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sireson
Published on 07/24/14 at 07:19
When purchasing this keyboard I was looking for an instrument that could run a live show I was putting together without any other equipment. I wanted to perform from the keyboard as well as be supported with a realistic, or at least sympathetic accompaniment. What I was not expecting was to be pleasantly surprised at how this instrument not only ticked all the boxes I wanted but also provided inspiration for taking the show further.
The S950 is a 61-key keyboard workstation with features and options too numerous for a single review. The connections are basic: output L & R, foot pedal input, MIDI, USB B and USB A as well as a mic input (more on this later). In addition there is a video output, primarily designed for showing the lyrics when running karaoke tracks - something this reviewer has yet to enjoy…
The main panel is a sea of buttons and a few knobs, the colour display being the centre of the keyboard’s universe. All functions are designed to be accessible with as few presses as possible and, for the most part, the screen is clear about where you should go next.
There are getting on for 1000 voices built in to the unit, several of them the same as those on the Tyros 4. Four of these voices can be played at the same time, two each side of the split point. In addition there are over 400 accompaniment styles, each with four variations, a set of fills and three intros and three endings. On top of all that there are a raft of multi pad sets, some of which are one-shot, others of which are MIDI based - they play along to your chord selection - and you can also play your own .wav files directly from a USB stick.
With the addition of a sequencer, many many effects, a vocal harmoniser, USB audio playback and full one-touch registration memory this keyboard provides infinite flexibility only really limited by your imagination and your understanding of how the keyboard works.
UTILIZATION
Within moments of turning the S950 on you realise it is quite a significant instrument. The styling is perhaps a little dated, a little too much like the much cheaper members of the PSR family. However, the sound and the functionality defy the initial impression. Even just working through the accompaniment styles it is clear that a lot of thought and time has been put into the creation of each style. When using the linked one touch setting, each change of accompaniment variation changes the matching sounds. Mostly these are sympathetic and useful, occasionally they are surprising but rarely awful. This option can be disabled and you can select your own sounds as you play.
The registration memories are very useful for storing the entire keyboard exactly as it is and seamlessly working from one setting to the next. When changing registration during a performance the S950 waits for the next bar to complete before changing style, ensuring that the transition is seamless. It should be noted that sometimes it would be nice to select between the change lead voice now or at the bar end during performance rather than having to set it from inside the settings menus.
All the important sounds are excellent. Yamaha have done a great job with many of their Super Articulation sounds and Mega Voices. I have found the creation of my own variants of the stock sounds easy to do and it takes very little time to build up sound combinations which can then be recalled with a single registration button.
The USB stick functionality I would regard as essential. My S950 has a stick plugged in the entire time and I play .wav files and .mp3 files directly from it during performance, as well as select the registrations from the same source. In addition, there are many kind people who have uploaded style files and registrations to the internet and after a weekend of collecting I have several thousand named styles and sounds available to me simply by browsing the clear, colour screen.
The Yamaha Music Finder I have found slightly less useful due to the nature of the songs contained within it. When playing some of the styles it is sometimes disappointing to hear a particular song into immediately come to mind. Should I wish to play that song then the style would be perfect. However, if I want to play a similar song I find I cannot use that style because it sounds too much like the song it was based on. These styles have therefore remained ‘on the shelf’ as they are too recognisable.
The real power of the instrument comes with practicing swift navigation. Once you have configured your registrations and multi pads as you desire it is then a matter of pressing the right button at the right time (something the Yamaha demonstrators have nailed). Sometimes this can mean that you have to tweak your settings somewhat in order to allow things to happen without delay. One obvious example of this is when using multi pads that play .wav files. Then changing to one of these sets the S950 needs about half a second to check that all the files are where it expects them to be. This does not stop the playing of a style or inhibit any function but it does mean that if this takes longer than the remainder of the bar you are currently playing it will be another bar before the change actually takes place. Again, practice makes perfect in this.
Another minor issue is that I would like the multi pads to be a mixture of .wav files, one-shots and MIDI-based. Sadly you can only have one type of multi pad on the go at once. I find this a little restricting since I might like, for example, to play a .wav and have a nice trance arpeggio playing at the same time.
Generally editing of anything is simply a matter of pressing the function you are interested in and following the prompts on screen. The deeper you get I will admit the more lost you can become. I suspect this is the nature of all complex instruments like this. I believe Yamaha have pitched it about right in regards to having the most-used functions on the ‘outside’ and the details on the ‘inside’. I have downloaded the reference manual for the S950 and it contains every possible piece of information about the keyboard. This, with a little help from the online community, has meant that I have not found anything it can’t do yet.
