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1 PSR Keyboard Performer Sequencing with TYROS - part 1- by Andrew Leitch psr keyboard performer Whether you own a TYROS, a PSR1/2/3000 keyboard or a CVP200/300 Clavinova, the sequencer operates in essentially the same way. Andrew Leitch explains how he recently produced his excellent CD using only the internal sequencer of TYROS to build up the arrangements... Hello and welcome to the first of a series of articles on song recording and sequencing with the Yamaha TYROS. Let me start with a brief introduction. I'm a self-taught amateur musician and I've learned what I know the hard way - through trial and error, mostly error. TYROS is a stunning instrument, and with patience and practice the "Song Creator" can be used to produce the most beautiful and realistic sounding arrangements - that are impossible to play live - in any style of music you like. The only limit is your imagination. You are in the driving seat: you become all the musicians in the band, the arranger, the conductor, the recording engineer, the producer... and the tea-maker. Although my own experience is with TYROS and, whilst there are some cosmetic differences between all the latest Clavinovas and the PSR's, they share essentially the same sequencing functions - see page As with everything in life, the secret is to start simply and, when you've mastered the basics, move up a step. Learn from your mistakes and don't give up - because before you know it you'll be hooked and conducting your own orchestra (or big band, rock group, jazz quintet...) This first article is going to look at the very basics - what do we mean by a sequence, how to do a "quick record", how to save your song for posterity and the entertainment of future generations, and an explanation of the 16 "channels". Future articles will build on this and look at multi-tracking, editing, mixing and how to have a go at some more advanced arranging. MIDI and all that... So what exactly is a sequence & how does it differ from a tape or CD recording? An audio recording: A traditional recording uses a microphone to record the music played. It also records the sound of next door's lawn mower in the background, your swear words when you make a mistake, and your partner's voice when they pop their head round the door to ask you when you're going to paint the shed - always during the most difficult passage! Of course you can avoid the problem of background noise by connecting the line out sockets directly to a tape or CD recorder, or a computer, but it is still the sounds that are being recorded. A Sequence: A sequence is completely different. It doesn't record any sounds at all. It simply records your "instructions" to the keyboard - the exact time you pressed a note, how hard you played it, how long you played it for, when you pressed a panel button to change a voice or play a fill-in and so on. All of these things are recorded as "MIDI events". When you play back the song, you are actually playing back all of these instructions to the keyboard, which does exactly as it's told, but under the control of the recorded MIDI sequence rather than your fingers. Clever stuff isn't it? The benefit of a sequence: Now here's the real beauty of it all. Because it's the instructions that are recorded rather than the music, you can very easily "edit" the recording and correct any mistakes. You can change everything - the notes you played, how hard you played them, the voices you used, the volume levels, the key, even the tempo. So you can record Chopin's Minute Waltz, then double the tempo and play it back in 30 seconds flat! Talk about impressing the neighbours. The least you need to know: I've already fallen into the trap of using a bit of jargon without explaining it. MIDI. It stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface". Well there you are, I've explained it. There are numerous books, magazines and Internet sites dedicated to MIDI, so if you want to learn the difference between "sys ex" and "meta events" or understand those cryptic implementation charts in the back of the manual, look up some of these. I won't be explaining them because the truth is that I don't begin to understand them. And that's my point... you don't need to worry. I'm typing this on a computer. I don't understand how the word processing program works, but it doesn't stop me using it. The beauty of TYROS is that it enables you, with practice, to create advanced sequences without getting bogged down in the technicalities. OK, I hear you say, that's enough theory, let's get our feet wet. 1 APRIL / MAY 2005

2 Quick Recording Let's start off with a simple, one off, quick recording. Choose a tune you know and can play well using one of the styles. Set everything up on the keyboard - left & right voices, volume levels, style, tempo, harmony, multi-pads if you wish, all the usual stuff. Or you can of course just use the One Touch Settings for this, and benefit from all the hard work done by those clever people at Yamaha. Play the tune through a couple of times, to make sure you're happy with the set up. If you want to use an intro, fill- ins, accompaniment variations or an ending, plan & practice where they will be. Everything you do will be recorded. When I first started recording, the second I pressed the record button my heart would race, my mind would go completely blank and my fingers would stubbornly refuse to do anything. So don't worry if the same happens to you - it gets better with time! TOP (or STOP on other models) START / STOP (or PLAY on other models) RECORD [REC] fig. 1 TYROS Song panel. Other instrument panels may vary. i) In the SONG CONTROL section press the [REC] and the [TOP] (or STOP) buttons together. This ensures that there's a blank song in the sequencer ready for you to record to. ii) Press the [REC] button again. This puts the sequencer into record mode, and a couple of little red lights will start flashing. iii) Put the cat out! iv) Make sure the [ACMP] and [SYNC START] buttons are on. v) Play the song. Recording will start as soon as you begin playing, and you may notice that the red light above the [REC] button that was flashing is now lit continuously. vi) At the end of the song, press the [REC] button to stop recording. The red light will go out. Now to listen to your performance. Press the [TOP] (or STOP) button to return the song to the start, and then press the START/STOP (or PLAY) button. Hey presto! You're first ever recorded performance. Wasn't that hard was it? If you're anything like me, you'll notice all sorts of mistakes that you didn't realise you had made. This is another benefit of using the sequencer - it's a really good learning tool. Other ways to start recording... I'll just explain a little more about how recording can be started, in case, for example, you want to record a tune without using an accompaniment style. After you've put the sequencer into record mode - step (ii) above - you can start the recording in various ways: BOOK NOW... FOR THE YAMAHA CLUB One-Day Masterclass Wednesday 1st June 2005 is the date set for our Yamaha Club one-day Masterclass when, for just 40 (including a buffet lunch, teas & coffees) twenty-five lucky people will be able to enjoy a full one-day course with Yamaha demonstrator Ryan Edwards. Places are limited as we want to ensure that everyone receives full benefit from the session... Who is the Masterclass for..? This session is geared towards amateur home enthusiasts. The 'Master' in this class is Ryan... so you won't be expected to play in public or to start the session with a great knowledge about the instrument. If you have one of the following models we are sure you will benefit from our Masterclass day... Keyboards: PSR1000 / 1500 / 2000 / 2100 / 3000 ; TYROS Clavinovas: CVP200 series ; CVP300 series The seminar will cover the most requested aspects of Yamaha's latest series of keyboards and Clavinovas including: Understanding Files & Folders (How to load, save and move registrations) Using Music Finder to its full potential Modifying styles to suit different tunes Using the Mixing Console to spice up your music. Simple recording Some "hands-on" experience is built into the programme - and a selection of instruments will be provided for you to try out the things you have learned. Throughout the day you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Where do we go for the Masterclass... The venue... Ryan has chosen the historic Red Lion Inn at Todwick as the venue for our first Yamaha Club One-day Masterclass. It is ideally situated just off the M1 (junction 31) to the south of Sheffield - on the A57 (heading towards Worksop). Rooms to let... The Red Lion Inn has 28 en-suite rooms available for anyone wishing to stay in the area for the nights before or after the Masterclass session. Single occupancy Double / Twin Anyone wishing to book a room should arrange this direct with the hotel by phoning The cost... Each place costs and this includes a buffet lunch and teas/coffees (as indicated above). Book by post: Cheques should be payable to: Yamaha Club Ltd., and sent to... The Yamaha Club Ltd. 1 Reynolds Close, Dronfield, Derbyshire. S18 1QP Book by phone: Credit cards are welcome. Please contact Cathy at the Yamaha Club office on Take a summer break - and enjoy the beautiful surroundings... If you're travelling far - or with a non-playing spouse, why not take full advantage of the journey to stay over and incorporate the Masterclass in a short summer holiday break. On a sunny day - particularly at this time of year - you'll find that there are many beautiful and interesting attractions close by to interest you - for example: The Sherwood Forest and Visitor Centre / Clumber Park (National Trust) / Chatsworth House and Gardens Visit the Yamaha Club website for more details and images APRIL / MAY

