Yamaha PSR SX600 for looping, looking for advice/help.. anyone have one?

[Biggles]

Also watch this

The Kross 2 only weights 8 lbs and can run on AA batteries so no problem couch playing.

 

[tomosiris]

Whew so many replies since I got back from my 2 days off!

Workstations and arrangers aren't the same thing, but they get lumped together often. Arrangers are about making (or donwloading, or just using a built-in ) a beat with an accompaniment)

When you're creating your own styles? The looping feature is exactly what you're looking for *but* these are designed to be played back for any chord (which is why the manual tells you to program for CM7 only to start with, that's the default pattern).

Workstations (even 'budget' ones like the Krome/EX, Fantom06/Modx) will let you do the looping you're talking about, but it'll be that chord verbatim. You can always copy and paste and the transpose what you've done, but that's not really 'live'; more designed for recording work. The downside is that workstations don't have built in speakers, one of the attractive things about most arrangers (the top of the line ones, ironically, again lack built in speakers)

But if you're ok with using headphones or have your own speakers, you should look into those;

But if you really enjoy the sounds of the PSRsx600, yes it can do what you need. I told you the loops are designed to work with any chord on playback, but you can actually disable that (but now we're getting into complicated stuff); but basically when you're creating your looping style,

Menu page 2 for style creator, then New Style (1 bar of blank) or Current style (copies the parts of the current style into memory, don't worry you can't edit or erase the actual preset). Let's say you start with new, the default is RHy2 (drums.) AGain, just 1 bar unless you change it with pattern length at the bottom right. You can make up to a 32 bar loop, I'd recommend starting with just 4 to get your feet wet.

If you sync start, as soon as you start typing the drums in, you can quantize your timing before saving.

NOW: under Rec Ch, hold down to select Bass, Chord1, etc. Then push up to select an instrument.

Tab all the way right to parameter: defaults to CM7. If you don't want your loop to respond to chords? You can change NTR "Root Transpose" to Bypass, and it will become a looper like you wanted; but you have to set this on every channel! (like I said, default is always CM7.. to learn how to use an arranger, it might be better to just program in CM7 initially *except* the bass, which, because of music theory, you want to hear a dominant 7 instead of a Major 7. So for now, just do repeating root note or root and fifth basses (don't overcomplicated it at first)

Arrangers *can* do the jobs of workstations in a roundabout way; workstations can't really do an arrangers job per se but can simulate it with arpeggios (not the same thing, no) but are much more efficient at doing the job you describe

Arrangers are typically used as "cover machines" ie covering other songs, although you certainly could create your own beat and song and make stuff from scratch. But they can do stuff live that workstations cannot. Both can record multitrack sequencing, but workstations are definitely better at the latter. Arrangers tend to have "sections" (Main style A,B,C,D, intros, endings, and fill ins)

Check out my youtube channel for examples of what arrangers are for!

Mark

Mark,
This is an incredibly helpful response, thanks so much! There is quite a bit to unpack here.
I wish things had been explained this clearly sooner, as it would have certainly helped in my purchase decision.

Are there any other tutorials or helpful resources for the SX600? I was not able to find any related to my topic.

Admittedly I do need to spend more time delving into the features of the SX600, I was just a bit dismayed by not being able to do what I was trying to do intuitively.

I also appreciate the workstation suggestions, are there any other 61 key that you would recommend? I plan to keep and SX600 at least a bit longer, and consider trading it in towards a workstation eventually.

 

[tomosiris]

Also watch this

The Kross 2 only weights 8 lbs and can run on AA batteries so no problem couch playing.

YES! this is exactly what I was trying to do!
I suppose I may have the wrong tool for the job..

 

[happyrat1]

Personally, nowadays I get by with a stage piano, a couple of drum machines and a mess of analog and VA synths. Toss in a sequencer like the Arturia Keystep Pro and the sky's the limit for arpeggiated patterns and sequences.

 

[Brian007]

Hi,

if you cant change the SX600 another option is to doenload cakewalk DAW which is free
you would be able to record and loop audio and midi in the Cakewalk

Brian007

 

[Stampanator]

Hello All,

New keyboard owner here. I am not a keyboard player/pianist per se, more of a composer/arranger musician.
I was looking for a keyboard with a built in "looper" (sequencer?) so that I could have an easy to use and somewhat portable device for music creation when I am away from my PC/DAW.

