Cheat Sheets / Instructions for the Medeli SP4200

[papasmurph]

I wrote this to make me better understand how to use the instrument. It might come in handy for others as well.

It's not complete, and certainly not a full replacement of the owner's manual. It's rather explaining some important features in a (hopefully) clearer/easier way than the manual.

Feel free to comment as well as hint about other Medeli SP4200 clones. I know I've missed at least one.

 

[papasmurph]

I've added Harmony, Chord Dictionary and MIDI Functions, so it's almost complete.

The last one goes way beyond the manual, based on my evaluation of the features accessible through MIDI, and my work with a smartphone-based MIDI controller.

I also follow the manual's sections more closely now, making it easier to cross-reference.

 

[papasmurph]

A new version (and onwards) is posted here: https://abiro.com/tutorials/midi/

 

[Heyoka]

Thanks for posting these. This is my first proper digital piano purchase. I'm really lost when it comes to recording. It doesn't seem simple at all. I was hoping there was an easy way to just quickly make some loops. This is basically what I need

*Count in before recording
*A way to end the recording without pressing two buttons
*Trimming the start/end

Now it's more than likely all these features exist and I'm just too dumb to figure it out. Apologies if you have posted about this already in the cheat sheets but any advice on how to make recording eaiser would be great. Thanks again for taking the time to post those cheat sheets, you're a legend! I'm also loving the Medeli even though I'm still trying to figure things out. It's a fantastic keyboard and I'm so pleased with my purchase.

 

[papasmurph]

This recording feature is optimized for freehand playing, optionally with accompaniment. You can't create loops in the sense that I know of the word. When letting it replay the song there will be a distinct pause before it starts playing it again, so no tight loop.

You can achieve something like a loop when replaying a song by using the loop key, but then you need to be fast on the trigger.

To me it's still useful as a laidback song idea creator, and as you can save to MIDI files you can edit what you've played into loops or whatever externally.

The document has been modified since the post, so you might find something new there: https://abiro.com/tutorials/midi/#instructions

See page 9 for how to loop a song (either that you've recorded or a ready-made MIDI file), and 12 for how to save a song for external editing.

 

[Heyoka]

Right, I figured that might be the case. Cheers!

 

[papasmurph]

The looping of course works with any song, including the built-in ones.