AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN APRIL / MAY Could you write for our magazine?

Transcription

1 1AR series organ workshop Could you write for our magazine? I d rather hoped that, as the AR and EL organs grew older, and the regular Yamaha demonstrator team turned its attention to more recent instruments, someone who still plays the instrument regularly would offer to take over the mantle of AR guru for a while. Howard Beaumont, who has filled this role admirably for the past year or two, feels that he has now covered the instrument as thoroughly as he can and were he to write another series he would only be repeating himself. If you think you may like to take up the challenge I d be delighted to hear from you. Just drop me a line to my address - glyn@yamaha-club.co.uk - or ring me on For now though it seems you ve got me again... Hope you don t mind. Like Howard, I don t play the AR as much as I used to - although it fair to say that, when I do occasionally get the opportunity, I m hooked for hours. What shall we do now..? Whilst I was wondering what I could possibly tell you about the organ I picked up the Artiste AR-100 Owners Manual - you know, this is the book we hardly ever look at - and it dawned on me (not for the first time) that, although full of factual data, there isn t much offered here in the way of musical interpretation. What I mean is... although the manual tells you that the instrument has a certain feature - it doesn t often tell you why you may need it and, more importantly, where you might use it in a musical context. The more I read, the more I found myself asking myself the same sort of questions that must inevitably occur to you too. I m sure that, by now, many of the long term AR users will have explored their instruments thoroughly and if I m teaching you to suck eggs I apologise. A quick scan through our database, however, tells me that we have many newcomers who are taking full advantage of the low price of second-hand ARs to own a superb one-time top-of-the-range instrument. APRIL / MAY 2005 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN 1. The Ensemble Buttons This little unobtrusive row of buttons caused quite a furore at one time when Yamaha left them off the EL series organs. They don t look much but they can be very helpful when planning your performance. What do the Ensemble buttons do? Ensemble buttons perform a simple function. Each button switches one of the voice sections on or off. Why is this useful? Without the Ensemble buttons every voice section on the instrument will sound - unless the volume control for the section is reduced to zero. Ensemble buttons let you immediately add or remove a voice from your sound mix at the press of a single button. Example: Imagine you have a piano sound on the upper keyboard (in the Upper Voice 1 section). After a few bars of music you plan to add a string voice. Without the Ensemble buttons you d have to... i) Select the string voice (in the Upper Voice 2 section). ii) Then adjust the volume to exactly the level where it will balance well with the piano. Given that most registration changes need to be pretty swift, the chance of getting an accurately balanced mix is a bit remote. Using the Ensemble buttons (and a little preparation) this operation is much easier and smoother. You can set the volume of the string voice to the exact level you require in advance - switching on the Upper Voice Section 2 Ensemble button at the point in your music where you want it to come in. Simple, but effective. If you know in advance that you re going to add the string voice you can plan ahead like this...

2 i) Switch on the [Upper Voice 1] and [Upper Voice 2] Ensemble buttons. ii) Set up the piano (in the Upper Voice 1 section) iii) Set up the string (in the Upper Voice 2 section) iv) Adjust the volume levels so that the balance between piano and string is to your taste. v) Now switch off the [Upper Voice 2] Ensemble button and... vi) Store this setting in Registration Memory button [1] vii) Press Registration Memory button [1] before you begin to play... then switch on the [Upper Voice 2] Ensemble button at the point you want to add the string voice. The balance will be exactly as you set it - perfect. Couldn t I just store the piano & string setting in a second registration memory button? Yes of course you could - and this is what EL players have to do. But the benefit of having Ensemble buttons is that you don t need to waste registration memory buttons unnecessarily on small changes of sound. MAX Surely it s just as easy to adjust the volume control... Yes... but did you realise that you can fine-tune the volume so that the balance is exactly right. The volume control on the panel has just seven stages - from minimum to max... and whilst that s okay - I ve found that sometimes, in order to get the balance between two voices just right, I really could MIN do with a finer control over the volume. If you press a voice button twice you ll be transported to the Condition display for that voice. Here you can adjust the volume over 24 stages - dividing the seven steps that are available on the panel into much smaller increments. As it s not feasible to make fine adjustments like this during a performance you would need to pre-plan anyway and, if you re prepared to go to these lengths to get your sound right, you ll be as grateful as I was that Yamaha remembered to include the Ensemble buttons on the AR series organs. Use the Ensemble buttons with the preset Menu settings.. I know we ve stressed this point on many occasions but... don t forget that the Ensemble buttons were considered when the Registration Menu presets were originally created and where an Ensemble button is switched off you ll find a hidden voice set up, and ready to play if you switch it back on. Try it for yourself. Sometimes the hidden voices can be added to the existing preset sound - and sometimes you can substitute the preset voice with the hidden one for a complete contrast. Using The Philips CDR796 CD recorder with an AR organ... Since this stand-alone CD recorder was mentioned in the last edition of the Yamaha Club Magazine we ve had several enquiries about the use of the recorder specifically with AR series organs... i) The Philips CDR796 recorder is compatible with both AR100 and AR80 models. ii) Connect the the left and right (RCA) phono AUX OUT sockets located underneath the organ - to the left and right (RCA) phono input sockets on the CD recorder. iii) The volume level of your recording can be adjusted using the [ALBUM +/-] buttons on the recorder. Make sure that, at its loudest point, the record level indicator does not go into the red. Unlike most recent keyboards and Clavinovas, you cannot adjust the output volume of the AR using the master volume control. iv) You can use only Compact Disc Digital Audio discs with the CDR796. Computer tyrpe CD-R and CD-RW discs will be rejected by the Philips recorder... Use either Recordable or Re-Writeable Audio discs... Compact Disc Digital Audio Recordable discs (CD-R) can be recorded on once only... and your music can then be played back on all standard CD players and CD recorders. Recordings made using Compact Disc Digital Audio Re-Writeable discs (CD- RW) can be erased and re-recorded many times... but music from these discs can only be played back on CD- RW compatible CD players and recorders. v) The Philips CDR796 Twin Deck CD Recorder can be purchased from Yamaha Club for (including 10 blank CDs, connecting cables, remote control and mains cable. APRIL / MAY

3 AR series organ workshop Selecting Voices The AR organ has been remarkable in that it has managed to achieve success on two important levels - (a) ease of use, and (b) versatility. After a succession of menu driven Yamaha instruments (such as the HX, HS and EL models) the concept of press and play! was high on the priority list for the AR s design team... People were calling for something instantly accessible and the new instrument arrived with so many preset (ready to play) registrations that it is quite possible for someone to use one for years without ever feeling the need to delve deeper inside the workings. This move towards ease of use, however, didn t mean that Yamaha were ready to abandon all the good things that menu technology had brought with it and, once you have penetrated the surface of the AR, the instrument is, in fact, very similar to the powerful EL90 - an extremely popular choice of professional organists everywhere. Many similarities between AR and EL models... The AR s voice layout follows exactly the same pattern as the EL90 - with two polyphonic sections for each keyboard, plus monophonic pedal and lead voices. Polyphonic Voices: The polyphonic voice sections - labelled UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE 1, UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE 2, LOWER KEYBOARD VOICE 1 and LOWER KEYBOARD VOICE 2 provide the main source for your upper and lower sounds. Polyphonic voices can sound several notes at once so you can use sounds from these sections for either chord or melody parts. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 2 The voice sections appear to be identical although if you look closely you ll see that there are some differences between the upper and lower panel voice names. Monophonic Voices: The monophonic voice sections - labelled LEAD VOICE, PEDAL VOICE 1 and PEDAL VOICE 2 can only sound one note at a time which, although this sounds quite restrictive, can be very useful when re-creating solo instrument voices. Notice the [TO LOWER] button in the bottom righthand corner of the LEAD VOICE section. This allows you to use any lead sound on the lower keyboard - perhaps combining it with the polyphonic voices of the lower keyboard voice section. Why would I want to do this? It s quite an advanced technique but, when you add monophonic and polyphonic voices together and play a chord, the monophonic voice sits at the top of the chord. This means that, for example, you could have a chord made up of string sounds (polyphonic), topped off with a single (monophonic) horn voice... The Horn (monophonic) voice from the LEAD VOICE section plays only the top note of the chord. left hand The [TO LOWER] button lets you play the monophonic lead voices on top of the polyphonic sounds of the lower keyboard - for some clever counter-melody performances. The String (polyphonic) voice from the LOWER VOICE SECTION plays the full chord underneath the horn. The Horn line forms a counter-melody. It s quite an advanced technique as the monophonic voice tends to jump if you re not careful. 3 JUNE / JULY 2005

4 Important: What isn t often realised is that every sound can be played from every voice section so... if you want to play a violin sound on the pedals this is perfectly possible, even though neither of the pedal voice sections actually have a [violin] button. How is this achieved? The wild card button provides access to every voice on the instrument. Monophonic voice sections have one wild card button, polyphonic sections have two. Each voice section has a wild card button. Instead of a voice name this button simply has a number - or, in the case of EL instruments, a dot. Monophonic voice sections (such as Lead and Pedal) have one wild card button, polyphonic voice sections (such as the Upper and Lower Keyboard Voice sections) have two. Example: Playing a Violin voice from the bass pedal section. 3) When the VIOLIN page is displayed... select Orch. Violin from the screen. 4) This voice can now be played from the bass pedals. Can I use the same method to call up voices in other voice sections? Yes. The wild card buttons can be used to call up any voice to any section. Note on monophonic / polyphonic voices: When a voice (eg. Piano) is called up in the Lead Voice or Pedal Voice sections it becomes monophonic and will only play one note at once. When a voice (eg. Flute) is called up in the Upper or Lower Keyboard Voice sections it becomes polyphonic and can now be used to play chords. The Voice Condition Page An example using the Piano voice... 1) Press the Piano button in the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE section. 1) Press the wild card / dotted button in the PEDAL VOICE section. The display will show the currently selected voice page (eg. PIANO, BRASS, STRINGS etc.). Each voice page comprises up to 16 voices from the related instrument family. For example, the STRINGS page offers a selection of 12 string sounds. 2) Next, select the Grand Piano voice from the screen 2) Use the [PAGE] buttons, located at the side of the display, to scroll through each voice page in turn - until you find the one you want. Here are some of the other family groups you may see along the way... 3) To get to the CONDITION page, either press the Grand Piano button again - or press the [CONDITION] button (located just above the Grand Piano button). Every voice page can be called up - including... What is the Condition page? This is where you can edit some of the characteristics of the sound. Not major editing - that comes later - but simple refinements such as... i) TOUCH TONE You ll have noticed that the keys of the AR are touch sensitive. Sometimes you may feel that they are a little too touch sensitive for your taste - particularly if you have a light touch. You can alter the sensitivity in the Touch Tone page. ii) FEET Those who have played organs for a long time will remember that older instruments used to have voice buttons labelled Flute 16 ; String 8 ; Piccolo 4 etc. The AR, however, can play any instrument sound at JUNE / JULY

5 5AR series organ workshop iii) EFFECT iv) PAN JUNE / JULY 2005 any pitch - so a piccolo might be at its natural pitch (4 ) or taken down the scale to a deep 16. These footage settings date back to the days of the traditional pipe organ and relate to the length of pipe needed to produce the pitch required. The AR always offers a Preset pitch setting that is the natural pitch for the instrument voice selected. A piano voice will sound very strange if a tremolo effect is added to it... but, on the other hand, an organ sound may be quite dull without it. Whilst the AR always provides each instrument voice with an appropriate effect setting (or none at all if that is appropriate), you can override this preset setting by choosing your preferred effect from the list in the Condition page. Move your instrument sounds around on your own virtual stage. Using the Pan control you can decide whether the trumpet comes from the left or right speaker, or the strings sound equally from both... Odd though it may seem at first, you can quite dramatically add to the breadth of sound coming from your AR organ by clever use of the Pan control. v) BRILLIANCE Sad to say this control doesn t make you play better. Sorry! Brilliance (or brightness) makes your sound sharper or, if preferred, duller. vi) VOLUME It s all getting a bit complicated... We covered this in Part 1 when we visited the Condition page for the first time - to fine tune the volume balance between strings and piano. You don t need to use the Condition page - because both models of the AR series come with all these parameters already preset for each instrumental voice. If, on the other hand, you do learn to make full use of this facility, you ll find that it adds hugely to the versatility of the instrument and to the exciting tonal possibilities you can discover for yourself. Let s make some sounds... Let s finish by creating a setting using what we ve learned about the Condition page. Big Strings... i) Press the [SYMPHONY ORCHES.] category button in the Registration Menu ii) Select String Ens. from the display. This will form the basis for our new setting. iii) Set the upper KEYBOARD VOICE 1 voice to Class. Strs. Set the Condition page as in the diagram below... iv) Set the upper KEYBOARD VOICE 2 voice to Popular Strs. Set the Condition page as in the diagram below... v) Set the LEAD VOICE to Bowed Strs. Set the Condition page as in the diagram below... vi) Set the PEDAL VOICE 2 to Horn (using the wild card button). And switch on the [TO LOWER] button. Tip: a quick way to do this is the press and hold the wild card button in the pedal voice 2 section - then press the Horn button in either lower keyboard voice section. This will immediately call up the Horn page in the pedal voice 2 section (without having to scroll through all the voices...) Set the Condition page as in the diagram below... That s it! An example of my setting (and performance) is available from the AR Download page of our web site.

6 AR series organ workshop When I left you at the end of part 2 we d been looking at the AR s voices and, in particular, the use of the wild card or dotted voice buttons to move sounds around the instrument. I also introduced you to the CONDITION page, which is where touch, pitch, pan, effects etc. can be tweaked. Now I want to explore this page a little more thoroughly and, hopefully, help you understand how to use the features in performance. TOUCH TONE Fig. 1: INITIAL (red) and AFTER (gold) touch regulators Do you sometimes find that notes jump out at you - sounding louder than others in a performance. This is probably due to the instrument s touch response. One of the things I don t care for on AR (and EL) series organs is that there is no way to completely switch off the touch responsiveness of the keyboards. For some players this is quite a serious omission because they simply can t get to grips with the technique required. For others it is merely a nuisance - but there are measures you can take so that the effect has less of an impact on your performance. There are two kinds of touch control on an AR (or EL) organ - INITIAL, and AFTER (see fig.1). Let s take a look at how these work... How to get to the CONDITION page... Just in case you can t remember how to get to the CONDITION page to adjust the touch control, here s a quick way - using the piano voice of UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE 1 section... Press the [PIANO] button - twice. That s it. The first press selects the piano, whilst the second takes you to the CONDITION page. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 3 INITIAL TOUCH (RED) The INITIAL TOUCH regulator is displayed in the first column of the CONDITION page. Here s a little exercise in using it... 1) Adjust the level of the INITIAL regulator to maximum. 2) Strike a note C on the upper keyboard using the piano voice. Strike the key positively (as opposed to tickling it). Then play the key again - this time as gently as you can. There s a huge difference in the volume between the two. 3) Next, play C, D, E, F G etc., up through the scale of C major, until you reach C at the top of the upper keyboard. Try to keep the volume of the notes as even as possible - although I expect you may find this quite hard to achieve. 4) Now reduce the level of the INITIAL regulator to minimum and repeat steps 2 and 3 above. With luck you should have found the volume of the notes much easier to control when the INITIAL TOUCH level was reduced. 5) Play a piece of music using each setting in turn - maximum, then minimum. Which do you find makes your performance sound better? The verdict will differ depending on how you play. What does the INITIAL TOUCH regulator do? Volume stages 127 The top of the blue line represents an initial touch of about Note duration Fig. 2 When the INITIAL TOUCH regulator s value is set to maximum there are a possible 128 stages of volume available - via your touch - between the softest (0) and hardest strike (127) of a key. You ll understand therefore that it would be difficult to hit the same mark twice - let alone on every single note of a scale. 6 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2005

