Possibilities using midi controller with xw-p1

[masterzaffro]

Hey guys! I'm wondering if what I want to do is possible. I'd like to hook up my xw-p1 to an external midi controller and have a piano patch on that midi controller while having a split of organ and synth on the xw-p1 (all sound coming from the xw-p1. And if this is possible could I also do layers on top of that (organ and Rhodes left half and synth right half while the external controller is playing piano). This would make live use great. Thanks!

[AlenK]

Assuming you really do mean that all sounds are coming from the XW-P1, including the piano sound, then you can do what you want as follows:

 

You can play any of the XW-P1's sixteen parts using external MIDI input, in this case from your controller. Normally you would reserve the last nine parts (8 to 16) for the XW-P1's internal step sequencer. That leaves you with seven parts for live playing.

 

In this case you need only one to be externally controlled (with a piano tone, presumably acoustic). You can at the same time also play up to four other tones from the XW-P1's keyboard (although your example only states three). Those four would be parts (zones) 1 to 4. Program them how you want in a Performance (split point, layering, etc.). Set part 5 or 6 to the acoustic piano preset (P0-0 in the PCM Piano category) using the mixer (see pages E-67 and E-68 in the XW-P1 User's Guide). I believe that tone is the default, so you might not have to change anything. Note that you could theoretically use part 7 but any changes to the settings for part 7 in the mixer aren't saved anywhere - they won't survive turning the power off - so I wouldn't advise using it.  

 

In the Performance editor set the input MIDI channel for your chosen part (5 or 6) to match what your controller is putting out (see Page E-66 in the User's Guide). All of the Performance and mixer settings you make for parts 5 and 6 are stored in your current Performance along with all the settings for parts/zones 1 to 4. Just be sure to save the Performance again if you edit any of those settings. (The manual doesn't mention this or anything much about parts 5, 6 or 7 since they aren't normally accessible from the XW-P1 itself unless you do clever tricks with MIDI cables. )  

 

Note that the solo synth, drawbar organ and Hex Layer engines are mutually exclusive: only one can play at a time in a given Performance and only on part/zone 1. So if you have organ and synth in the same Performance, one of those will have to be chosen from the PCM tones. 

[masterzaffro]

Thanks for you reply. I think I should be able to figure it out from here. I'm thinking of getting a VMK-161 Plus to put right below my XW-P1 and then have a Behringer FCB1010 on the ground as my new rig. I'm hoping the Rhodes and piano sounds will be decent enough for stage use. Should be a bit of work to learn but it'll beat my current set up (Yamaha yc30 with a couple effect pedals and an e-mu xboard 49 on top hooked up to an iPad, volca keys and iconnectmidi4. love it but it's a lot of work to set up, heavy, and has a lot of opportunities for error in set up)

[oildrops]

Bumping this old topic. I have been editing solo synth tones lately and would really like to have some of these parameters on knobs. So my questions are:

 

How good is the ipad app for the XW-P1? Does it give you interactive control over envelopes and different filter parameters?

 

I already have an Akai MIDI-mix. Is there any way to map XW-P1 parameters to it?

[AlenK]

The app is good - Mike Martin was the driving force behind it - and it does indeed allow interactive control over all envelope and filter parameters of the solo synth. All its parameters, in fact. Nothing appears to be missing. 

 

I can't answer your Akai question but you might find some of the answers by reading the XW-P1 midi implementation document and Appendix C of my XW-P1 Companion document. AFAIK, the XW-P1 will respond to all of the CC's, NRPN's and RPN's listed in that appendix of the latter document when it receives them from an external source.