3 psr keyboard performer As explained above, if the [ACMP] and [SYNC START] buttons are on, recording will start as soon as you play a chord and start the style, perhaps using one of the intro's. If the [ACMP] button is on but the [SYNC START] button is off, recording will start as soon as you play a chord in the left part of the keyboard, but obviously the style won't start at this time. If the [ACMP] button is off, recording will start as soon as you play any key on the keyboard, for example if you were playing the keyboard like a piano. You can start recording by pressing the [START/STOP] (or PLAY) button. This will record silence until you play a note on the keyboard. If you start a style later in the song this will also be recorded. Recording will start as soon as you press any of the Multi Pad buttons (Not available on Clavinova) This may seem a little confusing to read, but have a go at any of the different ways of starting recording that happen to suit your style of playing and it will all fall into place. Honest! Saving your song Well, after all that hard work you don't want to lose it all do you? But lose it you will if you turn the keyboard off without saving your song first. i) Press the [EXIT] button to make sure the display is showing the main screen, and press button [A] (or the button adjacent to SONG in the display.) Alternatively, press any the [SONG] (or SONG SELECT) buttons. This will take you to the song selection screen ii) Select the [USER] page with the [BACK-NEXT] (TAB) buttons. iii) Press the [SAVE] button, which is the button under the number 6 below the screen. A pop up window will appear with the default name of "NewSong". iv) To change the name, press and hold the [DELETE] button and then use the buttons below the screen to enter the name of your song (see fig. 2). Page 70 of the TYROS manual explains how to do this if you're not sure. fig. 2 fig. 3 v) Press [OK] (the button above number 8) to save the song with its new name. Time for a little bit more theory I think. Channels... The TYROS sequencer has 16 channels. You can really think of each channel as representing an instrument or voice. But of course many of the TYROS voices replicate the sounds of more than one instrument. For example the beautiful string voices probably reproduce the sound of a string section containing perhaps 50 individual instruments - violins, violas and celli. So the 16 channels can be used to reproduce the sounds of many more than 16 instruments. When you record a song each part (Right 1, Right 2, Left, Multi Pad 1, etc) is recorded to a separate channel. With a quick recording, like the one we did above, the default settings are: Channel 1 Right 1 Channel 2 Left Channel 3 Right 2 Channel 4 Right 3 Channel 5 Multi Pad 1 Channel 6 Multi Pad 2 Channel 7 Multi Pad 3 Channel 8 Multi Pad 4 Channel 9 Rhythm 1 Channel 10 Rhythm 2 Channel 11 Bass Channel 12 Chord 1 Channel 13 Chord 2 Channel 14 Pad Channel 15 Phrase 1 Channel 16 Phrase 2 Accompaniment parts Note: The parts assigned to channels 9 to 16 all come from the style. To make sense of this, have a look at the song you've recorded and use the mixing console to see what's happening on each of the 16 channels. 3 APRIL / MAY 2005

4 Go to the song page and load the song you've recorded - if it isn't already in the sequencer. Press the song [START/STOP] (or PLAY) button and your song will start playing. While it's playing press the [MIXING CONSOLE] button. If the VOL/VOICE page isn't displayed, use the BACK-NEXT ( or TAB) buttons to display it. Keep pressing the MIXING CONSOLE button until the numbers 1 to 8 appear along the bottom of the page. (See fig. 3 - CVP309 Mixing Console - Song channel volumes) You are now looking at the first 8 of the 16 midi channels of your song. Press the [MIXING CONSOLE] button again and you'll see channels 9 to 16, the style channels. (If your song finishes, press the [TOP] (or STOP) and [START/STOP] (or PLAY) button to "play it again Sam".) You'll see that every time a note is played on a channel a little red light will flash at the bottom. This page displays the voice, the "panpot" and the volume for each channel. Panpot simply means whether the voice sounds to the left, the centre or the right. Experiment a bit by making some changes to the song. Press either the [E] or [J] button to highlight the volume bar. You can now use the up/down buttons below the screen to change the volume levels of each channel. Change the volume of channel 1 to make the voice you assigned to Right 1 louder or quieter. Press button [C] or [H] to highlight the voice bar. Press either of the up/down buttons below channel 1 and the screen will display the voice you assigned to this channel. Select another voice from the screen, or use the voice buttons on the main panel to select a different voice group, and channel 1 will now play the new voice. Magic! You can turn your flute into an oboe, or your piano into an organ! How the great composers of the past would have loved a toy like this. This is just a taster of some of the things you can do with a song after you've recorded it. We'll cover this in more detail later in the series. Well, that's about it for now. Next time we'll have a look at adding another instrument to a song - basic "multi-tracking", and we'll explore the mixing console in a bit more depth. Song Control buttons on other models (Some differences you need to be aware of) Piano competition for outstanding amateurs - launched by Pianist magazine & Yamaha, in association with Classic FM On November 26th 2005 at London s 900 seat Cadogan Hall, an eminent panel of judges will name Britain s top amateur pianists. Launched today by Pianist magazine and Yamaha UK, in association with Classic FM, the Pianist-Yamaha Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is the first event of its kind in this country. There will be two categories Classical and Modern with the victors from each being awarded a 10,000 Yamaha piano gift certificate. Piano competitions have become a way of life for professional musicians, but now it s time for outstanding amateurs to have their moment of fame, explains Erica Worth, Editor-in-Chief of Pianist magazine. There are lots of unknown, talented people out there people from all walks of life who practise hard and play to a superb standard for the sheer love of the instrument, knowing full well they re not going to earn a penny. You have to be an amateur to enter our competition. You also have to be at least 30 years old, so ambitious young music students will be out of the picture. The competition is also open to pianists who prefer a good jam session to studying sonatas. Two first prizes will be awarded: Classical and Modern (Modern encompassing jazz, pop, rock, Latin, and so on). The panel of judges is balanced accordingly, with two distinguished classical pianists, Martin Roscoe and Kathryn Stott joining jazz star Jamie Cullum and top showbiz pianist Laurie Holloway. Other major artists, including Freddy Kempf and Jools Holland, will act as consultants and spokesmen during the selection process. The Chair of the jury will be announced shortly. How to enter the Competition The application form is contained in the latest edition of Pianist magazine, stocked by W.H. Smith, Borders and other good newsagents all over the UK, or can be downloaded from or Competitors must initially supply their own recording (on cassette, MiniDisc or CD) of at least two contrasting pieces with a total length of not more than 15 minutes, supported by a short covering letter. The deadline for submissions is 8th July By the end of August semifinalists will be invited to perform a short live programme on Sunday 25th September at Yamaha s headquarters in Milton Keynes. The ten finalists will be notified by 15th October. At the final on Saturday 26th November they will play a programme (maximum length 15 minutes) before audience and judges at Cadogan Hall in Knightsbridge. TYROS s Song controls differ slightly from most other models. These differences are mostly cosmetic where button names have been changed... i) The [TOP] button has been replaced by [STOP]. This performs the dual function of stopping play/record and returning the recording to the beginning of the performance ii) The [START/STOP] has been replaced by a separate [PLAY] button for Start and [STOP] button for stop (as above). iii) The [BACK] and [NEXT] buttons at the top right-hand side of the display have been replaced by buttons marked [TAB]. The function remains the same. I am delighted to be involved as a consultant of the Yamaha Pianist piano competition. Competitions have been around for as long as there have been pianos from the European Grand Salons where Liszt would play to the 1920s Harlem stride pianists to the current day. They have an exciting history of bringing the pianos to life. I hope and expect this competition will maintain the tradition. APRIL / MAY

