mp3 backing tracks

trecker1247 · September 05, 2019, 02:07:52 AM

Hi all.
I am a relatively new Tyros 5 user. Purchased second hand after being a 20 year Roland G70 user.
I absolutely love the T5 keyboard and wish i had used one a lot earlier - it would have made my live play performances a lot easier.
I use it for live performance with other band members. We have studio recorded mp3 backing tracks made by us and i am wondering if i can somehow install these into the T5 to use on stage.
Would they need to be converted to something else?
Is it even possible?
Would i be able to save each track to a setting so that i could set up the keyboard sounds to accompany that track at the touch of a button as i can do with normal performance without Backing tracks.
Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.
I do struggle with technology these days as i have reached an age where the brain doesn't work that well so can you please keep any helpful answers to a simple layman's format.

Stijn · September 05, 2019, 03:44:25 AM

Yes, you can save the mp3 files to the Tyros 5 hard disk and you can play them in the Audio player. (p 78 of the Owner's Manual).
Tyros 5 can play mp3 files, but should the mp3 files not be recognized by Tyros than they can be modified and saved with different settings using a program like Audacity (free download).
Or, you can use Audacity to convert them to .wav files, but then they will take up a lot more space.

You can set up the keyboard sounds and save that setup, together with the (opened) mp3 to a Registration bank button.
Registration banks are the ideal way to save your preferred settings and you can then recall them at the push of a button.
You can make and save thousands of Registration banks to the hard disk.

Here is a link to some tutorials on Registration banks made by Fred Smith:
https://www.psrtutorial.com/lessons/playing/regist/05regVideo.html

Stijn

dillyboy · September 05, 2019, 04:42:34 AM

Hi

I previously owned a T4 so same thing applies - if I were you I would get a fairly big Pen Drive and put your tracks on as WAV files, that way the T5 will read them easily every time and it does not clog up the hard drive on the keyboard, I have on occasions before put an mp3 on to a pen drive to transfer to the HD and when i have loaded it into the keyboard the file will not show even though I have the proper setting eg bit rate etc.

But everyone has their own way of doing things, good luck with the T5!

Stijn · September 05, 2019, 05:13:02 AM

The Tyros 5 has a 500 Gb hard disk.

You can easily store 10,000 wave files on it.

Stijn

EileenL · September 05, 2019, 07:30:04 AM

Yes the hard drive is always the best place to store things and they can easily also be saved to USB stick just for backup as well as saving to your computer.

trecker1247 · September 05, 2019, 12:30:08 PM

Many thanks to all for your input today.. Lovely to get very speedy responses.
I have now managed to source all of the information i need to do this so fingers crossed i will either be able to use the mp3 or now i can convert to .wav as well.
Heres hoping and thanks again.
Probably wont be the last time i ask a question on here.

Fred Smith · September 05, 2019, 12:35:03 PM

Quote from: trecker1247 on September 05, 2019, 12:30:08 PM
Many thanks to all for your input today.. Lovely to get very speedy responses.
I have now managed to source all of the information i need to do this so fingers crossed i will either be able to use the mp3 or now i can convert to .wav as well.
Heres hoping and thanks again.
Probably wont be the last time i ask a question on here.

You shouldn't have to bother converting .wav files. The keyboard can play them just as easily as MP3 files.

Cheers,
Fred

pjd · September 05, 2019, 03:03:12 PM

Quote from: Fred Smith on September 05, 2019, 12:35:03 PM
You shouldn't have to bother converting .wav files. The keyboard can play them just as easily as MP3 files.

Cheers,
Fred

I agree with Fred. You should have plenty of space for the WAV files. Plus, WAV does not suffer from compression artifacts and will provide better audio quality.

When there's plenty of disk space available, MP3 is a bit of a burden...

All the best -- pj

tyrosaurus · September 05, 2019, 04:12:13 PM

Quote from: pjd on September 05, 2019, 03:03:12 PM
I agree with Fred. You should have plenty of space for the WAV files. Plus, WAV does not suffer from compression artifacts and will provide better audio quality.

When there's plenty of disk space available, MP3 is a bit of a burden...

Just in case the OP is tempted to convert his backing tracks to .wav!

He says that his backing tracks are already in .mp3 format! There is absolutely no point in converting these to .wav!

All that this will do is produce much larger files without improving quality. The process of recording or converting to mp3 in the first place has already limited the audio quality that can be obtained from the file, since it 'discarded' data in order to reduce file size, and this discarded data can't be recovered by any conversion process.

The only sensible reason to convert .mp3 to .wav is to allow playback using devices that can't play .mp3. This does not apply to the Tyros5, unless you want to play audio files as 'Audio Link Multi Pads'.

Regards

Ian

trecker1247 · September 06, 2019, 03:04:09 AM

Hi all - thanks again for all your input.
The story so far ......
I have formatted a new USB
I have ripped my backing track files via Windows Media player from their original format of .cda into both .mp3 and .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1 kh
These files were loaded into Audacity as well to ensure the sample rate was correct.
So far so good - they all play from the usb via the computer - windows 10 machine.
Now i place the USB into the front slot of the T5 - press the A button for song.
Tab across to the USB folder ......nothing there in either format
I am presumably missing something here
All help to a technophobe will be greatly appreciated.
Usually I manage to work these things out eventually, but this one is really bugging me.
Has it got something to do with the original conversion from .cda?

PS; - I have also tried loading an ordinary .mp3 file from my library and this doesn't show up on the USB either - weird.

trecker1247 · September 06, 2019, 04:17:13 AM

IT's OK folks.
I have sorted out the error of my ways.
It's called a MODE button.
I hadn't pressed it prior to pressing the A button.
It does obviously pay to read the manual properly first.
I have now successfully loaded the track and am happily playing along with it.
Just got to work out how to now save that with my own play settings and bingo we're there.

Stijn · September 06, 2019, 06:39:14 AM

Quote from: trecker1247 on September 06, 2019, 04:17:13 AM
Just got to work out how to now save that with my own play settings and bingo we're there.

You can save your setups to Registration banks. That's the way to go.

pjd · September 06, 2019, 04:24:11 PM

Quote from: tyrosaurus on September 05, 2019, 04:12:13 PM
Just in case the OP is tempted to convert his backing tracks to .wav!

He says that his backing tracks are already in .mp3 format! There is absolutely no point in converting these to .wav!

Regards

Ian

Good points, Ian. I missed that he/she was starting out with MP3. Fortunately, they rolled back to the original source material in order to get top audio quality. I did something similar when I went to Genos and re-ripped my CD-based backing tracks to WAV.

Seems like all is on a good path.

Take care -- pj