7 By lowering the INITIAL TOUCH regulator s value to the halfway mark the number of possible stages are reduced to 64. Cutting the level by half again means that only 32 stages of touch are available to you - and the chances of hitting the same one twice are dramatically increased thus making your touch sound much more even. Of course, if you could turn the touch control off altogether your touch would sound perfectly even - but this isn t possible, and the downside of this is that you wouldn t be able to add any expression through touch at all. So, the lessons here are... 1) You should set the INITIAL TOUCH regulator to a level where you can play a scale and still control the evenness of all the notes. If some notes jump out more strongly than others, reduce the level until they don t. 2) Set the Initial Touch regulator to a higher level and then practise until you can control the even-ness of your performance. This is by far the harder, but most rewarding, option. The diagram at Fig. 2 shows the normal path of a piano voice. The key is struck - resulting in an Initial Touch level of 100, as illustrated by the vertical blue line. As soon as the key is struck the sound begins to die away, as illustrated by the diagonal blue line sloping down to the 0 volume line. If you hold the key down the sound will continue to fade until there is silence. It doesn t matter if you press the key down harder or softer; once the key has been struck the shape of the piano sound cannot be changed. AFTER TOUCH The AFTER TOUCH regulator is displayed in the second column of the CONDITION page. Here s a little exercise in using it... 1) Press a [STRING] or [BRASS] voice from the LOWER KEYBOARD VOICE 1 section. Press the voice button twice, as before, to go to the CONDITION page. 2) Adjust the level of the AFTER TOUCH regulator to maximum. 3) Strike a chord on the lower keyboard using a strong, firm touch. The sound, unlike the piano voice we used before, will play for as long as you hold the keys down. 4) Next, without taking your hand off the keyboard, lessen the weight you re using to hold the keys down. As you do this you should hear the volume of the notes reduce accordingly. Press down hard again (without taking your hand from the keys) and the sound should swell in volume. If this doesn t happen try again using a different brass or string voice. Some are more responsive than others. Stop when you find one that provides a good response to your touch. 5) Now play a series of chords with your left hand... C major ; F major ; G7 ; C major. Try first to play the chords smoothly - then play them again starting each chord loudly and reducing the volume with your touch before moving on to the next. This really isn t easy to do but will give you some idea of the expression you can achieve with after touch - once you ve mastered it! As before, play a piece of music using each setting in turn - maximum, then minimum. You may find your performance is much more even when you reduce the After Touch level - but the expression will be reduced. Which do you prefer? The verdict will doubtless reflect your level of technical skill. What does the AFTER TOUCH regulator do? Volume stages 127 The top of the blue line represents the Initial Touch 0 Note duration Hand pressure is increased here - increasing the volume Hand pressure is reduced here - reducing the volume Fig. 3 By lowering the AFTER TOUCH regulator s value you reduce the amount of control you have over expression created by your finger pressure. On the other hand, too much AFTER TOUCH level often takes it beyond your control and your sustained chords become a lurching roller-coaster of sound. As with INITIAL TOUCH, there are 128 possible stages of AFTER TOUCH. Cutting the level will reduce the amount of stages available - making the job of controlling them easier. So... 1) You should set the After TOUCH regulator to a level where you can control the even-ness of all the notes. If you experience a lurching feeling in sustained notes and chords reduce the level until it disappears. Or... 2) Set the After Touch regulator to a higher level and practise until you can control it. My friend, Japanese artist Max Takano always played with the touch settings at maximum. It s too much for me because I can t control the After Touch on strings and brass voices at that level. It doesn t matter. We both play using whatever settings are most comfortable, and you should aim to do the same. FEET Having covered the qualities of TOUCH TONE fairly comprehensively, let s move on to the next item in the Condition page - FEET. Most traditional organists will understand the term although it is usually referred to as footage. Pianists, and those who have come to the organ from a modern keyboard (where the term is seldom used) may be more unsure. Basically it comes down to lengths of pipe... but I ll try to explain. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER

8 8AR series organ workshop Fig. 4: FEET Why Feet? When I was at school we used to make musical instruments using drinking straws - by cutting one end into a point and nipping it together to make a reed. I learned to my delight that if I cut the straw shorter the note it produced got higher. I soon found that eight straws - all cut to different lengths would give me an octave of notes! ( Little things... as they say.) You may also notice that C D E F G A B C the straw producing the top C is exactly half the length of the straw used to sound the bottom C. Another, higher octave of notes could be created using straws cut shorter than the top C - and yet another, lower octave, using straws longer than the bottom C. Quite a range! The same principal applies to the pipes of a traditional classical organ. Big (long) pipes produce the low notes whilst short pipes make the high ones. This in itself begins to present a problem to the player because if I ask him to play me a C he has several C s to choose from and may choose the wrong one. If, however, I ask him to play the 2ft C, he will know exactly which pipe to sound. The terminology found its way onto the organ tabs and stops and organists became accustomed to choosing not only the instrument family - String / Flute / Reed etc. - but the pitch they required as well. Is all this really relevant to today s instruments? If I m honest I suppose I d have to say no - but there are occasions where it is very useful to understand the principal. We ve been spoiled recently because the manufacturers do virtually everything for us. Some of you may recall my little soapbox rant a few months ago about the lost art of creating registrations... well this is another reason why it s been lost. The manufacturer - in our case Yamaha - has preset every voice to its natural pitch; so we don t need to bother. In this instance though, I m not complaining. I think AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2005 it s a major step forward that you can select a trombone voice in the safe knowledge that it will sound, as a trombone should, with a deep voice. I love it that you can then change to a piccolo and the pitch will jump skywards to provide the light flutey tinkle you d expect to hear. Best of all, I can over-ride the preset pitch - if I want to - within the CONDITION page. Hooray! This let s the creative player experiment with sounds outside their natural range and, in the process, maybe come up with some great new mixes. Organ Flutes I ll probably be covering the Flute/Tibia (Theatre) section at some point in the future but it won t hurt to take a look at it now in passing... Here every voice is the same. You can choose from jazz organ flutes, theatre organ tibias, or classical organ flutes, but once you ve selected the type you want each voice sounds the same... except for the pitch. Every voice is labelled simply by its pipe length and the only control you have is how much volume of each pitch to use. Hammond called them Drawbars and that name has become synonymous with this type of voice controller. They re easy to use, but it does help if you ve understood the relationship between the FEET (footage) and the sound that ensues. Fig. 5: FLUTE/TIBIA (THEATRE) Experiment There are many, many ways in which you can mix the various pitches of the FEET regulator. Here s just one quick one for you to try... Octave Piano 1) Select a piano voice from the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE 1 section and go to it s CONDITION page. 2) Change the FEET setting from [PRESET] to [16 ] pitch. 3) Next, select another piano voice, this time from the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE 2 section and, as before, go to its CONDITION page. 4) Change the FEET setting from [PRESET] to [4 ] pitch. Play both voices together, adjusting the volumes of each section to taste. For every note you play, you ll hear two notes - one high, one low - making the piano sound as though it s being played in a huge twooctave spread.

9 AR series organ workshop Hello again. In part 3 we began to explore the CONDITION page which is where the touch sensitivity, pitch, volume etc. of the AR s voices can be finely adjusted. We looked at the TOUCH TONE controls and discovered how to change the pitch of a voice. Now we ll take a look at some of the remaining features of the CONDITION page. If you re joining us for the first time don t worry. You ll be able to pick the subject up from here. Let s take a look at the Condition display to remind ourselves of the controls... Brilliance & Volume Do you know the James Last composition The Lonely Shepherd? It s a lovely piece he wrote for the panflute player George Zamfir that begins......yes, I thought you d recognise it. Well you may need to dig out the music because I m basing the registration we re about to create on this well known tune. Don t worry though if you can t find a copy as there are many similar ballad themes that will fit the bill quite nicely. Okay - let s get started... 1) Select the BALLAD category from the Registration Menu panel. The screen will open to display 16 Ballad-type registration presets. 2) Choose the E.PIANO BRIGHT setting from the screen. This will set up the AR to provide a common starting point. 3) Switch on the [LEAD VOICE] Ensemble button - and switch off any other Upper voice sections. If you AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 4 play some notes on the upper keyboard you should hear the Breathy Tenor saxophone which is currently stored in the wild card button for the Lead Voice section. 4) We need to substitute a Pan Flute in place of the saxophone - so press the [FLUTE] button on the Lead Voice section and then select PAN FLUTE from the display. 5) Save the setting to Registration Memory Button [1]. Note: Although this isn t the final version of this registration I find it a good idea to save my work regularly - just in case there s a power cut or, being the type of person who s prone to making the odd mistake now and then, I accidentally press a button that resets the instrument. It has been known! I ll keep upgrading the setting throughout the exercise, so don t be surprised to see an instruction telling you to save to the same Registration Memory button again. 6) Press PAN FLUTE again to go to the CONDITION page... 7) Increase the BRILLIANCE level to maximum. This will bring out the breathy quality of the Pan Flute. Play the sound and listen... If you find the sound too harsh, reduce the level again to a setting that is comfortable to your ear. 8) Now increase the VOLUME level to maximum. The Pan Flute will be the solo voice for the melody - so it will need to sing out above the accompaniment. You can always reduce the volume again later if you prefer - but for now it s best set at full strength. Note: There is a Volume regulator on the panel - adjacent to each voice section, and the control in the CONDITION page simply mirrors this. There is a difference, however, as the control in the display allows you to fine-tune the volume through 24 stages - although, by setting the level to maximum, we haven t availed ourselves of this facility this time. Strangely there is no Brilliance control on the panel of the AR - so, unless you actually access the CONDITION page, you could play an AR series organ for ever without realising that this simple, and very effective, form of voice editing is available to you. 9 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2005

10 In the top right-hand corner of the CONDITION page you ll find two buttons - [CONDITION] and [VIBRATO]. The effect of vibrato on a single note # Vibrato makes the pitch rise above the played note Play and hold a single note b and then fall below it Note: The sound rises and falls steadily. Increasing the DEPTH of the vibrato causes the pitch to deviate further from the true note - illustrated above by the dotted red line. You can use these to toggle between the Condition page we ve been using so far and the Vibrato page where further voice editing can be performed. When you select the [VIBRATO] button this screen is displayed... 4) Now, leaving the Depth at maximum, increase the Speed to 7 (maximum) too. As you increase the Speed the rise and fall becomes more rapid The variation in pitch is still governed by the DEPTH control Play and hold a single note 5) Play another sustained note - and listen to the effect... If you don t see quite the same view - switch from PRESET to USER vibrato as illustrated above. User Vibrato Note: Vibrato is an undulating pitch wobble often heard in musical instruments and in human voices when a note is sustained. Players and singers often cultivate their vibrato as it produces a warm and pleasing effect on the sound. Every voice on the AR is provided with a preset natural vibrato or, where appropriate, no vibrato at all. This means that you don t have to know about setting vibrato parameters, because it is done for you. Sometimes, however, it s nice to over-ride the preset setting and create your own vibrato specifically for a particular sound. Let s just explore the page for a moment before we move on. 1) Check USER vibrato is selected. 2) Set the values of DELAY, DEPTH and SPEED to 0. Play a long note on the upper keyboard and listen to the sound. You should hear the Pan Flute with no vibrato at all. 3) Now increase the Depth to 7 (maximum). Again, play a long note - C for example - and listen... Note: As you can see from the illustration above, whilst the pitch still fluctuates according to the amount set in the DEPTH column, raising the SPEED level causes the pitch to rise and fall more rapidly. 6) Next, leaving the Depth and Speed at maximum, increase the Delay to 7 (maximum) As the Delay level is increased the note s original pitch is held longer - before the vibrato takes effect. Note: Most instrument and human voice vibratos have an element of delay before the vibrato begins. This helps establish the true pitch of the note in the ear of the listener. There is another way to control the vibrato - and that is to use the Touch Vibrato facility provided in the fifth column of the display. Switch Touch on and play a single note gently on the keyboard. You should hear little, or no, vibrato. Now, whilst holding the note, press harder - using the instrument s after-touch to trigger the vibrato. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

11 11AR series organ workshop Now let s get sensible... Okay - so we ve found out quite a lot about the User Vibrato function. Now let s put all that we ve learned into practice with some real - and not so wild - user vibrato settings. 1) Switch off the TOUCH VIBRATO again and set the following levels: Delay = 3 ; Depth = 7 ; Speed = 1 2) Save the updated registration to Registration Memory button [1] - over-writing the setting we placed there earlier. Reverb Menu 1) Press the [REVERB] control on the panel. When you do this a small REVERB MENU box will appear in the display. It doesn t stay there very long - and people often play the AR for years, completely unaware that this menu exists. 2) If you re quick you can press the button adjacent to the REVERB MENU box to access the Reverb Menu (right). Note: The DEPTH control mirrors the Reverb level control on the AR s panel - but with fine adjustment over 24 stages. The LENGTH regulator controls the time the reverb (echo) takes to die away. Try playing a series of staccato (short) notes and varying the LENGTH between each one (0 = min ; 6 = max). Effectively this control provides you with 6 different ROOM sizes, 6 HALL sizes and 6 CHURCH sizes. 3) Select the CHURCH mode (Depth = 4 ) for a haunting Pan Flute sound with plenty of echo. 4) Next, select the [VOICE GROUP] button from the top right-hand corner of the display. Now the display shows you the individual reverb levels for each voice section. 5) Reduce the reverb levels of the UPPER and LOWER voice sections to about half. This will help compensate for the huge CHURCH reverb which could otherwise swamp the whole sound. Notice that I set the Pedal section reverb to 0 to give me a nice clear bass sound. Note: Hopefully you will have created a sound where the Pan Flute sings out with a bright clear sound - as though playing in the mountains. You can add CUSTOM A.B.C and MEMORY for a smooth backing if you like. 6) Save (again) to Registration Memory button [1] Effects That s it for now. You may be wondering why I didn t touch on the EFFECT column of the CONDITION page whilst we were exploring this section. I shall return to this later as I look at all the weapons in the AR s EFFECTS armoury in little more detail. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER ,000 Lessons To o Give Away FREE! Welcome to the Yamaha / Classic FM 5,000 Lesson Giveaway! Yamaha Music Schools and Classic FM have joined forces to support Arts & Kids' week to get children excited about music by offering anyone aged 16 years or under the opportunity to try a musical instrument, absolutely free. To book your free lesson simply log on to the Classic FM website and select the link to Arts and Kids. Follow the on screen instructions to find your nearest school - print out your free lesson voucher and telephone the Yamaha school to arrange the free lesson. Happy music making from Classic FM and the Yamaha team! Terms and Conditions Offer only open to students aged 16 years or under Offer only available to visitors of the Classic FM website All free lessons must be booked in advance All free lessons are for a maximum of 30 minutes There will be a maximum of 10 people in each lesson Not all YMS locations offer every course Free Lesson Voucher valid until 31st March 2006 Voucher has no equivalent cash value Offer not open to existing Yamaha Music School students Participant does not require an instrument as all equipment is provided at the school

12 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 5 electone workshop At the end of part four I promised that we d return to the subject of EFFECTS. I didn t include it earlier because, although the EFFECT level control is located in the AR s voice CONDITION display, together with the TOUCH, FEET, PAN, BRILLIANCE and VOLUME regulators, its operation is a little more involved and will take us away from the CONDITION page itself. If you ve just joined us and are wondering which language I m speaking it might be a good idea to look back through the series in order to find out what the CONDITION page is and how we get to it. Then join us again as we head off into the AR s Effects section. Effects Adding effects is not difficult, and nor is there necessarily a right and wrong way of doing things, but it is one of those areas where a little experience can be useful (and time saving). Because much can be learned by simple trial and error - it follows that those who have experimented longest with different effects will have a clearer idea of what they are ultimately looking for in the tonal result. Fortunately, when using a modern instrument you don t actually need to know anything at all about the workings of the effects section because, as in so many other areas, the AR does it all for you. An appropriate effect is preset for every voice - or set to off where no effect is required. fig. 1 Although sustain, brilliance, reverb and vibrato are all effects too - these are not actually included in the EFFECT column of the CONDITION display. I guess one reason for this might be that the four effect types which are included here are more likely to be used in their preset state - whereas players tend to alter familiar controls such as reverb and sustain quite freely. Another possible reason is that, whilst you can use vibrato and sustain and reverb together, you cannot use more than one of the four effects listed below with a voice at any one time. Anyway... the four effects in this column are: 1. Trem. (Tremolo or tremulant): Commonly used with organ voices to recreate the swirling effect of a rotary speaker for electronic organ sounds or undulating tremulant for theatre organ. 2. Symph. (Symphonic/Chorus): Creates a pulsing effect between the right and left speakers. In the early days (before sampling) the Symphonic effect was used to sweeten string sounds. Now you re more likely to find it adding a Chorus effect to electric piano voices. 3. Delay: Produces an echo effect. You can regulate the length of the delay between the strike of the note and the sound of the echo. You can also determine the number of echoes that will follow a note. 4. Flange. (Flanger): Flanger effect pedals are commonly used with electric guitars and will normally be used in modern music. I didn t really know how to describe the effect which is a sort of cross between a rotary speaker and a chorus/phase effect - so here is the dictionary s definition. An electronic device which alters a sound signal by introducing a cyclically varying phase shift into one of two identical copies of the signal and recombining them. There you are then... Of course, if you re like me you won t be happy until you ve discovered for yourself how these affect different voices so I expect you ll want to spend some time experimenting. Don t worry, the preset effect is always there to fall back on so you can t go too far wrong. Let s take a look then Press the [PIANO] button on the panel of the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 1 2. Select GRAND PIANO from the display. 3. Press the [PIANO] button again to go to the voice CONDITION display page which should look like the illustration at fig.1 (opposite). As you see, PRESET 12 DECEMBER 2005 / JANUARY 2006

