https://www.instagram.com/richarddevine/

Three short FM-X snippets

Check it......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9wzev494_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-q7nIPdxI

Speaking of Ujiie, his demo just got the English subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfAxxav4PUU

davlippo7 - 05 February 2016 12:54 PM

How does Korg sample a 64GB? (Not sure the size but BIG) piano and just toss it in?

Korg Kronos has a 12 GByte preset ROM (of which 6 Gbyte is EXs12, the SGX-1 “Austrian Grand"). These samples are stored on the internal SSD, as already mentioned, and streamed from disk on demand, using the “preload" bank which contains program data and initial sample data.

Going into the future I suspect that Yamaha will have to eventually convert to this platform or be forever left behind.

Nope, they just need to design their tone generator chips with 64-bit memory adressing and integrate a compatible flash memory controller.

And if the current trend continues, in 3-4 years 32 Gbytes of integrated flash RAM will the the norm in phones and other embedded devices instead of today’s 8 GBytes. That’s 80 Gbytes of samples if using Yamaha’s LPC compression (2.5:1 ratio) - about 975 times as much as on the original Yamaha Motif from 2001.

Morphing a Yamaha soft-synth into a hardware interface. Is that transformation even possible for Yamaha and would we want it or not?

Yamaha has no incentive to do this, they are better off with dedicated VLSI circuits.

They have product portfolio ranging from very expensive digital mixers like the Rivage PM10 ($200 000) to cheap PSR-E253 portable keyboard ($170). All of these use the same or very similar proprietary VLSI chips, so Yamaha can sustain fabrication costs for large batches of these.

Mantra - 05 February 2016 02:35 PM

I’m guessing that there is one 8Gb module in there, 5.7Gb of samples, 1.7Gb of user area

Nope, 4 Gbytes of flash RAM.

5.67 GBytes is a figure for 16-bit linear format (i.e. uncompressed original PCM) - the physical size is 2.25 Gbytes assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression.

1.75 Gbytes is, conversely, physical size - which would give you an equivalent of 4.38 Gytes, assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression. To pity only Yamaha sample libraries seem to use compression, as they use it as a form of DRM/copy protection and hold their compression tools to themselves.

Jote - 05 February 2016 08:31 AM

I had acoustic samples in mind, which constitute the majority of the ROM

Mostly because there are many different variations for XA control.

you CAN sample each note, instead of sampling every third note. Or make the loops longer

Again, that’s triple the work - not just make large new samples and relevant programs, but also upgrade old samples and ensure their compatibility with old programs, all for a mild perceived quality difference - which could even be a nuisance for those who depend on these waveforms to sound exactly the same.

Yamaha clearly follows the same rule for Waveforms as with Voice/Performance names - if it’s the exact same Waveform name, then it’s the exact same Waveform. We shall have further information when the Data List for Montage is released.

I’d rather put the resources and effort into sampling the newest Yamaha CFX concert grand (2010, 9’, $150,000) rather than “upgrade” already existing sample set for the CFIIIS (1991, 9’, $125,000) and S6 (1994, 6’11”, $70,000) / S700 (1994, 7’5”, $250,000). From all accounts, it’s exactly what Yamaha did in the past with the CFIIIS samples on the Motif ES (~40 Mbyte sample set from the P120/P90) and S700 samples for the Motif XF (~90 Mbyte sample set from the S90XS).

That’s how all those multi-GB orchestral libraries work

Not exactly. Orchestral libraries have separate samples (programs) for every intricate nuance of playing technique.  But they’re still one-dimensional snapshots - you can’t really change the articulations while you are playing, unless you select a new program. It’s not something you’d want on a live performance synth. On the other hand, the Motif/Montage use clever programming tricks to make these articulations playable live in realtime.

that’s apparently more or less the figure for Montage vs XF

It has 10x the sample data but the same number of Motif XF waveforms (3997) plus ~3000 new waveforms for a total of 6900. According to my 5th grade math class, it’s not possible to have 10x the sample data just for old waveforms and have 10x the sample data for all waveforms (both old and new) at the same time…

it’s just odd without any number displayed. I wouldn’t mind if they were numbered simply 0001-1920

The numbers like “PRE01 G08” had very specific practical use because you could quick-dial them with dedicated buttons.

There is no use for Performance numbers if you can’t dial them anywhere.

“ Nope, 4 Gbytes of flash RAM.

5.67 GBytes is a figure for 16-bit linear format (i.e. uncompressed original PCM) - the physical size is 2.25 Gbytes assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression.

