Members RockPianoman Posted April 10, 2014 Members Share Posted April 10, 2014 I have FINALLY found the piano sound I have been searching for !!!!! It's on this Yamaha PLG-150 AP expansion....it's the second patch (CFBrite) and I play it from my Roland A-37 MIDI controller......PERFECT combination.....I like these keys MUCH better than fully weighted boards......this is the perfect combination in my opinion....I saved that patch to USER 1 as the user voice bank for the PLG is always the first thing you see and you have to manually switch to the preset banks....... I have spent hundreds of dollars (literally) buying expansion boards and sample voice libraries and at last the search is over !!!!!! I installed it in my Motif rack (the original, not ES) and my quest is over !!!!!! It's not plucky like the PLG-150 PF and the Power Grand voice in my Motif rack.....even the Full Grand patch in my Motif ES6 sounds plucky compared to it.....it is perfection to my ears !!!!!! (samples are made from a $300,000 Yamaha CFIIIS 10 foot concert grand)... I installed it in my Motif rack instead of my Motif ES6 as I never want to take my ES6 out of the house again (it's my recording studio).....the Roland A-37 and Motif rack are a perfect lightweight combination for playing out.....I'll add the Roland XV-3080 to the A-37 and use a Korg Karma as my top board and my rig is complete !!!!!! I might add my Roland XV-5050 to my Korg Karma for more options (4 rack spaces for the Motif rack and the Roland XV-3080 & XV-5050).... This piano sound had no reverb default so I changed the reverb setting from a 0 to a 3 so there's just a tiny bit of reverb.....perfect !!!! NOTE: Save your PLG board to the Motif after you install it and you have more settings (like voice name) available among other things ....there is a save PLG and load PLG area in settings....once you save it, the name of the PLG board is listed..... PLG boards are awesome....no loading....just boot up and they're ready to play !!!!!! https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...-R1E6h0TmU0b6A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ghostpaw Posted April 10, 2014 Members Share Posted April 10, 2014 Congratulations! I've listened to samples of that one and thought it would be nice. I've always wanted the AN board for my rack but distrust the places I've seen it available so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted April 10, 2014 Author Members Share Posted April 10, 2014 Get it on Ebay from someone with a fair amount of transactions.....Ebay covers you.....any problems, open a claim by opening a case before 45 days and you're covered.....Ebay phone (hard number to find surprisingly).....866-540-3229..... Yamaha PLG150 AN: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-PLG-P...item35d4a4dd2e. Yamaha PLG150 AN manuals & editor: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music...an/?mode=model PLG150 AN Demos: https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...aha+PLG+150+AN Honestly, rather than buy one of those, get a Yamaha EX5R which has the AN inside it along with tons of sampled sounds and virtual modeling and it can sample too.....it has floppy disk storage but you can swap that out for a USB / Secure Digital card drive..... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_saca...a+EX5R&_sop=16 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...5642&CatId=630 This demo was recorded playing on 76 unweighted keys (I start out with playing all 76 keys).....bear with the playing (I just had shoulder surgery and my accuracy is a bit off)....this is the patch I mentioned and it will show you what it sounds like (this recording doesn't sound as good as the real thing): https://www.dropbox.com/s/b0o0mzpm5i...l10%2C2014.mp3 UPDATE: I found out that one of my laptops makes MP3's or CD's distorted because when I played MP3's or CD's on my other laptop there was no distortion.....if you are hearing distortion and want to hear what they really sounds like, either play them on another computer or burn them to a CD and play them on a separate CD player.... On my laptop with distortion, I had to drop down the Wave slider in the mixer quite a ways until I could hear the distortion disappear. Now there is no distortion (I play my laptops through my stereo). http://www.harmonycentral.com/review...-534723c9a34f4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ghostpaw Posted April 12, 2014 Members Share Posted April 12, 2014 Thanks for the links. Both the piano and your playing sounds great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members koolkat Posted April 13, 2014 Members Share Posted April 13, 2014 Yes, thanks for posting. Nice playing, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zoink Posted April 13, 2014 Members Share Posted April 13, 2014 Honestly, rather than buy one of those, get a Yamaha EX5R which has the AN inside it along with tons of sampled sounds and virtual modeling and it can sample too.....it has floppy disk storage but you can swap that out for a USB / Secure Digital card drive..... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_saca...a+EX5R&_sop=16 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...5642&CatId=630 Is this floppy/SD combo drive known to be compatible with the EX5? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted April 13, 2014 Members Share Posted April 13, 2014 Good reverb on the example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted April 13, 2014 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2014 I want to thank everybody for stopping in to hear the piano demo and for the kind comments......piano is so important to me and I thought you guys would like it too... I'm not sure if the USB / SD card unit is compatible but I would think so.....I've seen them sold on Ebay with that updated with different units.....it not only has IDE but also a cable you can use to connect it and it is designed to be the same size with the same screw holes as a computer floppy....I plan on buying a used EX5R and doing it......another thing I like about the EX5R as opposed to getting the PLG150 AN is you can edit it right from the front panel without an editor..... I think I remember from when I had my EX5R before that the built in sequencer had timing problems....this might be able to be fixed with an operating system update (the original Motif rack had timing issues when it was run from a sequencer and this was completely corrected with an operating system update).... I remember that sampling SIMMs had to be added to allow it to sample.....I bought mine on Ebay for that and my Motifs dirt cheap.....they are very expensive from Yamaha and other places......SIMMs and DIMMs aren't rocket science.....it's old technology by now....if I remember correctly, my Motif 8 took the same SIMMs as my EX5R but my Motif ES6 took DIMMs....the Motif ES6 can take up to 1 GB though the manual and other sources say 512 MB.....the XS can take 2GB of DIMMs....the XS moves to USB 2 so it's faster loading than the USB 1 on the ES.....the original Motif had no USB but has SCSI instead....(I bought an SCSI zip drive for my Motif 8 but the cable was huge (and very expensive) and I never ended up using it).....I've bought Smart Media to compact flash converters twice for the Motif 8 and neither one worked.....they were made by different companies too....zip drives were never very reliable.....I hardly used them with the computer and I had them fail..... Backup everything to DVD, not CD and life will be good.....always look at the recording surface of every DVD before using it and it should be like a mirror with no faults.....when I use DVD's that show "sparkles" on the record side, they work fine....you can tell bad faults as they look like smears or fingerprints but even with these, i have rarely ever had a DVD not work.....when in doubt, use the bad ones on things that can be re-recorded if needed and test the DVD once it's done burning.....on important data I usually make 2 or 3 copies and you should be covered.....I play about 20 cents per DVD so it's not going to break the bank.... I buy this type of DVDs......it's rare to find any that are defective although every once in a while you find one....but they are so much cheaper than brand names they save you a lot of money (actually I think they are made by Titan which is a pretty decent brand): http://www.ebay.com/itm/270677819735...84.m1497.l2649 These have been my findings regarding backing up data (this was another alias I used on here that I can no longer log in with): http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/...97216-36446453 I still use Nero 6 and Windows XP (prehistoric huh?) and I have no problems....I never do Windows updates for XP but on April 8 they became unavailable anyway (I downloaded them all and put them on DVD before they disappeared just in case) .....I do upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 and Service Pack 3 (I put both of these on DVD).....Nero 6 works great and verifies every disc you burn so you know there are no problems...I usually only use Internet Explorer 8 for watching Netflix streaming, but otherwise I use Google Chrome or Firefox.... Eventually I'll upgrade to Windows 8 as I hear it uses less resources than the others but I'm not probably going to upgrade all my computers....I don't feel the need to run out and get the latest and greatest with synths or computers if what I have is working fine..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted April 13, 2014 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2014 By the way, I've done the math and I have spent AT LEAST $1500 on piano sample libraries and expansion boards over the years, so you can see why I'm glad to find a piano sound that works and sounds perfect to me (my wife never thought it would happen and neither did I....she always had this look of dread when I told her about new piano sounds I wanted to buy.....they sure were expensive).....I forgot to even figure in the Kurzweil Micro Piano I bought......that one sure sucked a biggie)..