13 is highlighted at the top of the EFFECT list and OFF is selected as the current effect status. This tells us that the natural sound of a piano requires no additional effects. 4. Now press the [PIANO] button again on the panel of UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 1 5. This time select ELEC. PIANO from the display. 6. Press the [PIANO] button again to go to the CONDITION page where you should see SYMPH. (Symphonic) Before we continue I d like to set a common starting point so... switch OFF the organ. When you switch it back ON again you should (as long as you don t press any buttons) have an organ sound on the top keyboard. This setting will serve as the starting point for the next experiment. Using effects to create a new sound... It s time we revisited the ENSEMBLE buttons we explored earlier in the series. 1 Switch OFF the [UPPER ORGAN] and [LOWER ORGAN] Ensemble buttons. fig. 2 selected as the preset effect. You can select whichever effect you want from the list - overriding the preset (default) setting. Listen to the way each effect changes the sound - tremolo, delay and flanger. You ll see that the PAN display disappears whenever one of the effects is selected. This is because each effect relies on interplay between the speakers on either side of the instrument. 1. Switch the effect OFF. Now use the PAN controls to move the sound right across to one side of the instrument s stereo spectrum. 2. Listen - then move it all the way to the other side. You can hear the difference but, without the SYMPH. effect, the Electric Piano sounds dull and lifeless. 3. Now select the SYMPH. effect again. The sound springs back to life and, if you hold a chord and listen carefully, you ll hear it cross back and forth between the speakers. We can edit the effect further - and this is where we leave the Condition display. 1. Press the [EFFECT SET] button on the panel - just to the right of the screen. You ll see this display... fig You can switch between Symphonic and Celeste effects in the SYMPHONIC column. Hold a chord and listen to the difference between the two. The SYMPHONIC effect creates quite a fast pulse whilst the CELESTE effect is noticeably slower. Now let s use the EFFECT page to create a new voice. It isn t actually a new voice - but you can change a sound quite dramatically by adding or changing an effect. fig Switch ON the [UPPER VOICE 1] Ensemble button 3. Next, select the [ORGAN] button from the panel of the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 1 section. 4. Select STOP FLUTE from the display. This is a rather breathy pipe organ flute sound. Usually you d use a voice such as this for a quiet church interlude or prelude. I really like this breathy quality which I m hoping will lend itself to a super theatre organ sound. 5. Press the [ORGAN] button again to go to the CONDITION display page and select TREM. from the EFFECT list (see fig. 1). You ll probably hear a vague tremolo effect if you hold a chord on the upper keyboard. 6. Now press the [EFFECT SET] button (to the right of the screen). 7. Select THEATRE TREM. 1 in the TREMOLO column. Now you should hear a noticeable theatre organ tremolo when you play on the upper keyboard. That s it really. I set the THEATRE MIX sound (from the organ section of the LOWER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 1) and balanced the two before saving to Registration Memory button [1]. The Theatre Mix has a slightly hard edge which contrasts nicely with the very mellow flute voice we ve created for the upper keyboard. If you want to go further and make a second registration you could - starting with what we already have - add THEATRE MIX to the UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 2. Set the FEET (pitch) to 4 (see fig.1) and keep the volume quite low in comparison to the Flute sound we created for UPPER KEYBOARD VOICE SECTION 1. Oh... I used a gentle 16 ORGAN BASS sound for the pedals. These settings are ideal for any number of gentle tunes. Think of A Nightingale Sang, All The Things You Are, or White Christmas and you ll get the idea. Have a good holiday. I ll be back next year with more ideas for you to try on your Yamaha AR Electone organ. DECEMBER 2005 / JANUARY

14 AR series organ workshop AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 6 Before we move onto other another section of the AR organ I thought I d share a little known secret of the instrument with you. I imagine that you will have either an AR80 or an AR100 (although I bet that if I made a search of the Yamaha Club database I d find someone who owns both). It is widely believed that the AR100 has more sounds than the AR80 - and this is true, but did you know that an AR80 owner, providing he has access to an AR100, can import the extra sounds into the smaller instrument? How is this achieved? Well... I ll show you, but first let s identify which voices are extra on the AR100. There are 23 voice sections on each AR model (not counting the User Voice section) and most sections have several voices that only appear on the AR100. The following list charts each voice section and the AR100 s extra voices. AR100 Extra Voices Strings Synth Strings 2 ; Synth String 3 Violin Pizzicato Violin ; Synth Violin Contrabass Bass Solo Brass Synth Brass 2 ; Synth Brass 3 Horn Horn ; Muted Horn Trumpet All AR100 voices present on AR80 Tuba All AR100 voices present on AR80 Flute Solo Flute ; Ocarina Oboe English Horn ; Orchestral Bassoon Clarinet Synth Clarinet ; Square Lead 1 ; Square Lead 2 Vibraphone Music Box ; Kalimba Guitar Overdrive Guitar ; Distortion Guitar Banjo Lute ; Shamisen ; Taishokoto Electric Bass Slap Bass 2 ; Synth Bass 1 ; Synth Bass 2 Cosmic New Age Pad 1 ; Warm Pad ; Cosmic Pad ; Waspy Synth ; Sci-Fi ; Soundtrack ; Seashore (effect); Bird Tweet (effect) ; Applause (effect) Saxophone Saw Lead 1 ; Saw Lead 2 Tutti Octave Strings ; String & Piano ; String & Harpsichord ; String & Bell ; String & Horn ; Orchestra Hit Chorus Synth Chorus 1 ; Synth Chorus 2 ; Synth Chorus 3 Harmonica All AR100 voices present on AR80 Organ Chapel Organ Accordion All AR100 voices present on AR80 Organ Bass Toccata ; 32 Mix Piano Grand Harpsichord ; Clavichord ; Dulcimer ; DX Electric Piano ; Piano & Electric Piano ; Synth Clavi 14 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2006

15 Transferring voices from AR100 to AR80 1. Saving a voice as a USER VOICE a) On an AR100, select the first voice you want to transfer from the AR100 to the AR80 (e.g. MUSIC BOX - a lovely sound housed within the [VIBRAPHONE] voice category.) It s a good idea to test the sound on the keyboard to ensure you ve got the right one. b) Select the same voice button again as you press and hold the [VOICE EDIT] button - which is located on the panel to the right of the display. This loads the voice into the AR s voice editor. You can use the tools provided here to change the sound if you wish. For the purpose of this exercise, however, I want the voice to remain unchanged. c) Select the SAVE page from the display d) Save the voice to one of the sixteen USER VOICE places by pressing one of the buttons numbered 1 to 16. When the screen offers the prompt Save to USER? Are you sure? press [OK]. e) Exit the Voice Editor by pressing the [VOICE EDIT] button again. Repeat this procedure as many times as you want (up to 16 maximum) saving a voice to a new USER VOICE location each time. Up to sixteen voices can be saved at any one time. 2. Saving USER VOICES to a floppy disk The content of the sixteen USER VOICES are automatically saved to a floppy disk as part of the bulk data that is saved during a normal registration save. What is Bulk Data? Whilst planning a performance you will probably have created some registrations. You may also have set up a Registration sequence, some User rhythm/style patterns, Keyboard Percussion assignments - or User Voices. This is Bulk Data and it consists of all the information the instrument needs (other than Registration Memory data) to set up the instrument ready for your performance. a) Insert a floppy disk into the drive. b) Select a SONG number (1-40). c) As you press and hold the [REC] button on the disk drive unit, press the red [M] button adjacent to the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons. A series of small dashes move across the disk drive s LED display as the data is transferred from the organ to the disk. Any registrations stored in the REGISTRATION MEMORY will be saved to the disk along with the data for the 16 USER VOICES and other bulk data. 3. Loading the USER VOICES into AR80 Once the data is saved to the disk it can be loaded into the AR80. You ve probably loaded disks into your AR a thousand times by now but, just in case you haven t, here s the procedure... a) Insert the disk containing the new USER VOICE data in the AR80 s floppy disk drive. b) Call up the appropriate SONG number (1-40) where the data is stored. c) Press the [PLAY] button on the disk drive unit. The bulk data will be transferred to the AR80 s sixteen USER VOICE locations. Caution: Even if you didn t save any REGISTRATION MEMORY settings on the AR100 the default contents of the instrument s REGISTRATION MEMORY will be transferred to the AR80 - erasing any settings that are already there. Unfortunately it isn t possible to load only the USER data so you should save any REGISTRATION MEMORY settings you don t want to lose to a separate disk before loading the new data. 4. Using the new USER VOICES in AR80 When the AR100 s USER VOICE data is safely imported into the AR80 you can begin to play the new sounds in your performances - and use them to create new REGISTRATION MEMORY settings. a) Decide which voice section you want to use to play the new voice. Like any other voice on the AR, a USER VOICE can be assigned to any upper, lower or pedal voice section. b) Press the dotted button of the voice section where you have chosen to assign the USER VOICE. (fig.1) c) This will call up a voice library from fig. 1 which you can call up any voice category in the AR using the buttons around the screen. fig. 2 FEBRUARY / MARCH

16 16AR series organ workshop d) Move from one page to another using the [PAGE] buttons (circled in fig.2). Every page will eventually be displayed - including the USER VOICE page. fig. 3 e) Once the USER VOICE page is displayed you can select and use any of the sixteen voices in the same way as you would any other voice. f) If you use a USER VOICE as part of a new registration it will be stored with the registration when saved to disk. Some drawbacks of the system: If you load another disk, the USER VOICE data in the organ will be erased and over-written by whatever data is on the new disk. You will need to re-load the disk with your AR100 USER VOICES again to restore the data. You cannot load the disk containing the AR100 USER VOICE data without over-writing the contents of the Registration Memory buttons. This means that you cannot add USER VOICE data that is not already stored in the instrument to existing registration settings. Isn t it just a gimmick? On balance I d have to say no, it isn t a gimmick. The AR100 has some really good sounds and I ve found the pad sounds in particular very useful in my own registrations. I m sure the ability to move sounds from the AR100 to the AR80 was just a happy accident and not originally a design feature of the product. Unfortunately the drawbacks outlined above prevent this from being really useful - but if you find a few USER VOICES you particularly like and use them as the foundation for a new set of registrations then I think you ll be happy to put up with the limitations. See you next time - Glyn FEBRUARY / MARCH 2006 When the AR was new I embarked on a software series that eventually ran to some 30 disks of registrations and artist performances. Within this series is The Showtime Collection - three registration disks devoted to music from popular shows and films. Each disk in the series contains 32 registration settings (including some User Voices) for a selection of popular show-tunes. Each registration is provided in Normal Play mode but is also configured for use with Fingered Chord and Custom A.B.C. automatic accompaniment modes. Song titles are suggested for each registration set but the settings themselves can be used for many other similar titles. Showtime Volume 1 Catalogue ref: ycs-012 Price: 9.99 (inc. p/p) Contains registration settings and style upgrades for music from the following shows... West Side Story ; The Sound Of Music ; Les Miserables ; Godspell ; Jesus Christ Superstar ; Fiddler On The Roof ; Oliver ; Hans Christian Anderson Showtime Volume 2 Catalogue ref: ycs-013 Price: 9.99 (inc. p/p) Contains registration settings and style upgrades for music from these Andrew Lloyd Webber productions... Cats ; Phantom Of The Opera ; Sunset Boulevard ; Jesus Christ Superstar ; Aspects Of Love ; Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat ; Evita * This disk includes a bonus performance track by Glyn Madden Showtime Volume 3 Catalogue ref: ycs-014 Price: 9.99 (inc. p/p) Contains registration settings and style upgrades for music from these musicals by Rodgers & Hammerstein... The Sound Of Music ; South Pacific ; The King And I ; Oklahoma ; Carousel * This disk includes a bonus performance track by Glyn Madden

17 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 7 The STYLE section Another, very important part of the AR is it s STYLE section. Essentially it is exactly the same as that of a portable keyboard or Clavinova - so I tend to take this part of the instrument for granted and, therefore, I m usually surprised when I receive a request for help with its operation. The style section is, of course, what used to be called the rhythm unit on earlier electronic organs and is still regarded as such by many home organ players... just another case of changing terminology leaving a trail of confusion in its wake. So... what s the difference between a rhythm and a style. Both imply the use of drums (rhythm) but, in the case of a style, this is only a small part of the overall picture. A style is a complete musical background that incorporates the following elements: Rhythm The drum part. Essentially this is what we used to get from the old rhythm unit Bass The bass notes (you won t need to play the pedals). The bass often features more complicated patterns than it would be possible to play on the pedals. Pad Sustained chord notes - usually a warm foundation sound such as strings - that is used to cushion the other instrumental parts of the style. Chord Chord notes. Often this takes the form of a strummed guitar part or as syncopated brass stabs Phrase Extra sounds or, if you like, musical frills. The style is triggered from each chord you play on the lower keyboard and is usually a sequenced pattern of between two and sixteen bars duration. The pattern loops round and around changing pitch according to the chord played. S. Finger Single Finger Chord. Basically the idea is that you play a single note on the lower keyboard for each chord you need. So, you d play the note C for a C chord, an F for an F chord etc. which is okay until you realise that there are many different types of chord - major, minor, diminished, augmented etc. Then the system fails. Originally, back in the 1970s - and before portable keyboards (without bass pedals) were invented - the idea was that you played the root note of the chord - e.g. C for a C major chord - on the keyboard. If, however, you wanted a C minor chord you played the same note ( C ) on the keyboard but pressed a foot piston to change the chord to minor. Similarly another foot piston provided the 7th chord. Over time the pistons disappeared in favour of using the organs pedals - a black pedal note transformed the chord into a minor whilst a white (well, brown actually) pedal note provided the 7th. Pressing both together gave... a minor 7th. Wonderful! When, in the 1980s pedals were banished from the newly arrived portable keyboards Yamaha found itself in a dilemma with this system and a new method was quickly sought. Now, in the Single Finger Chord system, a C major chord could still be produced from a single note C - but to make the minor chord it was decided that any black note to the left of the C could be used (instead of the black pedal formerly employed). A C7th chord required the note C to be played - together with any white note to its left. All of a sudden the Single Finger system was single fingered no more and, although it still continues to be popular with many home players, for me the system is void because it teaches you a method of producing chords that you cannot use on any other instrument. A history of automatics in the organ tradition... If you ve previously owned a Yamaha organ you ll probably be aware of three buttons labelled S. Finger / Fingered Chord and Custom A.B.C. These features have been provided since the 1970s for the benefit of those who either (a) don t play the pedals at all or (b) do play pedals but need a bit of help along the way. C major Single C note true single finger C minor C - plus any black note to the left of it C7 C - plus any white note to the left of it APRIL / MAY

18 AR series organ workshop Fingered Chord Today the Fingered Chord mode is probably the most popular method of playing keyboard. The idea is that you, the organist, play full chords (using three notes or more) just as you would in a normal pedalled performance... but without the pedals. The instrument then works out from the chord notes an appropriate bass line and plays this automatically. There s no doubt that when it was first introduced it was seen as the lazy way for home organists to avoid playing the pedals yet still produce an acceptable sound. And acceptable was about as good a description as it probably deserved because the bass lines were decidedly well... basic! However, despite this humble beginning the feature caught on with the buying public to such an extent that manufacturers started to develop instruments without pedals... Unthinkable. Soon portable keyboard production was in full swing (and outselling the organ by miles) and the designers began to turn their attention towards the autoaccompaniment in a big way. The rest, as they say, is history - and home organs have been all but wiped off the musical map. But there is some good news in all this for organists because the technology spilled over into instruments such as the AR100 and AR80 providing it, at the time it was introduced, with an auto-accompaniment section that was comparable in every way with the equivalent portable keyboard - the PSR7000. With this instrument home players had the best of both worlds - and organ that could be played in the traditional way (with pedals) and also as an upto-the-moment keyboard using all the automatic styles and Single/Fingered chord modes on offer. What about features such as the Ai mode we read so much about? Naturally, the more advanced players among us like to use interesting (and sometimes complex) chord shapes and on-bass chords. You ll see these chords written as, for example, C/Bb (where a C major chord is played on top of a Bb bass) in many popular music books... This is easy enough to achieve if your instrument has pedals but, because portable keyboards don t have pedals at all, the designers have had to try to come up with ways by which specific fingerings of chords on the keyboard will be interpreted by the instrument as on bass. Ai isn t needed on the organ because you can mix automatic and normal playing techniques in a feature called... Custom A.B.C. As a traditional organist (I play pedals) the Custom A.B.C. mode is my preferred method of using the automatics. So... how does it work? Custom A.B.C. uses the same principal as the Fingered Chord mode - in that you play full chords with your left hand. The difference is that the automatic bass line is dictated by the notes you play on the pedals rather than from the left hand chord. You might get the idea that, if you re going to play the pedals anyway you d be as well playing without any automatics at all but there are a couple of major benefits to this system. (1) When you use Custom A.B.C the bass sound is drawn from the style - not from the pedal voice sections. This means that the bass sound will always be in keeping with the style. (2) Even though you might play a very simple bass line (holding down, for example, just one pedal note) the automatics will take over to strum your bass into the pattern of the style - using the notes you trigger from the pedals. Here s an example of how you d play a C/Bb chord using Custom A.B.C. 1 2 Play a C major chord This would be a normal organist s way of playing the chord of C major In Fingered Chord mode the instrument will automatically select the appropriate bass notes and rhythmic bass pattern to match the style used (e.g. 8Beat) and chord notes played. Because a C major chord is made up of of the notes C, E, and G... the automatic feature will use these same notes to create the bass pattern (e.g. alternating C and G as in the illustration above). When Custom A.B.C. is used the bass part s rhythmic pattern is still determined by the style, but the player can dictate the bass note by playing the appropriate pedal (e.g. Bb as in the illustration below). 3 In Custom A.B.C. mode the player can dictate the bass note to create on-bass chords such as C/Bb by playing the appropriate pedal 18 APRIL / MAY 2006