The sequencer works acceptably, although I find it a little clumsy to edit - being used to a DAW environment. I have therefore used this rarely, preferring to run backing tracks off the USB stick instead. Connection to my DAW is easy via the USB B socket. My MacBook Pro found the keyboard immediately and it works faultlessly. The only negative I have found is that the octave up and octave down buttons do not transpose the keyboard over MIDI. This is a small irritation but does mean that if I want to play off the end of the 61 keys I have to transpose the keyboard up or down 12 semitones with 12 presses of the transpose button instead.
The mic input is a nice feature although I would have preferred an XLR socket. I appreciate that this doubles as an instrument socket but still… Having purchased a 1/4” to XLR mic lead I have experimented with the various vocal effects. All do exactly what they say on the tin and the harmony-based patches are very effective and match the chords being performed.
OVERALL OPINION
Before I purchased the S950 I had considered the Tyros 4. However, I suspected that everything I was going to need was contained in this instrument and I was not disappointed. I primarily use my S950 for live work and do all my sequencing within a Mac-based DAW. Although there is clearly a limit to the number of sounds and styles in this keyboard I have yet to be restricted by this. I find there is always something near to what I am looking for and it is just a matter of tweaking an existing sound or mixing two sounds together. Styles can be created from scratch or based on an existing style and it is made as easy as possible given the controls and the screen built in to the keyboard. I would love Yamaha to release a style editor app and I am not the first to wish for this.
Overall it is an excellent keyboard, I use it daily for all sorts of things I never would have considered. For the price I might have liked more metal than plastic, especially on the body itself. I purchased a Swan Flight case immediately and know that the keyboard would never have survived gigging without it. Likewise, I have to convince myself that the buttons will all last, none have shown wear and tear yet but they feel a little Spectrum 48 to my fingers. In addition, the LEDs showing which functions are lit are virtually invisible in direct sunlight. I know I should expect this but I had a scary moment on stage when the sun came out and I had no idea what settings were set. Just worth mentioning to help anyone else prepare for this eventuality.
These minor faults aside I can see me using this instrument for years to come. I love sitting down at it last thing at night and noodling away for no reason and then discovering a new tune appearing from under my fingers without any apparent effort on my part. Worth the purchase for that alone.
The S950 is a 61-key keyboard workstation with features and options too numerous for a single review. The connections are basic: output L & R, foot pedal input, MIDI, USB B and USB A as well as a mic input (more on this later). In addition there is a video output, primarily designed for showing the lyrics when running karaoke tracks - something this reviewer has yet to enjoy…
The main panel is a sea of buttons and a few knobs, the colour display being the centre of the keyboard’s universe. All functions are designed to be accessible with as few presses as possible and, for the most part, the screen is clear about where you should go next.
There are getting on for 1000 voices built in to the unit, several of them the same as those on the Tyros 4. Four of these voices can be played at the same time, two each side of the split point. In addition there are over 400 accompaniment styles, each with four variations, a set of fills and three intros and three endings. On top of all that there are a raft of multi pad sets, some of which are one-shot, others of which are MIDI based - they play along to your chord selection - and you can also play your own .wav files directly from a USB stick.
With the addition of a sequencer, many many effects, a vocal harmoniser, USB audio playback and full one-touch registration memory this keyboard provides infinite flexibility only really limited by your imagination and your understanding of how the keyboard works.
UTILIZATION
Within moments of turning the S950 on you realise it is quite a significant instrument. The styling is perhaps a little dated, a little too much like the much cheaper members of the PSR family. However, the sound and the functionality defy the initial impression. Even just working through the accompaniment styles it is clear that a lot of thought and time has been put into the creation of each style. When using the linked one touch setting, each change of accompaniment variation changes the matching sounds. Mostly these are sympathetic and useful, occasionally they are surprising but rarely awful. This option can be disabled and you can select your own sounds as you play.
The registration memories are very useful for storing the entire keyboard exactly as it is and seamlessly working from one setting to the next. When changing registration during a performance the S950 waits for the next bar to complete before changing style, ensuring that the transition is seamless. It should be noted that sometimes it would be nice to select between the change lead voice now or at the bar end during performance rather than having to set it from inside the settings menus.
