Choosing a setup from the STYLES with OTS

[Hugh-AR]

Seems to me there are a few ways of using this keyboard to actually play something.

1. You can let Yamaha set it up with Voices they think would go well with some of their Styles.
2. Choose a song from the MUSIC FINDER and again, the keyboard will be set up with a suitable Style and Voices.
3. You can set the keyboard up yourself for what you want to play, choosing your own Styles and Voices.

1. Letting Yamaha set the keyboard up with Voices they think would go well with one of their Styles.

Choose a STYLE from over on the left. For the STYLE to work you must have the ACMP button ON (the ACCOMPANIMENT button - it's lit up orange on the left). And for the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS to work you must have the OTS LINK button right next to it ON too.



... you will see the four MAIN VARIATIONS A, B, C and D lit up; the active one being indicated by the yellow light. For this demonstration I chose Slow Foxtrot from BALLROOM.



So where does Yamaha put the VOICES it thinks will go well with this STYLE? Well, these are put into the four ONE TOUCH SETTINGS 1, 2, 3 and 4 over on the right.



Pressing any of those ONE TOUCH SETTINGS will put the VOICES that Yamaha have chosen into the section on the far right, PART SELECT. Specifically, VOICES are put into the PART ON/OFF buttons RIGHT1, RIGHT2 and RIGHT3. The ones that have voices in them are lit up orange.

But the plot thickens! The idea of these ONE TOUCH SETTINGS is that they move from 1, to 2, to 3, to 4 automatically as you press and move along the Style MAIN VARIATION buttons from A to B to C to D. But not the other way round. Pressing the OTS buttons 1. 2. 3 or 4 changes the VOICES without changing the Style MAIN VARIATION.

This is best explained by the YouTube video below. Just watch the first part of the video. As you get into the video it gets very confusing as to what they are actually trying to do! They mention the 'Split Point' of the keyboard. You should keep the chords & left voices to the left of the Split Point; and the melody to the right. If you form any part of your chord to the right of the Split Point then that note will pick up the right hand voice .. which will sound very strange! The SPLIT POINT is usually set at F#2.

Tyros 4 Tutorial: One Touch Settings, Keyboard Parts & Split Points



So now, using my chosen STYLE of SLOW FOXTROT I have chosen INTRO II, and making sure the ACMP and OTS LINK buttons on the left are lit up, I have played the piece below, manually moving through the Style MAIN VARIATION from A to B to C to D, and then back to A .. and pressed ENDING III. As I moved through the A, B, C and D Variations the OTS buttons also moved, from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 (and back to 1 at the end) giving those four different Yamaha VOICE setups as I played. You can change the 'default' voices Yamaha have selected, but I haven't done that in this piece.

Click the back-button after listening to get back to this page
Frankie & Johnny played on the T4 using the OTS LINK

[Hugh-AR]

To recap the post above, you can choose a STYLE, set the TEMPO, make sure the ACMP and the OTS LINK buttons are ON, and then play something. If you change the setup via the Style MAIN VARIATION buttons A, B, C and D then the VOICE setups in the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS 1, 2, 3 and 4 change too. If you keep the same MAIN VARIATION and just press an OTS number then the VOICING will change but not the STYLE VARIATION.

Well, that is one way of playing a keyboard, but having played an organ this is not the way I would do it. I would want to have the STYLES and VOICES I am using stored in REGISTRATION MEMORIES and press those as you move along through the music you are playing. But more on this later. If you do play using the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS then you are not 'stuck' with the sounds that Yamaha have given you in those 4 buttons. You can change the voices to something different and then SAVE your changes back to those 4 buttons. This is what they were on about in that 'yellow' YouTube video above. And here's another explanation.

How to change your One-Touch-Settings on Yamaha Tyros



Now, I have listened to MAIN VARIATION A for SLOW FOXTROT and the Style is made up of (every STYLE is made up of) the following PARTS: RHYTHM 1; RHYTHM 2; BASS; CHORD 1; CHORD 2; PAD; PHRASE !; and PHRASE 2. There are two PARTS I am not very keen to have in my STYLE and they are the Piano in CHORD 2 and the 'continuous Strings' in PAD. Pressing the CHANNEL button on the left I get the screen showing the STYLE PARTS. At the moment they are all set to ON.



It's in this screen that you can identify what all the PARTS are actually doing. If you press and HOLD any bottom button under a PART it will change it to SOLO ie. it will be the only PART playing. That's how I was able to determine that the PARTS I wanted to turn to OFF were CHORD 2 and PAD. Press the same button again to get back from SOLO to Normal.

Now, by pressing the appropriate bottom buttons under the screen I can turn CHORD 2 and PAD to OFF.



Now my STYLE will play as I want it to. Den keeps telling me, "You get the keyboard to do what you want it to do. Don't let the keyboard dictate to you what you should play". Wise words!

Now looking at the VOICES that are set up in ONE TOUCH SETTINGS 1 I see that they have Concert Grand in RIGHT 1; Jazz Clean in RIGHT 2; and Vibraphone in RIGHT 3. And the HARMONY ECHO is ON.



What does the HARMONY ECHO do? It picks up the notes you are playing in your left hand for the chord and 'adds them into the mix' for the RIGHT Voices. So you have a sort of 'full choir' in notes for the Piano, the Guitar and the Vibraphone. Really? This to me sounds messy.

So I have turned the HARMONY ECHO OFF; and have turned OFF RIGHT 1 and RIGHT 2 by pressing the orange buttons R1 and R2. So now I just have the VIBRAPHONE sounding from R3 .. and no 'added notes' from the left hand.

Lastly. I always like a VOICE allocated to LEFT, so have chosen Boys Choir Ooh. Have put LEFT to ON and also put the LEFT HOLD ON (so I can take my left hand off and do other things while I am playing and everything will keep going).

To SAVE that into the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS press the MEMORY button and then the 1 in the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS. As soon as you press a button in the OTS a message comes up on screen to say that the setting has been changed. Do you wish to Save it now?



So say YES and give it a NAME, then OK. Your new 'adjusted' STYLE is on the USER page in STYLE.



I'm going to use this setup to play another song I have in mind, and as I like using the REGISTRATION MEMORIES I have pressed the MEMORY button again, followed by REGISTRATION MEMORY 1. And then SAVED that as a Registration. ie. Press the REGIST button (Button J); press the button for SAVE, use the DELETE to remove the letters showing; put in a NAME for the new Registration;and then press OK.

So let's hear what these changes sound like. The first DEMO starts with the STYLE PARTS 'as was'; followed by how it sounds with the changes I made to the STYLE above.

After listening, press the back-button to get back to this page
STYLE DEMO 1

And lastly a verse of the Frankie & Johnny song played with the 'soft harmony' I have set up, which I love!

After listening, press the back-button to get back to this page
STYLE DEMO 2

Isn't that Vibraphone gorgeous? If you listen carefully with headphones on you will hear it is playing 'in stereo'. Notes played to the right seem to come from the right; and notes played to the left come from the left.

This is just a DEMO to show that we can change the backing PARTS in a STYLE by having them ON or OFF .. and a lot more besides. We can change the VOLUMES of each PART to get a better 'balance' between them ..and even change the instrument used in the PART itself to a different one. More on this later.

And we can look at the VOICES used; turn some of them OFF in R1, R2 and R3 (don't turn them all OFF or you wont hear a melody!). Or choose a completely different VOICE.

And SAVE all these changes back to the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS. And then play the keyboard from the MAIN VARIATION and the ONE TOUCH SETTINGS.