Mclandy

They are listed in the Appendix document (if you have the manuals), or you can download the Appendix here: https://www.casio.com/content/dam/casio/global/support/manuals/electronic-musical-instruments/pdf/008-en/w/Web_14M3APPEND-WL-1A_2A_EN.pdf

After reading your post again, I'm not sure I understood what you are asking. It sounds like you are using the keyboard Transpose function, which basically shifts everything in the keyboard up or down some number of half steps, for the purpose of easy adjustment for the range of a vocalist, but with the same keyboard play. So obviously, notes need to move, because that's the whole point of Transpose. But I'm guessing that maybe you feel this results in certain notes getting too high or too low, so you want transposed notes "forced back" (presumably via octave-shift, if needed) into the "proper" octave? (What exactly does "proper" mean, the original octave each note is in when Transpose is set to 0? What makes that proper?). If that's what you're looking for, that would be very similar to the Low/High limit function I mentioned in the previous post. But as I explained, that method works well for some parts but can also create potential issues with melodic/phrase/"riff" elements, so it should definitely not be the default behavior. It does raise an interesting question about how Low/High limits on rhythm tracks interact with Transpose (do the Low/High limits apply after Transpose, or before?). I don't know, as I've never tried that as an explicit experiment.

I guess it depends on what you mean by the "proper" octave. Basically, the notes (exactly as they are specified in the tracks) define the starting octave when playing in C, but then they get transposed upward from there as you play chord types up through B. At the high end of that chord range the instrument may not sound "natural" any more, so there are a few ways to change that. The first is the track Breakpoint setting, which says at what point in the played chord range - C through B - you want all the notes to drop an octave. This setting is accessible on the keyboard, and is individually settable for each track, so it can be adjusted differently based on the instrument type. The second is Inversion, which will try to keep the played notes as close as possible to the ones recorded in the track, by automatically playing inverted versions of the chords. For example, if you have a C chord recorded in the rhythm as C-E-G, and then play an F chord, with Inversion off it would play as F-A-C. But with Inversion on, it would play as C-F-A, keeping it in a similar range to the original chord. Of course, this should mostly be used with chord-style instruments/rhythms, like a rhythm guitar part. This is also settable from the keyboard. Lastly, there are some other track settings which are not accessible on the keyboard but are defined in the AC7 files, that set Low and High limits. These will "force" any notes that get transposed outside of those limits to be automatically octave-shifted back into that range. Generally you would use these with instruments that naturally tend to play within a limited range. The difference is that the Breakpoint setting causes ALL notes to drop an octave when a chord above a certain key is played, while the Low/High limits force individual notes back into a specified range. So if there is a recognizable melodic/phrase/"riff" element in the track, Breakpoint will still play all the notes in "correct relation" to each other, just one octave lower. Inversion and Low/High, however, will cause individual notes to shift and could perhaps break a melodic element, but should be fine if intended to mimic the way you might play guitar chords, or a bass with a constrained range. By the way, all of these settings can be adjusted in an AC7 with my AC7Editor program.

A bluetooth transmitter (low-latency Aptx, preferably). Since most of those come with a male stereo mini-plug (typically, so you can plug it into a non-bluetooth MP3 player or audio source), you would likely need a "Y" adapter cable with a female stereo mini-socket on one end, and two male 1/4" TS (mono) plugs on the other. Then plug the TS plugs into your keyboard's L/R audio out jacks, and pair your headphone with the bluetooth transmitter.

Clearly it shouldn't take that long, so assuming this happens right after trying to play a MIDI file, it seems like some condition is causing the playback operation to hang up, leaving the read operation in an incomplete state (or a loop). Of course, that's not normally how it works, so it raises suspicions about the content of the MIDI file. Do other MIDI files fail in the same way? If other files fail, do they all come from the same MIDI composer/editor (some editors do weird things)? Supposedly either Format 0 or 1 is supported, but have you tried the MIDI file in both formats?

