Midi two keyboards

[SeaGtGruff]

If you want to use the Kurzweil to control the Yamaha, you'll probably want to use the controls on the Kurzweil so you don't have to divide your attention between the two.

But if you don't mind fiddling with the Yamaha's controls while you're playing the Kurzweil, that should work, too.

 

[williamwill]

The Yamaha YC reface has a selector knob allowing to switch to 4 additional vintage organs in addition to the American tone wheel B3 sound.
It's laid out as follows: H,V,F,A and Y.
H - American tone wheel organ
V - British transistor organ
F - Italian transistor organ
A - Japanese transistor organ
Y- Yamaha YC-45D

I'm not sure how to handle the assignments for that control. I'll deal with it on the last step.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Okay, so H must be for Hammond, V must be for Vox, and F must be for Farfisa. I wonder what A is for?

EDIT: I guess A is for Ace Tone?

 

[williamwill]

I never gave it much thought what the letters designated but I think you got it all right.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

"Move the selector switch to F if you want to use the sound of a well-known Italian combo organ whose name we dare not mention due to licensing and trademark considerations."

They do the same thing when listing electric piano sounds-- "suitcase e.piano" and so forth.

 

[williamwill]

I'm going to backtrack a little bit here.
When I initially hook up my Kurzweil to my YC reface with only the midi out to the midi in to the YC reface I immediately can play the reface with the Kurzweil keys. I also immediately have expression foot control and Pitch Bend and rotary speed control with the modulation wheel.

The sound is coming out of the YC reface speakers. What needs to be done to output to my audio output on my Kurzweil so it plays through my powered monitors?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

What kind of powered monitors are you using, and more specifically, how are you connecting to them?

Can you connect the reface to the monitors directly?

If not-- if you need or want to send both keyboards' sound to the monitors-- then you might want to get a small mixer that you can connect both keyboards to, then connect the mixer to the monitors.

Or, if the Kurzweil has one or more audio input jacks, you could connect the reface's audio out to the Kurzweil's audio in-- which sounds like what you were asking in the first place-- but you'll need to consult the manuals for the Kurzweil to see what capabilities it has as far as playing auxiliary audio through it.

 

[anotherscott]

Yes, PC4 has audio inputs. So, Reface Audio Out to Kurzweil Audio In, and then whatever control the Reface has to turn off its internal speakers.

BTW, the PC4 has its own drawbar controllable organ built-in. It could be interesting to compare the Reface organ sounds to the Kurzweil. (Though the Yamaha has a wider variety of organ emulations.)

 

[williamwill]

Thanks
I have a Roland 30 watt 3 Channel monitor I use for practice at home.
My kurzweil keyboard is plugged into Channel 2. The kerswell have stereo inputs. I think I know where this is going. This is no different then when I was playing back in the seventies I had a fender Rhodes a clavinet D6 and the ARP Odyssey synthesizer. I had my own 6 channel receiver and custom built cabinets that I ran all three keyboards.

Am I right in saying it's no different for what I want to do here correct?

 

[williamwill]

Okay I ran a cable from the YC to the input of the Kurzweil I am now playing through the monitor speakers

 

[williamwill]

Okay I ran a cable from the YC to the input of the Kurzweil I am now playing through the monitor speakers

 

[williamwill]

Okay as I move along trying to make the assignments I'm having some problems. Look at the attached picture of the didisplayThese are my options. And I don't know what to make of yamaha's data table for the assignments I've tried different combinations of settings I cannot get the slider to respond

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I don't think the reface YC responds to CC#12. Try one of the ones listed on page 17 of the reface Data List:

CC#18 = Effect Dist
CC#19 = Rotary Speed
CC#77 = Vibrato/Chorus Depth
CC#79 = Vibrato/Chorus Switch
CC#80 = Wave
CC#91 = Effect Reverb
CC#102 = Footage 16'
CC#103 = Footage 5 1/3'
CC#104 = Footage 8'
CC#105 = Footage 4'
CC#106 = Footage 2 2/3'
CC#107 = Footage 2'
CC#108 = Footage 1 3/5'
CC#109 = Footage 1 1/3'
CC#110 = Footage 1'
CC#111 = Percussion On/Off Switch
CC#112 = Percussion Type Switch
CC#113 = Percussion Length

Note that the Kurzweil won't display those descriptions for those CC numbers, because it doesn't know what they mean to the reface YC.

 

[williamwill]

First let me say that's the picture showing CC 12 was my error when I sent the picture.
I found out that I had the midi control setting on my YC set to off for transmitting. I said it too on and began assigning the sliders and it does work now. But it's working in reverse. I think I know what I need to do next and we'll try it later this evening.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I think you do want the transmitting turned off on the YC, because it should be receiving, not transmitting. The PC4 should be the one transmitting.

 

[williamwill]

I'll take another look at what I did on the YC if I turned it on or off. I thought I turned it on and then the assignments were made but the sliders work in reverse that is, when you move the slider from the lower to the higher position you obtain more volume

 

[williamwill]

I copied and pasted this from the manual.

"If you wish to control your reface’s internal tone generator by using an
external MIDI controller but not its keyboard, set MIDI Control to “ON” and Local Control to “off.”

Look on page 42 under MIDI control and page 43 under Local Control settings. I'll have to check my settings again this evening

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Sounds right as far as Local Control off and MIDI Control on for the reface YC.

At first I didn't follow what you meant by "working in reverse"; I thought you meant the YC was affecting the PC4. Now that I understand what you meant, I'd check the PC4's manuals and settings to see what they say about how the sliders work. MIDI controllers that have sliders will frequently have a setting that determines whether "min" is down and "max" is up, or vice versa, so you can choose whether they function like a volume slider (min down and max up) or like an organ drawbar (min up and max down).

 

[williamwill]

Because it's not in KB3 mode which is Kurzweils organ program it defaults to the normal functioning way for all programs. I think I know the Next Step. A parameter setting to reverse how it functions

Finally starting to make some slow progress

 

[williamwill]

Well I finally assigned all the sliders, draw-bars, manuals or whatever you want to call them. I can now finish the remaining
control assignments. I want to thank everyone for their help and to SeaGTGruff in particular. I think I would have giving up
if it hadn't been for your constant input from my posts.

Time to move on to other area's of the keyboard to learn what more there is to learn.
I'm sure I'll back with more problems