5 PSR Keyboard Performer Sequencing with TYROS - part 2- by Andrew Leitch psr keyboard performer Whether you own a TYROS, a PSR1/2/3000 keyboard or a CVP200/300 Clavinova, the sequencer operates in essentially the same way. Andrew Leitch continues his explanation of how he built up the tracks of his new CD Come Fly With Me using only the internal sequencer of TYROS... In the previous article we looked at some of the basic theory behind sequencing, and how to do a simple one-off "quick record". This time we'll begin to dabble with "multi-tracking", and have another play with the mixing console. To start out, let's practise the basics and make a quick recording of "Auld Lang Syne". (OK, I know it's not very seasonal, but there's no copyright to worry about!) We will then use this to build upon. A good set up for this tune on TYROS is the Easy Ballad" style in the BALLAD category. Turn on the [OTS LINK] button and select [MAIN VARIATION A]. This will set a Small Accordion voice for Right 1 and, importantly, nothing on Right 2 or 3. Note: If you have an instrument other than TYROS you may find that the OTS for this style produces a different effect but, if this is the case, you can always select Small Accordion by hand - making sure that Right 2 and Right 3 (where available) are switched off. Press the [SYNC START] and [INTRO 1] buttons. Then, using the quick record technique we looked at last time, press the [REC] button and play a C major chord to start the intro... and record the first 8 bars of Auld Lang Syne in the key of C. Play the recording back to make sure you are happy with it, and remember to save the song. Now let's get into multi-tracking! We are going to add a string counter melody on channel 2. Turn off the [ACMP], [OTS LINK] and [SYNC START] buttons, and turn on the Right 1 voice only. For the Right 1 voice select Allegro Strings. Press the [TOP] (STOP) button and then the [START/STOP] (PLAY) button, and while your recording is playing back practise playing this counter melody with the strings. Note: The [TOP] button only appears on TYROS. For other instruments use [PLAY] instead of START/STOP and just press [STOP] instead of TOP. 5 JUNE / JULY 2005

6 When you are ready to record the counter melody, this is the procedure. Take care to follow it accurately. 1. Press the [TOP] (STOP) button 2. Press the [REC] button with your left hand & hold it down 3. While holding the [REC] button down, press the [UP/DOWN] button above number 2 to set only channel 2 to record. 4. While still holding the REC button down, use the [C]/[D] buttons to assign RIGHT 1 part to channel 2. (Fig. 1) fig. 1 The Mixing Console Adjusting volumes: We'll finish off with another look at the Mixing Console. With "Auld Lang Syne" loaded in the sequencer, press the [MIXING CONSOLE] button repeatedly until the numbers 1 to 8 appear along the bottom of the page. On the VOL/VOICE page press button [E] or [J] to highlight the volume bar... and start the song. Use the [UP/DOWN] buttons below channels 1 and 2 to adjust the balance between the accordion on channel 1 and the strings on channel 2. You want to be able to hear the strings without letting them overpower the accordion. fig Now release the [REC] button. 6. Press [START/STOP] (PLAY) and as you play the counter melody it will be recorded to channel Press [REC] to stop the recording. 8. As usual, press the [TOP] (STOP) button and then the [START/STOP] (PLAY) button to play back the song, and remember to save it. And there you have it - a nice string counter melody behind the accordion lead. Piece of cake really! Recap... Let's have a think about what we've just done - and link it back to our knowledge of MIDI channels. When the initial quick record was done, the keyboard used the default channel settings (take a look back at the chart in the previous article). But we didn't use a left part, a right 2 part, or a right 3 part. Nether did we use any multi-pads. Therefore channels 2 to 8 were left empty and available to use for additional multi-tracking. I chose to use channel 2 for the string counter-melody, but we could have used any of the empty channels at steps 3 and 4 above. At step 4, we told the keyboard to over-ride the default assignment for channel 2, and forced it to assign the Right 1 part (Allegro Strings) to this channel. If you're feeling adventurous why not add another instrument - how about some nice piano chords on channel 3? Practise the chords first while the song is playing. Then follow the procedure above, but select a piano on Right 1, at step 3 set channel 3 to record, and at step 4 assign Right 1 to channel 3. The CD debut by Andrew Leitch - featuring Yamaha TYROS Yamaha Club is delighted to introduce Andrew Leitch s new album - Come Fly With Me, the first CD by a club member to be released on the Yamaha Club Audio label. This selection of all-time favourites introduces the first album by Andrew Leitch and. as you listen to the rich and varied programme he conjures from Yamaha s TYROS keyboard, I m sure that you ll be impressed by his easy, yet fluently musical style. Robert Mottram (Yamaha Club) Quite simply, the music is in a class of its own - with some beautiful arrangements... Ian Wolstenholme (Keyview) Duration: 61m :36s Tracks include: Come Fly With Me ; More Than You Know ; Adios ; My Ship ; Robbin s Nest ; There s No You ; Moonlight Serenade ; It Ain t Necessarily So ; Blue Moon ; The Tender Trap ; Crazy ; At Last ; You re Blasé ; On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring ; The Girl Next Door ; Shiny Stockings COME FLY WITH ME is now available, price (inc. p/p). Please make cheques payable to: A. Leitch, 55 Churchill Meadow, Ledbury, Herefordshire. HR8 2DQ (Tel: ) JUNE / JULY

