Yamaha p515 or general yamaha digital pianos

Greg

Brand new to the forum. So I just received a Yamaha P515. I love the action and the piano sound is great. But …. There seems to be no quick way to get to the XG voices. I.E. Playing the piano during a song then you want to quickly get to an XG voice to do a solo. Any way to do this? Getting to the XG voices is CLUNKY. Piano does not seem to even have simple features like 1 button to go back to the most recently used voice, or allow you to set a program to do similar things. I had a Digital Keyboards Synergy way back in the early 80's and that keyboard had WAY more thought put into the operation WAY MORE … Sad!!!

Other thoughts: Any way to replace some preset voices with XG or other voices? I dont need the Bass and Guitar voices and would rather add some Brass/Reeds etc so they can be easily selected. Again with my Synergy I could do that.

Also peeved Smart Pianist IOS app requires IOS 14. Well my older Iphone is slow enough without installing IOS 14. Any way to get versions of these apps for older IOS revs. Yep this is more Apple's fault than anyone else's. Very hard company to actually like.

CyberGene

Greg, welcome to the forum!

I don't have a P515 and there are more knowledgeable people about it that can answer your question regarding quick selection of XG voices but from a MIDI standpoint you can select any voice on the piano by sending program change MIDI events. So, with that in mind, you can connect a computer or an iPhone to the piano and send program change commands according to the MIDI spec about each XG voice. On an iPhone there's a free program called MIDI Wrench that can be programmed to send those MIDI commands although I haven't done that. But in theory it should work 🙂

DPPianoPhil

Yes, @CyberGene is right about sending a program change with MIDI Wrench. You can get the data to be sent from this Yamaha page. Look at the document called "data list" for the XG set and at the "MIDI reference" for all the details of the P-515 MIDI implementation: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/pianos/p_series/p-515/downloads.html#product-tabs

However, one easy way to change the sound to an XG voice is to use Smart Pianist. I know it's the not the answer you wanted given that you can't or won't run it on your iOS device…. Be aware than when using Smart Pianist, all the buttons on the piano itself are disabled, except the power on/off button and the screen shows: "InCommunication"

Drew-r

DPPianoPhil

https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/6/317936/QY70E2.PDF

Also (maybe) interesting :

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/programming.htm

and

https://psrstyles.com/our-blog/lessons-tips-and-tutorials/36-how-to-find-xg-gm-voices-on-yamaha-psr-sx900.html

“Ok, but you will ask now - Why some Factory Styles of Psr SX900 has XG/GM Sounds? Because in these styles used XG/GM Voices slightly different way. In the factory styles and songs, they prescribed sounds with special codes like: MSB | LSB | PROGRAM Change. In short, the MSB | LSB | PROGRAM Change is a address of voice in the ROM of Yamaha Arranger Keybaords. If you are interested to learn more about MSB, LSB and Program Change, we will write new article lather, and we will lern you to use MSB,LSB and Program Change.”

CyberGene

Actually I don’t see how to send program change messages with MIDI wrench. Some other app may be needed but I couldn’t find one… A computer might be better here.

Del Vento

CyberGene Actually I don’t see how to send program change messages with MIDI wrench. Some other app may be needed but I couldn’t find one… A computer might be better here.

I wrote a MIDI app for Android and briefly looked at what it would take to bring it to iOS and it wasn't very much effort at all. It's a shame that one has to rely on DIY for these things, but it's very easy if you can do minimal programming. On Android, you can connect the USB of the phone to the USB of the piano (I had a Yamaha NU1) and it just works out of the box.

[deleted]

Maybe you can call Yamaha customer service or email them and ask….might be a faster solution. I own a P515 and I don't see anywhere in the user manual where you can do these kinds of adjustments….the only other way I can think of would be to make a two-track recording of you playing both parts, layered.

Drew-r

I see what you mean by clunky. Using the front panel menu/buttons requires 3 clicks and 2 scrolls to select an XG voice. Even if you were running the SmartPianist GUI, the main advantage might be that it would be easier to see the menu while clicking & scrolling. This seems especially odd for a design that’s only 3-4 years old which Yamaha marketed as a stage piano.

navindra

TouchOSC can control Pianoteq and send MIDI Change Program messages, so I imagine it can do all this.

https://hexler.net/touchosc
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/touchosc/id1569996730

Del Vento

navindra TouchOSC can control Pianoteq and send MIDI Change Program messages, so I imagine it can do all this.

Looks like this is exactly what @Greg needs and it can be helpful for anyone. Thanks for posting it!