- T -

What is here for the Windows environment is the result of a lot of hardwork by private individuals - not Casio employees. If there is a lack of support for the MAC environment, it is because MAC owners, like yourself, have not bothered to get involved. So, for the fourth time now, perhaps you would like to stop your complaininng and roll up your sleeves and volunteer.

Tom, with all due respect, please go back and read my responses to your unfounded accusations in other threads, before you spread any more. If you would bother to go back and read my responses to your other posts, you would see that I have already stated that this expired "stuff" was written by private individuals, not Casio employees. Casio never sanctioned any of this. If those individual chose to write it for Windows, it indicates the type of equipment they had, also their choice, not Casio's, and saying this for the third time now, if it indicates anything, it indicatess the lack of interest on the part of MAC owners, like yourself, to get involved and port this "stuff" to the MAC environment. Agin, again, again . . . perhaps you would like to roll up your sleeves and volunteer ! ! !

https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001007 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001008 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001009 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001010 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001011 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001012 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001012 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001014 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008001015 https://support.casio.com/en/support/osdevicePage.php?cid=008002001

We have a fair number of members that use their MACs successfully with their Casio keyboards. The conversion programs you asked about were written by private individuals (Casio keyboard OWNERS) not by Casio employees. If they wrote them for the Windows environment instead of MAC, that would indicate the type of computer equipment they had available to them, and was THEIR choosing, not Casio's. What this actually indicates is the lack of MAC owners interested in porting these capabilities to the MAC environment, Converting MIDI files to CKF files has absolutely NOTHING to do with PLAYING the MIDI files. It has to do with converting them to Casio User Rhythms, which is an enormous amount of very tedious work, and usually provides less than desired results. I think I have already posted in another thread, if you want to PLAY MIDI files from the SD Card: Copy the MIDI files into the MUSICDAT (not MUSIC.DAT) folder on the SD Card. (Files must have a ".mid" extension) Insert the SD Card into its slot in the keyboard Press the CARD button on the keyboard's front panel (DO NOT PRESS any buttons to do with the Song Sequencer) The bottom line of the display will be showing the name of the currently selected MIDI file Use the Data Wheel or the plus/minus buttons to scroll through the list of songs When the desired song is showing in the bottom line of the display. press the PLAY/STOP button in the transport controls

dwshorn Jdo Do you have the Chordana Play app or the Chordana Play for Piano app? If you have the Chordana Play for Piano app, that is the wrong app for the CTK, WK, and LK keyboards. It is for certain models of Casio's Digital Pianos. You need just the Chordana Play app. dwshorn Are you using a genuine Apple adapter, or a 3rd party substitute ? Jdo Every Android device has its own flavor of the Android operating system, in order to accomodate the chip set in that particular model. This can sometimes cause compatibility problems, but we will see what we can do. "I feel like I just wasted money on this model and will be returning if problem not fixed" While we fully appreciate your frustration and concerns, as we have all been there at some point, we are not Casio employees, and this forum is not Casio owned. We are a collection of folks, with a common interest, who have come together to help one another enjoy that common interest. So, making threats here, instead of directly addressing your concerns to Casio, has no bearing, and may well prevent others, who could provide some level of assistance, from becoming involved at all, as it indicates a level of animosity that they would rather avoid. We certainly do not have all of the answers. We very likely do not even have most of the answers, but we do provide what answers we can. Just saying this to keep us all on a level playing field.

David The CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX manuals recommend that when making the type of edits you describe, that you follow them up by performing a Panel Record to "fix" them in the recording, but a Panel Record places those edits in the File Header at the beginning of the song. The Song Sequencer sets its parameters at the beginning of the song and assumes that they will remain static throughout the song. Not what you were looking for. Varying such things as volume, pitch, pan position, etc. during a recording, even if they are edited in after-the-fact, is known as "automation", and while the high end workstations with names like Fantom, or FA-06/07/08, or MO-06/08, or Motif, or Montage are very adept at this, I am afraid the CTK/WK Song Sequencers are just not that sophisticated. If that is the type of recording you want to do with your WK-7600, you need to connect its USB port to computer based DAW software, and do your recording and editing there, by-passing the keyboard's Song Sequencer altogether. BUT . . . . if you do this, you need to make things easy for yourself by choosing a DAW software program such as Cubase, or Sonar, that are primarily MIDI based, instead of an audio based DAW that treats MIDI as though it were just a necessary evil to be dealt with, but mostly ignored. Sonar is now discontinued, but continues to exist under is original name "Cakewalk", and is currently being offered as a free download from BandLab. To get started, you might want to go with something that is full featured, but has a considerably shallower learning curve, such as Anvil Studio, also available as a free download. Best of luck! - T -

