Using midi and audio

rdmusiccreation

Hi I am just starting to use stagetraxx. My question is around playing live using both audio and midi files . I today use midi files for live performance directly from my Yamaha PSR SX 900 for my cover songs I have collected and edited over the years. However my original compoisitions are all audio files with individual stems and wavy files .

I am looking to use stage tract for these audio files but plan to continue to use my keyboard for midi but would like to use stagetraxx to have the lyrics for all songs and one start stop controller that can control the midi start play of the keyboard and lyrics from stagetraxx ..

Is this scenario possible ? That way I keep the midi of the songs to date and slowly transition to audio backing tracks for the future songs and my original songs whilst using the keyboard midi files for the past but have the lyrics for those come up from stagetraxx 3

Thanks for your inputs

Damir

rdmusiccreation

rdmusiccreation Hi, I was using Yamaha Tyros 2 for years with midi mainly as it had 4 loop points and I could easily manipulate audio levels of all 16 midi tracks and mutes, but now I only use Stage traxx3 , why?
Because I have 24 loop points in a song , full foot control , easy programming of sync lyrics/chords , ok I don’t have full control of individual tracks as it’s not worth the effort because I can’t easily control each tracks volume and mutes anyway on screen of the iPad, but as a sound engineer and years of live performance experience I mix everything so it does not need tweaking , if I had easy level/mute control live on stage I would go multitrack , at the moment it’s not worth the effort, having an iPad on stage instead of a large keyboard is visually much better and less to lug around, not having complexity on stage is a much more enjoyable performing experience and the audience does not care, there are many more reasons why I got rid of midi altogether, so I say to you keep it simple , just put all your midi stuff in to ST3 as audio and simplify your life you won’t look back .
I now mainly use LOGIC PRO as my editor and IPad Pro as my performance backing tool and life is much simpler and faster to end up with great on stage experience.
Hope this helps cheers Damir

peter

rdmusiccreation Stage Traxx can not play midi files but it is possible to send midi commands to your Yamaha to start and stop playback. But keep in mind that automatic scrolling in lyrics will only work if you have a fixed song structure. If you loop and jump around on the Yamaha, ST3 will just continue linear scrolling.

rdmusiccreation

Damir Thanks for your input - I have been thinking about the same thing - ie should I just move to all audio files . I am not very tech savvy with usin a DAW although I use cubase and can basically convert midi to audio . Do you then mix and master the song after that ? Could you throw some light on the process you adopt ? There's a side of me that does not want to work on all my previous midi files again but I see your point on making the switch - just need to understand the process to develop the final backing track . Thanks for your input .

rdmusiccreation

peter Thanks Peter - My initial first 2-3days of placing around with StageTrxx and Im loving it

rdmusiccreation

peter Hi Peter -is there a video or stepwise process available to to configure your recommendation ?

Damir

rdmusiccreation Thanks for your input - I have been thinking about the same thing - ie should I just move to all audio files . I am not very tech savvy with usin a DAW although I use cubase and can basically convert midi to audio . Do you then mix and master the song after that ? Could you throw some light on the process you adopt ? There's a side of me that does not want to work on all my previous midi files again but I see your point on making the switch - just need to understand the process to develop the final backing track . Thanks for your input .

I started with Cubase when it was born as it was great for midi, but have moved on to LOGIC PRO on a Mac Studio, I f you don't run on a Mac i strongly recommend to change to it as it has a fantastic STEM feature to break down any complete audio music file in to drums, bass, vocal and other tracks, and the quality is very reasonable, you can then create a bass midi file out of the bass audio track and use any sampled virtual bass instrument to complete a very good bass backing, this can also be done with drums, and the great thing is, some backing vocals can also be used to compliment your singing with ease.
You can then record all your own tracks you want then arrange the whole song, mix it, add on effects use the mastering plug-in and export it either as multitracks or stereo file and just save it to ST3, where you then add on the synced lyrics/chords , go to the audio editor and create the audio segments you need, tick which playlists you need this backing in, and create or choose the KEYWORDS for this song for easy searching, colour code the song to group it to your meaningful operation, and you are done for ever more.
So basically you need a good DAW and ST3, once you learn the power of these two packages you will love the process and its versatility to create a very entertaining performance, you can keep it as simple and fast as possible or go crazy and tweak and fiddle till you turn 100 years old and still be asking questions at the end.
Its all part of the fun 🎸🕺🎤❤️🤪

peter

I have a basic midi tutorial on Youtube: https://youtu.be/LbpVQR5yoAI?si=fY2c1vbNUSBtPZ70

rdmusiccreation

peter Hi Peter having watched your video I had a few questions for this setup . If I plan to simply play my Yamaha arranger keyboard using midi files directly from the keyboard to PA and the lyrics are on ST3. I saw that I in lyric settings I need to add a midi command and then assign action to start-stop . Given I am not looping or changing the song flow but following the lyrics from start to end In this case, once I press start on ST3 if my keyboard is blue tooth with ST3 it should autostart my keyboard same time with lyrics scrolling is that correct ?

I saw your video which says Prefix / Value / Sub value / Channel . I am still new to understanding this . Where can I learn more about this - to set up a simple midi command like above to simply start playing the midi file from the keyboard and lyrics together and be able to stop at the end of the song .

Appreciate your inputs or any other place I could learn more about this .

Thanks

Sharonzaz

Why don't you record/convert your midi files into audio and thus solving the issue of needing
your keyboard for live ever again?

rdmusiccreation

Sharonzaz Id like to play live - usually use midi and play piano or some guitar parts . I hear what you saying - Its just that I am not very confortable mixing and mastering the audio track after conversion from midi. Additionally I have my old midis that if I am able to use - it just reduces the rework of my earlier songs that have been worked upon . That way I can still keep those formats and use audio going forward from Karaoke version . Just trying to see if I can work around it - If not I guess I just have to rework all songs or simply change to Karaoke version and adapt to newer versions .