7 psr keyboard performer Adjusting the Pan and Reverb setting: Now we'll have a go at "panning". This lets us move the instruments around our virtual stage - and it really does make a huge difference to the realism of the sound. fig. 3 This display shows which instruments you used in your recording. You can adjust the VOLUME balance between the parts you ve recorded And arrange your instruments around a virtual stage with the PAN control Press button [D] or [I] to highlight the Panpot bar. Each channel has a small panpot knob which can be adjusted from a value of 0 to 127 using the [UP/DOWN] buttons below it. (Fig. 3) A setting of 0 will pan the channel fully to the left, 127 sets the sound fully to the right, whilst 64 is dead centre. You'll probably find that channels 1 and 2 are set to 64 by default. Let's imagine that our accordion player is sitting a little to the right of the centre of the stage, and the string section is on the left. Use the [UP/DOWN] buttons to change the panpot for channel 1 to 85 and for channel 2 to a setting of 40. Play the song again and listen to the difference - the stereo effect and the realism will be greatly enhanced. Now use the [BACK-NEXT] buttons to move to the EFFECT page, and use exactly the same technique to add some reverb (echo) to channels 1 and 2. Coffee Time Quiz - No. 2 by Tony Breeden All about water... The answers are all popular song titles. 1 Frank Chacksfield rolled it out to sea 2 The Sunday afternoon Cruising place 3 Down by the Old Mill How to save the changes... A word of warning. Any changes that you make to a song via the mixing console, such as volume levels, panpots, etc. have to be "executed" before you resave the song. This is a bit of a fiddle, but if you don't do it, the changes will not be saved. 1. Stop the song if it's playing, and press the [TOP] (STOP) button to return the song to the start. 2. Press the [DIGITAL RECORDING] button, and from the screen select [SONG CREATOR]. This takes us into the keyboard's powerful MIDI editing function, which we'll be exploring later in the series. 3. For the moment all you need to do is select the CHANNEL page using the [BACK-NEXT] (TAB) buttons, and move the cursor down to item five in the list displayed - SET UP. 4. At the bottom of the screen, make sure all the boxes in the SONG section are ticked (Fig. 4), and then press the button next to [EXECUTE]. This records the current settings of the mixing console as setup data at the beginning of the song, so they are always recalled as soon as the song starts. 5. Finally, save the song again. Conveniently, you can do this directly from this page by pressing the button next to [SAVE]. Well, I'm out of space again. So it's "goodbye from me 'til next time when we ll start looking at how to go about editing mistakes. fig. 4 Press EXECUTE to lock your changes into the song track 4 By this Sleepy place 5 Donald Peers sang by this 6 My Bonnie Lies Over here 7 Frank Sinatra threw Coins in it 8 I Do Like To Be Beside it 9 Boy Scouts sing about this 10 A Roy Orbison hit Finally, SAVE your song again - with the changes you ve made Answers: 1. Ebb Tide ; 2. The River ; 3. Stream ; 4. Lagoon ; 5. A Babbling Brook ; 6. The Ocean ; 7. A Fountain ; 8. The Seaside ; 9. Crest Of A Wave ; 10. Blue Bayou 7 JUNE / JULY 2005

8 PSR Keyboard Performer Sequencing with TYROS - part 3 - by Andrew Leitch psr keyboard performer Whether you own a TYROS, a PSR1/2/3000 keyboard or a CVP200/300 Clavinova, the sequencer operates in essentially the same way. Andrew Leitch continues his explanation of how he built up the tracks of his new CD Come Fly With Me using only the internal sequencer of TYROS... I hope that the first couple of articles in this series have inspired you to have a go at some sequencing. If you recorded my little arrangement of Auld Lang Syne from the last issue you ll be on track as we ll continue the same theme today. Maybe you played it perfectly in one go - in which case, congratulations... but one of the big advantages of sequencing is that it's so easy to correct mistakes, and this time I'm going to explain some of the ways that you can go about correcting errors in a recording. There are really three main ways to correct mistakes: 1) Re-record the whole channel 2) Re-record a part of it 3) Edit the notes that have been recorded Which method you use depends on how serious the mistakes are. Re-recording all of the channel If you had a "senior moment" and made lots of mistakes, this is probably the best option. Practice a few more times, and then simply follow the procedure we looked at last time to re-record the whole channel from the beginning. All the previous notes will be deleted. Re-recording part of a channel If you played everything perfectly until the last few bars you can use a technique called "punching in" (sounds violent doesn't it?) just before the mistake, and re-record the remainder of the channel - thus avoiding having to re-record the whole thing again. If the mistake was in the middle of the song (see fig. 5) but everything was fine towards the end, you can "punch in" before the mistake, and then "punch out" again afterwards - effectively re-recording the middle part only. All the notes you recorded before you punch in, and after you punch out will remain. fig. 5 Ooops!!! It's really important to identify the most suitable places to punch in and out. Avoid punching in at a bar that has a sustained note held over from the previous bar. Always aim to re-record a natural phrase in the music, rather than just the bar where the error is. So let's assume that, as in our example, you made a mistake in bar 5 and you decide to re-record bars 4 to 6 by punching in and out. This is what you do: 1) Load the song into the sequencer & identify which channel contains the error. 2) Press the [DIGITAL RECORDING] button. 3) Press the [SONG CREATOR] LCD button. 4) Use the [BACK/NEXT] (TAB) buttons if necessary to display the REC MODE page. 5) At the bottom of the page, set the REC START to "PUNCH IN AT", and set the bar to ) Set the REC END to "PUNCH OUT AT", and set the bar to 006 (See fig. 6) fig. 6 this sets the point at which your recording starts... and ends. 7) Select the appropriate voice on RIGHT 1 - the same voice you originally used. 8) Press TOP (STOP) to return the song to the start (or use the REW/FF buttons to select any point before bar 4). 9) Press and hold the REC button and, using the method we looked at last time, set only 9 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2005

