MIDI- Yamaha KX5 mod wheel is recognized by Yamaha CK 61- Except for one thing...

[RAS]

I use my Yamaha KX5 as a controller for my Yamaha CK 61. The KX5 works great for pitch, volume, modulation etc.... with one exception. When I have an organ sound on the CK 61, with the rotary effect assigned to the CK 61 mod wheel, while it works great on the CK 61, it does not recognize the mod wheel from the KX5. It always recognizes the mod wheel on all other patches/applications, (and the pitch bend on everything, the "hold" on everything, etc.) but it ignores the mod wheel when the rotary effect (slow-fast) is assigned. Any thoughts or suggestions? (yes, I know the KX5 is circa 1984, and the CK61 is circa 2023, but everything else works fine).

 

[delaware dave]

I use my Yamaha KX5 as a controller for my Yamaha CK 61. The KX5 works great for pitch, volume, modulation etc.... with one exception. When I have an organ sound on the CK 61, with the rotary effect assigned to the CK 61 mod wheel, while it works great on the CK 61, it does not recognize the mod wheel from the KX5. It always recognizes the mod wheel on all other patches/applications, (and the pitch bend on everything, the "hold" on everything, etc.) but it ignores the mod wheel when the rotary effect (slow-fast) is assigned. Any thoughts or suggestions? (yes, I know the KX5 is circa 1984, and the CK61 is circa 2023, but everything else works fine).

I looked at the manual. Page 54, rotary slow/fast is controlled via CC#9. For leslie control only, set the mod wheel on the KX5 to send cc#9. And according to table C on page 55 it will be slow/fast/stop. If you are using the mod wheel (which sends a combination of the CC# and a data value (1-127), when the wheel is all the way back the speed is slow, when it is moved all the way forward it will be fast, and the tricky part when the wheel is EXACTLY in the center the leslie will move to stop.

My guess is that you have the modwheel on the KX5 sending CC#1 which is the normal default. Set it to send CC#9 when you want to control the rotary speed of the leslie.

Because the KX5 is so old you might not be able to change the modwheel's transmitted CC#, it might be fixed to send CC#1 with no ability to change it. If this is the case you have two options:

1) to change rotary speeds reach up and move the CK's mod wheel rather than the KX5's modwheel.
2) purchase a midisolutions event processor. When the event processor sees a CC#1 message being transmitted by the KX5's modwheel it will convert that CC message from cc#1 to cc#9.

MIDI Solutions Event Processor; 10 Event MIDI Event Processor

 

[RAS]

Wow- impressive and robust response. Yes, having the mod wheel be binary is fine. However, I have no idea how to change which CC my KX5 sends on. I don't suppose you have any idea about that- do you? Thanks.

 

[delaware dave]

Wow- impressive and robust response. Yes, having the mod wheel be binary is fine. However, I have no idea how to change which CC my KX5 sends on. I don't suppose you have any idea about that- do you? Thanks.

I checked the kx5 owners manual, it appears the kx5's mod wheel's cc assignment cannot be changed, so either move the ck's modwheel to change the leslie speed (recommended) or purchase the midi event processor

 

[anotherscott]

Another possible way to go... Set up a foot switch on the CK to switch the rotary sound, and place that somewhere you can conveniently get to when playing your KX.

 

[delaware dave]

Another possible way to go... Set up a foot switch on the CK to switch the rotary sound, and place that somewhere you can conveniently get to when playing your KX.

The kx5 is 1984 vintage and there isnt the flexibility of adding a footpedal and assigning the footpedal to cc#9. CC defaults are fixed.

 

[anotherscott]

The kx5 is 1984 vintage and there isnt the flexibility of adding a footpedal and assigning the footpedal to cc#9. CC defaults are fixed.

My suggestion had nothing to do with the KX5. Rather, it's similar to how you suggested moving the CK's mod wheel to solve the problem. But if you're out front with a keytar, it would probably be more convenient to use a rotary-switching CK footswitch (moved closer to where you'd normally be playing while using the keytar) rather than having to walk back to your keyboard every time you wanted to change rotary speed. Especially with a 1/4" extension cable, you should be able to put the pedal wherever you want it.

Yet another possibility might be to use a bluetooth MIDI assignable footswitch (i.e. Boss FS-1-WL) with a CME bluetooth adapter on the CK (since the CK's built-in BT functionality seems to be limited to audio, not MIDI). The advantages here would be that it's wireless, and wouldn't take up a pedal jack of the CK (or require that you keep moving your footswitch back and forth depending on whether you were playing the keytar or the board itself). But you'd probably have to add a MIDI merge box, since you'd probably need to plug both the keytar and the CME wireless BT adapter into the single MIDI IN jack of the CK. (CME does make both 5-pin and USB BT adapters for wireless MIDI, but like most Yamahas, the CK is probably not adept at using the 5-pin and USB jacks simultaneously for MIDI input.)

 

[delaware dave]

Another possible way to go... Set up a foot switch on the CK to switch the rotary sound, and place that somewhere you can conveniently get to when playing your KX.

Ah, mis-read your post.