My Technical Articles For Midi and Yamaha Keyboards

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1    How To Calculate The  MSB Bank Change Value for Yamaha / Cakewalk

2    "Sys-Ex"explained clearly

3   Unravelling The Strange Behaviour Of Yamaha Filing System/OS

4   Midi for Newbies using Windows XP 

5   Cakewalk Instrument def file for DGX 620

How To Calculate The  MSB Bank Change Value for Yamaha / Cakewalk

 I thought that this might be of interest to any one that uses external sequencing software to drive Yamaha keyboards.
In a midi file or style, a Voice / program change number without any prior Bank Select events, will default to GM voices. These are
the most general voices, and will be recognized by all sound cards and midi players.
Yamaha needed more voices than GM, so they created them by preceding a program change number event by two additional
commands: MSB Bank Select and LSB Bank Select. These bank select events can be anywhere in the midi as long as they occur
before the program change event. Yamaha use, MSB =0 and LSB=0 as their GM voices.
You will find the LSB, MSB and program change numbers in the manual’s Voice List or in a sequencer program. To see them in the
PSR/Tyros voice display box, set Display Voice Numbers to On in Function/Utility/Config2.
 
Any voices with the same LSB setting belong to the same voice Bank and often share specific characteristics EG  XG bank 40 (dark)
XG bank 20 resonant. Bank 112 is the most general Preset/Panel voice bank and generally includes one voice for each of the
program change numbers. Therefore the easiest way to change GM/XG voices to panel voices ( without looking up voice numbers
 in the manual) is to change the MSB to 112.
IMPORTANT NOTE !
Unlike XG, and the imbedded GM voices, Panel /Preset voices also set up effects, but only when selected from the panel on the
instrument! Panel voices selected by a sequencer or other PC program will select the voice but not the associate DSP effects.  
Yamaha voices are in banks that require both  MSB and LSB to be sent.
The LSB is no problem its just a decimal number. The MSB has to be calculated from the MSB number in the manual. Those of
you that understand binary will be able to see this. those that don’t  just take my word for it  and calculate as below. In the later
versions of Cakewalk and Sona changing the MSB is no prob.if you have an inst def file loaded, as all the calcs are done for you
when you select a  bank by name in track view.
But if you don’t have an inst def, or your seq. doesn't, you can work it out as below

128 X MSB + LSB = Value (normal maths applies you must work in this order)

Some Yamaha Bank Changes

MSB val FOR THE DGX 620 (not always the same e.g. Tyros See man)

DRUMS = MSB 127  LSB 000 to find the val to enter in the Bank box of the Track view In your seq. program.
Take 128 x MSB + LSB = 128 x 127 + 0 = 16256 this is the val for the bank change box

For Sfx kits MSB 126   LSB 000
take 128 x MSB+LSB = 128 x 126 + 0 =16128

Some Mega voices MSB 8   = 128 x 8 + 0 -1024 (NOTE this bank is NOT on dgx 620 it is part of Tyros 2 mega voice bank)

Snd. effects bank MSB 64  LSB 000 =128 x 64 +0 = 8192

and so on for any other banks that req. a MSB Val.  OR MSB + LSB val 

Many of the BANKS FOR TYROS req. MSB + LSB val so don’t forget the last part it will not always be 0 as above.

Check your manual. for details.

Bits And Bobs

I’m sure that most of you already know this but some may find it helpful.
The  Yamaha keyboard sends and receives its Bank change data by
Midi Controller 0 for MSB  followed by Controller 32 for LSB then the voice no/program change no, of the chosen voice in that bank.
EG.  Drums Msb 127  Lsb 000 Voice no 0 for Standard kit, or1 for Standard kit 2, or
16 for Rock kit etc.  NOTE  Voice numbering may start 0 or 1 . Normal midi practice is 0-127 based but most Yamaha keyboard
 manuals are 1-128 Check your manual, and deduct 1 from the voice no if applicable .Again a good inst def file will take care of
this for you.
Mike Head
05/02/08

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"Sys-Ex" explained clearly

For those of you new to midi data and venturing into editing in sequencer progs for the first time.
I thought a short explanation of System Exclusive (Sys-Ex) may be helpful .
Those of you that already know all this please forgive me for teaching you to suck eggs.
Sys-Ex strings are as their name implies messages to midi devices (including keyboards) that are only understood by a specific
device or manufacturer (/model in some cases)
If your Keyboard doesn’t recognize it as one of its own it will ignore it and not bother to read it. This is essential to stop keyboards
becoming confused by data they don’t know what to do with.
Having just said that ,A few kinds of Sys-Ex strings are understood by almost every instrument or MIDI-device, some of these are:

