Yamaha YC Operating system update Ver. 1.3

[Legatoboy]

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/music_production/stagekeyboards/yc/downloads.html#product-tabs

 

A bunch of new patches including a Hamburg Steinway ... some other operating systems tweaks including new panning parms.

I haven't gone through all of it or updated yet... vib./chorus on the new transistor organs etc ... but here it is. 

 

This is the actual download page above.

 

[tomaszpio]

Hamburg Grand - it is Bösendorfer 

[CyberGene]

15 minutes ago, tomaszpio said:

Hamburg Grand - it is Bösendorfer 

Nope. In Hamburg they make Steinways. Bösendorfer is made in Vienna. 

[Radagast]

Yamaha has never had acoustic pianos, other than Yamaha and Bosendorfer on their digital keyboards, since they own Bosendorfer.  Are you confusing Steinberg with Steinway?

[CyberGene]

22 minutes ago, Radagast said:

Yamaha has never had acoustic pianos, other than Yamaha and Bosendorfer on their digital keyboards, since they own Bosendorfer.  Are you confusing Steinberg with Steinway?

When I said "they" I didn't mean Yamaha, I meant "they" (the piano makers of Hamburg) are known for Steinway. See what I was replying to. When a digital piano manufacturer names a piano a "Hamburg piano" they almost always mean a Hamburg Steinway and the person I was replying to thought it meant Bösendorfer. Yamaha own Bösendorfer and they can use the brand name in the voice list of their keyboards without having to pay to the actual piano manufacturer. Not the case with Steinway, which is why they (Yamaha and also many other digital piano manufacturers) obfuscate the actual piano brand by using the country or city name, hence Hamburg piano. That Hamburg voice was already added a year ago in the CP-series and it is well known it's a Hamburg Steinway. And the CP already includes a Bösendorfer piano voice which is named Imperial. 

[ElmerJFudd]

[Radagast]

Interesting.  In the past Yamaha has typically used Yamaha and Bosendorfer samples in their DPs.  Kawai is usually the same way about only using Kawai piano samples.

[AnotherScott]

The Hamburg was previously available on the CP73/88. As for its appearance at all, I think CyberGene pretty much summed it up. It's funny, if you look at https://usa.yamaha.com/products/music_production/stagekeyboards/cp88_73/features.html they start by saying "CP73 and 88 feature six grand pianos the Yamaha C7, C3, and four premium concert grands in the CFX, S700, CF3 and the Bösendorfer Imperial 290" but then the page describes seven grand pianos... those six and the Hamburg. So it'd kind of like "We give you six great Yamaha-made pianos! And oh yeah, this one other one, shhhh."

 

It's nice to see some new voices... the one I'm happiest about is there is finally... voices! That is, an actual choir sound.

 

I'm especially happy to see the other updates here, besides sounds. On one hand, it's maybe a disappointingly small number of improvements, considering how many good suggestions have been offered on ideascale (with many marked as under "assessment"), and how long it's been since their last confession update. But they are good useful changes.

 

First, one near and dear to my heart: Panning of sounds! You can finally reliably send your YC organ out to a Vent, or your LH bass out to a separate amp or channel in the PA. 

 

Second, the VC buttons can be used to apply effects, not just to the Hammond emulation, but now also the Vox/Farfisa emulations. This is nice because half the time you heard a Vox, you've heard it with vibrato, and the button didn't do anything on the YC! You could get vibrato from the mod stick, but IIRC, that wouldn't be saved as part of the Live Set, and also, the stick would apply vibrato to any other split/layered sound. (So much for your Doors split with LH bass.) Nice fix.

 

Third, you can now make simultaneous changes to both the Keys A and Keys B sounds (your two split/layered non-organ sounds). So for example, if you've got a layered sound-pair that you want to octave shift together as a unit, or open the filter on them, or tweak a shared effect, you can do it. 

