PSR-SQ16 (1993)
The Odd One Out
Release Date: 1993
Introduction – Should this be here?
This site is devoted to flagship arranger keyboards, and to be honest, it’s not clear that the PSR-SQ16 should be there. On the one hand, this model is quite unique and different from the rest of the PSR line, and, although it has some of the typical arranger functions (such as the most important one, the auto-accompaniments), it is clearly focused on sequencing and song creation, rather than on real-time performing. On the other hand, despite it’s undoubtedly a high-end keyboard, and certainly the most expensive PSR keyboard released by Yamaha in 1993, there are quite a few details which push it outside from the “flagship” category, such as these:
· Sound synthesis is based on the GEW-8 chip, which has inferior capabilities than the GEW-9 used in the previous PSR-5700 (for instance, it lacks the filter).
· No LCD screen, but only 7-segment LED ones.
· No modulation wheel, but only the pitch bend one.
· No synthesizer functions.
· Speakers are smaller than in the previous PSR-5700, and the amplification is less powerful.
· On the rear panel, there is no indication of the model, but only the generic “Yamaha” logo.
· The main board has “PSR-900” printed on it, instead of “PSR-SQ16”, which makes me think that this was the initial model reference, and Yamaha decided to change it when the design was already quite advanced. Yamaha used always a four-digit number before (6100, 6300, 2000, 4500/4600, 6700, 5700) and after (6000, 7000, 8000, 9000) for their flagship models. My bet is that "SQ16" stands for Sequencer with 16 Channels.
Anyway, the SQ16 has some very interesting and advanced (for the time) features, some of them absent in “higher” models, which we will be able to explore with more detail, and which make this keyboard to deserve some attention.
Looks and design
From an aesthetical point of view, the PSR-SQ16 is significantly different than its predecessor (the PSR-5700) and its successor (the PSR-6000). Instead of using rounded shapes, straight lines are predominant, and the general design looks quite “boxy”, especially when viewed from the back. In my particular taste, the rounded lines of the previous PSR-5700 are nicer.
A good point is that the power supply unit is not only internal, but that also the cable is detachable, contrary to the previous PSR-6700 and PSR-5700 and the newer PSR-6000. This is not only more convenient, but also safer for avoiding accidents or damages.
An evident difference with previous models, detectable at a first glance, is the absence of an LCD screen. Instead, Yamaha opted for three 7-segment LCD screens (3 characters each). This fact, together with the absence of a modulation wheel (a quite unjustifiable lack, BTW), makes this model look less “professional” than the previous two ones. A salient feature of the control panel is that is really crowded of buttons, a fact that implies that this keyboard might be more difficult to use, unless until de user gets used (pardon the pun) to it. The great number of buttons have the advantage that many functions are directly accessible with the touch of simple button, without the need of navigating through menus, but on the other hand, probably at least some of those buttons wouldn’t have been necessary if there was an LCD screen. On the good side, it is worth noting the inclusion, for the first time, of a rotary encoder, and also the direct access buttons to each one of the 16 different channels, something that not only is absent in the rest of Yamaha’s arranger line, but that is not present even in newer and more expensive professional synthesizers. Well done!
The keyboard mechanism is the same than in almost all previous flagship models, with the exception of the PSR-4500/4600 (which mounted a cheaper and worse one) and the PSR-6700 (which mounted a better one). As usual, it is velocity-sensitive but it hasn’t aftertouch.
The keyboard has a pitch bend wheel, although it’s smaller and it doesn’t have the same quality feel than that of the PSR-6700 and the PSR-5700, or even than the thinner one of the DSR-2000. Incredibly, the PSR-SQ16 does not have a modulation wheel, nor even a more basic/limited substitute such as a button for this function, as some “wannabe” models, mostly from Casio but also from Yamaha, have. This absence is unjustifiable for a keyboard of this level and price, and limits seriously its capabilities as a controller keyboard.
