the 033/002 User bank to create brand new VL
sounds that you must also save a bulk file.
If you find that some of the parameters have
little or no effect on a particular sound it is
because the parameters you are adjusting are
offsets to the original board voice data. For
example, if a parameter is at maximum in the
original data you will not be able to increase it
any further with the offset. You may find that the
HPF or High Pass Filter has no effect on our
Floboe sound – this is because in the original
configuration of this model the HPF was not
used. Therefore it is not available to be
controlled. To really get at the original data you
must access it via the computer editing software.
With some sounds a particular parameter may
not be available because it does not apply to the
current voice or family of instrument. Because VL
technology is interactive some parameters
cannot be changed in real time – those that
would cause the horn to no longer
mathematically support sound. We call this
‘breaking the model’. You will
not
be allowed to
break the model. For those of you that are
un
afraid of complex technology and systems
may want to download the VL70-m Expert Editor
from the
www.yamahasynth.com
download
section (it’s free). It really let’s you get in and
create physical modeling instruments from
scratch –
WARNING:
not for the meek, or easily
frustrated programmer. In other words, it is very
deep and requires a fundamental understanding
of musical acoustics. For mere mortals you will
want to try the VL Visual Editor – a much easier
version of the modeling software.
•
When you attempt to store your work, it will
be saved to one of the 64 PLG locations of
the host and become a proper
Plug-In
Voice
. You have not really changed the
preset board Voice called Floboe, but you
have stored a new set of parameters that
point to and will control the preset Floboe
Board Voice equation.
•
Press [STORE] – you will be able to direct
this P1-B, P2-B or P3-B Voice to one of
the 64 PLG bank locations.
•
TIP:
When working with VL board voices you
may find it convenient to set up a template
voice. For example, the Floboe voice we just
worked with can act as a template. When you
want to work with a different Board Voice
rather than start from scratch each time, just
simply insert a new VL board voice on the
OSC Assign page. This way it will inherit the
mono setting, the effects and scream control
that you have set up. When you are ready to
store the new voice just point it to a new PLG
bank location. For example, after storing
Floboe to location 001(A01) press [EDIT] and
then Program button [1] - this will take you
back to the Oscillator page. Select Jazz Sax,
bank 033/001, number 81.
The Jazz Tenor sax – it will inherit all the edits of the
Floboe experiment. When you go to [STORE] simply
aim the results to another PLG bank location, PLG
:002(A02).
The CUSTOM Bank and the INTERNAL Bank
The bank
033/002
is a bank of 6
Custom
user
locations to which you can import new
configurations of the model. Here you can load in
your own totally
original
models created in the
provided Visual Voice Editor software. (You can
also use the VL Expert Editor software -
downloadable from the Yamaha website). You
can create your own hybrid acoustic instrument
models. The memory of the custom bank is
volatile
. The data in a volatile bank is lost when
you power down. Each time you power up these
locations revert to 6 VL sound effect Voices.
When you load in new Voices you will be writing
over these default Voices (do not worry they
appear elsewhere with the Preset banks and are
only acting as placeholders. Any custom Voices
must be stored and reloaded
each
time you want
to use them. Fortunately, with an optional
SmartMedia card you can create an auto load file
that will reload your data automatically on power
up. (More on this later).
The bank
033/003
is an
Internal
board
RAM bank that will hold 64 of your favorite VL
sounds (made from the preset VL elements and
any of your 6 custom board elements). You can
load in bulks created in the VL70-m tone
generator (an equivalent tone engine). This bank
also is
volatile
. These must be loaded in via
MIDI bulk from the VL Editor, from a SmartMedia
card file or from a sequence. When you power up
these locations default to a collection of Voices
made from preset 1 and preset 2 - set up for
breath control play. As you start to experiment
you will determine how you want to setup each
voice - whether you want to use BC or velocity or
TouchEG and how you want all the other
controllers to be assigned. These 64 Internal
locations are for your favorite setups. As you find
a preset that you enjoy playing you will want to
refine the controller setups that help you
‘perform’ the sound – store your controller
tweaks to voice locations in the 033/003 bank.
As you master an instrument (and it can take
you months of practice to really fully explore a
single VL ‘axe’) add it to your arsenal of
elements. In a future tutorial we will learn to
bulk new VL models into the Custom bank.
Mastering a VL sound is very much about
finding your own personalized controller
