MIDI Volume from Yamaha P-120

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MIDI Volume from Yamaha P-120

I've been a musician a long time but I'm fairly new to MIDI and VERY new to both the Mac and GarageBand. I have a Yamaha P-120 that I bought primarily as a self-contained digital piano. However, since I bought my Mac Mini and installed Leopard, I decided to try it out as a MIDI controller.

I bought the E-MU 1x1 MIDI/USB adapter and as advertised the Mac saw it immediately. The Yamaha works, but the MIDI volume is very, very low. I tried recording a new track and could barely hear the piano over the metronome. Admittedly I can crank up both the instrument and master volume in GarageBand and hear it, but I don't think it's right.

I downloaded the manual for the Yamaha and set everything to the factory defaults. I see nothing about volume there. The velocity is working and there is very little latency. It's just a level problem.

Is this normal for GB, or GB with the Yamaha? I realize Yamaha is not recommended by some of the Mac experts, but since MIDI is digital it would seem to me it either works or it doesn't.

Please enlighten me, and excuse the long post.

Mac Mini (Intel), Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Nov 17, 2007 1:12 PM

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Answer 1

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Nov 17, 2007 1:33 PM in response to Old Country

Indeed, Yamaha is problematic as they don't support the Mac very well, however once you use a MIDI interface, the keyboard is taken out of the equation, as long the interface is Mac compatible, you're gold.

for the volume, open track "i"nfo, open "Details", and click the pencil icon to the right of the Generator popUp menus. crank up the volume in that dialogue.

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Answer 2

Old Country Author

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Nov 17, 2007 1:51 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks, I appreciate the help. Is there a way to bring up the overall level of the MIDI "in" ? It would seem that I would need to change the Details on every track or instrument I wanted to play; strings, etc.

More importantly, will a program like Sibelius give me better control over this? I hate to sound so picky, and I realize I can crank the volume up in the mixer, but for instance, I tried playing along with some MP3's using the media browser, and I couldn't begin to get a usable balance. Of course I couldn't find a place to turn down just the media volume.

I promise, I'm going to get a book or two and get up to speed on this stuff, but for now this forum is a lifesaver. I really do appreciate the help.

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Nov 17, 2007 2:00 PM in response to Old Country

check your Yamy manual to make sure the keyboard's volume/velocity is at it's highest.

you don't have to set the volume for each "track", but you would want to do it for each instrument. Crank it up, as described above, then use the Save Instrument button and create a new preset with the volume raised. Then every time you use YOUR preset, for any track, the volume will be raised

For the media browser, don't try to play along with that, drag the file into the timeline so the mp3 gets it's own track, then you can lower its volume

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Answer 4

Old Country Author

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Nov 17, 2007 2:14 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks again for your help. Like I said, I'm looking for some good books on the Mac. After twenty years on a PC of one kind or another, the Mac is quite a change. But so far, I love it.

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Answer 5

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Nov 17, 2007 2:19 PM in response to Old Country

Welcome to the side of light.

i don't know of any GB08 books, though there are quite a few for older versions, and for the most part their info will carry over, but naturally not touch upon the new features that new iterations brought.

if time is on your side, just experimenting will teach you boat loads. more often then not, if you think something should work, it does.

Also, read the Getting Started bit under the Help menu, web searches will turn up tons of things, and if your question isn't answered via any of those routes, or the general help menu, ask here.

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