MIDI out to MIDI keyboard with selected sounds

• Apr 4, 2019 - 19:15

Hi,
I have been unable to find answers to the following two questions in the documentation.

1) Can MuseScore be set up to output via MIDI to a Roland RD-700sx Stage Piano?

2) Can the instruments in the score be assigned to specific sounds on the Roland using program, high and low bank settings?

If this is documented somewhere, please show me where.

Background: I am the musical director for an amateur marimba band. We have been using Sibelius 6 to produce arrangements for 8 marimbas and various percussion. We play them back through the Roland during practice and also record them for individual practice. It is important that we can control the sounds produced on the Roland.

Thanks,
Terry Beyer


Comments

MIDI output is set in Edit / Preferences / I/O.

If the Roland uses standard General MIDI assignments, everything should just work out of the box. if not, you'll probably need to do some tinkering with the instruments.xml file to customize things.

I looked at the Roland documents. The piano has a USB cable and a full GM2 bank. So no problem there, though you might have to hunt around a little for individual percussion patches. How much control you have may rest with the Roland, in terms of its ability to listen on individual channels or only on all at once. (omni mode) As you write in Musescore, you simply monitor the Roland sound and make adjustments on the keyboard controls. I don't think, though this is just a guess, that Musescore will control channel volumes and panning. But even if so, just ignore it and control from the Roland. The role of Musescore will be to set up the score, parts and channels, write the midi sequences and transport them.

In reply to by Terry Beyer

You have to set the final selection of sounds (which one will be play by the Roland keyboard) INSIDE the external Roland machine (to put some channel ON, and others OFF), because MuseScore will shot all the MIDI channels (instruments) to the MIDI port you are using with it.

BUT... Even the fact I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTION (because I don't have experimented this, never): In the MuseScore Mixer, each channel has a box called: "MIDI Port". In that box is a number. Each computer is a totally different machine. In my PC, the USB external MIDI port is number 3. MAYBE... JUST MAYBE... You can control with that box which instrument will sound into the Roland keyboard only... MAYBE!!!

In reply to by Terry Beyer

Why are you shifting the burden for sounds on to Musescore? I thought that is exactly what you didn't want.
You can assign eight different marimba instruments to 8 channels of midi from any number of banks in your Roland sound module. I might be limited currently to one sound 8 times, but you are not, and that's not the way you said you were planning to use it .

In reply to by ramblinj

In Sibelius I can define a Steel Drum to be program: 20, High bank: 87 and Low bank 66. Then whenever I create a score and include Steel Drum as an instrument it will send the messages from that instrument to that patch. There is no way to set this up from the keyboard.

So thanks everyone above. I'm giving up on this.

In reply to by Terry Beyer

Good luck! The Yamaha modx actually wants its bank select switch turned off. Yet it can be done with Msc. using an indirect workaround involving editing a midi file. Turn the bank select and program change select in the Roland window ON. Set up all bank 0 acoustic piano 000 parts in the score and enter no notes until the 2nd bar. Export to midi. Edit: In the 1st bar enter controller changes 0,32 with values corresponding to the banks you want in the Roland. Save the midi file. Open the midi file in Msc. and continue writing. The irony is that those 8 local marimba players are just like banks...

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.