By the way, my comment about Sysex was in response to Casio_Style's comments regarding use of Sysex in USB-loaded MIDIs, and the observation that others have tried it, and it doesn't seem to work very well. If you are having trouble with a MIDI that contains Sysex events, that "might" explain some of the operational problems, especially if those Sysex events were not specifically designed to work with Casio's implementation. Regarding trying to change Registration in Song Bank mode, I don't think it's surprising that it doesn't work. As soon as you press the Song Bank button, the default internal 001 Song ("SaintsGo") is loaded. You can then go choose to load a different song, but at that point you're already in "Song Bank" mode, with a song loaded. As the manual describes, this actually is sort of like loading a Registration, because it applies settings like the tones, rhythm, tempo and reverb (and probably any other control event settings in the MIDI sequence). Essentially, it sets things up so the song will play as it is "supposed to" be played, overriding any previous settings as needed in order to accomplish that. So again, probably not a big surprise that the keyboard won't let you can't call up a Registration when in Song Bank mode, since that would tend to totally "wipe out" the correct song setup (remember, a Registration changes almost ALL settings, not just the keyboard Tone). Regarding the removal of the USB stick, you supposedly can remove it at any time as long as it is not actively being used (there is no "unmount" function). However, the keyboard can be very slow at scanning the USB stick for content (MANY seconds of scanning), so you have to wait until you're sure that no operations are in progress before removing it. I always use a stick with an LED activity indicator, and wait until it has completely stopped flashing. Changing the keyboard mode can initiate a new scan, so you always need to check for further activity before removing the USB stick. If you get an "Err No Media" message when removing it, that's a pretty clear indication that there was in fact a USB operation in progress. In my experience, as long as I wait until the activity LED is done flashing, I've never had a problem with removing the stick or causing any kind of "freeze" of the keyboard.

I remember reading some previous posts where someone tried including Sysex messages in a MIDI file that was loaded from the USB stick, and it seemed like it didn't work well. It's not that they were totally ignored, but instead they caused unpredictable reactions, like resetting and the song play starting over. Certainly any "read" type of Sysex commands make no sense in that context, since there is no MIDI controller that's expecting a "reply". Some Sysex commands also have certain timing requirements and more complex protocols. I'd be surprised if the code inside the keyboard tried to model all the behavior of a "real" external MIDI controller, so it seems like the support for Sysex in USB-loaded MIDI files would at least have some (and perhaps, significant) limitations. But it would be nice if they said something in the manual or the MIDI Implementation document that clarified this.

As it says in the manual (Page EN-39), "While a song is playing back, you can play along on the keyboard using the tone (including split and layer tones) that was selected before song playback was started." That implies to me that you cannot change keyboard Tones on the fly while playing back a MIDI file. Regarding the volume levels, you could certainly create and save a Registration in which the Mixer settings are set up properly for a given MIDI song and the associated live-play keyboard Tones, and call that up before starting playback. Perhaps a better approach would be to use a MIDI editor to "pre-normalize" the volume settings in the MIDI files themselves, so you don't have to readjust going from one song to another.

@Cușlea_FM, I just noticed this thread. Let me see if I can clarify things a bit. I notice that you posted the "SMF to AC7 Casio CT-X Rhythm Converter Software" in the files section - is this something you wrote, or did it come from somewhere else? In the "Required MIDI Structure" diagram related to my program above, the channel assignments are only meaningful to my program, and its ability to import and understand a MIDI file, so it can turn it into an AC7. The channel assignments are somewhat similar to how they are assigned in the keyboard, but only similar - and for that reason, may cause some confusion. On the keyboard, rhythm parts (Percussion, Drum, Bass, Chord 1-5) do get mapped to MIDI output channels 9 through 16, and that makes it similar to the MIDI input file for my program. However, in order to allow the ability to define both a Major and Minor track for a given part, I use channels 1 through 8 to contain a Minor track which matches with a Major track in channels 9 through 16. My program uses these to create a "matched pair' of tracks in the AC7, one of which plays when the user plays a Minor chord, and the other when the user plays a Major Chord. Within the AC7, however, both tracks get bundled together under the same part. So when it's played on the keyboard, regardless of whether it's major or minor, that part maps to one of the MIDI output channels 9 through 16, as illustrated in the manual. I assume this is different than what the "SMF to AC7 Casio CT-X Rhythm Converter Software" expects. For one thing, I don't believe it supports the major/minor matched pairs. It also uses manual specification of the channel-to-part mapping and the measure range for each variation, rather than requiring default channels and embedded markers to separate the variations. So it's just a different program that essentially does something similar to one of the functions in my program, but the input requirements are different.