1.75 Gbytes is, conversely, physical size - which would give you an equivalent of 4.38 Gytes, assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression. To pity only Yamaha sample libraries seem to use compression, as they use it as a form of DRM/copy protection and hold their compression tools to themselves. “

So the 5.67GB is actually an inflated number to appear more impressive but in relative terms considering the compression that’s a fair number to advertise. The good thing about the physical of 1.75GB is that if we purchase Yamaha expansion packs it will be compressed so in relative terms we are actually getting a relative 4.38GB of space. The bad news is that If we load our own custom stuff then we’re not compressed and could be using up valuable space quickly.

You sure about expansion packs intel?

There is not use for Performance numbers if you can’t dial them anywhere.

Beg to differ. There’s still use if one finds it easier to memorize numbers than names. Even the “G08” format has its numeric equivalent of “104”, that can’t be really dialled anywhere on the machine itself. But it’s there, and it’s displayed on the screen (the “AXX” that can actually be dialled is actually in parentheses!)

Jote - 09 February 2016 04:34 AM

the “G08” format has its numeric equivalent of “104”, that can’t be really dialled anywhere on the machine itself

It serves as MIDI Program Change number - I’d guess these will be provided in the Data List and insrument definition files for the sequencing software.

davlippo7 - 09 February 2016 01:58 AM

“ Nope, 4 Gbytes of flash RAM.

5.67 GBytes is a figure for 16-bit linear format (i.e. uncompressed original PCM) - the physical size is 2.25 Gbytes assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression.

1.75 Gbytes is, conversely, physical size - which would give you an equivalent of 4.38 Gytes, assuming 2.5:1 LPC compression. To pity only Yamaha sample libraries seem to use compression, as they use it as a form of DRM/copy protection and hold their compression tools to themselves. “

So the 5.67GB is actually an inflated number to appear more impressive but in relative terms considering the compression that’s a fair number to advertise. The good thing about the physical of 1.75GB is that if we purchase Yamaha expansion packs it will be compressed so in relative terms we are actually getting a relative 4.38GB of space. The bad news is that If we load our own custom stuff then we’re not compressed and could be using up valuable space quickly.

Then Yamaha needs to deliver a compression tool, so we can compress our own stuff on a pc to the efficient awm2 format

I don’t think Yamaha is keen on releasing their proprietary compression algorithm into the wild.

Jote - 10 February 2016 04:01 AM

I don’t think Yamaha is keen on releasing their proprietary compression algorithm into the wild.

Memory used to be coveted and scarce and extremely expensive. Thus the “proprietary compression algorithm” was born. Nowadays 4GB of flash is chump change. We all kinda thought that the Montage had somewhere around 8GB but apparently it’s only 4GB. I know it’s high speed but how much more to double that size since it’s not expandable? Somewhere on the budget chopping block it got cut out. This doesn’t make much sense with the money making expansion packs on the way which I expect very similar to the Tyros system in musicsoft.com. “Vintage Keys” due at release along with the Bos piano. How many times over would that doubled flash expenditure have paid dividends to expansion geeks like myself. I’m a sucker for those things. I think I bought 75% of the Tyros 5 expansion packs at $160 to $200 a pop. Now I’m concerned about running out of space and I don’t even own one yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jObR8avIAkY

listen to the Latin Flute at 6:10

Thats technollogy i only know from SA2 voices in Tyros 5, EAM technollogy..

Now they got me wondering if the Tyros 5 ensemble technollogy is also hidden somewhere deep into the instrument…

I don’t think (I’m pretty certain as a matter of fact) this has much to do with AEM. The “trill” is an arpeggio (it was mentioned in another video). XS has a very similar flute sound that works in a similar manner, but the arpeggio is velocity triggered. This one is a bit weirder because it does require you to hit two keys, but only one note is actually used which leads me to believe that the arpeggio is simply bound to an element set to “legato” (which itself is not new). So, nothing special really.

davlippo7 - 10 February 2016 07:24 PM

Memory used to be coveted and scarce and extremely expensive. Thus the “proprietary compression algorithm” was born.

We know why it was used with 1980s/1990s EEPROM and 2000s flash memory, but today in 2016 a 16 GByte NAND flash memory chip is US$5.

I’ll refer you to chickensys.com/products2/translator/formats.html

Regarding encrypted files: It is a recent development over the last 10 or so years to data-encrypt audio samples to enforce a copy-protection scheme. Since developers started making their own samplers, they use this connection to allow only licensed users to play their sounds. If it was possible to translate these samples to other formats, it would defeat their copy-protection schemes. Thus, the Chicken Systems conversion engine cannot and will not be able to convert out of these formats, as we respect the developer’s intent.

Yamaha Motif: Often a Yamaha-created Motif Bank will contain LPC- or XPC-compressed samples, which cannot be decompressed or converted. The purpose for this is apparantly so no other sound engine can play back the samples except a Motif itself.