Midi File

[Beth]

How do I record a song to internal memory on my keyboard Wk245 and save it to my PC as a midi file?

[- T -]

Beth

 

If you are interested solely in transferring your recorded songs from the WK-245 to your computer for storage, to free up song memory on the WK-245, then you need to connect the keyboard to the computer per the instructions on Page EN-59 of the WK-245 manual, and then download/install and use the appropriate Casio Data Manager software for your keyboard and computer operating system, per the instructions on Page EN-62 of the manual, to transfer your song files to/from the computer.  The WK-245 saves its song files in a Casio ".CM2" file format, and that is what will be transferred to the computer.  It is a MIDI file, but it is a Casio proprietary MIDI file, playable only on Casio ".CM2" compatible keyboards.  This is a rather old file format, but Casio has maintained it through the years, as it supports some of  "Step-up Lesson" features of their "Step-up Lesson" compatible keyboards.

 

However, if you are actually interested in transferring WK-245 recorded song data to your computer as Standard MIDI Files (SMF), with a ".MID" file extension, as your original post seems to suggest, NONE of the WK-200 series keyboards, nor their 61 key CTK model equivalents, have any provision for doing this, even though many of the non-CM2 file models can convert and save song files to an SMF format on an SD memory card.  In your case, you have two options, using the WK-245.  The first is to connect the WK-245 to the computer, as mentioned above, and record your performance "live" directly into the computer (instead of with the WK-245), with DAW software (eg. Anvil Studio).  You can then use the DAW software to convert that data into an SMF format, but there will be tradeoffs.  The tones, sounds, voices, instruments (whatever you prefer to call them) will be from the Casio tone set, which will not necessarily match the General MIDI (GM) tone set of GM based tone modules and keyboards, so a considerable amount of "revoicing" with the DAW software may be necessary to get the files to sound correctly on GM devices.  It is also a good bet that most, or all, of the WK-245's effects (reverb, chorus, etc) will be lost in the process, so these will need to be reinjected with the DAW software.  At best, the end result will most likely sound considerably different from your original recording - sometimes better, sometimes not as good - depending mainly upon your skills at 'mastering" with the DAW software.  Even the "direct conversion" models suffer these same drawbacks.  Whenever economy based GM tones, from the late 1980's to early 1990's, are substituted for full bodied state of the art "native" tones, there is going to be a noticeable difference in sound quality.

 

With current technology, the preferred option would be to avoid MIDI recording altogether, and connect the WK-245's audio output to your computer's mic or line-in jack with appropriate audio cables and adapters, and record audio, instead of MIDI, with the DAW software (eg. Audacity).  The output would be a standard WAV file that could be converted to AIFF (CD) or MP3 format, and would be about as close as you can get to your original live performance.  If you find working between the keyboard and computer cumbersome during live play, you can record your performance with the WK-245's song recorder, then make the audio recording as you play it back.  The result should be the same in either case.  For a more "professional" connection, and possibly better sound quality, you can connect the WK-245's audio output to a USB-Audio Interface's input, which in-turn connects to one of your computer's USB ports, instead of to its mic/line-in jack.  This interface usually comes with its own software, which is the primary reason for any noticeable improvement in sound quality.

 

At this point, I have assumed that you do not currently have DAW software, so have mentioned two above, that I normally recommend for beginners.  Both are available as free downloads, and both have relatively short learning curves.  Both can handle MIDI as well as audio, but Anvil Studio has a user interface that leans toward MIDI, while Adacity has a user interface that leans toward audio.  They can be downloaded from:

 

http://anvilstudio.com/

 

https://www.audacityteam.org/

 

Good luck!

 

- T -

 

 

[Chandler Holloway]

Thanks for your very detailed answer.

 

I would really like to see Casio release a fully-featured MIDI converter for all of their proprietary file formats (.CM2, .MRF, .CSR), as it seems to be commonly requested around here. Perhaps they could also update the .CKF Rhythm converter to work with the new .AC7 format while they're at it, and do one big "Casio Data Editor" software suite release. Clearly the fact that some of these keyboards have an "export to .SMF" option when saving proprietary onboard recordings to external flash memory (such as the CT-X800) means that they know exactly how the conversion process works, but they seem reluctant to share the details.

