Problem MIDI-ing KORG X50 sounds to YAMAHA S08.

[lostindestars]

hi guys!
i just bought a second hand Yamaha S08..
i've problem midi-ing my X50 sounds over to the S08.

when i went up to the person's place,
he midi sounds from his M3 over to the S08, and it works fine..
but i bring home, i tried midi-ing x50 sounds to de S08,
it doesnt work at all..

i read both manuals..
troubleshoot everything.
my cable is working fine, both keyboards are working fine too.

when i try midi-ing S08 sounds into the x50, it works,
but not the other way round.

i set the 'receive channels' on the S08 to "Omni",
which means to receive all channels, from what the manual says,
still doesnt work..

anyone care to help me out?
could there be something i missed out?
i tried every midi option on my x50's global settings also too..
doesnt seem to work...

need helppppp....

 

[Cheez]

You cannot "midi" the sounds over, since midi does not contain any audio signals. Midi signals contains info like the note you play, how long you play it, how hard you play it, use of pedal, use of other controllers etc.

When you connect 2 devices by midi, the master device sends midi signals over to the slave device. The slave device will play according to the midi signal it receives from the master device - using it's own sounds.

To get sounds out from both devices, you need to connect audio out from both devices to speakers. So...

Master midi out -> Slave midi in (both audio connected)

In this scenario, when you play from the master, sounds will come out from your speakers from BOTH devices, unless you turn "local" on your master off. Playing on your slave will give sounds out from your slave but not the master.

There is NO WAY your friend can "midi" his M3 sounds to the S08. Unless you are both mistaken in that he uses GM from his M3 and the GM in S08 gets triggered. It's still S08 sound.

Unless you meant something else that I'm missing here...

 

[Cheez]

Perhaps, you meant using x50 as your master and S08 as the slave and no sound comes out from the S08.

If this is the case, troubleshoot the following:
1. Your midi cables are connected correctly - ie x50 midi out -> S08 midi in
2. Audio cables in S08 is connected to speakers
3. X50 midi output is on and set to the same channel as S08.

 

[lostindestars]

hi!
correct me, cos im not very good at terms.
what i actually meant was using my SO8 as a master keyboard,
and bringing x50 sounds into the SO8, thus there's a layering of 2 voices..

so what i did was..
plugging MIDI in to my x50,
and MIDI out to my SO8.

by right, there shld be sound, but then there isn't..
i tried the same way with my electone EL700.
and it worked too, when i played my SO8,
there were electone sounds on my SO8 as well.

but it doesnt seem to work the same way with my x50..

 

[Cheez]

You CANNOT bring the sound from a sound source to another sound source via midi because midi doesn't contain any audio signals.

The only way to layer is to have audio out from the S08 connected to a mixer + audio out from your X50 connected to the same mixer, then audio out from the mixer to speakers/headphones. There is no other way.

You cannot make the electone sound coming out from the S08. Unless it is magic! What happens is that the sound is coming out from your S08 AND your electone. If the audio signals are connected to a mixer (or if you connect your S08 audio out to the electone audio in, if it exist), the sounds will "appear" to be mixed together.

Midi signals contain NO audio signals. Think of midi signals as a series of "0" and "1" like PC signals. It tells another electronic instrument what to do. That's it.

 

[lostindestars]

okay okay bro,
chilll! im still learningggg..
cos im really really new to all these.. haha.

so to round it off,
what you're suggesting me to do,
is to have output for both into stereo speakers or something like that,
isit ?

 

[Cheez]

No harm done. I type in caps not to shout at you, but to emphasize the point that's being repeated.

OK. So...here it is again, step by step. The only way you can do it is to:

S08 midi out -> X50 midi in (or the other way around, depends on which is going to control which)
S08 audio out -> mixer in (preferably L and R to 2 separate channels; ie L to mixer channel 1, R to mixer channel 2))
X50 audio out -> mixer in (preferably L and R to 2 separate channels; ie L to mixer channel 3, R to mixer channel 4)
Mixer stereo out -> speakers input (L audio out to L speakers, R audio out to R speakers)

You're not going to find many speakers that can take in 2 audio sources. Therefore you'll need a mixer. Don't need a fancy one. You can get a small one that takes in 4-6 channels.

 

[lostindestars]

Thanks Cheez!
that solved the problem!
i always only had one keyboard output,
thats why it couldnt be done,

problem solved after i output both into 2 speakers. =)
thanks!

 

[Cheez]

Are you using 2 pairs of stereo speakers (ie 4 speakers)? You may get into problems with phasing. Suggestion is to use 1 pair of stereo speakers but get your audio out from both keyboards through a mixer.

If you use one speaker for each keyboard, that's also not ideal. For keyboards use at home, stereo is quite important. Many of the patches rely on stereo to give you the best effects. You'll miss a lot of the details of how the sound is programmed if you go only mono.