Yamaha PSRS950 Arranger Workstation Keyboard

Yamaha PSRS950 Keyboard Launch Drayton Manor 19th September 2011 - review by Justin Myerscough

Having seen , heard and played the new yamaha S-950 over the last couple of days I thought I would make a few notes about my first impressions

Firstly , it obviously has a sleeker black look. As to the sound there seemed to be a lot more definition and detail in the sound from its in built speakers although this was difficult to tell for sure due to the other noise in the room at the time, I was assured by Yamahas Ian House that this was an accurate impression and was due to the improved quality in the amplifier and speakers used.

The stand out feature of the entire event was clearly the new Audio styles which we were very excited to hear and try as not only would it be a hugely interesting addition to the S950 but in our opinion is an insight to what the future of Tyros might bring. You could certainly hear that the audio styles were completely different to the conventional styles , due to the noise in the room at the time we were anxious to hear it on headphones and we were glad that we did because it became even more apparent how different it was playing with a "real" drummer , at one point we changed from an audio latin style to a conventional similar latin style and the difference was undeniable. There are 25 audio styles built in which doesnt seem a lot but they will have a huge impact, at the end of the day how many styles do we actually use ? most of us probably have less than 30 favourite styles and I believe you will be able add to that number anyway.

A notable difference to the previous S710 + S910 is the ability for the purchase of voice + style expansion , similar to what has been recently available on the S650 and has audio linked multi pads which is a nice idea being able to use snippets of audio with your style.

Other things of note - Music Finder - 2500 records - 62 S. Articulation voices ( compared to 38 on the S910 )

Overall - The PSRS950 is clearly going to have a huge impact due to the ground breaking audio styles and the much improved sound from its built in speakers.

Yamaha continues to offer incredible musical technology and innovation with the new Yamaha PSRS950 arranger workstation keyboard.

The Yamaha PSRS950 workstation keyboard effectively blurs the line between digital and acoustic sound and the result will change your musical perceptions forever. Yamaha have recorded professional musicians to achieve authentic renditions of their instruments and playing nuances and now you can play alongside them. The PSRS950s other incredible features—including Vocal Harmony 2 and Super Articulation for thrilling instrumental and vocal support—will add a whole new perspective to your creativity.

The sound is amazing !

Acoustic instrument articulations, nuances and dynamics are challenging to reproduce. As the worlds largest musical instrument manufacturer, Yamaha has perfected both the science and art of this process to bring you the most sophisticated, musical-sounding and easy-to-play instrument Voices.

Super Articulation voices reproduce the performance characteristics of acoustic instruments so authentically, youll feel as if youre playing the real thing. Best of all, SA voices intelligently add the right expressive nuances to your performance without having to learn complicated control techniques - just play!

Musical styles Yamaha PSRS950

Audio Styles take one step further by adding an audio recording of studio drummers, percussionists and percussion ensembles playing in various studios around the world. This adds the natural feel, ambience and warmth to the drum and percussion parts of the style, giving your performance greater expressive potential. Yamaha Time Stretch Technology allows the audio to follow your tempo changes without changing pitch, so everything stays in perfect sync.

Playing a style is like being the conductor of a band that always plays the chords and arrangements you tell them to play. TheYamaha PSRS950 has a huge collection of 408 built-in dynamic styles. Yamaha styles are created by the worlds best programmers and mixed by professional studio engineers to ensure unparalleled quality.

Vocals sound fabulous.

Whether you sing for fun, enjoy karaoke or are a singer/songwriter, the PSRS950 provides everything you need to perform or write. Just plug in your mic and sing!

A powerful Vocal Cancel function effectively cancels or suppresses signals like vocals and solos that exist in the centre mix of an audio file, allowing you to make your own “minus one” track and sing “karaoke” style with just instrumental backing.

The PSRS950’s microphone input lets you connect a microphone and sing along with your keyboard performance, song or audio file playback. With Vocal Harmony, you can sing along with three of your own virtual background vocalists. Vocal Harmony2 takes that a step further with new pitch recognition and stability controls. A convenient real-time Mic Level indicator is included in the main display, and a new intuitive graphic user interface makes it easy to experiment with your own mic settings, effects and harmony types. To get you started, PSRS950 includes 44 exciting Vocal Harmony presets, including male, voices, female voices and sound effect settings.

