How do I open Casio .SP7 sound files on my Windows 7 PC?

[Majek Skateboards]

I don’t want to keep my songs on the workstation keyboard forever, but how do I save songs to an external device like flash drive, camera card, or cloud?

 

Thanks!!

[- T -]

 

The WK-245 has no SD Memory Card or USB Flash Drive slots for the external storage of data.  You will have to transfer any such data via USB cable to the hard drive on a computer using Casio's Data Manager 5.0 software.  It is compatible with all versions of Windows 7 and newer (32 & 64 bit), but it is not compatible with any version of MAC-OS.  Data Manager 6.1 is compatible with all versions of MAC-OS, but it is not compatible, and will not communicate with the WK-245.  You can download a copy of the Data Manager 5.0 software and a PDF copy of its User's Guide from here:

 

https://support.casio.com/en/support/download.php?cid=008&pid=71

 

Scroll all the way down and click on the "I agree" button.  Then scroll down a few more lines and click on the link for downloading the User's Guide.

 

- T -

[Majek Skateboards]

Thanks so much.

 

With Data Manager, I just downloaded it to pc laptop with Windows 7.

 

I can get into iPhone GarageBand too with WK-245 so that’s cool but way more work.

 

The  PC is for quick ideas where I do work on 245 and dump to pc laptop with data manager 

 

The GarageBand thing is for more detailed recordings and Logic or ProTools would be for ultimate polish which can tend to suck the life out of a song and sound like a computer.

 

Casio did so much work to make things sound real With CTK and later CTX that I found it would be awful then homogenizing it into robot elevator music like ProTools and Logic unfortunately does most times through quantizing and auto tune.

 

GarageBand keeps some of the artistry alive without over processing it.

[Majek Skateboards]

If I can record ideas straight to GarageBand with the Apple Lighting cable I just got, and do it quickly, then I may not even use data manager.

[Majek Skateboards]

But the files saved are sp7 format that I port to PC in this program.

 

But how do you open them up?

 

 

[Majek Skateboards]

I record songs on my Casio 245 workstation then put them onto my PC laptop.

 

Data Manager makes them into .SP7 files.

[- T -]

 

See the list of files in the left hand column on Page EN-62 of the WK-245 manual.  The only device you currently have that can use any of those files (with one exception) is your WK-245.  With the exception of the Standard MIDI File (SMF) with the .MID extension, all of those files are Casio proprietary.  They are not Windows or MAC-OS files and can not be opened by programs of those operating systems.  When you transfer those files to a PC with the Data Manager software, it is strictly for off-keyboard storage.  If you want to use (play) them, they will need to be loaded back into the keyboard with the Data Manager software.

 

A word of caution about SMF's.  If you create a Casio CM2 Song File with the WK-245's Song Recorder, then ultimately convert it to an SMF, so that it can be played on a PC, the first thing that conversion process does is discard all of the high quality Casio sounds and substitutes equivalent sounds from the General MIDI (GM) sound set.  It will also discard most or all of any effects the CM2 Song Recorder applied to your performance.  So a converted SMF is never going to sound like your CM2 Song.  Artistically very costly, but at least it will play in anything with an SMF player and a GM sound set.  A true one size fits all arrangement

 

If you really want to record your WK-245 for playback off the keyboard, I recommend connecting its headphones jack, with any necessary audio adapters, to the input of some audio recording device (recorder, PC, MAC, iOS  or Android device).  Since you will be connecting a fairly high level output to a relatively low level input, I recommend a 20db attenuator cable somewhere in the link. If your device records to AIFF format, that is full uncompressed CD quality.  If it records to MP3, that is compressed to save storage space, so you will take a bit of a hit on the sound quality.  You can play live into your audio recording gear, but I always found it less distracting to my performance to record into my WK-225's Song Recorder, and when I got a take that I wanted, play that take back into my audio gear when I am free to be the audio/recording engineer.

 

 If you play back through a decent set of headphones or a good quality sound system, that is about as close as you are going to get to the original sound of your WK-245.

 

Then, there is always the USB-MIDI connection into a computer based DAW program, but you have already expressed your current disdain for that in another thread, so I will not pursue that matter further here at this time.

 

- T -

 

[- T -]

See my response to your other thread on this matter.

