Chord names when playing midi songs

[Raul]

Hello. I have a Yamaha PSR-S750 and I love to play along with midi tracks I get on various websites. I will play the melody, but I also like to play chords with my left hand. Using the “Score” function on the keyboard I am able to see the melody notes and often, but not always, the chord names. Why can I see the chord names on some midis and not on others, and is there a way I can get chord names embedded in those cases?
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I've never owned a PSR-S or higher model, so I'm not certain, but I believe the chord names are indicated by a proprietary Yamaha XF MIDI message:

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha//pdf/xfspec.pdf

See pages 19 and 20.

Note that there are a number of free third-party programs for working with Yamaha style files and Yamaha MIDI song files, and several of them should be able to insert these XF chord events where desired.

 

[Raul]

I've never owned a PSR-S or higher model, so I'm not certain, but I believe the chord names are indicated by a proprietary Yamaha XF MIDI message:

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha//pdf/xfspec.pdf

See pages 19 and 20.

Note that there are a number of free third-party programs for working with Yamaha style files and Yamaha MIDI song files, and several of them should be able to insert these XF chord events where desired.

Thank you very much! I clicked on the link you provided and it certainly looks like your observation is on the money. I will search for software that works with XF MIDI files.

 

[Raul]

So, indeed there are a number of programs that can achieve what I’m looking for, including Yamaha XF Tool, XG Works 3.0.7E, and PSRUTI. The easiest solution for me, although not free, I believe is Notation Composer v4 ($150). It’s possible that Notation Musician ($90) will also get me there.
I can’t thank you enough for pointing me in the right direction! I was running around in circles because I didn’t really know what I was searching for!

 

[dnuttall]

You might do well to TRY the "compute chords" function of the free utility: PSRUTI for which you can find a download link on PSR-Tutorial/Utilities. You will find it under the Heiko Plate Utilities. Simply open a file without the chords and touch "compute chords", the Play and it likely will show you chords that it has computed by examining the NOTES represented in the MIDI data.

If you find that one or more of the chords is "off", then I suggest using the free utility "MixMaster" which will allow you to EDIT/Insert or delete chords and other MIDI data.

If you use Notation Composer, it will essentially perform the same "compute chords" function that PSRUTI performs.

Let us know if that solves your problem.

 

[Raul]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did purchase Notation Musician v4 and it does exactly what I wanted. I will probably download the MixMaster utility to tweak any chords that seem “off” or even unnecessary.