George,
Thanks for the research! Another question:
I have around a thousand lyric files, in MS Word format, on my laptop. Could these be transferred and used on the Midjay? They could easily be converted to .txt.
Thanks,
Don

First,
I am playing all my styles from the XD3 and SD1 and although some of the parts might play a different sound then the original, AJ has told me that there is something inside the Midjay which finds a similar and appropriate sound. If, however, you would like to choose a different sound, you can edit all the sounds, volumes, pan, effects of each of the style parts just like in the XD or SD keyboards.
Next, what I've done in my store is to pick the style I want, the sounds I want to play and save it as a registration. Then when I want to recall this registration, just hit the registration button and a list appears. I've called all my custom registrations "GK-latin", etc. and now I can hit the button called "ALBHA" type in the letter GK and all my GK styles come up in order. I select the one I want to play and hit enter.

Don, I am going to quote the manual here:
"Text files (.TXT extension) can be associated together with WAVE and MP3 songs and scrolled through in real time together with music.
The user can type out (using a PC) the text of the Song (or copy it from a website and paste into a Word or Note pad document). When naming the file, it should be the same as the name of the song you want to associate the text with (e.g. if the name of the song file is Hello.wav or Hello.mp3, the name of the text file should be 'Hello.txt' -remember to change the "Save as type" (during the save operation) to "Text only" so that the file is saved with a "txt. Extension". Next, copying the text connection, you can actually select "SAVE AS" and while saving, point the save location to the corresponding WAVE or MP3 folder (where the song resides). The Lyrics will be displayed as soon as you start the song. You can either use the cursor buttons to change the pages as you perform or use the optional footswitch peda to do this as you perform.

AUTOMATICALLY SCROLLING THROUGH TEXT FILES
The automatic syncronization of the text with the song is achieved as follows:
Start the song and press the lyrics text button associated with the text.
Press the record button (this will enable recording of the time the pages should be changed as the song plays). You will only have to do this once.
Advance the text pages with cursor at the right moment while the song plays
When the song is over press stop and then press enter(if you made a mistake and would like to do this all over, press exit and start all over)
THE NEXT TIME YOU PLAY THE SONG, MIDIJAY WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISPLAY THE SONG'S LYRICS AND CHANGE THE PAGES FOR YOU AUTOMATICALLY AT THE RIGHT TIME"
Don, I hope you understand all this!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Thanks George! That would be a neat feature, but I'm more interested in something like the X1 had, associating the text files with a Style. If I remember correctly you could manually scroll the lyrics on the X1 with an arrow or footswitch.
It's not a huge thing, but it would be neat to have EVERYTHING in that module and eliminate the need for a laptop completetly.
Don

DonM,

You can associate the Text file with a style as well and manually use the ">" and "<" buttons OR assignable FS6'FS13 to change the pages as you play forwards or backwards in real time...

OR

Just load the text from the HD/FD, select a style and start playing ...

OR

Save both under a Registration so when you call that Registration up (preferably name as a song), both the STYLE and TEXT associated with it are called up ...

OR ...

The automatic scrolling is only associated with a SONG (Midi, Wave or MP3).

Thanks,

AJ

SBPC,

Selecting Voices or Styles are relatively easy and YES you are right ... Midijay was designed with the PLAYER in mind first.

To select a VOICE:
Simply press the VOICE button (top left of screen). This will display the 64 Preset voices. Use the Data wheel to highlight each one (as they are highlighted, they are activated at that time).
OR
Press EXIT and you will now be at the PRESET GROUP page (with Piano, Chrom, Guitars ...). Select the GROUP where you belive the voice you want to use resides in and press ENTER. All the voices within that group will now be displayed. Scroll to the voice you want (as they are highlighted, they are activated at that time).

To select a STYLE.
Press the STYLE Master Folder button (found at the bottom). The display will initially show you the ROM styles. Hight light the style you want and press ENTER to select and load it in. If you want to access all the other RAM/DISK styles, press the EXIT button to go to the styles on disk, select the one you want to use and press ENTER. It is immediately ready for use.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

AJ

Thanks Prince A.J.!
It sounds as if the Midjay is indeed an innovative instrument which merits a trial at least.
DonM

Thanks for the reply A.J.,
While the selection of a style in a live play situation sounds like it can be done quickly enough, sounds like changing voices on the fly may be a bit of a challenge. I understand that the MidJay was designed with the music file player in mind, but was wondering how difficult it would be for the live musician to use. Also I believe I saw in the specs that there is provision for a foot controller. What function(s) can be controlled by a foot pedal? Could you comment a bit more on the optional vocal harmonizer. I gather it can handle up to three part harmony, but I was wondering about how many different voice combinations can be selected? I would assume duo would be one of them? And finally, in your opinion, how close does the MidJay come to sounding like the SD, XD and X series product when playing styles from these machines? How about the drums and bass, for example?
Thanks,
Paul C.

Can't you get all the features of the MidJay on a laptop?

Paul,
Hi there in Santa Barbara. The new Midijay has sounds similar to those in the SD1.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

http://www.ketronus.com/midjay.htm

You can find some demo mp3's lower on this web page.
Personally, I don't think much of them, but different strokes for different folks as they say.

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The old Newb