1. GM Reset (understood by every GM-compatible instrument)
Sys-Ex String: F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7

2. Roland GS Reset (Understood by all Roland GS instruments)
Sys-Ex String: F0 41 10 42 12 40 00 7F 00 41 F7

3. Yamaha XG reset (Understood by all Yamaha XG instruments)
Sys-Ex String: F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7

So what do they mean and how does the device know it’s for say a Yamaha kb.
You will have noticed that messages are in fact in Hexadecimal (don’t Worry)
Most documentation will show in the form (nnH) I will not bother with the H just remember we are talking Hex

ALL Sys-Ex start FO (F null) This means that the following will be in Sys-Ex Format

All Sys-Ex end F7 This means end of Sys-Ex and if checksum is right execute command.

The second pair of numbers are normally the manufactures id See list below For some!
Gm Reset above 7E is universal.

40H Kawai Musical Instruments Mfg.Co.,Ltd
41H Roland Corporation
42H Korg Inc.
43H Yamaha Corporation
44H Casio Computer Co.,Ltd.
46H Kamiya Studio Co.,Ltd.
47H Akai Electric Co.,Ltd.
48H Victor Company Of Japan,Ltd
4BH Fujitsu Ltd
4CH Sony Corporation
4EH Teac Corporation
50H Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd.
51H Fostex Corporation
52H Zoom Corporation
54H Matsushita Communication Industrial Co.,Ltd.
55H Suzuki Musical Instruments Mfg.Co.,Ltd.
56H Fuji Sound Corporation Ltd.
57H Acoustic Technical

The third pair of numbers is The model id Not used by all manufacturers

The forth pair is The device id and is used to show which device in your system should receive the message if say you had 2
keyboards from the same manufacture connected via midi.
There is also one special device id 7FH this is often known as a broadcast
It means that every device in your system will receive the message.
This is the end of the part of the message to determine which device the message is for.

The rest of the message
This part contains the 'real' Sys-Ex data. Consists of a variable amount of bytes, depending on the setting you want to change.
The data that is needed here is different for every instrument. You will have to use your manual for this. Look up in the tables
what you want to do and place those bytes here.

Followed By The Checksum
This is also a part of Sys-Ex that not every manufacturer uses. The checksum is used as a control number that the instrument uses
to determine if the message is received correctly. If the received checksum does not correspond with the number the instrument has
calculated Itself, then the message is ignored and nothing changes. This is to prevent unwanted changes. Unfortunately the way the
checksum is calculated is also different for almost every manufacturer.
Ok hope you find some of this useful. But you should be able to tell from the above at least if the Midi file was intended for your
make of keyboard.
Roland Files for the GS set contain amongst other things an all notes off message after each note, sent as midi events cntr this can
cause havoc on some keyboards. So at least you will know what to expect if the second pair of numbers (byte) is41H.

I have not gone into the full technical detail of Hex, as you don’t need to know this to use the above information, and I don’t want
to post info on here that is over the top with technical detail.
The Model ID is not used by all manufacturers. For example Roland uses it in Their Sys-Ex format: Model ID 39H is a D-70,
Model ID 16H is a D-110.
Yamaha do not often use a Model ID in his Sys-Ex format. But it is used for the Clavinova compliance and is 73H  
Therefore a sysex  starting F0  43  73 will only be read by a Yamaha Clavinova.

Mike Head Rev 06-09

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Unravelling The Strange Behaviour Of Yamaha Filing System/OS

Spent some days trying to unravel some of the strange behaviour of the Yamaha filing system / OS on the DGX 620/YPG 625 DGX
520/YPG525 and other DGXs
Some of this may explain similar behaviour some PSRs and other Yamaha Keyboards in the lower price range.
 From what I have read on the forums the Tyros and other top range keyboards OS seems a bit more normal .

1) Song names change when loaded from usb stick
This seems to be caused because the keyboard display takes its song name from the file name in its list view, but when you select, and
therefore load the file, it takes its name from the song title as stored in the file, if there is one, even if it is the word “untitled” that’s
what you will see when loaded.
If there is nothing in the files internal song title field then it will show the real file name up to its character limit.
This odd behaviour explains why sometimes in list view when scrolling, you get your nicely laid out file name for the song name, only
to find that it turns to a different version e.g. all lower case when you select it.
The only fix for this is to open the midi file in any midi player /seq. program that lets you see and edit the song name field.  EG Psruti
etc. I use Cakewalk Sona, under the file menu select file info and edit the name field. Be aware some programs including Sona
automatically insert the word untitled if the field is left blank.
Not good, as this is what you will see when the file is loaded into the keyboard.

