Sound Organisation - Yamaha CS1x Manual

chapter "Performance Mode – Practical Knowledge", where
we also deal with subjects relevant to 'live' musicians. In
short, the entire user interface is praise worthy. For example,
the EDIT key has fi nally been eliminated; the EDIT mode is
automatically activated the minute you call up any parameter.
Modern synthesizers however have to offer more than
excellent sounds and a high degree of user-friendliness; they
also need to excel as a stand-alone sound source for song
production.
The CS1x dispenses with an "on-board" sequencer.
Instead it rightly concentrates on its multi-timbral abilities,
i.e. the ability to simultaneously control as many sounds as
possible. This is an area in particular where the CS1x has a
lot to offer.
No less than 32 voices are available for all types of song
production. This applies not only to the Multi mode, the Per-
formance mode can be used multi-timbrally, too, and can
therefore also be used for song production. What we are
talking about here is the parallel Multi mode, where a Per-
formance is the foundation on which a further 12 Parts (indi-
vidual sounds or drum kits) can be built – an impressive
'fi rst'. An alternative to this approach can be found in the
Multi mode, which corresponds to the XG mode, itself an
extension of GM (General MIDI).
If you want to deal with any questions arising from all this,
take a look at chapter "Song Production – The Basics". It
explains (amongst other things) all about the XG standard,
examines the advantages and disadvantages of the Perfor-
mance and Multi modes in depth, and looks at how song and
Multi settings can be controlled in real-time using Controller
or System Exclusive messages.
If you are eager to get going however and wish to produce
good songs with the minimum of technical fuss, read chap-
ter "Song Production – An Easy Start".
We recommend you read the chapter following if you
prefer to use the more conventional way of changing Multi
settings at the keyboard. The magic phrase for this alterna-
tive is "Dump Request", a System Exclusive message that
allows the sequencer to request a dump from the CS1x that
contains all the Multi settings – a very important feature!
Any fi nal hurdles you encounter should be resolved in the
following chapters. These contain many tips and tricks for
song production and many other practical examples.
Now that you are familiar with the contents of the Blue
Book, we would touch upon some global subjects that you
should defi nitely know about – Performance structure and
management.

Sound Organisation

The CS1x sound structure requires explanation. So let's
take a quick look.
The CS1x contains two Performance Banks with 128
memory locations each: the PRESET bank (ROM) and the
USER bank (RAM). The latter can be overwritten with a third
bank, the EXTRA bank (Additions). You can load the EXTRA
bank from the supplied disk as a SMF ("EXTRAPF.MID") and
then transfer it to the CS1x (see Sound Overview in the
Appendix). If necessary, consult section "Performance Bulk
Dump".
A Performance is made up of four Layers. You can assign
two entirely different kinds of voices to these:
•
XG Voices, which are contained in 44 banks and orga-
nised into 480 Programmes (DATA LIST, pages 6 – 9).
The TG300B Voices offer a special selection of XG
voices (DATA LIST, page 10/11), which in practice how-
ever is mostly irrelevant.
6
•
"Voices for Performances" (DATA LIST, page 12/13);
which from now on will be referred to as Material
Voices.
We should like to elaborate on these "Material Voices".
All 930 Material Voices – with the exception of the drum
sets – are organised into 12 banks (Pre 0-11). You will see
from the table "Voices for Performances" that each bank is
utilised to different extents. This is because the Material
Voices are the result of the programming of PRESET, USER
and EXTRA Performances. Therefore: the Material Voices are
identical to the Layers of these Performances. Take a look at
this extract from the table below:
Table: Preset Performances, Layers
and Material Voices
Preset Layer 1 = Layer 2 =
Performances Preset 0 Preset 1
001 Dr:um Trax1 Dr:umTrx1 A
002 Sq:SinArp Sq:SnArp1 A Sq:SnArp1 B
003 Sq:Kirmes Sq:Kirmes A Sq:Kirmes B
004 Sq:Classic Sq:Classic A Sq:Classic B
Layers 1-4 of the Preset Performances make up Material
Voice Banks Pre 00 to 03. Only bank Pre 00 is fully assigned.
Quite logical really, as each Performance contains at least
one Layer. In contrast, Bank 03 is hardly used at all, as Per-
formances rarely use all 4 Layers.
This principle also applies to the USER Performances:
Here Layers 1 – 4 are banks Pre 04 to 07 respectively. Finally,
the user-loadable EXTRA Performances rely on the Addi-
tions, i.e. banks Pre 08 to 11.
If this is all getting far too theoretical for you, here's a little
exercise that you can try.
PERIMENT:
Select Performance P-047 (BA:Bassline) and call up
Parameter Bank and Program, one after another. The display
will show "PRE0" and "Ba:Baslne A#47". A quick glance to
table "Voice for Performances" confi rms that you are dealing
with Material Voice "Pre 00 – PGM 47". Now select Pro-
grams #48, #49, #50 etc. and compare the display with the
Voice table. Everything clear now?
You have just gained a better insight into the sound struc-
ture of your CS1x, and at the same time learned how differ-
ent Voices are chosen within a Performance. Let's take
another step along this route.
PERIMENT:
Let's start with the last settings for Performance "Bassline".
Select any Program from the Voice table. Memorise the Bank
and Program numbers (e.g. "ld:Mini QSA" = Pre 08 + PGM
#40), then input these values by calling up BANK and PRO-
GRAM respectively.
Now select Layer 2 (PART LAYER key / +). Selecting BANK
will show "Bank off" on the display. Let's make use of the
DATA knob for a change – after all, you need to step through
all the XG banks before you get to Material Voice banks Pre
00-12. This shows by the way that XG banks can also be
Layer 3 = Layer 4 =
Preset 2 Preset 3
Sq:Kirmes C