19 A couple of useful tips when playing with automatics... Growling voices on the lower keyboard A frequent complaint from amateur players is that the lower keyboard voices growl. The answer, whilst obvious to a more experienced performer, may not be quite so straight-forward to a novice. You re playing your left-hand chords too near the bottom of the lower keyboard... that s all. Your right hand should be within this area (more-or-less) most of the time during performance. C 2 C 3 C 4 C 5 C 6 C 1 C 2 C 3 C 4 C 5 Your left hand should be within this area (more-or-less) most of the time during performance. Try this... 1) Select Rhumba Combo from the menu s BALLROOM LATIN category. (Rumba is spelled incorrectly with an h throughout the AR organ). 2) Select the [MAIN A] section together with the [FINGERED CHORD] and [MEMORY] buttons. 3) Press [SYNCHRO START] and play a C major chord. The auto-accompaniment style should begin to play. 4) Using the controls adjacent to the rhythm buttons turn the Rhythm and Bass/Chord volumes to 0 (min). 5) Now you can hear the sound of the lower keyboard voices in isolation. (You should be able to hear the Lower 1 voice section (strings) and the the Lower Organ voice section (organ). You won t be able to hear the Lower 2 voice (piano) because this is set above the split point. 6) If you play the C major chord in the bottom octave (between C1 and C2) the sound will be very deep and growly. 7) Now play the same chord in the octave above (between C2 and C3). Now the sound should be fine. 8) Next, switch off the Ensemble buttons for [LOWER VOICE 1] and [LOWER ORGAN] - then return the volumes of the Rhythm and Bass/Chord to normal (see step 4). 9) Now you can play the accompaniment chords anywhere on the lower keyboard (up to the split point) with no change - and no growl. It s interesting to note that the automatic style sounds just the same whether played in the lowest octave - between C1 and C2 - or in the next octave between C2 and C3. There is no change in pitch even though you have moved higher up the keyboard. This is typical of auto-accompaniment styles whether played on an organ such as the AR, a keyboard such as Tyros or a Clavinova digital piano. The growl problem arises because, unlike Tyros and other single keyboard instruments, the AR includes left hand voices as part of its preset registrations. If, therefore, you play the left hand chords too low down the keyboard there will be an underlying growl from these parts even though the style itself sounds okay. The preset registrations on keyboards and Clavinovas (called One Touch Settings) provide a style accompaniment only - with no left hand voice included in the mix. So... because styles sound the same in any octave, it doesn t matter where on the keyboard the left hand chords are played. Using Intros and Endings... Another regular concern to AR users is that the Intro s and Endings often seem to send the organ out of pitch. Experience has shown that, in the majority of cases, this is caused because having pressed the [INTRO] button and played an initial chord the player then goes on to change chord whilst the Intro is playing. You should NEVER do this. Use an initial chord to set the key for the intro - then let the Intro pattern completely finish before playing another chord. (These may be several bars long - so a countdown is provided in the Bar/Beat display). Intro and Ending patterns have chord sequences already built into them so additional chords from you are not required. APRIL / MAY

20 ar series organ workshop The STYLE section (continued) I spent some time in part 7 talking about the various automatic fingering modes available from within the AR organ and explaining the difference between Single Finger, Fingered and Custom A.B.C. methods of playing. During the couple of weeks following the publication of that article I received several phone calls and s from members - mainly on the subject of Custom A.B.C. which, I was surprised to learn, seems to have been completely overlooked by AR (and, I assume, EL) organ owners. As those who contacted me have found, this is a great way of playing and makes full use of the automatic accompaniment system whilst giving you the opportunity to employ a basic bass pedal technique as well. I m glad you found it useful and hope others will give the Custom A.B.C. method a try too. Style programming is always a popular topic - and is regularly the subject of letters and phone calls. However, although the actual button pressing involved in creating a new style is quite straight-forward, you do need some experience of the way rhythm instruments interact to create new drum patterns and a reasonable understanding of the way in which the basic chord notes you enter into the pattern will transpose within a style is helpful. In the majority of cases, when I probe a little deeper into why a new style is required, I hear that there s too much going on in the current style, or the style is too loud for my right hand, or the bass sound is all wrong. In each case (and there are many more similar) it s evident that instruction in style programming is far from what s needed and would probably cause even more confusion. A far easier and, in my opinion, far more valuable tutorial covers the relatively accessible area of adapting the on-board style to suit your own personal taste. Some of this makes use of the instrument s ACCOMPANIMENT PROGRAMMER feature but doesn t require you to create a new style from scratch. Let s begin, though, with some simple changes. When I left you at the end of part 7 we d been using a Rumba style. Let s return to the same point and then take it from there... AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 8 As we finished the [LATIN] button was illuminated on the rhythm panel. Press it again to reveal the [ACCOMP PART] buttons. You may recall I mentioned the various elements that make up each style at the very beginning of part 7. You can see that the screen now displays these parts - Rhythm (1 & 2) ; Bass ; Chord (1 & 2) ; Pad ; Phrase (1 & 2). Eight elements in total. I ve already described what each part does - now let s see what they do in this specific rumba style... 1) First, start the rhythm and play a chord on the lower keyboard so that you can hear the full style. 2) Use the [ACCOMP PART] buttons under the display to switch off all the style parts. 3) Next, with the style still running... Switch on each accompaniment part in turn. Rhythm 1 Basic drums (bass / snare / crash / hi-hat) Rhythm 2 Extra drums (bongos / congas etc.) Bass The style bass part. Pad Nothing. Chord 1 Broken chord strum (piano) Chord 2 Strum chords (jazz guitar) Phrase 1 Nothing Phrase 2 Nothing It isn t unusual to find that some style parts are left unused, particularly in the MAIN A section of the pattern. You will often find that these parts are used in the MAIN B section and nearly always in the INTRO and ENDING patterns. 4) Try using different permutations (eg. Rhythm 2 ; Bass ; Chord 2) to vary the pattern. When you ve 20 JUNE / JULY 2006

21 tried both the MAIN A and MAIN B sections of the Rumba style use the same method to temporarily edit other styles. You can, for example, get more dramatic results using some of the big band styles. This is what you do... 1) Select the style you want to edit (using the buttons of the STYLE section on the AR s left-hand panel and the display. Tip: It s an idea to play the style to check that you have selected the correct one. 2) Press and hold the [ACCOMP. PROGRAM] button. 3) Select the STYLE button again. Sorry if this is a bit obvious - but don t forget that, if the style is too loud in comparison with the right hand melody voice you can adjust the style volume using the volume controls provided for [RHYTHM] and [BASS/CHORD]. The controls you see in the illustration above are simply duplicated from those featured on the panel next to the style section. Tip: It is a strange quirk of the AR (both models) that, as you reduce the volume using the expression pedal, the volume of the keyboard voices (upper and lower) diminishes faster than that of the auto-accompaniment section. As home players often tend to play quietly - using the expression pedal to control the volume - this imbalance often leads to the melody voices being drowned out by the accompaniment. The solution is to reduce the master volume control (top right-hand corner) to a level where you can play with the expression pedal open to about 75% of its range. Introducing the Accompaniment Program This isn t the first place I d urge you to explore if you ve just taken delivery of a new AR organ but, once you ve familiarised yourself with all the main panel buttons, presets, styles and other features, there are some useful (and not difficult) things you can achieve within the instrument s Accompaniment Program function. You can use the Accompaniment Program to create an accompaniment style from scratch or to edit an existing style. For most of us editing offers the greater benefit because it s easy and there is no actual note programming involved. You can use the Accompaniment Program to make simple edits to the following accompaniment style features... Voice Change the instrument sounds used in the rhythm, bass, chord, pad and phrase parts of the style. Volume Adjust the volume levels for each individual part of the style. Reverb Chorus Pan Add or adjust the level of reverb for each individual part of the style. Add or adjust the level of the chorus effect for each individual part of the style. Set the position of each individual voice to sound from the left, centre or right of the instrument s speaker system. You should see a display like this. It shows you the basic specification of the style you have selected i.e. the time signature, the section you are currently editing and the number of measures (bars) in the selected section. 4) As we re using an existing style - and aren t actually recording anything new - we ll leave these settings alone and concentrate instead on the five sections listed on the left side of the screen. 5) Select the [VOLUME] button to call up this display... 6) Here you can adjust the volume settings for each part of the style. You will be only be adjusting the volumes of the parts in the section selected in the BASIC display above. You will need to return to the BASIC display again to select other sections to edit. 7) When you have edited the volume, you can go on to change the VOICE, REVERB, CHORUS and PAN settings as required. JUNE / JULY

22 8) With all editing complete return to the BASIC page and select INPUT NAME to name the new style before saving. 9) Next select the SAVE page. 10) Then select one of the eight USER locations. You can store up to eight USER styles in the AR - but the actual number depends on the amount of memory available. An indicator showing how much fee memory is available is provided on the left of the SAVE display. 11) At the prompt, select [OK] to save the USER style. Using the USER style you have created. 1) Press one of the dotted panel buttons in the STYLE section. 2) Use the [PAGE] buttons to scroll through to the USER style page. 3) Select the [USER] button containing your edited style. 4) Press the [START] button and play a chord to hear the style. Yamaha launch new DGX series Amongst a raft of new instruments from Yamaha this year comes the new DGX series. Replacing the successful DGX205, 305 and 505, these new products look set to be winners! DGX220 The DGX220 features a 76-note box style keyboard, 489 AWM voices, 150 styles and much more. The popular Music Database feature makes a welcome reappearance, whilst the 6-track song recorder allows easy recording of up to five user songs. Incredible value at just 299. DGX520 The DGX520 boasts an 88-note box style keyboard, with even more voices to choose from. The large LCD screen makes operation a breeze, whilst USB To Device means that you can store your favourite settings to USB Memory. The DGX520 also comes complete with a furniture-style stand and an FC5 sustain pedal for just 499. DGX620 The DGX620 is the first DGX model ever to feature the GHS Graded Hammer Standard keyboard action. This accurately replicates the touch and response of an acoustic piano. Featuring a selection of voices and styles from much more expensive instruments in the Yamaha range, this really will be one to watch! An amazing instrument in sonic terms - and in value at just 599. JUNE / JULY

23 ar series organ workshop Foot-switches The AR series organs have two Foot-switches, one situated either side of the expression (volume) pedal. If you use the MENU presets you ll find that a footswitch function is often built in to the preset registration - so you don t even need to set it up. But you do need to know it s there in order to use it... You can, of course, create your own registration settings that include footswitch functions, so I ll start this chapter by showing you where to look for the controls. The Left Footswitch Press the [FOOTSWITCH] button on the panel. You will see that four options are displayed in the window - RHYTHM, GLIDE, TREMOLO and OFF. Fig. 1 We ll return to this window later, but for now let s take a look at some of the footswitch functions as they appear in the REGISTRATION MENU presets. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 9 Using the footswitch to control the Tremolo speed... 1 Select the [JAZZ ORGAN] category from the Registration Menu (fig. 2). 2 Next, select BLUE JIMMY (a Jimmy Smith style jazz organ sound) from the display. 3 Now play, and hold, a chord about three-quarters of the way up the top keyboard. (You can play a single note if you prefer but the effect is better with a chord.) 4 As you hold the chord, kick the footswitch to the left of the expression pedal and listen to the tremolo effect from the simulated rotary speaker as it speeds up. Kick the switch again to slow the rotor. 5 Press the [FOOTSWITCH] button again (fig. 1). You ll see that the TREMOLO function has been activated. Note: Using the slow/fast control to animate the sound of organ flutes (drawbars) in this way is very much in keeping with the traditional Hammond drawbar style of playing and can be very effective in bringing the sound to life. Using the footswitch to control the Glide function... Here s another example using a Registration Menu preset... 1 Go back to the Registration Menu and, this time, select the [BIG BAND] category (fig. 5). 2 Select SOLO TRB. (Solo Trombone - a nice setting for I m Getting Sentimental Over You ) 3 Play the first four notes - E, F, A, C... then, a fraction before you strike the top E, kick the footswitch to the left to create a glide effect. Fig. 3 Press footswitch... then release The note will sound a semi-tone lower for as long as the switch is held. Release the switch and the note glides smoothly up to the E you are playing. Fig AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2006

24 4 Press the [FOOTSWITCH] button again (fig.1). You ll see that the GLIDE function has been activated. Fig. 4 2 Select DUKE SAX (The Registration Menu titles often provide clues to both the style of music and the instrumental voice contained in the preset. In this case Duke - as in Ellington - gives you a clue to the style of music to play whilst Sax tells you what instrument you can expect to hear when you press the keys. Take The A -Train is always a favourite.) 3 Play the first part of the tune. Then, as you get to the middle eight section, kick the footswitch to the left. The rhythm will perform a FILL-IN and move from the MAIN A variation to MAIN B. Fig. 6 You can also see that, unlike the illustration in fig. 4, only the LEAD voice is selected to respond to the glide. When setting your own registrations you can decide which of the voice sections you want to assign the GLIDE function to. You can also increase the time it takes (TIME = 0-4 steps) for the note to glide the semitone up to the note you are playing when the footswitch is activated. Note: The glide effect is great for all kinds of sounds. Traditionally it tends to be used with instruments that would, in real life, be blown or bowed... so the trombone featured in our illustration is a prime example. When using glide try to think of instruments whose pitch can be influenced by the player; a guitarist or violinist bending a string, or a sax player changing the air pressure used to sound a note. Instruments to avoid are those, such as piano, harpsichord etc., where the pitch is fixed and cannot be bent by the player during a performance. Having said that, you are using an electronic instrument and are not, therefore, governed by the same rules as those playing acoustic instruments... so give full reign to your imagination and experiment. You may make some dreadful sounds along the way but you could find some wonderful ones too. Using the footswitch to control the Rhythm function... Let s try one more... 1 Go to the Registration Menu and select the [BIG BAND] category again Fig. 5 4 Press the [FOOTSWITCH] button again (fig. 1). You ll see that the RHYTHM function has been activated and that FILL TO B is selected as the required fill-in. (Fig. 6) You can use the footswitch to STOP the rhythm, or activate the ENDING pattern or, as we have just seen, activate one of the FILL patterns. If you kick the footswitch before starting the rhythm the Intro pattern will be triggered when you begin to play. Note: Using the footswitch to activate the rhythm controls can be particularly useful in a busy piece of music where you d like to add rhythm fills but find it difficult to find the time to take your left hand off the keys in order to press the [FILL-IN] button on the panel. If you don t want to use the footswitch at all and you want to prevent it accidentally being triggered, select OFF from the FOOTSWITCH display. Next time in AR Organ Showcase... I feel I ve given you a rather short AR session this time, but I didn t have room to cover both left and right Foot-switches in one issue - so I decided to concentrate on a full description of the LEFT switch this time and continue with a comprehensive guide to the RIGHT switch, including some user footswitch programming, in the next edition... when I ll make up your share of the pages with a special four-page AR section. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER

