MIDI CONFUSION

[Mark Bransfield]

i thought midi just transported midi info not sound ? i have 6 keyboards i want to daisey chain and i thought when you come from the Master 'midi out' to 'midi in' the slave when you play the master it plays the slave but isn't it supposed to be if the master is on one sound and the slave on another those two different sounds play ..BUT if i put say my Master on 'Grand Piano' and my slave say 'Sax' they both play the grand piano .. i'm stumped how is the slave playing the same as the master ..btw both are 5pin in&out

 

[anotherscott]

i thought midi just transported midi info not sound ?

Correct.

if i put say my Master on 'Grand Piano' and my slave say 'Sax' they both play the grand piano .. i'm stumped how is the slave playing the same as the master ..

It could be that your Master is sending a MIDI Program Change when you select its piano sound from its front panel; and the second board sees that Program Change and responds to that MIDI command by changing its own sound to Piano (e.g. the MIDI Program Change for piano could be identical on the two boards). Boards often have settings to control whether they send or respond to MIDI Program Change, you could check for that.

Another possibility is that your second board plays a different sound from the MIDI input than what it's playing from its own keys (e.g. you first board might have to send the "play sax sound" command to the second board in order for it to trigger its sax sound). Some boards use this differentiation to allow the board to play an accompaniment pattern or external sequence over all 16 MIDI channels while still giving you independent control over what you're playing from its own keybosrd.

It could help if you mentioned exactly what two boards you're using.

 

[Mark Bransfield]

Correct.



It could be that your Master is sending a MIDI Program Change when you select its piano sound from its front panel; and the second board sees that Program Change and responds to that MIDI command by changing its own sound to Piano (e.g. the MIDI Program Change for piano could be identical on the two boards). Boards often have settings to control whether they send or respond to MIDI Program Change, you could check for that.

Another possibility is that your second board plays a different sound from the MIDI input than what it's playing from its own keys (e.g. you first board might have to send the "play sax sound" command to the second board in order for it to trigger its sax sound). Some boards use this differentiation to allow the board to play an accompaniment pattern or external sequence over all 16 MIDI channels while still giving you independent control over what you're playing from its own keybosrd.

It could help if you mentioned exactly what two boards you're using.

ok all in all i have Yamaha S670 , Korg Kross , Medeli x10 , Yamaha s463 and two Casio WK 3000 .. now first i tried the two Casio's and then i tried the Medeli as a master , both times the slave played what the master play's .. i just started out with two to see what happens .. i wanted my setup to be all 6 keyboards connected to a master with all of the 5 slaves playing a different sound .. BTW thanks for trying to help me out

 

[Mark Bransfield]

Correct.



It could be that your Master is sending a MIDI Program Change when you select its piano sound from its front panel; and the second board sees that Program Change and responds to that MIDI command by changing its own sound to Piano (e.g. the MIDI Program Change for piano could be identical on the two boards). Boards often have settings to control whether they send or respond to MIDI Program Change, you could check for that.

Another possibility is that your second board plays a different sound from the MIDI input than what it's playing from its own keys (e.g. you first board might have to send the "play sax sound" command to the second board in order for it to trigger its sax sound). Some boards use this differentiation to allow the board to play an accompaniment pattern or external sequence over all 16 MIDI channels while still giving you independent control over what you're playing from its own keybosrd.

It could help if you mentioned exactly what two boards you're using.

ok all in all i have Yamaha S670 , Korg Kross , Medeli x10 , Yamaha s463 and two Casio WK 3000 .. now first i tried the two Casio's and then i tried the Medeli as a master , both times the slave played what the master play's .. i just started out with two to see what happens .. i wanted my setup to be all 6 keyboards connected to a master with all of the 5 slaves playing a different sound .. BTW thanks for trying to help me out

 

[anotherscott]

A brief look at the WK3000 docs seems to indicate that changing a sound will always send out a MIDI Program Change command, and it will always receive a MIDI Program CHange command, so when you directly connect two of them, whenever you change the sound one one, it will change the sound on teh other... and since they are the same board, all the PC numbers are identical, so any time you call up a sound on the first, it will call up the identical sound on the second. Many boards offer more selectivity it what is sent and received, but between being a relatively low end model and being an arranger (most arrangers don't have extensive MIDI functionality), the SK3000 does not , as far as I can see.

Your Kross is probably your board with the greatest amount of MIDI functionality. so experiementing with, say, the Kross controlling the Casio (or one of you other boards), you'll probably have more luck. Other than that, instead of connecti the keyboards directly, you could connect them through a Mac, PC, or iPad, and then have extensive capabilities to control what does and does not get sent from one board to another.

 

[Mark Bransfield]

A brief look at the WK3000 docs seems to indicate that changing a sound will always send out a MIDI Program Change command, and it will always receive a MIDI Program CHange command, so when you directly connect two of them, whenever you change the sound one one, it will change the sound on teh other... and since they are the same board, all the PC numbers are identical, so any time you call up a sound on the first, it will call up the identical sound on the second. Many boards offer more selectivity it what is sent and received, but between being a relatively low end model and being an arranger (most arrangers don't have extensive MIDI functionality), the SK3000 does not , as far as I can see.

Your Kross is probably your board with the greatest amount of MIDI functionality. so experiementing with, say, the Kross controlling the Casio (or one of you other boards), you'll probably have more luck. Other than that, instead of connecti the keyboards directly, you could connect them through a Mac, PC, or iPad, and then have extensive capabilities to control what does and does not get sent from one board to another.

Hey i cannot thank you enough for your expert knowledge .. now i kinda understand what your explaining .. i am going to try the Kross as a Master ..thanks again have a great week

 

[rikkisbears]

Hi , just out of interest do you intend to pick the sounds manually on each of the attached keyboards ? Are you playing live and trying to layer a sound from each of the keyboards?
Unfortunately bit rusty on midi functions, haven’t really had to use it to any extent in last few years.

I initially had problems when I was trying to use my PA5x as controller for my sx900. Every time I picked a sound on the PA5x it would send thru the bank and program changes to the sx900. In the end I disabled it from being able to send the changes and picked my sounds manually on sx.
I probably had the option of being able to disable recieve on the sx900, but never got round to checking it.

Fortunately since the latest update, I believe I can choose whether to play a track internally or externally or both, and I can actually send the bank and program change I want to the external instrument, so if I want to play piano on Korg and sax on sx, it will do it automatically.

I’d definitely check out the midi functions on your Kross. Not familiar with Casio’s. Korg’s midi options are usually good.

 

[happyrat1]

Most quality synths without crippled MIDI are capable of adjusting NoteRCV. NoteSND, PRGRCV and PRGSND or something similar. They're as fundamental as LOCAL ON/OFF

 

[Mark Bransfield]

Most quality synths without crippled MIDI are capable of adjusting NoteRCV. NoteSND, PRGRCV and PRGSND or something similar. They're as fundamental as LOCAL ON/OFF

Thank you for the Reply