Yamaha Musicsoft Downloader (very cool!)

[ButchA]

I just wanted to share some info in case anyone hasn't tried the Musicsoft Downloader yet.

http://download.yamaha.com/top/?site=usa.yamaha.com&language=en

I just downloaded it for my old Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard, and it worked perfect! Maybe I'm a little "old school" and behind the times regarding keyboards, but, this free software product is really neat!

I don't have a Smart Media Card (yet) for my DGX-505, but it still uploaded a MIDI song from my laptop onto the keyboard and it stored it in the keyboard's flash memory as song #36. Very cool!

I imagine that if I order a Smart Media Card off Amazon or eBay or wherever, that the connection between my laptop and the keyboard will see the card as a removable drive F:\ or something and will allow me to download music that I created from the keyboard onto the laptop and vice versa.

Hey, I'm learning something new - imagine that! LOL!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I'm not sure if the MusicSoft Downloader will be able to transfer to/from a Smart Media Card while it's plugged into your keyboard-- although I don't think it would have trouble if the Smart Media Card is plugged into your laptop. At least, if I remember correctly, that's the way it works with USB thumb drives-- the MusicSoft Downloader can't access it if it's plugged into the keyboard.

On the other hand, your keyboard should have a menu that lets you load files from whatever external storage media (Smart Media Card or USB thumb drive) is plugged into the keyboard, so there should be no need to use the MusicSoft Downloader for that. MusicSoft Downloader is very useful for is transferring MIDI song files directly to and from your keyboard's memory, as well as transferring Backup files and (if your keyboard has them) User files to and from your keyboard's memory, but transferring anything to and from any removable storage media can be done directly between the keyboard and the media or your computer and the media.

One word of advice: If you purchase anything-- MIDI song files, Yamaha style files, etc.-- through MusicSoft, it's a really good idea to keep copies of the purchased items on your computer, as well as on backup media, rather than transferring the purchased items directly to your keyboard and not having them backed up anywhere else, because if you ever clear your keyboard's memory you'll lose whatever you'd transferred to it. So as long as you have everything backed up outside of the keyboard, you can safely clear its memory if needed without having to worry about losing your purchases.

 

[ButchA]

Thanks... Here's what I got going so far:

• Lenovo laptop - Windows 7. 100% perfect condition. No problems at all.
• Downloaded Yamaha's MIDI drivers off their website. No problems at all.
• Finale Notepad loaded onto laptop. It's the cheesy free version but it works. My daughter has the full blown version and I want to steal the CD from her and try to load it, if it will let me.
• Audacity loaded onto laptop. Works fine with a microphone and/or headphone jack output/mic input (1/4 stereo cable to 1/8 stereo cable).

1) Plug DGX-505 into laptop with USB cable, and turn on keyboard.
2) Laptop make that "da-dum" noise and shows that the Yamaha DGX-505 is plugged in.
3) Open up Finale and select a blank keyboard music score.
4) Whatever you play instantly comes through and onto the music score (but not completely)... The free version has no "click track" and has no staff break point (middle C). Everything is either all treble clef or all bass clef.

Close out of Finale and open up Yamaha Musicsoft Downloader. Test the connection and it works perfect with Yamaha's drivers for the DGX-505. Since I have no Smart Media Card or anything loaded into memory on the keyboard, it shows up as blank in the window of the software. Go through files on the laptop and choose a nice MIDI file that I either created by hand (mouse button note entry, etc..) or what I downloaded somewhere. Click on them and move them to the blank window in the Musicsoft Downloader, and they will transfer across. Exit out of that, and check the DGX-505 keyboard LCD screen. The songs will be in memory as song #36, #37, etc.. and will play beautifully. Click on "Score" on the keyboard and watch the staff and note entries go by as it's playing! It's really neat!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Thank you for mentioning Finale Notepad, as I didn't know there was a free version of Finale. I'm downloading it to try it out. From the screenshot on the web site, it looks like you should be able to use "grand staves," or bass and treble together-- unless the screenshot was from a different version, although the description seemed to indicate that you can use up to 8 staves for orchestration. I already have NCH Crescendo, which is another free notation program, and I know that changing the default display from a treble staff to a grand staff in Crescendo isn't immediately obvious. If I figure out how to do it in Finale Notepad, I'll post the steps.

Edit: Okay, it's easy to get a grand staff, just select "Keyboards" as the instrument type when creating a new score, then you can pick the particular type of keyboard (e.g., Piano, Harpsichord, Organ, etc.).