Back Style Creation Course Next

Articles Index

Style File Format and Name

We have finished the MIDI content of the style, and have to save the file as MIDI format 0 file. Style files had some years ago always ".sty" file extension. Now a number of files extensions are used: pst (pianist); pcs (piano combo); sst (session); prs (pro); bcs (basic) and fps (free play).

Next is to add a CASM section; and OTS and MDB sections except for older keyboards, which do not support styles with these sections.

CASM section

The CASM section tells the keyboard how to interpret the MIDI data. CASM sections can NOT be created in MIDI software; but can be created at the keyboard if the "MIDI source channel = Keyboard output channel" layout is used. However if the style is enhanced with features described in the next part, you will have to use software, e.g. CASM Editor.

A default CASM section file (in zip format) can be downloaded here.

Unzip the file and use the Style Split and Splice software to add the CASM section file to the MIDI part of your style file.

A CASM section file with "Bass On" can be downloaded here. If you want the "Bass On" feature, use this file instead of the default.

Both CASM section use the "MIDI source channel = Keyboard output channel" -layout. They also use identical settings for all style parts. You can use these CASM sections for further editing.

More about the CASM parameters here.

OTS section

The OTS section holds the 4 One Touch Settings (OTS) = the predefined voice settings at the keyboard. Each OTS has some common settings for the entire OTS, and some specific settings for 4 channels: the Right 1, the Right 2, the Right 3 and the Left voices.

The common settings are System Exclusive messages controlling Harmony, Multi Pad etc.

The channel specific settings are:
• Voice Control: Program, Voice MSB, Voice LSB
• The 20+ MIDI Controllers for Modulation, Main Volume, Panpot, Expression, Sustain etc.
• The 10+ NRPN controllers for Vibrato Rate, Vibrato Depth, Vibrato Delay etc.
• The 4 RPN controllers for Pitch Bend Sensitivity, Fine Tune, Coarse Tune, Modulation Sensitivity
• A number of System Exclusive (SysEx) Messages for Velocity Sense Depth, Velocity Sense Offset, EQ Bass Gain etc.
• DSP Effect Settings

OTS sections can be created and edited at the keyboard or with the OTS Editor software.

MDB section

The MDB section contains the Music Data Base records in the style file.

Each record has these data: Song Title; Genre; Keyword 1; Keyword 2; Tempo; and Time Signature.

MDB sections can be created and edited at the keyboard or with the MDB Editor software.

The End

Coming so far we have ended the creation of a style.

However some feature enhancements can be done as describes in the next Part.