Yamaha EZ-300

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Hi,

I’ve bought a Yamaha ez-300 and have a question re: MIDI files and learning mode.

I’ve used the learning mode with the built in songs just fine, but none of the learning functions seem to be available for a midi file I have downloaded from my PC!

I can play the song fine by pressing the play button, but the learning functions I really need like ‘wait’ just don’t work.

The manual, although sketchy, states that it is possible to ‘apply’ the learning modes to downloaded songs.

Any ideas!


Steve
 
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Welcome.

I doubt if you can but as you have found the Manual is a rough translation from Klingon.

Take a look at the Yamaha Song Book that is available as that may be a route that will give you more options.
 
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Ok, thanks I’ll take a look at the song book!

This was the only reason I bought this model, so it’ll be somewhat disappointing if it’s not possible.

The website suggests you can do it, the manual says you can do it and I don’t see any technical reason why it shouldn’t work if the pre-loaded songs are in midi format - maybe they aren’t!

I can find nothing on you tube that helpfully states that it won’t work either!

Regards


Steve
 

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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I haven't looked at the manual yet to see what it says, but it's possible that the problem is related to a few things:

(1) The keyboard might be expecting the "left-hand part" and the "right-hand part" to be on different channels from each other. If both of the parts have been coded to be in the same channel in the song file-- which is possible if they're being played by the same instrument sound, such as a piano sound-- then you would need to edit the song file and move the left-hand part to a different channel than the right-hand part. An easy way to do this in a DAW is to copy all of the MIDI events from the channel and paste them to another channel, so there are two channels with identical notes and instrument sounds. Then use a rectangular select tool to select all of the notes above or below a certain value-- such as Middle C or Note 60-- and delete the selected notes. In other words, on the channel that will be for the left-hand part, select and delete all notes from Middle C and above; and on the channel that will be for the right-hand part, select and delete all notes below Middle C. Depending on the music, it might be better to split the notes based on some other value than Middle C, and it might also be necessary to vary the split point for different parts of the song; if you can find printed music for the song that shows the left- and right-hand parts on different staves, you can see if there are any places where the notes for the left hand stray up into the area normally shown by the treble clef, and any places where the notes for the right hand stray down into the area normally shown by the bass clef. In such cases the notes are often shown using "ledger lines," or short lines drawn above or below the staff to extend it, but they might also be shown using octave shift indicators or even by temporarily changing the clef sign in that particular staff.

(2) The keyboard may or may not have function settings that let you tell it which channels you want to use for the left- and right-hand parts. Of course, this still requires that the two parts be on different channels, so if they're combined into a single channel then you'll need to separate them into different channels first, as described above. But if the keyboard expects the left- and right-hand parts to be on specific channels and doesn't let you change those channels, you might need to swap the channels around so the left- and right-hand parts are on the required channels. Otherwise, if the keyboard has functions that let you tell it which channels to use for the left- and right-hand parts, just go into the Function menu and set those functions as desired.

(3) The keyboard might require the song file to be in a specific MIDI file format. There are three different MIDI file formats-- format 0, format 1, and format 2 (also called "types" 0, 1, and 2). Format 2 files are very rare to encounter, so just about any MIDI file you find will be in either format 0 or format 1. In a format 0 file, all 16 MIDI channels are combined into a single MIDI "track." In contrast, a format 1 file has more than one MIDI "track," usually one channel per track, although each track could conceivably have multiple channels. Many keyboards can successfully read and play MIDI files regardless of whether they're format 0 or format 1 files, but keyboards that have a built-in "lessons" feature will typically require that the song files be in format 0 or else they won't work with the lessons feature. There are free utilities on the internet that let you convert a format 0 MIDI file to format 1, or vice versa.
 
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Thanks for your detailed response. I’ll start by looking at the last point as that seems like the easiest potential fix.

There is a separate midi manual that has lots of detail in it that might contain what midi format the keyboard supports and with your input it might now make more sense.

