Not able to get left hand staff to display notes on Yamaha DGX660

[Devon]

I am saving a smf 1 midi file from sonar with the right hand notes on track 1 and the left hand notes on track 2. When loaded in to my Yamaha DGX660 it plays the file correctly, but shows all of the notes on track 1 and no notes on track 2. I want to use the lesson features of the keyboard on this file which requires the left hand notes to be on track 2. I have opened the file with Finale and it shows both tracks with the notes on the correct tracks.

The files that came with the keyboard work correctly.

Does anyone have an idea of what I am doing wrong here.

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Make sure that Sonar has Track-1 assigned to Channel-1 and Track-2 assigned to Channel-2. Normally, in a Type-1 MIDI file, this should be done by default, but with the problem you are having, it is the first thing to check.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Also, Yamaha generally prefers MIDI files to be in format 0-- all channels in one "MTrk" chunk. Song files in format 1 will play, but I'm not sure whether they're 100% compatible with the Yamaha Education Suite. I seem to recall reading that song files should be in format 0 for that. Your DAW may let you choose whether to export MIDI data to a format 0 or format 1 file. If it doesn't, there may be free utilities on the web to convert a format 1 file to format 0. See if that helps.

EDIT: On page 42 of the manual it says that the song file can be in either format 0 or format 1, so that must not be the problem.

 

[Devon]

Make sure that Sonar has Track-1 assigned to Channel-1 and Track-2 assigned to Channel-2. Normally, in a Type-1 MIDI file, this should be done by default, but with the problem you are having, it is the first thing to check.

Thank you very much that was my problem. I thought that it assigned the tracks in order, but both were assigned to channel 1.

For the next person that has this same problem, in Sonar you expand the MIDI track pane to see it's properties. Click on the property box ”C” and select your channel.

 

[Devon]

Also, Yamaha generally prefers MIDI files to be in format 0-- all channels in one "MTrk" chunk. Song files in format 1 will play, but I'm not sure whether they're 100% compatible with the Yamaha Education Suite. I seem to recall reading that song files should be in format 0 for that. Your DAW may let you choose whether to export MIDI data to a format 0 or format 1 file. If it doesn't, there may be free utilities on the web to convert a format 1 file to format 0. See if that helps.

EDIT: On page 42 of the manual it says that the song file can be in either format 0 or format 1, so that must not be the problem.

Thanks for the reply. I went with format 1 because I was thinking that I needed two tracks to do two channels. It does work with format 1. I need to educate myself on the midi file structure.