2) Songs on usb stick not in the order you expect .or as shown on pc.

This one took a bit more tracking down especially as the order changes if you edit a file and then save it back to the stick.
For some strange reason Yamaha sort the files on the stick by the file’s Date/time last modified tag .or just by reading the FAT
I Suspect (It would appear!) WHY NOT ALPHA by file name???. It may not be that clever and simply reads the stick in a
sequential fashion (even worse).
However it does it this has some pretty undesirable results. E.G.
If you go to all the trouble of putting them in the order you want onto the stick ( you would need to copy them in the order you want
them) or can be done quicker with something like Michaels midi player as a sort and batch job.
NOTE it no good sorting on the pc this only changes the PCs sort, and the order of display by Yamaha will still be based on the date
the files were last modified. or order copied to the stick.
They must be copied to the stick in the order you want to see them. This will give a date time stamp or order of when you copied
them so if you do them in the right order they must be right.

Warning.
If you later edit any file in the stick on your pc the keyboard will send it to the end of the list so you could finish up with an edited
version of the song Always coming after Zorba The Greek.
Also therefore if you ad a new file, because it’s a later date that will go to the end.
Note The above action is confined within any individual folders that you may have made.

[3) Folders

Folders also behave in the above fashion so the last folder you made will be at the end of the folder tree, not in alpha order as you
might like. This is a pain as if you make a new folder it does not sit in its logical place on your keyboard folder tree.
If you add a folder within a folder it does stay related to that folder in that the files in the sub folder are listed after the files in the
parent folder and not right at the end of your file list.

Be Aware
That the DGX OS can only see down to two folder levels E.G. you see the Root files. Files in Folder level one ,and folder level two
inside folder one. you can not see files in folder level three.

4) File limits.
There are limits to how many files you can keep on one stick This is more to do with the keyboards memory/display than the stick.
On DGX for Songs (midi files) it is 500 This is because when you insert a usb stick into the keyboard it reads all the file names in all
the folders so that it can display them on the screen up to the max. that it can display.

File size limits
Because the keyboard loads the whole song (midi file) when selected, from the stick into memory before it plays it, (so that you can
use the keyboard lesson features etc) you are limited by the internal memory size. I’m not certain of the size limit but its somewhere
around 300 k on the DGX 620 as I can load a 228k midi, but when I try to load a 359 k version of Tubular Bells I get a “not enough
memory file not loaded” message. I must say that most midis will be less than 100k.
You can of course have any size file if you feed in to the usb midi input from a seq. program on a PC, as it is sent as a real-time sequence and does not have to load the whole file in one hit.

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Midi for Newbies using Windows XP

First let me apologise to all those experienced folk that already know all this.
My grandsons recent purchase of a PSR E 303 got me thinking.
I know that some of you will have nothing to do with midi files and it can seem a bit daunting to a newbie  or even an oldie that’s not played with midi before.( It doesn’t have to be like that! )
This is not to explore the rights and wrongs of midi files but just to show that it does not need to be complicated to play midi files even on a simple keyboard. 
Most of the recent mid to high end Yamaha keyboards have usb sockets for memory sticks or on some of the early ones a floppy drive.  So you have no problem copying midi to these devices and either playing them direct or moving them to the keyboards flash memory.
However some of the cheaper models have no USB and no Floppy.  Just Two Midi Skts. ( Scary )
So it seems you will need to connect these to you PC ( Don’t Panic ! ) 
If your pc does not have Midi in out Skts, Unlikely to unless a high end sound card even more unlikely if a laptop. You will need to purchase a Midi to usb  adaptor nothing complicated just two 5 pin dins going to a little box about the size of a box of matches and then a usb lead coming out for your pc.
Some of these come with the leads attached permanently. Some need leads and just come as a box with skts The first type is best as the less plugs and skts the better. Cost between £30 and £50 from music stores or Maplin  ETC.

 Windows Vista users this will not work for you without an add on prog to redirect the midi as the standard version does not allow you to do this in the control panel!!!