You convert the MIDI file to an old CKF Rhythm. When you load the old CKF Rhythm into the keyboard as a User Rhythm, the keyboard itself will convert the old CKF Rhythm to an AC7 Rhythm. Here is a thread that discusses converting the MIDI file to a CKF Rhythm: https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/16005-creating-ckf-user-rhythms-reference-manual/

Here is a discussion of the Reference Manual for converting a MIDI file to the old CKF Rhythm file. When you load an old CKF Rhythm file into a User Rhythm slot in the WK-7600, the WK-7600, itself, will convert the old CKF Rhythm into the new AC7 Rhythm. Please post any further questions or discussion on this matter in the thread shown below. https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/16005-creating-ckf-user-rhythms-reference-manual/ If you just want to "play" the MIDI files on the card, insert the card into the slot, power the keyboard on, and press the CARD button. The bottom line in the display will show the name of the currently selected MIDI file. Use the data wheel or the PLUS/MINUS buttons to scroll through the file names. When the name of the desired file is showing in the display, press the PLAY/STOP button. Do not attempt to load MIDI files into the Song Sequencer. That can not be done. Do not attept to load MIDI files into User Rhythm slots. That also can not be done. The only thing the WK-7600 can do with MIDI files on the SD Card is either play them or delete them. Also It is better to create a new thread specific to your current question, rather than to resurrect a totally unrelated old thread with a title that has no relation, whatsoever, to your current question, comment, or topic.

Posted in error. Please disregard.

r_1159 Once you are logged in, just left-click on a member's avatar, and it will take you to their profile, which will show you the date they joined, the date they were last logged-in, and their most recent posts. Sadly, in this case, our friend, astrodummies, has not logged in since July 15, 2019, so our expressions of gratitude will most likely go unseen by the one they were intended for. - T -

Do the keys in the left hand part of the keyboard light when you play the built-in songs? If not, then see Step 3 in the right hand column of Page E-31 of the manual for turning the different parts (left/right) on and off. If you ensure that the left part or both parts are on, and you still do not get lighted keys in the left part of the keyboard when you play the built-in songs, then your keyboard is defective, and depending on how long you have had it, may qualify to be returned for a replacement. I apologize. I should have asked this two days ago, but I got too wrapped up in assuming you just had a bad MIDI file. I did not think the LK-280 stored the Part On/Off setting when it was powered off/on, so I will be very surprised if this is the case, but then it does store the Navigate Channel setting. - T -

Pate It does not appear that you will be able to "use" the files in the link above in the sense that you and I have been discussing. The several that I downloaded were very nice MIDI files. I thought, perhaps those labeled "Traditional" may have been taken from Casio's Lessons Song Book, and would be similar to the LK-280's built-in songs, but not so. The several that I downloaded were fully orchestrated with 8 or 10 tracks (instruments), and "played" beautifully from Cakewalk into my Roland Sound Canvass, but none had specific right and left hand "piano" tracks. As a matter of fact, of the ones I downloaded, NONE had a "piano" track (sound) of any kind. So. "play" on your LK-280? Yes, I am certain that all of them will "play" wonderfully on your LK-280, if you want your LK-280 to be a nice simple MIDI file player, but you had in mind to use it as a learning aid, so in that sense, will these files "work" with the LK-280's Learning features? NO! NOT A ONE! You will need to look elsewhere for what you seek, and at the moment, I do not have an answer for you. I guess, for now, its back to ad hoc downloading from the web, at large, and hoping, by chance, to hit a useable one now and then. Sorry! - T -