I would also like to draw attention to what I regard as a major design flaw. In old keyboards it was usual that there was a list of the voices and of accompaniment styles printed on the panel, to use it as a quick reference. This had a lot of sense back when there was a limited number of preset sounds and/or styles (let’s say 100 or less of each category), and to avoid the extra costs of adding an LCD screen. But when there are literally hundreds of voices and styles, a printed list lacks sense (too much information) and category buttons and an LCD screen are a must. Yamaha designers, on the other hand, took instead two silly decisions: first, not implementing a LCD screen, which would have been much useful, not only for selecting voices and styles, but also for many other functions; and second, to put a printed list on the panel instead. The (big) problem is that, as there are many styles and voices, there’s simply not enough space in the panel and only some but not all the voices and styles are there (in the case of the styles it’s even worse, as there’re only the music genres). This makes it a headache to select the proper voices and styles, because either you’ve got to have the manual at hand, or you have to memorize the lists. Either way, it’s very inconvenient. The absence of an LCD screen is totally unjustifiable.
The internals
Contrary to the previous PSR-5700, the PSR-SQ16 is based on the YWM-258-F sound generator, more commonly referred to as the GEW-8 chip. When compared to the GEW-9 of the PSR-5700, this tone generator has some remarkable differences. First, while the GEW-9 is a pure AWM (PCM sample based) generator, the GEW-8 is an AWM + FM synthesis generator. There’s not much info about its FM capabilities, although most probably it’s 2-Operator FM synthesis. Regarding the PCM part, the GEW-8 seems to be capable to access to a maximum of 2 Megabytes (16 Mbits) of PCM waveform data, whereas the GEW-9 can address at least 6 Megabytes. Voices can have up to 4 elements. There seem to be no filters of any kind, which is an important limitation when shaping the tone’s color. Polyphony is limited to 28 voices, in contrast to the 38 voices of the GEW-9. All in all, the GEW-8 seems to be an updated version of the GEW-5 used in the PSR-4500/4600, PSR-6700 and SY-22/35, as it shares the hybrid PCM+FM architecture with no filters, but increasing the polyphony to 28 voices instead of only 8, and multitimbrality to 16 parts instead of just 8. Probably it has some other internal enhancements which result in an overall better sound quality.
If we take a look at the PSR-SQ16’s technical specs, though, we will see that this keyboard has 56 voices of polyphony, and not just 28. When looking more in detail (and it becomes clear when looking at the service manual), we realize that, actually, it’s more like 2 separate keyboards put together in the same package. The mainboard has indeed two GEW-8 chips, each one with its own 2 Megabytes wave memory. This provides a total of 56 voices and 4 Megabytes of sample ROM, but that’s actually a bit of a trick. As each GEW-8 has its 28 voices and its own waveform memory, it’s not accurate to claim that it’s 56-voice polyphonic, but rather, it’s 2 x 28. As far as each chip has access to its own set of sounds, this means that, for instance, if you use a piano sound and a brass ensemble sound, you’ll have a total of 56 voices (28 for the piano and 28 for the brass, as they’re placed in different banks and accessed by different GEW-8’s), but if, on the other hand, you’re playing for example a piano voice and a guitar voice, you’ll have just 28 voices for both, as those voices are placed in the same bank, and accessed by the same GEW-8 chip. Also, it has to be taken into account that the 28-voice polyphony actually refers to sound “elements”, and instrument voices can have more than one (up to 4), so actual polyphony will usually be more limited.
For the DSP effects part, the PSR-SQ16 offers only one block (instead of the two of the previous PSR-6700 and PSR-5700), with 16 different effect types, mostly reverb and delay (no chorus). The DSP chip is the well-known YM3413 (LDSP) used since the PSR-4500/4600, but this time the algorithms seem to be a bit better. As usual in all those old models, none of the effect’s parameters are editable, and only the level (depth) of the DSP effect can be individually set for each one of the 16 different channels.
