Good afternoon, everyone.
Here is the solution to Nicurx's problem:
Set all of the tracks (except the drum track) to MIDI channel 1. Change all of the patch assignments in these tracks to Patch 1 (or to 0 if your sequencer numbers patches starting with 0). Don't set the drum track (normally found on channel 10) to anything other channel 10. If you do, you'll hear all sorts of random notes.
Here is the long winded explanation for what is going on:
The Disklavier has a split personality: it is both a piano and a tone generator. For this reason there is always the issue of which notes should be played by the piano and which notes should be played by the tone generator.
This split personality issue arises whenever you play back a performance file that was not published by Yamaha, not recorded on a Disklavier or Clavinova, or not published according to Yamaha's standards. This issue must be confronted no matter whether you are playing back a file from floppy disk, USB flash drive, or internal memory. The issue similarly manifests itself if you send MIDI data to the piano from an external sequencer.
Yamaha-Published Song Files and Files Recorded on Disklavier or Clavinova
When Yamaha publishes a song file for Disklavier or Clavinova, it embeds a sequencer-specific message into the file that informs the Disklavier as to which data should be played by the piano. When you record a file on the piano, this message is created automatically.
An example of this message could look like this:
7F 43 7B 0C 04 03
(all "0"s are zeros)
"7F" designates the message as "sequencer-specific." This message is never sent over a MIDI cable. It is used by any sequencer that understands it, typically a Yamaha keyboard.
"43" identifies the message as a Yamaha message.
"7B 0C" specifies the nature of the message (i.e. this message specifies which MIDI channels should be mapped to the Right-and Left-Hand Part Cancel functions).
"04" identifies channel 4 data as data to be played by the piano and associated with the Right-Hand Cancel function.
"03" identifies channel 3 data as data to be played by the piano and associated with the Left-Hand Cancel function.
Over the years, music publishers of piano teaching materials have created MIDI files that accompany their methods. They have followed the Roland standard of putting the Right Hand part on channel 4 and the Left Hand part on channel 3. I have helped many of these publishers to put this message into their files so that Disklaviers and Clavinovas would know how to handle the data, as shown in the example above.
Yamaha-published files for Disklavier typically put the Left and Right parts on channels 1 and 2, respectively. Natively, the Disklavier message looks like this:
7F 43 7B 0C 01 02
On the other hand, Yamaha-published files for Clavinova typically put the Left and Right parts on channels 2 and 1, respectively. The native Clavinova message looks like this:
7F 43 7B 0C 02 01
To my knowledge, the only contemporary program available that will enable you to add such a message to a file is MidiKit for Mac:
If you assign all of your piano data to just one or two MIDI channels, you can use this program to embed the message.
NOTE: Other sequencers, including Yamaha's Cubase, will delete any existing sequencer-specific meta event when you open a MIDI file and provide no option for inserting such an event.
Playback of Non-Yamaha Song Files from Floppy, USB Flash Drive, or Internal Memory
The Mark IIXG and Mark III Disklaviers had a concept known as "Import File." They defined an import file as a song file that did not have the Yamaha sequencer-specific meta event. These models offered you the option of setting up a default condition that specified how the Disklavier would handle an import file. Your choices were:
--choose any one MIDI channel (from 1-16) for playback on the piano
--choose data assigned to channels 1 and 2 for playback on the piano
--choose data from the lowest numbered channel with an assigned "piano group" voice for playback on the piano
--choose data from all channels with an assigned "piano group" voice for playback on the piano
Normally the last choice is the best one although that may result in an occasional undesired result, such as a harpsichord part being played on the piano when you would rather hear it on the tone generator.
For some reason, the option to set this default condition was eliminated from the Mark IV, the E3, and the upgrade control unit called the DCK-850.
I can't say for certain what the rule is for how a Mark IV, E3, or DKC-850 chooses the data for playback of an import file on the piano. However, it is clear that if you both set a track's channel to 1 and assign patch 1 (or 0 in the case of sequencers that number from 0) to each of these tracks, the piano will play the parts that you want it to.
Playback from an External MIDI Sequencer
This matter is a little easier to understand. All you have to do is to set the MIDI Receive Channel on your Disklavier (any model) to a number or numbers that match the channels of the incoming piano data from the sequencer. The simplest way to do this is to set the Piano Receive Channel to 01 (which is the default) and make sure that your external MIDI file has all piano tracks assigned to channel 1.
Regards,
PianoBench
On Dec 3, 2012, at 12:43 PM, nicurx wrote:
Thank you for the idea.... I seem not to be able to reassign specific channels during playback on the E3's controller (DKC-800)....I set the master settings to PRG on channels 1 and 2, still no luck...still playing synthesized keyboard no matter how I reassign....I did break down and buy the $4 midi file of this song from Yamaha and was able to reassign the tracks I wanted to the acoustic piano, though. Anyone else wanting to do this, it's pretty easy to do with enough patience, the results aren't always perfect, but by reassigning, merging tracks and setting them to channels 1 and 2, you usually get a pretty good (and free!) midi file for your disklavier.
--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, Carol Beigel wrote:
>
> Just a thought, but have you set Channel 1 to Prg or Prg All using the control box on your Disklavier? and Chanel 2 to Prg instead of ##? Or, while the file is playing, press the -> key so you can see what is playing what on each channel. You can usually reassign channels by by adjusting the Yes or No buttons.
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