 If you use windows XP connect to the keyboard. ( Switch of keyboard First )
NOTE the plug marked midi out on the adaptor  means mid out of the pc so this goes to the Keyboard skt Midi in,
and mid into the pc to the Keyboards Midi Out skt  (often got wrong first time!)
Connect the other  lead the usb one to a usb skt on your pc.

If XP is up and running when you switch on the keyboard  you will get the found new hardware message and install the device . You will probably see a little midi icon come up in the task bar near the clock

Win 98 users will need to install the drivers that come with the adaptor Before Connecting the keyboard to prevent windows installing its own.

If all went well each time you switch the keyboard on and of you should get the little bing-bong sound and the icon should pop into the task bar.

 Ok so now what ?

Well the good news is you don’t need any fancy software eg Cakewalk or Cubase to just play midi files  from your pc through your keyboard  The standard windows media player can play midi sequences fine
Of course you cant edit them but it will play them.

 Now as the pc has not had the keyboard connected to it in the past Media player will want to play midi through the internal windows synth/soundcard  by default .( No Problem!)
Just go to the Windows Control Panel  (From the start menu) go to Sounds and Audio devices, on the audio tab select your new midi adaptor as the default device in the midi music playback box you will probably see that at the moment it is connect to Microsoft Gs wavetable SW synth so chose your new adaptor

NOW  any midi file you play in the media player should play from the keyboard using the keyboards voices.
You may only see your adaptor if the keyboard is on and connectedWasn’t hard  was it ?

Now that you have played a few midi files you may think some of them don’t sound quite right.
You could be right.
Because like all things in life things aint always quite what they seem.
Not to surprising considering the amount of different keyboard makes and models that they may have been recorded on. (All is not lost )
Because one of the forum members has Written a brilliant little midi player program Michaels Midi Player See link at the end.
This clever program will take a midi file from one of Yamahas top range keyboards like the T2 and change the voices and volumes in the file right down to Gen Midi level if you want .
For most of the cheaper Yamaha range like the Psr303 I would recommend setting the output instrument in the program to XG sound card.
This means if you have say a Psr 303 you can still enjoy very complicated Yamaha midi files from the web that have been made on top range keyboards. I’m not saying that it will sound like a T2 but it will be playable believe me.

You have the options in the program to save the midi in its new form or leave as it was .PLEASE read the help file before you start so that you can set the program for what you want it do  for you .And until you are sure you have got it right work with a copy of your midi files.

 So you see it does not have to be a major leaning curve to play midi files from a pc, to one of the cheaper keyboards or make a few changes with Michaels player should you need.

External Link To Michaels Midi player2 below

HAVE FUN

Mike  Rev 06-09

 
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Hi all DGX 620 owners

After a year searching the net for an instrument definition for the Dgx 620 for Cakewalk with no success at all, I thought I had better get on and write one myself..
So many weeks and hours later here it is, I hope that some of you will find it useful.

 I have used the patch and note names as printed in the Dgx 620 manual not the old generic ones.
As far as I know there is no other file on the net for the XG lite set of voices.
This will overcome the problem of using the standard XG list which allows Cakewalk to offer you voices that you don’t have in the Cakewalk track view.
I am confident that there are no errors or omissions in the file and have been using it for some time.
The file is written for the Dgx 620 but is 100% compatible with Dgx 520, YPG 525, YPG 625.

It is of course a .ins file so if you feel that you would like to look at it before importing into cakewalk you can do so in Notepad without changing the file extension by using the all files command when opening.

WARNING
Do not edit or add any spaces to items in [ ] or to the end of any line that starts with a dot eg .Patch Names or cakewalk will not recognise the file as an instrument def.

I have put the file on Boxnet for you to download.

Have fun
Mike.
Org Oct 2007
Rev July 2009

 NEW VERSION DGX620vers2 Link below

Dgx620V2b.ins - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

CHORD PROGRESSION WHEEL FOR ANY KEY and PLAYING BY EAR  

The Professional  Musicians and more experienced players may well want to give this a miss but you comments and corrections would be most welcome as I hate to pass on duff information.

I have read much about circles of 5ths and 4ths  and chord progressions over the years but always in a disconnected and fragmented manner gleaning a bit from here and a bit from there.

I have recently seen some videos on U Tube that began to turn the light on

I certainly don’t claim to have invented any  of this, only to have gathered together bits and pieces from here and there over the years and on the net, Into one place in the hope that it may turn a few lights on for  those of us that have not had the benefit of any formal music teaching and have struggled along finding out the hard way.