All the important sounds are excellent. Yamaha have done a great job with many of their Super Articulation sounds and Mega Voices. I have found the creation of my own variants of the stock sounds easy to do and it takes very little time to build up sound combinations which can then be recalled with a single registration button.
The USB stick functionality I would regard as essential. My S950 has a stick plugged in the entire time and I play .wav files and .mp3 files directly from it during performance, as well as select the registrations from the same source. In addition, there are many kind people who have uploaded style files and registrations to the internet and after a weekend of collecting I have several thousand named styles and sounds available to me simply by browsing the clear, colour screen.
The Yamaha Music Finder I have found slightly less useful due to the nature of the songs contained within it. When playing some of the styles it is sometimes disappointing to hear a particular song into immediately come to mind. Should I wish to play that song then the style would be perfect. However, if I want to play a similar song I find I cannot use that style because it sounds too much like the song it was based on. These styles have therefore remained ‘on the shelf’ as they are too recognisable.
The real power of the instrument comes with practicing swift navigation. Once you have configured your registrations and multi pads as you desire it is then a matter of pressing the right button at the right time (something the Yamaha demonstrators have nailed). Sometimes this can mean that you have to tweak your settings somewhat in order to allow things to happen without delay. One obvious example of this is when using multi pads that play .wav files. Then changing to one of these sets the S950 needs about half a second to check that all the files are where it expects them to be. This does not stop the playing of a style or inhibit any function but it does mean that if this takes longer than the remainder of the bar you are currently playing it will be another bar before the change actually takes place. Again, practice makes perfect in this.
Another minor issue is that I would like the multi pads to be a mixture of .wav files, one-shots and MIDI-based. Sadly you can only have one type of multi pad on the go at once. I find this a little restricting since I might like, for example, to play a .wav and have a nice trance arpeggio playing at the same time.
Generally editing of anything is simply a matter of pressing the function you are interested in and following the prompts on screen. The deeper you get I will admit the more lost you can become. I suspect this is the nature of all complex instruments like this. I believe Yamaha have pitched it about right in regards to having the most-used functions on the ‘outside’ and the details on the ‘inside’. I have downloaded the reference manual for the S950 and it contains every possible piece of information about the keyboard. This, with a little help from the online community, has meant that I have not found anything it can’t do yet.
The sequencer works acceptably, although I find it a little clumsy to edit - being used to a DAW environment. I have therefore used this rarely, preferring to run backing tracks off the USB stick instead. Connection to my DAW is easy via the USB B socket. My MacBook Pro found the keyboard immediately and it works faultlessly. The only negative I have found is that the octave up and octave down buttons do not transpose the keyboard over MIDI. This is a small irritation but does mean that if I want to play off the end of the 61 keys I have to transpose the keyboard up or down 12 semitones with 12 presses of the transpose button instead.
The mic input is a nice feature although I would have preferred an XLR socket. I appreciate that this doubles as an instrument socket but still… Having purchased a 1/4” to XLR mic lead I have experimented with the various vocal effects. All do exactly what they say on the tin and the harmony-based patches are very effective and match the chords being performed.
OVERALL OPINION
Before I purchased the S950 I had considered the Tyros 4. However, I suspected that everything I was going to need was contained in this instrument and I was not disappointed. I primarily use my S950 for live work and do all my sequencing within a Mac-based DAW. Although there is clearly a limit to the number of sounds and styles in this keyboard I have yet to be restricted by this. I find there is always something near to what I am looking for and it is just a matter of tweaking an existing sound or mixing two sounds together. Styles can be created from scratch or based on an existing style and it is made as easy as possible given the controls and the screen built in to the keyboard. I would love Yamaha to release a style editor app and I am not the first to wish for this.
Overall it is an excellent keyboard, I use it daily for all sorts of things I never would have considered. For the price I might have liked more metal than plastic, especially on the body itself. I purchased a Swan Flight case immediately and know that the keyboard would never have survived gigging without it. Likewise, I have to convince myself that the buttons will all last, none have shown wear and tear yet but they feel a little Spectrum 48 to my fingers. In addition, the LEDs showing which functions are lit are virtually invisible in direct sunlight. I know I should expect this but I had a scary moment on stage when the sun came out and I had no idea what settings were set. Just worth mentioning to help anyone else prepare for this eventuality.
These minor faults aside I can see me using this instrument for years to come. I love sitting down at it last thing at night and noodling away for no reason and then discovering a new tune appearing from under my fingers without any apparent effort on my part. Worth the purchase for that alone.