The sound: It’s not all about quantity
The PSR-SQ16 comes with 200 preset voices (including the drum kits), which is a surprisingly high amount if compared to previous models, which had, at most, 100 preset voices (or 128 if we consider the GM mode in the PSR-5700). But as long as there are only 4 Megabytes of sample data (2/3rds of the PSR-5700), this high number of sounds is quite artificial, in fact. If we take a look at the preset sound list, we’ll realize that many cases the presets are variations of the same instrument voice (for example, there is “Electric Guitar” 1 ,2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). Other presets are just “split voices”, so they’re not actually new sounds. And the mere existence of those presets is quite a nonsense when in this model is really easy to make layers and splits (more on this later). When listening to the presets, it’s quite evident that in many of those sounds are based actually on the same waveform data. Taking the example of “Chorused Piano”, it’s just the same sound as “Piano” but doubling, panning, and slightly detuning the two waveforms to create the illusion of a chorus effect. The variety of sounds, independently from the fact that they might use or not the same waveforms, is rather limited. Who on Earth may need three different honky-tonk pianos or four different tubas, only to mention a couple of examples? On the other hand, some sounds you might expect are missing. Contrary to the PSR-5700, the PSR-SQ16 does not have the GM logo printed on the case, and this is for a reason. Although this model recognizes the “GM reset” and all the usual General Midi messages, it’s not, strictly speaking, GM compatible. Some of the sounds of the GM soundset are missing and replaced by other similar (or not that similar) voices.
That was about quantity. But what about quality? Well, this is a bit of a mixed bag. Considering that the available waveform memory is of only 4 (2 + 2, actually) Megabytes, one wouldn’t expect it to sound better, in general terms, than the previous PSR-5700. And, honestly, it is so. Some voices, such as the acoustic and electric pianos, are plainly quite poor; others are decent, and some of them could even be considered as good, but the general level falls below what the PSR-5700 offered. A preset as important in every keyboard as the acoustic piano can only be described as lame or crappy; in any case, it’s deceivingly poor in the PSR-SQ16. It pales in comparison to the PSR-5700’s piano, and to my taste, it’s even inferior to the acoustic piano of the PSR-6700. Oddly enough, when in GM mode, the preset number 2 (bright piano) is much better (without being good, though). Of the 6 different electric pianos, only the DX-like ones could be considered as halfway good. On the other hand, some of the electric guitars and basses, chromatic percussions and even some synth sounds are more than acceptable, or even good, actually (always in terms of the year 1993). Especially it’s worth to mention the variety and quality of the drum and percussive sounds. But, in sum, the quality of the sounds falls below the standards of what could be expected from a flagship keyboard in 1993.
Another important drawback if compared to its predecessors (at least, since the DSR-2000) is that this time there are no synthesizer functions at all. All voices are “as is”, and you cannot even edit the envelope (attack/decay/release), let alone to tweak other elements. All you can do is to add an effect (and set its depth) and/or set the volume, panning, tuning and vibrato depth. You can also create layers/splits quite easily. But it’s not possible to edit a simple parameter of the voice programming itself.
Mastering the keyboard
As stated before, the PSR-SQ16 is not the typical or “classical” arranger, and it’s more oriented towards sequencing and music creation. This is particularly clear regarding its control capabilities. AFAIK, this is the only the PSR model (and the only arranger from Yamaha I know) which has individual buttons for accessing each one of the 16 different channels. It’s as easy as pushing a button to activate/deactivate one channel, and this makes creating layers and splits really easy. If for example, you have a piano on channel 1, a guitar in channel 3 and a string ensemble on channel 8, you only have to press the corresponding buttons (channels 1, 3 and 8) to create a three-part layer sound. There are no limits in layering as far as you’ve got enough polyphony. Or, if you use different sounds for different parts of the same song, you can assign the corresponding voices to different channels and (de)activate them at the touch of a button. Moreover, for each channel you can select (again, with a dedicated button) whether you want to play an internal voice or if you intend to control an external keyboard or midi equipment, and in that case the PSR-SQ16 automatically sets the channel in “local off” mode.