No gimmicky device will ever replace formal teaching, but a few memory aids will do no harm for anyone starting out.

Apart from giving some instant fun and a good way of learning new styles by counting the beats to the next chord change, but progressing in a musically pleasing way.

Before you know it you will be playing a few melody notes over the top .

The examples I have given are in the key of C so therefore all the chords are based on the scale of C

If you use these chords .So as long you stay away from the black notes  any note you play in the melody can’t be more than one note away from a good note so if you change one note to the left or right of the note that sounds wrong (because its not in the chord you are playing)  on the next beat, you can always say it was improvisation, especially if you repeat the mistake next time people will think its meant to be like that!

Eg. if you are playing an F chord  but play a G melody note it wont sound good but any note one to the left or right will be in the F chord  F left and A right so you only have to move one finger to get a musical sound.

If you are trying to work with sharps and flats when in the key of  C you can have to change the Minor chord for its major  as none of the chords of the scale of c will have any sharps or flats in them .

EG let’s suppose we want a G#  not  a G in the melody, we need to find a chord that contains a G# so try changing Em to E Maj  and strait away we get a  chord   G#  B  E  = E Maj    where as   Em = G  E  B .

 However I will leave that to the more professional teachers  to explain a long with why I didn’t use the B chord in all this.

So if you are just starting out and new to all this stay with the chords of the C Maj scale and keep your melody to the white notes . while playing with these progressions .

And remember you cant be more than one note away from one that will work ,for the chord you are playing

So have some fun. It wont sound bad I promise.

SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS.

The charts  will work in any key by turning the outer disc to bring the TONIC (KEY NOTE ) to
12 o clock And using the chords from the new key / scale.

EAR Players, often say that the hardest chord to find is the second one of the song.

This is because as you can see from the Diatonic Harmony chart the first chord can lead to any other chord in the scale
However once you find it ! you are on a run because after that it is very likely to follow the route in the chart back to home .

Eg if playing in C and the second chord in the song was No6 Am then by working back round the wheel or following the numbers in the chart  you would  go home via 6 goes to 2 Dm 2 goes to 5 G7  5 goes to 1 C

TIP

If you form your chords in the inversions shown in the chart below you will find you have min finger movement through the progression

at least one or 2 fingers don’t have to move between chords.

You can of course use single finger chords but don’t forget to make the Dom 5th a  57 =G7  in C

So try this  on a nice organ voice. Play one or two bars of each chord     Style Optional

First chord     1   C

Next chord     3   Em       then walk back round the wheel to home  6Am   2Dm   5 G7   1 C

Some More Thoughts On Finding Simple Chords

Trying to de mystify music

Almost as soon as you pick up your first keyboard book or some one starts to teach you .
You are told that you can make a chord from a note by adding the third and fifth interval (note)of that scale . the Triad
So C +E+G  =  the chord C if you carry that on through the scale of C you get the chords

C   Dm  Em  F  G  Am  Bdim  C   in their root position.

It doesn’t take a genius to spot that in fact this is every other  note (cool what) see chart below,
So if you ever forget how to make any of these chords simply take the root note miss one play one miss one play one. It will be in its Root position but it will be the right chord .

Inversion.

Sometimes  it is more comfortable, and makes it easer to move to the next chord without moving the whole hand, to invert the chord..
Just take the bottom note  and move it to the other end on the third move you will be back where you started.

CEG  =  ROOT Position
EGC  =  FIRST Inversion
GCE  = SECOND Inversion

Now the awkward squad.

You will have noticed when you get to B using this simple triad of first third and fifth we finish up with a chord called Bdim don’t worry, from the chart you can see that this is Notes B D F

However  if we take our old favourite  G  in its  Root Position  G B D  and add an F  it becomes G7 this chord contains within it the notes of the  Bdim  chord and the notes of the G chord

 G B D F  how cool is that, 2 for the price of one.

And that is why one of the first three chords you learn is G7 because with  C   F and G7
You now have enough chords for the three chord trick in the key of C as you have a chord to go with every note in  scale.

If you are new to all this and still using single finger chords on a Yamaha Keyboards
Don’t forget to play the black key immediately to the left at the same time as the note for a minor chord or the white note to
the left for a 7^Th
Otherwise you will get all Major chords and that won’t be right for playing in the Key/scale of C as you can see from  the chart.

Mike  Head  12/12/09  rev 1

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