9 the channel containing the error to record, and assign the RIGHT1 voice to this channel. 10) Press [START/STOP] (PLAY) and when the song gets to bar 4 play the notes until the end of bar 6. 11) Press REC to stop the recording. Bars 1 to 3, and bars 7 onwards will still contain your original notes, but bars 4 to 6 will now contain your new notes. Once you've got the basic idea of punching in and out, have a look at the owner's manual (pages 94 and 95 for Tyros), which go into much greater detail than I have space for. Editing individual notes This is the best method for correcting little mistakes on individual notes, perhaps because you played a particular note too loud or too soft, or if you held it a bit too long. Let's have a go at some note editing. 1) Load a song that you have sequenced and make a mental note of the channel you used for the melody part. 2) Press the [DIGITAL RECORDING] button. 3) Press the [SONG CREATOR] LCD button. 4) Use the [BACK/NEXT] (TAB) buttons to select the 1-16 page. 5) If necessary, press button [F] to cycle through the 16 channels, until you get to the one you used for the melody. This page can display all sorts of MIDI data, so we need to use the FILTER to make sure that it is only displaying NOTE data. Press the button next to FILTER, and then press the button next to NOTE. Now press the EXIT button, and you will be back on the main CHANNEL page with only note data displayed. The display will now look like this: fig. 7 idea? The close relationship between music and mathematics is very apparent when you start editing notes! The fourth column (green) simply tells you that you are looking at note data. The fifth column (gold) tells you what the note is. TYROS has a 61 note keyboard, bottom C is called C1, and top C is called C6. The sixth column (blue) tells you how hard you played the note - the "velocity value". This ranges from 1 (so quiet you can hardly hear it) to 127 (so hard you bruised your finger). The seventh and eighth columns (dark green) tell you how long you held the note. This is displayed in notes and clock ticks. So, in theory a quarter note or crotchet would show as 0001 : 0000 ; an eighth note or quaver would show as 0000 : In reality, the note times will be shorter than this, as you have to take your finger off the note in time to play the next one! Use buttons [A] and [B] to move between the notes - you will hear each one as it is played. Button [C] returns you to the first note on the channel. Buttons [D] and [E] allow you to move across the columns of the screen. You can also use the [STOP/START] (PLAY) button to play the song while looking at this screen, which is useful to help you find the offending note. The BAR : BEAT : CLOCK buttons at the bottom of the screen can also be used to change the song position. So if you wish to look at the notes in bar 5, select this bar and the screen will jump to this part of the song. (See page 11 for fig. 8) The CD debut by Andrew Leitch - featuring Yamaha TYROS Yamaha Club is delighted to introduce Andrew Leitch s new album - Come Fly With Me, the first CD by a club member to be released on the Yamaha Club Audio label. This selection of all-time favourites introduces the first album by Andrew Leitch and. as you listen to the rich and varied programme he conjures from Yamaha s TYROS keyboard, I m sure that you ll be impressed by his easy, yet fluently musical style. Robert Mottram (Yamaha Club) Quite simply, the music is in a class of its own - with some beautiful arrangements... Ian Wolstenholme (Keyview) Each line on the screen represents a single note. The first three columns (red) tell you the exact time at which the note started: the bar number, the beat number, and the "clock" position. The sequencer runs incredibly fast, and divides each quarter note or crotchet into 1920 "clock ticks". So, for example, if you played two eighth notes or quavers in beat 1 of bar 1 in perfect time, these would begin on 001 : 1 : 0000 and 001 : 1 : 0960 (because half of 1920 is 960). Get the Duration: 61m :36s Tracks include: Come Fly With Me ; More Than You Know ; Adios ; My Ship ; Robbin s Nest ; There s No You ; Moonlight Serenade ; It Ain t Necessarily So ; Blue Moon ; The Tender Trap ; Crazy ; At Last ; You re Blasé ; On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring ; The Girl Next Door ; Shiny Stockings COME FLY WITH ME is now available, price (inc. p/p). Please make cheques payable to: A. Leitch, 55 Churchill Meadow, Ledbury, Herefordshire. HR8 2DQ (Tel: ) AUGUST / SEPTEMBER

10 fig. 8 This is how you quantize channels: psr keyboard performer To correct a wrong note all you have to do is move the cursor until the black line is sitting on the note, use buttons [D/E] to highlight the note name, and use the data entry buttons at the bottom of the screen to change the note - or you can even play the correct note on the keyboard. Any data can be edited in this way. If you played a note too loud or too quiet, highlight the velocity value, and alter it with the data entry buttons. I find this screen incredibly useful for "fine-tuning" note velocities and note lengths in my sequences. As always, remember to save the song after you've made any changes you wish to keep. The good news is that you don't need to worry about executing the "set up" for any editing that is done this way. A few words on "Quantizing" The song creator has the ability to "quantize" all the notes on any channel. This means shifting their timing so that they are played exactly on the right beat. It sounds ideal doesn't it? Press a button and have all your timing errors instantly corrected! Well up to a point. Like all these things, it can be very useful in the right place, but shouldn't be over-used. After all, even the best musicians in the world don't always keep perfect time, and in jazz and easy listening styles of music, much of the beauty comes from the liberties that performers take in their phrasing and timing. If everything is perfectly quantized it sounds, to me, completely un-natural, as if a computer is playing the music (which it is of course, but we don't want it to sound that way!). Coffee Time Quiz - No. 3 by Tony Breeden All about the weather... The answers are all popular song titles. 1 You Are My... 2 A number one hit for The Kinks 3... but always in love 1) Load the song. 2) Press the [DIGITAL RECORDING] button. 3) Press the SONG CREATOR LCD button. 4) Use the BACK/NEXT (TAB) buttons to select the CHANNEL page. 5) Make sure QUANTIZE is highlighted. 6) Select the channel you wish to quantize. 7) Select the note value or "size" you wish to quantize to (see fig.9). 8) Select the strength. 9) Press [EXECUTE]. 10) Listen to the result before you exit from this screen, so that you can UNDO the quantising if you don't like it! fig. 9 Note: At step 7, you need to select the shortest note value on that channel. For example, look back at "Auld Lang Syne" from the previous article. If you wished to quantize the melody on channel 1, you would need to select eighth notes or quavers, as these are the shortest notes. At step 8, you choose how strongly you want the notes to be quantized. A setting of 100% will move the notes exactly onto the beats, a setting of 50% will move them half way, and so on. My basic advice on quantizing is... if it sounds okay, don't bother - "If it ain't broke don't fix it". There's no point quantizing any channels that have come from a "style", as these will be in perfect time. Where I do find quantizing useful is if I've manually recorded an accompaniment part, such as a bass line or a guitar strumming chords in time. I love the sound of a jazz guitar "comping" - playing four chords to the bar, and I use this quite a lot in my sequences. Not being a guitarist, I often find that quantizing the track by 60% or 70% "tightens up" the timing while still leaving a human feel to the sound, and still allowing you to hear the individual notes being strummed. That's it for now. Next time we'll be looking in more detail at the "mixing" process. 4 They fell on Butch Cassidy s head 5 Judy Garland sang over it 6 Look around you On A... 7 Neil Sedaka heard laughter in it 8 Duke Ellington in The Cotton Club 9 G. Gershwin s... In London Town 10 It s Beneath My Wings Answers: 1. Sunshine ; 2. Sunny Afternoon ; 3. Misty ; 4. Raindrops ; 5. The Rainbow ; 6. Clear Day ; 7. The Rain ; 8. Stormy Weather ; 9. A Foggy Day ; 10. Wind 11 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2005

