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Hi All,

A couple of months ago I bought a Kawai CA 13 digital piano. (Many thanks to all the help from folks on this forum for your input!) I'm so happy with the purchase!

A feature that I've come to really enjoy, which wasn't even on the radar in my purchasing decision, is playing the pre-set music pieces as background music. The Kawai has about 2+ hours of built-in classical music through the demo mode. I would love to expand the set list of such songs and am wondering if there is a way I can play MIDI songs from my laptop through the piano (using the piano's native sounds, which are really spectacular). I assume this is possible. Can anyone point me in the right direction on this?

I've searched (and searched) the web and I can only find very technical pages on MIDI or ones that focus on the reverse, sending piano output to the computer for recording.

I've purchased a MIDI to USB cable (the one with two MIDI jacks - in and out - on one end and USB on the other). I've found some great databases of MIDI files and downloaded them to my laptop. Now I'm just not sure how to get them to play from my laptop to the piano?

Any advice?

Thanks so much!

Brad

Brad, with your USB to MIDI cable connected, just open the MIDI files in your player software. If they play through the computer's speakers, you will need to select the MIDI output device to use the USB to MIDI cable, which should then play the pieces through the CA13's speakers.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
James
x

With Windows Media Player - my default application associated with MIDI files - I havn't seen MIDI options. But Anvil Studio is free and makes it possible to change the MIDI output.

James and Federic, thanks for your assistance here. I'll give this a try and report back!

Much appreciated.

Brad

Ah, if you're using Windows Vista/7/8, you may need to use a separate tool to set the MIDI output device, for example:

http://sierrahelp.com/Utilities/SoundUtilities/PutzlowitschsVistaMIDI_Mapper.html
http://www.benryves.com/products/vistamidi

Cheers,
James
x

PreSonus Studio One Free is a very nice option to record Midi/Audio from your DP. It has a very nice and easy interface.
You can use the Midi tracks and Instruments tracks (audio) inside Studio One sending Midi to your DP which will play the desired instruments, then send the audio back to Studio One which you can monitor/record, but all that is after you connect both the Midi and audio from your DP to your computer, then configure the inputs/outputs of the Midi/audio device inside Studio One.

Success!

After the help in the forum here, and some elbow grease, I was able to use Microsoft's Media player on my (Windows 8) laptop and have MIDI files played through the piano. My first "technical" hurdle was to realize that the cable ends labelled "Midi out" and "Midi in" go into the piano's "Midi in" and "Midi out," respectively. Doh!

James, I didn't see your follow-up post until after I had already figured out the solution; that Windows 8 doesn't have a built-in way to select the MIDI output device. But I was able to find the same two programs you referenced, downloaded the second one and that did the trick.

In case anyone is interested, there's a large public domain database of MIDI songs here:

http://www.kuhmann.com/Yamaha.htm

Thanks again for the assistance!

Brad

I am also trying to play MIDI files from my old laptop on my DP. In my case the laptop is XP and the DP is a Yamaha P-105. Using Yamaha's Musicsoft I can transfer MIDI files to/from the laptop and the DP's demo song list and user song so the cable connections must be correct. The MIDI files play on the laptop but Media Player does not allow me to select the DP as an output device. I also tried Anvil Studio and selected View > Audio Volume Controls > Playback Controls and opened the drop down menu that says "Select audio output device to configure" but AS does not recognize the DP. Am I doing something wrong?

The P-105 is a MIDI device. Not an audio one.

There's your problem. Select it as your MIDI In/Out and you should be good to go.

Jay

Using Anvil Studio and selecting View > Synthesizers, MIDI and Audio Devices has two MIDI windows: (1) Enabled MIDI In devices includes only USB Audio device and the checkbox is checked; (2) MIDI Out devices includes Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth (I believe this is the laptop) and USB Audio device. After selecting USB Audio device in the MIDI Out window, switching to the mixed view and then back to the Synth... view the MIDI device is set back to Microsoft... It seems this might be the place to select the DP but it will not hold it.


Sounds simple but I cannot find any way to do that with either Media Player or Anvil Studio. What player do you suggest and what are the exact steps to do it?

Synthesia. Install it, and select P105 as Music output (it should turn up there) and then simply play the MIDI file in Synthesia. This will send the MIDI file to the piano, if you have the piano connected to your computer with a MIDI cable, but you might need to adjust the MIDI settings on the Yamaha.

Hey thanks for that link. There's a lot of good stuff there.
Cheers!

The P-105 has a USB connection but and I don't believe it has a MIDI In/Out. I will try Synthesia tomorrow and see where that leads me. Thanks for the advice.

Yes, I'm reading on the Yamaha webpage the P-105 has USB TO HOST, which should work just as well to receive and send MIDI messages.

Unfortunately my "old" laptop is too old to run Synthesia. I tried versions 10.2 and 8.6 but neither would run. Apparently my laptop does not have the required hardware. Not practical to carry any of my three desktops to the DP. Are there any other programs that I might try?

Sorry for making this so difficult.

Have you tried Synthesia 8.5?

http://synthesia.software.informer.com/8.5/

According to this video the 8.5 ought to work on Windows XP. I don't understand Spanish, but in the screen recording he is getting version 8.5.

You could try Notation Composer but it's only a 30 day trial. The same company provides the free Notation Player which does not expire.

After much tribulation I found that Media Player works perfectly after all. Must go into Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio and set MIDI music playback to the DP rather than the audio card. Not sure about the other software mentioned above but but MP allows loading MIDI files into a library that can be saved and allows for continuous or random play.

Are there other MIDI song databases other than the one listed above?

Good you solved the issue, thanks for letting me/us know.

If you're looking for classical MIDI files, there are 8notes.com, classicalarchives.com and probably many more.

If you're after pop, rock, jazz or other contemporary music, the selection of free MIDIs is not that good, since that kind of music is usually still under copyright.

Midiworld.com has quite a lot of songs, and Google can find more.

I use Notation Player for this. It's available free of charge.
You can see the sheet music as it plays.