WK-110 Custom Songs

[MiniDVLover]

I have a WK-110 that I would like to send some custom tunes to. Currently, I only have the SMF converter, which I can use to send a MIDI file or create a .cm2.

 

I would like to be able to create a file that can trigger the fingering and chord name display (for "auto accompaniment") that the built-in tunes allow. Can anyone help with that? Is there a modification I can do to a .cm2 file that allows that?

 

I'm pretty much trying to create my own song that the keyboard treats like a built-in tune.

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The Casio .cm2 song file format was used by certain models of their keyboards of the late 1990's to the early 2000's.  Until the advent of the WK-2XX model line, the WK-110 was the only WK (73/76 key) model to use the .cm2 song file format.  By 2005 or 2006, it had been replaced with the .Z02 song file format of the WK-3XXX models and their CTK (61 key) equivalent models, and around 2012, the .Z02 song file format had been replaced with the .cms song file format of the CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX models, which also began using the latest .AC7 Rhythm file format, but the WK-2XX models, and at least some of their equivalent CTK-4XXX models, continue to use the .cm2 song file format to this day.  The Casio SMF Converter program only works with the keyboards which use the .cm2 song file format, so many of us here, who own the newer boards, which use the .Z02 and .cms formats, have devised a means of using computer based DAW/sequencer programs to manually modify SMF files to work with just about all of the Casio "Lesson" file features (primarily the proper lighting of the keys on the LK models), with one major exception, and that exception is the one you have noticed with SMF Converter.  Try as we may, we have not been able to create a conversion file that will light the "fingers" of the "fingering hands" in the keyboard's display panel, as do the built-in (Lesson) songs.  That is because the built-in songs appear to have additional MIDI data placed there by Casio design engineers specifically for lighting those "fingers", and Casio appears to guard the secrets of those additional commands very closely.  It follows that Casio would most likely view any program or app designed to reverse engineer any song file to reveal those secrets as a direct attack on what they consider their "intellectual property" as it applies to the built-in songs.

 

Here are a couple of links that point to recent threads here on discussion of SMF modifications to work with the "Lessons" features ala the built-in songs:

 

https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/16504-cdp230r-lessons-question/

 

https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/7764-create-your-own-lesson-with-a-midi-file-wk220/

 

The first link is a discussion of the CDP-230R model, but the procedure is the same for any models which offer the "Lessons" features.  The second link includes information on the latest advancement - the insertion of "cue points" into an SMF to emulate the learning "phrases" of the built-in "Lessons" songs.  I have not experienced this myself, as I no longer own a Casio keyboard that has "Lessons" features (WK-225), and so can not comment on it further.  Casio refers to the MIDI channels which contain the right and left hand note data for the "Lessons" features as the "Navigate Channels".  The "Navigate Channels" are always adjacent numbered channels, with the lower numbered channel containing the left hand note data, and the higher numbered channel containiing the right hand note data.  Some confusion arises over this, as different models treat the "Navigate Channels" differently.  Early models have the "Navigate Channels" fixed at 1 and 2, while more recent models have them fixed at 3 and 4, and on some of the most recent models, they are fully assignable across the entire 16 channel spectrum, but when not otherwise assigned, default to 3 and 4.  On those models, it is only necessary to assign the upper (right) channel, and the left channel is automatically assigned to the adjacent lower channel.  So, before embarking on any of these procedures, it is first necessary to check your particular model's manual to determine what it uses for the "Navigate Channels".  I am afraid that, at the current time, this is the best we have to offer in the way of modifying SMF's to emulate the built-in "Lessons" song files, and to my knowledge, none of the models that offer "Lessons" features have firmware that is user accessible for the purpose of reprogramming the keyboard's operating system in this respect. 

 

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MiniDVLover

 

I must add to my statement above, that most of this manual conversion of SMF's is to get the keys to light properly on the LK models, which is really just getting the note data onto the proper "Navigate Channels", but just as important is the fact that most SMF's dowloaded from the internet, have both the right and left hand note data on the SAME MIDI channel, which makes the file totally unusable for any of the "StepUp Lesson" keyboard models.  So a fair amount of that conversion process also goes into splitting that combined note data into separate left and right channels. Of course, there are those LK owners who are only interested in correctly lighting the keys, but want to keep the SMF intact, so they can run it from their computer or from an SD memory card (LK-280).  These folks aren't really interested inn full SMF to .cm2 conversion, nor the finer points of the StepUp Lesson features.