11 PSR Keyboard Performer Sequencing with TYROS - part 4 - by Andrew Leitch psr keyboard performer Whether you own a TYROS, a PSR1/2/3000 keyboard or a CVP200/300 Clavinova, the sequencer operates in essentially the same way. Andrew Leitch continues his explanation of how he built up the tracks of his new CD Come Fly With Me using only the internal sequencer of TYROS... In the previous articles we dabbled with the Mixing Console. This time we ll explore the mixing process in a bit more depth. "Mixing" is the name given to the process of fine tuning the balance between the channels, and adjusting the pan, reverb, and other effects applied to each channel. Obviously, you need to record all the notes on the channels first, and edit out any errors, otherwise there's nothing to mix! I usually reckon to spend nearly as much time mixing as I do recording a sequence - it really does make a huge difference to the quality of the sound. There are basically two ways to go about mixing... The first is to use the mixing console in the way we looked at earlier in the series. This method is fine for the initial settings at the beginning of a song, but cannot be used to change any settings during the song - increasing, for example, the volume of a channel part-way through the sequence. Another problem arises if you've used the "punch in" method that we looked at last time to correct errors. You'll find that, at the bar where you punched in, many settings - such as volume and reverb - will have been altered or set back to zero. To get round these problems I prefer to use the second method of mixing... inserting and editing MIDI control events using the song creator. Mixing via the song creator This is very similar to the note editing process we looked at last time, the only difference being that instead of editing notes we edit and insert "control events". This sounds a bit technical, but a control event would be used, for example, to tell the keyboard to set the volume level of channel 5 to 85 at at beat 1 of bar 8. It's really nothing more complicated than that. The process is almost the same as for editing notes: i Load a song that you have sequenced. ii Press the [DIGITAL RECORDING] button. iii Press the [SONG CREATOR] button adjacent to the LCD. iv Use the [BACK/NEXT] (TAB) buttons to select the 1-16 page. 5 If necessary, press button [F] to cycle through the channels until you get to the one whose control events you wish to edit. Now we need to use the filter to tell the instrument to display control events, rather than note events: i Press the button next to FILTER. ii Use the buttons below the screen to uncheck every box except for the CONTROL CHANGE box - put a tick in this box only. iii Now press the button next to CTRL CHG. fig Press the CONTROL CHANGE button to display the control list 1. Choose the item you require from the list using these buttons to move the curser line up and down 2. Use these buttons to mark - or unmark your selection The screen will now display a list of all the different types of control events. There are several pages of these, and most are a complete mystery to me. The good news is that for basic mixing we only need to worry about three of them: volume, panpot and reverb. i Press the button next to ALL OFF ii Use the buttons below the screen to select 007:VOLUME and put a tick in this box. iii Select 019:PANPOT and tick this box iv Select 091:REVERB SEND LEVEL (several pages on!) and tick this box v Press the EXIT button once 12 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2005

12 The screen will now display the volume, panpot and reverb send control events (if there are any) for the channel you selected. Use the button next to F to cycle through the other channels. fig. 11 solo is finished. The easiest way to do this is to highlight the initial volume event in Bar 000, and press the COPY button below the screen. Use the BAR, BEAT and CLOCK buttons below the screen to move to the beginning of the bar where the solo begins, and then press the PASTE button. A volume event will be inserted. Use the D and E buttons to highlight the value of the event and use the DATA ENTRY buttons to increase the volume level. Insert another volume event at the end of the bar where the solo finishes to reduce the level back down again. Once you've got the hang of copying, pasting and inserting control events you'll see what a powerful tool the song creator is for making subtle changes to the mix of a sequence. Keep playing back the song to hear the effects of your changes, and do remember to save the song before you turn off! Now that we ve discovered how to view & edit the main control events, let's look a bit deeper at what effect each produces in our music. Each control event is represented by a line on the screen. The first three columns (red) tell you the Bar, Beat and Clock position of the event, the fourth column (green) tells you it is a control event, the fifth column (yellow) shows the event number (7 for volume, 19 for panpot, etc), the sixth column (blue) tells you the value for the event, and the seventh column (dark green) tells you the type of control event. To edit the value of an event, (perhaps to increase the reverb level from 20 to 40) use the A and B buttons beside the display to highlight the line, use the D and E buttons to highlight the value in the sixth column, and use the DATA ENTRY buttons below the screen to change the value. You will notice that the initial control event levels at the beginning of the song (from the mixing console) always appear mysteriously in a "virtual" Bar 000 on Beat 3. You can edit these using the method I've described above, and this will have exactly the same effect as making changes to the mixing console settings which we looked at earlier in the series. (Fig. 12) fig. 12 Volume The most fundamental part of mixing is to balance the volume levels of the various channels. The only way to do this is by listening hard and making adjustments to the volume control events for each channel. Listen with the master volume control turned up loud, and then listen again at a very low level. A good tip is to go into a different room The CD debut by Andrew Leitch - featuring Yamaha TYROS Yamaha Club is delighted to introduce Andrew Leitch s new album - Come Fly With Me, the first CD by a club member to be released on the Yamaha Club Audio label. This selection of all-time favourites introduces the first album by Andrew Leitch and. as you listen to the rich and varied programme he conjures from Yamaha s TYROS keyboard, I m sure that you ll be impressed by his easy, yet fluently musical style. Robert Mottram (Yamaha Club) If you've used the "punch in" method we looked at last time, you may find that some unwanted control events have been recorded at the beginning of the bar where you punched in, perhaps putting the reverb level back to zero. To get rid of these, use the A and B buttons to the left of the display to highlight the event, and then press the DELETE button below the screen. Now let's assume you want to increase the volume level of a channel part way through a sequence, perhaps where an instrument plays a solo, and then reduce the level after the Quite simply, the music is in a class of its own - with some beautiful arrangements... Ian Wolstenholme (Keyview) Duration: 61m :36s Tracks include: Come Fly With Me ; More Than You Know ; Adios ; My Ship ; Robbin s Nest ; There s No You ; Moonlight Serenade ; It Ain t Necessarily So ; Blue Moon ; The Tender Trap ; Crazy ; At Last ; You re Blasé ; On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring ; The Girl Next Door ; Shiny Stockings COME FLY WITH ME is now available, price (inc. p/p). Please make cheques payable to: A. Leitch, 55 Churchill Meadow, Ledbury, Herefordshire. HR8 2DQ (Tel: ) OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