25 ar series organ workshop Foot-switches Last time I promised you a comprehensive exploration of the RIGHT foot-switch - and here it is... The Right Foot-switch For controlling the Registration Shift / Jump and User programmable functions. Before we begin I want you to create a few registrations to use throughout today s exercise. I m assuming that you have worked your way through the earlier chapters in this series - but if you find references to features you ve not come across before (or don t remember), it may be worth re-reading my previous articles... Preparation: 1 REGISTRATION MENU and select the [JAZZ BAND] category. (Fig. 1) Fig. 1 2 From the display screen select DIXIE BAND. 3 Save this registration in Registration Memory button [5]. (My reason for asking you to start at button 5 will become clear as we continue). 4 In the ACCOMPANIMENT CONTROL section (to the left of the lower keyboard) change the style / rhythm variation to [MAIN A] 5 Save this new registration in Registration Memory button [1] 6 Whilst you are still in the [JAZZ BAND] category select DIXIE SOLOS from the screen. This will provide a trumpet voice for the LEAD VOICE section of the upper keyboard. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 10 7 In the ACCOMPANIMENT CONTROL section (to the left of the lower keyboard) change the style / rhythm variation to [MAIN B] 8 Save this registration setting in Registration Memory button [4] 9 Next, switch off the upper keyboard [LEAD VOICE] button in the ENSEMBLE section and switch on the [UPPER VOICE 1] button in its place. This will call up another suitable solo voice - the trombone - for the upper keyboard. (Fig. 2) Fig Now change the style / rhythm variation back to [MAIN A] 11 Save this setting in Registration Memory button [2] 12 Finally, switch off the [UPPER VOICE 1] button in the ENSEMBLE section and switch on the [UPPER VOICE 2] button in its place. This provides yet another appropriate jazz band solo voice - the clarinet - for the upper keyboard. 13 Save this setting in Registration Memory button [4] Now you have created five Jazz Band registrations. These will be suitable for many tunes - but, because of copyright restrictions, I m falling back on that old chestnut... When The Saints Go Marching In (yet again!) as my illustration. Sorry - I know it s boring - but it s just an exercise and you just have to put a brave face on it! Anyway, you can adapt what you learn to any tune you like afterwards. You ll see now that, although the registrations appeared to have been saved in a random order, the sequence builds as we work through the buttons from Registration Memory [1] to [5]. Button [1] gives quite a full sound to start the piece in fine style but, by using the MAIN A variation in this setting I ve left room to step up a gear later. The registrations in buttons [2] and [3] provide quite light settings for solo players and if you 25 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2006

26 have the ability to improvise you can use these to play around, inventing your own tunes (based on the original chord sequence of course) in true jazz style. When button [4] is selected the rhythm steps up to the MAIN B variation for a brash trumpet solo before the whole band is called up as button [5] is brought into play. Although the arrangement I ve provided is very simple I ve added some alternative chords (and a counter-melody for the last eight bars) to my score of When The Saints Go Marching In for those who are a little more advanced and, hopefully, these will provide some inspiration for your improvisation too. REGISTRATION SHIFT Having created the registrations (and practiced the tune on page 16) you ll be ready to take the next step. 1 Press the [REGIST SHIFT] button to the right of the display. (Fig. 3) Fig. 3 2 Select the [SHIFT] option from the screen. 3 Now kick the foot-switch located on the right side of the expression (volume) pedal. With each kick the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons advance in order etc. 4 So... you can change registrations without taking your hands from the keyboard. This is very useful where the registrations are all set in order - as they are in my illustration. Try it for yourself. I usually select the first registration (button [1]) by hand and then use the kick switch to move along thereafter. Try playing the tune through once using REGISTRATION MEMORY button [1], then kick the switch to call up button [2] as you begin the second verse. Tip: It may take some practice to get the change just right - and you should try to leave a tiny gap (where your hands and feet leave the keys) at the point where you kick in the change. This prevents the unexpected loud noises that sometimes occur when one voice section is substituted for another in a registration change. Repeat the tune over and over kicking in a new registration each time until the big finish when you arrive at button [5]. Tip: There are many things you can do to retain the listener s interest in your performance. Changing registrations regularly (and in a structured way) is an important way of building an arrangement but you may also like to try changing key - using the [TRANSPOSE] buttons to raise the pitch by, for example, a semitone - can also give the impression of stepping up a gear. REGISTRATION JUMP Here s another situation. Like most organists I ve played the Ethel Smith favourite Tico-Tico more times than I care to remember. The tune has a middle section where the player has to change key and call up a new registration at the same time. The registration change in my arrangement is quite complicated because the left hand takes over with a strong counter-melody - so there s quite a lot of buttons to press if I try to do it by hand live. In a situation such as this I set the registration for this section in advance and store it in one of the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons - it doesn t matter which one but, for this illustration, let s choose button [8]. Then I create all the other registrations I need and store them in other REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons. During the performance I ll select these by hand. This means that I can vary the arrangement each time I play it by selecting registration settings that provide different instruments every time I perform the piece. The middle section with the counter-melody, however, remains the same every time and as I approach this section I kick the foot-switch to the right to call up the correct REGISTRATION MEMORY button... button [8]. This is how I set up the foot-switch... 1 Press the [REGIST SHIFT] button to the right of the display. (Fig. 3) 2 This time, select the [JUMP] option from the screen. 3 Enter the number of the REGISTRATION MEMORY button you want to call up - e.g. button [8]. Now, every time I kick the foot-switch to the right, button [8] is called up. This means that I can select any other REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons at random by hand but as soon as the foot-switch is used button [8] (and the countermelody setting) is called up. REGISTRATION USER (Registration sequence program) The beauty of the modern Yamaha Electone is that advanced players can create very complex instrumental arrangements using huge quantities of intricately worked registration changes. In my playing days I devised (long forgotten) arrangements where a registration setting was sometimes used just for a single note before moving to the next. Naturally it would be impossible to perform changes such as this live without the use of features such as REGISTRATION SHIFT. However, the SHIFT function is quite restrictive in that the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons always advance - never reverse - thus preventing you re-visiting a registration setting you ve just used. SHIFT advances the buttons in order by strict numerical rotation when, in a complex arrangement, you may find that after 64 bars (as you re using button 10) you want to call up the setting in button [3] that you used near the beginning of the piece. It s not practical to kick through all the OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

27 ar series organ workshop Traditional 1st time 2nd time When The Saints Go Regist 3 Regist 4 Marching In Regist 1 Regist 5 Arranged by Glyn Madden The score above shows the foot-switch changes for the USER programmable sequence outlined opposite. Use the red changes on your first time through the score - and the blue changes on the second. Although the registration changes are logged in the in the USER sequence program in the order you want them to appear, they are not automatically brought into play at the correct place. You must do this using the right foot-switch. 27 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2006

28 registrations (from 11, through and 16) before coming round again to 1-2 and finally the desired button [3]. Anyway there s no way you could do it in time. REGISTRATION USER comes into its own when you need to perform a complicated arrangement where many registrations are used and repeated throughout the piece - and where the arrangement is one that you will play exactly the same every time. Let s see if I can give you an easy illustration using the Saints Go Marching registrations we created earlier. 1 Press the [REGIST SHIFT] button to the right of the display. 2 Select the [USER] option from the screen. 3 Next, select [EDIT] from the right of the display. The screen shows a series of numbers (1 to 45). (Fig. 4) Each number represents a REGISTRATION MEMORY button change. 3 As I start the tune for the second time I want to call up REGISTRATION MEMORY button [4] - Brash Trumpet - so I select button [4] and press [SET]. A box containing number [4] is displayed at location 3. 4 On the second beat of bar 8 (second time through) I want to change registration to button [5] - Full Band (MAIN B) - so I select button [5] and press [SET]. A box containing the number [5] appears in the screen in location 4. I realise this is a very simple illustration - but I hope it serves to show how a sequence of registration changes can be built up using the USER function. You can set up to 80 registration changes - so your performances can include some very intricate foot-switch. Good luck! Note: If you make a mistake, position the curser at the appropriate location and press [DELETE] to remove the registration change from the sequence. If you later decide you want to add an extra registration change position the curser at the location where you want the change to appear, press the appropriate REGISTRATION MEMORY button and select [INS.]. All the existing shift settings will be advanced to the next location - thus making room for the new registration to be added at the chosen position. When your sequence is complete, press the [l<<] button to return the curser to the top of the program. During performance the curser will advance one place each time you kick the foot-switch to the right until the end of the sequence is reached. Fig. 4 Note: If a previously programmed sequence is displayed press [CLEAR] followed by [OK] at the prompt to initialise the display. Because USER registration sequence data can be imported into your instrument with registrations (obtained from the Internet, from software or from other AR playing contacts) it s not unusual to find a pre-programmed registration sequence that you never knew existed. 1. For my illustration I m using just four of the five registrations I created earlier. I shall start my performance with REGISTRATION MEMORY button [3] - so I select button [3] and press [SET]. A box containing the number [3] appears in the screen in location 1. (Fig. 4) Note: I sometimes select this first registration button by hand. There s no special reason for this... just personal preference. It s probably because the first registration is often called up automatically when the disk containing the completed data is loaded at the start of the performance. If you do this you won t need to enter this first button into the sequence. 2 On the second beat of bar 8 I want to change registration to button [1] - Full Band (MAIN A) - so I select button [1] and press [SET]. A box containing the number [1] appears in the screen in location 2. And finally... Save your registrations to disk. The REGISTRATION SHIFT USER sequence will automatically be saved with the registrations. When the registrations are loaded back into the instrument the sequence will be ready to use - so there s no need to call up the USER screen. Just play the music - and kick the switch in the appropriate place. Extra tips for advanced foot-switch sequencers: 1 If your sequence is very involved it may be a good idea to call up the USER screen during performance. I ve found that it s not unusual for stage nerves to cause me to double kick the foot-switch unintentionally - and having the USER screen in front of me allows me to quickly move the curser back one or two locations by hand if necessary. 2 I find it helpful to set up my kick-switch registration sequence as I m learning the arrangement. By doing this I learn the right-kick pattern in just the same way as I learn the fingering pattern of the notes - and eventually the right-kick becomes part of the overall performance. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

29 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 11 fig.1 Keyboard Percussion Club member Fred Dearlove suggested I write an article based on using and assigning the AR s Keyboard Percussion sounds - so, as it s a subject we ve not covered before, here it is... If you ve ever watched Yamaha artist Max Takano or Howard Beaumont in concert you surely won t fail to have been impressed by the Keyboard Percussion drum solos each inevitably introduce as a highlight of his performance. Well... I m not even going to begin to write down how they do this because the music score I d need to illustrate the notes played would probably take up the entire magazine. I will try, though, to give you a couple of ideas for making use of Keyboard Percussion in your own performances. The Keyboard Percussion section comprises 49 drum sounds that can be played as a live drum kit from the keys of the lower keyboard or pedals (fig.1). When you enter the programmable Keyboard Percussion Assign area, however, a total of 72 percussive sounds are available. Adding a cymbal crash to the end of your performance (the easy way). You re playing for the annual carol concert and coming to the end of the final verse of O Come All Ye Faithful (or similar) and you want a big cymbal crash to crown your grand finale. This is how it s done... 1) As you arrive at the final chord, press the KEYBOARD PERCUSSION [LOWER 1] button. (Fig.2) Each key has a pre-assigned percussion voice. Play a few notes on the lower keyboard and you ll see what I mean. You can alter these by choosing for yourself which sound is assigned to each key - and I ll show you how to do this later but, for now, we ll live with the preset fig.2 setting. 2) The Crash Cymbal is located on the C#3 key of the lower keyboard. So, as you play the last chord give the C# key a short, sharp bash! Note: The trick here is to strike the key hard enough to make the crash cymbal ring out - but keep it short enough to not sound the note (which, at C#, is unlikely to match the key you re playing in). That was easy wasn t it? The problem is that, in order to sound the preset crash cymbal, you have to play a C# which, as you ll have discovered, is unlikely to blend nicely with your final chord. Another way to create the same effect (without clashing the C# against your final chord) is to use the Keyboard Percussion Assign feature. Interested? Read on... DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY

30 ar series organ workshop Adding a cymbal crash to the end of your performance (the musical way). We can use the Keyboard Percussion Assign feature to tie the percussive voices you choose with the notes of the specific chord we ll play to end the performance. 1) Press the KEYBOARD PERCUSSION [LOWER 1] button. (as fig.2) 2) Next, select USER 1 from the screen (fig.3) fig.3 3) The screen changes to provide access to the KEYBOARD PERCUSSION assign section. 4) Press the [ASSIGN] button... Note: This screen is quite similar to those we ve seen previously when one of the dotted voice or style buttons is pressed. This time, however, the voice categories displayed are all percussion groups - Cymbals ; Snare Drums ; Tom Toms ; Bass Drums etc. fig.4 5) Select the CYMBAL / HI-HAT category - if it isn t already displayed. (fig.4) The screen shows several types of cymbal - including Crash, Ride and Hi-Hat. You ll notice that you can t actually select any of these from the screen because although the percussion voice is highlighted when you press the button it reverts to normal as soon as you release the button.. Before we go any further run your fingers over the keys of the lower keyboard, pressing each in turn. It may be that you will hear some pre-assigned drum sounds that may be lurking in the keyboard from a previous assignment. Note: Even if you have never visited this section before it s possible that some Keyboard Percussion assignments will have been imported into the instrument from software you ve used. If you find this to be the case press the [CLEAR] button once and release it. Then, at the prompt Assign all clear. Are you sure? press [OK]. This will delete any previously assigned percussion sounds from the keys. 6) Make a note of how you play the final chord in your performance. For example, if the final chord is G Major the notes will be G,B and D. Note which keye you press with your thumb as this is the strongest and, therefore, the best to use for striking the crash cymbal. In root position this would be the D. (fig.5) fig.5 (G Major chord - root position) 7) As you press and hold the [Crash Cym 1] button, strike the D key. The crash cymbal will sound as it is assigned to the key. fig.6 Press & hold Thumb Select one [Registration Memory] button 8) Store the setting in a Registration Memory button (fig.6). Each time this registration button is pressed during your performance the keyboard percussion assignment will be recalled together with the sound currently in use. Note: Only one set of Keyboard Percussion assignments can be stored in the instrument at one time. This means that each time you create a new set of assignments you must save them to disk as part of the Registration Memory. Saving Registration Memory settings (including one set of Keyboard Percussion Assignments) 1) Insert disk and format it if necessary. 2) Use the [SONG SELECT] buttons to locate an 16 DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY 2007

31 unused song number. 3) As you press and hold the [REC] button on the disk unit press the red [M] button to the far left of the Registration Memory buttons between the keyboard. 4) If the ELECTONE DISK page isn t already displayed on the screen, press the [DISK] button to the right of the display. 5) Select [UTILITY] from the display 6) Use the [SONG SELECT] buttons to highlight the song you have just saved to the disk (e.g. SONG 1). 7) Select [INPUT NAME] and use the letters provided to give your registration a name (e.g. O Come All Ye ). 8) Press [OK] to add the name to the registration data on the disk. Now your registrations and your Keyboard Percussion Assign settings are safe. Something a little more challenging... Although this one is easy to set up it s quite difficult to use properly. It s really one for the organists - and you ll need to be able to play a four in the bar walking bass pattern on the bass pedals in order to use it effectively. First you need a medium tempo swing tune in your mind. Then, instead of using one of the on-board swing rhythms, let s use the Keyboard Percussion. Select a registration for the song. For ease I m using the ready made BLUE JIMMY preset from the [JAZZ ORGAN] category in the Registration Memory. One reason for choosing a setting from the Organ Preset section is that, generally, these presets don t automatically set up an autoaccompaniment pattern as many of the other presets do. As I need you to physically play the bass this saves us the trouble of selecting a registration - and then switching all the auto-accompaniment features off again. Setting Keyboard Percussion Assign voices to the lower keyboard... 1) Press the upper of the two [KEYBOARD PERCUSSION] buttons - marked LOWER 1. 2) Next, select USER 1 from the display 3) Press the [ASSIGN] button... and, select the [SNARE DRUM] category from the display. 4) Run your fingers over the lower keyboard, pressing each in turn and, if you find any percussion sounds left over from a previous assignment, press the [CLEAR] button to delete them. The sounds you assigned to the pedals will not be affected by this. 5) As you press and hold the [Brush Slap] button play every fourth or fifth note. (Don t forget the black notes.) As you do this the Brush Slap is sounded with each note you press. Note: The reason for only programming to every fourth or fifth note is that this will provide a random brush slap sound as you play chords with your left hand. It also prevents the sound doubling up if it is triggered by several notes at once - which doesn t sound nice. To make effective use of the brush slap your left hand chords need to be sharp and syncopated against the rigid four in the bar bass line. As I said at the beginning, this set-up is easy - but playing it is not! Don t forget to store the completed setting in the Registration Memory before leaving the Keyboard Percussion Assign page... then save to disk. Setting Keyboard Percussion Assign voices to the bass pedals... 1) Having selected BLUE JIMMY press the lower of the two [KEYBOARD PERCUSSION] buttons - marked PEDAL 2. 2) Next, select USER 2 from the display 3) The screen changes to provide access to the KEYBOARD PERCUSSION assign section. 4) Press the [ASSIGN] button... 5) Select the [CYMBAL / HI-HAT] category from the display. 6) Press the [CLEAR] button to delete any previously assigned percussion sounds from the pedals. 7) As you press and hold the [Ride Cym 1] button run your foot over the pedals, pressing each in turn. (Don t forget the black notes.) As you do this the Ride Cymbal is sounded with each bass note. As you play a four in the bar bass pattern this light cymbal sound will form the basis of your rhythm pattern. The difficulty is to play the bass with a rock steady beat... Lot s of practice needed. DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY

