Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

  • From: "Vince Mistretta" <vmistretta1411@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2012 22:10:50 -0400

From what I hear nothing changed. I am hearing that Tyros may be changing this go round though.


--------------------------------------------------
From: "D!J!X!" <megamansuperior@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 8:37 PM
To: <MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

I hope they keep the psr interface, like the PSR2000, tyros and such. I saw
the psr s900 at guitar center and saw it was still using the same method,
a-j and page up/down buttons, so hope they keep that lol.

D!J!X!

-----Original Message-----
From: moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Steve Matzura
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 8:27 PM
To: MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

Wonder how accessible these will be.

On Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:57:57 -0400, you wrote:

I think the s750 will be around $1200 and the s950 is around $1900 but
don't quote me on it.

They are apparently coming out now.  One of the dealers on Synthzone
has received an s750 just this week.

On 9/22/12, D!J!X! <megamansuperior@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
O nice! The 950? Any idea how much that'll be? I imagine the 1g price
range that the upper mid range psr's have?
Thanks for the info, looks like a few google moments are in store for
when I get free time.

THX, D!J!X!

-----Original Message-----
From: moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Vince Mistretta
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 1:05 PM
To: MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

DJX   ,
Wait a few months.  The new PSR S750 and S950 are just now coming out.

For the Music Finder Viewer he used Quick Basic.  He did some
accessibility fixes on that product but I didn't work with him on the
main screen where the lists of entries are.  Have to Jaws cursor
around on that one.  Still needs a lot of work but it was helpful.  I
never tried any other software by him.  Anyway, I don't have the need
since I don't have a board which is addressed in his software.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "D!J!X!" <megamansuperior@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 9:28 AM
To: <MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

Wow, Michael is still around! That's cool... Haven't spoken to him
in years.
Glad to hear he's still actively developing software for the
pssr/tyros line. When I get a s910 or whatever is out now I'll have
to
hunt him down.
Vince, has he been able to get accessibility into his tools?
Back in the day we were working with java and some other sdk's that
made it a task to get things working, not to mention jaws was behind
the times (the days of 4.1/4.2).

D!J!X!

-----Original Message-----
From: moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Vince Mistretta
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 6:46 AM
To: MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example


All of that is only accessed through Sysex controls.  If you
remember, back a few years ago on the T3 forum we had Michael
Bedison who is one of the biggest contributers on PSRTutorials come
on and answer many questions.  I had asked him if he could modify
his Music Finder View application to take that information from a
selected song entry and send it to the T3.  After a few months of
testing it was done.  He said he had wanted to do it and was getting
held up with some area but found that those areas - tempo especially
was changed via PCCC00,c32 and PC controls.  The styles, variations,
intros and all that other good stuff was only addressable through Sysex.

The feature is still available in the program to this date.  There
is no documentation on this in any of the manuals for either the
Tyros line or PSR line.  I'm thinking he was able to capture this
info through his MIDI out.
All the messages are standard over both series; just the  id for the
board and model is different.

I sold my T3 off about two months ago.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Steve Matzura" <number6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2012 11:13 PM
To: <MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros - A Practical Example

My big complaint about the Tyros, and, I suspect, any arranger, is
the lack of addressability via MIDI of certain features. I owned a
T3 for about a year, and for the life of me, I could never figure
out how to select styles or fills or breaks via MIDI. My goal in
purchasing the thing was to do all that setup stuff with Sonar,
record a song's backing track, then play over it with both hands.
Ha, I remember as a kid I had this chord organ, and the first thing
I learned to do with it was disable the chord functions so I could
have a fuller keyboard and play my own chords! But what the Tyros
offered in the way of arranger tools was so good, it drew me in,
only to spit me out again when I found out I couldn't fire them via
MIDI. If that capability exists there, I'd sure love to know how
it's supposed to be
done.

On Sat, 07 Jul 2012 23:43:55 -0400, you wrote:

Bryan,

What a great explanation.

So I had always figured my Tyros was a good choice for the
realistic instruments.  And when I wanted to compose a song with
multiple tracks, instruments, and effects, then I figured Sonar was my
friend.

However, I now appreciate the headwind in getting a DAW with Sonar
and all the supporting peripherals and wiring working.

Just understanding tracks, channels, busses, banks, patches, sends,
all that termonology and the routing is enough to drive any
newcomer crazy.

I can appreciate that it's all pre-packaged in the Motif.  But
still, Motif doesn't talk, so perhaps the memorization necessary to
master Motif's workstation features is roughly equivalent to
mastering playing Tyros + Sonar + Cake Talking.

Now if Motif talked, or we could link up Motif screens to an OCR
engine and have them spoken, that would be the ultimate, wouldn't it?