Anvil Studio appears to be set up correctly, but I do see one glaring anomoly. If Track 3 is supposed to be left hand piano and Track 4 is supposed to be right hand piano, then the "Instrument" for both of those tracks should be an Acoustic Grand, but something in that MIDI file is assigning Vibraphone to Track 4, which should be the right hand piano. That tells me that you do not really have a left/right piano work, or at least have not properly selected the left/right piano parts. If Track 3 is actually the right hand piano part, even though it is on the left note track, the pitch of those notes will light the keys in the upper range of the keyboard. If Track 4 is a right hand vibraphone part, the pitch of those notes will also light the keys in the upper range of the keyboard, making it appear that you do not have a Track 3 part, when in fact you do, but because it is on the wrong track, those key lights are being masked by the Track 4 (vibraphone) notes. The only way the keyboard can tell left notes from right notes is by their pitch. If Track 3 has notes that go above Middle C, the keyboard does not refuse to light the keys for those notes. In other words, if you put only right hand notes on both tracks, the results will look like Track 3 is not working, when in fact, it is. I think, at this point, you need to try to find a MIDI file where you are more certain that you actually have just left and right hand piano parts on separate tracks. Again, whoever created the MIDI file you have, assigned a vibraphone to the data you have on Track 4. That looks very suspicious. Here is a link to a selection of MIDI files, in the downloads section of this forum, that supposedly work with Chordana Play, which is Casio's iOS and Android app that does in software on a tablet or phone what the LK-280 does in hardware. You might want to give them a try, at least long enough to confirm that you and your LK-280 are working properly. Would hate to see you bash your head against your LK-280 over a bad MIDI file. 😉 I just now discovered these files, and have not had time to test them, so I can not attest to their accuracy or workability, on the LK-280, at least. https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/files/file/1128-midi-files-for-chordana-play/ Good luck! We will be here if you need more. - T -

The required folder on the SD Card is MUSICDAT - not music.dat. If you copied files into a folder music.dat that either you or your computer created on the Card, the WK-7600 will never recognize them. Any MIDI files copied into the MUSICDAT folder must have an extension of .mid. If they have an extension of .smf or anything other than .mid, the Wk-7600 will not recognize them. To play a MIDI file, use the instructions on Page E-142 only. Do not attempt to load them into Song Sequencer memory per the instructions on Page E-79. Those instructions are for Casio CMS Song Sequencer files only. The MIDI file player and Song Sequencer are totally unrelated functions. What size SD Card are you using? Also, it is better to start a new thread than to hijack an old thread about a totally unrelated topic with a title that has nothing to do with your question. I nearly skipped looking at this thread, as I have no experience with generating reggae drum tracks.

As a matter of fact, very, very, very few (practically none) MIDI files downloaded from the internet come with their note data arranged to properly light the keys on the Casio LK keyboards. Again, very, very few of these MIDI files were created with the LK keyboards in mind. There is absolutely no standardization on this. That is all part of the challenge and the fun (?). Most MIDI files come with both the right and left hand note data on the SAME track, and you have to separate them. To begin with, you need to understand the difference between "tracks" and "channels" and the relationship between them. Casio tends to discount this, and thereby, creates a fair amount of confusion in this area. "Tracks" exist WITHIN devices, hardware or software (sequencers, sound modules, etc). "Channels" exist BETWEEN devices. That is to say, CHANNELS carrier midi data BETWEEN the TRACKS of one device and the TRACKS of another device. Sequencers like Anvil Studio normally default to a one for one track/channel setup, but that can be changed. Any track can be set to feed to or from any channel. So you need to check Anvil Studio to ensure that Track 3 is set to transmit on Channel 3, and that Track 4 is set to transmit on Channel 4. If both Tracks 3 and 4 are set to transmit on Channel 4, it will cause the problem you are seeing. Also verify that the right and left hand note data is actually on separate tracks, and not on the same track. If on separate tracks, check the actual note data to ensure that it is not the same (duplicate) data. Also check the keyboard and verify that Channel 4 is, in fact, the Navigate Channel.

