MIDI out to MIDI keyboard with selected sounds
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.
In reply to MIDI output is set in Edit /… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your prompt reply. The instruments.xml file has program numbers but nothing relating to banks. The Roland has around 2,000 patches and I often use some weird ones. If I can't target specific banks/program combinations then it looks like MuseScore is not for me.
In reply to Thanks for your prompt reply… by Terry Beyer
Well, we might not use banks by default, but that doesn't mean it is not capable of it. In fact I'm pretty sure it is, but I'm not an expert in this area.
It should be mentioned another possibility is to use MuseScore to drive a DAW via JACK, which opens up many more possibilities.
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 I looked at the Roland… by ramblinj
It looks like MuseScore won't do the job for me. I really need to go way beyond General MIDI. Thanks though.
In reply to It looks like MuseScore won… 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 It looks like MuseScore won… 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 Why are you shifting the… 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 In Sibelius I can define a… 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...