 

Fourth, it can remember the status of the Leslie speed when changing sounds, another move toward authenticity. On a B3, when you call up a different drawbar registration, the Leslie speed remains the same, and now, the YC can behave that way as well.

 

I admit that I was worried that, between the release of the CK and how long it's been since the last YC update, we might have seen the last of the YC updates, making this an even more pleasant surprise. I hope this isn't the last we see of YC updates, but it's really good to see this one.

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

Does the YC have a harp? That’s one I’d really like to see added to the CP yet. 

[D. Gauss]

was anybody actually complaining about the pianos? so...they updated/addd the piano sound but not the organ? baffling.

[CyberGene]

20 minutes ago, D. Gauss said:

was anybody actually complaining about the pianos? so...they updated/addd the piano sound but not the organ? baffling.

Well, a "complaint" might be a strong word but some people felt the YC-line, being the more expensive one compared to the CP-line should include the same acoustic piano samples. And the CP-line already had the Bösendorfer Imperial and more recently the Hamburg (Steinway) and the Felt Piano. I doubt many people really thought they couldn't live without the Hamburg and the Felt but it's about feeling good, right 😀 But they still haven't been completely satisfied though, the Bösendrofer is still only in the CP-series.

[PianoMan51]

Thanks for the heads up! Just installed the update. Re: the ‘Steinway’, it’s got some value to me.
 

It’s kind of a plain vanilla sound. Doesn’t scream out ‘character’. But, it doesn’t have that high frequency attack that all the Yamaha samples have. And this is refreshing. 
 

I fooled around by maxing the Tone setting (boosts the highs) and added a few dBs of warm EQ around 150Hz. This is a playable patch for a neutral piano sound.

[Al Quinn]

41 minutes ago, D. Gauss said:

was anybody actually complaining about the pianos? so...they updated/addd the piano sound but not the organ? baffling.

Are people still complaining about the organ after the 1.2 update? I played the YC73 B3 patch a bunch on a recent gig and liked it a lot. 

[rickzjamm]

I think the Hamburg has a great sound! It’s clean and crisp and really cuts especially on the high end, still playing around with the EQ on it. 

[Mitch Towne]

So, I guess this proves that they can’t add high trigger to the organ sound. 😔

[ElmerJFudd]

16 minutes ago, Mitch Towne said:

So, I guess this proves that they can’t add high trigger to the organ sound. 😔

<sigh > does anyone ever make the last board we’ll need?  No high trigger, faders send sysex, don’t offer it in 73 keys, can’t reorder fx or use both the ones you want at the same time, it’s missing a staple sound, etc. etc.  I honestly think they do this shit on purpose.  

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Does the YC have a harp?

 

It does, with this update.

 

1 hour ago, D. Gauss said:

was anybody actually complaining about the pianos? so...they updated/addd the piano sound but not the organ? baffling.

 

As CyberGene said, people did (and will still) complain about the YC not having all the pianos of the CP. In addition to "feeling good," though, if some people are considering "upgrading" from a CP to a YC (e.g. to get the better organ), it's always irritating if "upgrading" also means losing some of the sounds you may have come to rely on. As for the organ, as Al Quinn said, there really hasn't been much complaint about the Hammond emulation since the rotary update... and since the new panning option facilitates adding an external rotary effect, in a way, that functionality has been enhanced as well. And they improved the vibrato option on the transistor organs. So yeah, there's something for everyone. ;-)

 

18 minutes ago, Mitch Towne said:

So, I guess this proves that they can’t add high trigger to the organ sound. 😔

 

I suspect that is the case. The YC61 has an interesting action, it has a high initial resistance that then releases as you press the key down further. I think that's one of the characteristics that actually makes it more suitable for piano than many non-hammer actions. It's almost like an escapement simulation, and it has the practical benefit of making it a bit harder to accidentally trigger a piano key that is adjacent to the one you're aiming for, a common problem with non-hammer actions. Some (like Nord) try to address that issue by increasing the overall resistance, but that creates an unnatural increasing pushback as you continue to press the key further (or hold it down), which you don't get on the Yamaha. That's good for the Yamaha, but I can also imagine that unusual "resistance curve" possibly interfering with how you'd expect a high trigger point to feel/react. Maybe they tried it, and it just didn't behave the way you'd want.

