I bought the Yamaha s90 xs a few months ago. I am overall impressed with it, but there seems to be
a sound quality problem with all piano sounds.
Maybe you can try doing this on your keyboard:
Play a loud octave low on the piano;
Quickly, play the same octave, quitely, and rapidly hit both notes, gradually getting louder and louder.
Everytime i do this, it sounds as if I am playing too many notes for the system to handle....it suddenly cuts out parts of the sounds.  As you can see, it is very hard to explain! sorry.  It is kind of frustrating, because I have to be careful when recording not to allow this to happen.
Do all keyboards do this? I was surprised that a 3000 dollar keyboard would have this problem....should I take advantage of my warranty in this situation?

thank you

This sounds like more of an operating system issue than a "patch" issue. I have an S30, but I couldn't re-create the problem. Then again, I don't have the same number of keys you do!

Have you tried to update the keyboard's OS? It was just updated by Yamaha at the end of November (in fact, a lot of the stuff you might need was updated at the end of last year). The latest version is 1.03.

Here's how you check it, per Yamaha:

How to check the version of the unit
1. Press the [UTILITY] button to enter the Utility mode.
2. Press the [UTILITY] and cursor [△] buttons simultaneously.
The following message will appear:
The unit's version is indicated by " Firmware Version *.**.* "
Only the numbers up to the two decimal places after the first dot are important in reading the
version number; you can ignore the numbers after the second dot.
Ex.) 1.01.1=1.01, 1.02.4=1.02
Press the [EXIT] button to exit the version information.

Check out this page for more info and to get the latest updates: http://www.yamahasynth.co...izers/s9070_xs/editor/ .

Steve

thank you for your help......
i was able to update my keyboard, but the problem was not fixed
click here to here my problem

Tyler,
The link doesn't work. Did you upload a sample of the sounds problem you're having?

At any rate, all keyboards don't do this, and you might want to check something else to make sure it's just your keyboard and not your PC. Try this. please: Disconnect the MIDI and audio from the PC. Set the keyboard to "Local: ON" so that the keys you hit trigger the sounds in the keyboard without going through SONAR at all. Listen through your headphones, and see if you can recreate this problem with more than one sound. Try pianos, guitars, and other samples that have quick attacks and relatively long decays.

If you still hear the problem without your PC in the loop, the problem is with the keyboard, and you might want to post a message in a Yamaha forum. If you don't hear the problem when the keyboard is disconnected from the PC, the problem is probably the PC, and it might be related to the Celeron processor and integrated audio. We won't know until you test the keyboard on its own, though.

When you report back, please let us know how which version of SONAR you have, much RAM you have on the PC, and whether you have a dedicated video card.

Thanks and good luck!

Steve

I think that you may be exceeding the polyphony limit of the S90.  Even though you've got 128 tone generators, it's easier to run out than you think. 

I'm assuming that you're running your test sustain pedal down.  You didn't say which mode you're using.  Perfomance mode eats voices like popcorn.  Let's assume that you're in Voice mode and are using a piano patch with 4 elements.  Each time you play an octave, that's two notes times 4 elements = 8 tone generators.  After 16 repetitions, you're out of tone generators and the S90 starts deallocating voices from the earlier notes and giving them to the new ones. 

The voice mode scenario is the best case, because some of the other modes either consume more voices or may reserve voices, meaning that you might run out well before 16 reps.  When you run your test, count reps until you hear voices drop.

The S90 has lots of options.  (Too many for my taste.  I wasn't a fan when I owned one.)  You should make sure that you're not operating in a mode that reduces or reserves polyphony.

Your test is a tough one because the lower octave have longer sustain which means that you're more likely to hear voices when they drop out.

To answer your questions, yes, all keyboards do this.  It's that the number of reps differs depending on polyphony, patch, mode, and settings.

Murray

MurMan has a point, and maybe I missed something, but I thought the OP was talking about playing just two, "low-octave" notes repeatedly, and that the problem happened almost immediately. I also assumed that it was only the piano sounds.

Tyler, if you could let us know if this happens with anything other than piano sounds, that might help.

Steve

try this link
www.wix.com/tylerlinahan/keyboardproblem

My keyboard is not connected to my pc at all...I usually play my keyboard listening with my headphones...
This only happens with the piano sounds.

Is it possible to make the polyphony unlimited, or larger?

If you're having this problem when the keyboard is not even connected to the PC, then the problem is with the Yamaha keyboard (not SONAR), and you might be better served posting this message in a Yamaha users forum.

There's no way to increase the polyphony (unless you add a plug-in board, but I'm not sure the S90 takes those). You can allocate the polyphony in different ways--depending upon whether you're in "Voice" or "Performance" mode--but you can't "add" to it. However, with 128 voices, you shouldn't need to, anyway. If it sounds like the voices are getting cut off shortly after you start playing this "test" (say, after you hit two keys 8 or 10 times before the notes start cutting off), then there's a problem with the keyboard.

I'm not sure you're exceeding your polyphony though; you'll want to try this test with other sounds that sustain. Have you tried this with any other sounds, or is it only with the piano sounds? And even with the piano sounds, are you sure it happens with all the piano sounds, or just some of them?

I'm going to Sam Ash to try to reproduce this on an S90 they have there. I'll let you know how it goes.

Steve

I actually tried doing this on the guitar sound, and the same thing happens, except I can barely hear it; It's not really noticeable.
Besides that, I think it just happens with all of my piano sounds. (except 1)
By the way, this only happens on the LOWER part of the piano.  This does not happen anywhere else on the piano...

Thank you so much for your help!

Well, the keyboard department head at Sam Ash helped me try to reproduce this problem. He said he'd never heard of it, and hadn't had anyone bring an S90XS back to him because of this.

Unfortunately, no matter how we tried, we could not reproduce this problem. We both tried, with and without the sustain pedal, using the default piano patch (patch #001, in "Voice" mode). No matter how quickly or loudly/quietly we played, we could not reproduce this problem when playing two notes at a time.

The only time I came close was when I tried playing a six-note chord repeatedly and quickly, while holding down the sustain pedal. That's not the same as your problem, thought--at least, not as I understood it.

If your Yamaha is not routing the MIDI through your computer at all, then this is a Yamaha keyboard issue--and it may be specific to your keyboard. I did a few, quick searches for "yamaha s90xs" problems and questions on Google, but didn't find much--other than this very thread!

Have you tried a factory reset? This will reset the keyboard back to the factory defaults. If you still have the problem after that, you might want to try posting the message at motifator.com to see what they think. (Be careful; they're not very nice there, from what I've heard. Consider yourself warned!) If no one else has heard of this issue, you might want to bring the 'board back to where you bought it.

Good luck!

Steve