XW series with MainStage?

[atfulcrum]

I was gonna say "long time, first time", but it really hasn't been that long.. I walked into Sam Ash earlier today hoping to walk out with a couple of M-Audio keyboard controllers and walked out instead with an XW-G1 and an XW-P1 for several hundred dollars less than I would have spent on the Axiom 61 Pro boards I had my eye on. So, er, yay, me.

I'm running into an issue in the process of getting these beasts to talk to MainStage—which I'd like to be able to do as I have a few soft synths that I tend to go to quite often in context of a live performance. First, I'm not clear on how to go about sending MIDI program changes from MainStage to the two units. Maybe I'm daft, but the PDF manual didn't really help me understand this at all—but it's entirely possible I missed the relevant information.

Second, I'm trying to program the assorted knobs and sliders so that I can control certain things through MainStage—for example, controls on my soft synths and effect plugs. For example, I create a knob object and tell MainStage to listen for incoming data from the relevant Assignable Knob on the P1. What it hears is a single MIDI value—127—and I can't seem to make it hear 0 through 126. The drop-down in MainStage's Inspector doesn't seem to want to allow me to turn that into a continuous controller, or the P1 isn't sending CC data, or something. I'm lost here.

I've just downloaded the firmware updates, and maybe these add features that I didn't have when I unboxed the units, but at the moment I'm just trying to get myself acclimated to the way Casio is doing things and how best to integrate that with my laptop for live shows (and, of course, I have three coming up this week).

Anyone using MainStage successfully with the XW boards?

Thanks in advance.

[Null]

First of all are you sure you have ALL of the documentation?

XW-P1 Manual

http://support.casio...b_XWP1-E-1B.pdf

XW-P1 Appendix

http://support.casio...PPEND-WL-1A.pdf

XW-P1 MIDI Implementation Specs

http://support.casio...1&cid=008013001

XW-G1 Manual

http://support.casio...b_XWG1-E-1B.pdf

XW-G1 Appendix

http://support.casio...PPEND-WL-1B.pdf

XW-G1 MiDI Implementation Specs

http://support.casio.com/manualfile.php?rgn=1&cid=008013003

Somehow I think the MIDI Specs will help you with what you are trying to accomplish.

Gary

[atfulcrum]

Thanks for that sir.. yes, I downloaded all the PDFs I could lay hands on (or my mouse). The MIDI Specs look comprehensive enough—I was hoping to get this thing up and running for the gigs this weekend, so I was relying on the manual to tell me what I needed to know (it didn't). But at this point it looks like this rig isn't going to be ready for the weekend's music making activity.

Then again, the P1 is currently completely hosed after a run-in with the Mac firmware updater, so my energy is probably going to be spent getting that replaced tomorrow. Peculiar that the G1 updated without a hitch though... can't even blame it on Mercury retrograde.. *shrug*

[Mike Martin]

In the Peformance mode of both instruments you'll find a CONTROLLERS section, this allows you to freely assign the knobs to any MIDI CC that you want. If you're not in Performance mode it is possible that the knobs are sending a message that is specific to the XW's sounds.

[atfulcrum]

I thought that might be the case. I did notice the CONTROLLERS section on the G1 for about a second, but that was just about the time the P1 went south (q.v.). I'll futz with that and continue to cram the MIDI Spec PDF.