Bev The steps you list above are from the left hand column of Page E-56 of the manual. These instructions are for loading a recorded song or a User Song from the SD Card into the keyboard's internal memory. In either case, this would be a Casio proprietary Song file with an extension of .CM2 (not .mid). This is the Casio Song File format for all of their "Learning" series keyboards. Since you do not have any of those on the SD Card, it is telling you "No File". Playing back a MIDI file is much simpler. Those instructions are in the left column of Page E-58 of the manual. Start with the keyboard powered off. Power it on and insert the SD Card into the card slot. Press the #16 (Card) button. You should immediately see the name of your song in the display. Press the #10 (Start/Stop) button, and it should play. If you have more than one song (file) on the Card, use the PLUS/MINUS buttons in the 10-key pad to scroll back and forth through your list of songs. Whatever song is showing in the display is the song that will play, when you press the #10 (Start/Stop) button. Here is a link to a YouTube tutorial for this. Notice that when he brings the SD Card back to the keyboard from the computer, here merely inserts it into the card slot, presses the #16 (Card) button, then presses the #10 (Start/Stop) button, and the song plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqhJZ6_m8S8 Good luck! - T -

In the Windows copy of Aria Maestosa that I have, near the top left of the screen is what is called the "Transport Bar", because it resembles the "transport" controls of an old reel-to-reel, or cassette, tape recorder. This is the bar that has the Record, Play, Stop, Loop buttons. A little to the right of those is a data field labeled "Initial tempo". Just click in that field, delete the value that is there and enter a smaller figure to slow the speed. Do not "save" that. Whatever you enter there, will stay, during your current session, until you change it. When you want to end that session and try to close Aria Maestosa, it will ask if you want to save. Tell it NO. It is not a good idea to save, save, and resave temporary settings like this. Sooner or later you unintentionally save something that is not easily undone, and the file is ruined forever. Just go to that field each time you load the file and temporarily enter the tempo you want for that session. If you enter a value that's not quite what you want, just re-enter a different value, but do not save it. - T -

Do you still have your original file, intact, or did you have the merged import overwrite it. If still have the original file, re-import it and tell it not to merge. If the merged file is all you have, we may not be able to work with it, if there was data on those other nine tracks. Apparently there was, or it would not have asked if you wanted them merged. I can show you how to separate 2 tracks, but not 11. Hang in there. You are a lot further along today than you were a couple of days ago. Now we just need to get the data for the lights sorted out. Just picked this up from another forum. Aria Meastosa numbers its tracks from 0 to 15 instead of the standard 1 to 16 like all the other software. You have to take that into account when setting the Navigate channels for the LK-280. Instead of left on 3 and right on 4, as long as you are using Aria Meastosa, you have to tell it to put the left on 2 and the right on 3, but if you are going to stay with Mixpad, that won't be an issue. - T -

Apparently you have had a set of batteries in your keyboard all along, and they have finally gone completely dead. Batteries will tend to recover a bit when left idle for a while. I can not believe it would have come with batteries in it. Maybe you loaded them when you first got it and just forgot. At any rate, you need to get them out immediately. Hopefully they have not split open and leaked corrosive electrolyte all over the battery compartment and connections. Once those chemicals etch the plating off the connections, it is near impossible to restore them to their original reliability. No matter how much you clean them, you have no way of restoring the plating. The recommendation is to remove the batteries completely, and store them separately in a secure plastic container when the keyboard is idle. The CTK-2100 has a low battery alert. When all of the indicators down the left side of the display panel flash, the battery is low and needs to be replaced. See the bottom of the right hand column on Page E-5 of the manual. - T -

NONE of the Casio CTK/WK keyboards provide for the direct exporting of Preset Tones, Rhythms, etc. You must use a workaround. If you want to export a preset tone or preset rhythm, you bring up the desired preset tone or rhythm in the tone or rhythm editor, as though you are going to edit it, but instead, you immediately save it as a User Tone or User Rhythm. You can then use the Casio Data Manager software (or IDES for older models) to transfer the saved User files to a computer, and thereby, effect the same as an "export". However, while the CTK-900, WK-3200, and WK-3700 provide editors for Tones, Drawbar Organ Tones, and DSP's, they DO NOT provide a Rhythm Editor. The User Rhythm memory area is for loading 3rd party and aftermarket rhythms from a computer. Since there is no Rhythm Editor, there is no way of accessing preset rhythms to do the above workaround. Thus there is no way of getting the Rhythm files you want, off the Keyboard. You may want to check the Appendix sheets for the CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX models to see if any of the Rhythms you want are on those models, and if so, request them from the owners of those models. ALL of those models have Rhythm Editors that provide access to the Preset Rhythms. - T -