13 psr keyboard performer and listen from a distance - you may be surprised at how an inappropriate volume level on a particular track will suddenly jump out at you. Yamaha FC7 Expression (volume) pedal Coffee Time Quiz - No. 4 by Tony Breeden They re Astronomical... The answers are all popular song titles. To create a gradual increase or decrease in volume I'm afraid you have to insert numerous volume events in sequence, each one about 2 or 3 levels higher or lower than the previous one, and about an eighth note or quaver later than the previous one. To be honest, this is much easier to achieve if you use a expression (volume) pedal as you record the notes. The expression pedal actually inserts "expression events", which are different to volume events, but have the same effect! Panpot Pan 64 (centre position) We looked at this back in the second article. The panpot (PAN) control enables us to move sounds to the left or right of our "virtual stage". It really is very effective and is worthwhile considering carefully. Many of my sequences consist of a jazz quintet - piano, bass, drums, guitar, and a solo instrument such as a saxophone. I always picture where the musicians are sitting on the stage. The bass & drums are best placed at or near the centre with the solo instrument perhaps very slightly to one side, the piano over to the left, and the guitar on the right. So panpot positions might be: piano 40, bass 64, drums 64, guitar 90, saxophone 75. For a big band arrangement, think again where the various sections sit: saxophones on the left, trumpets & trombones on the right, bass & drums in the centre, piano on the left, and guitar perhaps on the right. For some of my more advanced orchestral arrangements I looked at some pictures of an orchestra to work out the panpot positions of the various sections of the orchestra. One word of warning - some of the voices on Yamaha keyboards have a very pronounced stereo effect. The jazz vibes is a good example, the low notes sound to the left & the high notes to the right. So these instruments need to be panned near to the centre, or you risk losing some of the notes! 1. I ve searched for you Around here 2. Everyone s Gone there 3. Curiosity Killed The Cat, Down here Reverb We also had a quick look at reverb in a previous article. It adds an echo to reproduce the effect of playing in a large hall. I always add some reverb to each channel - the sound is very dead without it - but it's well worth thinking about using different levels of reverb for each channel. The more reverb you add, the more distant the sound becomes. Imagine that you are sitting near the front of the audience at a concert. A trumpet player is standing at the front of the stage playing a solo, backed by a saxophone section sitting towards the back of the stage. By adding more reverb to the saxophone channel with a lower volume setting, and less reverb to the trumpet at a higher volume setting, you can replicate this "3D" effect, and make the saxes sound as if they are quite literally behind the trumpet. These are the main control events that need to be adjusted in the final mix, but you can use exactly the same approach for all control events - brightness, sustain, expression, etc. Tempo changes If you filter on TEMPO events, and look at the SYS EX page in the song creator you ll see the tempo setting at the beginning of the song. Just as with all events, you can change this. So... you can record a difficult song at a slower tempo, (Flight of the Bumble Bee perhaps?) before speeding it up later to impress your friends. They say confession is good for the soul, so here goes! One or two people who have bought my CD have congratulated me on the jazz organ improvisation in It Ain't Necessarily So. To be honest my fingers won't move as fast as my brain wants them to, so I recorded it at a slightly slower tempo. Cheating? Maybe, but that's what sequencing is all about! You can also use this screen to insert tempo changes into a sequence. Just copy the initial tempo event, paste it to the bar where you want the tempo to change, and then alter the value. This is really useful if you want a song to slow down at the end, or just to add a few subtle tempo changes during a song. In classical pieces I often insert numerous tempo changes, just as a conductor would during a performance. That's it for now, but in the final article of my series we'll take a look at how to go about planning more advanced arrangements, and think about how to adjust our playing to suit particular instruments. 4. Are they Out Tonight 5. A. Lloyd-Webber s Express 6. I Don t Care If it Don t Shine 7. Where it rains Pennies From 8. Both in Fiddler on The Roof 9. Do we see her in blue jeans 10. Artie Shaw s theme tune Answers: 1. The World ; 2. To The Moon ; 3. To Earth ; 4. The Stars ; 5. Starlight ; 6. The Sun ; 7. Heaven ; 8. Sunrise, Sunset ; 9. Venus ; 10. Stardust 14 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2005

14 PSR Keyboard Performer Sequencing with TYROS - part 5 - by Andrew Leitch psr keyboard performer Whether you own a TYROS, a PSR1/2/3000 keyboard or a CVP200/300 Clavinova, the sequencer operates in essentially the same way. Andrew Leitch now concludes the poll topping series in which he has explained how he built up the tracks of his new CD Come Fly With Me In this, the final article of my series, I m going to look at how we set about tackling more advanced arrangements. There's no right or wrong way... but I ll describe the method that works for me. I ve put some examples of my own work in the Members Only section of the Yamaha Club website for you to download and play on your keyboard. There are three tunes; Chattanooga Choo Choo - a Glenn Miller hit of Close Your Eyes - a jazzy late night bossa-nova, influenced by my favourite singer, Stacey Kent, and Sicilienne - a lovely classical piece by Gabriel Fauré that you'll probably recognise even if you don't know the name. The sequences were created on Tyros, but should sound fine on other modern Yamaha keyboards and Clavinovas. Of course, if you don't like the sound of anything, you should know how to correct it by now! You have been paying attention haven't you? Plan and Prepare... The techniques of multi-tracking, correcting mistakes, editing and mixing have all been covered in previous articles and, for a more advanced arrangement, most of the extra work is in the planning and preparation stage - before recording actually begins. I play mostly by ear (I really must try using my fingers one day), and most of my sequences tend to be copies of tracks from CD's, so the first step for me is to become very familiar with the piece of music concerned... which means playing it repeatedly in the car, singing it in the bath, and generally driving my family mad until I know it inside out. It's important to really listen to the original recording in order to work out what all the different instruments are doing - i.e. bass, drums, piano, guitar, string section, etc. The next step is to plan which channel is to be used for each instrument - and to sketch out the basic structure of the arrangement. For this I use a spreadsheet on my computer (see illustration opposite). The sixteen channels are numbered down the left-hand side of the page whilst the bars are numbered across the top. A typical tune will probably run to about eight pages of A4 paper in landscape format. If the song has words, I write these across the top of the pages. Then I enter the chord details and print the spreadsheet. I keep this in front of me during the recording, and use it for writing notes to indicate which instruments are playing in which bars. Not being a sight-reader, I use my own musical shorthand to remind me of any particular phrases, etc. The illustration shows the first page of my arrangement of Chattanooga Choo Choo. I usually record the drum part first on its own - using the default drum channels 9 and 10. With several hundred styles available from Tyros, there's usually one that's close enough! Then it's just a case of knowing how many bars you need to record, and planning where to insert any breaks, fills, or variations. Select the desired style, variation and tempo, press the [REC] button, and start the rhythm. Watch the bar numbers increase on the screen, and press the appropriate style control button at the beginning of the relevant bar. If there are sections during the song where the drums stop, or play anything unusual, it's easy to delete or edit the drum "notes" afterwards using the note editing method we explored previously. This is how I achieved the drum breaks and fills in Chattanooga and Close Your Eyes. I usually record the bass part next - playing the bass line manually from the keyboard and recording it on an empty channel in time to the drum track which is switched to playback. By recording the drums & bass first, you have the basic skeleton of the arrangement to build upon by recording the other channels one by one. I still get a huge kick out of hearing a beautiful piece of music gradually emerging. I continue to build the arrangement from the bottom up, perhaps doing the piano or guitar next. I ll often record each channel in sections of four bars or so, using the punch in method, and listening to the original tune on the CD all the time. The last channels to be recorded are usually the melody track and any solos. Having recorded all the notes (and corrected the mistakes), the final stage is to work on the mixing. If this all sounds rather time-consuming, it is! A four minute multi-tracked sequence can easily take me more than 20 hours to complete. Instrument Styles It's really important to put yourself in the shoes of the musician you are pretending to be. For example, if you're recording a piano part, you can play big chords and arpeggios - using a sustain pedal as 15 DECEMBER 2005 / JANUARY 2006

