Yamaha KX 49 & Composer problem

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,
Your set up instructions and the graphics are very clear and look like they should work. But either I'm screwing up somewhere or the Audigy 2 ZS sound card isn't made for use with a virtual midi cable.
Where I am. In Synthfont input ports I have Maple Midi 1-4 listed as well as SB Audio 2 ZS IO (C880). I have checked Maple I for slots 0-15 and the SB Audigy... for slots 16-32.
In Composer on the left I have Maple 1-4 and SB Auidio 2 ZS Midi IO (C880). Nothing is checked for imput ports. On the right Maple 1-4, MS Wavetable, Audigy Synth A and Synth B and the Audigy MIDI IO. I have everything checked by the Audigy MIDI IO. I have also checked this on the right, unchecked MS Wavetable, Maple 2-4, but with no better results.
When I test playback only Synth A and B work. No sound from Maple 1. However if I check Maple 1 on the left, also, then the scale plays but with the green light flashing on both Maple 1 and Synth A.
Maple 1 produces no sound in Synthfont, either. If I load a midi file, select a chanel and select Mapel I for midi out, ia message pops up saying "could not open midi port." Then SF bank reverts to merlin creative and it begins to play.

I hope you can point me to something to try. In the meantime, the Sax/Violin Concerto well started, will accumulate a whole lot of sound changes.

All best,
mgj


I noticed that Maple is listed in Composer as an External Device, but if I click the properties of Maple 1, there it is, listed as a Mini Output Device, with the sound font banks listed, just as in the sound card's SF bank manager and Composer, and as the default in Synthfont.

The only thing I can think of to try is to configure New External Device, with the same check (midi output device) as is already in properties, then add the same banks as are there. Since Composer already recognizes it under properties, that doesn't sound necessary.

[Sherry C]

Hi MG,

Your Audigy sound card has the Synth A and Synth B already on it - there's no need for the Maple MIDI for that. The Maple "cable" should go to SynthFont, which should give you a total of 48(!) instruments available - 16 on each Synth. (One limitation you may run into is the amount of memory that you have on the machine. I recall that when I was using my SB Audigy card, I had to designate a certain amount of memory per Synth (it also had 2), and that if I didn't have enough, it wouldn't function properly. )

After you have the ports set up as I illustrated in the picture, it should be just a matter of when you use the Staff Setup button for any of your staves, you select (1) the Device and (2) the Instrument patch you want to use for the staff.

When you use the Instrument Patch list to select which instrument you want to use, bear in mind that the default list is for the General MIDI (GM) set of instruments. Therefore if the soundfonts that you have loaded on Synth A and Synth B are different than a GM set of instruments, you may want to edit the list to reflect the specific instruments that are on the Synth A and Synth B for each specific instrument patch number. Likewise with the font(s) that you have in SynthFont. You can do this in Composer by doing the following in Setup/MIDI Devices Configuration (the big one):

PatchMapEditing.png

Then back up the configuration! You don't want to lose all that typing

I guess it's time to do some serious research into how to get an .ins (instrument definition file) from a soundfont That would make it much easier as you could just import the .ins into the MIDI device description, rather than type the names into the patch map. Does anyone reading this know of a utility that will create a .ins file from a soundfont?

ttfn,
Sherry

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,
Woe increases along with entropy. Maybe trying to solve a problem with Composer might help.
Using 'add bank' Synth A and B (and Maple 1, too, now) show these banks: Merlin Creative Ed.sf2 / MC Bank 1 / Mc Bank 2 / MC Bank 3 / MC bank 4. These four banks have instruments from other sound font banks, added with SF Librarian. And also General Midi is there. I have made Merlin Creative Ed.sf2 the default bank for the 2 Synths and Maple 1.

The problem is that although I might specify the ZFS Clarinet in MC Bank 3, patch 72 (if I recall correctly), and have all staves set for Merlin Creative Ed.sf2, the clarinet reverts to the GM one. When I open staff setup or use the icon on the left, general midi is listed as the bank.

I tried just typing in the name of Timp and Cymbals, which I have patch 120 set to in Merlin Creative Ed.sf2 into the same slot in GM, and I got one of the drum banks.

I am afraid to try this, but what would be the result of marking General Midi, then using copy from another bank (Merlin Creative Ed.sf2) and copying Synth A's patches and names? Alternatively, is it possible to just get General Midi out of the list of banks? The numbers of the two are almost the same, something like (000.000d) with an asterisk next to the Merlin bank.

If I knew where to find the GM bank Composer is using, I could perhaps, also, open it and Merlin in Sound font Librarian, to delete each GM patch and drag the Merlin one over, then add the other 4 banks to General midi.

In any case I'd have to save the "new" General midi to a location where I could get at it from Synthfont, too.

The easiest thing, now that the synths, Maple 1, and Synthfont all have Merlin Creative Ed.sf2, would be deleting General Midi, leaving only Merlin CE.sf2 and it's four extra banks. But I'm afraid to try that, mostly because Composer wants to revert to it, as earlier versions didn't. If I set up a staff with Bank 3, clicked on ZFS clarinet, that's what would play.

I have the input and outports set up as you illustrate above. Synthfont does play as I work in Composer.

Feeling really dumber by the day.

All best,
mgj

[Sherry C]

Hi MG,

Being that "a picture is worth a thousand words" therefore "a video must be worth at least ten thousand" I'll try to get a video put together showing the process for entering the patch names (it's not the best process right now, and is on the "make it better" list for future development). There is an illustrated written description in the Users Guide, and use the Index to look up "patch" and choose the "patch names for device" subtopic. Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject til I can get the video done ("family emergency" events here have delayed my video making sessions by weeks).

