DAW Transport Controls (Play, Record, Stop) on the CT-S400?

[pjdemartino]

Good evening guys. I am a music producer/beatmaker, born as a guitarist, who learned piano self-taught over the years. I enjoyed playing pianos and e-pianos on my long time Casio - CDP 100, while I used a cheap but effective MIDI controller for general DAW control, pads, drums, etc. Unfortunately, since I left my country and all my stuff in my parents' house, I won't be able to have these two pieces of equipment with me. I was looking for a convenient solution that could give me both a digital piano with good sounds and a midi controller (also because my flat is tiny). After browsing the web and shops in my city, I found the new CT-S400 to be the sweet spot between my budget/quality of sounds/keybed feel and playability. I was happy to see that it could also work efficiently as a MIDI controller. One thing I wasn't able to verify though, was its MIDI/SySex implementation for DAW control and clock, mostly transport controls (play, stop and record from within the DAW). They were quite essential for my workflow, and the lack of it could actually be a dealbreaker. Does any possessor or Casio expert know more about this? During my research I found out that the CT-S500 has something like that only for play/stop commands, but I am not sure if it could be worth, at least for me, to spend +100 € more, to have just part of these function. Thank you for reading this message and I wish you a great night.

 

Pietro

Edited August 8, 2022 by pjdemartino

[pjdemartino]

bump. anybody? 

[Brad Saucier]

According to my MIDI monitor application, the CT-S1000V play/stop and record buttons do not transmit anything, even in MIDI controller mode.  I would guess the S400 and S500 would not as well. 

[pjdemartino]

 Good evening Brad, many thanks for your answer. I found this on the online manual for the CT-S500: 

 

1. Press MENU.
This displays the menu screen.
2. Use < and > to select the 5 buttons menu that includes MIDI CTRL.
3. Press MIDI CTRL.
This displays the MIDI controller screen.
4. Press play/stop.

This displays “PLAYING” and sends a system real-time message start.
5. Press play/stop again.
This causes “PLAYING” to disappear from the display and sends a system real-time message 
stop.

 

Since I am not an expert I was thinking that this was maybe sending play and stop messages to DAWs but I might have misunderstood the meaning of "system real time message". might not be a midi signal? 

[Brad Saucier]

Yes, according to the manual, it should be sending something.  I'm not entirely sure my MIDI monitor (MIDI OX) is showing everything.  I'll try something different and report back. 

[pjdemartino]

Thanks a lot for your support.. since it's quite difficult here to go and try this in a music shop, I really appreciate it. (Hoping that maybe the record button also will send something). 

[Brad Saucier]

I was able to set my DAW software (Cakewalk) clock to MIDI sync, enable MIDI sync (master) mode on the Casio, press the play/stop button on the keyboard, and the DAW recording started.  This does tell me it starts sending MIDI clock as soon as you press play, as expected. 

 

For what it is worth, most DAW software uses your QWERTY keyboards spacebar as start/stop, and other keys as shortcuts for other functions as well (like record standby).  That is what I use.