J
jeff0633
Member
Hi folks.
I have some questions that I have been wanting to ask.
I play with a person who owns a Yamaha Clavinova. It has the floppy drive, and what we do is download standard midi files from the net (GM files), and then I load them into Sonar and take out the guitar parts and vocal parts, change the key and tempo if needed, and save them onto floppy disks. We simply load them into the Clavinova on stage, and play along with them and sing with them. Even though the Clavinova uses the XG format, it recognizes and plays the GM files just fine.
Sometimes, this keyboard player cannot play, and I need to get some portable gear to play myself in these situations. I will need some type of GM compatible module, like the Yamaha MU80, or the Roland SC-88 soundcanvas module. I will then need a sequencer with a floppy drive in it, and one that is also GM compliant, that will load up my .mid files and send the midi out to my sound module.
Here come the questions.
I had been looking at the JV-1010, but now, I hear that the GM mode is not very good, and that this was made for the other individual sounds, and it is not a good GM sound module. First, would there be no way to assign better instruments when I load up a GM mid file? Could I not use sysex commands imbedded in the midi files by Sonar that would tell the JV to use its better instruments on certain channels? What I am asking is, are my midi channels stuck using the generic GM instruments in the GM bank on the JV, no matter what? If not, can the changes be made permenent by imbedding sysex commands in the midi file itslef, so I wouldn't have to fool with it each time I loaded a song off a floppy? I would not have time on stage to fiddle with setting instruments.
If the JV would be stuck using the GM instruments in its GM mode, then this means I would probably be better off looking at a dedicated GM module, like the Yamaha MU80, or the SC sereies of modules. Can a few of you give me your opinions on what would be a good GM module with good GM sounds right out of the box? Can anyone compare the MU Yamaha series to the Sound canvas modules, or the Korg GM module?
About the sequencer I will need. I will not be doing any actual programming on the thing, or sequencing, because I do all that kind of stuff to my mid files in Sonar. So, really, all I will need is a box that will have a floppy drive, or some other storage that will let me load my mid files up that I made in Sonar, and simply play them and send the midi to the sound module. Basically, all I need is a box with a floppy drive that will let me pop a disk in, scroll through my mid songs on the disk, load them up and play them. It would have to be GM compatible, and I would hope it would keep any sysex commands intact as well, in case I use them later when I learn more about them. Can anyone help me narrow down the proper choices that I should be looking for? I like the XG sound set that the Clavinova has, so I would be happy with that, if the MU80 has the same sound set. But I hear good things about the Sound canvas modules too.
As for the sequencer, It looks like I may be stuck getting the Roland MC-80, cause I heard that the MC-50 is not GM compatible. Any other choices out there that could play my GM mid files using a floppy drive on stage?
Thanks for any help.
Jeff
I have some questions that I have been wanting to ask.
I play with a person who owns a Yamaha Clavinova. It has the floppy drive, and what we do is download standard midi files from the net (GM files), and then I load them into Sonar and take out the guitar parts and vocal parts, change the key and tempo if needed, and save them onto floppy disks. We simply load them into the Clavinova on stage, and play along with them and sing with them. Even though the Clavinova uses the XG format, it recognizes and plays the GM files just fine.
Sometimes, this keyboard player cannot play, and I need to get some portable gear to play myself in these situations. I will need some type of GM compatible module, like the Yamaha MU80, or the Roland SC-88 soundcanvas module. I will then need a sequencer with a floppy drive in it, and one that is also GM compliant, that will load up my .mid files and send the midi out to my sound module.
Here come the questions.
I had been looking at the JV-1010, but now, I hear that the GM mode is not very good, and that this was made for the other individual sounds, and it is not a good GM sound module. First, would there be no way to assign better instruments when I load up a GM mid file? Could I not use sysex commands imbedded in the midi files by Sonar that would tell the JV to use its better instruments on certain channels? What I am asking is, are my midi channels stuck using the generic GM instruments in the GM bank on the JV, no matter what? If not, can the changes be made permenent by imbedding sysex commands in the midi file itslef, so I wouldn't have to fool with it each time I loaded a song off a floppy? I would not have time on stage to fiddle with setting instruments.
If the JV would be stuck using the GM instruments in its GM mode, then this means I would probably be better off looking at a dedicated GM module, like the Yamaha MU80, or the SC sereies of modules. Can a few of you give me your opinions on what would be a good GM module with good GM sounds right out of the box? Can anyone compare the MU Yamaha series to the Sound canvas modules, or the Korg GM module?
About the sequencer I will need. I will not be doing any actual programming on the thing, or sequencing, because I do all that kind of stuff to my mid files in Sonar. So, really, all I will need is a box that will have a floppy drive, or some other storage that will let me load my mid files up that I made in Sonar, and simply play them and send the midi to the sound module. Basically, all I need is a box with a floppy drive that will let me pop a disk in, scroll through my mid songs on the disk, load them up and play them. It would have to be GM compatible, and I would hope it would keep any sysex commands intact as well, in case I use them later when I learn more about them. Can anyone help me narrow down the proper choices that I should be looking for? I like the XG sound set that the Clavinova has, so I would be happy with that, if the MU80 has the same sound set. But I hear good things about the Sound canvas modules too.
As for the sequencer, It looks like I may be stuck getting the Roland MC-80, cause I heard that the MC-50 is not GM compatible. Any other choices out there that could play my GM mid files using a floppy drive on stage?
Thanks for any help.
Jeff
