Hi all, I just got a MOX6 to use with my Kurzweil PC3. I want to use the PC3 as the master keyboard, where selecting a setup on the PC3 will send all the settings required for a certain song to the MOX6. So the first issue I’m encountering is a Voice program on the MOX6 where I want to use the arpeggiator but it’s not on when you select the program. I know I could turn it on and save it as a new Voice but I’d rather save the memory space if I could. Is there a CC for external MIDI to control the Arpeggiator’s ON/OFF status? And how about anything else like this?

Thanks!

Hi all, I just got a MOX6 to use with my Kurzweil PC3. I want to use the PC3 as the master keyboard, where selecting a setup on the PC3 will send all the settings required for a certain song to the MOX6. So the first issue I’m encountering is a Voice program on the MOX6 where I want to use the arpeggiator but it’s not on when you select the program. I know I could turn it on and save it as a new Voice but I’d rather save the memory space if I could. Is there a CC for external MIDI to control the Arpeggiator’s ON/OFF status? And how about anything else like this?

Thanks!

I just started using my MOX6 today, and I’m using it with my Kurzweil PC3 as a two-keyboard setup. I have a lot of questions about making this arrangement work and I hope all you seasoned Motifators can help me out!

The MOX and the PC3 are MIDI’d together with both IN and OUT on both sides. I am using the PC3 as the master keyboard, where selecting a Setup on the PC3 will automatically send program changes and CC changes and everything to the MOX6. And where any part of either keyboard can, according to the Setup’s parameters, play a sound from either keyboard, almost as if they were two synth-less MIDI controllers hooked up to a third synth.

It’s been a hard hour or so figuring out some of the basics of this, and I hope some of you experts can help with some questions/issues:

1. If I have Program and Bank activated on the MIDI Switch page, searching through the banks on either synth will change the program on the other. But if I turn them off I can’t use the PC3 to select the MOX sound when I want to (as described above). The “workaround” is to leave them off when I’m programming and otherwise browsing patches, and on when I’m ready to either test that the PC3’s setup is working, or when I’m actually performing (or practicing). Is that the only way?

2. The best way to play using these setups is with the MOX’s Local set to OFF, so there’s no doubling or phasing issues – since playing the MOX is actually sending the note messages to the PC3 which is sending them back, and that’s how the sound should be produced. However, it appears that when Local is OFF, the knobs are disabled and I can’t use them to sweep the filter or anything! WTF!?!? (note: the PC3’s midi monitor does show that the filter knob is sending CC74. I tried setting one of the PC3 sliders—which are not as fun to use as knobs—to send CC74 but it didn’t do anything to the filter. Though I’m guessing that once I have time to get into the programming on the MOX6 I can make this work with the mod settings)

3. Are there CC’s assigned to various of the MOX’s settings? For I’d love to not have to use up a memory location just to have a separate version of a Voice with the Arpeggiator turned on (so I’d love to have the PC3 send a CC to turn the Arp on). Of course I can just hit the Arp On button but I want it to be automatic when I enter the setup on the PC3. Other things like FX switches would be great too.

Also, trying to figure out how to play the MOX’s keys and not have it play the PC3’s sounds when I don’t want it to has not worked as reliably as I’d like (which is, of course, to say that I haven’t figured out how to do it yet). See my post about this at the Kurzweil forum: http://www.cunka.com/forum/index.php?topic=2830.msg22407#msg22407

That’s all I can think of at the moment, though I swore there was more. I have some other questions that aren’t about MIDI communication in this 2-keyboard setup that I’ll post separately. Thanks for all your help!

the first issue I’m encountering is a Voice program on the MOX6 where I want to use the arpeggiator but it’s not on when you select the program. I know I could turn it on and save it as a new Voice but I’d rather save the memory space if I could. Is there a CC for external MIDI to control the Arpeggiator’s ON/OFF status? And how about anything else like this?

The purpose of the USER memory locations is to store your setups. What are you saving the memory space for? This is what it is for.

the ARPEGGIO ON/OFF button can be activated and deactivated by using a FC4/FC5 or any momentary pedal plugged into the MOX’s Assignable Foot Switch jack then setting the Foot Switch to “ARP ON/OFF”

1. If I have Program and Bank activated on the MIDI Switch page, searching through the banks on either synth will change the program on the other. But if I turn them off I can’t use the PC3 to select the MOX sound when I want to (as described above). The “workaround” is to leave them off when I’m programming and otherwise browsing patches, and on when I’m ready to either test that the PC3’s setup is working, or when I’m actually performing (or practicing). Is that the only way?

