Some thoughts on using the HARMONY / ECHO

[Hugh-AR]

Some thoughts on using the HARMONY / ECHO

This topic takes a further look at what Ron Fraser had done to get a single note melody line playing as a duet, with harmony playing 'over the top'. What he had done is to have the HARMONY / ECHO assigned to the Voice he was using to play the melody .. a GUITAR .. in R1. And by choosing the COUNTRY DUET option he got an extra Guitar note added in to the mix. This is how Ron had two notes playing the melody in harmony even though he was actually playing the melody with single notes. And because he chose COUNTRY DUET, those extra notes were added 'over the top' of the melody.

If you haven't heard Ron playing Your Cheatin' Heart and read the comments that go with it, then click this LINK:

Do a right-click to open this up in a New Tab.
Playing harmony 'over the top' ie. higher than the melody.

In this topic we shall look at another scenario. A VOICE set in R1 to play the melody .. but not any harmony. And another VOICE in R2 which would play the melody and some harmony, But read on, as our Yamaha keyboards don't always play the melody with the voice in R2! If you take a look at the HARMONY / ECHO options, there are several .. and they all do something different to the way they add extra notes into the mix. And the other column to look at is the one headed ASSIGN. The AUTO, R1, R2 and R3 can be selected to tell the keyboard which voice(s) to apply the harmony/echo to. But what about the one called MULTI? What does that do?

I have come across a topic on this by Neville Sharman, and he says:

MULTI tells R2 to play a subtle counter melody in harmony.

I said above that the keyboard doesn't always play the melody with the voice in R2. I can now add that when you choose MULTI in ASSIGN, that is when the keyboard doesn't play the melody. It plays a subtle counter melody in harmony.

All this is worth investigating as it is not easy to explain in words what these HARMONY / ECHO and ASSIGN choices actually do. So I have done a DEMO so you can hear what the keyboard is doing to the melody.

I have set up my DEMO with an English Waltz; Warm Grand (Piano) in RIGHT1 and Boys Choir Ooh in RIGHT2 (RIGHT3 has a voice allocated but is not being used in this DEMO).

I have played a short melody twice so you can hear what each of the choices below sounds like. There are seven different ones .. so you will be hearing the same bit of melody 14 times .. by which time you will be fed up with hearing it! But this is a DEMO, and the best way to hear what the keyboard is doing is to compare like with like.

I am playing exactly the same chords and single melody notes all the way through the DEMO. The differences in harmony that you hear is what the keyboard is doing with my choices.

Below are the choices I have made for the HARMONY / ECHO and the ASSIGN.

1. The first bit of melody you hear (played twice) has no Harmony/Echo on, so you just hear the melody played with the Piano and Boys Choir as single notes in unison (ie. no harmony applied).

Scroll down to see the other six choices I have made, taking particular note of which HARMONY / ECHO is selected, and which ASSIGN.
The MP3 to listen to so you can hear how different they sound is underneath.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Click the below to listen to the DEMO, then click the back-arrow at the top after to get back to this page.
DEMO of the seven choices above, each of which add a different harmony mix to the melody

I have a Tyros 4, but you can do this with any Yamaha keyboard.

[Hugh-AR]

Here's another DEMO showing how HARMONY / ECHO can be used to create some interesting harmonies.

Abide With Me (DEMO)

The REGISTRATION for playing this is as below.



STYLE .. String Adagio. Tempo 75, Volume 100.
This is used as a "FreePlay" Style as there is no Rhythm PART (despite it showing ON). But CHORD 2 was turned OFF as there was a Harp part in there that didn't blend in at all with the rest of the Style.

RIGHT 1 .. Notre Dame (organ). Volume 110.
RIGHT 2 .. Boys Choir Ooh. Volume 95.
LEFT .. Soft Choir Ooh. Volume 70.

HARMONY / ECHO .. ON. TYPE .. COUNTRY TRIO. ASSIGN .. MULTI.



This (short) piece has been played with single notes for the melody. The main melody is picked up by R1 (Notre Dame) and the harmony you hear is a combination of the LEFT Voice (Soft Choir Ooh) and R2 (Boys Choir Ooh with MULTI applied). The STYLE is added into the mix from the CHORDS I am playing with my left hand.

Click the below to listen; then click the back button at the top to get back to this page.
Abide With Me with Harmony/Echo ON

If you want to try the REGISTRATION for this you can download it from the LINK below. But remember, this was created on a Tyros 4, and for starters, String Adagio was a new STYLE created by Yamaha for the Tyros 4, so the REGISTRATION is unlikely to work on previous Yamaha models.

Organ Abide.T143.RGT

Hugh

[Ron]

Excellent work Hugh. It would be nice to know if forum members ever read and make use of all your info. I certainly do

Ron

[dentyr]

Harmony over the Melody with the Yamaha SX series

This is the screen you get with the Yamaha SX Series.
Click the arrow to play the video, and read the comments I have put underneath.



This is basically how you can get a harmony voice sounding above the melody voice.
Depending upon the setting the harmony voice can be above the melody voice or below the melody.

