I am sure there are many questions regarding the soon to be released Yamaha Tyros3 Expansion Packs, so Simon Inkley from Yamaha Corporation has kindly spared a few moments to answer a few in this exclusive to ‘Yamaha Personal Keyboard Owner‘ written interview:

First of all, what exactly is an expansion?

We have been offering Premium Styles for many years. Premium Styles can be downloaded using Internet Direct Connection or from www.yamahamusicsoft.com and added to your instrument, thus ‘expanding’ it. For Tyros3 owners, we are broadening our Premium line-up by adding Voices and Packs for download from your computer:

Premium Voices are single new sounds that are a perfectly balanced addition to your Tyros3’s factory content. Voices will also be supplied with a bank of Registration Memory settings and a Demonstration Song. Premium Packs group many different types of content and bring them together to make a ‘mini-instrument’. Packs include new Voices, Styles, One Touch Settings, Multi-Pads, Registration Memories and Demonstration Songs.

What will be available and how did you decide what to make?

Yamaha’s team is in constant contact with customers all over the world. We use market information linked with the knowledge of our passionate staff to steer product planning and development. As a result, we will introduce 3 new Premium products: -

1. SA2 Trombone
   This Voice makes full use of Tyros3’s Super Articulation 2 technology delivering an easy to play voice with a breathtakingly realistic sound useful for playing many different styles of music.
2. Euro and US Organ Pack
   From the crisp punchy Euro Organ through to the warm and lush US home organ tone, this pack provides detailed recreations of two legendary organ types. The pack includes not only brand new voices but also new styles, multi-pads, one touch settings, registration memories and demonstration songs.
3. Choir & Vocal Pack
   The human voice is truly the original musical instrument and features in almost every musical style imaginable. The Choir & Vocal Premium Pack brings a host of vocal creativity to your fingertips offering a vast range from classical and ethereal to pop, soul and ballad productions. Just like the Euro and US Organ Pack, included are new styles, multi-pads, one touch settings, registration memories and demonstration songs.

How long have they been in development and what was involved in the creation?

Yamaha Premium branded content is planned and developed to the same exacting standards as Tyros itself. Everything from sampling, wave processing, voicing, style programming, registration settings through to mixing, checking and finalising is taken care of by Yamaha’s elite team of content professionals.

It takes a long time to create data to this high level, Premium Packs were in development for well over 12 months…

What were the reasons behind not including them at launch?

It was always our intention to introduce “expandability” as a function of Tyros3, hence the “Expansion” button. During content development of Tyros3 itself, the focus was on creating a great instrument and not on how it could expanded in the future.

Tyros3 is now in the market and is being used all over the world for an ever increasing variety of music making activities. Our challenge is to continue satisfying the demands of global musicians at all playing levels whilst maintaining the ‘spirit’ of our instruments. Tyros3’s “Expansion” functionality is a step towards supporting the increasingly diverse musical demands of our customers…

What hardware is required to use the new expansion packs?

Currently, Tyros3 is the only instrument compatible with Premium Voices/Packs customers are required to install DIMMs in order to use the content. Of course, you also need access to an internet connection to purchase and download the content.

How large are the packs?

This is a difficult question to answer because it depends on so many variables – especially the type of voice itself! In terms of file sizes for download, I would say single voices would start around 10Mb through to maybe 200Mb for large Packs.

When and where will the Premium Packs and Voices be available?

Launch date is August 3rd 2009, and we will be featuring several different previews leading up to that on www.music-tyros.com. On August 3rd www.music-tyros.com will be updated to include detailed information and demonstration movies for all of the new Premium content. Customers will be able to purchase and download the products from www.yamahamusicsoft.com.

Will there be additional packs or single voices in the future made available from Yamaha for the Tyros3?

Yes ! I have no information to share with you just yet, only that we’re working on it !

A big thank you to Simon for his time…

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