old piano hacks

[682]

There are a lot of midi pianos for sale from the 80s and 90s with 5 pin midi conns.Some of these older pianos have good action...maybe in their day they cost a lot.... is it hard to pull the midi stuff out of the back and replace it with USB guts
to go DI into a computer DAW..??

[ecc83]

There are a lot of midi pianos for sale from the 80s and 90s with 5 pin midi conns.Some of these older pianos have good action...maybe in their day they cost a lot.... is it hard to pull the midi stuff out of the back and replace it with USB guts
to go DI into a computer DAW..??

Surely it would be simpler, quicker and about the same cost to just buy an interface with DIN ports?

The Behringer UMC 204HD is very good for the money (see my short report in 'newbs') but I did not check the MIDI side for latency. Most modern AIs are very good these days though.

Beware 'MIDI' on old keyboards? Some, Yamaha for one, did not implement MIDI fully and so play the wrong notes when triggering an external sound module. Hilarious but not very useful!

I understand they can be 're-mapped' but I ain't that smart!

Dave.

[rob aylestone]

Curious, my DX7 and all my Yamahas since have never done anything strange at all?

[682]

it would be a good challenge project I think... learn a lot.

[ecc83]

Curious, my DX7 and all my Yamahas since have never done anything strange at all?

I am talking OLD old Rob! PSS 790 IIRC. Bought it for son, nifty, uncollected repair.

Dave.

[gecko zzed]

It is an interesting way of spending your time.

But you would simply be replicating this:

[grimtraveller]

It is an interesting way of spending your time.

But you would simply be replicating this:

^^^^^^^^^^^^What he said !
You don't need to do anything other than get one of those. They're cheap and Ebay is stuffed to the gills with them.

[Ponder5]

I am talking OLD old Rob! PSS 790 IIRC. Bought it for son, nifty, uncollected repair.

Dunno how OLD it has to be but the DX7 was their very first midi kb and it was more or less fine.

It had some abbreviations.
Only transmit on Ch1
Transmit velocity 1-100 instead of 0-127.

But you can't argue with their midi integration. Every parameter. Pretty sweet.

Some of the PS series had sequencers which, you're right, were initially unpredictable. But they weren't flexible, either, so once you figured it out (ahem... RTFM) it was no biggie.

But that's how Yamaha kinda was. They did what they did and everyone else just kinda had to make way for them.

[ecc83]

Dunno how OLD it has to be but the DX7 was their very first midi kb and it was more or less fine.

It had some abbreviations.
Only transmit on Ch1
Transmit velocity 1-100 instead of 0-127.

But you can't argue with their midi integration. Every parameter. Pretty sweet.

Some of the PS series had sequencers which, you're right, were initially unpredictable. But they weren't flexible, either, so once you figured it out (ahem... RTFM) it was no biggie.

But that's how Yamaha kinda was. They did what they did and everyone else just kinda had to make way for them.

It has been a while ago but I still have the Yammy and I bought it because we have an Evolution Ekeys 49 'dumb' controller and son wanted to play without having to fire up a computer.
My reasoning was to plug eK49 DIN out into 790 MIDI in and trigger sounds (it is a Portasound with speakers) Worked except except sending a piano command gave clarinet or similar (long time ago).

My investigations on't web found that the PSS MIDI was not to Roland spec'. Did not want to pay for the patents or something?

Anyway, son just kept with Ek and PC and Cubase and the Yamaha was virtually confined to drum triggering, the large pads on the front are fully assignable.

Son is now in France, I still have the 790 and grandson has the EK49!

Should have said. Yammy has mini keys, son not keen!

Dave.