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted April 14, 2014 Members Share Posted April 14, 2014 I've never bought a PLG. But there are two or three that I want. I think my MU-100 will take two. The local Yammie vendor won't discount them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted April 14, 2014 Author Members Share Posted April 14, 2014 Buy them on Ebay....they are expensive, but always ready.....if you ever have any problems on Ebay or a problem with something you buy (I never seem to have any) but if you do, open a case before 45 days from the date of the purchase and Ebay covers you 100%.....no risks.....I have bought and sold a lot of stuff on Ebay and have been using Ebay for years....I bought a Motif ES6 on Ebay for $1000 and it arrived in mint condition and I've been playing it for over 6 years.... PLG's provide their own polyphony and user locations and if you install more than one that are the same, polyphony can be combined to give you twice or three times as much.....PLG's can also be used as a piece of a perfomance but make sure to install them where you want them to stay as I'm pretty sure moving them from one synth to another will wipe any user voices you've saved.....(they don't have a battery on the circuit board to retain anything once they're removed).... If you don't have a Paypal account, set one up as this is the best way to pay and get paid on Ebay.....by inserting an email address and password, all your personal information is attached to the transaction in a highly secure way....it saves time and protects you at the same time.... PLG's are no longer made.....Ebay is the only place I can find them......if you don't see the one you want, it'll be on there before long....I see a lot of them on there.....You can find all the Roland and Korg expansion boards on there too.... A month ago I bought a factory sealed Roland A-37 MIDI controller on Ebay for $330 with free shipping.....it had never been opened and was probably made in the early 2000's....it had been sitting in the box so long that the 6 Duracell AA batteries they had packed with it were low......it works perfect and arrived in mint condition..... If there's ever a chance I won't be home when something is delivered, I ask them to ship it signature required and then they don't leave it sitting on the step outside.....you just go to the post office or Fed Ex or UPS and sign and pick it up....that's really the safest way to have expensive stuff delivered..... When I sell stuff, I usually ship it signature required too and then they can't say they didn't get it when they actually did.....I never ask their permission to do this or even tell them I'm shipping it that way as I won't argue with them about it.....that way I'm protected..... Another thing, when you sell used gear, selling on Ebay lets you get a fair amount of money for it.....most music storesor pawn shops only want to give you a fraction of what you can get for it on Ebay.....they practically expect you to give your stuff away because it's used.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted June 14, 2014 Author Members Share Posted June 14, 2014 UPDATE: When I transferred the PLG150-AP to my Yamaha Motif ES6, the top two octaves are too loud......even though it would be way more valuable in the Yamaha Motif ES6 than in my Motif Rack, I'm switching it back into my Motif Rack because it plays PERFECT in that (the original Motif Rack, not ES)..... The Motif Rack XS doesn't accept PLG boards..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted June 16, 2014 Members Share Posted June 16, 2014 I'm surprised those PLG's are so expensive today. Did Yamaha stop making them?I've always wanted a VH PLG for vocals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pinkfloydcramer61 Posted June 23, 2014 Members Share Posted June 23, 2014 I used to have that card and really enjoyed that patch. The bright piano, to me, was very much like that of the P200 I had owned, a sound I also suspect was much like piano #2 on the P90 (which I never owned). The only shortcoming or difference IMO was that the PLG bright piano thinned out in the higher registers, unlike the P200. There was also the matter that using the PLG sounds hurt the stellar finger-to-sound connection of the S80 somewhat (also IMO). That aspect is important to me and is the main reason I just sold my Korg M50-88- to get a mint S80 for $450. Happy with my decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members midinut Posted July 5, 2014 Members Share Posted July 5, 2014 Not to try to derail the thread but I recently sold my Motif ES6 and the guy that got it had no interest in the PLG boards so I still have them if anyone is interested. I have the AN board, the DX board, the VL board (and BC3) and the VH board. PM me if your interested and I'll give you prices. I've based my prices on what they are going for on eBay so I'm not trying to gouge anyone. Also, I would prefer to keep the shipping within the continental US as well. After reading the comments and hearing your demo, I wished I had tried the AP board as well. I might have kept my Motif. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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