I have an Apple and I'd like to transfer midi files to the WK-500 to learn new songs. It doesn't look like Casio provides that for Apple users. Is that right? or did I overlook something while reading online and the owner's manual? I appreciate, in advance, your assistance.
I am not familiar with the wk500 but if you can play external midi's on it, just transfer the downloaded ones from your pc to whatever medium you keyboard takes. USB? SDcard? Floppy? All GM (general midi) is standard (more or less) and as far as I know the Casio takes SMF files. S-tandard M-idi F-iles. So it should not be a problem.
Yes, and I have played through the garage band feature on my Mac. Specifically, what I'm referring to is the "Music Data Management Software - Data Manager": http://support.casio.com/download.php?rgn=4&cid=008&pid=341 I understand that this driver is needed to download midi files onto the casio via the micro sd card (page E-68). I'm sorry, but I'm completely new to this, and maybe there's an easier way? I'm just looking to add new songs to the WK-500 from my Mac so that I can learn to play them. I know how to read music, but it's been a while (high school) since I sight read, especially bass clef, and I'd like to use the learning function to check my work. Is there a way to run a line in to the keyboard and download midi files? I could find the midi files online, or I'm sure there's a program to convert standard songs in my library to midi. Either way, I'd like to take those files, download them to my WK-500, and learn to play them. Thank you.
In case anyone ever does an internet search on this same subject, I'll post the response from Casio's customer service here: "Thank you for contacting Casio America. You can connect your WK-500 to a Macintosh computer using MIDI. Information on connecting can be found on pages E-65 to E-66 of the manual. If you do not have the manual handy, then you can download it in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format by going to the following link: http://support.casio.com/pdf/008/WK200_500_e.pdf Unfortunately, there is not a version of Data Manager available for Macintosh, so you would not be able to transfer MIDI files from the computer and store them as user songs. While the keyboard is connected to your computer, the computer can treat it as a MIDI instrument. This means that if you have MIDI-compliant music software on the computer, you can use it in conjunction with the keyboard. As an alternative, you could use an SD card reader on your computer to store SMF (Standard MIDI File) songs on an SD card. You could then take the card to the keyboard, and use the songs on the card as user songs. Both the SD card and the card reader would be sold separately. We hope that we were able to assist you with your question, and again thank you for contacting Casio America. As a reminder we can also be reached at 1-800-435-7732 option 6. Sal M"
I bought one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QHPYT0/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details and a 2 gig sd card, and have successfully transferred a midi file to the card and can see it on the keyboard's display. Now I've got to figure out how to get the keyboard to use the step lesson program for it, lol. When I figure it out, I'll post an update.
