Hello everyone

[TheSearcher]

I love the acoustic guitar for Flamenco and basic Spanish songs but just find the instrument difficult to conquer and make it sound the way I would like to and I am tired of fighting with it. Although I will never abandon it, I want to try the piano now.

So I got a Yamaha DGX-660 keyboard. Sounds pretty good for me, except I don’t know how to use it. I read the owner’s manual of course, but that is still not enough. In other words I have questions!... lots of them.

And so my question to the forum is: is there a forum… or a user’s group for this particular instrument where I could ask the many questions I have?

I know most keyboards are probably very similar regardless of brand, and among Yamaha boards, even more similar… but it would nice just a board, for this instrument and its variations (the 650, 450 and the like).

I tried searching in the Yamaha web for this type of a forum and found nothing to my surprise. No videos on HOW TO use the instrument to its maximum potential. Found videos in YT that "sell" the instrument and I watched them!.. that is why I own one now

I will appreciate any help on this.

TIA

 

[happyrat1]

There is a DGX Users Group on Yahoo Groups.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/YamahaDGX/info

No idea of how active it is or if it's only a mailing list.

There's a couple of avid DGX users here on keyboardforums as well.

Not too shabby to start with

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

The PSR Tutorial Forum has some DGX users, although it's primarily dedicated to the PSR-S and Tyros models.

The DGX/YPG models are very similar to the PSR-E/YPT models in certain respects, especially with regard to being XGlite-compatible (as opposed to XG-compatible), and also with regard to the number of variations per style they can play. The lower DGX/YPG models are more similar to the PSR-E/YPT models with respect to styles, since the higher DGX models can play either SFF1 or SFF2 style files, whereas the PSR-E/YPT and lower DGX/YPG models can play only SFF1 style files-- but the panel controls for controlling the styles are still the same.

Of course, the biggest difference between the DGX/YPG models and the PSR-E/YPT models are the types of keys they have-- the DGX/YPG models have piano-style keys, whereas the PSR-E/YPT models have synth- or organ-style keys.

I have a few PSR-E/YPT models myself, and might be able to answer some of your questions about using the DGX-660.

 

[Fred Coulter]

I own a DGX-650, but do not make full use of it. Perhaps we can explore together?

 

[TheSearcher]

There is a DGX Users Group on Yahoo Groups.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/YamahaDGX/info

No idea of how active it is or if it's only a mailing list.

There's a couple of avid DGX users here on keyboardforums as well.

Not too shabby to start with

Gary

The PSR Tutorial Forum has some DGX users, although it's primarily dedicated to the PSR-S and Tyros models.

The DGX/YPG models are very similar to the PSR-E/YPT models in certain respects, especially with regard to being XGlite-compatible (as opposed to XG-compatible), and also with regard to the number of variations per style they can play. The lower DGX/YPG models are more similar to the PSR-E/YPT models with respect to styles, since the higher DGX models can play either SFF1 or SFF2 style files, whereas the PSR-E/YPT and lower DGX/YPG models can play only SFF1 style files-- but the panel controls for controlling the styles are still the same.

Of course, the biggest difference between the DGX/YPG models and the PSR-E/YPT models are the types of keys they have-- the DGX/YPG models have piano-style keys, whereas the PSR-E/YPT models have synth- or organ-style keys.

I have a few PSR-E/YPT models myself, and might be able to answer some of your questions about using the DGX-660.

Thank you Gary for the tip. Unfortunately what I found in this group was not pleasant. It is a "public" board after all... and you can imagine the trash you find in there"

I own a DGX-650, but do not make full use of it. Perhaps we can explore together?

Hello Fred,

Let's see if I can manage to answer your post. Your message is a separate box from the other messages. I REPLIED to your message, but I end up here.... in what seems a general area... so I don't really know what i am doing. Sorry if I can not reach you. In any event, seems like a great idea teaming up to advance our knowledge of the our instruments. If anything I am surprised we don't have special forums for particular instruments, like ours for instance. I read my manual... but that is not enough... you need a forum of other owners/aficionados to exchange information with. Enough for now, just wanted to answer your post and I hope I did that.

