Good Midi music for an Electric Keyboard??? Please help.

[jsimons_2000]

Hi Anyone, looking for some help,

I recently purchased the Yamaha YDP-V240 and am now in the process of learning to play the piano. I have enjoyed the demo music the piano already contained, and the limited song selection the piano comes installed with.

However . . . I want more. I want to use my piano similar to a player piano and set some music on it and forget about it, the synthesized piano sounds incredible and I'd like the ability to put on background music. Maybe I'm missing something with the piano's settings, but currently I'm having to load each song when the previous song has finished and am not able to get a playlist going.

Can anyone help me with three things?
1. Where do I get more midi's that would play well on my device? I find a lot of midi's online but they sound like a 1991 video game (XComm) when I preview them on my computer. Where can I get something that matches the quality of the pre-installed midi's my keyboard came with? I'm particularly interested in classical music, the piano comes installed with Mozart's concerto 20 which sounds incredible, however it is just a snypit of the peice, not the full thing.

2. Anyone know how to queue up a playlist on this keyboard? I haven't consulted the manual yet, but that is primarily due to the fact that the pre-installed midi's are such a hodge-podge mix I can't think of any two I'd put together. From what I've seen on the keys and buttons of the device however, playing a folder of midi's doesn't seem possible, and I haven't seen a playlist feature yet (although there is a playlist button).

3. Also - is sheet music under the same copyright laws as books? Can I find any sheet music from anything >100 years old for free?

Thanks!

Jonathan

 

[The Y_man]

1. Many midi files can sound orinary when played on a PC, as it is using the PC's on board synth - otherwise you would just use a remote midi controller. Do the midi files sound just as bad when loaded onto the keyboard?

2. Can't say I have seen a playlist function on a keyboard.

3. You can get software like Finale (need to purchase) which can read in midi files and covert them to sheet music for you. You migh get more than you bargined for, as you'll get a set of sheets for each midi channel (i.e. instrument)

The Y-man

 

[The Y_man]

Where's the playlist button? Looking at the manual but can't see it...

The Y-man

 

[DickR]

If you are listening to songs and even when you use good external speakers connected to your computer, sound wise a much better result, but still not optimal is when you use good headphones to listen to the in midi-format recorded songs on your computer.
Why is that so?
An average computer soundcard can simply NOT reproduce the same HiFi-quality as a keyboard or stereo-system can.
So, if you are listening to a MIDI-song on your computer, unless you have a special soundcard, it can NOT reproduce sounds above the GM (General Midi) level and that is restricted to ‘only’ 127 voices. Look at most keyboards, even if it is not a top-model, how many MORE voices can it produce? MANY MORE!!
What does that mean?
For example the beautiful Yamaha XG- and Live and Sweet-voices, Mega-voices and Super-Articulated-voices in some models don’t sound on a computer-soundcard because they are simply not there! With a bit of luck what you will hear is a substitute-voice from within the GM range. But that is ONLY the soundcard! So don’t worry if it sounds a bit ‘thin’ on the computer, the complete ‘musical-info’ will be there in the file but you can’t hear it!
Also the midi's you downloaded are created on various 'machines' with different specifications.
If you go to psrtutorial.com - Michael Bedesem created a few perfect and free to download programs to adjust midi's and styles for Yamaha keyboards.

Anyhow, enjoy your keyboard.

 

[jsimons_2000]

I guess it's not a playlist button . . "easy song arranger" which I have just discovered allows me to add tracks to current songs . . . not a playlist option.

psrtutorial site had some good midi's. Lots of crap out there when searching for midi's - you guys have any suggestions for some good classical music midi's?

 

[The Y_man]

Th only way I ge midi files is by typing th name of the piece/composer and "midi" in google...

The Y-man

 

[Vctor]

If you want your midi files to sound better on your computer, you must install YAMAHAXGworks.
It's a software that uses the XG sounds, found on Yamaha keyboards, so you will hear the midi files on pc almost like on the keyboard, in theory...