32 ar series organ workshop Glyn s Brass Band Wherever I go someone asks me about brass bands! This interest stems back to the 1990s when I discovered that the EL90 Electone could produce a very acceptable brass band sound - and it caught on. The AR models can also give an imitation that no selfrespecting Yorkshireman would be ashamed to use although, for an instrument with so many on-board registrations, there aren t as many preset Brass Band settings as I would have liked. The one I did come across though has more potential than I first gave it credit for - as I hope to illustrate today Locate the [SYMPHONY ORCHES.] category in the Registration Menu and select BRASS ENS. from the display. (Fig. 1) Note: I m not using any automatics today - so everything is played using the two keyboards and bass pedals. BRASS ENS. provides a multi-purpose brass ensemble setting with a mix of bright brass groupings on the upper keyboard (topped off with the essential Cornet lead voice) and a slightly mellower selection of brass voices for the lower. This setting is ideal for the sort of music you might hear as the opening fanfare to a march or overture. 2. Store this registration just as it is in Registration Memory Button [1]. Press & hold Select Registration Memory Button [1] Now let s create some soloists. Fig. 2 Fig. 1 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 12 Solo cornet with mellow accompaniment... Upper keyboard: 1. In the ENSEMBLE section switch off the [UPPER VOICE 1] and [UPPER VOICE 2] buttons - leaving just the [LEAD VOICE] button switched on. (Fig. 3) Fig. 3 Note: If you now press the [TRUMPET] button in the LEAD VOICE section on the panel you will see from the display that CORNET is the currently selected voice - and if you play a few notes on the upper keyboard you ll be able to hear it too... 2 Press the [TRUMPET] button a second time to access the CONDITION/VIBRATO display - and make sure CONDITION is highlighted at the top right-hand side of the screen. (Fig. 4) Fig. 4 Note: you ll see that the PAN position of this voice is set way over to the left. This is more-or-less the correct position of the lead cornet player in a brass band who would be seated in the first row of bandsmen to the left of the conductor. However, our cornetist is about to take centre stage as the featured soloist so Move the PAN position to centre. Now the sound of the cornet will be heard equally through both right and left speakers of your AR. Note: You may also want to reduce the level of the AFTER touch at this point. If you re not sure about 16 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2007

33 the function of this, it is one we ve covered before - so it might be worth re-reading some of the previous articles in the series. 4. Select the VIBRATO page using the [VIBRATO] button at the top right-hand side of the screen. Note: The next step is optional. The cornet, like all instrument voices on the AR, comes with a level of builtin vibrato. I, however, like my solo cornet voice to have a richer, deeper vibrato. I appreciate that this isn t to everyone s taste - so I ll leave it to you to decide whether to add USER vibrato or not. 5. Change the VIBRATO setting from PRESET to USER. The screen changes to show individual levels for Delay, Depth and Speed. These are all initially set at zero. 6. Increase the DEPTH of the vibrato to level 3 or 4 depending on your taste. You can hear the result if you hold a note on the upper keyboard as you increase the level. (Fig. 5) Fig Increase the SPEED of the vibrato if you wish. 7. Store this setting in Registration Memory Button [2] Mellow Euphonium Solo Upper keyboard: 1 Press the [TRUMPET] button in the LEAD VOICE section. 2. Change the CORNET to EUPHONIUM... 3 Press the [TRUMPET] button a second time to access the CONDITION/VIBRATO display as before. 4. Move the PAN position to centre to bring the Euphonium to centre stage and reduce the level of the AFTER touch if you want to. 5. Select the VIBRATO page using the button at the top right-hand side of the screen. 6. Switch the VIBRATO setting from PRESET to USER. 7. Increase the DEPTH of the vibrato to level 3 or 4 - according to your taste. 8. Increase the DELAY to level 1 or Store this setting in Registration Memory Button [3] Note: Lower keyboard settings remain as before. 7. Increase the SPEED of the vibrato if you wish. Be careful not to overdo it though as a fast vibrato will make the sound cartoonish. Again, you can hear the result if you hold a note on the upper keyboard as before. Personally I leave this one alone - but a little faster won t do any harm. 8. Increase the DELAY to level 1 or 2. Note: Increasing the amount of Delay allows the note to sound rock steady for a while before the delay effect cuts in. A general rule of thumb here is to use a shorter delay when the music calls for rapid notes, and a longer delay when playing longer notes. Lower Keyboard: 1. In the ENSEMBLE section switch off the [LOWER VOICE 1] buttons - leaving just the [LOWER VOICE 2] button on. Note: If you press the dotted [1] button in the LOWER KEYBOARD VOICE 2 section you will see from the display that EUPHONIUM is the currently selected voice - and this is the sound you ll hear if you play a few notes on the lower keyboard... 2 Press the dotted [1] button a second time to access the CONDITION/VIBRATO display - and make sure CONDITION is highlighted at the top right-hand side of the screen. Note: You may also want to reduce the level of the AFTER touch at this point. 3. Select the VIBRATO page using the button at the top right-hand side of the screen. 4. Change the VIBRATO setting from PRESET to USER. 5. Increase the DEPTH of the vibrato to level 2 or 3 depending on your taste. Optional Cornet counter-melody... The PEDAL VOICE 2 section has a button labelled [TO LOWER] which was switched on when the BRASS ENS. preset was selected earlier. More advanced players may like to use this to provide a monophonic cornet voice that will sit at the top of any left-hand chord Switch on the [PEDAL VOICE 2] Ensemble button. 2. Press the dotted [1] button in the PEDAL VOICE 2 section. 3. Select TRUMPET from the list of voice categories displayed to the left of the screen. 4. Select CORNET using the buttons under the screen. 5. Press the dotted [1] button again to access the CONDITION page. 6. Change the FEET setting to 4 and play some chords on the lower keyboard. 9. Store this setting in Registration Memory Button [4] Note: It s a shame, but vibrato is not available for pedal voices and if you try this setting you will need to make very smooth left-hand chord changes - but the effect can be excellent. Be careful not to add too much bass sustain though as the sustain effect will also be added to the cornet voice. Brass & Military Bands Registration Disk More of my favourite brass band settings are available on a registration disk specially created for AR100 and AR80. It is available from Yamaha Club (UK price 9.99) Catalogue ref: YCS004 FEBRUARY / MARCH

34 ar series organ workshop The MDR Disk Recorder When talking, or writing, about AR or EL series organs it s all too easy to gloss over the disk recorder in the belief that everyone uses it all the time and, therefore, no instruction is necessary. I recently visited an AR owner and was surprised to find that, despite having had the instrument for several years, he d never used the disk recorder at all. In fact he was still using the set of registrations his Yamaha dealer had programmed into the organ s Registration Memory when he d bought it. I promptly signed him up for a year with Yamaha Club - and promised him I d cover the topic in the magazine. M.D.R. stands for Music Disk Recorder... but I think it s fair to say that, for the most part, its primary function is to store registrations. As the majority of readers will know by now a registration is created when sounds and rhythms are mixed together - usually in preparation for the performance of a piece of music. Once a registration has been made that satisfies the purpose it can be saved - using one of the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons. Registration memory buttons These buttons are located between the upper and lower keyboards. AR100 has 16 Registration Memory buttons whilst the smaller AR80 has 12. Each button can store an entire registration - including information about... a) the voices used on keyboards and pedals - and any individual volume levels and effects. b) the style (rhythm) - including volume levels / balances and which style parts are switched on/off. There are some parts of the set-up that cannot be stored in the Registration Memory buttons though. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 13 These include... a) the type of reverb used (i.e. church, room or hall). b) transposer settings. c) programmed registration sequences. d) rhythm sequences Whilst a performance may include many changes of registrations the settings listed above (and others provided in your AR Owner s Manual) are presumed to be set only once for each song. For example, if your performance uses programmed registration changes you d be unlikely to need more than one sequence for the song. This is why it s a good idea to save the registrations you use for each song you play on a separate track of the M.D.R. disk drive. But I m getting ahead of myself... When all 12 (or 16) Registration Memory buttons have been used the contents of the entire set (or bank ) can be stored on a floppy disk using the Music Disk Recorder. Then, with the registrations safely stored on the disk, the Registration Memory buttons are free to be used again for another song. About floppy disks Technology moves swiftly onwards and what is considered cutting edge today is soon outdated and obsolete. So it is with floppy disks. Once the staple fodder of the computer generation, floppy disks are becoming ever more difficult to get hold of. We re not quite at the obsolete stage yet but new computers no longer have provision for the humble floppy so I guess it won t be long. The AR organ uses either 3.5 2DD or 2HD disks. The DD (double density) are now almost impossible to find but, thankfully, there is still a reasonable supply of the HD type. The total capacity of a HD disk is just 1.44 MB - but this is more than you ll need for storing registrations on your AR. Always check the clip of a floppy disk before using it for the first time. The clip should be flat and should move easily from side to side. A damaged clip can result in the disk getting stuck inside the M.D.R, unit - occasionally resulting in expensive repairs. 16 APRIL / MAY 2007

35 Check that the shutter is in good condition. Make sure the label is fixed securely. Registration Disk Make sure that the label is securely fixed to the disk or it may come loose inside the MDR unit 1) Insert the disk making sure it clicks securely into place. 2) Select a SONG number (1-40) using the [SONG SELECT] buttons. Up to 40 songs (or Registration Memory sets) can be stored on one disk. Protect your data using the write protect tab. Complications are also occasionally caused by labels coming loose - and sticking to the inside of the M.D.R. unit. Be careful about where you leave your disks. Don t leave them where there is a strong magnetic force, such as on top of a speaker or TV set, as this may erase the data on the disk - losing you hours of hard work in the process. When you have created registrations or performance on a disk protect the data by opening the write protect tab. When the tab is open you ll be able to see through the gap - and the disk is protected against accidentally writing new data to the disk and erasing all your hard work. Formatting a disk A new disk will probably need to be formatted before you use it for the first time. When you insert the disk the AR will tell you if this is the case... Press [OK] and let the instrument do the rest. You may want to format a disk that has been used before. This will erase all the data on the disk - so only perform a format operation on a used disk if you re sure you won t need the data again. 1) Press the [DISK] button 2) Select [UTILITY], then [DISK FORMAT] from the display. 3) At the Are you sure? prompt, press [OK]. Saving registrations Once the disk is formatted it s ready for storing the contents of your Registration Memory buttons. This is so easy you ll wonder why you didn t do it long ago... 3) Press and hold the [REC] button as you press the [M] button. A series of dashes flash across the M.D.R. s display showing that the registrations are being recorded. When this activity stops the registrations are stored. 4) You can give the registration set a name. If the disk window isn t already displayed, press [DISK] - then select [UTILITY] and [INPUT NAME] 5) Enter a name using the character buttons provided. The name SONG 1 will have been entered automatically as you saved the registrations. Use the EDIT page to find controls for space, delete and insert. When you ve finished press [OK]. 2 The [M] button is located between the upper and lower keyboards - with the Registration Memory buttons. 2 Hold down the [COURSE] button to enter lower case letters. Loading registrations Your entire Registration Memory set is stored on SONG 1 of the disk. You can now use the Registration Memory buttons for new registrations - overwriting the current set. When you want to recall the set you have stored to disk... 1) Insert the disk 2) Use the [SONG SELECT] buttons to select SONG 1 3) Press [PLAY]. The registrations will be re-loaded into the 16 (or 12) Registration Memory buttons ready for use APRIL / MAY

36 ar series organ workshop The MDR Disk Recorder (continued) I ve been surprised at the amount of feedback we ve received on the subject of disk drives. On the one hand it s good to know that you re still reading my notes on the AR organ - and I m delighted, thank you. On the other, however, I never realised how few of you are actually using the disk unit to store registrations. I suppose this may reflect the easy to use sit down and play design of the AR which, I still maintain, is the most user friendly of all Yamaha s creations over the past 20 or so years. Disk head cleaners One question seems uppermost in the minds of those who do use the disk regularly. How often to clean the disk drive s read/write heads? The manual states, To maintain the disk drive in optimum working order Yamaha recommends that you use a commerciallyavailable dry-type head cleaning disk to clean the head about once a month. When I worked at Yamaha UK the general feeling amongst the technical staff was that the disk heads were best left alone. Indeed, I don t think I used a head cleaner during my entire playing career - but, to be fair, nor did I ever encounter any problems that led me to think I should... Perhaps the key to this is in the company s advice to use a dry-type cleaner. I get the feeling that the service department may have spent more than its fair share of time sorting out problems caused by customers using wet-type head cleaners. Today, the advice is more laid back - and tends to be along the lines of, well, if that s what it says in the book... but be sure to use a good quality head cleaner (not one from the local 1 shop). Personally, and I should warn you I m no technician, my advice would be, don t fix it if it ain t broken. However, in the interests of keeping the Yamaha Club head cleaner sales department afloat, I should mention that we stock them should you feel you need one! Making a simple recording In addition to storing registration settings, the MDR unit will record your performance - exactly as you play AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 14 it. By comparison to the sequencing software contained in today s keyboards and Clavinovas the AR s simple record function may seem rather primitive - but it does the job and it is very easy to use. Fig.1 As you can see from the illustration above, the controls are very similar to those of a tape recorder. When you press the [DISK] button, located on the panel to the right of the main screen, a more detailed version is displayed... Fig.2 The panel controls of the AR s MDR unit With the exception of [CUSTOM PLAY], the buttons I ve ringed are duplicated on the panel (fig. 1) so you can use whichever is most convenient. Before you record a piece of music you should decide on the registration(s) you re going to use for the piece - and store these in the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons between the keyboards - as explained in part 13. It s important that you do this because the MDR won t record any changes of registration made using the REGISTRATION MENU presets. Next... practise the piece you re about to record. The 16 JUNE / JULY 2007

37 MDR recorder doesn't have any punch in/out facility - so you ll need to get the performance right in one go. This can be quite a tall order, so the more practised you are before you begin, the better. One last stage in the preparation... Insert a formatted disk into the MDR drive slot. (See part 13 for information about formatting.) Use the SONG SELECT buttons to call up song 1. Note: There are 40 song locations on a single disk. However, you may find that your disk is full after only a few songs have been recorded. This is because the disk stores information about the song (rather than the sound itself) so the number of notes played and duration of a performance will affect the amount of space remaining for further recordings. Then, when you re ready to play, press the [RECORD] button. There is one more thing you must do first though... Press the REGISTRATION MEMORY button containing the first setting you will use in your performance - and then play. There are two reasons why this is necessary... 1) By including the pressing of a REGISTRATION MEMORY button in the recording you ll ensure that the instrument will do the same thing on playback. Then you can be sure that the sound it uses for the performance is the right one. 2) The contents of the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons can be changed after a recording has been made. If, however, you don t select a REGISTRATION MEMORY button before starting your recording any changes you make to the content of the REGISTRATION MEMORY will be pointless. More on this, though, in the next edition... Fig.6 Fig.3 The PLAY lamp starts to flash... inviting you to press the [PLAY] button. Fig.4 Now you must wait whilst the MDR gathers the contents of the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons. Whilst it does this a series of lines flash across the MDR s display (fig. 4). The MDR will keep the contents of the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons to use each time the performance is played back. This is why it s important to store the registrations in the REGISTRATION MEMORY buttons first. When the registrations are stored the MDR s display changes to show a clock counter (fig. 5). When you ve finished recording press [STOP]. A circle of lines flashes around the MDR s display (fig. 6) until recording comes to a complete stop. Now you can play back your recording. To do this simply press [PLAY]. The REGISTRATION MEMORY button settings are loaded back into the instrument before playback begins. Then there will be a (short) pause before the performance starts. This is the same gap that occurred between pressing the PLAY button and starting to play during the recording. Fig.7 Fig.5 The counter indicates the duration of the recording and as soon as the display shows 00:00 the recording commences. You should begin to play as soon as possible because any delay here will be recorded and will create a gap at the beginning of your performance when the recording is played back. The song title will appear in the AR s main display as SONG 1 and you can change this to a more appropriate title as illustrated in part 13. Note: If you use the [PLAY] button to play a performance from the disk the appropriate registration settings will be installed in the REGISTRATION MEMORY. If you wish to hear the performance a second time, you can press the [CUSTOM PLAY] button in the main display. Now the performance will begin straight away, without loading the registrations - thus eliminating the time usually spent in performing this process. JUNE / JULY

