Yamaha MX Series - Storing Parts

[Jim Inman]

Yamaha surely knows the answer to my question but they are silent, so I'll try here.

Pressing one of the sixteen PART buttons on the Yamaha MX61 can switch to what I call presets - meaning Voices assigned its instrument buttons. Those are divided into categories: PIANO, KEYBOARD, ORGAN, GUITAR, etc. Common sense tells us that after making the selections, pressing STORE > ENTER > YES would store those settings into whichever Performance we are editing. That does not happen. And yet the final comment on this Yamaha Forum page, where the issue was discussed, ends with the assertion that those settings can in fact be stored, but it doesn't say how. Neither of the 3 basic videos nor the user manual tell how. Perhaps there are web pages which explain. Who might know?​

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I don't think you can edit and store the settings for all 16 parts using the panel controls and function menu, although I might be wrong. The panel controls and function menu seem to be centered around just the first two or three parts.

However, you can use the free Vycro MX software for Windows and Mac computers to edit all 16 parts, and the not-free software from John Melas will also let you edit performances as well as voices. The Vycro MX site seems to be out of commission as of a year or two ago, but the program can still be found online if you search for it.

 

[Jim Inman]

Thanks. You're probably right. However, I've figured out that this MX61 will accomplish what I hoped in a way that's much better than I had envisioned. It serves as my 2nd-tier keyboard to readily add leads or texture while my 88-key piano is 1st-tier. My hope was to store presets for the various instrument categories, but that would mean having to push one of the 16 buttons - say guitar - whose print is hard to see - then if I wanted to switch to strings during the song, push another button that's hard to see. Instead, the MX's Performances make all that easy. Here's how:

In preparing for the show, select an instrument as your base for a given song, add a second instrument for layering if you wish, adjust the mix of the two, then store it with a Performance number. During concert, by simply dialing to that number - which shows in bright red digits - the sound is ready. If you plan to change instruments during a song, store that instrument in the next consecutive number so you can dial to it with one click, then back to the former if needed. Your presets can be stored in program order if you wish: Song 1 = Performance 1, Song 2 = Performance 2, etc. So I have accidentally stumbled onto the solution I sought, which was: A single unit containing it's own sounds which could be aligned in concert order.​