Modernizing Older Style Formats

(In this article, the term "PSR-2k" refers to the PSR-2100, PSR-1100, PSR-2k, and PSR-1000 since these instructions apply equally to all four models. Actually, most of this will also apply to the Tyros.)

One of the strengths of the PSR-2k is the ability of the STYLE CREATOR in the DIGITAL RECORDING STUDIO to modify individual style tracks in a style. In earlier lessons here, we have shown how to modify the volume of an instrument in a track and how to change the instrument itself. But these changes do not change the underlying music that is being played in that track. What about changing the track itself?  Suppose you have a style and you don't like the bass part. You would like to change the bass part in that style to a bass part you have in some other style. Well, you can do that with the PSR-2k, and we'll show you how to change individual parts in the next lesson.

In this lesson, we will tackle a slightly different problem, one that might be a first step in some cases before taking the second step of changing individual tracks. Styles for earlier Yamaha PSR arranger keyboards included only two variations (A and B). But the PSR can hold 4 variations of a style (A, B, C, and D). If you want to use a style from one of these earlier models, you may very well want to expand the style variations from two to four. There are multiple solutions to this problem. Michael Bedesem has provided a software solution to this problem in his StyleUpdater program. Here, I will explain how you can use the PSR-2k itself to solve this problem.

Overview of the Process

Before we go over the steps, let me give you an overview of the process. You load a two-variation style, say one from the PSR-8000 or the PSR-620 or the PSR-1700 (which are similar to the 500 and 510 styles). These styles can be found in the yahoo-psr-styles file area or in their file archive. You will notice, of course, that only the Main A and B buttons are lit; there is no style variations in C and D. You will go into the DIGITAL RECORDING STUDIO, STYLE CREATOR, ASSEMBLY PAGE. From there you will select section C to work on and then tell the PSR to take all the tracks from section A and copy them to section C. Next, you will switch to the D section and instruct the PSR to copy all the tracks from the B section to the D section. Finally, you will save the style. This accomplished, your two style section (AB) will now have four sections (ABAB) where the new "C" section is a copy of A and the new "D" section is a copy of B. At this point, you can make further modifications to the new and/or old sections to provide more variety to the styles. OK, that's the summary. Now, let's look at the details.

1. Load the Style

First of all, you have to have a two-variation style. None were delivered with your PSR; all of those have 4-variations already. None are on our download page, since they, too, already include four variations with four one-touch settings. You can go to one of the style sites on the Internet as mentioned above to find a two-variation style. However, for simplicity, let me give you one right here. You can use it to practice. Here is the Country Swing ( 148-CSW1.STY ) style from the PSR-8000. (See our downloading lesson if you need help downloading a file. You can download all of the original 8000 styles from our PSR-8000 page in the Styles section.)  

Once you have downloaded the style to your PC, copy it to a floppy disk and take that floppy to your PSR-2k and load it in there. From the Main screen, press the [D] button next to STYLE. Press the [NEXT] button a couple of times to switch from the PRESET tab to the USER tab and, finally, to the FLOPPY DISK tab. You should see your style listed there. Select the style to load it into the PSR-2k memory. If you are going to be working on this style, it may be more convenient to go ahead and save it in the USER area. You can then make your modifications to the file in the USER area. When you are all finished modifying the style, you can then save it back to a floppy disk.

2. Modify the Style (Optional)

You may want to accept the various track volumes as they are in the original (100, 100, 82, 66, 72, 35, 82, and 64). Working with a PSR-2000, I changed the Finger Bass to Finger Bass2 and changed the track volumes to (100, 85, 70, 50, 75, 44, 60, and 66). I left all the other instruments as they were. Review our lesson on the Mixing Console if you don't know how to modify track volumes (and/or voices) and save them in the style. Since you are going to expand the first two sections to become four sections, you can hold off any modifications until you have added the two new variations. Remember, from the MIXING CONSOLE, if you change the track volume in section A, the new volume will also be set in sections B, C, and D. So, you might as well wait until you have created all four sections.

3. Go to the Assembly Page

Follow the steps outlined in the illustration below:

This brings up the ASSEMBLY page in the STYLE CREATOR. You have seen this page before. This is where you go when you want to SAVE a style after you have adjusted the volumes or have changed the instruments and you want your new settings saved in the style itself. Now, let's take a closer look at this page.

The top part of the window shows each of the eight style tracks. In this example, the RHYTHM2 track is selected for a style called LoveSong. You would press the appropriate buttons ( [A] - [D] on the left, and [F] - [I] on the right) to select a particular track in the style.