38 ar series organ workshop The MDR Disk Recorder (continued) In part 14 I described how you can use the MDR Disk Recorder to make a simple recording. It s easy to do as the controls of the MDR are very similar to those on a standard tape recorder. (I hope you ll still agree about this now you ve had time to experiment!) Unfortunately, although easy to operate, the MDR has more in common with the old fashioned tape recorder than we d sometimes wish for. It would be nice if, for example, having made a mistake during recording, you could locate the error and fix the problem. With the hi-tech sequencers found in the latest keyboards and Clavinova digital pianos this is quite a straight-forward task. You simply call up a list of all the notes you ve played, find the bad one - and correct it. Re-recording after a mistake Fig.2 Fig.1: The event list from a modern Yamaha sequencer. The list shows the bar and beat (position) of every note played making it easy to highlight a mistake - and correct it. What a load of namby-pamby light-weights these AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 15 keyboard players must be! For the AR player it s the good old fashioned tape recorder method. If you mess up - start again from the beginning. Actually this isn t such a bad thing because it does make you practise that bit harder and I guess we could all do with more of that... The reason for telling you all this is because it s not all doom and gloom. There is some small help - in the form of a [RETRY] button (fig.2). This is often missed because it s a feature that only appears in the ARs main display once you ve actually started recording. If you make a mistake during recording press the [RETRY] button and the recording will stop and return to the beginning. The MDR screen displays a message to tell you it s in Retry mode... (fig.3) Fig.3: The MDR s display shows re (Retry) and 01 (the song number). You can achieve the same result by pressing the [PLAY] button during recording, although there s nothing on the MDR s panel to tell you this. Once recording has stopped press [PLAY] to start the recording immediately from the beginning of the piece. Okay - so it s not perfect, and you do eventually have to record the performance in one go, but the [RETRY] button does cut down on the waiting between takes. Remember to press the Registration Memory button - for the first registration in your piece - after recording has started again and before you begin to play. You may recall that, in part 14 I mentioned that it is possible to change the content of the [REGISTRATION MEMORY] buttons after a recording has been made. This is only really effective if you press the first registration button after recording has started. 16 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2007

39 Changing the Registrations Once the recording is finished you take a seat in your favourite armchair to listen to your performance - and then it happens... The trombone sound you used for the melody starts to get on your nerves. It s just not right for the piece and you know you should have used the sax instead. If you make a mistake during recording... 1) Press [RETRY] to stop the recording. 2) Press [PLAY] to start the recording again from the beginning. 3) Press the Registration Memory button you will use first in your performance. 4) Play... Fig.4: Checklist - if you make a mistake... Well, it s too late now... or is it? Actually, no - as long as you followed the instructions in the checklist (fig.4) when making the original recording. For the past three parts of AR Showcase we ve explored the MDR Disk Recorder, so you ll know by now that the registration settings you created for your master-piece have been saved to disk along with the performance. The two parts combine on playback to reproduce both the sounds and the notes used in the recording. What you may not know, however, is that if you examined your disk in a computer you would find that for every performance there are two files, one containing the registrations, the other the performance, and it is quite easy, therefore, to change one of the files (e.g. registration) without disrupting the other in any way. This is what you do... 1) Insert the disk containing your performance into the MDR Disk Recorder and start playback using the [PLAY] button. Once playback has begun press [STOP] This is just a precaution to ensure that the registrations used in your performance are loaded into the Registration Memory buttons. Incidentally, it also ensures that the correct track (SONG) is selected - so that you don t accidentally save new registrations over the wrong track. It s easy to make mistakes and prevention, as they say, is better than cure. 2) Make any changes to the registrations, saving the new setting(s) in the Registration Memory buttons. 3) Listen to the effect of the changes by playing the performance track again. This time use the [CUSTOM PLAY] button, located in the display, to start the performance. By using [CUSTOM PLAY] to start playback the performance makes use of any registrations that are currently housed in the Registration Memory... so you ll be able to hear the effect of the changes you ve made. If you use the normal [PLAY] button to start playback the original registrations will be reloaded from the disk and any recent changes you ve made will be lost. 4) If you are happy with the sound of the new registrations press [STOP] and proceed to step 5. If not, make further changes to the registration settings - and listen to the performance again using the [CUSTOM PLAY] button. I know I keep banging on about this, but I can t emphasise too strongly the need for care here. If you press the normal [PLAY] button by mistake you will lose all the new registrations you ve created - and this may amount to a few minutes, or a few hours, work. 5) Now you re ready to permanently add the new registrations to the track (SONG) on the disk replacing, for ever, the original settings. Press and hold the [REC] button - then press the red Memory [M] button (fig.5). 2 Fig.5: The MDR s display shows re (Retry) and 01 (the song number). A series of small dashes flash across the MDR s display and, when they stop, the job is done. Next time you play the performance track (using the normal [PLAY] button) the new registrations will be loaded from the disk into the Registration Memory before the performance begins. Why was it so important to press a [REGISTRATION MEMORY] button before recording? This is a bit hard to explain, and I m not very technically minded, but I m told that the MDR Disk Drive has a buffer memory that stores just a small amount of information about the panel setup for the recording. When you record a piece of music the MDR stores the initial panel setup and uses this on playback to set up the instrument. You cannot change this initial setting so, by pressing a Registration Memory button just after the recording has started you create, in effect, a second setting (which can be changed by altering the content of the Registration Memory button). On playback the MDR first re-instates the initial (buffer) setting - but then, before a note is played, the Registration Memory button you pressed during the recording is recalled - thus over-riding the setting in the buffer memory with the content of the Memory button. Naming your song If you didn t name your song after the original recording you can do so now. Instructions for this are provided in part 13 of this series (April/May 2007) so I don t need to cover this again. Next time I ll be wrapping up the subject of the MDR Disk Recorder and tying up a few loose ends. See you then... Glyn 1 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER

40 ar series organ workshop The MDR Disk Recorder (continued) It s time to wrap up my examination of the MDR disk recorder and move onto other things but, before we finally close the door on this subject, there are a few relevant details to cover. So far I ve talked about the MDR s most popular uses - a), storing registrations and b), recording and playing back our own performances. New accompaniment styles The accompaniment section of the AR100/80 organs, unlike the EL series, shares the same Style File format as Yamaha s portable keyboard and Clavinova models. In theory this is great news because (in theory!) this means that the AR can import and play all the exciting styles you hear in the latest instruments. In practice, however, the reality falls somewhat short of the dream. Unfortunately for AR users the newer styles use sounds and effects that weren t even thought of when the AR was in its design stage. I m thinking, of course, of the wonderful MegaVoice and Super Articulation sounds that play such an important part in today s style programs. The AR s style system was modelled on the PSR which was Yamaha s flagship at the time - but things were changing fast and XG (Extended General MIDI), a new sound and effect library used in the AR was still in its infancy. XG provided Yamaha s song and style programmers with a hugely improved palette of sounds and effects with which to create their musical masterpieces - but it wasn t fully developed in time for for the AR (or the PSR7000). The result was that, whilst the Style File format allowed new styles to be imported into the instrument, the styles subsequently produced in XG Format never quite worked properly. What tended to happen most often was that DSP effects, such as Delay (used to provide multiple echo and reverb effects) sounded just as they should when the style was used in a keyboard or Clavinova, but disappeared completely when imported into the AR. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 16 Simon Inkley s Classic EL Styles Simon Inkley, one of the style programmers involved in the production of the AR s original accompaniment style selection, created a series of disks especially for the AR organ in which he reproduced some of the most popular styles from the EL series. These worked fine, and I believe that the original intention was to build on the series with additional styles dedicated to the AR, but this never materialised - partly, maybe, because Yamaha recognised Simon s potential and offered him a full time job in their R&D department. So... the AR ended up in a kind of style limbo. Its on-board styles were (and are) better than the earlier General MIDI styles that were available commercially yet it became less and less compatible with the new styles produced as style development progressed. Loading styles into the AR When a Style File disk is placed in the MDR disk drive the display automatically opens to reveal a list of the styles contained on the disk OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2007

41 1. Choose a style you wish to load using the [File Select] buttons. 2. Choose a USER location for the style. Only one style can be stored in any USER location but up to eight styles in total can be stored in the AR s memory filling the USER locations numbered 1-8. Note: Be aware that the time it takes to load and save to disk increases with the amount of USER styles being transferred. This has been a regular criticism of the AR by new owners coming to the instrument from an EL series organ (where styles are not involved in the load/save process). 3. Press [Load] followed by [OK] at the prompt. Playing USER styles on the AR 1. Press one of the numbered buttons on the Style (rhythm) panel Then, when the STYLE page is displayed, use the [Page] buttons to locate the USER page. 3. And select the User location (1-8) for the style you want to hear. The User style is used during performance in the same way as any of the other styles already contained within the instrument. 1 2 standardised selection of voices and effects. The Disk Orchestra Collection The oldest Song Disk format employed within Yamaha instruments is D.O.C.. Usually presented as a music book & disk package, the D.O.C. format gave the programmer very little scope for creativity because so few voices and effects were included - so the sound tends to be a little dull and flat by comparison with later formats. Having said that, I still think the musical arrangements were probably the best. General MIDI & XG (Extended General MIDI) As the number of voices and effects available from more modern instruments increased the programmers felt frustrated by the restrictions imposed in the D.O.C. format and it was recognised that a new system was needed. General MIDI and, some years later, XG MIDI opened the door to hundreds of new sounds and effects - providing the programmers with the range they needed. As a result the sounds produced from arrangements created in these formats are generally much brighter and more live. In my opinion, however, the standard of the music arrangements dropped as production was moved from the Yamaha Music Foundation in Japan to independent arrangers based in Europe. Playing SONG disks on the AR When a Song disk is placed in the MDR disk drive the display automatically opens to reveal a list of the songs - similar to the list displayed when a Style disk is used. You then select a Song from the list before pressing the [Play] button on the screen. If you want to play along to a Song performance a Minus One function lets you mute the part of the song you want to play yourself whilst a Solo Play mode allows you to listen to one part in isolation - muting all the other tracks. I m not going to take you any further into the AR s Song Play facility. There s pretty good coverage in the owners manual for those who want to use it more. Disk Orchestra & XG Song Disks The AR organs can also play Song (or MIDI file) disks in the same way as a keyboard or Clavinova can. Advancing technology has also made significant changes to this process and the AR accepts Song disks in several different formats... Each format ensures that a completed Song will sound the same in any instrument supporting the specified format by allowing the programmers access to a OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

42 ar series organ workshop We re often asked to suggest registration settings for our readers favourite songs. New instruments have a Music Finder feature which is an absolute Godsend, but even this doesn t provide the answer to everyone s need. I thought, therefore, that I d start this edition with a popular Christmas favourite... White Christmas (Shearing style) Registration 1 As always I head towards the AR s built-in Registration Menu for some ideas. 1 Select [George Too] from the [Jazz Band] category. This gives me the foundation for my White Christmas setting - but there are some alterations needed. 2 Increase the tempo to 100 b.p.m. (or, of course, whatever tempo suits you best). 3 Select the [Main A] style variation. This will provide a lighter style for the first part of the song. 4 Next, press the illuminated style (rhythm) button on the [Style] panel to discover which accompaniment style has been selected by the preset. (You should see from the display that this is Jazz Ballad 2) 5 Now press the style (rhythm) button a 2nd time to be transported to the Condition page of the display. 6 Here you can switch on/off individual parts of the style - so switch off the Chord 1 and 2 parts (piano and Jazz Guitar). Then switch off the Phrase 1 and 2 parts. (These contain flute and vibes voices - although they aren t actually used in the style.) 7 I used the [Ensemble] buttons to switch off the Lower Voice 1 and 2 sections as well - but this is personal taste. If you leave them switched on you ll hear a light string part. If, as I have, you switch them off, you ll hear nothing when you play the lower keyboard - but the chords you play will shape the automatic harmony for the upper. 8 I also added a touch of sustain for the upper keyboard. When the [Sustain] buttons are pressed a [Sustain Menu] box appears in the display. Select it and you ll be taken to the [Sustain] display where you can finely adjust the length of the sustain for each of the upper, lower and pedal sections. I set the upper sustain level at 10. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 17 I stored this setting in Registration Memory button [1] and used it to play the first time through White Christmas. Then, for the second time through... Registration 2 1 Switch the accompaniment to the Main B style variation. You should hear some sustained strings begin to play as the Pad part is brought into play. Store this setting in Registration Memory button [2]. 2 Finally, as you reach the end of the piece, use the [Ensemble] buttons to add Lower Voice sections 1 and 2 - thus thickening the string sound. Use this setting for a repeat of the last lines - may your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white. If you fancy adding an organ variation at some point use the [Ensemble] buttons to switch off the Upper Voice sections 1 and 2 and the Lead Voice section. Replace these with the Upper Organ button. You ll find an organ sound ready to use. It s a bit cheesy - but it makes an effective alternative to the Shearing combo. Performance note: Remember to play only single notes with your right hand throughout as the harmony is provided automatically by the instrument. Christmas styles The AR has a couple of Christmas styles built in - but any style can be made more Christmassy with the addition of some sleigh bells. If you can clap in time to a rhythm you should find it easy to add some to an existing pattern. I ll use the City Swing pattern for my illustration... with some sleigh bells it ll be ideal for songs such as Winter Wonderland. 1 Select the [Swing/Jazz] style button. Then choose City Swing from the display. 2. Set the tempo to 120b.p.m. 3 Press and hold the [Accomp. Program] button to the right of the display. The display will prompt you to Select A Style!! 16 DECEMBER 2007 / JANUARY 2008

43 9. When you re ready join in - play the sleighbell on the upper keyboard as you ve practised. 10 After eight beats, stop - and listen to the result. Sleigh bells don t have to be exactly on the beat - so don t worry if you re a bit off. If you re way out though you may want to re-cord the part. 4 As you hold this button press the [Swing/Jazz] style button again. The display will confirm that City Swing has been selected and, if you press the style [Start] button, the style will start to play. 5 Press the [Start] button again (to stop the pattern playing). 6 Play some notes on the upper keyboard. Each key will produce a percussion sound. Try each in turn until you locate the sleigh bell (it s on note B6 - next to the top note on the keyboard). To delete the sleigh bell, should you need to re-record, press the style [Start] button to start the pattern playing. Then, whilst holding the bottom key (C) of the upper keyboard, press the sleigh bell key (B6). The sleigh bell will be erased from the pattern and you can have another go. When the pattern sounds as you think it should... 1 Stop the pattern and press [Save] at the right of the display. 2 Next, select one of the eight User locations to store the pattern. (e.g. User 1). When the display issues the prompt - Save to User 1. Are you sure? press [OK] to save the new pattern. 3 Finally, switch off the [Accomp. Program] button to the right of the display. To use the pattern you have created 1 Press button 1 or 2 on the style panel. 2. Use the [Page] buttons to locate the User page. Upper keyboard Sleigh Bells 7 Without starting the pattern, practise playing four beats to the bar. First a strong (loud) beat, next a quieter beat, then a strong one, and then another quiet one etc. 8 When you re confident that you can do this with some accuracy, start the pattern. If you look at the screen you ll see that the figure 2 is highlighted in the [Measure] column. This tells you that this pattern is two bars long - so you ll need to play eight beats on the sleighbell to fill the pattern length. After that the pattern will repeat. 3 Select User 1 from the display. 4 Press [Start] on the style panel to hear the pattern (including your sleigh bells). You can do this to any style. Add sleighbells for Christmas - or wind chimes for romantic music... why not? I hope this adds a little extra sparkle to your styles this Christmas. Have fun and enjoy experimenting with the programmer because you can t do any damage. If, in the worst case, everything goes horribly wrong, you can always switch off the [Accomp. Program] button and start again. The preset styles that are permanently built into the instrument are never affected in any way. Happy Christmas! DECEMBER 2007 / JANUARY

44 ar series organ workshop In the December edition of Yamaha Club Magazine Tony Ross showed how to improve the Pan Flute voice on the PSR-S900 keyboard. The AR has a reasonable Pan Flute sound but I wondered if Glyn has any similar tips for improving the sounds of this instrument. George Bishop (Lancs.) George s letter reminded me that, in the early days of the AR I created a software disk for the instrument that provided a lot of improved sounds (at least in my view) in the style of Famous Names. So, the disk, Famous Names Volume 1 which is still available from Yamaha Club, contains a selection including Gheorghe (George) Zamfir pan flute, Tijuana (Herb Alpert) brass, Mantovani strings etc. See page 19 for details. Registration software makes it easy for everyone to draw on a wonderful array of sounds but, because all we have to do is insert a disk or, on more recent instruments, select a ready-made One Touch Setting, we often neglect to explore how the voices and effects are actually mixed to create the final registration setting. Maybe there is, after all, still a case for writing it all down and, if you follow the instructions correctly, you ll be able to create the sound for yourself and won t need to buy a software disk... Result! George Zamfir Zamf. Pan In the AR s Registration Menu you ll find a category titled [Pops Orchestra] and, within this, a setting called Zamf. Pan. This name, as you ll doubtless have gathered by now, pays tribute to the Pan Flute virtuoso George Zamfir for his unique mastery of his instrument and acknowledges that if audiences only ever know the name of one Pan Flute player - the chances are it will be his. The Zamf. Pan registration is fine - but, for my taste, could be improved with more breathiness and additional echo. I was told that the original setting was AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 18 created with James Last s famous Pan Flute solo The Lonely Shepherd in mind - and there s no doubt that you can sit down, select the Zamf. Pan setting and play the song - but let s change a few things and see if you like the result. If not, there s no harm done and you can simply return to the original. 1. Select Zamf. Pan. 2. Press the [Ballad] button in the rhythm/style section. 3. Select Slow Ballad from the display. The Slow Ballad is a lighter rhythm style than the one used in the original setting and, to my mind, suits the song better. I slowed the tempo to 68 bpm (beats per minute) and also changed the style variation from [Main B] to [Main A]. 4. Select [Fingered Chord] or [Custom ABC] from the Auto Bass Chord section. or Use [Custom ABC ] if you play the pedals so that you can choose the bass notes as usual - but with the lovely Fretless Bass sound from the Slow Ballad accompaniment style. Switch on the [Memory] button to hold the left-hand chords and keep the accompaniment sounding smooth. 16 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2008