I ended up settling on a Yamaha PSR SX600 after seeing good reviews and browsing forums, although most of the input I found was from experienced keyboardists, and not from those using it for what I intended to.

I have been around musical equipment for several decades and find the vast majority of modern hardware to be relatively easy to fire up and get creating right away. For example I also picked up a new electric drum set and had that set up and playing within a few minutes.

However, with this new keyboard I am not having as much luck. I find the interface and settings confusing and difficult to navigate. There are little to no tutorials out there either which I found surprising being that this model has been out for several years.

As far as what I am trying to do, essentially, I am looking to select a voice, jam around until I find something I like, record x number of bars to a metronome, loop it back, select a new voice, record over it, rinse and repeat.

Please tell me this is possible with the machine I purchased! I have not yet found out how to make it do what I want. I have gone into "style creator" but I find it very unintuitive and clunky.
Also, what is a "style" anyways? I'm not sure if thats even the right term for what I am trying to do.
It also has a "song creator" which as far as I can tell is even further away from what I want, as I was unable to find any settings I was expecting to... record on/off? arm track for recording? etc.

I have spent over $1000 on this unit, I will be very disappointed to discover it was the not the right tool for the job. I suppose at worst case scenario I could always purchase an external looper, but would this even be functional for playback thru the integrated speakers?

Any help is much appreciated, thanks in advance!

You can absolutely loop and i would stay away from even trying to ise the sequencer. Just loop the sounds - drums, voice Psr.

A great simple looper is the digitac stereo jam man. Its easy to learn and bullet proof.

If youre richer…. Rc300 or rc600 and if youre into the ultra geek… ipad with loopy pro and an interface… which after a few months you will have hopefully some control over. Incredibly powerful but very geeky and always requires canles and power and interfaces to clutter your mind…
i have had the jam man stereo and rc300 and rc600 and have spent months with loopy pro too. Currently sticking with rc600 but even that took weeks to configure to reliability…

Its a great adventure and a lot to learn!!

 

[TMon]

Hello All,

New keyboard owner here. I am not a keyboard player/pianist per se, more of a composer/arranger musician.
I was looking for a keyboard with a built in "looper" (sequencer?) so that I could have an easy to use and somewhat portable device for music creation when I am away from my PC/DAW.

I ended up settling on a Yamaha PSR SX600 after seeing good reviews and browsing forums, although most of the input I found was from experienced keyboardists, and not from those using it for what I intended to.

I have been around musical equipment for several decades and find the vast majority of modern hardware to be relatively easy to fire up and get creating right away. For example I also picked up a new electric drum set and had that set up and playing within a few minutes.

However, with this new keyboard I am not having as much luck. I find the interface and settings confusing and difficult to navigate. There are little to no tutorials out there either which I found surprising being that this model has been out for several years.

As far as what I am trying to do, essentially, I am looking to select a voice, jam around until I find something I like, record x number of bars to a metronome, loop it back, select a new voice, record over it, rinse and repeat.

Please tell me this is possible with the machine I purchased! I have not yet found out how to make it do what I want. I have gone into "style creator" but I find it very unintuitive and clunky.
Also, what is a "style" anyways? I'm not sure if thats even the right term for what I am trying to do.
It also has a "song creator" which as far as I can tell is even further away from what I want, as I was unable to find any settings I was expecting to... record on/off? arm track for recording? etc.

I have spent over $1000 on this unit, I will be very disappointed to discover it was the not the right tool for the job. I suppose at worst case scenario I could always purchase an external looper, but would this even be functional for playback thru the integrated speakers?

Any help is much appreciated, thanks in advance!

]
There's no point in panning what you already have in hand if it meets some or most of your expectations. What you should do is learn and master the methodology on the SX600 that best gets you to what you want to do. Accept that it's rudimentary sequencer isn't great, but find a way to make it do what you want to the best of its ability. It's in your possession; leverage it as best you can. Look for specific tutorials on YouTube that'll teach you how to do it and do, do, do and practice, practice, practice until it becomes almost second nature. My 2 cents.