[- T -]

Chandler

 

Thanks for your comments.  For a bit of history on the .CKF file format and its association with .AC7 Rhythm files, please see my reply in this thread:

 

https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/13308-yamaha-sty-files-to-midi-files/&do=findComment&comment=38533

 

My reply is the 5th post down from the top of that thread, and should explain why there really is not much need for a .CKF to .AC7 file converter.  The .AC7 keyboards are their own converters - at least as far as the CTK/WK-6XXX/7XXX models are concerned.  If the new CT-X models do not also have this capability, that is really unfortunate.

 

To my knowledge, there really is no .SMF file extension.  Rather, SMF is just the name of a file type, and stands for Standard MIDI File that has a filename extension of .MID.

[Chandler Holloway]

Yeah, I’m aware of the intricacies of the .CKF format. I wrote a big huge guide about it myself a few months ago, which you can find here (although it appears you already know the ins and outs yourself).

 

What I meant is that Casio should release a new version of the Rhythm converter that can go from MIDI files to .AC7 Rhythms like the old IDES converter goes from MIDI to .CKF. Of course the newer .AC7 compatible boards (including the CT-X line) will automatically convert CKF files to .AC7 Rhythms when you import them, but the CKF Rhythms are more limited. They can only contain note data for 5 separate Rhythm tracks (drums, bass, chords 1/2/3) as opposed to the .AC7 format which expands that to 8 tracks (adding Perc and extra chord tracks). They also can’t have 4 separate fills and variations (although only the CT-X and MZ-X boards can handle 4 variation Rhythms anyway).

 

So instead of having to use the outdated software and limited CKF format to make custom Rhythms on their computer, the new software would allow them to convert a MIDI sequence directly to the .AC7 format with all the extra channels and variations that go along with it. There’s also the issue that the old IDES converter only works on Windows machines, so Mac users have to dual boot a Windows OS just to use it. Ideally the newer release would add OSX support as well.

 

As for .SMF, that was just a typo on my part. The file extension would of course be .MID. My bad. The CT-X800’s media menu allows you to save your multitrack recordings in one of two formats, .MRF (Casio’s proprietary recording format for the CT-X line) or .MID (SMF format 0). The CT-X700 is exactly the same as the X800 aside from the pitch bend wheel and USB flash drive slot, so for the X700 you have to import and export data using the Data Manager for CT-X software. However, this software doesn’t allow you to export .MRF recordings as .MID files, nor does it allow you to convert .MRF files to .MID files after exporting them.

 

So ideally this new “Data Editor” suite would also allow you to convert .MRF to .MID, along with .MID to .AC7 to address these complications.

[Jokeyman123]

I also like the idea of an updated midi file converter. I've used the old one quite a bit and can see a use for one that expands the older converter software's capabilities. Always puzzled me why Casio decided to have their own format alongside the smf format-although internally the proprietary format allows for certain editing features the smf file format does not depending upon keyboard. along Chandler's lines, a Casio editor capable of reading the proprietary Casio formats for editing within the computer, such as the CMS formats. I guess Casio either does not think software is worth developing, or are afraid of someone reverse engineering their code to develop their own software which doesn't seem  a big issue IMO. 

 

Another plus-a broad-based software editor for tones and hex layers, cross-compatible with the various Casios that can use these functions. Would be pretty nice to be able to take a PX5s tone and translate it for use in other Casios that use the same or similar sound architecture.  How different are the hex layers for example going from my PX560 to the newer MZ-X, or tones from the PX5S to the 560 or MZ-X or even the older XW-P/G1's which are going to be around for quite awhile judging by the resurgence of the old Kosmo  Kramer synths (joke). 

[Beth]

You guys are awesome!!!!! I have spent hour upon hour trying to figure out how to take already composed songs to written format. I followed your guidelines and used Anvil along with Muse and now I can print out my music for free.  I am so thrilled and thankful to you for taking the time to answer me!!!!!! My music thanks you.