45 5. Select the [Flute] button in the Lead Voice section. The voice originally selected for Zamf. Pan is, of course, the Pan Flute. I replaced this with Blown Bottle, another voice from the same page, because it s a bit sharper and a bit breathier. 6. Select Blown Bottle 8. Press one of the [Reverb] level buttons. We use Delay/Echo to give a feeling of distance to the sound. The more echo you add the more distant the sound will appear - and it will take on the haunting quality we d expect from a Pan Flute played high in the mountains. Of course you don t want to overdo things but you can increase the effect by changing the Reverb to a different setting too. The display will show that three different room sizes are available... Room, Hall and Church. 7. Press Blown Bottle again to go to the Condition page. Select Delay from the list of effects displayed in the Condition page. The current delay (echo) setting is just about right for the Blown Bottle sound - as is the vibrato setting - but you can change the delay if you like by pressing the [Effect Set] button to the top right of the display screen and selecting Delay & Flanger from the screen. By changing the setting to Church, you ll add the maximum amount of reverb available to the sound. The current Length and Depth settings should be fine. You ll add even more reverb if you can increase these to maximum - but this will probably just swamp the registration setting in echo. 9. Press the [Voice Group] button. Set the Delay parameters to your own taste using the Balance, Feedback and Speed controls. Balance: This determines how much effect (echo) is added to the sound. Feedback (Short or long delay): As the Feedback level is increased more echoes are added to the effect. Speed: This determines how quickly the echoes follow each other. Give your registration a stylish finishing touch by going to the Voice Group page and reducing the reverb for all sections except the Lead Voice. Pedal sounds should be fairly clean - so very little reverb here. Reducing the reverb in the other parts will accentuate its effect on the Lead Voice. 10. Don t forget to save your finished registration. Save the registration in one of the [Registration Memory] buttons - and, ultimately, to disk for safety. FEBRUARY / MARCH

46 ar series organ workshop I want to begin by answering a few F.A.Q.s about the AR100 and AR80. It s some time since I gave any real thought to the basics of playing an AR series organ, but there seems to have been a renewed surge of interest from new owners over the past month or so - and it s caused me to reflect on some of the information we gave out when the instrument was bright, shiny and new... Q: Why is the backing always louder than the tune? A: There are a couple of reasons why this might be. The first is easy to resolve as it s a purely mechanical thing. The second is slightly more difficult to remedy as it depends on the way you play. Let s take the easy one first. There has always been a strange balance issue with the AR models. No-one seems to know quite why it happens but if you play, as many of us do, using the auto-rhythm and accompaniment, the balance between the melody and the accompaniment changes slightly as you increase the volume with the expression pedal. This is quite easily overcome by following a simple set-up procedure. 1. Start by turning the master volume control down as far as it will go. [MIN]. (Fig.1) 2. Next open the expression pedal to about three-quarters of its full range. (Fig.2) 3. Then, without moving the expression pedal, begin to play - using the auto-rhythm / accompaniment. 4. As you play, turn the master volume control towards [MAX] until a comfortable listening volume is reached. This level will vary, of course, from one person to another, but the important thing is not Fig. 1 Fig. 2 AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 19 how far the master volume is turned up, but the position of the expression pedal. Why? What tends to happen is that we start to play with the master volume control turned up full - find it too loud, and immediately pull back on the expression pedal. The AR doesn t like this at all and reacts badly - losing the balance between the upper (melody) and accompaniment. For some reason the AR is happiest when it is played with its expression pedal between 3/4 and fully open so, by carrying out the simple setup procedure above, you ll find that you ll be playing with the expression pedal in that position for the majority of the time. By setting the master volume with the pedal just three-quarters open you leave yourself plenty of room for the times when you need that big crescendo to finish a performance. A more difficult problem to solve is the one of a player having a light touch. This is not uncommon amongst those who have come straight to the electronic keyboard or organ without strengthening their fingers with some old-fashioned piano practice along the way. They tend to tickle the keys and this, inevitably, results in the melody voices often sounding weak. It s particularly noticeable when percussive voices, such as piano, guitar etc. are selected. When asked if the same problem is experienced when organ sounds are used the answer is often no - and this is because, unlike the AR s instrumental voices, the organ sounds do not respond to strength of touch on the keyboard. Unfortunately there is no single button on the AR that simply switches off the instrument s touch sensitivity because, if there were, we would have a perfect solution ready-made. Instead we must go into the menu display to find the touch control for each voice and reduce the sensitivity there. If you ve followed previous articles in my AR series you ll probably know how to get to a voice s [Condition] page already - but I ll cover it again here just in case APRIL / MAY 2008

47 1 Select a voice for your melody (e.g.) Strings. 2 Press the same voice button again to go to the voice s [Condition] page. Q: Everyone seems to be recording themselves onto CD these days. Does the AR have any similar kind of recording facility? A: The AR organs don t have an audio record facility - which is what you would need to produce a recording onto CD. It does, however, have a floppy disk recorder (the functions of which I ve covered in some detail - beginning in the April/May edition last year). This MDR (Music Disk Recorder) is an ideal tool for recording your performance within the instrument before transferring the finished piece to some kind of audio format - because it s easy to record, and re-record until you have the performance you want to keep. Your success, or otherwise, in transferring the music onto an audio recorder will depend to some extent on what kind of recording equipment you have. A stand-alone CD recorder, mini-disc recorder or computer based recording program will probably yield best results - but there is no reason why you shouldn t still record to cassette or reel-to-reel if you prefer. The AR is provided with 1/4 jack audio outputs - [AUX OUT] - located under 3 The two controls to the left of this display are labelled [Touch Tone]. The first is Initial touch. This controller determines how much effect your initial strike of the key will have on the sound. At its maximum level you ll need to strike the key quite hard to achieve full volume - although, with practice, you would be able to produce the widest range of volume by varying the strength of your initial strike. By reducing the Initial touch controller to its minimum value the strength of your initial key strike will have very little effect - the volume will be more-or-less (although not completely)constant. This is the ideal setting for the player with a light touch. The other controller sets the voice s response to After touch. Sounds that continue for as long as the key is held (such as the string voice used in this example) can be further regulated by the player leaning on the key - i.e. pushing down on the key with more strength - as the note plays. Usually this results in the volume of the note increasing slightly in proportion to the pressure on the key. If the After touch level is set too high the sound can appear to rise and fall in irregular waves as the player struggles to control the strength of his touch on the keys. It takes quite a lot of practise to control a high level of After-Touch effectively and beginners may benefit from reducing this level too. Store the setting: Once you ve made any necessary changes to the touch settings, you d be wise to store the result as part of a Registration Memory setting because, if you don t, the touch values will return to normal when another preset is used and you ll have to start all over again. the keyboard for the purpose of connecting to external speakers or to audio recording equipment. Some AR owners have told me they ve found it necessary to use a mixer/amplifier to boost the signal from the organ before it enters the recorder but I ve never encountered any problem and, in my own experience the instrument records beautifully. Anyway, I ll leave you to explore this for yourself. Suffice to say that you ll need a cable to link the instrument to the recorder - and then you re away... Q: The AR100 and AR80 seem very similar - but the AR100 has panel lighting which makes it much easier to see the controls. Is there an upgrade I can buy to add similar panel lighting to the AR80? A: This was one of the big issues when the AR series was first introduced. There never was an official upgrade to add lighting to the AR80 but, ingenious as ever, Yamaha Club DIYers were quick to come up with ideas of their own. One of the best, as I remember, came from a Mr. Frank Varley, an AR80 owner from Southsea, who sent a very neat looking photograph of his AR80 bedecked in lights APRIL / MAY

48 28ar series organ workshop and looking every bit like the AR100. We produced a Fact Sheet (No. 31) from his design and this is still available from our archive. There were other designs - and not just for the lighting panel. If someone voiced the opinion that they felt a modification was needed you could bet your bottom dollar that, before very long, someone else would have come up with a design. APRIL / MAY 2008 Two pages from the Tyros2 Registick Q: We ve been told much, in recent months, about the wonderful Regi-Stick Plus that has been created for the Tyros2 keyboard. Is there any plan to produce a similar device for the AR? A: I can t help smiling every time someone asks this question and I had to include it here because I m not quite sure just who is missing the point here... A large part of the success Regi-Stick Plus is currently enjoying is due to the fact that it was modelled on the instant playability of... the AR! It was the Registration Menu of this popular instrument that provided the inspiration for James Sargeant and his team to attempt to recreate (and, ok, improve upon) the original AR concept. So doesn t that make us the lucky ones!? It seems though that some AR owners still don t realise that they already have all these superbly playable settings on tap. Perhaps it s time to rediscover the menu... On the other hand, perhaps the fact that so many people obviously want to recreate these sounds from their single keyboard instruments means that Yamaha is missing the point. Who knows? All I can tell you for certain is that the AR s Registration Menu earned the instrument an enviable reputation as one of the easiest modern day organs to use. The AR s Registration Menu - Inspiration for Regi-Stick Plus

49 ar series organ workshop We ve covered most of the features of the AR at one time or another but, as we come to the end of the current series, I came across a few things you might find useful... The Recall Panel function For me, one of the great pleasures of playing an AR organ is that, although the instrument has all the usual programmable features - such as a Registration Memory section for storing favourite sound set-ups - its sounds and rhythms are so instantly accessible that you can just sit and twiddle for hours on end. The danger is that you will, as I have on many occasions, accidentally come across a really great sound and be completely carried away for hours. Then, suddenly noticing the time, you jump up and switch the power off... before realising just too late, as the instrument s display panel dims, that you should have saved the wonderful sound and that the chances of finding it again are really very slim. I know only too well what you re feeling in that split second, and it is such an easy mistake to make. Of course there d be no problem if, on switching the power back on, the AR simply restored the last setting used... but it doesn t. Instead the organ has an automatic Start-up setting that is called up each time the power is switched on (fig.1). Fig.1: The AR s Start-up screen. You can see which voices are assigned and, circled, the [RECALL PANEL] button. AR Organ Showcase WITH GLYN MADDEN - PART 20 This doesn t affect any registrations stored in the Registration Memory buttons (so these, at least, are safe), but it does over-ride the last panel setting used. Fortunately help is at hand - but the instructions are buried deep in the AR s Owner s Manual where they are easily (and often) overlooked. It was ages (and I mean ages) before I realised that a Recall Panel option is provided in the screen when the power is switched on. It only appears for a moment or two so I can t believe I m the only one to have missed it - but it solves the problem with one press of the adjacent button because the last panel setting used before switching off is recalled, allowing you to save it in one of the Registration Memory buttons. Note: When you switch the organ on you must not press any other button before selecting [Recall Panel] from the display. Any sound... anywhere We ve covered the function of the dotted buttons many times throughout the series but, particularly for new owners of AR organs (of whom there appear to be many), here s a quick recap of their main purpose. Each voice section has a selection of sounds. Here, for example, are the voice buttons of one of the Upper Keyboard Voice sections. (Fig.2) Fig.2: The voices of the Upper Voice Section 1 There are 12 named voice buttons - and two dotted buttons. If you select the [Strings] button you can select any kind of string voice from the display. Pressing the [Brass] button allows you to choose from all the brass voices... and the [Clarinet] button gives access to all the clarinet sounds. When you press a dotted button, however, the Page symbol is displayed (fig.3), and you can use the [Page] 26 JUNE / JULY 2008

50 Manual / Pedal Volume: Each of these buttons calls up a global overview of the volume settings for the sections named - allowing you to view and adjust the balances within the display screen. This is occasionally useful but, as the same result can be easily achieved using the volume controls on the panel, its usefulness is somewhat limited. Voice Pan: This is excellent because you can adjust the Pan assignment for every voice in a registration without having to go back into the Condition page to locate the Pan control for each voice you want to set. (Fig.5) Fig.3: When you press a dotted button you can use the [PAGE] buttons to access the sounds from every voice section. buttons to call up any sound from any voice section - including the voices in the Lead and Pedal voice sections. This means that if, for example, you want to play the Tuba voice from the upper keyboard you can use the upper keyboard voice section s dotted button to locate it. The Main display... If you follow the keyboard articles that appear in this magazine you ll have noticed that we often advise returning to the instrument s Main display page. The AR also has a main display page called the Voice Display. This is the screen that appears when the power is first switched on. Often we tend to quickly press buttons that take us away from this display without taking too much notice of the content of the screen - but it s probably worth taking a moment or two to take stock of the information provided. You can call up the Voice Display at any time using the [Voice Display] button on the panel next to the screen. As you can see, the display shows which voices are currently set for each of the AR s voice sections. It also shows the transposer setting, displays the name of the chord being played and tells you which accompaniment style is being used. All good stuff... but of more interest to me are the three buttons marked [Voice Pan], [Manual Volume] and [Pedal Volume]. (Fig.4.) Fig.5: The PAN setting for each voice can be adjusted using the buttons under the display. You may recall that, earlier in the series, we discussed the effect your Pan settings can have in making registrations sound full and rich. This screen provides the perfect visual display of all the Pan settings at once so you can adjust each one to compliment its neighbour. Brilliant! Accompaniment / Styles. Did you know that...? 1 When using an accompaniment style you can recall the default (natural) tempo of the style you ve selected by pressing both [Tempo] buttons together. (Fig.6) 2. If you press the [Synchro Start] button before you begin to play the style won t start until you press a key on the lower keyboard. (Fig.7) This is ideal for those times when you want to lead into the piece with a few notes on the upper keyboard before the rhythm/accompaniment style begins. An example of this might be the Latin-American favourite, Quando, Quando, Quando. (Fig.8) Fig.6. Fig.7. Cm7 Fig.4. Fig.8. Use [SYNCHRO START] to start the rhythm here as the first chord is played. JUNE / JULY

51 28ar series organ workshop 3. If an auto-accompaniment sounds too busy you can reduce the number of parts in the style by calling up its Condition page. (Fig.9) Do this by pressing the style button twice. In the Condition page the display shows all the parts that make up the style - i.e. Rhythm 1+2, Bass, Chord 1+2, Pad and Phrase 1+2. You can switch any part on or off using the buttons under the display Fig.9. Listeners who tune in during June to Alan Ashton s monthly organ and keyboard music programme on ORGAN1ST RADIO will be able to hear tracks by Yamaha artists James Sargeant and Tony Pegler recorded during their joint tour last year. Wouldn t it be great if, during a future tour, the guys could find the time to produce a full CD of their arrangements? For now though we ll just have to make do with the two tracks on offer - Roadhouse and Caravan Such powerful playing! Hear ORGAN1ST RADIO online at JUNE / JULY 2008 Tony Pegler James Sargeant Topics covered in the AR Showcase series... Part 1 The Ensemble Buttons (April / May 2005) Part 2 Selecting Voices (June / July 2005) Using the Condition page for basic voice editing. Part 3 The Condition Page (August / September 2005) Initial Touch / After Touch ; FEET Part 4 The Condition Page (October / November 2005) Brilliance ; Volume ; User Vibrato Part 5 The Condition Page (December 2005 / Jan. 2006) Effects ; The Pan control Part 6 Transferring the AR100 s extra voices into an AR80. (February / March 2006). Part 7 Styles (April / May 2006) The basics Part 8 Styles (June / July 2006) Varying the style with the [ACCOMP PART] buttons Part 9 Foot-switches (August / September 2006) Functions of the left foot-switch. Tremolo, Glide, Rhythm fill. Part 10 Foot-switches (October / November 2006) Functions of the right foot-switch. Shift, Jump, User. Part 11 Keyboard Percussion (December 2006 / January 2007) Part 12 Brass Band sounds (February / March 2007) Part 13 Disk Recorder (April / May 2007) Saving and loading registrations Part 14 Disk Recorder (June / July 2007) Recording a simple song Part 15 Disk Recorder (August / September 2007) If you make a mistake... (The [RETRY] button). How to change the registrations in a recorded song. Part 16 Disk Recorder (October /November 2007) Using style disks, XG/DOC/GM disks etc. Part 17 Christmas Registrations (Dec / Jan. 2008) Making registrations for White Christmas and editing a style to add sleigh bells for Winter Wonderland. Part 18 George Zamfir (February / March 2008) Creating the George Zamfir Pan Flute sound using Blown Bottle and effects. Part 19 F.A.Q. (April / May 2008) Lightness of touch - and expression pedal balance. How the AR Registration Menu inspired Tyros2 s Regi-Stick Plus. Part 20 And Finally... (June / July 2008) Some things you may have missed.