Expand Your keyboard’s Sound/Style/Lessons Library
Most music keyboards come with built-in songs that demonstrates the keyboards capabilities and also helps you to learn how various chords are used to harmonize the songs. Ideally, you should spend time to hear out all the demo songs.
Over a period of time, if you feel you need more songs and styles on your casio musical keyboard, you can download it from the internet or you can buy commercial disks which provide the latest hits.
Basic Steps to Download and Use a MIDI File
Here’s what you need to do in order to use a midi file with your existing keyboard.
- Search for a midi file (song or style) and download midi file. Preferably find a midi file that ha the treble and the bass separate so that the keyboard can also show the left and right hand part on the screen, when it is played back.
- Midi files are very small in size and download quickly
- You can make any changes to the midi file (if you want) using any free MIDI-creation software (such as Anvil Studio)
- Save the midi file to [easyazon_link keywords=”SD card” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″]SD card[/easyazon_link]
- Insert the SD card in your keyboard (in the SD card slot)
- Select the SD card in your keyboard and you can start listening to the music, and it should work fine (like on of the several lesson songs)
Standard Midi Files (SMF)
All these songs and styles are basically Standard Midi Files (also known as SMF), which is a file format that allows MIDI data to be shared between different software programs, including sequencers.
So from where do you get these SMF files? Download it from the Internet or buy from the market?
You can use your computer to transfer SMFs from the bundled CD-ROM (which comes along with the keyboard) to your casio musical keyboards flash memory.
You can even use the SMFs that you may have downloaded from the Casio Music Site. Data stored in flash memory can then be played back using the SMF player mode.
Alternatively, you can load SMF data from an SD memory card or floppy diskette (you need to buy these) onto your musical keyboards user area and then play it back using the SMF player mode.
So How Do You Play Back the Midi files?
To play back the midi file, you need to use the SMF Player button.
From there, you need to specify the source; whether you want to play back from the Flash memory, an SD memory card, or a floppy disk!
Once you selected the source, you need to specify the three-digit file number of the midi file that you want to play, and press the Start/Stop button to play the file.
Possible Error Messages
At times you may not be able to play back the midi file. The most common reasons for this could be:
You are trying to play SMF data that is not Format 0. Remember that you need to use only Format 0 SMF data. If you don’t, you will get an error – Err Not SMF 0.
Another reason could be that the SMF data you are trying to play is corrupted. In this case you need to make sure the midi file is genuine. Else you will get an error – Err Wrong Data.
Summary
To be able to expand the current set of sounds and styles of your music keyboard is a desired feature for many keyboard players. That way you really don’t have to upgrade to a new keyboard soon; you can continue to use your existing keyboard and satisfy your creative juices by downloading more midi files.
You get a lot of commercial disks containing the backing tracks (minus the melody) of many popular songs. You can buy those or download them from the Internet and play back these midi files on your Casio keyboard using the SMF player mode. Once you have the backing tracks, you can play or sing the melody on top of these tracks. This way musical keyboards can be enjoyed for a long time!
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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