This is really a Kurzweil question. If you were asking about the MOX, we could tell you that you have MIDI SEND switch which can be activated or deactivated when you working with the MOX as the MASTER - which is just for what you are doing. It allows you to temporarily turn OFF sending MIDI to your external devices while you do something to the MOX.
Typically the slave device is passive during the time when you are using something else as the MASTER - you are using the Kurzweil as the Master…
Ask Kurzweil

2. The best way to play using these setups is with the MOX’s Local set to OFF, so there’s no doubling or phasing issues – since playing the MOX is actually sending the note messages to the PC3 which is sending them back, and that’s how the sound should be produced. However, it appears that when Local is OFF, the knobs are disabled and I can’t use them to sweep the filter or anything! WTF!?!? (note: the PC3’s midi monitor does show that the filter knob is sending CC74. I tried setting one of the PC3 sliders—which are not as fun to use as knobs—to send CC74 but it didn’t do anything to the filter. Though I’m guessing that once I have time to get into the programming on the MOX6 I can make this work with the mod settings)

Obviously this is not “the best way to play” as it does not work. :-)

LOCAL CONTROL does not need to be OFF - if you are using the Kurzweil as you master keyboard (either you really don’t mean that or we are misunderstanding what you want to accomplish

Master keyboard means it is the one you are using as the CONTROLLER. Therefore it matters not about LOCAL CONTROL on the slave, period

Please tell us what you want to accomplish. Why do you have the MIDI OUT of the MOX connected to anything - if it is only the slave?

Thank you for your responses.

About the ARP: So it sounds like there is no way to activate the Arpeggiator by external MIDI control (outside of the footswitch). When the Footswitch is set to ARP On/off, is there any general MIDI CC involved or is it just the MOX using its own methods to translate the raw electrical signal (or whatever it is) from the footswitch jack into an Arp On message? For example, if what was happening was the footswitch was sending, say, CC65 and the Footswitch setting in utility mode was actually setting what CC65 effects, then I could have the PC3 send the CC65 message and the Footswitch Utility setting on the MOX translate it.

The other questions appear to be a miscommunication of what I mean by “Master”. It looks like I may be using the wrong word, because I want to be playing from both keyboards. I could, in theory, disconnect the MIDI out from the MOX6 and just have it receiving program changes and note messages (and whatever else), and also play the MOX tone generator from the MOX keyboard. I would rather have the ability to play PC3 sounds from the MOX as well. As I said in my post, it’s like I want to play them as if they were two synth-less MIDI controllers hooked up to a third synth. So, again, if “master and slave” implies that the master is the ONLY one with its actual keys being hit, then I’m describing it wrong.

I would personally like to keep as much programming on the PC3, rather than the MOX, as possible. If the only way I can, say, use more than one sound at a time on the MOX is to create and edit a performance on the MOX, so be it, but I’d rather, say, put the MOX in song mode (the closest thing to multi mode) and have the PC3 send all the appropriate program changes to the appropriate channels, and have any splits or CC07 mixing or things like that handled from the PC3. I feel it’s more “elegant” or “simple” that way but I understand that (1) that’s just my preference, and (2) that may not all be as possible as I’d hope.

For example, if what was happening was the footswitch was sending, say, CC65 and the Footswitch setting in utility mode was actually setting what CC65 effects, then I could have the PC3 send the CC65 message and the Footswitch Utility setting on the MOX translate it.

First, cc65 has a dedicated purpose via MIDI (Portamento Switch) and would not be a good choice, at all… but we understand what you are asking.

The MOX as a keyboard does not have a way for you to assign ARP ON/OFF to an external controller. It has a dedicated button on the front panel, and it has an assignable Foot Switch that can be dedicated to that task. Yamaha Rack modules generally have a method to activate and deactivate the ARP via a MIDI Control Change message. There is no need in the keyboard because the keyboard already has two methods (as, after all, it is a controller itself).

I would personally like to keep as much programming on the PC3, rather than the MOX, as possible. If the only way I can, say, use more than one sound at a time on the MOX is to create and edit a performance on the MOX, so be it, but I’d rather, say, put the MOX in song mode (the closest thing to multi mode) and have the PC3 send all the appropriate program changes to the appropriate channels, and have any splits or CC07 mixing or things like that handled from the PC3. I feel it’s more “elegant” or “simple” that way but I understand that (1) that’s just my preference, and (2) that may not all be as possible as I’d hope.

SONG mode and PATTERN mode are, in fact MULTI modes. They are the modes where the MOX can receive on 16 MIDI channels simultaneously. You can select 16 different VOICES placing one in each PART of the multi- setup, called the “MIXING” program. It is called this because you have a mixer with aux sends, and EQs, and volume sliders, etc., etc. Each is a separate MIDI channel and you select which PART you are addressing by transmitting on its MIDI channel.

Sorry it is not clear to me what you want to accomplish by playing sounds from each keyboard and hooking them to each other via MIDI. Sorry, that is simply not clear. Why do you need to connect them if you are playing each separately?

Also if you are going to most of the programming on the PC3, we can only really help you with MOX side (we have no idea about the capabilities of the PC3) sorry.

I am not simply playing them separately. Maybe examples will make it clear. In the same set list, I may have all of the following situations, and therefore need a setup that can achieve all of them without switching cables mid-set and ideally not going into Utility mode and messing with settings there:

Playing PC3 sounds from both the MOX and the PC3 (requires MOX MIDI’d out into the PC3)
Playing a setup on the PC3 (setup:kurzweil as performance:yamaha) that includes sounds from both the PC3 and the MOX (which in this case might be loaded with a song/mixing to access different voices via different MIDI channels), split/layered across BOTH keyboards (so that which synth the sound may be coming from has NO relation to what actual keys on which actual keyboard are playing it)—requires MIDI in and out for both keyboards
Playing a PC3 sound across the whole PC3 and a MOX sound across the whole MOX (no MIDI would be required if this were the only situation in the set)