Audio playback and Music notation

The Yamaha PSRS950 is capable of playing back and recording audio files. It also has a number of audio manipulation features you can use to create “karaoke” style “minus one” tracks in the key and tempo of your choice. It can also play back audio files from its Multi Pads, great for triggering loops, vocal phrases and sound effects.

The Yamaha PSRS950 conveniently supports MP3 and WAV audio file playback.

Audio Link Multi Pad function lets you link your own audio files (sound effects, vocal phrases, and so on), and trigger them from the Pads as you perform.

The Yamaha PSRS950 connects and interacts with your mobile devices and tablets. Plus, Yamaha’s growing number apps for iPhone, iPod and iPad bring new ways to interact with your keyboard.

Not all singing voices have the same range. The Yamaha PSRS950 can put your favourite song in the key of your choice with a powerful pitch shift feature that lets you change the key without changing the tempo. If you do want to change the tempo, you can use the time stretch feature to slow down or speed up the tempo without changing the pitch.

The large LCD display can show lyrics, music notation or text. You can even display this information on an external monitor.

Yamaha PSRS950 Digital Effects

In music production, the key to creating great sound is in the way the song is mixed. The mixing console lets you mix your music like a studio engineer, including balance, panning and professional studio Digital Signal Processing (DSP) borrowed from Yamaha’s renowned professional recording and live sound products.

Real Distortion effects are based on digital models of classic guitar amplifiers from the 1960s and 1970s. There are also digital models of legendary analog guitar effect pedals. The result meticulously reproduces the frequencies and dynamics of real distortion guitar sounds.

The Yamaha PSRS950 and PSR-S750 are packed with amazing Voices, Styles and comprehensive features to help you create, arrange, perform and record your music in any genre. Yamahas cutting edge sound innovation takes a step further with "Audio Styles" in PSRS950. Audio Styles give your performance greater expressive potential by adding real audio drum and percussion parts to Yamaha’s Guitar Enhanced Style engine. Additionally, the built-in FlashROM allows you to load new Voices and Style Expansions (VSE) from around the world. Customize and localize the content to match your individual needs! The new design gives a “Pro”- look and the improved panel layout makes it even easier to enjoy all the keyboard’s features.

Yamaha PSRS950 Keyboard features

• ¦ 1286 Voices (S950) / 1186 Voices (S750) in total
• 408 Styles (S950) / 325 Styles (S950) each with variations and OTS and OTS view
• Audio Styles (S950 only)
• 128 voice polyphony
• Guitar NTT and MegaVoice
• 64 MB FlashROM Expansion
• New Audio Functions like Cross-Fader or A-B-Repeat
• Enhanced Audio-Features like Vocal Cancel, Time Stretch and Pitch Shift (S950 only)
• Vocal Harmony 2 (S950 only)
• Latest DSP technology with Real Distortion
• Audio Link Multi Pads
• Stunning Sound thanks to new Digital Amp and larger speaker box
• New design Incredible and expressive sounds: In total 1286 (PSRS950) /1186 (PSR-S750) amazingly authentic voices (including MegaVoices and Super Articulation for both models) plus Expansion Voices!
• 408 Accompaniment Styles (PSRS950) / 325 Accompaniment Styles (PSR-S750) in total to enjoy regionally unique music plus Expansion Styles!
• New Audio Styles which include audio recordings of studio drummers, percussionists and percussion ensembles playing in various studios around the world, adding even more natural feel, ambience and warmth. (PSRS950)
• Latest DSP technology and new Real Distortion effects creating legendary analog guitar effects from the 1960’s and 1970’s.
• Digital amplifier with a superb signal to noise ratio.
• Record your own performance as an Audio file (44.1 kHz/ 16 bit WAV format) to a USB flash memory stick.
• Cross Fade from Audio file to MIDI Song playback.
• A-B function allows to loop between two markers.
• Vocal Cancel: Reduce the middle signal in the stereo field of an Audio File and play or sing along with your favorite music coming from a USB flash memory stick. (PSRS950 only)
• Reduce or increase the tempo of an Audio file with Time Scretch and change the pitch one octave up or down with Pitch Shift. (PSRS950 only)
• Link and trigger your own Audio files from Pads as you perform using the Audio Link Multi Pad function.
• The Aux in jacks allows to play along with apps like Yamaha’s “Note Star” digital sheet music with real audio backing tracks. Or, just play along with your favorite tunes from your music library.
• Plug in a microphone and sing along with your keyboard performance, MIDI Song or Audio file.
• With Vocal Harmony 2 you can sing along with three of your own virtual backing vocalists. There are 44 exciting Vocal Harmony presets, including male voices, female voices and SFX settings.
• Enjoy many useful functions for karaoke or sing-along such as Vocal Cancel, which cancels or suppresses signals like vocals and solos that exist in the center of an audio file, or the Scores, Lyrics and Text data in the display.
• 64 MB FlashROM for storing additional Audio Samples, Voices, Drum Kits and Styles – so the player can customize the instrument to their requirements!
• Continuing the story of PSR-S650 and PSR-A2000.
• Once data is loaded, the data remains in memory even if you turn the power off.
• Data Package contains multiple voices, styles and related data and can be installed in one easy operation.
• A Huge library of Voice & Styles Expansion-Packs are already available!
• PSRS950 and PSR-S750 come in a new cabinet which underlines their “Pro”- appearance.
• The larger speakers give a full, powerful sound with deep lows and clear highs.
• With new panel layout and direct access to new functions, the overall control is even easier.
• The new Demo function gives examples for nearly all important features, comprehensive information and demos for many voices and styles.
• With Yamaha’s i-MX1 MIDI interface for iPhone, iPod and iPad, you can experience a new dimension of MIDI control with apps like Yamaha’s Scale Tuner, Piano Diary or Faders & XY Pad.
• Enjoy the latest Registration Memories, multiple settings per song

