Configuring Keyboards, ver. 0.8

[zepphead2011]

hello everybody,
It miraculously started working. I did what Mr. Henry said and switched the in to out thing again. I put IN to IN and OUT to OUt. The problem was that the channels were set wrong. I did not know that to play the solo manual you had to have it on channel one and have the second number to the right on eleven. WOW. Its like owning a wurlitzer in my house. THanks for the help everybody. I really appreciate it,
Dominick

[Jim Henry]

Glad you didn't get discouraged and got things sorted out. Trying to connect a keyboard for the first time when nothing is working can be really baffling. There are a lot of things that all have to be right before anything works. It is easy to go around in circles trying to get everything where it has to be because you don't get any indication whether you are getting closer or further from the right set up.

[dennisd]

I have connected Miditzer 216 to Korg i5S keyboard to play both Solo and Accompaniment manuals ,all O.K. Minor problem is that volume control on keyboard has no effect on Miditzer but still controls keyboard output.At present Miditzer output is controlled by another amplifier connected to computer. Is this normal?
Sorry if you have addressed this problem before but I am a novice in this subject.

[Jim Henry]

Some volume controls on MIDI keyboards produce MIDI messages and some are just controls of the keyboard's amplifier. You'll either need to read the manual or use the free MIDI-OX utility to figure out what the Korg keyboard does. If you search for MIDI-OX in this Forum you should find some details about how to use it if needed.

[johnh]

I found a manual for the I5S online here: http://www.korguksupport.co.uk/page.cfm?pageid=418

It indicates that the sending/receiving of 'Control Changes' can be disabled. Could that be your problem? Read page 5-15 (there are two manuals in the same PDF, it's in the second one).

The expression pedal is also programmable as to what function it performs. (Page 5-16).

The MIDI Implementation chart (Page C-8) says that the I5S should Transmit and Recognize Control Changes 7 and 11.

You should be able to get this unit to work with the Miditzer.

[Jim Henry]

Based on what John has found, most likely all you need to do is set the Aux division on the Input tab of the Miditzer Settings to use the same MIDI Device and MIDI Channel as the Solo division. If that doesn't get things going then you'll need to dig a bit deeper to figure out what Control Change (CC) message is being sent and on what MIDI Channel.

[dennisd]

Many thanks ,John and Jim, I will be following your suggestions in a little while.

[dennisd]

I have tried the various suggestions and different combinations of them without success. I am beginning to think that the Korg I5S is not a user friendly keyboard for this purpose.
I have read an article recently where the author hooked up the Miditzer 216 to a Yamaha HE8 organ and everything worked immediately , including swell control from the organ expression pedal and piston control of the solo manual from the memory tabs on the Yamaha.
Is this luck or is the Yamaha particularly well suited to control the Miditzer.
Should I look for an old Yamaha?

[Jim Henry]

Any keyboard working immediately is sort of luck. For a MIDI message to do the expected thing when sent to the Miditzer three things have to line up:

• the MIDI message has to be the message the Miditzer is expecting
• the MIDI message has to be on the MIDI Channel the Miditzer is expecting
• the MIDI message has to be on the MIDI Device the Miditzer is expecting

You can always configure the Miditzer to look at the right MIDI Channel and MIDI Device. You may or may not be able to configure the Miditzer to expect the message the MIDI keyboard is sending to control what you want.

The Miditzer is always configured to expect a particular MIDI message on a particular MIDI Channel of a particular MIDI Device to control every controllable feature of the Miditzer. I try to pick the most likely things being sent by a MIDI keyboard to control the most appropriate functions of the Miditzer. If you are lucky, my picks happen to be the right ones for your MIDI keyboard and everything works immediately with no effort. If you are not lucky, you have to figure out what your MIDI keyboard is sending and configure the Miditzer to expect what your keyboard sends.

If a MIDI keyboard isn't controlling what you want, the first step should be determining what the MIDI keyboard is sending out on what MIDI Channel and what MIDI Device. Once you have that information it is usually pretty easy to get everything working.

As I understand your situation dennisd, everything is working except expression control. I assume you have a single MIDI cable connecting MIDI Out of the Korg I5S to your computer. Is this correct?

If there is a single cable, then the MIDI Expression messages are going to be on the same MIDI Device as the MIDI Note messages. You should set the "MIDI input device" on the Input tab of the Miditzer Settings to the same MIDI Device on all 4 rows using the MIDI Device you now have set for the working Claviers.

There are 7 MIDI Channel settings on the Input tab. You can ignore the 3 in the right hand column that are for configuring second touch. Do not change any of the 4 remaining ones until I tell you to. What are the 4 settings in the left hand column?

At this point, what works and what doesn't?

Don't change anything unless instructed to so I am not trying to hit a moving target.

Do you have MIDI-OX and do you know how to use it to read what MIDI Messages your keyboard is sending?

P.S. In case you haven't already guessed, no you don't need to find an old Yamaha HE8. At least, not yet.

[dennisd]

Many thanks Jim Henry
I confirm that I have a single midi/USB cable connecting the korg keyboard to the computer.
My MIDI input settings are:- Clavier Chan.
Solo 1
Accomp 1
Pedal 3
Auxiliarly 1

From this set up using split keyboard I can play Solo and Accomp. Manuals of the MIdiztzer. Obviously at present I have no way of playing the Pedals. Also I confirm no volume control by the Korg

Regarding MIDI-OX I am not sure that I understand this.I followed the comments made by johnh and found the Control changes he referred to but changing the setting from X to O had no discernable effect. I made a search for MIDI-OX on this forum but received a 'no results found ' message.
Perhaps I was looking inthe wrong place.