MIDI help with Roland V-Synth GT & Korg Trinity

Well, after several days of reading owners manuals and an excellent thread by kanthos, I am getting closer towards configuring my two keyboard MIDI setup for live performances.

I've been a keyboardist for 20 years, and in the late 1990's, as the keyboardist for Altura, I actually had a fairly complex MIDI setup. But after selling all of my keyboards in the early 2000's when the band dismantled, I started playing guitar and just recently decided to get back into synth. This month I purchased a Roland V-Synth GT, Korg Trinity, and Korg Triton Studio on eBay and I'm trying to program the V-Synth and Trinity for live performances starting next month.

I want to make the V-Synth the master and the Trinity the slave, and simply use the V-Synth to make combi changes on the Trinity. I want to use a single sustain pedal and expression pedal for both keyboards, plugged into the V-Synth. I don't want sounds from one keyboard to be played on the other, but simply to use MIDI as a means of synchronizing patches for live songs.

I have the MIDI cable plugged into the OUT jack on the V-Synth and the IN jack on the Trinity. I have the V-Synth set to receive on MIDI channel 1 and to transmit on MIDI channel 2. I have the Trinity's Global MIDI channel set to 2. Both keyboards are set to enable Bank, Program, and Combination changes in Global Settings.

As I change sounds on the V-Synth, the Trinity does change combis to the same number program as the V-Synth, and the sustain pedal works for both keyboards. However, I can play Trinity sounds through the V-Synth, and I can't figure out how to disable that.

I also don't want to have to copy patches around to be numbered the same between keyboards, but I can't figure out how to relate different numbered patches to each other (so that, say, I choose Bank 1 Patch 025 V-Screamer on the V-Synth but it changes the Trinity to Bank B Patch 47 PianoBell instead of Bank A Patch 025 Standup&Polytone). The V-Synth GT also comes from the factory with 370 patches, but the Trinity's banks can only hold 127 patches each, so when cycling through the V-Synth's patches, the Trinity just resets to "001 Trinity Overture" when the V-Synth reaches patch #128, #256, #384, etc, so I've got to get a firm understanding of how to configure the MIDI settings.

It's been about 8 years since I've configured MIDI, but I don't remember it being this hard!! Can anyone help me figure out how to 1. disable the Trinity from playing sounds through the V-Synth keyboard, and 2. how to sync different numbered patches through MIDI using the V-Synth as the master controller?

I would be eternally grateful ;-) for any assist...

Thanks!
Jason

After realizing the the Trinity is a much better midi controller than the V-Synth, I decided to make the Trinity the master. I've followed kanthos' instructions to set one timbre of a combination to the EXT midi channel that the V-Synth is on, I've assigned the sound to a key off of the keyboard so I won't hear the V-Synth playing through the Trinity, and I've set the program number of that timbre to the patch number that I want on the V-Synth.

The only problem I'm running into now is that the V-Synth does not change to the correct patch that I've configured the Trinity to select. The V-Synth moves to <<NO MEDIA>>, patch 000, which isn't an actual patch, every time I select the midi enabled combi on the Trinity.

Does anyone have any idea why that would happen? I've got the midi out of the Trinity (global channel 1) connected to the midi in on the V-Synth (global channel 2), and the timbre of the Trinity combi that is EXT midi enabled is set to channel 2 and Bank A Patch 24. So I would expect the V-Synth to change to patch 24...

Hi!!

I found your posting and I think may have an elegant solution for you. I've been trying to do pretty much the same thing you have (change patches on two keyboard).

Please read the following thread on Midiworld forum
http://www.midiworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=698

It describes the entire process I've gone through.

One item I need to add specificially for you since you use both a Korg and a Roland.

I've discovered that all the major manufacturers (Yamaha, Korg, Roland, Kurtzweil, etc) do not implement the patch numbers the same way.

Korg starts their patch numbers with 000 but Roland starts theirs with 001
so you need to keep that in mind when sending the CC to the keyboards for the proper patch number.

The Midi Patch Changer solution by Genovation that's referred to in the thread only accepts patch numbers 1-128 but my Korgs have patch numbers 000-127 so in order to select the proper patch on the Korg, I have to send patch number 001 in order to get patch number 000 on the keyboard.

If you don't want try my solution but continue with yours...what you might be experiencing is the midi commands being issued to quickly for the 'receiving' keyboard to accept it..which may be why you're not getting the proper patch number.

The Midi Patch Changer by Genovation issued the commands so quickly in my case, Genovation had to insert a 100ms delay in between each one. When they did that, the proper patch numbers were selected.

Genovations product is still in BETA and not generally available through a retailer. However you can obtain it directly from Genovation.

I just finished programming and testing it and it works like a charm. Of course it still needs some refinement but it does work and I'm very happy with it.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Ed

Wow. I have no idea why the setup in my second post wasn't working, because this morning when I turned everything on, after being on the road for work all last week, everything works fine. I didn't change anything, but now my V-Synth is changing to the exact patch I set the timbre in the combi to change it to. I hope it doesn't decide to crap out on me on stage next month!!!

Strange...