Tuning a keyboard using miidi?

[Jake Johnson]

My Yamaha CP300 manual says that the keyboard can be tuned for a song, which means, I think, that I can insert midi tuning commands for each note into a midi file and the notes will be pitched to my settings.

Does anyone know if there is a way to easily create a pitch table and then send it to the keyboard, instead of having to create the pitches in the midi file? I can of course just type the pitches in Midi Ox and then send a sys dump, but the process of creating the pitches there is as typing intensive as creating the pitches in a midi file. An ideal situation would be a graphical interface that let me use knobs or type in numbers to set the pitches and then export the file to a sys file I could send to the keyboard.

Anything like that out there, assuming I can even do what I want?

[yjoh]

Hi Jake

Not sure if this is what you are asking but here goes.

Usually what the manual means is that you can alter the master tuning so that when you are playing the keyboard along with for example a guitarist, singer or a MIDI/WAV file then the keyboard is in tune with the guitarist singer etc.

I often have to alter the master tuning from the standard 440 Hz so the music I'm playing on the keyboard is in tune with some of the WAV files I get given from my singing students from the local jazz & tap school. It's usually just a few Hz either way.

If on the other hand you are wanting to use alternate tunings, then it's probably easier to look into scala tunings such as those you can load into the aria player. It's easier than trying to create new pitches for each note on the keyboard or getting into sys exclusive messages.

I once tuned my DX7 to an authentic Bach tuning with help from a Wendy Carlos keyboard article and a DX7 manual with the necessary conversion details. The result was quite amazing when I played one of Bach's Little Preludes. It was a fun experiment but I don't really want to go there again. Besides some keyboards now have inbuilt alternate scales which makes it easier.

Hope I've been of some help. You might be better off asking your question in the general discussion forum as there are a members who know a lot more about alternate tunings than I do.

All the best.