Yamaha PSRS950 Keyboard Expansion

Thanks to Yamaha’s new Voice & Style Expansion contents for the PSR, players can take advantage of a wide and ever-increasing selection of regional, ethnic and traditional Voices and Styles. Load them to your PSR and instantly play authentic sounds, rhythm and backing in the musical style of your choice!

And the best part: Your first Expansion set is free! Owners of the PSR-S750 and PSRS950 can download the bonus Expansion Pack over the Internet. The European Software Team has created highly attractive and authentic Expansion Packs, dedicated to the music culture and musical styles spread all over Europe. Hundreds of newly recorded samples and voices and even more styles had been developped based on market research in European countries. The initial packs focus on folkloristic and traditional music and represent the latest result of localized European music data – from Ireland and England down to Turkey, Greek, Italy and Spain.

Eastern Europe highlights incl. Balalaika, Tambura, Gadulka violin, Cimbalom from Poland, Russia, Czech, Slovakia Croatia and Hungary down to the Balkan countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegowina.

• 25 Voices, 20 Styles + 10 Bonus-Styles (Russian Balalaika music, Gypsy music, Balkan Brass Band etc) Celtic Folkband incl. Whistles, Fiddle, Bagpipe, Mandolin, Bodhran Many Accordions from Italy, Ireland, France
• 45 Voices, 40 Styles (Celtic + English, Scand. + German Schlager, Polish, Czech) Spanish Flamenco Percussion incl. Cajon Italian Ballroom Drums + Guitar, VerySweet AltoSax French Musette Accordion
• 40 Voices, 40 Styles (Italian Ballroom, French, Spanish / Latin) Ethnic Flutes and various Accordions Tambura Ensemble incl. Double Bass Powerful lively Balkan Drumset + Percussion
• 75 Voices, 40 Styles (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia etc) Full set of Turkish traditional Instruments 2 versions of complete Turkish Drum & Percussion Sets Greek Buzuki (2 different character, many variations)
• 65 Voices, 40 Styles (Greece, Turkey) Essentials from the 4 Packs Celtic, Latin, Balkan & Oriental Celtic Folkband incl. Whistles, Fiddle, Bodhran, Bagpipe Spanish Flamenco Perc incl. Cajon, Ital. Ballroom Sounds incl. AltoSax Balkan Tambura Ens., Ethnic Flute, Greek Buzuki, Accordion Turkish traditional instruments incl. full Percussion Set
• 68 Voices, 40 Styles (from all parts of Europe)

Yamaha PSRS950 Keyboard Specifications