CTK 7300in - questions on MIDI controller & sequencer

[GGTS]

Hello,

 

Firstly, I am very new to this electronic music stuff (basically a piano player), now trying to understand sequencing & stuff. Please excuse me if my question is naive/stupid.

 

I want to use the CTK 7300in for live performances (I am the only keyboard player in the band). I thought I will use the song sequencer mode and sequence most parts into it. The problem which I do not know how to solve is - How do I change instruments in the middle of the song? I tried to use the registration banks, but I did not work, What I did was on track 8, 9, I assigned the necessary instruments and switched during the song. However, there is a lot of delay in doing so! Is there a better way to switch instruments in song sequencer mode? Can you please provide some guidance?

 

Also, I am learning the FL Studio 12 (Youtube & forums like this is my teacher 😊 ). I connected my CTK to computer and was able to sequence a track. But I do not know how to assign Keyboard controls.

 

For example, If I want to assign a FL Studio channel to bank 1-1,  so that I switch channels in FL studio, while other channels hold the song parts. Can you please guide?

 

(Again, please excuse my ignorance)

[- T -]

GGTS

 

Welcome to the Casio Forums, and welcome to the world of electronic music.

 

Yes!  The Casio CTK/WK keyboards are not good at switching Registrations to change Tones (voices/instruments) mid-song. The switches are not quantized to the beat clock, so if you are not exactly spot-on with your switch timing, you can get a noticeable glitch.  My old WK-3800 here also suffers the same thing with simple chord changes within the same Registration and same Rhythm when using the Auto-accompaniment.  If your timing on a simple chord change is not exactly spot-on, you get a noticeable glitch.  At least that was corrected on the newer boards.

 

You should be able to record a single track in one pass, with a single Tone (instrument), then go back with the Song Sequencer's Step Editor and embed a Bank-Select/Program-Change event to change the Tone (instrument) where you want it, but the Step Editor is not that sophisticated.  It only allows the entry of note data, not control data.  The CTK/WK Song Sequencers like to have their Track voices (Tones/instruments) assigned only in the Song File Header at the beginning of the Song File. There are those who would recommend porting your "song" or phrase to a computer-based DAW/sequencer software program to make that edit, but doing so would require converting the Casio CMS Song File to a Standard MIDI File (SMF) format.  When that is done, all of the Casio high quality voices (Tones/instruments) are replaced with the lower quality GM (General MIDI) voices, so your song sounds like it is being played with the computer based Microsoft Wavetable Synth, even when played back on the CTK-7300IN.  The CMS-to-SMF conversion process is one-way only.  There is no going back to the CMS Song File format, after the edit, to recover the high quality voices.  So this is not an option.  Then there are those who would recommend doing the whole thing on a computer based DAW, instead of with the keyboard's Song Sequencer.  That is, just play the keyboard and record what you play with the DAW, make tone (voice/instrument) changes in the DAW, and play the result back to the keyboard, using the keyboard as just a simple sound module.  This requires having a computer on stage with you, and may, some day, be the solution of your choice, depending on how deep you decide to go with electronic music, but I do not think you are at that point, at this time.

 

There is a work-around that is more akin to what you have already been trying.  Let us assume that you want a 32 bar song or phrase that uses a clarinet lead for the first 16 bars and a sax lead for the last 16 bars, and you want to do it on tracks 1 and 2.  Set up Track-1 for a "Single Track Recording" per the instructions on Page E-72 of the CTK-7300IN manual, and assign a clarinet Tone to it.  Play/record your clarinet lead for the first 16 bars, and then just stop playing, but DO NOT PRESS THE STOP BUTTON.  Doing so will insert a permanent end of song marker, and you will not be able to record beyond it.  Just let the Song Sequencer continue recording for 16 more bars, and then press the STOP button.  Now, rewind the song and setup Track-2 for a "Single Track Recording" and assign a sax voice to it.  Press the START button, and you will hear your previously recorded clarinet lead playing on Track-1.  At the end of bar 16, begin playing/recording your sax lead on Track-2.  At the end of bar 32, press the STOP button, and you have an apparently "switchless" instrument change. If you want to combine this with any Auto-accompaniment features, such as drums, bass, or chordal accompaniment, let me know, as we will need to discuss the Song Sequencer's design, capabilities, and pitfalls in a little greater depth.

 

Good luck !

 

Regards,

 

Ted

 

[GGTS]

Thanks very much Ted, I am trying to understand your reply and got the most of it working (Kinda...!). 

 

Quote

 let me know, as we will need to discuss the Song Sequencer's design, capabilities, and pitfalls in a little greater depth.

 

Yes, would love to know that, I am a beginner and any inputs will be really useful to me. 

 

Thanks for your time and effort.

[- T -]

GGTS

 

Following is a re-post of a write-up I did here several years ago on the design and use of the CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX Song Sequencer.  I have edited and updated it to correct a couple of very serious errors and to customize references to manual page numbers specific to your CTK-7300IN.  I think that most of this will be a ways ahead of where you currently are with your CTK-7300IN, so I recommend copying it to a file on your hard drive for future reference.  Of course, there should always be a copy here, but data does sometimes get lost from the forum archives.  Basically, this is just a very dense condensation of important information that is spread over many chapters and many pages of the manual - to the point that the logical flow can easily be lost.  So, I apologize if some of the more difficult concepts come a bit fast and furious.

