Submitted by BadMister on Sat, 2007-01-27 15:32.

While the chips you find in the latest/greatest synthesizer (which Yamaha manufacturers in-house, by the way) allow many things to be done, it is always what you do with them that is important to the product. Let's digress for a moment, and like Copernicus, let's not think the center of the cutting-edge technology universe is found in the products designed for us, the working professional musician... because the cutting edge of technology sometimes targets a different market all together.

The so-called "working professional musician" who would be using a Motif-series or even a Tyros-series is budget conscious, very budget conscious, in fact. This is why you find the price points that you currently find for these types of keyboards. The cutting edge technology is always expensive (well it very often is, at first). What if you did not have to constrain the products to $2000-$4000 range? What if you could design products at twice, three times or four times (or even 10-20 times) that price point? Then you would see the chips do something spectacular!!!

For example, Yamaha initially began as an organ company - and they still manufacturer organs (Electones) which always have some of the cutting edge technology. Those organs can run lots of money! The second product, and arguably the most well known Yamaha products, are pianos... and in this area Yamaha excels in the manufacture of fine acoustic, acoustic/electronic hybrids and cutting edge digital pianos.

One of the thrills for me personally at a NAMM show is walking next door to the Yamaha Piano Division to get an idea of what they are up to... it is always enlightening and is always like looking into the future. (I secretly wonder when the technology will trickle down to the so-called "working professional musician" - that's were I live at the company… and if you are reading this, where you live most likely, too). I'm in the Pro Audio & Combo Division of Yamaha (the so-called Rock 'n' Roll division).

Recently, the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) development at Yamaha introduced Active Field Control technology... It has been in the works in some form or other for some time. (Back when I played at the opening of the Yamaha Communication Center in NYC back in 1987, they premiered a speaker/room technology that seemed somewhat similar in theory). Instrumental Active Field Control (iAFC) technology allows today's Yamaha cutting edge digital piano (you know the big, expensive furniture pieces with built in speakers) orient itself to your living environment. It has microphones that help analyze the room and they adjust the soundboard simulation and the speaker system to the acoustics of the room in which you place it! Awesome stuff…

They are talking about 8 important innovative features that make for the stunning piano experience (some you have started to see "trickle" into the so-called, pro-level keyboards):

_String Resonance
_Key Off
_Natural Soundboard
_Instrumental Active Field Control
_Sustain Stereo
_AWM2
_Dynamic Stereo Sampling
_Keyboard Touch Response (GH3 or Graded Hammer 3 -Yamaha natural wood keys)

Some of these you recognize (as they have been sneaking into the PF-series, P-series, CP-series, S90 ES and now the Motif XS-series) - some others it will be years before they trickle down (if at all) to the pro-level (pro's don't want or need speaker systems built into their gear, it is considered non-pro, go figure!?!). And wooden keys, while great on the fingers, nothing feels like wood, are heavy… maybe you didn’t hear me, are HEAVY… (and don't travel well). Professionals, working professional musicians, constantly complain about weight, you know.

I had a piano dealer, who I got to know over the years I've been with Yamaha, say to me that most pianos wind up in purgatory. What he meant was if you believe in acoustic pianos as living things - you take them out of the crate and you must start regulating and tuning them (caring for and feeding them) - and I agree, then you must believe that they are happiest when they are played. However, a large percentage of acoustic piano sales are furniture sales... He said, "The majority of these beauties will be Pledged more than played".

Let me explain for those not familiar, "Pledge" is the registered brand name for a leading dust spray used on fine furniture here in the USA. So some of the finest pianos in the world are relegated to being nothing more than decorative furniture and are played very rarely, if at all. The same is true for some of today's high-end electronic pianos. They look like and feel like the real thing, and in many cases they are very, very close to the experience of playing the real thing. Fortunately, many of the customers for the electronic versions of the piano are likely to actually play the units – they are looking for something that has all the sound and feel benefits of an acoustic without having to care for and feed it (if you get my meaning).