At 0:29 in the video (Standard Trio) you see the "Lead" is above the other notes:



But at 0:55 (Country Trio) the "Lead" is in the middle, with harmony above the melody.



You can see the 'chord notes' in the above video if you PAUSE it at these points

I pointed out the cog wheel in the lower right of the screen. Unless you have been told then you would not know that there are more pages under
that cog wheel.

When playing this arrangement you must have the Harmony/Echo button ON and play single notes as per a piano player. This make the harmony
sound.

There is a multitude of arrangement settings, this is just one to start. From here you can experiment.

Have fun.

Regards, Dennis.

[Hugh-AR]

Den,

I am very impressed by how the SX series actually shows you where the melody (Lead) is pitched in relation to the harmony notes created. I discovered what was going on with the Tyros 4 by listening .. but it would have helped to have indicated on our Tyros 4 screens exactly how the harmony was added to the mix.

Hugh

[JohnT]

Hi Everyone. Hugh gives some very useful tips etc. This winter when not much to do in the garden, allotment and less golf, I intend to look at these and set my Tyros 5 so it is easier. Also follow Tyros lessons America and Tyros tipsters. That is the idea whether it comes off is another story. John

[dentyr]

Below is a script from Neville Sharman with a DEMO on how to do all this using the OTS. Den.

---

How to get a Counter Melody or a Choir Descant playing

behind your main melody whilst playing live.

(No multi-tracking or Pads)

I selected a style. In this case PianoOrchBallad. The style itself was not changed, just the OTS and settings as below. You can select any style but the results will depend to a great extent on the make up of the style in the way of E.Q's and also with the voices selected. Some work well and others not so well. Its a matter of trial and error. Strings will work fairly well on all Yamaha keyboards but the choirs work a lot better with the ones from T3 and T4 and custom choirs. These settings have been done with three voices engaged (4 if LEFT is on) but it will work with only two voices so should be ok for PSRs and Clavinovas as well.

Here are my settings on this style.

OTS 1.
LEFT. Accomp Ooh @ 56 (volume).
R1. Warm Grand @ 100
R2. Live Strings @ 86
R3. Butter Strings @ 76
HARMONY button ON. Harmony set to STANDARD DUET, Volume 97
ASSIGN ... MULTI. (That's the important bit. MULTI tells the strings to play a subtle counter melody in harmony.)
Save OTS 1 to the STYLE.

OTS 2.
LEFT. Accomp Ooh @ 68
R1. Warm Grand @ 98
R2. Live Strings @ 84
R3. Boys Choir MW @ 80
HARMONY button ON. Harmony set to STANDARD TRIO, Volume 94
ASSIGN ... R2. (That's normal harmony on the Strings. If using earlier Choirs on R3 make sure they are loud enough to change from OTS 1)
Save OTS 2 to the style.

OTS 3.
LEFT. Live Strings @ 60
R1. Sweet Pan Flute @ 116
R2. Gothic Vox @ 70
R3. Soft Choir Aah @ 100
HARMONYy button ON. Harmony set to STANDARD TRIO, Volume 90
ASSIGN ... MULTI. (Again very important as Multi tells Choir to sing a descant).
Save OTS 3 to STYLE. I saved this OTS with R3 switched off and set a pedal to switch it on so that it gives me two settings instead of one.
(Can play a mainly Flute passage and then bring in Choir singing descant.)
Don't forget to try this OTS with R3 ON. It's the icing on the cake.

OTS 4.
LEFT. Accomp Ooh @ 86
R1. Boys Choir MW @ 108
R2. Live Strings @ 94
R3. Live Allegro @ 86
HARMONY button ON. Harmony set to FULL CHORD, volume 86
ASSIGN ... R2. (That's full harmony just on the strings).
Save OTS 4 to STYLE.

So there you have it, no multi-pad use, no multi-tracking, no playing over audio, just a saved USER STYLE with some unusual but very pleasant features. The secret is in the Harmony internal settings. Some players, quite understandably just switch on Harmony and take what comes but there are plenty of different settings in there and each voice changed will carry its own harmony setting which will alter things so check and make sure before saving that its where you want it.

If you find the volumes a bit on the low side. You can raise them all by the same number of units or to taste prior to saving.
An example of using the style just playing live is here ...

Do a right-click to open this up in a New Tab.
https://app.box.com/s/am7dawb51mqpja4bxe77

Since the first publication of this tutorial, Tyros 5 and Genos have come onto the scene. Names of voices may have changed slightly or be in LEGACY but I can assure you that the OS performs just the same on the new keyboards.

Always try this out on lovely ballads or special tunes that you want to sound special. Sometimes it does not come off but sometimes you get a lovely result and all from one finger on the right hand. Have fun.

Neville

[Hugh-AR]

Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night)

Another DEMO from me showing how HARMONY / ECHO can be used to good effect.

Below is how I've set up my REGISTRATION.