However, in the meantime, to try and "force" the instrument to be what you want, please make sure that the GS Wavetable is turned "off". You can do that in the Setup/MIDI Device configuration/Ports/Select Ports, and uncheck it in the right hand panel (see my screenshot of the Ports settings below).

ttfn,
Sherry

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,
Sorry to hear about the emergencies. I hope they pass and all is well.

I'll be quick.
1. I found that for the 4 banks added to Merlin Creative, if I click through the banks and find the instrument I'm looking for, say it's a piccolo, bank 4, patch 73, if a put a 4 in ctrl 0 and 73 ub ctrk 32, the Bank four names disappear, 73 is hilighted, and I get the instrument.

2. If I knew the ctrl 0 numbers for GM and Merlin, I suppose I could do the same there. I assume Composer uses one of those GM files in Win\Sys 32, and loading one in SF Library might show the answer to what might go into ctrl 0.

3. To get 48 channels, wouldn't I have to be able to use Maple Midi in Composer so that it would translate to Synthfont? The only way to do so appears to be to set Maple 1,2,3, or 4 as both input and output. (If I load a midi file into SF, btw, and choose it for output, a popup says the device can't be opened, though it is listed.

I've done the suggest reading, again, and everything related to "patch" in the manual. Maybe I'm beginning to understand it a bit.

all best,
mgj

[Sherry C]

Hi MG,

Originally Posted by mgj32

Sorry to hear about the emergencies. I hope they pass and all is well.

They are now settled, and the outcomes were better than anticipated. For that, we are extremely thankful!

1. I found that for the 4 banks added to Merlin Creative, if I click through the banks and find the instrument I'm looking for, say it's a piccolo, bank 4, patch 73, if a put a 4 in ctrl 0 and 73 ub ctrk 32, the Bank four names disappear, 73 is hilighted, and I get the instrument.

Bingo Matching Bank and Instrument Patch number is the bare necessity - having the correct instrument name in the field is helpful, but not necessary to getting the right sound.

2. If I knew the ctrl 0 numbers for GM and Merlin, I suppose I could do the same there. I assume Composer uses one of those GM files in Win\Sys 32, and loading one in SF Library might show the answer to what might go into ctrl 0.

Yes. The default MIDI device is the GS Wavetable, which uses the GM Standard instrument patch map. One thing to note: some devices start with instrument patch 0 and go to 127, while others start with 1 and go to 128. Notation Software uses the convention 1-128, so check and enter your patch numbers accordingly. (eg. if your MIDI device uses 0-127, then you'll need to offset the number by 1 to make sure they match correctly in Composer.)

3. To get 48 channels, wouldn't I have to be able to use Maple Midi in Composer so that it would translate to Synthfont? The only way to do so appears to be to set Maple 1,2,3, or 4 as both input and output. (If I load a midi file into SF, btw, and choose it for output, a popup says the device can't be opened, though it is listed.

To get the 48 channels that I was alluding to would be to use your Audigy Synth A as one device (16 channels there), Synth B as a second device (16 more channels there) and then Maple 1 to SynthFont (16 more channels there). You can use the same channel number (eg. 2) to two different devices for two different instruments (there is currently a bug in Composer which will show the channel number in yellow as if it is sharing a channel with the same number, even when they are assigned to two different devices - don't let that throw you off.)

Only set the Maple cables to "Out" in Composer, not as "In"s - otherwise you'll get a feedback loop going that will slow your computer to a painful crawl that you may have to shutdown the computer to get out of.

Actually you'll only need one cable (eg. Maple 1) to go out to Synthfont, where you can use 16 channels and even assign different fonts to each channel (this is done within SynthFont). You'll still need to select the correct Instrument Patch number in Composer's Staff Setup.

For example, say you have just two instruments, Guitar and Flute, in your composition. You want to use SynthFont, and you want to use a Ramirez Classical Guitar soundfont for the first instrument (the patch number is 25), and the Haggia Flute soundfont for the second one (with its patch number of 74). It might look like this:

In Composer:
Guitar/Staff 1 - Maple 1 - Channel 1 - Instrument patch 25
Flute/Staff 2 - Maple 1 - Channel 2 - Instrument patch 74

In SynthFont:
Channel 1 - Ramirez Classical Guitar (you don't have to set the instrument patch number because that's already being transmitted from Composer)
Channel 2 - Haggia Flute (ditto)

You're using the same cable - Maple 1 - for both instrument staves to go from Composer to SynthFont. Composer tells Synthfont which instrument patches get played on each channel, and in Synthfont you just have to pick which soundfont goes with each channel.

Alternatively, you could use a guitar font that is already loaded in Synth A and has the instrument at patch 25, and then use the Haggia flute which is in SynthFont:

In Composer:
Guitar/Staff 1 - Synth A - Channel 1 - Instrument patch 25
Flute/Staff 2 - Maple 1 - Channel 2 - Instrument patch 74

Hopefully the above is helpful

ttfn,
Sherry

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,
I think I've got it!!!! Played in Synthfont and made changes and added a couple of measures and SF picked them all up. First time SF displayed a midi file of 32 channels, listing the instruments from Composer (only strings missing?). Hope it does it again next time. Changes I made were only to set SF for the 1-128 patches. Guess I'll have to learn SF now, like how to make a recording, save the arrangement, etc.

Many thanks, and glad things are working out well.

all best,
mgj