 

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[MiniDVLover]

Gotcha. Is there any way, that you know of, to get the chord name displayed like it is in the built-in tunes and get the left hand to work as "auto accompaniment?"

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When it comes to the chord names and the "fingers" in the display, these appear to be an integral part of the built-in songs' "programming" and only work with the built-in songs.  That is to say, the keyboard does not monitor external sources (ie. not built-in songs) in order to "light" these features in the display.  As for auto-accompaniment with the lessons:  some of the entry level lighted key (LK) models have only the right hand in the display, and assume only right hand "learning".  The left end of the keyboard lights only single keys to indicate the correct "one finger" chords and uses the auto-accompaniment for backing, but on the higher level models, two handed "learning" is assumed, so the built-in song provides the backing and overrides the auto-accompaniment.  This can not be changed.

 

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[MiniDVLover]

Damn. Well, maybe it's time for me to upgrade my instrument then - what are the "song bank" features of their newer WK-xxxx instruments? You mentioned that they don't have the same "lesson" feature as the older models. My ultimate goal here is to create a custom tune with auto accompaniment.

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The latest WK model with "learning" ("Stepup Lesson") features is the WK-245, but your WK-110 will do everything that it will do, as far as the "learning" features.  Casio has not really changed that system all that much through the years.  Perhaps I should say that the WK-245 will have all of the same limitations to what you are trying to do as the WK-110.  So do any of the keyboards with the "Stepup Lessons" features.  You seem to want to do with them something they just were not designed to do.  The latest "non-lesson" WK models are the WK-6600 and the WK-7600, with the main differences being that the WK-7600 has a Pattern Sequencer for designing your own accompaniment Rhythms and is able to record audio as well as MIDI, but they have absolutely no "learning" features at all.  They both have extensive song banks, but they are little more than demo songs, as they are just for listening, and while a song bank song is playing, auto-accompaniment is disabled.

 

Going back to your original statement:

 

" I would like to be able to create a file that can trigger the fingering and chord name display (for "auto accompaniment") that the built-in tunes allow. Can anyone help with that? Is there a modification I can do to a .cm2 file that allows that? "

 

The answer to that is "No".  Lighting the fingers and the chord name in the display is preprogrammed into the built-in songs.  Song files from any other source will not have that programming, and without Casio Engineering's knowledge of how to go about that, we have no way of putting it there . . . . . .

 

. . . . . . and now to your most recent statement:

 

My ultimate goal here is to create a custom tune with auto accompaniment.

 

I do have something for you to try on your WK-110.  Record six or eight bars of a simple chord prograssion, then play it back.  While it plays back, do the chord names show in the display?  They should, and this satisfies one of your goals.  Just record your tune and auto-accompaniment from scratch, and the chord names will be there, even though the other learning features will not.

 

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To be certain of the above, I recorded an auto-accompanied song with an improvised right hand melody line with the onboard song recorder of my WK-3800.  As I recorded the song, the chord name in the display followed the chord changes I was making with my left hand.  When I played back song, the chord name in the display followed the chord changes that had been recorded into the song.  This is the same as I had observed with my CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX units and my WK--225, when I had them.  I then recorded the same performance into a computer based DAW/sequencer program via USB-MIDI.  When I played that back into the WK-3800 via USB-MIDI, the sound was exactly the same as when I had recorded and played it back with the WK-3800's onboard song recorder, but this time the display DID NOT SHOW THE CHORD NAME.  While we could say that the keyboard does not recognize that information from external sources, I believe a more accurate description would be that the keyboard does not monitor data from external sources for that information - that the keyboard only monitors built-in songs, the auto-accompaniment engine, and the "StepUp Lessons" programming (if equipped) for that information.  So it makes no difference how we manipulate data from external sources, or what we might try adding to it, other than key lighting on the LK models, none of the rest of it (the chord name or "fingering hands" in the display, etc) will respond, because the keyboard isn't even looking for it there to begin with.  I believe that we are safe in assuming that this applies to all of the LK models, all of the WK models (including those with SteUp Lessons} and all of their 61 key CTK equivalents.  Period ! ! !

 

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