What is XG?, Functions / Controls

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What is XG?

Yamaha’s XG format is a significant extension and

enhancement of General MIDI (). Naturally, all Yamaha XG products are fully compatible with General MIDI, ensuring that GM song files play back with the proper set of voices and sound just as the original composer/programmer intended. The XG format, however, offers a level of expression much greater than that of General MIDI by providing enhanced features such as:

•Minimum 32-note polyphony

•A huge set of additional voices, including variations of the GM set and wide variety of completely new voices

•A minimum of three effects processors with a large number of effect types

•MIDI control of analog signal inputs (for example, processing a microphone signal with vocal harmony and effects)

•An extensive set of standardized voice and effect parameters that are MIDI– controllable

XG Grows as You Do!

When you’re ready to expand your music and sound capabilities, XG is ready to keep pace with you. Yamaha features a wide range of powerful and compatible XG products — from keyboards and tone generators to sequencing and editing software — that let you explore the full musical and sonic potential of XG!

Direct Computer Connection

All XG-compatible PortaTones feature a convenient TO HOST terminal. This allows you to directly connect the PortaTone to a PC or Macintosh computer, and take advantage of the wealth of powerful sequencing and other music software to create and edit your own music!

The XG Advantage

Sound /		Y S	T	E	M
Expression	S		T
	S

					E
					X
	MORE VOICES					P
						P
	GREATER POLYPHONY					A
		MORE PARAMETERS				N
		VH EXPANSION				N
		VH EXPANSION				S
		SG EXPANSION				S
			VL EXPANSION			I
				A/D INPUTS		O
				A/D INPUTS
					EQ	N
					EFFECTS	N

XG Song Data for the PortaTone

A large and constantly growing selection of song files is available in XG format. These song files have been specially recorded to take advantage of and showcase the various features of XG-compatible PortaTone keyboards.

Free SongDataLibrary

The Free Song Data Library contains a great selection of original XG songs produced by Yamaha. With a little bit of ingenuity and creativeness, you can get a lot of enjoyment out of this wide selection of free material. Once you have downloaded the XG MIDI data or audio data – free of charge, of course – you can play it back with your XG PortaTone or XG SoftSynthesizer. Or if you want to, you can include it on your homepage and let others enjoy it, too.

www.yamaha-xg.com

YamahaOn-LineShops

Here’s your one-stop source for music equipment and software online! Packed full with important information and detailed product descriptions, the Yamaha Virtual Shop and yamahamusicsoft.com let you easily find exactly what you need — right away!

www.yamaha.co.uk/shop/html/home.htm

www.yamahamusicsoft.com

XG Tools for the PortaTone

SoftSynthesizer and MIDPLUG are two powerful pieces of software that make your computer music-ready — and, best of all, they’re free! Get online and check them out!

SoftSynthesizer

Compose a song on your XG PortaTone and e-mail it to your friends! With Yamaha’s SoftSynthesizer, your XG MIDI files can play back on a PC and sound exactly as they do on your keyboard-with sound quality that’s absolutely amazing! SoftSynthesizer versions S-YXG50 and S-YXG100 fully support the XG format and play back MIDI files with CD quality (44.1kHz) without dedicated hardware such as a sound card or synthesizer module. A free 90-day trial version of SoftSynthesizer is available on the XG Website.

www.yamaha-xg.com

MIDPLUGforXG

MIDPLUG for XG is a plug-in for Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer, which enables your XG PortaTone, MIDI tone generator or SoftSynthesizer to playback MIDI data from Web pages automatically.

It also allows you to create your own music- enabled Web pages using songs that you’ve composed on your PortaTone!

www.yamaha-xg.com

The XG format is growing rapidly and is also becoming a widespread format for personal computers, with over 35 million licensed XG SoftSynthesizer users to date.

Yamaha Digital Pianos &PortableKeyboardsCategories

Looking for a keyboard to keep you entertained at home? At Yamaha’s Digital Piano & Portable Keyboard site, you’ll find exactly the one you want…and all the information about it you need. Clavinovas, Electones, portable digital pianos, PSR keyboards and even rhythm programmers

— all of Yamaha’s home-keyboard lines are just a mouse click away from this homepage.

www.yamaha.com/digpianos.htm