 

[TheSearcher]

The PSR Tutorial Forum has some DGX users, although it's primarily dedicated to the PSR-S and Tyros models.

The DGX/YPG models are very similar to the PSR-E/YPT models in certain respects, especially with regard to being XGlite-compatible (as opposed to XG-compatible), and also with regard to the number of variations per style they can play. The lower DGX/YPG models are more similar to the PSR-E/YPT models with respect to styles, since the higher DGX models can play either SFF1 or SFF2 style files, whereas the PSR-E/YPT and lower DGX/YPG models can play only SFF1 style files-- but the panel controls for controlling the styles are still the same.

Of course, the biggest difference between the DGX/YPG models and the PSR-E/YPT models are the types of keys they have-- the DGX/YPG models have piano-style keys, whereas the PSR-E/YPT models have synth- or organ-style keys.

I have a few PSR-E/YPT models myself, and might be able to answer some of your questions about using the DGX-660.

Hello SeaGtGruff, ok let me ask you one question. As I said before I have never attempted / owned a piano before. It is also true that I am a bit deaf because I can not hear the phone a distance others can. That is how I found out I had lost some of hearing. The point is, I can NOT hear the last 3 or 4 keys to the right (the high notes) at all!... I hammer them as loud as I can and I hear NOTHING!... like is someone had forgot to "connect" them ... IS THIS NORMAL?.... or either I am really very deaf or my instrument is defective?.... TIA.

 

[happyrat1]

Your upper frequency hearing is shot. Not unusual. My father was about 60% deaf after a lifetime working in metal shops. He couldn't hear a phone ring half the time either and had to play the TV set cranked WAYYYY up.

It affected his enjoyment of music as well. He enjoyed a good Strauss Waltz or a Polka, but only at volumes that would drive everyone else out of the room.

Anyway, get your hearing checked by a professional audiologist. Get a decent hearing aid if you can afford one. Your loved ones will thank you for it. My father insisted he didn't need one and until the day he died our warmest conversations sounded like a Brazilian soccer game

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

It sounds like a hearing problem rather than a keyboard problem. I have tinnitus, myself-- right now I've got a high-pitched ringing in both ears, which is a fairly constant condition for me (I won't say "normal" since tinnitus isn't a normal condition), although it comes and goes in its intensity, or else I'm just better at ignoring it some times versus other times.

Anyway, the highest notes on a piano are over 3.5 kHz, which is still well below the "normal" 20 kHz threshold of human hearing, but 3.5 kHz is just the frequency of the fundamental, so those highest notes have a lot of partials or harmonics which are even higher.

What you could do-- just to rule out the possibility that it's a problem with the keyboard itself-- is try changing to a different voice, especially one that's rich in harmonics, such as a square-wave or saw-wave synth voice, to see if that helps you hear the highest keys. You could also try going into the functions menu and lowering the octave setting for the voice.

 

[happyrat1]

The easiest way to find out is to call his wife or girlfriend or a neighbour child into his studio and ask them if they can hear the note.

Anything else we could recommend would be ridiculously complicated.

But believe me, I have a lto of experience with hearing loss and high frequencies are the first to go.

And 20 Khz is the THEORETICAL max of human hearing. Only a small percentage of human beings can actually hear those frequencies.

Even for the typical adolescent or child with near perfect hearing most people top out at around 15 to 17 Khz.

By the time most of us hit our 40's or 50's we're lucky if we can hear past 12 to 15.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

The easiest way to find out is to call his wife or girlfriend or a neighbour child into his studio and ask them if they can hear the note.

D'oh! That's so obvious that it never crossed my mind!

And 20 Khz is the THEORETICAL max of human hearing. Only a small percentage of human beings can actually hear those frequencies.

Yes, that's why I said "normal" in quotes. The "20-20 hearing" thing (from 20 Hz to 20 kHz) is just a ballpark range which I suspect has more to do with its similarity to "20-20 vision" (thus making it easy to remember) than with any real-life validity.