The Doctors and Lawyers who buy these are professional people but they do not earn their living at music (obviously)... and they want the best. Most of the specifications are lost on them. They don't care that the chip inside is doing all kinds of analysis of the room environment to recreate the proper vibrations, they only know they have the money and they want the best. Nice work… if you can get it...

Okay, that was a look from the view where, we, the so-called working professional musicians, aren't at the center of cutting edge universe. If you thought you were, you'll get over it. Eventually, the good stuff trickles down, and we figure a way to make it work for us. So if you ask is there a bright future for music technology? You bet, as long as companies like Yamaha continue to push the envelope. Take solace in the customer for the high-end electronic pianos, never edits or tweaks sounds, never even thinks about a Modulation or Pitch Bend Wheel, and could care less about “ phat” filters or even adjusting effect parameters. (Now the instrument can adjust itself, how cool is that!?!)

Some of this is going to be covered in an upcoming Power User article on the new Effect processor chip found in the Motif XS... which did not just magically arrive in a pro synth - but definitely "trickled down" from our $20,000+ digital mixing consoles and from our studio grade effect processors. Oh boy, wait until you get your mitts on this chip!

Phil (Bad Mister) Clendeninn

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it is always interesting to see and hear the newest Electone

Submitted by Steve Cooper on Fri, 2007-05-11 15:27.

that is where I first heard FM, was it the HX1?

I also heard and saw an 8 operator synth they had, pricey though.....

Then there was the FS1R- 16 operators, I wish Yamaha would do another one, or just re-release it ;)

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FS1R

Submitted by BadMister on Sat, 2007-05-26 23:16.

FS1R was...
...Perhaps too hip for the room... I had the task of demonstrating the FS1R at the AES show back in 1998 and from the initial reaction to it, I could tell it was going to be very misunderstood. It was a combination of FM + FS (Formant Shaping) Synthesis. But rather than accepting what it *could* do, the initial gut response from the customer base was: "I want to program my own".

Here's what I mean... The presentation would start by telling people it was FM+FS synthesis and that there are no samples in this technology - that what they were about to hear represented the state-of-the-art in the evolution of Frequency Modulation synthesis. The FS1R would play "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please" in reponse to notes played on the keyboard (via what was called an FSEQ). Now there are no samples in this technology, but people would think they heard it say something or sing something, so therefore they would conclude that it must be a sampler. So I found myself repeating that there are no digital samples in this technology - everything they heard was synthesized. But then they would think they heard it say something else - and they would forget that there are no samples... it was pure synthesis. If you thought it was talking or singing, it was not. The FSEQ was the amplitude envelope outline of something that was spoken or played at one time but that was now used to create the formant content. There were some 90 preset FSEQs in the FS1R... the pitch and playback speed of the FSEQ could be varied over an extremely wide range. You changed the speed via clock and added pitch (from a pair of operators, one voiced and the other unvoiced). There were 8 pairs of operators available so the capability was unbelievable. If regular MIDI tracks are confusing, imagine an 8 track FSEQ, responsible for frequency and level output for 8 stacks of 2 operators!!!

Making your own FSEQs was (and is) beyond the scope of mere mortal musicians and that was the BIG issue.

The FS1R sounded phenomenal. But people could not get out of their heads that they wanted to program it to say what they wanted it to say... which, needless to say, was not going to happen. Not without tons of knowledge about FM synthesis and the mechanics of human speech (and a lot of computational computer muscle). It wasn't enough that the FS1R was a killer FM module with filters and fidelity miles beyond any of the previous FM synth engines.

Those who were lucky enough (and smart enough) to grab one, probably still use it. It was awesome, but very misunderstood. Technology can be great but unless you can bundle it into a compelling product, the result will not necessarily be a success. At the time the software to do the analysis of 128 amplitude stages of the voice to create the FSEQs was not only cost prohibitive but needed a powerful computer to run. And even then it would be far beyond what the typical musician could program. If FM was deep as an ocean, the FM+FS was as deep as outer space!!!

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