please help with midi problem on yamaha p60 stage piano

[lazyE]

hi, i am new to this forum and firstly would like to say hi and i`m glad i found it as i have a problem i can`t solve.

i have a yamaha p60 piano which has both midi in and out i am trying to play it from an external device(sequencr) and it works fine.

the problem i am having is that it only plays the basic piano sound through midi. the piano also has strings, harpsicord, elec piano and vibe etc but when i change the voice to the required sound it still only plays the basic piano sound through midi but if i press the piano`s key the selected sound eg strings is heared yet it still only plays its midi info on origional tone!

i have lots of experience wit synhs and midi gear so have my midi chanels set correctly and have tried all the midi local settings etc that the p60 has.

any help on this matter would be very much appreciated

kind regards ,
iain

[lazyE]

i am dissapointed that no one is able to hel me on this issue, not a very lively forum.
oh well.
E

[Barrie Heaton]

Time of year

Barrie,

[athomik]

the problem i am having is that it only plays the basic piano sound through midi. the piano also has strings, harpsicord, elec piano and vibe etc but when i change the voice to the required sound it still only plays the basic piano sound through midi but if i press the piano`s key the selected sound eg strings is heared yet it still only plays its midi info on origional tone!
iain

Your problemis down to the fact that the P60 will transmit what you play, i.e. it will send Note and Control information on whichever MIDI channel you're on. What it (or any other MIDI device for that matter) doesn't do is transmit sound, such as your string sound.

If, for example, you are transmitting on Channel 1, the receiving device will play what you're playing in whatever voice that device has set to play from Channel 1.

Now, as you say you're playing into a sequencer, I assume you're recording your performance and then playing it back into the P60. If you are using a sequencer, start the recording first, then select the voice you want, before starting to play. That way, you will send out a Program Change Message, which will be recorded at the beginning of the track. When you play back that track, the P60 will receive the Program Change message and select the correct voice. (providing you haven't switched Progam Change OFF. The default is ON).

If you are playing back into a different device, you need to find out which Program Change number corresponds to the voice you want on that device and insert it into the track - probably in some kind of EDIT mode.

[JamesB-MIDI-Boy]

I've been having the same problem and used to be a MIDI systems expert. It seems that you can't simply assign a voice (instrument sound) on the P60 to a specific MIDI channel so that every time you transmit and receive on (say) channel 10, that means always play the strings.

I've had to do as the previous poster suggests and send a "program change" signal as the first part of the sequencer recording by selecting the string sounds on the P60 just before I start to play them.

That's fine if you only want to hear one instrument sound at a time but what if you want piano on channel 1 and strings on another channel? There's supposed to be a "Multi-Timbral" setting on the P60 which should allow assigning numerous different sounds to different MIDI channels simultaneously.

The instructions on how to do this in the manual are not great and I haven't made it work yet.

It's very frustrating and it looks like there is some sort of design fault with the piano itself or the manual doesn't fully cover what the piano can do.

If anyone comes up with a solution or has the same problem please let's share our frustrations and any work arounds we might come up with.