 

https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/17497-how-do-i-open-casio-sp7-sound-files-on-my-windows-7-pc/&do=findComment&comment=55324

[Chandler Holloway]

If you want to go the SMF import route, the main issue with that (as T mentioned) is that the General MIDI interpretation of your recording is unlikely to stack up to the quality of the onboard sounds on the WK-245. If you import your MIDI file into GarageBand, it will automatically convert the MIDI data into the Apple loops format and use GarageBand’s software instruments to play it back. You can tweak the software instruments to your liking if the default instrumentation isn’t the best, but the variety of software instruments and post-processing effects is where GarageBand falls flat in comparison to the more professional DAWs that you prefer to avoid.

 

I would try importing MIDI to GarageBand for yourself and see if the tweaking and editing process produces results you’re happy with. If you find yourself struggling to make do with the GarageBand instruments, then I could make some suggestions for affordable audio interfaces you could look into to get started with recording the output of your WK-245 directly. Do you only plan to record keyboards for the foreseeable future, or would you eventually add in other stuff like guitars or vocals?

[Majek Skateboards]

Thanks so much!

 

Ugg, so DAW here I come! Lol

 

its fun to put stuff into GarageBand for demos. The onboard DAW is also good demos to put down so I don’t forget. I know neither the onboard DAW or GarageBand could put out stuff worth sharing publicly.

 

Then what DAW would you suggest with WK-245?

 

For me, and not always using my wife’s Casio WK-245, I might get a Yamaha PSR that comes with free Audacity DAW light version. Perhaps it’s no better than GarageBand. But I may stick with getting a CTX-3000 and get the DAW you recommend.

[Brad Saucier]

Audacity is free for everyone to download, but it's not really designed for MIDI. It is an audio focused DAW. https://www.audacityteam.org/

 

 

[Majek Skateboards]

Internal Casio DAW in the 245 is great but a “sketchbook“ and GarageBand is fun but limited, too like several have told me here and on Facebook.

 

Whats a good DAW for iPhone and iPad or should I go full Mac/PC here?

 

....again thanks and you’re the best

[Majek Skateboards]

Is midi better or is audio better,

1 hour ago, Brad Saucier said:

Audacity is free for everyone to download, but it's not really designed for MIDI. It is an audio focused DAW. https://www.audacityteam.org/

 

 

or it doesn’t matter?

[- T -]

Anvil Studio is the current MIDI-based freeware DAW of choice.  It does include a full set of audio features to make it a full-featured DAW, but the MIDI based features are not buried under a ton of audio based menus, like those of the audio based DAW's.  It has become a favorite of newcomers because it has a much gentler learning curve than most of the more "professional" DAW's.

 

Then there is the former Cakewalk "Sonar", which is now offered as a free download from BandLab as "Cakewalk", but be forewarned, it is a full featured "professional" grade MIDI-based DAW with the steep learning curve that it has had for years.  If I were in the market, this would be my choice, simply because I have been a Cakewalk user since their first offering on a 3 1/2 diskette under the name "Cakewalk by Twelve Tones Systems", but I am not currently in the market, because I am still using my Sonar-X1, and will probably continue to do so for some years to come.

 

- T - 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chandler Holloway]

There’s no need to create a new thread every time the subject matter of your posts slightly changes. You’ve started the last four topics in this section and all of them are closely related enough to have been one thread.

 

You should really consider getting an audio interface and sticking with GarageBand. An audio interface is a great long term investment if you plan to keep recording music on hardware instruments. Even if you eventually move on from the WK-245 to something else, having an interface will let you directly record the output of whatever instrument you’re using without even having to worry about MIDI files or tweaking the instrumentation. You can just take the raw audio and add effects to it if you want to clean things up a bit before sharing,  which GarageBand is plenty well equipped to handle.

 

There are very few DAWs out there on iOS that are worth investing the money or time into learning. Cubasis is the only one I can personally recommend, and the full version of it is $50. For that much money I could recommend some interfaces that would handle your needs well enough, but what I recommend depends on what types of instruments you plan to record. Is it just keyboards, or also guitars and mics?

[Brad Saucier]

Well, I merged the two topics to keep everything in one thread, but somehow lost the original post in the other thread in the process.  I'm not sure why.  Sorry about that.

[Majek Skateboards]

You guys are great!!

 

I am new here and didn’t know the rules about posts. Sorry there, moderators.

 

Anyway my producer friend told me about cubase, too. They also makes great audio interfaces. His company does ads and he could help me get started. He said try iPad and I may go that route.