What i Say (Ray Charles)

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Hi,
Looking for the right style and voice (PSR E 463) of Ray Charles great piece “What I Say”!
What are your recommendations? Thanks in advance!
Best,
Arabelle
 
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Hi,
Looking for the right style and voice (PSR E 463) of Ray Charles great piece “What I Say”!
What are your recommendations? Thanks in advance!
Best,
Arabelle
The PSR E 463 is classed by Yamaha as an entry-level keyboard so you may be expecting too much in terms of replicating the voice and style you're looking for. According to the specs, it has a basic sampling feature, so it might be worth trying to sample the original sound from a recording.
 
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I know , but maybe somebody has an idea, which style of my entry-level keyboard has a style, I could use!
Anyway, I guess I will download a karaoke version and play along with this! Thanks anyway!
 

Rayblewit

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Picking a ready made yamaha style to replicate any famous popular tune is a difficult task. Usually hit and miss. Often a miss.
Most unlikely you will get a perfect match.
You probably won't even get a close match.
Therefore, you need to improvise and make the tune your own arrangement.
Jazz it up to your own style.
Ray
 
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I agree with Rayblewit, highly unlikely to get a match.

The fact that your keyboard is classed as entry level doesn't matter, there will be a style that will be suitable for the song.

I would suggest a 'Twist' or a 'Rock 'N' Roll style, but any that sounds good to you is what matters.

Personally, I'm not a fan of styles based on songs. As do that, we may as well use a midi file or backing track to play along to.

I also don't think it matters whether you have a so called entry level keybard or a high end arranger workstation. These days, I wouldn't say the difference in sound quality between the two extremes is worth the high price tag. I know there are many more features on the high end arrangers but for people like me who just want to choose a style, choose a sound, and play, the lower end arrangers from Yamaha are great.

So, as Rayblewit says,

Jazz it up to your own style.

Go with what style you fancy for the song and make it your own!

Good luck!
 
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Thank you! I appreciate your advice! I like my Yamaha E 463! It has a great sound and all the features I need! I also have a slightly more sophisticated keyboard, but I rarely use it because the sound is not quite as good as my E463! The question I still have is, do all midi files sound like Mickey Mouse?

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The question I still have is, do all midi files sound like Mickey Mouse?
It all depends. Some free midi downloads can be pretty poor and sound as you say, like Mickey Mouse. That seems to be the case with most of the free midi's of 'What'd I say' that I have tried. One way to check without having to listen to them all is to compare the file size. All the ones I saw were around 52kB so after listening to the first couple, I knew the rest of them were the same file. Genereally speaking, I have found that the bigger the file size, the better the file quality.

As a comparison, you can listen here to an mp3 recording of a better quality midi file of the same song: https://midifiles.com/en/shop/ray-charles/whatd-i-say/midi-10749

I was hoping to include a couple of free files that I had downloaded some time ago, to let you hear the quality but forum rules don't allow .mid file extensions.
 
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Thanks so much for this fantastic info and the great link! I saw, you come from the Tampa Bay Area in Fl! I used to live for over 20 years in Sarasota, before I moved to Connecticut 3 years ago!
 
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Thanks so much for this fantastic info and the great link! I saw, you come from the Tampa Bay Area in Fl! I used to live for over 20 years in Sarasota, before I moved to Connecticut 3 years ago!
You're weIcome and hope it is useful. I live in the Tampa Bay area now but came from Gourock in Scotland. We thought about living in Sarasota when we moved here in 1996 but found it a bit pricey.
 
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Scotland must be beautiful! Unfortunately, I never have been there! What did you bring to Florida? 26 years ago I came from Germany.
 

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