Even more, there are specific buttons in the panel for accessing and setting the volume, pan, effect depth, vibrato depth and tuning/transpose of the active channel, without having to navigate through deep menus. These are very powerful control capabilities and it’s just amazing for a PSR keyboard, as there are many professional synthesizers and even dedicated keyboard controllers which don’t have direct access to every midi channel, and/or force the user to navigate through menus to edit the different parameters of each channel. In fact, the PSR-SQ16 would be a really great master keyboard if it weren’t for a couple of shortcomings: the lack of aftertouch sensitivity (a minor drawback) and the lack of a modulation wheel (a major drawback).
Over 250 different styles? Technically yes, but don’t get fooled
I have repeatedly said that the PSR-SQ16 is not the typical arranger, but more one of a kind of keyboard, although it can be also used also as an arranger, because it has the necessary tool for that: the styles. And quite a lot, indeed. In the past, the number of accompaniment styles was quite limited. The PSR-4500/4600 raised their number to 100 preset styles, but quantity was more important than quality and only a few of them were good, or at least satisfactory. After that, the PSR-6700 and PSR-5700 changed the approach radically and provided a considerably reduced number of styles, but with high quality standards.
The PSR-SQ16 boasted an unprecedented (for the time) number of accompaniments in a Yamaha Keyboard: over 250 in total. This is a surprisingly large amount, but, actually, there is a trick. According to the manual, there are 100 “full accompaniments”, another 100 “part accompaniments” and 69 more “rhythm styles” (it’s possible to program 8 custom styles, also). Only the “full accompaniments” are comparable to the typical styles of an arranger keyboard, with their different sections, intros, endings, fill-ins and so on, and with full orchestration. In contrast, the “part accompaniments” have no sections, intros, endings or fill-ins, and usually are simpler arrangements (a bass line and some chords). The “rhythm styles” are just drum patterns of a few bars long, again without fill-ins, intros and so on. The “part accompaniments” and “rhythm styles” are then more like “building blocks” for use in sequencing.
The structure of the “full accompaniments” is similar to that of the typical arrangers of the time, although there are some changes in comparison to the previous PSR-6700 and PSR-6700. The most relevant one is that this time there are neither “solo” sections, nor “interactive accompaniment” functions. Instead, each style has two sections, A and B, and for each one there is an intro, an ending, and two fill-in patterns. This means that the intro and the ending for section A is different from that of the section B, as well as the fill-ins. So, in sum, there are 2 intros, 2 endings and 4 fill-ins for each style. In each section, fill-in 1 goes back to the same section, whereas fill-in 2 changes the section (from A to B or vice versa).
With those “full accompaniments”, the PSR-SQ16 does not seem much different from other arranger keyboards, but there are some details that show that the arranger functions are not the only or the main focus of this model, because they can be seen as shortcomings compared to previous models. Some of them are:
- There are no “One Touch Settings” to automatically set voices and parameters for each style and/or section. All must be done manually.
- Although it is possible to mute/unmute each channel of the style, there is no way of setting the volume of each channel individually (only globally). The same goes for the effects settings.
- It is not possible to change the voices of the different channels of the styles.
- There are no “registrations” to save the panel settings (which could be used, for instance, for saving a configuration of a style, tempo, voices, effects, etc.). The only way to save adjustments is by using the sequencer (each track saves its configuration data).
And what about the quality of the styles? Well, it’s quite a mixed bag. Fortunately, this time there are many more usable styles than in the PSR-4500/4600, although there are still too many poor ones. In general terms, the better ones, to my taste, are in the pop/dance department. Rock and jazz are not as good, and when it comes to latin/world/traditional sections the quality falls off considerably. It has to be also considered that, besides the style programming, the sound quality of the PSR-SQ16 is inferior to the previous PSR-5700 and this has an impact on the overall quality of the styles. Despite this, there are quite good and enjoyable styles to play along with. It’s remarkable that some of them are in fact quite straight adaptations of PSR-5700’s styles, although in the 5700 they sound better. As a curious fact, some of the styles are clearly “inspired” in (or more accurately, copied from) some commercial songs. One of the most evident is Style no. 14, “Rock Shuffle”, which is suspiciously similar to “Sledgehammer”, from Peter Gabriel.
