well, I’ll let you into some of my secrets and experiences with it, and then if anyone else is in the knowhow about it perhaps they can lead me somewhere interesting, or we can try and work it out anyway. Personally, I find that sequencing both internally and externally has its advantages and disadvantages. When you select instruments internally, the keyboard tends to do a lot of setup to make the instrument sound how Yamaha believe it should sound. This does not include some of the special effects on the Megavoice set, which are to do more with the samples themselves rather than the applied effects. However effects such as reverb, chorus, distortion, Leslie speaker effect etc are all loaded internally. However of course this relies on an extreme level of knowledge on how to use the sequencer, and, especially since I have no sight whatsoever, this is rather near impossible. Having heard your music in the past, you are very comfortable with it and so you’ve already got something going. Sequencing externally means you can control many aspects of your composition a lot easier, such as quantisation, velocity, controller messages, and of course, the best thing, being able to edit or remove any incorrect notes, etc. The really annoying thing I tend to find, however, is that because you are controlling the instrument externally, you have to apply all the extra effects yourself. This, of course, would be expected, however from what I can gather, a lot of the effects (such as the distortion, flanger and the like), are system exclusive messages, meaning that you have to know exactly what you’re doing to be able to program them. Having said that, if you can work out how to program the system exclusives, that then gives you much more control over the instrument. Incidentally, I wonder if the System Exclusives for the Tyros 4 allow for modifying the way drum kit samples are handled. I’m not fond of this single-note four-voice stacking behaviour (meaning that any single note played on the drum kit only allows four instances of itself to play at one time, cutting the first instance if the limit is exceeded). As an example, if you were to play a loud cymbal and then attempt to do a cymbal roll, the loud note would completely cut out). Also, highhat cymbals are notorious for cutting out even single notes, probably because of the way different highhat notes are supposed to cooperate with each other. I’m guessing this is where sound fonts and VST synths win over external sound modules? I wouldn’t even know where to start with all that, and plus I don’t believe the Tyros could output those sounds and therefore wouldn’t be able to record those parts in the audio recorder. Anyway, I digress. Another thing is, from what I can see at the moment there are no instrument lists for the Tyros 4, only the original Tyros, which means a lot of the newer sounds you have to go in and edit them yourself, or else know the program and bank numbers for selecting that instrument. There are still a lot of voices that I probably don’t even know about, that I don’t know how to access from the main panel and therefore complete the whole list, and plus it would be very tedious indeed, given that I believe the Tyros 4 has over a thousand new sounds as compared to the original Tyros. I have extended the original Tyros instrument list to include some of the Tyros 2 and 4 instruments, but it is by no means complete...it has some of the instruments I commonly use in my compositions. If you want a copy of that, just give me a shout. At least it’s a start. Anyway, this is all just my thoughts and experiences. Depending on what you know, it may be totally different from your point of view. If any of you have any thoughts or suggestions based on what I’ve said, i’d be interested to know, especially if you actually use that instrument. Kind regards, Damien.
From: Quinten Pendle Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 8:18 AM To: QWS list Subject: QWS List Introduction Greetings all I've been sequencing for the best part of 20 years now, but only using my keyboard's onboard sequencer, mainly due to the lack of enough courage to try out something external. This is, as I'm sure you all know, very limiting. Through the years I've used amongst others, a Roland JV1000, then a Yamaha PSR 2000, and until September last year, a Yamaha Tyros 1. I bought the Tyros 4, less than 2 months before the Tyros 5 was released. Lately I've been following Andre Louis's work, paying special attention to how he uses his instruments etc., and this has made me realise that using an onboard sequencer can only bring me as far as I am, eventually stagnating. Therefore I am eager to start sequencing using an external sequencer such as QWS, because I believe that this can only enhance the quality of my work, not to mention the new and exciting things it will let me do. I fiddled around in Sonar for a bit, but realised just how little I know about midi sequencing. So, as I plunge into the deep and dark passages of the unknown, please bare with me as I sometimes stumble over the obvious, asking my way around here and there. Any tips would always be welcomed. All the best Quinten Pendle (South Africa)
