Viv Savage

I can recommend YC73 as a bottom board, the keybed is pretty versatile and the controllers are handy. Having the duplicate XLR Outputs on the YC73 (or YC88) is also nice. And the MIDI setup is pretty flexible, allowing me to easily play the YC organ from my top board while controlling drawbars, etc from the YC. Really, I would say the 73 is the way to go unless you absolutely need the waterfall keys on the YC61 or can’t handle the idea of managing drawbars on your lower board while playing the YC organ from your top board. Also, if you’re at all considering the type of MIDI setting switching between songs that you reference above, I strongly recommend checking out Midiflow. I use it to have essentially a different MIDI setup for controllers and channels for every song, with those MIDI “presets” called up by program changes. It’s very powerful.

I haven’t tried this in the direction you’re describing, but I use a YC73 as bottom board to play parts on a MODX and I can confirm that it’s at least possible to do this in the other direction using MODX as the audio interface and using an iPad app like Midiflow to re-route MIDI from YC to the iOS app of your choice as a virtual MIDI port. Once you start re-routing MIDI using apps like that you can play all kinds of (nerdy) MIDI tricks (that nobody else cares about but that are really exciting to you when you get them working, streamlining your rig and bolstering your sense of self-worth while simultaneously increasing your social isolation from non-keyboardists).

I haven’t taken a deep dive into SLM but did have trouble getting it to change Live Sets on my MODX via program change for some reason. Is it possible to work the other way around, in other words can SLM receive program changes to call up charts, for example?

Nobody asked, but if you’re new to MODX, I’ll also say something that would have saved me some time: If you plan to make use of that fairly generous MODX+ user memory by loading some amazing external sound libraries (of which there are many!), and you find that you want to incorporate library sounds into your custom performances, you should first take the library sound in question and import it to your User area using the Utility / Library Import function, and then add that User sound to your custom Performance. Otherwise, if your custom Performances point to library locations, any waveforms from those library sounds will not be saved with your User file, which can be a pain later if you need to swap User files for any reason, like loading sounds for a different music project or loading your User file on another MODX/Montage. The Melas Waveform Editor can also help with this if you end up painting yourself into a corner, but just FYI.

To be clear, the shifting of split points occurs only with the “Transpose” function, which is unfortunately the function tied to the physical transpose buttons. It’s unclear to me why Yamaha does it this way, other than saying “that’s how we’ve always done it.” For me it makes the transpose buttons pretty useless. Instead, I pre-set transpositions for each Part in a Performance using the “Note Shift” function in the Edit screen. If you need to transpose on the fly you can go to Utility and use the global “Note Shift” function there. IMHO it would be more useful for Yamaha to tie the physical transpose buttons to that global Note Shift function, but this is a drop in the bucket of the insane user interface issues with Yamaha boards, and a small entry price to pay for a truly amazing and versatile board that is one of the best bangs for the buck.

Scenes are great for sound switching, especially when you’d rather use buttons than the touchscreen while playing. When you set up Scenes, I would recommend doing so using the Keyboard Control function to turn parts on/off per Scene (see the piano icons on the channel strip) rather than muting, which takes up polyphony even for muted parts.

“How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?” [hipster voice]: “It’s like a really obscure number, you’ve probably never heard of it …”

For what it’s worth, I am using DIN MIDI and USB simultaneously on my MODX, although admittedly it requires a bit of sleight of hand. The setup is MIDI out from any single-channel controller (although in my case I’m using a Kurz PC4-7) to MIDI in on MODX, then place MODX in USB MIDI mode so it can play iOS sounds from an iPhone / iPad connected via USB and camera kit connector. I leave MODX in MIDI mode “single” so by default I can play all MODX parts from my lower board. But on a per-Performance basis, I can flip the “Zone Master” function on, which puts that Performance into MIDI “multi” mode. The trick is that my iPhone / iPad is running Midiflow to re-map incoming MIDI channels (thanks for the tip, Reezekeys!). In Midiflow I remap the single channel from my lower board to MODX Port 1 on the appropriate channels in order to play MODX Parts 9-16 (or whichever Parts I want). MODX sends program changes to Midiflow via USB to select (1) the Midiflow channel scheme I want do that particular performance, and (2) the VB3m organ preset I want to use for that Performance. There may be more elegant solutions to work around the MODX MIDI receive limitations, but this is the best I’ve found and it’s pretty slick! Bonus is being able to use all 16 MODX Parts. Also using VB3m on an iPhone with drawbars mapped to the Kurz faders ain’t bad either! 🙂

Really just speaking to the ease of use of the linear sequencer, I would recommend taking a look at the Roland FA-07 from around 2017, which can be found pretty cheap nowadays. Incredibly easy for capturing ideas and creating backing tracks. Also: great variety of onboard sounds and decent ones in the categories you mention. Plus sample pads with easy playback of samples direct from SD card.

