Hi @Earle. This is the community coordinator. Someone will followup with you shortly.

Best,
Amy

Meaning switching between voices (using Main, Layer, Split) with no gap in sound. Can be done with pedals.
Great examples here ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bG6eikV9Z0

Thank you m and Amy. Incredible video. If I didn't already own a CP4 I would buy one after watching. I downloaded the free file.

But I would appreciate it if you could answer these questions:

1) How do I set up the pedals/performance to switch between sounds in a layer while paying live, as in the video?

2) How do I load the free new sounds I downloaded into the CP4? Do they overweight the default sounds? Is there a user bank where they are stored? Or do I just play them from the USB stick?

Thank you for your assistance.

1) Good overview of how to assign foot SWITCHES and foot CONTROLLERS to part volume, parameters, etc., is on page 6 of the CP4 Reference Manual.
http://download.yamaha.com/api/asset/file/?language=nl&site=nl.yamaha.com&asset_id=60437
In the video, he's got all four jacks in use... a sustain pedal; one foot switch; two foot controllers.
You just create/edit a performance (reference manual page 13 and following) with whatever switch/pedal assignments you want, then store that performance (reference manual page 29).

2) Instructions on how to load files from USB are on page 40 of the CP4 Owner's Manual.
http://download.yamaha.com/api/asset/file/?language=es&site=es.yamaha.com&asset_id=60432
You can either load his entire file, which will overwrite all the onboard performances, or you can load selected performances to whatever performance locations you choose, which will overwrite only at those locations. I'd suggest saving your entire existing setup to a file (page 39 of the owner's manual), then load his entire file so you can check out all of his performances, decide which ones you want, then re-load your file and then load his selected performances to whatever locations you choose.

Thanks again m for the information and taking the time to respond. I have all foot pedals and know how to assign the FCs to control the volume of two different layers at the same time. I appreciate the instructions on loading and saving performances. Will do.

But I guess I will just have to play around with the CP4 this weekend to learn how to switch voices in a part seamlessly. I can't visualize how a FC can select a new voice in a part and then go back to select the previous voice in the same part. For instance, if the voice in the Layer part starts as strings, how I would by pressing the FC pedal change that voice to say a pad voice and pressing the FC again go back to the strings voice.

Anyway, hope to figure it out.

One last question. If anyone knows, are the backing tracks on the video played from a USB thumb drive inserted into the CP4 USB slot, or played from an external device plugged into the Aux In port or played externally? I finally recorded a backing track on a USB thumb drive and was shocked at how realistic is sounded, almost as if live voices were being played via MIDI.

Thanks again.

"For instance, if the voice in the Layer part starts as strings, how I would by pressing the FC pedal change that voice to say a pad voice and pressing the FC again go back to the strings voice."

Can't do that, so far as I know. You've got three voice slots to work with for any given Performance ... Split, Layer, Main ... and there's no seamless (no-gap) way to switch the voice assigned to a slot while playing. If you switch a voice, you're editing the Performance. So, if you start with a strings voice in the Layer slot, that's it for the Layer slot for that Performance. In the video, on several of his performances it looks like he's got one FC controlling the volume of one voice and the other FC controlling the volume of another voice, so he switches voices by turning volume up on one FC and volume down on the other FC.

He's not using the Aux in jack in the video. Looks like he does have a flash drive in the USB port, which may or may not be playing the backing tracks, but with his roomful of gear, I'd guess not.

That's what I thought, just wanted to be sure. Ever since my XS days I have used one FC for the volume of one voice and the second for the volume of a second voice. I even set up one FC pedal to increase the volume on one voice while operating in reverse at the same time to decrease the volume on a second voice, i.e.: to sweep one voice in and the other out and going back and forth as the pedal is pushed up or down.

On the CP4 I assign the FCs to control volumes on 2 respective parts.

This entire discussion came about because in another thread, BM said you could seamlessly switch between voices within a performance (that is how I interpreted what he said) but could not seamlessly switch between performances. So if there is a way to seamlessly switch between voices within a performance maybe BM or someone else could explain.

That's all I have to add for now. Signing off on this topic.

Thanks.

Of course, in addition to using foot controllers to roll volume up and down on two parts (usually Main and Layer), you can also use a foot switch to toggle the Split part on and off, which he also does in that video. The split point can be set anywhere, and can even encompass the entire keyboard. Switching the Split part on and off is seamless. So, put all of these together and you can seamlessly switch between the three available voices.

m, that is a great idea! Never thought about using the FS to have the split voice encompass the entire keyboard via a high split point and turning it off and on. Perfect. Thanks.

m wrote:
... you can also use a foot switch to toggle the Split part on and off...

Hi all,
how can this be done?
From the reference manual of CP4 I see that you can define, for the assignable FS, only:
- a generic Control Change
- to play/stop recordings on the USB
- to go up or down in the performances

Pino, Italy

There is no "seamless switching" of voices or performances on the CP4. Period.

There will always be a hard "cutoff" of the original voice if it is sustaining when when you change voices. This applies to changing performances too.

some trickery is required in order to achieve this effect and you must be willing to reserve one of your parts (layer or split) for the second voice.

So this wouldn't work if you wanted to sustain long note to bridge the gap between songs while simultaneously switching performances.