Scott Langholff's 70-Voice Set
I got the idea for "category preset voices" from the Lowrey organs that I sell and play every day, as well as the Korg PA80, which has something simliar to this. I put together a group of 70 of my favorite sounds (voices) grouped in a logical order that includes 10 voices for each of 7 categories. Each voice has appropriate harmony settings so just press the harmony button when you want to add harmony.
I find this the easiest way to get around using voices, rather than getting surprized with the OTS, whether it was Yamaha's setting or mine. I find, even though I play things in a similar fashion most of the time, that I am always in a different state of mind everytime I play. So, the OTS that was great last week, last month, or even yesterday, may not quite cut it with me today.
Originally, I had 100 category preset voices. But that required 10 separate "pages" to display the 10 categories. I found it a little confusing, however, because once I hit page 7, the PSR-2000 voice screen changed and showed pages 8, 9 and 10. I found it much easier to deal with only 70 preset voices rather than with 100. So the file included here has only 70 voices. (The 100-voice set is also available; just scroll further down this page. -jw)
Voices are grouped into the 7 categories shown below. The category abbreviation is displayed at the bottom of each "page" of voices to remind you what category is being shown. Download the file, unzip it, and copy it to a floppy disk. Put the floppy disk in your PSR-2000 and then press the "F" button to change the Main voice. (You can, of course, also use these voices for the Layer or Left-hand voices). Then, press [NEXT] twice to go to the FLOPPY DISK area. You will see all the "Solo 1" voices on page "P1." The "Solo 2" voices will be on page "P2", etc. You could, of course, copy these voices to the USER area. All 70 voices take up only 36k on the floppy disk, so they won't use up more of your internal memory than a single style might require. To add these presets to your collection of Yamaha goodies, simply download this zip file:
| Category Abb |
Voices | Category Abb |
Voices | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo1 S1 |
GrandPiano JazzGuitar DrwbrSL Clarinet- SoftTromb |
TenorSax AirTrumpet AltoSax Flute Strings- |
Solo2 S2 |
Oct.Piano2 Vibraphone ClickOrgan SopranoSax TenorSax, |
GrowlSax Trumpet MutedTrump Trombone Choir |
| Latin L |
VensEP Percussive! PopOrgan! SmalLAccrd Musette, |
Marimba SteelDrums ClasFlute SpanishGtr NylonGuitar |
Country C |
GrandPiano- Banjo CampfireGtr Fiddle FolkGpc, |
ModrnHarp PedalSteel 12StrGuitar 60'sClean Elec.Gtr |
| Rock R |
E.Piano RockOrgn1 RockOrgn2 FullRocker JazOrgn1, |
JazzOrgan2 MellowDrw DrwbrOrg2 BaritoneSax VintageOpn |
Horn Section H |
SoftBrass BallroomBrs WodwndEns SaxSection BrassCm, |
BigBrass PopBrass TrumpetEns HighPrass Sforzando |
| Drawbar D |
10 versions of DrwbrSL | ||||
I am sure this will work as is for most players, but it certainly will be a good model for any one who wants to alter mine or to create their own.
By the way, I have found I like to use glide and sustain on the appropriate voices. This can easily be accomplished on my Category Presets this way:
In my normal Registration Memory, I always save GrandPiano with sustain in #1 and Jazz Guitar with glide in #2. Whatever the last button you press from Registration Memory, the same effect will transfer over to the USER category presets. So, in this example, I press Reg Mem #1 if I want to use sustain on user voices like piano, elecric piano, occasionally organ etc. For glide in the user presets, I will first press Reg Mem #2 to use glide on the horns, guitars, violin etc.
One last thought on this. Like organs, some of my category presets when used with harmony must be played one or two octaves higher to sound good. Some of my settings are altered by lowering the voice one octave. I found that especially the Grand Piano sounds much better to my ears with this setting.
On a SynthZone poll, most of the guys were using 20 or fewer voice settings on a gig. I think they are missing the boat. Not only does the 2K have so many great sounding voices, but the variety of voices inspires the player and adds a lot of enjoyment to the audiences.
Enjoy,
Scott Langholff
100 Voice Set
[I enjoyed those 70 voices so much, I asked Scott to send us his 100-voice set as well. And, that he did! They are available in the zip file below. - JW]
Most of the 100 category presets are identical to the 70 presets above with the following changes:
P1: Alto Sax-e replaces the Sweet Alto Sax. The "-" sign means it was saved one octave lower. The "e" means that I used Echo with the Harmony/Echo button.
P2: Dance Organ replaces Click Organ which shows up in the new Organ category.
P5: More rock guitars. Most of the extra organ voices were transferred to the new Organ category.
P6 & P7: The order is reversed to have the Horn Section on P6 and the Drawbar settings in P7, which is right next to P8 the new Organ category.
P8: Organ Presets
P9: Orchestral
P10: New Age
The new sections have the following abbreviations to help remember what category page you are on:
P8=O for Organ; P9=ORK for Orchestral; P10=NA for New Age
All 100 sounds have an appropriate setting while using the Harmony/Echo button. Various harmony settings are used most often along with octave, echo and trill effects. The trill works very nicely on Marimba and Steel Drum to give it that fast two handed mallet effect while playing two or more notes.
The Drawbar section is an approximation of the old full Hammond organ sounds. If one desires, by pressing Sound Creator you can change the drawbar setting on the fly as on the old drawbar organs. The even numbered drawbars give a full, mellow sound, whereas the ones using fractions, (1/3' and 2/3'), add color or dissonance.
I'm glad to be able to share these presets. I hope it brings ease of operation and enjoyment to all.
Best
Scott Langholff
This page updated on February 16, 2024 .