Yamaha S03 help

[Chris Link]

First of all, I think Yamaha has, without a doubt, the most incomprehensible, poorly written owner's manuals in the industry.

 

 

I picked up one of these cheap a while back on eBay and it was going to possibly be my second KB when I demoed a Nord Stage. I'm now thinking of replacing my S90 with something more portable and primarily a piano to complement the Electro. The S90 is way overkill for me, but once in a while I need horns, strings, etc. Thought I'd keep the S03 for those few occasions (very similar sounds as the S90), but I would like to figure out a few things.

 

Almost every patch has this heavy wash of reverb. I don't see any global settings so I'm guessing it's going to have to be going through each patch I want to use and editing the reverb.

 

On the S90, I stored the patches needed for a show in the "Favorites" and could quickly scroll through this short list to make changes. I don't see anything similar here.

 

Is setting up a "job" the right way to segregate a dozen or so patches for a show? I presume I can put them in a particular order?

 

Anyone know how to do this? Thanks.

 

[bloodyMary]

Well, there's no such thing as favorites on this synth. You can save your patches in the USER bank in preferred order. Alternatively, you can set up up to 32 multitimbral combinations. Each one will contain all the patches for particular song on different midi channels. You'll select a combination named after a song, and scroll through midi channels to switch sounds. I worked this way for couple of years, and the s-03 was my only board!

[Dana.]

Worst feeling synth action ever. It's like playing dead feathers.

[MuzikTeechur]

I use mine as a MIDI slave, but once in a while I'll play it directly. It's good for horns, some strings...

 

When saving in the user bank you can manipulate the patches as you would anywhere else. However, if you use the "Multi" bank you're stuck with one effect even if you have splits set up on the patch. Thus, you may end up with Leslie on your horns, or wet wet reverb on your already-mushy strings.

It's a low-rent instrument, but does what it does well. I've used mine for about 5 years now and it does the job without complaint.