XW-P1 primary MIDI Channel

[perldude]

Hello everyone!,

This is my first post to this group, and although I read thru the FAQ and AlenK's XW-P1 companion I still can't find the answer to my question.

The XW-p1 has MIDI settings for zones and and parts and a general MIDI channel setting, but I want to be able to communicate with the XW-P1 thru a global channel to at least to select a patch.  I have found that if I set the general midi channel to 3 (for example) the instrument will still only respond to a global command like volume (CC 07) thru MIDI ch1.  I have many keyboards that I need to control from my foot pedal (FCB1010) and the other keyboards I can simply set the midi channel and send patch changes and CC messages with no problem.  Now the WX-P1 is very powerful, and I expect to use the zone settable midi channels to parallel keyboards and program user patches accordingly. But I need to be able to access these patches thru one settable channel (other than CH1).  So that being said, what does the basic MIDI channel setting do?  The Manual says NRPN and other midi messages, but can I change patches thru the MIDI channel set here? 

 

It seems that unless I use the default channels programmed into the factory presets, I will need to edit each patch just to change the midi channel and save it as a user setting.  Am I missing something?

 

 

[AlenK]

First off, CC 07 is a channel volume command (the MIDI 1.0 spec actually explicitly calls it that) and it always applies to a single channel. If the XW-P1 is responding to it on channel 1 then that is the MIDI channel embedded in the volume messages it is receiving. If you are hoping that sending CC 07 to the basic channel will then apply it to all channels, that's not how the XW-P1 works.

 

You mentioned patch changes. I believe that if you put the P1 in TONE mode then program change messages (with bank select) on channel 1 will change the tone (patch) of the sound you are playing on the keyboard. If I understand you right that may be closer to the kind of behaviour you are expecting. But I haven't checked that. 

 

Re the basic channel, what you can send to the P1 on it is described on the right hand side of page E-70 of the User's Guide. Note that the Performance change NRPN command is included (if you turn that feature on). For how to use that see item 7.39.3 on page 24 of the MIDI Implementation document. An external controller can send a Performance change NRPN command on the basic channel to select a Performance and thereby change all the tones (patches) for parts 1 to 4 together (parts 5 and 6, too, as it turns out, but the P1 can't itself access those parts). Unfortunately, I don't think the FCB1010 can send NRPN commands. 

[AlenK]

.

[perldude]

AlenK,

Thank you very much for your kind reply.  It's unfortunate the P1 does not allow CC07 as a global volume control, and I understand your point about the multiple parts/midi channels within the P1.  That being said it is a "performance" synth, and this feature would seem to attract keyboard player who would include this keyboard in a multi-keyboard performance setup.  It seems the designers at Casio envisioned the P1 as the only keyboard a performer would only need.  I on the other hand sometimes want the P1 track what I am playing on a remote keyboard, and at other times do not, and the volume pedal is the most convenient to manage that situation.  Moreover, when playing with other band members, this design implementation seems to be shortsighted.

 

Regarding the program change situation, yesterday I used MIDI-OX to access my user patches using bank selection as follows as described in the XW-P1 manual appendix:

SOLO SYNTH bank 106

DRAWBAR ORGAN 104

PCM sounds   100

Performance   113

 

So far it seems that send the bank change and then the tone selection to the primary MIDI channel (in this case ch3) is working.  I still need to verify that this behavior is not coincidental.