15 appropriate, but don't stray too far down the keyboard and step into the bass player's territory. Nothing sounds worse than two different bass notes arguing with each other. If you are recording a monophonic (one note at a time) instrument such as a trumpet or saxophone, then only play one note at a time. Don't suddenly play a chord, just because you can - it will completely destroy the effect! Of course, a saxophone or brass section can play in chords, and Yamaha keyboards have specific voices which recreate these sounds with incredible realism. But remember that in a band arrangement these parts will have a tightness and discipline about them which you should also try to emulate. If you are playing chords, stick to the middle or higher ranges of the keyboard because chords that are played too low can sound growly and unnatural. To add depth to chords, it's best to stick to the root and fifth notes in the lower registers - you can always multi-track these notes onto a spare channel afterwards, or add them to an existing channel using the editing method. I quite often use this technique for big band brass sections, and it also works well with strings. I learned a lot by analysing Paul Lawley's brilliant big band demo tune on the Tyros. (Tip: If you press the [CHANNEL ON/OFF] button while it's playing you can isolate the different channels.) It's important to play an instrumental voice within its natural range. There are many books and websites that can tell you the ranges of instruments, but as a rule of thumb, just stick to what sounds right. And do remember that musicians that play wind instruments have to breathe every now and again - so think about the phrasing of the passage you re playing, and leave some gaps for the player to take a breath. Tip: If you take a deep breath - then breathe out slowly as you are recording a phrase - when you run out of wind, it's time for a pause! Pitch Bend... When I made the switch from organ to keyboard, I initially found the pitch bend wheel incredibly difficult to use, but now I couldn't live without it. A real benefit of multi-tracking is that it leaves your left hand free to use the pitch bend wheel. When playing live, I nearly always find that at the moment I want a bit of pitch bend, my left hand is busy playing a new chord. The default setting on Tyros is to bend notes by two semitones at maximum deflection, but I always change this to 1 semitone in the TUNE page of the mixing console. DECEMBER 2005 / JANUARY

16 psr keyboard performer I find that many of the solo voices such as trumpet, trombone and saxophone benefit greatly from subtle use of pitch bend. The most common method is to deflect the wheel down slightly just before playing a note, and moving it quickly back to the centre position just as the note is played. This can be very effective on a note that is quite a bit higher than the preceding note. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, but it gives a very realistic effect of the note being slightly flat at the start. There are many other uses of pitch bend. For the flugel horn playing the lead in Close Your Eyes I extensively used small deflections both up and down to give a softer laidback feel, and I also dropped the pitch of some of the double bass notes, such as in bar 48. In Chattanooga I used it to flatten the end of the "Woo Woo" brass chords played in bars 4, 5 and 6. The idea was to sound like a trombone section trying to sound like a passing train - my 12 year old daughter Samantha thinks it worked anyway! File Saving... I've previously emphasised the importance of saving the file you are working on before you switch off. But for complicated arrangements involving hours of work, it's worth going a step further than this, and incrementally saving the latest version with a new name. For example, after recording the drum part of Chattanooga, I saved it as Chat_001. Then, after adding the bass line, I saved it again as Chat_002. When the piano was added it became Chat_003, and so on. This way, if something goes terribly wrong and you accidentally lose or delete something you didn t mean to, you have a choice of versions that you can go back to without losing too much of your hard work. Every now and again, delete all the really old versions. I usually keep the latest three generations during a project - and, at the end of each session, I also save the latest version to floppy disk and transfer it to my computer. Better safe than sorry! Well that's it from me. It's been a real pleasure to share what I've learned about sequencing. It's wonderful to think that I may have inspired some of you to explore this area, which can open up a whole new world of creativity and fun. A big thank you to the many people who have given feedback and helpful suggestions, and also for the very flattering comments I've received about my "Come Fly With Me" CD. Now I must write my letter to Santa - a Tyros 2 is top of the list. Some hope...! Merry Christmas... and Happy Sequencing Coffee Time Quiz - No. 5 by Tony Breeden Christmas cheer... The answers are titles of Carols or Christmas songs. 1. A Bing Crosby hit 2. You d better watch out They laughed and called him names Tyros2 Demonstration CD FREE with this issue of Yamaha Club Magazine The CD debut by Andrew Leitch - featuring Yamaha TYROS Yamaha Club is delighted to introduce Andrew Leitch s new album - Come Fly With Me, the first CD by a club member to be released on the Yamaha Club Audio label. This selection of all-time favourites introduces the first album by Andrew Leitch and. as you listen to the rich and varied programme he conjures from Yamaha s TYROS keyboard, I m sure that you ll be impressed by his easy, yet fluently musical style. Robert Mottram (Yamaha Club) Quite simply, the music is in a class of its own - with some beautiful arrangements... Ian Wolstenholme (Keyview) Duration: 61m :36s Tracks include: Come Fly With Me ; More Than You Know ; Adios ; My Ship ; Robbin s Nest ; There s No You ; Moonlight Serenade ; It Ain t Necessarily So ; Blue Moon ; The Tender Trap ; Crazy ; At Last ; You re Blasé ; On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring ; The Girl Next Door ; Shiny Stockings COME FLY WITH ME is now available, price (inc. p/p). Please make cheques payable to: A. Leitch, 55 Churchill Meadow, Ledbury, Herefordshire. HR8 2DQ (Tel: ) You should have received a copy of Yamaha UK s Tyros2 demonstration CD inside this edition. Produced by Glyn Madden and James Sargeant the disc explores the sounds and features of Yamaha s latest flagship keyboard. For more information about Tyros2, visit your Yamaha keyboard dealer or Yamaha online at 4. They re both full grown 5. A jolly happy soul 6. Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? 7. He looked out 8. Oh what fun it is Fa la la la la, la la la la Chestnuts roasting... Answers: 1. White Christmas ; 2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ; 3. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer ; 4. The Holly & The Ivy ; 5. Frosty The Snowman ; 6. Winter Wonderland ; 7. Good King Wenceslas ; 8. Jingle Bells ; 9. Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly ; 10. The Christmas Song 17 DECEMBER 2005 / JANUARY 2006