I have gathered about 200 commercial song midifiles over the last couple of years-- I have been experimenting with them on the K.N. 6500. I can load them as Technic files and then mute or change what I don't want and then add my own tracks eg; 3 part harmony and finish up with the result I want.BUT---If I haven't got the PLAY button lit I have nothing. Is there any way I can extract the intro, fills and style variations and use the keyboard in normal mode without the PLAY button lit. Did I read somewhere that there was a disk that would enable this to be achieved.

It will take me some time to master the composer, and in the meantime this "substitution' is giving me a more believable backing with not so much repetition in the base and rythmn , and the song parts are there for the singers to follow.As they learn I then drop the volume of the "voices' until they are just an audible guide.This seems to work well. Cheers Jean.

I was asked to write an article about this very confusion for the next magazine. There is a song to style conversion disk available for the keyboard, but to make full use of it you may need to know some very basic composer editing to get really good results.
It is not 100% results on auto pilot since much depends on the quality of the original midi file, but you can experiment in manual mode to improve results.

It gives you intro, 4 variations, 2 fills and ending from a midi file. It generally gives you a 4 and an 8 measure intro or ending since naturally there is only one of each in a midi.
If the midi has many tracks, you can improve results by deleting tracks first on the keyboard and just converting the main backing parts.
Like most things it needs a little practice and trial and error to get really good results.

That disk sounds cool; where is it available? And where will your article be published, Technicsplayer? Good luck, Jean, and thanks for the info, Technicsplayer; I am quite a novice with the Composer, too, so any help is appreciated! The best technique I have found is to load the 20 for 1 songs and, once the registrations are loaded, load the one hyou want and then shut off the "Play" button. You can then use the registration to play your own music without the loaded one interfering. I can also transpose and/or change instruments in the R1, R2 and left hand. Works just fine for me. Anyone else doing this technique?

Ted Rose
KN 6500

The song to style conversion disk is designed for midi files and is made by Taiyo and available from Technote in the UK, and I assume in the States too?
The magazine is Techplus magazine, and I was asked to explain the difference between midi files and technics format in a basic way.

you describe switching off the sequencer to use the programmed registrations, which may or may not involve existing preset patterns or composer patterns, in any event they are all already technics format.

Jean is talking about being able to use the backing patterns from midi files, which is an entirely different format that needs converting to technics composer format first.

You do not need this disk to make patterns from midi files, it can be done using features on the machine, the disk just cuts down a more complicated procedure of transposing measures to C major, or at least a constant chord and then doing a sequencer to composer copy operation for the tracks you are interested in. This would need to be repeated for each variation, fill, intro and ending you wished to use from any midi file. The disk automates the procedure for you in a similar way to the style conversion disk.

[This message has been edited by technicsplayer (edited 07-02-2002).]

Ted, remember that each sequenced song on the 20-4-1 disk will remain in the sequencer until it is replaced by another song, or the time runs out for the memory bank. If you turn off the play button and fiddle with the remaining style, everything will be okay until you decide you want to save the style for later use. Then you run into trouble because the sequenced file will still be in memory and will include itself in the save process unless you turn it off. Then every time you load the style, the sequenced song will pop up and try to take over. To use the style properly and without interference from the sequencer, simply press the program menu button, sequencer, record and edit, song clear,ok, then yes, and it will erase the loaded song from the sequencer and it won't bother you any more. You can do it to every sequenced song on the disk and save each style if you don't already have them. You can certainly build your own archive this way. Happy playing

Don't forget, Ted, to save to a new disk or you will lose the original 20 for 1 song.
Alec- I will order the disk, thank you for the information. I am looking forward to your article. I have also got the 5 videos on order so am waiting for the one on "composer" before I get into that area as time is my problem and the less "trial and error" the better - not that I don't like experimenting, but that I still need to keep a lot of time aside for "practice" and just playing. Reguards. Jean.

[This message has been edited by Jean Olivia (edited 07-02-2002).]

Lindoz gave us some valuable advice on this subject, and helps you get to know more about composer. The URL is http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum25/HTML/000577.html

Regards,
Mike