S970 song creator how to add another record on the existing track

[vuhuynh970]

Hi All,
Please help! Let say I have an existing track 1,now I would like to record another voice on track 1,but seems like the previous data will be erase after I add new record on track 1.
Thanks
Vu

[Joe H]

Yamaha MIDI song files do not use "Tracks".  They use MIDI channels.  They are Type 0 song files with 16 MIDI channels on a single track.  Type 1 song files use tracks.  Type 1 files can have up to 60 tracks or even more, but there is still only 16 MIDI channels. So you can have more than 1 track for a single MIDI channel,  but you cannot have 2 different Voices (sounds) on the same MIDI channel.  Both Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI song files can have only a single sound per channel.  Type 1 files can have note data and/or controller data on 2 separate tracks that share the same MIDI channel.

An example of this is when we can separate the drum sounds (drum notes) on different tracks (on the same MIDI channel) for editing purposes.

Another example is recording notes on a MIDI channel then adding Filter, Pan or Expression control messages on a different track that shares the same MIDI channel as the note data.  This was how it was done in the "old days" when there were no MIDI song file editors and  before the Type 0 was developed. Having separate tracks for notes and controller data made it much easier to edit notes on the one track and edit controller data on a different track.  Or change drum notes (percussion sounds) on a drum kit.

But now with modern interfaces and much better song editors, we can edit both note data and sound controllers on a single track/channel without any problems because of these modern editors have separate screens for displaying each operation.

So to answer your question, if you want to have 2 Voices playing the same notes you must use 2 MIDI channels.  Just copy the original note data to a different MIDI channel and assign a different Voice to the second channel.  If you want to add a complimentary instrument to build your song, just record it on a separate MIDI channel.  It is sometimes confusing to think of MIDI channels as tracks. That's why Yamaha calls the different MIDI channels... "Parts".  We have 16 Parts to build our MIDI song file on.  That's all we have to work with.  Actually our keyboards have two separate MIDI busses each having 16 MIDI channels.  So we can have up to 32 MIDI channels.  This is really just 2 tone generators built-in to our keyboards.

I hope this explanation helps.

Joe H

[Normanfernandez]

Yamaha MIDI song files do not use "Tracks".  They use MIDI channels.  They are Type 0 song files with 16 MIDI channels on a single track.  Type 1 song files use tracks.  Type 1 files can have up to 60 tracks or even more, but there is still only 16 MIDI channels. So you can have more than 1 track for a single MIDI channel,  but you cannot have 2 different Voices (sounds) on the same MIDI channel.  Both Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI song files can have only a single sound per channel.  Type 1 files can have note data and/or controller data on 2 separate tracks that share the same MIDI channel.

An example of this is when we can separate the drum sounds (drum notes) on different tracks (on the same MIDI channel) for editing purposes.

Another example is recording notes on a MIDI channel then adding Filter, Pan or Expression control messages on a different track that shares the same MIDI channel as the note data.  This was how it was done in the "old days" when there were no MIDI song file editors and  before the Type 0 was developed. Having separate tracks for notes and controller data made it much easier to edit notes on the one track and edit controller data on a different track.  Or change drum notes (percussion sounds) on a drum kit.

But now with modern interfaces and much better song editors, we can edit both note data and sound controllers on a single track without any problems because of these modern editors have separate screens for displaying each operation.

So to answer your question, if you want to have 2 Voices playing the same notes you must use 2 MIDI channels.  Just copy the original note data to a different MIDI channel and assign a different Voice to the second channel.  If you want to add a complimentary instrument to build your song, just record it on a separate MIDI channel.  It is sometimes confusing to think of MIDI channels as tracks. That's why Yamaha calls the different MIDI channels... "Parts".  We have 16 Parts to build our MIDI song file on.  That's all we have to work with.  Actually our keyboards have two separate MIDI busses each having 16 MIDI channels.  So we can have up to 32 MIDI channels.  This is really just 2 tone generators built-in to our keyboards.

I hope this explanation helps.

Joe H

32 Channels how?

[vuhuynh970]

Thanks Joe for clarification.
Vu

[Joe H]

32 Channels how?

I already explained it.  There are 2 separate tone generators in the keyboard. On our keyboards there is Port 1 and Port 2.  Port 2 you can access with USB-MIDI.  On the Tyros there is 2 MIDI In jacks.  MIDI In A and MIDI In B.  This is true also on many sound modules from Yamaha, Roland and other manufacturers.

Joe H

[Craig Schiller]

but you cannot have 2 different Voices (sounds) on the same MIDI channel. 

I don't think that is correct. A program (voice) change in the MIDI channel will change the voice. It's done all the time with complex arrangements in DAWs.

Unless I've misunderstood you..

[Joe H]

I don't think that is correct. A program (voice) change in the MIDI channel will change the voice. It's done all the time with complex arrangements in DAWs.

Unless I've misunderstood you..

You can have 2 different Voices on the same MIDI channel, but only one at a time... not at the same time.  It's also possible to do this with our styles and Multi Pads.

Joe H

[Craig Schiller]

Well, naturally.