BASICS OF MIXING

[♔Chello]

BASICS OF MIXING

My reference point for adjusting style part volume has always been 100 (in the scale 0-127).
This means that I have always set all parts to 100, and then adjusted all up or down in relation to this.

I had chosen this value for two reasons:
1: Analog mixing indicates the highest possible value before distortion occurs, to avoid hissing and noise.
2: All software uses 100 by default.

This number is far too high if you are using a Yamaha keyboard.

Why?
What does the number 100 mean?

This is based on the scale 0-127, which starts at -64 and ends at +64. MIDI needs 128 values.
This means that the actual zero point (center value) is 64, and not 100.

With 64 as the zero point, you can adjust the same amount both ways - 64 down and 64 up (64 + 64 = 128 values).

The weakest instruments thus get the maximum opportunity for reinforcement, while the strongest get the maximum opportunity for minimization.

Many people have probably noticed that the voices of the right hand often do not get enough reinforcement, and this is due to incorrect center value for style parts.
If this is set to 64, you will never experience problems with the right hand voices becoming too low.

If you study Yamaha`s internal styles, you will see that they have an average center value of 64.



However:
It is important to know that the default level for all digital mixing is 100.
When a style (or other) is edited / converted with a program, the original value is overridden to 100.

This works optimally with all brands, except Yamaha, because for unknown reasons they have chosen 64, which is the theoretical center value.

If you load a converted style to a Yamaha keyboard, you will find that all voices in the right section lack level, even if you set this to 127.

Then comes the fun:
If you load an SFF2 sound into a Yamaha keyboard, you will find that it will never cause problems in the form of too low a level, even if it is used with an original unmodified style.

The same SFF2 has been automatically converted to UVN / UVD in YEM, but the level is always higher than internal sounds.
If you replace all sounds in the right section with SFF2 sounds, you can increase the volume of style parts from 64 to 100, without experiencing that the right section voices become too low.

You thereby obtain an output signal that matches everything else on the market.
This fact testifies to the fact that Yamaha`s staff has a strange perception of sound mixing, and uses different models in their system.

All other brands use 100 as a value for their mixing, which means that converting styles and other things never causes problems with levels, because all software uses this value.


Everyone except Yamaha ...

I have had many keyboards from Yamaha, Korg, Ketron, Roland, Technics, Casio and Medeli.

For over 20 years I have converted styles between these, but Yamaha styles clearly stand out negatively, because the mixing is almost always wrong.

The sound is also generally colossally variable for Yamaha styles, while all others give stable results.
The latter can be attributed to Yamaha using XG and the like for MIDI, while everyone else uses GM, GS and GM2.

(XG uses extended parameters, which easily leads to incorrectly rendered values).