I have a Yamaha PSR-280, it's a rather old midi keyboard, but still works. I tried plugging it into my computer using an M-Audio midisport USB adaptor and booted up Sonar to record a few midi sequences I wanted to do.

Sonar would accurately record the first 4 notes worth of my song and then suddenly the playback would just start to play weird airy sounds and only play one or two notes from the song I played.

I haven't really done this before and am wondering if I missed a step (I did select the midisport to be my input and output). Does anybody know? Please inform me if you can. Thank you

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cattrigger.com

Sounds like a MIDI loop.
Try disconnecting the MIDI in of the keyboard, so that only the MIDI out goes to the interface.
If that seems to work, find out if your keyboard has a local off control, this will hopefully break the MIDI loop.

It works!

Sort've...

Okay, it's playing all my notes well. But apparently the next big problem is that whenever I record, my notes seem to sound like someone's sitting on my keyboard.

In other words, most of the notes I play stay on an extended echo for a very long passage of time, making the piece a mess by the time I finish playing. Any suggestions for this problem?

[This message has been edited by patach (edited 10-31-2005).]

Sustain pedal message?

A quick search on this keyboard told mw that it has 61 velocity sensitive notes, but not pitch bend, or modulation controllers. It does however have a foot pedal.

Might be some strange note duration quantize function in Sonar, but going by your description I'm thinking it's recieved a sustain pedal message.
Look for CC 64 in the event list of your recorded sequence.

You may need to have a look at your settings within Sonar to see if CC messages are being filtered (or even remapped).

At least you've managed to cure the MIDI loop problem.


[This message has been edited by TheSonicEnergyAuthority (edited 11-01-2005).]

I don't see anything "CC" on my event list. Could it be something else?

email the sequence you recorded save it as a Standard MIDI File (SMF), I'll see if I can spot anything.

I'll need it as a SMF as I don't use Sonar.

Hi,
I'll need you to answer some more Qs.

1. Does your PSR have it's own sequencer or an arranger function turned on? If so , than you will have to disable that feature for now. Or simply find an option on your PSR that will allow you to sync the sequencer/arranger clock to MIDI (IE clock of the sequencer program).

Another way to approach this is to check out some options in Sonar that deal with Synchronization and things like MIDI clock etc. It might be that as a default setting Sonar is set to scan for external MIDI clock sources and if detected it automatically syncs to them or attempts to and since PSR is probably sending clock messages it ends up sending it in a loop thus the whole thing gets warped.

Functions like "MIDI thru" allow to basically use controllers and synths without "LOcal Control on/off" switch and mainly addresses stuff like note on off events, controllers, aftertouch, pitch bend etc. But weather you have it enabled or disabled doesn't at all affect MIDI synchronization and all the confusion and chaos it can bring if not setup properly.

THis is just a guess since I have not used any PSR keys but some of my workstation keyboards have internal sequencers and thus are capable of generating MIDI clock and other forms of synchronization messages. When used with software sequencers without everything being setup properly (such as internal sequencer disabled, MIDI clock set to External or MIDI and so on) it can pretty much create problems that you are experiencing. NOtes hanging or just dropping out. Abnoxious control messages firing at random so on.

If all of the above doesn't get you anywhere than you may want to try using Sonar with some other MIDI keyboard. Just to test everything and see if it's the PSR that's causing all the problems. In general cheaper arranger KBs aren't really made with MIDI in mind and even though most or all feature MIDI in some form it's not really good enough for work with professional MIDI sequencers and programs like Sonar. It should be usable nevertheless though so at least you should be getting a decent flow of MIDI note on/off events without any nasty problems that you're having.
But on the other hand I wouldn't be surprised that it's the PSR that is messing it all up.

Okay good luck.

-ED-