synth/controller issue
Hello, all.
I have a Yamaha PSR-520 which has GM capabilities. Everything is hooked up and the keyboard works great as a midi controller. it also has a local tone generator.
I want to use the sounds on the keyboard, not those on the soundcard. Does anybody know how I configure an AudioPhile 2496 soundcard so that instead of the Midi sounds on the soundcard being triggered, I can use the sounds on the keyboard. When I put “Local On” on the keyboard both the on-board sound and the soundcard tones are generated. With “Local Off” only the sounds generated from the sound card are generated.
I hope I’m not rambling and I hope this inquiry makes sense.
Thanks for any assistance you may provide.
Remy
If I’m understanding you correctly you want the local voice to be transmitted thru the MIDI connection and be sounded thru the sound card. If that’s what you have in mind it won’t work. The MIDI just sends signals to turn on or off notes. When the keyboard acts as a MIDI controller it will only activate the soundcards voice thru that connection. If you want to record the keyboard sound you’ll have to do that thru an analog output or a microphone. I am only minimally aquainted with MIDI but I think that is what you were getting at.
True north, I think you’re missing the question.
He wants to record MIDI, and on playback, send the MIDI to the keyboard and not the Yamaha’s built-in synth. I’m not familiar with the Yamaha but this should be doable. Of course, True North is correct that the sound doesn’t go over the MIDI cable; to render the MIDI track to audio prior to mixdown you’ll play back the MIDI while recording audio from the keyboard.
The trick is to go to “Preferences -> MIDI Settings -> MIDI devices” and select the Yamaha’s MIDI OUT as the MIDI output port, rather than the Yamaha’s internal synth. (Actually, you might have the default selected, the MS Wavetable synth – complete with huge latency.)
You can select more than one by holding down Control key.
While you’re here, check “Keep devices open” and make sure “Input to output echo” is set to Auto.
Now, right-click on the MIDI track in the timeline and set “Output To” to the Yamaha’s MIDI output.
Finally, when playing, turn off Local mode on the keyboard. Click on the MIDI track to select it to enable the correct echo. If you have multiple MIDI tracks on different MIDI channels with different sounds for different channels set up on your synth (if it has that capability), you pick the one you’re playing by clicking on the MIDI track. So, you can easily change between sounds.
Of course, eventually you’ll run out of voices on your synth, so, when you have a MIDI part that’s nearly done, render it to audio by soloing it, setting up to record audio from your keyboard (using it’s audio outputs of course) and hit Record, and manually stop it at the end of the track. Then MUTE the MIDI track (and I usually collapse it, and rearrange the tracks so the MIDI track is next to its audio). Do this for each MIDI track. Of course, if you need to edit a part, mute or delete that track’s audio, unmute the MIDI and edit, and then re-render it.
When you’re done with all the MIDI, you’ll have an audio track for each MIDI track. Put your FX plugins on these tracks and do volume automations & etc as needed, and now you can do an offline mixdown to build the final mix. (“Final” being a relative term!")
There are other ways, but I do quite a bit of it and this is what I find the most effective.