What the LK-280 manual is saying is: Once the LK-280 is connected to the computer, you have to go into each one of your music software package's SETTINGS or PREFERENCES menu and tell it what MIDI DEVICE you want it to use. The LK-280 will be something like CASIO USB or such. BUT . . . Garage Band will only receive MIDI from the LK-280. That is, you can use the LK-280 to "play" Garage Bands "instruments" (sounds), but Garage Band will not transmit MIDI to external devices. Garage Band will not "send" a song to the LK-280, but your other software will, once you tell it to. The point of this is, if you have several different keyboards connected to several different USB ports on your computer, you can tell all of your software packages to use the same keyboard or different keyboards. - T -

As long as you have the note data on the correct tracks/channels (which you have already done), the keys will light when you play a MIDI file from the computer via the USB cable, just the same as if you are playing it from the SD Card. I had an LK-280 on loan from a local shop for some time. I normally played MIDI files from the computer rather than from the SD Card because file selection from the computer was much easier than from the Card. Cutting the file size down says that that is not the issue here, and brings into question the validity of that supposed "size limit", so I am going to completely disregard that, for now, and I recommend that you do so, as well. There has to be something else wrong with your ability to play that file from the Card. I recommend that you try the cable again. The LK-280 is USB-MIDI Class Compliant, which means it works with the device driver that is already pre-installed in Windows and MAC-OS. There should be no need to install any after-market or third party driver. It is conpletely Plug-N-Play. But . . . back to the Card . . . have you tried playing that file with Garage Band. If Garage Band will not play it, most likely the LK-280 won't either, and that would mean it is a file issue - not an SD Card issue. Yes! I am trying to verify that Aria Meastosa generated a valid .mid file export. - T -

OK Bev! You are already about 3 steps ahead of the game. So, make a copy of your original file, and call it something like "Test.mid". We do not want to do anything to spoil your original file. With Aria Maestosa, load your new file "Test.mid" and simply cut it to about 1/3 its current length, and save it. Load that into MUSICDAT and see if the LK-280 will play it. If it does, then we know there is something to that file size limit, but you have to keep in mind that a file size limit is only a concern if you are trying to play the file from the Card, but if you play it from the MAC to the LK-280, nothing is "loaded" into LK memory, so there is no real size limit. We have to remember that, for all their sophistication, these LK series keyboards are, after all, entry level "learning" devices. It follows that any songs they would be assumed to handle would be simple "folk" type songs, like Stephen Foster works, or Celtic airs, lullabies, and ballads, or simple passages from the well knoown classics - all of which woulld generate fairly small MIDI files. - T -

Hi Bev! Welcome to the Casio Music Forums and to the exciting world of the LK-280! Re-insert the SD Card into the MAC and use the MAC's file manager to verify that the file is, in fact, in the MUSICDAT folder. This may sound over-simplified and redundant, but believe me, misdirected file transfers are the number one cause of the "No file" error message. Also, with the MAC's file manager, verify the file extension. It must be .mid (only). Extensions of .midi or .smf, or anything else, will not be recognized. Can you play the file with the MAC's MIDI file player? If it is corrupt, the LK-280 will not recognize it. The LK-280 does not actually play a MIDI file "directly" from the SD Card. Instead, it first loads the file into a temporary area in internal memory, and then "plays" it from there. I read, just within the past few days, that the size of that memory area is something a little less than 4Kb (something like 3998Kb). Files larger than this can not be loaded, so will not be recognized. So far, I have not been able to verify this figure, so can not state for certain whether this could be a problem, but it may be worth checking as just a consideration. Once we get you beyond that "No file" message, the next question is: does that MIDI file have the left and right hand note data on the correct MIDI tracks/channels to properly light the keys on the LK keyboards. Most do not. As a matter of fact, most have BOTH left and right hand note data on the SAME track/channel. This presents a bit of a challenge, but it can be dealt with, after a fashion. The problem will be that I am familiarl with the Windows tools for dealing with this, but nor so much those of the MAC environment, but we will cross that bridge, when we get to it. - T -

A really nice touch for the times, Mike. My most profound thanks for such a wonderful break from the "new norm". I did find myself wanting more, so I set it on loop, and it kept me company while I had my dinner this evening. Every time it looped, I saw things I hadn't seen before.