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Audio files as accompaniment.


Gnomo Alegre

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Yes, you can.  The midi files play just fine, and are my preferred file format, as they are not volume independent like a .wav file is to the Casio system.  The midi file play back volumes can be adjusted in the "set up area".  The wav files cannot be adjusted by the Casio system.

 

But, check out any .wav file song you load onto your flash drive and wish to play.  Do it with the "volume knob" turned down to a minimum setting the first time you play one.  You will probably have to use an Audio Editing program like Sound Forge or the like to "cut the volume"  down to a level the Casio's can use.  On my 350, I have to reduce the volume levels of .wav files down to almost a flat line in Sound Forge, to play along with them off the flash drive.  I didn't know this and blew the internal circuit breaker on the 350.  It went black at the first "boom" with the volume set at the 12:00 o'clock position when I hit the Play/Stop button.  But it started up again using the on/off button.  I though I had just killed my new piano.  The manual says nothing about this!

 

Take a .wav file song you want to play along with, and run it through Sound Forge (or it's equivalent) first.  Name each one as TAKE01.WAV, TAKE02.WAV, etc. with either increasing or decreasing volume levels.  Play each with the volume knob turned way down.  Go through your list of TAKEXX.WAV files until you find the "level setting" that works for you.  Then when you want to play other songs, you can go back to the "perfect one" and use "it's" level as your baseline for all others.

 

I'm in the process of "re-leveling" around 100 songs that are To Hot for the 350 to handle as they now are.  But YMMV.

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Actually he's asking about an XW-P1, not a Privia. I haven't tried recently but I believe that when you play a MIDI file thru the XW's flash drive the keyboard cuts out and becomes unplayable. It in effect becomes a "dumb player."

 

The procedure for playing a MIDI or WAV file from the memory card is listed on Page E-72 of the manual.

 

http://support.casio.com/manualfile.php?rgn=1&cid=008013001

 

It makes no mention either way of whether or not it can play along with the song on the keyboard but I think because the XW's sequencer is a 16 step sequencer and not a full blown sequencer means that the hardware is incapable of playing a MIDI file and live keyboard action at the same time.

 

My solution to this and every other built in keyboard sequencer problem is to simply use my computer as the sequencer and ignore the useless built in bells and whistles :P

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Ok, I had some time to experiment a bit tonight.

 

Yes you CAN play a MIDI file while accompanying it from the SD Card in the Flash Drive Slot.

 

However a few caveats apply.

 

1) The card should have been formatted in the keyboard and the MID files placed in the MUSICDAT folder.  No special naming conventions are required.  It seems to accept any valid ASCII named midi file.

 

2) Accompaniment seems to default to whatever instrument was chosen as channel one in the MID file.  Hitting the mixer button seems to have no effect.  About 90% of my test MIDs were standard piano on channel one.

 

I suppose you could edit the channel one voicing in your MID file to be any one of 128 GM sounds, but I honestly don't see how you could select the drawbar organs or synths from the panel or otherwise given the limitations of the GM soundset.


I don't really know what would happen with a WAV file since my understanding is that WAVs have to be resampled to an oddball sample rate to be played on the XW-P1.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Gary

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Hi All,

You can also send midi files to the phrase user presets via the usb interface program. Also you can pick any instrument from the midi file by setting midi cc 0 (bank MSB) and then the midi program change to set to any of the presets for channel 1( or 14 if set to solo synth). I have been setting the instrument from logic pro by using the above. You can change the preset instrument as often as you want. I did this in my sound cloud song Euphoric Trance to the groove line.

Sean - soundcloud Sean777

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Hi.  I'm new to the group.  Purchased my P1 last month and have been struggling with this subject ever since.  There are a lot of gaps in the manuals (h/w and s/w), so I'm glad to see this group.  Through trial and error here's is what I have found:

1)  .wav files via the SC card play back fine.  In my few early experiments the volume seemed lower.  When in this mode, no other resources in P1 available.  Any other live parts would need to be played on another instrument.

2) importing .mid files via card and playback had same results, just different format

3) creating phrase sequences from small .mid files best results yet becauase it offers more control, BUT a drum set needs to be selected resulting in additional drum note triggering when playing the keyboard while sequence is running.  Can drums be layered but triggered only by the phrase sequencer?

 

My goal:  create drum and base sequences in my DAW, xfer to phrase sequence in P1 and loop sequence as accompanament while playing single tone lead or pad.  Is this Do-able??  BTW, I'm trying to avoid using the step sequencer. It doesn't suit my style of playing (jazz/40's-60's standards). Many better drum patterns available as .mid files than I could ever create via step sequencer.

 

Thanks

 

Al

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I started in the world of synthesizer 4 months ago. I'm still very young. The head hurts to read things very complex (joke). Do not serve files .MID? Only .WAV? This explains what is the performance mode? Some external source does it take?

 

I think that it is easier to be a spacecraft pilot...

 

I've tested in DEMO / PLAYER. I do not know the MIDI world.

 

I appreciate your wisdom-filled messages.

 

Thank you very much

Edited by David
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