Notes:
1. I am playing this in C .. but decided the overall sound was a bit 'shrill', so put the TRANSPOSE down four notches. So although I am playing it in C, you are listening to it in Ab.
2. The STYLE I am using is called Ethereal 2. I obtained this from Eileen Lowry but cannot remember when or how I got hold of it. I had considered using Ethereal Voices, which I have on my Tyros 4 in PRESET, MOVIE & SHOW .. but that has no Bass! Ethereal 2 does .. a strong bass. I have upped this to 127 (Maximum).
3. FreePlay Styles have a 'measure' of 32 bars before they repeat. As I am never going to need to make use of a 'repeat' I have put the TEMPO down to the lowest available .. which is 5. At this speed I will have finished playing my song long before the Style ever reaches it's 'repeat'.
4. RIGHT 1. I have previously used the Notre Dame organ, but decided this time I would create my own 'organ' sound. So have set the Organ Drawbars as below .. and have set a footswitch to change the Rotary Speakers from SLOW to FAST (and back) in places I wanted it to do that.



5. I am not using RIGHT 3 or MULTIPADS in this DEMO.

6. I am using four REGISTRATION MEMORY slots and have chosen the HARMONY / ECHO TYPE and set the ASSIGN as follows.

REG MEMORY 1. Only the Organ Voice in RIGHT 1 is being used (no LEFT VOICE or RIGHT 2). By having the ASSIGN on R1 the organ is playing multiple notes when in reality I am playing a single note melody line.





REG MEMORY 2. LEFT, RIGHT 1 and RIGHT 2 are all being used here.





REG MEMORY 3. LEFT, RIGHT 1 and RIGHT 2 are all being used here.





REG MEMORY 4. LEFT, RIGHT 1 and RIGHT 2 are all being used here.

Click this LINK below to listen to the DEMO.
Then after, click the left-arrow at the top to get back to this page.
All Through The Night DEMO using the HARMONY / ECHO button.

[Eileen]

I think this is the style you mentioned Hugh. If I remember it was from the 609 Clavinova that I tweaked for my Tyros at the time.

[Hugh-AR]

Eileen,

Thank you so much for putting the Ethereal 2 STYLE as an Attachment for us to download. It really is by far the best sounding FreePlay Style I have heard in a long while.

If anyone wants to hear what this STYLE sounds like, click the LINK below. This is the STYLE only (nothing else).
After listening, click the back arrow at the top to get back to this page.
Ethereal 2 DEMO

Of course, I am playing some random chords to trigger it.
The 'moving' wha-wha sound is determined by what you have the TEMPO set at.

Hugh

[Ron]

I have used Harmony/Echo on a couple of pieces I have played recently trying to follow Hugh's info in his articles on using Harmony/Echo, above.

Who can I turn to.
I have used a simple Bossa style for this. The first part of the song is Flute using Harmony/Echo, Standard Duet.

https://app.box.com/s/u1v48wc6ee02duw44qnlp8p2pweua0p8

Amigos para siempre (Friends for life).
I used Harmony/Echo to fill out the sound as there is no backing and is played 'Freestyle'.

https://app.box.com/s/gx38bql87m54no1ipghy1xva4suiwoxa

Annie's Song.
Another example using Harmony/Echo.

https://app.box.com/s/elcbhl4odjagqwxa7w3po886oqzskh8l

Ron

[Hugh-AR]

Ron has sent me another one he has played using the Harmony / Echo.

Perhaps Love
Do a right-click to open this up in a New Tab.
https://app.box.com/s/djvbk6okdb1sa7vkjldr567i49m5vqs8

Hugh

[Hugh-AR]

More thought on all this from me.

When I first had my AR80 organ I could do something very similar, and it was called MOC (Melody On Chord). The idea was the same. Notes you played in your chord were 'added' to the melody so when you played single notes you heard multiple notes beig played. And of course they were 'in harmony' with the melody. The choices you had were very basic. One note added in, two notes added in, or three notes added in .. and always 'underneath' the melody. The general consensus was not to choose the three, as notes added in were too low and the melody sort of 'growled' at you.

And I remember it being said that this feature was for 'beginners' who couldn't play multiple notes as a 'proper' organist would. The MOC would fill the notes in for you so all you had to do was to play a single note melody line .. and sound like a professional! So I put it out of my mind that this could be a feature I would use.

It slowly dawned on me that yes, this could very well be the case if you chose one 'voice' for playing the melody. But what if you had (say) a piano playing the melody with no MOC applied; and another voice selected (eg. a choir) that did have the MOC applied. You would then get just the piano playing the melody as single notes; and the choir also singing the melody .. but with harmony notes added in. And by choosing two voices you could have the volumes set at different levels so the piano playing the melody was louder.

What an eye-opener that was! No longer was this a feature for a 'beginner' to use, but something amazing to use in an arrangement. With the organ, one could choose what is called a LEAD VOICE, which is Monophonic (ie. it will only play a single note; you can't play multiple notes) .. and Monophonic voices didn't have the MOC applied to them. So you would set the Piano up as a Monophonic voice and play a single note melody with it; and the Choir would be a normal Polyphonic voice with the MOC applied. The possibilities are endless! Piano and Strings?

With our keyboards it's much easier. We can apply the Harmony/Echo to just one of R1, R2 or R3 .. or all three of them. And you can choose whether to have those added notes 'under' or 'over' the melody. And even to have them not playing the melody at all.

A real opportunity to be creative here!

Hugh