When you try styles found
on the internet in OMB using your synthesizer, then you will
notice big differences in quality. Many of the styles, are
converted from Non-Yamaha keyboards. They usually don't sound
as good as they did on the original keyboard. There is a lot
that you can do to improve this. Here are some tips and
tricks.
Use the mixer to change controller values.
In the PC Keyboard 1 window: press a
chord to start the accompaniment. Now select the mixer from the menu. You can adjust the values of
volume, reverb etc. while the accompaniment plays to hear the
result. Tracks that use the same channel have coupled mixer
sliders. Press the Save button in the mixew window to save
the style with the new volume settings.
Revoicing the
style.
Press a voice button in the mixer
window. You will get a list of XG banks and patches. You can select a bank and view the included
patches. Alternatively you can select the option
"patches" to view a list of all patch variations.
You can browse through this list to audition the patches
while the accompaniment plays and hear the effects. The banks
and patches shown are basic XG included in the OMB.INS file.
Replace this file with a Cakewalk .INS file if you have one
for your synth.
Drumset conversion.
Load a style and go to the stylemaker
window. You can view the different parts (variations) with
the select box. The drum tracks have the text
"drums" in the "Misc parms" column. There
can be more than one drumtrack. Click on a drum track and
press the play button. If it sounds like a jungle it might
need conversion.
Double click on the track in the events
column. A list of all the notes in the drum track appears.
Click on the notes to hear the sound and write down which
ones need replacement (e.g Bb1, C4, etc.). Then exit the
events list and select the menu option Tracks/Convert. Double
click on a listed note in the conversion table that must be
repaired. An edit window will popup.
There are two ways you can deal with
the problem. You can replace a note with another more neutral
sound (e.g. a brush) or you can decrease the velocity of the
note (-99 won't be heared). If you're finished editing the
conversion tabel then save it with the save button. You will
need this table to repair more styles from the same origin
later.
Check the track(s) that need
conversion. If you want to do the conversion in all parts
then check this option too. Now press apply to do the
conversion. Press Exit and go to any of the windows
PC-Keyboard1, PC-Keyboard2 or MIDI-Keyboard to start playing
this style.
For Oriental drumsets there is a
conversion table availabe that converts everything to bongo's
and conga's. It has been succesfully applied to many Oriental
styles.
Loop length and time
signature.
Sometimes there is a gap of a few bars
in a variation. If a style is called 78ballad and the time
signature shown in the stylemaker window is 4/4 then that
might not be correct. Click on the time signature to change
this. In most cases the gap will be caused by a wrong length
of the part. Select menu Part/Length and change the number of
bars/measures. Go to any of the windows PC-Keyboard1,
PC-Keyboard2 or MIDI-Keyboard and play to check if the gap
has disappeared.
The Control Area.
The patch (instrument), volume, reverb
etc. are specified in an extra part of the style called the
Control Area. All this is sent to the synthesizer before the
style starts playing. This data can be viewed by double
clicking the column "Control data". It is possible
to include this data at the start of each individual part
(view this in the column "Events"). Some times this
is done because some parts use different instruments. In many
converted styles these controllers are inluded in each part
but are all the same.
Your synth will need some time to
process all this data and this can be heared as a small delay
or glitch each time the loop repeats. To repair this press
the "Ctrls" button. You will get an overview of the
controllers in all parts of the style. Press the
"Patch" button to view the patches. There should be
only values in the top line "Style wide" this is
the Control Area. If the same values are repeated in all
parts then you can move them to "Style wide".
Double click on any value outside the "style wide"
area. All the data in the column will be cleared and moved to
the "Style wide" area. The bank msb and lsb
controllers will be moved automatically with the patch.
You can also use this window to edit
the controllers in a style.
Doing the complete
conversion with OMB.
If you own the keyboard or software
that uses the styles that you want to convert, then you can
do the complete conversion with OMB. To do this you must
first make a MIDI file that plays all the variations. The
intro's and endings played in C and all the other variations
played in CMaj7. Create a new style in OMB. Paste the parts
of the MIDI file in the style parts in OMB. The intro's and
endings with transposition type Melody and the other parts
with transposition type Chord. There is a workshop about this.