Thanks again for your detailed explanation,

Ben


At 08:31 PM 7/7/2012, you wrote:
OK. This can get complicated, but here is the nut shell.

An arranger keyboard solves a problem for a few types of musicians.

If you gig by yourself, you have a virtual backup band that can
play along with you. You select a musical style on the arranger,
play the main keyboard part, and the band follows along. The
instrument sounds on a good arranger keyboard are going to sound
way better than some cheap general MIDI module or canned backing
tracks. The keyboard also reacts to you, so if you stretch out
with additional choruses, or if you want to throw in a break or
solo, you can do that  in
the moment.

The other big problem arrangers solve is they help someone that
doesn't know how to play keyboard sound like a full band. I don't
mean that the musician can't play keys, but playing keyboard is
different from playing piano. Keyboard players learn how to spread
out with wide two-handed chords to play more realistic guitar
parts, how to play the correct intervals for instruments like
harmonica, etc. If you play piano well, but don't know how to
change your technique for those other instruments, then an arranger
helps you.
You basically play in the piano part, or else record in a few
tracks that serve as guides, pick a style, and the arranger plays
all of the other instruments for you. You can write this way, but
you focus on the chords and melody, rather than playing each part.
The styles are also useful for letting you hear how your chord
progression and melody will sound when performed different ways.
You focus on the big picture, and let the arranger worry about the
details.

A workstation keyboard is meant to be a self-contained instrument
for composition/production of an entire song. It is supposed to be
something like a scaled down studio or DAW. Motif has lots of
ready-to-go instrument sounds, both a 16 track linear (tape
recorder style), and a 16 track pattern (drum machine style)
sequencer, a sampler that can be used to import loops, make new
instruments, record vocals, etc, and, finally, Motif has a
mixing/mastering system for getting the sound right. You might
have a megabucks computer with a mountain of softsynths, but a
workstation is a boiled down version of that for getting the tech
out of your way so you can write. You turn on the Motif, and it is
all there: no updates, drivers, viruses, etc. You perform your
parts in to the sequencer on the Motif, mix it on the Motif, and
can record your file
directly to a USB flash drive.
The idea is that you sit down, turn on the Motif, quickly play in
your idea, quickly mix it, and get up with a recorded song. The
computer has more synths, more and better effects, etc etc. If you
want to demo a song idea, though, you can throw something together
in a short time on the Motif that sounds good, rather than spend
hours working through the infinite possibilities on the computer.
If you end up loving your demo, you can jump on the computer with
a better idea of where you're going.

A workstation is also different from an arranger in that it lets
you control just about everything. You can record and edit on all
16 tracks, instead of a few on an arranger. You have more
performance controls that affect the tone of the instrument voice,
where an arranger has mostly performance controls that affect the
virtual band. You can also tweak the sound of any of your instruments:
change the effects, edit the filters, envelopes, LFOs and other
mod sources, all the way down to the individual samples, where an
arranger doesn't go as deep with control of the instrument sounds.

Arps or arpeggios get their name from history. On an instrument,
you play an arpeggio by playing the notes of a chord individually
in a pattern. In the ancient days, synthesizers had devices called
arpeggiators that did this for you. You'd hold down a C major
chord, and they'd play c, e, g, e, c, e, g, etc. You could change
the pattern, so they'd play c, e, g, c, e, g, or g, e, c, g, e, c,
but that was about it. On the Motif, an arpeggio is a bit like
that in the sense that you can play a chord, but what comes out is
a realistic sounding riff. For example, say you don't know how to
play good guitar parts. You can pick a guitar sound for a track,
select one of the guitar arpeggios, and just play the chords. The
Motif will generate notes that sound like you're strumming,
muting, tapping the guitar body for rhythm, etc. The arps on the
Motif aren't as smart as the styles on the Tyros, but they try to
help in the same way. You can also play them in to the sequencer
one at a time, which gives you more control than you get on a
Tyros. The Motif has a performance mode, where you can use up to 4
parts at once under arpeggiator control. People commonly make
performances that include drums, bass, guitar, and keys. The
result is something that sounds similar to a Tyros style, but with
fewer parts.

You can always hammer in a nail with a screw driver, but it isn't
necessarily easy. That's why it's better to get the keyboard that
is laid out to best handle the problems that you encounter the
most in your work.

Bryan

On Jul 3, 2012, at 11:10 AM, Ben Humphreys wrote:

Thanks Bryan,  I liked your summary: "The Tyros is a great
arranger with some workstation features. The Motif is a great
workstation with some arranger features."

Unfortunately, I don't yet have a grasp for what "arranger" and
"workstation" mean specifically.  However, an example might help
clarify the situation for me.

Let's say I have a 4-handed piano piece, such as "Heart and Soul."

