A little deeper (and simpler) look a the MIDI section.

Ketron instruments have some of the most sophisticated MIDI implementation of any MIDI device by any company. It is probably for this reason I get so many different emails asking questions regarding things that pertain to MIDI. It seems complex and technical and a lot of pretty good players don't understand it at all.

First off, let me say what MIDI means. It is an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface". Boy, that's enough to scare you off right there. What does that mean anyway? Basically it means that musical instruments can respond (or "talk") to each other using digital messages from one to the other. Now doesn't that sound better.

First off we need to explore the entire MIDI section and we will probably do that in a series of articles, but first I want to address the part that seems to cause the most confusion. That would be the MIDI Receive section.

To get to that section from the basic split screen, press F6. Looks pretty daunting doesn't it? Now if you press F2 you will be in the section that I want you to look at. Here is where a lot of users have problems getting their Ketron instruments to respond to other devices. Often keyboard players will use an 88 note controller keyboard to drive their Ketron instrument. Guitar players and others whose hands are busy will drive the units with a set of footpedals. Accordion players wish to use their MIDI accordions to control the units. OK, this is the area to get to for creating a usable and complete system.

First look at the bottom right corner of your screen. (This information will not be correct looking at the older MS series instruments. The MIDI implementation is there, but you must access it a different way.) Pressing F10 will run you through the choices. General1, General2, Accordian1, Accordian2, User1, and User2. As you flip through these choices you'll notice the numbers changing in the 3 columns. First let's do a kind of general description of what the six settings are for. The way the six selections are set up is generally this:
General1 for receiving from a computer
General2 for receiving from a set of bass pedals (like guitarists use)
Accordian1 for most MIDI accordion setups in the US
Accordion2 seems more useful for some of the European settings
User1 starts out being just like General1
User2 also starts out being just like General1

Now the fact is you can change any of these setups and save your changes. Not only that, but you can decide which one of these comes up when you turn on you unit. Why bother?
Well there are times you need different MIDI setups. Live performance generally requires a different setup than recording and both are different than hooking to a computer or sequencer. If you know which one does what, you can do a quick change without getting into the details which are more time consuming.

OK, you say, but I only use this unit for live performance and I don't hook it to anything except the sound system and that's all I want to do. Cool!
Just look at the time you can save by skipping all this.

Generally speaking you will leave the right two columns alone. The only reason for changing those settings that I can think of, would be if you are sending to two are more units at the same time like from a controller keyboard or computer. In the left column the top 3 numbers are generally the ones that get changed.
*Note: Something to be aware of is that Ketron keyboards usually come shipped with General1 as the default and the Ketron modules come with Accordian1 as the default. If you buy a module from me and you specify how it is to be used it will usually come defaulted the way you want it. If there is a slipup, it is not difficult to change.

OK all this is preliminary to the fact that there are basically 16 MIDI channels and instruments must send or receive on one of them. Think of them as 16 telephone lines and you can use one of them or all of them at once or in any combination. The deal is that if you want one instrument to connect to another you have got to call the right number. For example if you are sending on channel 2 and receiving on channel 1, guess what happens. Either nothing or a mess. You have called the wrong telephone number.

OK that being said, you need to know what channel you are sending so you can set the keyboard to receive that channel. Usually controller keyboards will send on channel 1. The Chromatic foot pedals usually default to channel 2. Accordions send the right hand information on channel 1, the left chord buttons on channel 2 and the left hand chord buttons on channel 3. Also because the way the Ketron is set up, if you try to send velocity information from a keyboard into an accordion setup it won't work. That is why the Accordion1 and Accordion2 look so much different than the other setups.

If you are having trouble with your Ketron instrument responding correctly to outside triggering, this area of MIDI Receive is the first place to check.

MIDI Transmit: If you are recording MIDI to a stand alone sequencer or computer sequencer like Cakewalk or Power Tracks then you need to concern yourself with the MIDI Transmit section. If you press F4 on the screen we have been looking at, you will go to the Transmit screen. We will discuss some of the uses of the MIDI Transmit section in another KNAT.

One of the most fun things you can do with the Ketron instruments is couple them with a computer to drive the MIDI. That a really powerful setup. There are tons of things you can do with programs like Cakewalk or my favorites Band-in-a-Box coupled with Power Tracks Pro. This coupling will give ways to record new styles and create songs which you can tweak on your computer and a whole lot more.

MIDI TX

In the MIDI TX (transmit) section you can set what part of your Ketron instrument is sent to other MIDI instruments. In a lot of cases, the information being sent is going to a computer or sequencer or something of that nature. If you connect a Ketron instrument later than the MS series to a sound module, like a Yamaha MU100 or a Roland SC88 or even the later and best versions, the sound will not be correct for most rhythms. The right hand and most of the styles will translate OK, but channel 9, which is called Groove or Drum2 is calling up samples and that channel sounds really weird on other instruments. So if you are sending your styles to other modules, defeat Drum2 or Groove and have the Ketron instrument not send anything. To defeat that press F6 MIDI and then F1 MIDI TX and then using the cursor keys highlight the section you don't want to send and use the value keys to set the value to "--". The instrument will not then send that information out the MIDI port.

If you use the Ketron like I do hooked directly into your computer, you can choose what to send. I actually use the General setting for almost everything. That way you can keep your MIDI recordings consistent. When you play back, and send the information from your computer back to the instrument, the channels will call up the same information that was sent.

If you notice, the MIDI TX and the MIDI RX pages look a lot alike. You have 3 sections. If you are sending to a computer and you are playing the right hand along with your rhythm, You need to enable the section "Right" in the first section. Usually the best and most common setting is "1".