 

My own issue with playing organ on the YC61 was that trilling between two notes was difficult to do smoothly, and I think that wasn't the lack of high trigger--or at least not only that--but the fact that the release point is low (lower than it is for other sounds). So it is difficult to do a smooyt trill where the sound does not silence between strikes, between how quickly the played note cuts off (from the low release) and how much force you need to restrike the other note (to get past its point of high resistance). I think this might be largely if not entirely addressable if they would just allow the notes to release as high in the key travel as all the other sounds do. I posted an ideascale suggestion for this at https://yamahasynth.ideascale.com/c/idea/72296 - if anyone's interested, please check it out and maybe upvote it.

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

So it'd kind of like "We give you six great Yamaha-made pianos! And oh yeah, this one other one, shhhh."

President's mom at her kid's inauguration: "You see that boy up there? His brother is a very successful doctor!"

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Outkaster]

Well I just downloaded it.

[pjd]

I hope they have some flash ROM left after adding the new pianos. 😀

 

Yamaha need to add the bread and butter orchestra instruments and pipe organs -- now in the CK -- before I pull out the credit card.

 

Enjoy the new update, tho'! -- pj

 

P.S. Forgot to say... Leaving those instruments out left the YC sadly lacking WRT Nord and its library.

[rickzjamm]

Yes! Orchestra sounds… EDM is OK, but doesn’t really help us guys that play in cover bands & need the standard bread and butter sounds.
Yamaha makes great orchestra sounds…

[ElmerJFudd]

 

Yamaha Tech Talk will discuss the update in depth this afternoon in a live stream. 
 

 

 

[Paul Woodward]

Any thoughts on the new sounds? Live sets 14 through to 17 are new and some interesting sets. Update details here:

https://uk.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/9/1382649/yc88_yc73_yc61_en_sm_c0.pdf

[ElmerJFudd]

Alright, so if I’m interpreting the tech talk correctly, the new collection of FM sounds - brass, tx latelybass, etc. are making use of the FM engine.  Not exactly allowing us to import our own choice of patches but they heard what was being asked.   The panning feature is welcome surprise for those that use a Leslie or prefer the Neo Ventilator.  Everyone likes to have options - so different timbre pianos and a CP80, excellent.  👍

[tomaszpio]

Here is some piano comparison

 

[Mighty Motif Max]

I did mention the update yesterday in the larger YC thread - I do think the Hamburg is one of the better piano samples in the CP series, so I'm happy to see it's now in the YC series.

 

 

[AnotherScott]

The "side benefit" of adding more sounds via FM is that they take up no additional sample memory, which is presumably a limited resource. 

 

Here are the new Voices:

 

[ElmerJFudd]

1 hour ago, AnotherScott said:

The "side benefit" of adding more sounds via FM is that they take up no additional sample memory, which is presumably a limited resource. 

 

Here are the new Voices:

 

Bloody hell.   Should have done that from the get go.  Stick an FM synth engine in a Yamaha synth and use it just for organ?  Gobsmacked.  

[AnotherScott]

32 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Bloody hell.   Should have done that from the get go.  Stick an FM synth engine in a Yamaha synth and use it just for organ?  Gobsmacked.  

 

Even in the 1.0 version of the YC, in the original 144 (non-organ) sounds, 26 of them were FM sounds, so this isn't some new approach.

[ElmerJFudd]

10 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Even in the 1.0 version of the YC, in the original 144 (non-organ) sounds, 26 of them were FM sounds, so this isn't some new approach.

I see.  Well they picked some good patches from the lot.  It would be nice to have an editor/librarian for uploading.  But I doubt they’d do it.