 

[TheSearcher]

Your upper frequency hearing is shot. Not unusual. My father was about 60% deaf after a lifetime working in metal shops. He couldn't hear a phone ring half the time either and had to play the TV set cranked WAYYYY up.

It affected his enjoyment of music as well. He enjoyed a good Strauss Waltz or a Polka, but only at volumes that would drive everyone else out of the room.

Anyway, get your hearing checked by a professional audiologist. Get a decent hearing aid if you can afford one. Your loved ones will thank you for it. My father insisted he didn't need one and until the day he died our warmest conversations sounded like a Brazilian soccer game

Gary

Well, it seems like I am getting the hang of answering the posts and that is good. Two points here:

a) About the hearing. The funny thing is that just had my six month doctor check up - Thankfully everything is fine for my age - but you made me realize that I have NEVER reported my hearing as having a problem!... and I can't believe it myself I have missed to report it. Well, as far as I knew, my hearing was just fine... yes I knew I could not hear the phone where others could but so what, that was a minor detail in my thinking. After all I play my guitar with no problems. But the fact is, as you mentioned it, I should discuss this with my doctor and have my hearing examined just like they check my eyes every year.... so Thank you!

Yes, as SeaGG said, I will have others listen to the piano to see if hear the notes I can't.

b) Just because I wanted to be sure, I made a little video of when I went to check out the YAHOO GROUP for "DGX" users. Yahoo has always been kind of a trashy place for me except for a few things here and there, and one of them is/was "Yahoo groups." In fact I have belonged to some in the past and they were fine for the most part. Unfortunately, this last one (DGX) I found it full of cheese sex adds. That is why I made the video... hoping that I am doing something wrong... because as I said before, the yahoo groups I belonged to, were fine... none of this trash.

If you want to see it, here is the link for YouTube. This video is "unlisted" so hopefully no one will find it except you guys and I will remove it in about 3 days. Just for those here who want to see it... may you will find that I made a mistake somewhere and there is indeed a legitimate forum for the instrument.

Later.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I'm a little familiar with Yahoo Groups, and it's entirely possible that the group in question is "unmoderated" and thus wide open to spam.

 

[happyrat1]

Sorry about the Yahoo group. Not owning a DGX I had no interest in joining so I couldn't test it

However that was pretty much the only DGX specific group that turned up in Google.

A lot of Yahoo Groups are very well moderated and have safeguards against spammers however that one may have been abandoned for lack of interest.

I do subscribe to a Yahoo Group for Waldorf users for support for my Blofeld Desktop and I can categorically state that no such funny business goes on there.

Again, sorry,

Gary

 

[John Garside]

Just to chip in here concerning hearing since, until fairly recently, I had a problem with tinnitus which seems to have been cured over time with the use of a hearing aid.
But, when my hearing was tested by an audiologist, the frequency range I could hear was significantly reduced, and was hyper acute in the higher range that I could still hear.

And .. I can't hear the top notes of a piano either. At least on most days I can't. Just occasionally I can get a sense that they're there.
The hearing aid, properly adjusted, does help.
It is completely normal to lose the high frequencies over time.
By your thirties most can probably only hear to 15kHz, by the forties that may be 10kHz, by the fifties even lower still.
20Hz to 20kHz is what a person in late teens/early twenties should hear. In this band very high frequency starts to fall off from the mid twenties onward.
Remember, FM broadcasts have only ever gone as high as 15kHz. We don't think of them as being faulty. There isn't much musical information that high up.

There's quite a lot on information about hearing loss, etc. on Wikipedia.

 

[Fred Coulter]

It's interesting to look at the frequency ranges of different instruments. One thing that most people don't realize is how low a guitar really is.