Thanks, all, I really appreciate the different suggestions! I'll likely go for one of the USB hub options.

I wonder if anyone has thoughts on the best way to run Pianoteq using a 5-pin MIDI controller (in this case, Kawai ES110) and an iPad Pro? I have a Korg PlugKey but unfortunately that uses lightning whereas the iPad Pro uses USB-C. It seems like the options include: 1) Using some kind of female-lightning to USB C male adaptor between the PlugKey and the iPad Pro (really not sure if this would work) 2) Using a DIN MIDI-USB adaptor to connect the Kawai and iPad to a USB-C hub like this one, and hoping that the hub has decent audio output from its headphone out 3) Getting a older iPad /iPhone with lightning to run Pianoteq, and using the PlugKey, which is a terrific product. 4) Using another audio interface like Zoom U24 to take audio out of the iPad Pro, using an Apple Camera Kit connector? I guess this would take care of the audio, while the Kawai could send Bluetooth MIDI to the iPad? 5) Any other ideas? Sorry for the basic question, but the universe of possible hubs and adaptors out there is a little overwhelming, not to mention the variability in quality and performance with third party adapters. Wondering if anyone has found a solution for something similar. Thank you in advance!

I used a Rolls PM55P, also for the limiter, but for what it’s worth, I just couldn’t deal with the cheap power supply with short cord, and also think I was getting some noise from the power supply. Same thing caused me to ditch the Rolls MX28 for sub-mixing. I’m currently using an Xvive U4 wireless unit + Westone ambients with our XR18 mixer. I’m relatively happy with the simplicity of that setup but would really like to monitor in stereo using a wired setup. Anyone know the best way to do stereo IEMs on the XR18? Seems I could either (1) route two Aux sends to the XR’s headphone out (I confirmed this can be done), then take the headphone out to something like a Behringer P2 for handy volume control, or (2) take two XLR Aux outputs from the mixer and merge them with a Y-cable into a single TRS to connect to a P2 / other headphone amp. I’m in a bit over my head but (2) seems like it could cause issues going from the mixer’s balanced XLR Aux outputs to an unbalanced TRS cable, plus I’m not really sure how such a Y-cable would actually “merge” the two Aux outputs to create stereo. Adding to my confusion, the 2 input channels I use for my keys are “stereo linked” on the XR so that I can control both faders by moving only one. So …. I’m guessing I would have disable that linkage in order to send a keys L signal to Aux 1 and a keys R signal to Aux 2. Or … am I overthinking this? 🙂

Actually it turns out you can use both USB and DIN MIDI simultaneously. It involves re-directing the controller keyboard data from MODX MIDI Port 3 (used for the DIN connection) to MODX MIDI Port 1 (the MODX internal tone generator), using the iOS or computer app of your choice. I use the Midiflow app to do this. Then use 5-pin MIDI to connect the controller MIDI out to MODX MIDI in, set MODX to MIDI USB mode, and connect your iOS device to MODX via USB. So I think the MIDI flows from your controller to MODX, which sends it out to the iOS device, where it it re-rerouted back to the MODX tone generator.

I shared some of your frustrations and have been pretty happy switching to MODX7 and using the Kawai ES110 as a controller. It’s about 26 lb and while I can’t speak to its use for solo piano, the sounds seem decent and the keybed is a pretty big improvement over MODX8 for my purposes. Because the ES110 has 5-pin MIDI, I can use it to play the MODX and simultaneously use the MODX to play iOS sounds on (such as VB3 or B-3x). I have been using the Midiflow app on iOS to re-route MIDI channels. The upshot of this is that even though the Kawai is sending only on Channel 1, I can have the Kawai play whichever MODX parts I want, on a per-song basis. But by default I have it playing MODX parts 9-16, which is great, it’s like having another MODX at my fingertips, and I can divide the MODX sounds between the two boards however I’d like — you know, just as if Yamaha had implemented freely assignable MIDI receive channels! 😉

I was using an FC7 when mine did the white screen o’ death. I’m putting my money on pedals moving and sending values during boot-up.