 

The CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX Song Sequencer saves song data to a .CMS file.  It IS a MIDI file, but it is a Casio proprietary MIDI file, because it has some very unique features.  Casio touts the Song Sequencer as a 17 track sequencer - 16 data tracks and a SYSTEM Track, but then they drop the ball and do not fully explain what that SYSTEM Track is really all about.  Tracks 1 through 16 are just regular old hardware sequencer tracks, the same as any other 16 track hardware sequencer.  These are referred to in the manual as the "B" Tracks.  Their use is pretty much at the discretion of the user for "track-at-a-time' (Individual Track) recording [Page E-72], but Track 17, that SYSTEM Track is something really special.  It is like what we call a Type-0 MIDI file.  It contains an additional 16 virtual tracks.  These are referred to as the "A" Tracks and are pre-assigned by the keyboard's operating system to the recording of all data associated with the Easy RECord function [Page E-68] - including the UPPER-1, UPPER-2 (LAYER), LOWER (SPLIT), HARMONY, and all Auto-accompaniment RHYTHM parts.  That is to say, the virtual "A" Tracks are solely responsible for the recording of all aspects of an Auto-accompaniment ("One--Man-Bander") performance.  See the chart in the right hand column of Page E-70 of the manual for the various track assignments.  So the Song Sequencer is actually a 32 track sequencer and generates a 32 track MIDI (.CMS) Song file.  This is in keeping with, and explains the reason for, the keyboard's 32 channel MIXER feature.  Those 32 tracks will be maintained separate and intact as long as they remain within the .CMS file, but when we try to export all of that data to a Standard MIDI FILE (SMF) we run into a problem.  The MIDI Standard specifies only 16 tracks in an SMF, so something has to give.  When we convert the .CMS file to an SMF, the virtual "A" Track data is extracted to the real "B" Tracks, the virtual "A" Track data is discarded, and the real "B" Tracks with the extracted data are written to an SMF in the MUSICDAT folder on an SD Card.  That file can then be uploaded to a computer with the Data Manager software or just physically ported to the SD Card reader slot on the computer, but the actual process is a little more convoluted than that.  The real "B" Tracks are there for simple ad-hoc individual track recording or for the user to add any additional tracks to an original "A" Track recording, because the "A" Track (SYSTEM Track) recording is a one-shot "erase as it records" process.  Aside from some very basic edits, any attempt to add anything to an existing "A" Track recording will result in total erasure of ALL existing data on ALL "A" Tracks (A-01 thru A16).  Added tracks have to go on the "B" Tracks.  So, the "B" Tracks are necessary, and we therefore have to deal with them, if we want to convert our 32 track CMS Song file to a 16 track SMF.  Oddly enough, at extraction/conversion time the "B" Tracks have priority.  By default, they are all set to ON in the MIXER panel.  Any "B" Track that is ON in the MIXER panel at extraction/conversion time will NOT accept extracted data from its correspondingly numbered "A" Track.  If you have not used any "B" Tracks, the conversion process is simple, just go into the MIXER panel, turn OFF ALL the "B" Tracks and run your conversion, but if you have used any "B" Tracks, you may have to move that data around to avoid sacrificing any data.  So what "B" Tracks are safe to use?  Any of them, if you have not recorded any "A" Track data. Otherwise: during normal "live" play, Tracks A1, A2, and A3 are used for UPPER-1, UPPER-2 (LAYER), and LOWER (SPLIT) data respectively, but during the record process, those functions are transferred to Tracks A5, A6, and A7, so in the finished recording, Tracks A1, A2, and A3 will normally be empty, meaning that Tracks B1, B2 and B3 should be available for use.  If you do not use Auto-Harmonize, Track A4 will be empty.  If you do not use LAYER or SPLIT, Tracks A6 and A7 will be empty.  Track A9 is for non-drum percussive sounds, and is not used by most Rhythms, so it most likely will be empty.  So, all of this means that Tracks B1, B2, B3, B4, B6, B7 and B9 might POSSIBLY be available for use, while any other "B" Track use may require the sacrifice of important "A" Track Auto-accompaniment data.  This caveat is covered in the NOTE at the top of the right hand column of Page 139.

 

If you are interested in the original conversation that led to the above, you will find it here:

 

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/12318-help-ctk-6200-how-to-export-song-sequencer-files/

 

I would recommend that, as there is additional information toward the end of that exchange that might be of future interest to you.

 

Best of luck for your endeavors with the CTK-7300IN.

 

Regards,

 

Ted

 

[GGTS]

Hi Ted,

 

Thanks very much for excellent explanation. Your reply cleared up lot of queries that I had.

 

You are way better than the user manual 😀.

 

Appreciate your time in posting the reply.

[Dr Mahesh H]

There is way out, you can not use Registration Bank to recall the Tone you desire while playing a already partly sequenced song. One simple option is once you sequenced the song parts you desire, while doing so leave some tracks empty (there are ample 16 in B part). Out of these empty B tracks as usual select a empty track and the desired tone and just record a  track as usual (record some thing and delete contents and not the clear track option) This will ensure reservation of that tone to that track. Then while playing live start your song sequencer in Play mode at an appropriate place/wherever you wish to select the desired (but pre-selected tone) move the arrow to that track and continue playing as usual. Hope it is fruitful.

[praful]

Dear,When ever i am using datamanager 6 it shows disconnected, because of that i cannot transfer my WAV files to play in CTK 7300in keyboard. My SD card also not showing in datamanager..pls help and explain the solution why it is happening..With regards...Praful...

[- T -]

You first need to resolve that "disconnected" condition, before you can do anything about any other problems you may be having with this.  Are you using Windows or a MAC?  If Windows, what version of Windows are you using?