Playing Songs; Supported Song Types; Playing A Song - Yamaha P-255 Owner's Manual

Playing Songs

Your digital piano can play built-in Preset Songs, User Songs that you have recorded, and commercially available
songs. These songs can be in one of two different formats—MIDI or audio.
MIDI and audio songs
MIDI songs contain data created by recording the actions of playing and releasing keys—in other words, they do not con-
tain actual audio. This data is similar to sheet music in that it indicates the keys that should be played, as well as when and
how hard they should be played, in order to reproduce a specific piece of music. Using this data, your digital piano's tone
generator can recreate the sound of the recorded performance. MIDI songs are smaller than audio songs because they
contain less data; in addition, they also allow you to change the Voice used for playback and a number of other parameters.
In contrast, audio songs contain actual recordings of the sound of a performance, and they store audio data in much the
same way as a cassette tape or digital voice recorder. Audio songs can be played back on portable music players and
many other types of device, making it easy for you to let others hear what you have played.

Supported song types

Song Category list
Song
Category
numbers
A. 0 0 to A. 9 9
Audio songs
stored on a
Aud
*
USB flash
drive
001 to 999**
S. 0 0 to S. 9 9
MIDI songs
stored on a
Sng
*
USB flash
drive
001 to 999**
U. 0 0 to U. 0 9
MIDI songs
stored on
USr
the instru-
ment
001 to 700**
Preset
PrE
P. 0 1 to P. 5 0
Songs
(MIDI)
*: Shown only when a USB flash drive has been plugged into the instrument.
**: Shown only when the USB flash drive contains data of the corresponding format.
User Songs and Import Songs
The term User Song is used to refer to songs recorded using
the instrument itself; those created in any other way are
referred to as Import Songs. Songs contained within a folder
named USER FILES on a USB flash drive are designated as
User Songs and handled in the same way. Songs located
outside this folder are handled as Import Songs. If the USB
flash drive plugged into the instrument contains no USER
FILES folder, one will be created automatically when you
record a song to that drive. The recorded User Song will
then be saved in that folder.
Description
Audio-format User Songs
recorded using the instru-
ment itself (page 25).
Audio-format Import Songs
either purchased or created
on a computer.
MIDI-format User Songs
recorded using the instru-
ment itself (page 25).
MIDI-format Import Songs
either purchased or created
on a computer.
MIDI-format User Songs
recorded within the instru-
ment itself (page 25).
MIDI-format Import Songs
either purchased or created
on a computer and then
transferred to the instru-
ment.
Your digital piano contains
50 built-in Piano Songs.
These correspond to the
sheet music in the booklet
50 Greats for the Piano,
which is included for your
convenience and enjoyment.
Supported song data formats
Standard MIDI File formats 0 and 1
Standard MIDI File (SMF) formats are the most commonly
used MIDI formats for storing sequence data. SMF format 0
is used for MIDI songs recorded using this instrument.
Waveform Audio File format
Identified by a .wav file extension, Waveform Audio File For-
mat (WAV) is one of the most common formats used by
computers to record audio data. Your digital piano supports
the playback and recording of 44.1-kHz, 16-bit, stereo .wav
files.

Playing a song

If you wish to play a song saved on a USB flash drive,
read the section "Working with USB flash drives" (page
30), plug your flash drive into the [USB TO DEVICE] ter-
minal, and then follow the procedure described below.
1
Select the correct song category using
the [SELECT] button.
You can cycle through the available categories
(Aud, Sng, USr, and PrE) with each press of
the button; however, Aud and Sng are shown
only when a USB flash drive has been plugged
into the instrument. If you wish to play an Import
Song (001 to 999), be sure to choose the corre-
sponding category.
NOTE
• If the USB flash drive plugged into the instrument contains a large number
of folders, a certain amount of time may be required to shown display con-
tent for song selection.
2
Use the [-/NO] and [+/YES] buttons to
select a song number, "rnd" (random),
or "ALL" .
If necessary, press the [-/NO] and [+/YES] buttons
together to show Import Songs (001 to 999).
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P-255 Owner's Manual