Software and interfacing « Power tools for digital keyboards

Accompaniment Machine on digital pianos

Although AMac was designed for digital keyboards with a full complement of MIDI voices, the program is quite useful for digital pianos. We tested it recently on the popular Yamaha P125 (Fig. 1). There are two main differences between digital keyboards and pianos:

The physical keyboard of the digital piano provides a close simulation of […]

Tap-Tap-Tap-Redux

In a previous post, I discussed how use the Export/Import features of Style Master in combination with a MIDI editor to remove unwanted content of Yamaha-format style sections (like the downbeat that occurs in most IntroA sections). At that time, I recommended Speedy MIDI as the editor, largely because it had an attractive interface. With […]

AMac: NC and fadeout

In this article I’ll cover two useful techniques for the Autosequence Mode of the Accompaniment Machine: NC and fadeout. The acronym NC often appears in fakebooks. It stands for No chord and designates an interval where the accompaniment stops while the solo continues. In the Autosequence Mode, you can pause the accompaniment and restart it […]

Replace Mac Launchpad

LaunchPad on the Mac is an attempt to replicate the main screen in Windows — an area filled with icons to launch installed programs (shortcuts in Windows parlance). There is one big difference. In Windows, users can add or remove shortcuts. In macOS, the process is performed automatically — users are prevented from making any […]

Creating and editing keyboard styles

Styles are the automatic accompaniments on digital keyboards from Yamaha, Roland, Korg and other manufacturers. They can create the sound of a backup group, turning a simple melody into a performance piece. Style files in Yamaha format are the most common. Thousands of styles in every genre are available for download on the Internet.

The […]

Menu bars in Xojo applications

Menu bars appear near the top of most applications. They consist of menus (e.g., File, Edit, Help,…), each containing several action options (e.g., Load, Save, Quit,…) that appear when you click the menu. Oddly, I found it difficult to locate guidelines for implementing this basic feature in either the Xojo documentation, examples supplied with the […]

New features in MIDI Doctor

MIDI Doctor (Fig. 1) is a versatile tool to fix or to customize MIDI files. With it, you can adjust the volume and instrumentation of MIDI channels, transpose the key, modify the tempo, remove channels and perform several other operations. Recently, we’ve added powerful new capabilities. One improvement is a display of the exact temporal […]

Running AMac on a Windows tablet

In the past, there were limited choices of tablet computers running Microsoft Windows, generally in the price range $700 and up. Now, you can get models for less than $100. A user recently asked whether the Accompaniment Machine will run on a small Windows tablet, so I decided to check it out.

As of April, […]

Installing KBD-Infinity programs using Windows or macOS

Program installation is quite simple. In Windows, use the Download link to retrieve the executable installer. Typically, you would save the file in your Download folder or on the Desktop. In Windows Explorer or other file manager, double-click on the installer icon. The operating system may ask for permission to proceed. Windows 10 may issue […]

New features in MiniMIDI Player

MiniMIDI Player (Figure 1), a component of the MIDI Utility Pack, is a compact program to play MIDI files. It provides a quick method to preview files and to determine their properties. We recently added some features to enhance its utility.

Figure 1. Screenshot of MiniMIDI Player

MiniMIDI Player can be used as a […]

Power tools for digital keyboards

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