Midi Sysex Failure? Kawai K4

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dillon
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Midi Sysex Failure? Kawai K4

Post by dillon »

Hey Gang! I've had this old kawai k4 midi keyboard laying around for quite some time, and I started messing with it. At first it needed some cleaning and jiggling but eventually it came around and started producing sounds.. it needed a new battery which ends up deleting all factory preset sounds. I located the correct k4.mid file from kawai but it is pretty damn tough trying to get anything to read it. I've tried ardour, mixbus, muse, reaper, aplaymidi and they all have no effect. Ardour and mixbus crash while loading the .mid file to a track, muse and reaper wont recognize my keyboard, aplaymidi won't get me any further than my sound card (rme multiface). I used ted's midi guide and it helped my find the soundcard, but I can't get past it to find the kawai k4 controller. Am I SOL?

Code: Select all

 aconnect -o
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
    0 'Midi Through Port-0'
client 24: 'Hammerfall DSP' [type=kernel,card=2]
    0 'HDSP MIDI 1    

Code: Select all

 aplaymidi -p 24:0 k4.mid
Nothing happens aghhh
Musicteacher
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Re: Midi Sysex Failure? Kawai K4

Post by Musicteacher »

Hi,

as it is very unlikely that you will get many answers here: I do own a kawai k4, and I have been through this process (restoring the original presets).

But: I have forgotten how, this was some years ago.

General idea: You will have to find a way to transfer this midi-data unprocessed to your k4. Also, the k4 must be in some kind of special-mode to receive the data, as far as I remember. The k4 manual can be found somewhere in the internet.

I would do the following: As you said, you have some sound where you hear something. With that sound, make sure that your midi-connections work (play some notes, record them, play them back through your k4).

Now, being sure that you have the right connection, set the k4 in the special mode and try your aplay-method again. But I guess this won't work, because I think that aplay is for "normal" midi files.

Then look here:
https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/1-amidi/

As far as I understand, this program would be more suitable to write sysex-data to your k4.

Good luck! It is possible to restore the factory presets (and there are some nice presets there, it's worth the effort).
dillon
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Re: Midi Sysex Failure? Kawai K4

Post by dillon »

Hey thanks for the reply! I started with amidi but then read this:
amidi handles only files containing raw MIDI commands, without timing information. amidi does not support Standard MIDI (.mid) files, but aplaymidi(1) and arecordmidi(1) do.
Since the Kawai sysex file is .mid I have been trying to use aplaymidi. Maybe I should just try it and see what happens.

My main issue I think is that I cannot target the keyboard specifically, only the client of the interface that it runs through.

The Kawai has been programmed to receive the file which can be done by these steps posted on gearslutz:
0. Switch on your K4 and sound interface. Set the K4 to: INT PROTECT = OFF, RCV EXCL = ON and RCV CH = 1.
1. Open Reaper and create a new track (right click on the left pane).
2. Load "k4.mid" to that track.
3. On the track controls in the left pane, click the "io" button.
4. Set "Midi Hardware Output" to your sound interface where your K4 is conected.
5. Play the midi file. Your K4 should now receive the settings from the file.
6. Hold all your thumbsup and check if your K4 will play that funky music once again
Step #4 is where I’m having trouble, I can’t find the hardware.
Musicteacher
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Re: Midi Sysex Failure? Kawai K4

Post by Musicteacher »

Hi,
I just thought it would be raw midi, no matter what the file extension is. But if they say you can do it with reaper, I am probably wrong.

What about my idea to try to make the k4 play some midi notes? Once this works, you can be sure that you adress the right device.
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