Thursday 24 September 2015

Yamaha PSR-S970 - Creating custom PPI pack with Yamaha Expansion Manager (Ubuntu)

I've got the Expansion manager running great using WINE so it was time to work out how to merge more than one pack together, my previous keyboard (PSR-S650) could have one Expansion pack installed at any time, the S970 has 512Mb of memory so can have more packs installed at once (if they are merged into one).

I also wanted to see if I could bring in some of the style tracks from my old S650 packs.

Importing packs is easy enough, you just click on the +, locate your Pack Project File .ppf and it's imported.

I also found I could locate my old S650 packs which are .YEP format.

Some instruments could not be imported as they were using a different format but that was OK.

The question now is how to export these out in a file format that I can load into the S970.

The sparse Expansion Manager  user guide mentions loading your instrument info file.
I found this is located in the System / Owner screen.


Just OK the question and save to USB , this will save a file with the correct .n27 suffix file (your instrument info file)

Launch the Expansion Manager, on the left select the + next to install Target , then select the "import instrument info".


Locate your .n27 file


This will be imported into the Expansion Manager.

The Install target will show your instrument name, after a few seconds this will colour in a purple colour.


You now have the instrument programmed into the Expansion Manager.

To import expansion packs remember to select MY PACKS at the top left, this gives you the option to click + and import etc.
You can save files and custom pack settings in MY PACKS but can't use them in the instrument.

To do this click the PSR-S970 on the left, you now have the option to select multiple packs (Green tick), or deselect them. You can also highlight files within the packs and exclude/include.

You now select "Save as Pack Install File"


When you save the pack you need to add the ".ppi" on the end, otherwise you can't load it in the keyboard so just check it's there before you transfer the file to the USB pen drive.

Insert the drive, Press the Function button, select the pack, in this case I've added several of my S650 packs so there are 14 packs merged into one.


Once installed the keyboard will restart.

Voices and Styles are there - I wouldn't expect everything to work, after all I've imported some files from an older keyboard but they are there, it's just a case of keeping note if anything does not work, then you can customize the pack a little more in the Expansion Manager and load it on the keyboard which will remove the items which you don't like or don't work.



25 comments:

  1. and how do I add all the .yep files i have to one file, i want to atleast combine 2-3 packs i use very often whose individual pack size are less.

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    1. You import them as I mentioned in the post - "To import expansion packs remember to select MY PACKS at the top left, this gives you the option to click + and import etc." The top menu options will change when you click on MY PACKS. Then you can select one or more packs and export as a single PPI file - bear in mind the format from the older Sx50 range is not the same as the Sx70 range - I found a lot of my older S650 YEP files would not work, they would import but not function when installed in the S970.

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  2. how do i connect my s950 so that it appears in the expansion manager listing?

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    1. You will need the .n27 file for it - you'll need to look in your handbooks to work out how to do this. Bear in mind the format for the 950 and 970 are different so YEP files or other expansion files from the 950 might not work. I used to have an S650, if I try to import a YEM file from that I only get partial success, most of the instruments and styles will not work - Ideally the files need to be PPF to install into YEM not the older YEP format.

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  3. Do you know how to convert .PPI to .PPF?

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    1. I think it's pretty much a one way process, there are a couple of packs that have ppf and ppi files but I've not seen a converter to take the installation file to the project (ppf) file. It might be worth looking on jososoft to see if they have anything ?

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  4. can u mail me your styles collection
    steve71056@gmail.com
    thank u

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    Replies
    1. Hi Steve, not really - some of the expansion packs I paid considerable money for and most of the individual packs are towards 200MB in size, you can get some free expansion packs from Yamaha and in that instance it's easier to download them direct. In terms of individual STY files (without expansion voices etc.) you can find lots to download, a suitable website is jososoft.dk, the styles section is http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/stylesites.htm - Kev

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  5. Some info for anyone who might be wondering about styles etc. if you have .STY files (styles) then you can play/use these directly from USB stick, there's no need to install to the keyboard. You can get a program from jososoft which will extract STY files from expansion packs (http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/yep/) , then you can add them to a USB stick with all your other styles. The purpose of YEM is to allow you to consolidate several Expansion packs into one big one, this way you can create a custom expansion pack and maximize the use of your internal memory. In some cases the expansion pack styles make use of custom voices contained in the expansion pack so you might want to keep styles and packs together, it's easy enough to export them using the program and try them - this can help reduce the need to add a pack to YEM (if it only contained styles) and ensure you make the most of your internal expansion memory.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. hello can we edit ppi screnn when not in the ppf file

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    2. I'm not sure I understand your question, a PPI file is an installation file, this is what you would load directly onto the keyboard. The PPF file is a packed project file, these are the files that you load into YEM. When you have created your custom pack you save it as a PPI so you can load it into the keyboard.

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  7. Ótimo tutorial. Parabéns. Só uma pergunta: você tem o PPF do BRAZIL PACK? Já procurei e não encontrei, só tenho o PPI dele. Se tiver e puder enviar para mim, agradeço. Obrigado e um grande abraço. Meu e-mail é juliofluminense@gmail.com .

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  8. Great tutorial. Congratulations. Just one question : you have the PPF BRAZIL PACK ? I've looked and not found , just got his PPI. If you can and send it to me , thank you. Thanks and a big hug. My email is juliofluminense@gmail.com .

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    1. The Brazil pack is a PPI not a PPF, Yamaha published the Brazil and Indonesian 2 packs as PPI only. In the tutorial I used some of my old S650 pack as an experiment, a lot of the content won't work such as voices (they are a different format), but Styles will often work.

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  9. Hi, I am trying to load a custom pack into the PSR-970. It saved as a ppi file but when I try to install it doesnt come up in the piano's display

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  10. I tried to edit a s970 pack ( in ppi fotmat ) with yamaha expantion manager. But I couldn't imprt the pack in to YEM. pl tel me away to edit a Ex pack that is on ppi format

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    1. I don't believe you can, YEM creates PPI packs, it doesn't edit them. When you download a pack and extract it you have a ppi but also a YEM folder, this is the folder that YEM uses to build the list. You edit this (adding or removing items), then you save as a ppi file.

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  11. Please give me instrument info .n27 for yamaha psr s950.

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  12. Hi - You have to save this from your keyboard and I don't have an S950. (I might be wrong but..) I believe you can't put PPI files onto the S950, the older keyboards use a different file type (YEP).

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  13. 970 pack can use for 950 is it possible brother

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    1. Hi - I don't believe you can put the S970 pack onto the S950.

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  14. How to create styles using loops.? Please help

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  15. have a file psr 950 instrument info N-27 ? please

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