Free-play styles

Arthur Fultz

Is there a way to find or identify "free-play styles" as defined as styles with no percussion?

StylePlayer

Arthur Fultz Hm interesting didn't realize there were such styles. Can you please provide more details about these styles and list some samples?
Can't you just disable drums for any style inside the mixer and turn it into a no percussion style?

Stu Girlock

Arthur Fultz
Free-play styles are one of the attention-getting features of the newer Yamaha keyboards. Starting with the PSR SX keyboards. I have no idea If the Tyros models had the feature.

It's not that the style is missing the some, (not all) of the percussion. It's the fact that there is no set timing programmed or associated with a "Free" Style. .

Using the feature allows you to play at whatever pace you feel the music and interpretation call for. This is especially wonderful for hymns or slower theatrical numbers.

There is no rhythmic bass line that needs to be followed. Instead, as you change chords the style will add in a complimentary bass note. The simplest being the root of the chord. It's reminiscent of basic organ style many of us started out doing.

Arthur Fultz

The ones I have found often have the word “ethereal” in their title, such as Ethereal Synth, Ethereal worship, etc. Some of the stock Yamaha styles such as Cartoon Ballad or Modern Movie Ballad are drum free in the A variation and then add more percussion as you chose B, C, or D, but tympani can be really annoying depending on where your split and bass in the chord is set and which octave you play the chords in. Just hoping there was a search term that would provide choices of what someone has called “free-play”. Thanks for your question.

StylePlayer

Arthur Fultz I see, thank you. Let's wait for some more feedback if other people would also find this categorization useful.
It probably would be possible to auto detect such styles by checking if channels 9 and 10 don't have any note events in one of the Main sections.

kaimei19

I like the idea of concise information describing a style. There is a lot of keyboard compatibility information already available to users - missing voices (eg OTS and/or Main Section).

There might be an opportunity to collect more information during the upload or import process - perhaps by selecting from lookups. So Intros - select either 1,2 or 3 or leave blank. Endings - select either 1,2 or 3 or leave blank. Variations - likewise. Freeplay - select Yes, No or leave blank. OTS - select Yes, No or leave blank. There may be other criteria which don't occur to me right now.

I would envisage that this information would be displayed once on a page, perhaps in a single line, for each style? Here's an example of what I've tried to do via the Description field. But a user has to drill right down to the style heading to find it.

https://styleplayer.io/styles/yamaha/cvp-605/5590/stride-1

StylePlayer

kaimei19 BTW details about what parts of a style are enabled can be also seen on the "live preview" tab, that's probably the only thing it is still useful for and why I keep it. Perhaps we can create a more compact view for it.

jenygard

The free play styles of Genos and Genos2 are
80sChilloutSynth in Retropop
ElecOrganBallad and
TheaterOrganBallad in Easy Listening
EtherealMovie
EtheralVoices
MovieHorns
OnBroadway and
RomanticMovie in Movie&Show
AmbientChristmas and
OrganHymn in Classic & Events
Brassband in Trad & Folk
It is no way to find them automatic. They are only recognized by the word Free Play onscreen. I checked the channels on one of them, and the Rythm1 and Rythm2 are active. No beat, but it can be a hi-hat or some other atmosphaeric instrument that is used. A tempo is given for each style, although you are free to play in your own tempo, speed up or slow down.
The windows program "Genos2 StyleFinder" from Oostendorp Muziek (free) show you all styles on Genos and Genos2 with search functions for DJ, Free Play and Session styles, and for time signatures and tempo ranges. That is very useful for finding styles. For me it would be more useful if it was an Android app on my tablet. See https://forum.psrtutorial.com/index.php?topic=68711.0

Something similar should be possible on Styleplayer.io. We already have Time signatures and Tempo, but they are a part of the Song page, not the Style page. Styles have a standard tempo, the song where it is used may have a different tempo. The time signature will be the same for both. There could be a dropdown or a free text field on the Styles page. You have already on your todo-list search functions that could be used to find styles.

I don't know how frequent Free play styles are outside of Genos keyboards. They are very nice to play for certain musical styles. They probably must be found and registered manually.

StylePlayer

I need to check if this information about the style type (DJ, Free Play, Session) is encoded anywhere into the style itself so we can read it. Perhaps they use different style extensions. Thought this would be probably only relevant for factory styles.

f j

Identifying Free-play styles would certainly be of interest to me. I didn't realize they existed. But they sound like exactly what I do need.
I occasionally play with friends in a band-like manner, and I haven't found a good way to use what I have set up but without the drums etc. leaking thru occasionally by error, or getting the left hand - right hand balance just right. (We do play mostly 70's rock and R&B, not hymns though.) I would be curious if others have used Free-play styles this way and/or if anyone has any great tips for using an SX700 in a band setting.

jenygard

f j Look at the Genos2 list of Free play-styles above. These are typical for music genres that normally or often don't include drums and where change of tempo is important. You will not find them in Rock and R&B. You can use Channels and Mixer to remove drums and improve balance.

f j

Oh one further point or suggestion.... As these do not have a beat to them, perhaps the easiest way to get them classified is to have them simply show a BPM=0 and include a general note that BPM=0 styles are Free-Style's?

jenygard

f j But they do have a BMP setting. The other backing instruments will play in a standard tempo that suites the style, although you can deviate a lot from that when you play. Then rather use Free play Yes/No

f j

So it would not seem that Free Play's are not exactly what I am looking for. And I will have continue turning down channels and/or EQ setting etc. I have been thinking of buying a second keyboard for example a Yamaha CK61 for playing with friends but that just seems to be a bit of a waste and a shame. The SX700 can do so much, has a plethora of voices and features. I think Yamaha should simply have a simple switch in it that globally turns off the Style tracks and provides Stage keyboard-like functionality. I have so many styles and registrations that have the style channels enabled that inevitably when I am playing with friends I hit one of these and in the middle of our song the drums and rhythm start that clashes with our drummer. I hate that. I have started to make some voice-only registrations with sets of instruments... a few organs, pianos, synth, maybe a Sax and a flute. But I never seem to have it right. The Freeze button is capable of doing close to what I want. It can stop the inadvertent link-thru of styles, but that also freezes the left hand voice as well. If it simply froze the style channels and not the left hand voice, I could live with that. Again I cannot be the only one that occasionally uses my arranger in a band setting. What are others doing? Are they happy with it? Etc.