Compared to a full 88 note piano keyboard (like the DGX), a four string bass guitar's open E string is the same note as the E a fifth up from the bottom of the piano keyboard. A guitar's bottom open E string is only one octave higher, and the top open E string is just two octaves than that. That's the E a third above middle C. Acoustic guitars generally don't go up the fret board more than an octave, and an electric guitar player has to work hard to go two octaves higher. That leaves almost two octaves (or four times the frequency) of notes on the piano keyboard above the too of the highest notes playable on a guitar.

It's no wonder that a guitar player who's lost a lot of their upper hearing wouldn't notice until they start playing a piano.

 

[John Garside]

And a five string bass takes the range down to the low B (as I recall).
It's amazing how many loudspeakers can't really go that low, and reproduce the note by frequency doubling.
I was quite staggered when, a few years ago, I added a Rel Storm 3 sub-woofer to my Hi-Fi system.
It adds a couple of octaves to the 'bottom end'.
All of a sudden the really low notes played on the foot pedals of a church organ were there and rattled the furniture.

 

[Alchemy]

Since you guys are talking about tinnitus and hearing loss I'll share something I found out. I spent about 3 years with so called mineres disease. My tinnitus got very bad, very bad bouts of vertigo, constant sensation of pressure in the head (the doc says that's an illusion), memory loss, fogginess, weak and no energy. Music was so bizarre and at times it sounded like nothing or like pots and pans banging. It was so bad that even when I began to hear better I thought Pink Floyd's Hey You was a Christmas song. Anyway, I cured it after lots of deduction and reading. I had previously went to two doctors and a specialist and none seemed to consider this simple thing. It really was fluid build up behind the ears and especially after sleeping. I looked up how to clear it and WOW! I take a breath, drink a mouthful of water, pinch my nose and swallow. Repeat until I no longer feel a pressure surge. I feel it draining down the back of my throat for a while. I still get tinnitus and some hearing loss but that procedure greatly lessens it. I suspect a great many may benefit by this since it seems to be a "big secret" for some reason. Perhaps the reason I can't say it fully cures me is only because I have been mostly deaf in one ear with tinnitus since I was a kid. It does get me back to "normal."

 

[happyrat1]

Actually I had something similar happen with my sinuses during allergy season. Constantly blowing your nose drives fluid into the inner ear where it clogs and gets infected.

For me the solution was even simpler.

Just pinch my nose and suck inward as hard as I can instead of blow. Likewise you'll feel it drain down the back of your throat and the sinus pressure immediately relieves itself.

I too suffered some nasty vertigo from this. But my symptoms never became nearly as bad as you described.

Now my solution is to perform this procedure everytime after I blow my nose. That helps keep the pressure off and my sinuses clear.

Gary

 

[Alchemy]

Gary, actually I'd bet it is the same thing but you found a way to fix it before it got too bad. I'm a smoker for one and I noticed before all this that I couldn't clear my throat when I woke up as much as I used to. Also, I seem to produce a lot of saliva as I sleep. Also, I have bruxism which means I grit my teeth in my sleep (sometimes). I considered that may help cause fluids to channel into the Eustachian tube (the canal from the back of the ear drum to the back of the throat). Some articles have tried to link bruxism and minieres disease. If I'm right no wonder, sheesh. I do sleep correctly, left side with head slightly upward.
No doubt an ear infection will cause it too because of fluid build up. The thing is that I begged these docs for a cure and I was sure there really was pressure. Around here, and I'm guessing possibly many places, a simple problem of a clogged Eustachian tube just does not seem to be in their protocol. They say that the sensation of pressure is an illusion.

BTW, once it's cleared the pressure is gone but the tinnitus fades over time, often a few days.

 

[happyrat1]

I'm also a heavy smoker.

As for doctors? In the end they're just people.

Get ten doctors to look at the same patient and you'll get ten entirely different diagnoses. A medical degree is no guarantee of infallibility.

I see my doctor once a year for a general checkup and to refill a couple of minor but necessary prescriptions.

Otherwise I'm not the sort to run off to my MD everytime I sneeze or break wind.

For the most part, our bodies heal themselves, much as they had to for most of our million year history on this planet

Gary