I want to make a first pass with the left handed part, a
repeating pattern.

Then a second pass with the right handed part.

I understand how I might do this with Sonar, recording the left
hands part on a track, and then looping it over and over.  Then
putting the right hands part on its own track.

How might I accomplish this with Motif and/or Tyros?

Is this where arpeggios on Motif  come in? Is this where styles
on Tyros come in?

 Without regard to using Sonar, how would this be accomplished
on a Motif vs. Tyros?

Obviously, I'm confused about a lot of terms: workstation,
arranger, arpeggios, styles and how they might apply to various
situations, and in particular the one I have described.

I'd be grateful to anyone who can set me straight :)

Thanks

Ben

At 04:07 PM 7/1/2012, you wrote:
There are a good many blind Tyros users out there. Most of these
people are using the Tyros for doing one-man shows: weddings,
small parties, etc. It is incredibly realistic at being a
backing band while you play. The styles, harmonizer, and so
forth aren't really useful if you're playing with a full band.
Ensemble keyboard players would do better with a workstation,
where they can split/layer voices as much as they want, as well
as build their own from scratch. I know a few blind people that
have the Tyros as a studio sound module, but is very expensive
for that
approach.

The Tyros is a great arranger with some workstation features.
The Motif is a great workstation with some arranger features. My
personal opinion is that the Tyros is the superior live
keyboard, and the Motif is the superior studio piece, but they
both can do either things to some degree.

Anyway, there isn't a blind Tyros users list, as far as I know,
but lots of them are on MIDI-Mag. At one point, there were panel
descriptions, menu descriptions, and so on floating around for
at least the Tyros 3.

I suggest to ask on MIDI-Mag. Go to
<<http://www.midimag.org>http://www.midimag.org>www.midimag.org.

Bryan

On Jun 29, 2012, at 4:51 PM, D!J!X! wrote:

The motif is different in the layout and navigation than the
tyros and the top line psr.  The tyros and psr are aranger
keyboards, with the styles and are geared more toward quick
composition and perfomance like that. You can use it with a
sequencer with no problem, and for quick recordings. Not sure
what it has in terms of sampling capabilities, but the motif is
more of a workstation, you can make more customized full songs
on there, they have pattern mode for quick loop based music
creation, and it's more of an overall perfoming workstation,
with separate channels and assignable parts and such for
performing, the tyros and psr just have the main voice, 1 or 2
layers that you can add, and a left hand split along with the
styles.
The motif for example can have 4 separate keyboard zones or 4
layers (probably more in the xf and xs), you can use arps with
the voices (short musical loops), and you can even use the
pattern mode to create a 16 track part or such to use in
performances. It also has many more effects than the tyros and
more advanced routing, as it's meant for the studio musician
and the live gigging musician as well.
But if you're using the tyros in studio or for small
performances, the tyros should be fine, though because of it's
different layout and such it'll be harder to get help, since
most people on this list at least use the motif line. The good
thing about the tyros and psr navigation system is that it
stays constant and once you learn it you can get around most of
those
keyboards.

HTH, D!J!X!

-----Original Message-----
From:
<<mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>mailto:moaccess-bounce@f
re
e
lists.org><mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>moaccess-bounce
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[mailto:moaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Ben Humphreys
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 9:52 PM
To:
<<mailto:MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>mailto:MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx><
ma i lto:MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>MoAccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [MoAccess] Motif vs Tyros

Hi folks,

I have a question relating to accessability of the Motif vs the
Tyros.

I've heard it consistently stated that Motif is one of the best
workstations for a blind musician, presumably because so many
functions are accessible from dedicated buttons and the screen
interface is button-based, not touch-based.

However, when I went to purchase a Motif, I was so enamored
with the even more beautiful sounds of the Tyros that I ended
up getting a Tyros 4 instead.

I figured the Yamaha Tyros interface was similar enough to
Motif that I wouldn't be at any disadvantage to a Motif user.
Tyros has lots of buttons I can label in Braille, and screen
has 10 buttons, A through J, tab keys, and 1 through 8 up /
down buttons.  I'm assuming Motif is very similar.

Of course, there is no ty-access mailing list, and certain
apps, such as those from John Melas, won't work with Tyros.

But I'm using Sonar with Cake Talking, same as I would with Motif.
And I've found a Tyros 4 Instrument Definition File so
presumably can select instruments easily using Sonar.

Which leads to my question:

Is the Motif preferred among the blind community over the Tyros
primarily because the Motif is somehow more accessable?  Or is
it perhaps that the Tyros is a bit on the expensive side?

Is there some compelling reason I'd want to sell my Tyros and
get a Motif instead?

Thanks for your help,

Ben

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Vince Mistretta
Call me at 561-234-7631
Skype Name: vin5451
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