Besides, the PSR-SQ16 seems to suffer from a quite underpowered chord detection and/or keyboard scanning circuitry, as sometimes the response is quite slow (or not enough fast and fluent) when changing the accompaniment chords, resulting in a bad or not sufficiently thight timing, which is quite annoying. This problem is quite noticeable in some of the following examples:
Other aspects: Sequencer, MIDI, amplification, and connections
As a keyboard focused on sequencing and song creation, a good built-in sequencer is a must. Indeed, PSR-SQ16’s sequencer is very capable, with up to 16 tracks (which can control external devices also), 15,000 notes, 8 songs, realtime and step recording modes, and advanced functions such as cut/copy/paste/insert, punch-in, quantize, transpose, velocity offset, and so on. But although it’s comparable to a dedicated standalone sequencer, it suffers from the same “original sin” of the absence of an LCD screen. Usually, hardware sequencers are not easy to use, at least if compared to a DAW, but using a sequencer without a decent screen can be simply a nightmare. All the functions are managed through tiny buttons, led lamps and short messages on the 3-character LED screen. You really need to pay a lot of attention and it’s very easy to make mistakes, losing data and having to redo the work again.
MIDI implementation is good as well. Besides the usual (or not that usual) MIDI in/out/thru connectors, there is an extra MIDI in port, labelled “external keyboard”, and intended to be used, as the name suggests, to connect an external keyboard to control the PSR-SQ16. This way you can, for instance, use a master keyboard to play some tracks while other tracks are performing the data sent from an external sequencer or a computer into the other MIDI in port. As stated before, this model, strictly speaking, is not compatible with the General MIDI standard, although it recognizes the “GM on” sysex message and remaps the voice list in that case in order to match, as far as possible, the specifications of GM. The problem is that not all GM voices are available, and this can lead to quite strange results when performing standard MIDI files without further adaptation, or when trying to produce standard GM files using the PSR-SQ16.
A couple of examples of MIDI sequencing in “pseudo-GM mode”:
And another couple of MIDI sequences using the native mode:
Regarding the amplification system, the PSR-SQ16 has two-way speakers (12 cm + 5 cm), with 8.3 watts per channel. These specifications are, on paper, inferior to those of the older PSR-5700 and PSR-6700. Nevertheless, the sound of the internal speakers is quite crisp, detailed, powerful and with a rather solid bass, and in practice it sounds better than the PSR-6700 (despite this one has 16 cm woofers and 10 watts per channel), and it sounds a thousand times better than the amplification of the PSR-4500/4600 (8 watts per channel with 12 cm speakers). The PSR-5700, though, still sounds better through its internal speakers.
Finally, when it comes to the connections department, the PSR-SQ16 is provided with all the necessary ports than one can expect in a high-grade keyboard: a complete MIDI implementation (including two MIDI-ins instead of only one), stereo outputs, stereo inputs, two pedal jacks and a headphones socket (on the back, though, probably to reduce costs).
Verdict
Although it’s a very interesting and complete product, the result is quite spoiled due to some silly drawbacks and limitations.
Pros
· High number of sounds and styles compared to its predecessors
· Good controller capabilities, with easy access to the different channels and most important parameters
· Great flexibility for creating multi-layered sounds and splits, and/or to select different voices during a performance
· Drums and percussions are remarkable (speaking for a 1993 keyboard)
Cons
· Sound synthesis engine and overall sound quality is inferior in general terms to its predecessor (the PSR-5700, based on the GEW 9)
· Voices, styles and polyphony figures are quite artificial (many of the voices are very similar, most of the styles are “incomplete”, and polyphony is actually 2 x 28 notes)
· No modulation wheel, which spoils not only performance possibilities, but also its capabilities as a controller keyboard
· No LCD screen!!!
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