MIDI input to PSR-E473 ?

[TrevorSmith]

Wow, it's been a year since I posted about making a MIDI foot switch controller for my Yamaha PSR-E473.
Been busy elsewhere, but also done a lot of research in that time and finally got back to it now.
I wanted to play my own sounds (in the Yam's registration banks) using midi from a foot switch controller (whilst playing bass guitar and singing).

Good news is I have cracked the main hurdles.
1. I've programmed a Hobbytronics USB Host controller board, as a USB MIDI host.
2. Set up a PIC controller, to send out UART messages to the USB host.
3. This plays notes / chords on the Yamaha's default piano sound, all ok.

So, my PIC is sending just NOTE ON/OFF numbers, with velocity values.
Then I was stuck, working out how to patch change the sounds and get to the registration banks.

Then I came across a magic little program called "MIDI-OX", which has been a game changer, most enlightening.
With the Yamaha USB plugged into my PC, I can see everything that happens on the synth.
MIDI-OX shows all Patch change data, Bank select data, note values, etc ...... all the data I need to know.

I'm now at the stage where my PIC program selects the registration banks OK and plays notes / chords in the correct sounds.
I can play my own Hammond organ type sound on the Yamaha keys .... and the PIC controller plays chords in my orchestral strings sound at the same time.
Both sounds are in my own registration bank storage.
I now need to map out all the registration banks data, from the MIDI_OX data .... and then work out a file structure for my songs, to be stored on a USB stick.
Plenty to do yet, but at least I know how to do it all now.

 

[TedS]

I used MIDI-OX a long time ago, and was pretty impressed myself.

Because there's not a ton of space in the dining room next to my keyboard, and also because I use my iPad Pro for displaying and turning pages of sheet music, I wondered about its ability to display MIDI activity. On the App Store I found MIDI Wrench, and Midiculous 4.

Although my needs probably aren't as in-depth as yours, I've been using both of these apps with some success. So if you (or anyone on the Forums) would prefer to use an iPad instead of a PC, there are tools available.

Thanks for sharing your hard work!!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yes, MIDI-OX is very helpful; I highly recommend it.

 

[happyrat1]

Apple doesn't support MIDIOX

Fortunately there is MIDI Monitor for MacOS which performs similar tasks.

snoize: MIDI Monitor

www.snoize.com