4. Select Section "C"

If you look carefully at the photo shot of the BASIC STYLE CREATOR page above, you will see that the first line indicates what section is currently loaded into memory. If you had the MAIN A section selected before you went to DIGITAL RECORDING, that is the section you will start with. If you had MAIN B selected, DIGITAL RECORDING would start with MAIN B. You can change this selection from the BASIC page or from the ASSEMBLY page. Let's assume you started with MAIN A and you are looking at a screen like that show above on the ASSEMBLY page. Simply press the MAIN [C] button on the keyboard, and a little pop-up screen will appear in the bottom right-hand side of your window showing the available sections in a small scrolling box (with C highlighted). You can use buttons [6] and [7] to scroll up and down that list to choose any of the sections or any of the fill-ins or any of the intros or endings. We are going to work on MAIN C, so, with that highlighted, simply press the [8-A] button to select OK and you will be working on the MAIN C section.

When you first entered DIGITAL RECORDING, there was a box at the bottom of the BASIC page, labeled REC CHANNEL. If you were to press the [EXIT] button, that REC CHANNEL box would disappear and you would see a SECTION box giving you the opportunity to change the MAIN Section and/or the pattern length. You will note that these are highlighted in the illustration above next to the [A] button. If you were to press the [B] button, you could change the TEMPO and/or the BEAT. We won't change either of these for this lesson.

5. Copy From "A"

Now that you are working in the MAIN C section, you want to copy every track from the A section to this section. Actually, if you looked carefully, perhaps every track in A isn't even used so you wouldn't have to copy them all. But, usually, it is easier to simply copy them all then to try and keep track of which ones are used and which are not. Look at the box at the bottom of the screen labeled COPY FROM. In the illustration here, section A is highlighted (that was the section loaded -- in your case, section C should now be highlighted). Because the RHYTHM2 track above is selected, the middle CHANNEL box has RHYTHM2 highlighted. If you are trying to copy something to a RHYTHM track, the only thing allowed is another RHYTHM track. If, however, you had PAD selected, or any of the non-RHYTHM tracks, you could copy from BASS, CHORD1, CHORD2, PADCHORD, PHRASE1, or PHRASE2. In this exercise, we are going to copy each track to the corresponding track in the new section, i.e. CHORD1 goes to CHORD1, so we won't have to change any settings in that CHANNEL box. We will, however, change the setting in the SECTION box.

If your RHYTHM2 is still selected, and you have indicated you are working on MAIN C, the bottom box should look something like this. For this section, you want to COPY the RHYTHM2 track FROM MAIN A and put it in MAIN C. So, using the 2 & 3 buttons underneath the SECTION box, move the highlight to MAIN A. That's it. You are telling the PSR to copy the RHYTHM2 section from A. Now, all you have to do is repeat this process for every track. Press [A] to select RHYTHM1. Press the  [2-A] button to select MAIN A. Press [C] to select CHORD1; Press [2-A] to copy from MAIN A. Continue doing this until you have MAIN A selected under the COPY FROM - SECTION for all tracks. You can review your work by pressing any of the [A] - [D] or [F] - [I] buttons to verify that MAIN A is selected. You could SAVE your style at this point (by pressing [J]). But you can also continue and copy section D and then save.

6. Now, Copy from "B"

Press the MAIN D button to select section MAIN D. Be sure to confirm MAIN D in the pop-up window on the bottom right-hand side of the screen. Then go through the same exercise as above only this time, copy from MAIN B. This will give you a style pattern that is, in effect, A B A B. You could, of course, having copied the B section twice and made a pattern that looked like A B B B. Or, you could carry the process through one more time and change that A B B B pattern to an A A B B pattern.

7. Save Your Work

When you have completed all your copying, press the [J] button to SAVE your new modified style. The STYLE save window will appear and it will be showing the USER memory area for styles. You don't have to save it to this area; you could press the [NEXT] button and save it to the FLOPPY DISK. But, you may want to do more tuning, so go ahead and save it to the USER area. You press the [6-B] button to select SAVE. You will be given an opportunity to rename the file. To complete the saving operation, press the [8-A] button to confirm OK that you want to save the file under this name.

8. Test It Out

If you look over at the MAIN sections now, you will see that all four buttons are lit, that is, you have four variations of this style. You can keep them as they are, really just two variations repeated, and get variety by choosing different instruments in the four one-touch settings.  Then, if you have OTSLink turned on, as you go from section A to B to C to D, the sounds will be different because the Main, Layer, and Left voices (with or without Harmony/Echo and DSP settings changed) will sound different. You can also use what you learned in other lessons to change some of the accompaniment instruments between the various sections. You could also change the C and D sections a bit by replacing some of the tracks there with tracks from an entirely different style altogether. But, THAT is the subject of the next lesson.

Country Swing Once More

If you downloaded the above Country Swing example from the PSR-8000, you may be interested in my expanded version with one-touch settings included. It is included in the PSR-8000 page in the batch of files converted from the PSR-8000. But you don't have to download all of those to try it out. You can download the 4-section version of Country Swing right here.