When the song plays and the lights light-up I can see that the left hand notes are a lot more complex than I’ve see in online tutorial I.e. I’m not sure how I’d even begin to bridge them without an extra finger, so you may well be right re: the separation requirement.

Thanks a lot for your response. I can’t believe I’m the only one struggling like this, so I’ll be sure to post my findings.

Steve
 
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Hi Steve, I can confirm that the Yamaha EZ-300 lesson functions are working only with midi format 0. I created one song with MuseScore which exports midi as format 1 and these are playable - but the lesson functions are not working.

I used a converter to put the song file in midi format 0 and lesson functionality works perfectly.

This was the killer feature that made me buy this model and I am happy this works as advertised.
 
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Hi There,

Thank you so much for your response, I really appreciate the fact that you’ve tried it yourself and got it working!

Many thanks

Steve
 
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I am quite happy this works now. just in case some someone is finding this by google here is another important finding which makes the lesson function so useful:

As I mentioned I created/edited a song with MuseScore. I noticed that I was not able to use the left/right hand lesson feature. All notes were assigned the the right hand, so I could not practice them separately.

To make this work you need to have 2 instruments in Musescore (or two channels in your midi file). This first instrument is then assigned to midi channel 1 (left hand) the second to midi channel 2 (right hand).

Bildschirmfoto 2022-03-26 um 13.15.13.png


This was the last puzzle piece missing. So left and right hand practice is also possible with custom midi files.
 
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I am quite happy this works now. just in case some someone is finding this by google here is another important finding which makes the lesson function so useful:

As I mentioned I created/edited a song with MuseScore. I noticed that I was not able to use the left/right hand lesson feature. All notes were assigned the the right hand, so I could not practice them separately.

To make this work you need to have 2 instruments in Musescore (or two channels in your midi file). This first instrument is then assigned to midi channel 1 (left hand) the second to midi channel 2 (right hand).

View attachment 2760

This was the last puzzle piece missing. So left and right hand practice is also possible with custom midi files.
I am having the same problem as user Steve French can you tell me the converter you are using to get 0 MIDI files? I'm very new to all of this and I'm extremly disapointed it has to be this hard just to learn a song on a keyborad that uses their "learning" function as a selling point.
Thank you!
 
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If you go to https://www.gnmidi.com/ and click the Freeware tab at the top, you can download gn1to0.zip, which contains a freeware midi converter. I just did that, and took a type 1 midi file, converted it to type 0, loaded it into my EZ-300, and was able to use the learn functions.
 
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I have sucessfully loaded songs and but when I use the learn function and choose waiting.....often time the song plays super slow... changing the tempo faster does not increase the speed/tempo.... I used avil studio to change to type 0 file... is there a setting somewhere to increase tempo when using the "waiting" function?
 

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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@keithhov, I'm not sure which model you've got, and I'm looking in the manual for the EZ-220 rather than the EZ-300, but the EZ-220 manual says that there's a "Your Tempo" function which can be set to either "On" or "Off." If it's set to "On," the song's tempo will be changed to match the tempo at which you're playing it. If it's set to "Off," the song's tempo will remain unchanged regardless of how quickly or slowly you're playing the song. Check the Function menu on your model to see if the "Your Tempo" function is available, and if it is, set it to "Off."
 
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Thanks so much, it is much faster now.. still sounds somewhat slow but that's because my son and I are "pecking" at this point and the better we get the better it sounds and it is rewarding.

I saw that setting but there was no option to change it until I realized you can not be in a song for the yes/no to display.

Thanks again for the quick response.
 
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Hi Steve, I can confirm that the Yamaha EZ-300 lesson functions are working only with midi format 0. I created one song with MuseScore which exports midi as format 1 and these are playable - but the lesson functions are not working.

I used a converter to put the song file in midi format 0 and lesson functionality works perfectly.

This was the killer feature that made me buy this model and I am happy this works as advertised.


PLEASE! I must know how you achieved this! I already have it in format 0, what's the next step?
 

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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I think the other requirement is to use channel 1 for the left hand part and use channel 2 for the right hand part.
 

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