MIDI software for Yamaha PSR GX 76
- Thread starter Dan Ha
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Fred Coulter
Collector of ancient keyboards
What are you looking for? Most MIDI software is pretty catholic about the keyboard.
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Any DAW that includes MIDI functionality should do the trick. (A few DAWs-- such as Audacity-- are limited to just audio tracks, although some people don't consider such audio-recording programs to be "true DAWs.")
However, there are two features you might want to specifically check on before choosing which DAW to use:
(1) Does it let you use SysEx (System Exclusive) messages? Yamaha uses SysEx messages for selecting Reverb Type, Chorus Type, and DSP Type, and they're also used for Bulk Dumps. (See pages 85 - 86, and pages 73 - 74, of the Owner's Manual.) As far as I know, it used to be standard for a DAW to be able to handle SysEx messages, but these days it's not unusual for commercial DAWs to omit SysEx handling-- for instance, Ableton Live, Acoustica Mixcraft, and PreSonus Studio One don't handle SysEx, and will filter out any SysEx messages when you're loading MIDI files into them, or streaming MIDI data to them for recording. You don't absolutely need SysEx handling, but it's better to be able to use it than not, especially since the PSR-GX76 uses SysEx Bulk Dumps to send "initialization" data to a DAW-- although you could always just set up the channel voice selections and parameters manually.
(2) Does it let you load an "instrument definition" or "patch list" file for your keyboard? Such files aren't essential, but they are very helpful, because they will make it much easier for you to select a desired voice from among all of the available voices on your keyboard. Otherwise, you'll either need to use the Bulk Dump function to send the current voice selections to the DAW, or look up the corresponding Bank Select MSB/LSB and Program Change values in your keyboard's Voice List so you can manually add the required messages into the MIDI tracks in the DAW.
One nice thing is that most commercial DAWs will let you install a trial or demo version for free, and some even have a free lite version that won't "time out" after the free trial period ends and that isn't "crippled" in some way-- such as by not allowing you to save anything, or by injecting some sort of noise into the audio signal every so many seconds-- although the free lite version certainly won't be as full-featured as the paid versions. But in any case, you should be able to download and install a number of DAWs for free so you can try them out to see if they'll do what you want/need and whether you like their user interfaces and work flows.
My own feeling is that Steinberg Cubase is probably the best DAW to use with Yamaha keyboards, since Yamaha owns Steinberg and that means Cubase has a built-in ability to understand Yamaha's SysEx messages. It also includes built-in patch lists for many of Yamaha's keyboards and synths; I'm not sure whether there's one for the PSR-GX76, but if not then you can certainly create one.
However, there are two features you might want to specifically check on before choosing which DAW to use:
(1) Does it let you use SysEx (System Exclusive) messages? Yamaha uses SysEx messages for selecting Reverb Type, Chorus Type, and DSP Type, and they're also used for Bulk Dumps. (See pages 85 - 86, and pages 73 - 74, of the Owner's Manual.) As far as I know, it used to be standard for a DAW to be able to handle SysEx messages, but these days it's not unusual for commercial DAWs to omit SysEx handling-- for instance, Ableton Live, Acoustica Mixcraft, and PreSonus Studio One don't handle SysEx, and will filter out any SysEx messages when you're loading MIDI files into them, or streaming MIDI data to them for recording. You don't absolutely need SysEx handling, but it's better to be able to use it than not, especially since the PSR-GX76 uses SysEx Bulk Dumps to send "initialization" data to a DAW-- although you could always just set up the channel voice selections and parameters manually.
(2) Does it let you load an "instrument definition" or "patch list" file for your keyboard? Such files aren't essential, but they are very helpful, because they will make it much easier for you to select a desired voice from among all of the available voices on your keyboard. Otherwise, you'll either need to use the Bulk Dump function to send the current voice selections to the DAW, or look up the corresponding Bank Select MSB/LSB and Program Change values in your keyboard's Voice List so you can manually add the required messages into the MIDI tracks in the DAW.
One nice thing is that most commercial DAWs will let you install a trial or demo version for free, and some even have a free lite version that won't "time out" after the free trial period ends and that isn't "crippled" in some way-- such as by not allowing you to save anything, or by injecting some sort of noise into the audio signal every so many seconds-- although the free lite version certainly won't be as full-featured as the paid versions. But in any case, you should be able to download and install a number of DAWs for free so you can try them out to see if they'll do what you want/need and whether you like their user interfaces and work flows.
My own feeling is that Steinberg Cubase is probably the best DAW to use with Yamaha keyboards, since Yamaha owns Steinberg and that means Cubase has a built-in ability to understand Yamaha's SysEx messages. It also includes built-in patch lists for many of Yamaha's keyboards and synths; I'm not sure whether there's one for the PSR-GX76, but if not then you can certainly create one.