Seeing this question, I just wanted to mention that CT-X actually does have the ability, within an AC7 rhythm file, to specify effects (volume, pan, reverb, delay, etc.) and EQ parameters for individual drum sounds, although the keyboard itself provides no way to access or modify these settings. I see these parameters used in some of the built-in rhythms, the two most common uses being low-pass filters to "deepen" a drum sound, and adding delay to a drum sound to get an echo effect. If I can find the time (probably not in the next couple of months, though), I might add these functions to my AC7Editor program, which already provides the ability to substitute a drum sound from another kit as a replacement for one in the assigned kit.

The AC7Editor software is written in a language called ooRexx, which requires two packages to be installed before it can run - an ooRexx runtime package, and an ooRexx Windows Dialog manager. While ooRexx programs are normally launched from a command line, there is also a little trick you can do to create a launchable desktop/taskbar icon. These steps are described in the PDF file in the package, and also in the Installation Requirements section of the AC7Editor WIKI: https://sourceforge.net/p/ac7editor/wiki/Home/ Once you are set up and can run the program, converting is quite easy. Basically, it is just an Import operation that converts and imports the style file into an AC7 format, which is displayed in the editor. From there, you can make further modifications and save it into an AC7 file. The conversion is a "best can do" process, given that some style features can't be duplicated on Casio (especially in newer styles), but generally it seems to work pretty well.

Just out of interest, are you trying to use the phrase with an accompaniment that is in something other than 4/4 time? If I remember correctly, phrases only record and play back in 4/4 time, so they get out of sync when playing with an accompaniment in a different time signature. If your accompaniment is in 3/4 time, sometimes you can "trick" the keyboard by creating a 3-measure phrase (3 measures x 4 beats = 12 total beats), so it lines up with 4 accompaniment measures (4 measures x 3 beats = 12 total beats).

I received an email from SourceForge saying that my AC7Editor project has been awarded a "Rising Star" badge for having over 100 downloads in the last month! So although the feedback here has been mostly from just a few individuals, I know there are quite a few people out there who are at least trying out the program. This is the best place to discuss AC7Editor questions, issues, and potential enhancements, so if you don't currently have a Casio Music Forums account, please consider signing up to you can join the discussion! For non-English speakers, I will do my best to work with you via Google Translate (and sorry for not having the program available in other languages). Project link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ac7editor/

I'd say the most important consideration whether to record something as a "Rhythm", is not so much which parts you want (drum, percussion, bass, etc.), as it is whether you have a repeating pattern (or patterns) that you want to play back in free-flowing chord sequences as you play. So if you only want to play one particular song in one particular way, especially if the left hand play is very dynamic, then just record it in the Song Recorder and add additional tracks for leads. But if you want it to be part of a reusable repetitive "style" that you can apply to a variety of similar songs, then record it as a Rhythm. But yes, with a Rhythm you would play basic chords with the left hand, generating all the "moving notes" in your accompaniment pattern, while playing lead with the right.

In addition to Brad's helpful pointer to the Phrase Playback settings, which help sync phrases with your accompaniment, you might also be running into a known problem in the manual regarding the description of the Quantize settings, which can be a bit misleading. Please see the following thread for more information on how to properly set the Quantize value: