Help!!! Yamaha DGX305/CAKEWALK/MIDI problems

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ido1957

ido1957

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This seems like a MIDI issue so I'll post this here. I recently set up my new Yamaha DGX305 via USB to Cakewalk 9.0. SSSCIENTIST has been super helpful so far :D but I still have a host of problems:

1) My laptop has a crappy Sigma Tel soundcard so I set the MIDI output port to Microsoft GS Wavetale SW Synth. At least now I can hear the sound from the keyboard through my laptop speakers. My PC is upstairs and miles away has a Soundmax Wavetable synth card (with MIDI specified).

2) When I play a drum beat (STYLE) I get these keyboard tones/chords? on my laptop - in addition to the drums. This is really annoying. Why do they come through?

3) When I set my VOICE to drumkit and play drum/cymbal hits along with the drum machine I get regular piano coming through on the laptop (with the drum machine/annoying keyboard tones.

4) When I play this back in Cakewalk I hear it just like it sounded while recording - drum machine + annoying chords + keyboard notes instead of cymbal hits.

When I set the "patch" on the track sometimes the drums disappear and all I get is like Steel Drums or whatever.

This happens regardless of whether I play it back on my laptop or on my PC. (Soundcard doesn't make a difference). So I'm thinking this is all due to the MIDI info sent to the laptop by the Yamaha.

I don't want to record from the headphone out - I want the midi notes so I can work with them.

I've played with every button on the keyboard, all the PC functions and nothing seems to work. I am hoping someone will know how to make this work.
 
ido1957 said:
This happens regardless of whether I play it back on my laptop or on my PC. (Soundcard doesn't make a difference). So I'm thinking this is all due to the MIDI info sent to the laptop by the Yamaha.
You hit the nail on the head. Your Yamaha is muti-timbral, meaning it both transmits and recieves on mutiple channels at once.

Find the 'midi filter' page in Cakewalk and select 'filter all', then uncheck/unfilter channel 10 which is the traditional drum channel.

See if that makes a diff and get back to me.


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ssscientist said:
You hit the nail on the head. Your Yamaha is muti-timbral, meaning it both transmits and recieves on mutiple channels at once.

Find the 'midi filter' page in Cakewalk and select 'filter all', then uncheck/unfilter channel 10 which is the traditional drum channel.

See if that makes a diff and get back to me.
.
Ok - that solved a part of my problem - when recording you can still hear the annoying extra sounds. I can apply the filter after it's recorded to the selected track (it's a range so I picked 10-10). Then I save the .wrk and it seems to erase all but the drums sounds. This after work is annoying but it works.....

Any suggestions with regards to adding the "drum hits" ? I'd like to accent the beat. The sound on the laptop is regular piano sound - not drum sounds (although through the line out of the Yamaha it sounds like drums). Actually for several patches, I get regular piano sounds - but I get the odd organ sound if I select certain patches. So not all patches can transmit the sounds to the laptop that you hear over the line out/headphone out....

Any ideas?

Thanks for all your help so far..... :D
 
A couple of ideas:

Have you imported Yamaha Instrument definitions? I dont know this Unit, it may not have them.

The sound on the laptop is regular piano sound - not drum sounds (although through the line out of the Yamaha it sounds like drums).
Why do you even want to use the built-in soundcard? :confused:

It has to do with the infamous channel 10, perhaps the built in soundcard doesnt have a dedicated drum sound for that channel?
 
Ok - I managed to get something better going....

I set the Yamaha to Local = Off and chose the Yamaha USB as both in and out ports. I also assigned Channels 1-9 and 11-16 to Yamaha XG and Channel 10 to Yamaha XG Drums.

After a few starts and stops - I'm not sure exactly - things started to record and play back like it sounded. I also could set the keyboard patch to 122-Drum Kit and play extra hits like I wanted, although it's not like a drummer (lol). At least it seems to record everything I want now.

Now.....one of my original issues remained....When I disconnect from the keyboard, the MIDI out ports also disappear. So, now I'm selecting the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth if I want to hear anything from the laptop soundcard. Problem is the notes aren't recognized by the driver/soundcard/MS Wavetable. So I get some drums plus annoying piano notes when I play it back - like the extra ride I added manually is now a piano note. This is annoying because I wanted to edit the drums and working with these wrong notes is a pain.

I solved this problem by setting the track property of the recorded drums to Channel 10. It was set to 0 originally.

So that is where I am now.

Hopefully I can do some edits now and hear everything as a normal kit.

And hopefully I can repeat all these steps (saved my settings) each time.

Thanks for all your help!

:D :) :D :)
 
ido1957 said:
When I disconnect from the keyboard, the MIDI out ports also disappear.
That's the way it should be -- the way it needs to be if you're going to substitute another synth or controller.

Is it a space issue that prevents you from leaving the keyboard hooked up to your computer? There are 3 meter USB cables you can buy at any computer store and that may enable you to take your keyboard out of the way without unhooking it completely.


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ssscientist said:
Is it a space issue that prevents you from leaving the keyboard hooked up to your computer? There are 3 meter USB cables you can buy at any computer store and that may enable you to take your keyboard out of the way without unhooking it completely.
No - it's a laptop that I use for work and for home stuff so it's usually only connected when I need to record something. If I win the lottery :D I'll get one I can keep there permanently.
 
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