AR80 playing sounds from Miditzer - Charles Hughes

[Hugh Wallington]

Terry is trying to connect a Miditzer sound module (downloaded to his Laptop, which is running on Windows 10) to a Yamaha AR 80 organ using a cable.

Can anyone else help Terry with this?

[Charles Hughes]

Hi Terry,

I would have thought that if you are getting the onscreen console to follow what you are doing on the AR, you have the correct configuration.  You should also find that pressing any of the first 10 registration memory buttons on the AR changes the stop settings on the Miditzer console.

The sound should only be audible through headphones or external speakers plugged into you PC, unless you have an audio cable from the headphone jack on the PC to the Aux Audio In (under the AR lower keyboard on the left) to make use of the AR's amp and speaker system.  The Miditzer sound does not go back to the AR via the USB-midi cable.

Charles

[Hugh Wallington]

Terry,

I think maybe Charles has hit it on the head here when he says the control of the Miditzer from the AR 80 takes place through the midi-cable; but the sound does not go back to the AR via the USB-midi cable.

Charles ..

Do you have a cable from the Laptop's OUT (eg. the headphone socket) to the AR's LINE-IN (ie. the PHONO sockets under the AR) .. or into the Mic socket?

Terry ..

So how are you getting the sound back to the AR?  Maybe you need to look at the Settings for the sound OUT from your Laptop.  This would be done via the Sound Manager program on your Laptop.  With my Laptop, just using Audacity was a nightmare as I have to configure Sound Manager to correctly allocate Inputs and Outputs.  I have found in the end that it makes a difference which order I switch things on and plug them in.  Recording to Audacity I have to first switch on my Mixer, plug the USB lead from that into my Laptop, and then turn my Laptop on.  The Laptop is then searching for inputs and picks that up.  If I don't already have the Mixer ON it picks up the INPUT internally from the Microphone on a headset, even though I don't even have a microphone on my headset.  I just use headphones, but don't even have those plugged in.  I think headset must be the 'default' if it can't find anything else, whether I am actually using headphones or not.

Hugh

[Charles Hughes]

I mostly use headphones plugged into the PC when playing Miditzer through the AR.  Sometimes I use an external amp and speakers with an audio cable from the PC headphone jack.  Some years ago I did use the AR's amp and speakers by connecting an audio cable from the PC headphone jack to the AR AUX IN jack under the lower keyboard.

The order of doing things is important...

1. Plug in the USB-Midi cable at both ends
2. Switch on the PC
3. Switch on the AR and mute all AR voices
4. Open Miditzer last

Do the reverse when finished playing though it is not necessary to remove the USB-Midi cable after switching off.  In fact I leave my midi cables permanently plugged in the rear of the AR - too much trouble to keep moving the organ away from the wall.  By the way, you can still play the AR at any time even if the PC is connected and Miditzer is not started.

Charles

[Hugh Wallington]

Got it! 

You use the midi-cable to link the Miditzer program on a computer/laptop to the AR via the MIDI IN/OUT terminals (rear panel of the AR).  Why the rear?  What a pain!  These two devices then 'talk to each other' so you can control the Miditzer's features via the AR.

The sound you hear emanates from the computer/laptop, so you need some device/amplifier to listen to it.  Headphones plugged into the laptop is one way.  But if you want to hear it all via the AR's amplifier, you need to take the sound output from the laptop (via the headphone socket) and put the other end into the AR's AUX IN jacks (RCA) .. ie. Phono sockets .. on the underside of the keyboard.

All this is covered in the Owner's Manual, page 159.  There is also more on MIDI on page 162.

Let us know if this sorts it for you, Terry.

[Terry Roberts]

Hi  Charles, Hugh and members

Many Thanks for your kind support and ideas.  At first I had no idea how the Miditizer system worked, but now, with your help, it is working fine.
I have certainly Got it.  Thanks again.

Terry.             

PS. Hugh, athough I haven't tried connecting the PC phones to the AR80 Line IN, I'm sure it will work.

[Hugh Wallington]

Earlier in this discussion, Charles had put together some notes on how to connect and configure Miditzer to work with the AR80 (or AR100), with a LINK to view/print his document as a PDF file.

Charles has re-written this to make things a bit clearer to follow.  This new document has replaced the old, so clicking on the earlier LINK now shows the re-written document.

So that you don't have to go back to the previous page to read it, here is the LINK again:

AR 80 and Miditzer (PDF)

Hugh

[Charles Hughes]

Below is an attachment of a document discussing Latency which is the time lapse between pressing a key and hearing the note. 

This  commonly occurs with pipe organs due to the distance between the pipes and the organ console.  It takes time to produce the sound and for the sound to travel to the organist's ear. 

Some users complain about the amount of latency in Miditzer while others are able to almost eliminate it.  This document provides some ideas on things you can try if you are having difficulty playing with latency in the mix.

Click this LINK to Read/Print the PDF file (or do a right-click to Save it .. ie. Save Link As... ):

Latency in Miditzer (PDF)

Charles

[Charles Hughes]

For those keenly interested in investigating Miditzer further, here is a link to the Miditzer Forum where I posted a more comprehensive document entitled “Playing Miditzer from the Yamaha AR80 (ver 2)”.

http://forum.miditzer.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2208

Playing Miditzer through the AR demonstrates yet again the versatility of the AR as a musical instrument through which you can enjoy the rich sounds of the mighty Wurlitzer organ in your own lounge room for just the cost of a USD-midi cable.

Charles

[Hugh Wallington]

Charles - when clicking on your LINK above I was informed that I do not have the required permissions to view the attached files .. so presumably I would have to join  www.Miditzer.org ? - Hugh

[Charles Hughes]

Arrrgh, I forgot about that!.  You will need to join the Miditzer forum in order to be able to view the extended document.

From your link, Hugh, click on "Miditzer Forum" and then on "Register".

Charles