How are the demos recorded or played?

[mdoyle]

I just got the 209 and it's fantastic - everything I wanted and more. Does anyone know how the Yamaha demos arecreated? I mean... for the Nylon Guitar, for example, do they use a real guitar with electro pickups that feed MIDI into a sequencer and then attach the XG sound to it... or do they try to play the actual keyboard?

The reason I ask is that I'd like to use some of the sound embellishments (like the superb strumming in the demo) but cannot see how to do this.

Mike

[wally]

Back when the CVP-96s first came out, and I bought one, I found a demo in it that included a sax with a slur at the beginning of a certain note that I wanted to re-create in another song. I couldn't figure it out on my own, so I called Yamaha who put me in touch with Rollie Hudson, who couldn't help me. Rollie put me in touch with Dennis Stanfill (The WizardofMid -- you might remember him as our technical guru from the early days of the CVPUG). Dennis told me that the demos were created using midi instruments (midi guitar, midi sax, etc.) He said that the demos were intended to show how good a CVP can sound, not necessarily what you can create on one.

I imagine the same holds true for the newest models, too.

[Ian J. Evans]

Originally posted by wally
Dennis told me that the demos were created using midi instruments (midi guitar, midi sax, etc.) He said that the demos were intended to show how good a CVP can sound, not necessarily what you can create on one.

I imagine the same holds true for the newest models, too. [/B]

I hope I am not misunderstanding the above, but doesn't it sound like a parallel to " false advertising"...?

It seems to be somewhat like going to a car dealer and trying out a special souped up version of a model car and then finding out that the similar model you buy does not have anything like the same performance.

I am in the market for an upgrade to my ancient CLP 300 and have yet to decide whether to buy a CLP 170 or go the extra mile and get a CVP.

Maybe someone can enlighten me as to why one would want an instrument that sounds great with a professionally made demo but can not be reproduced by the user...?

Judging by all the accolades that the CVP's get on this forum I feel that I must be on the wrong track, but the last post does beg the question.

I hope to get some replies

Ian

[wally]

I knew I'd get this response when I wrote my reply to the original post. :-)

No, it's not false advertising. The CVP is a wonderful instrument, and it has tons of sounds and features that make music a lot of fun. But it can't entirely replace a wind instrument or a string instrument. It can almost perfectly recreate the sound that other instruments can produce, but you can't do everything on a keyboard that you can do with a different type of instrument.

Musicians, for the most part, understand that you really do need a sax if you're going to produce the full range of a sax's capabilities. But once you've created your music, the CVP can play it back flawlessly. This is ideal when you're collaborating with other musicians across the internet or across the classroom.

However, I agree that it would be nice to have some demos that you can KNOW were created entirely with a CVP. It's nice to know what can be done with only a CVP. Craig Knudsen produced a CD a while back that had some great music on it that was produced entirely on a CVP. You can search the old archive for information on how to order it.

Wally

[jjm542]

Wally, can you track down and post that source for the "CVP only" CD? I can't locate it in the archives - the only reference to Craig Knudsen is the tutorial disks (and their web site doesn't list anything else.)
thanks - jim

[cowpast]

I'm not sure about a Knudson CD. He was part of a Yamaha group that performed on an older CD.
You may be referring to a CD, "One Step At A Time" by Brent Mills. It was performed entirely on a CVP109. He has the CD for $15 or a Midi disk/CD combo for $25 on his Website...This one is well worth the price.
www.brentmills.com
Phil

[wally]

Oooooops. I stand corrected. It was the Brent Mills CD that I was thinking about.

Sorry, Brent!