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Hi, I have an R3, a digital piano with midi in/out and i'm about to get a Yamaha TX7 synth, and now i'm trying to figure out what way i can configure them together. I haven't used midi much so apologies for the beginner's questions.

The way i understand it, i can use the piano to control the R3, or i can use the R3 or the piano to control the TX7.

If i chained the piano to the r3 and the r3 into the TX7, could i control the TX7 with the piano, via the R3 (without using the midi thru)?

The reason i'm asking is, could the TX7 get any extra midi data from the piano via the R3, specifically, could it use the r3's arpeggiator or mod/pitch wheels?

If that's not possible, is it possible to use the audio outs of the R3 while at the same time controlling something else with its MIDI out, to have the two synths outputting audio at the same time? (latency aside)

Thanks a million.

andyjc wrote:If i chained the piano to the r3 and the r3 into the TX7, could i control the TX7 with the piano, via the R3 (without using the midi thru)?

without using midi thru? i don't think so, no.

the R3 OUT will only send data from the R3 itself, not what it received.

the R3 THRU will only send data that came in on the IN and will send it unchanged, the R3 will not add its own data to that stream

andyjc wrote: The reason i'm asking is, could the TX7 get any extra midi data from the piano via the R3, specifically, could it use the r3's arpeggiator or mod/pitch wheels?

I don't think so, although you might be able an extra piece of gear which would combine the piano and R3 streams into one

andyjc wrote: If that's not possible, is it possible to use the audio outs of the R3 while at the same time controlling something else with its MIDI out, to have the two synths outputting audio at the same time? (latency aside)

yes, absolutely. and latency shouldn't be a problem with a short chain like that

Ok cool, thanks a lot. One question i meant to ask, if just using the R3 connected from its midi out to the TX7, will that midi data be arpeggiated and mod/pitched etc or is just a single pitch/velocity sent to the controlled synth when you press a key? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks again.

You can have the arpeggiator output sent to MIDI OUT but not the mod sequencer output.

Well just in case anybody was wondering the same thing i was, i got the tx7 and hooked it up to the R3; it looks like the two wheels do have an effect on whatever patch is loaded on the yamaha synth (ie bending pitch up/down, adding vibrato or whatever).

I can't figure out whether the arpeggiator works with it however, because when the yamaha synth is plugged into the midi out of the r3, the r3's buttons control *all* the buttons on the panel of the tx7 rather than itself, which i wasn't expecting. So whenever i try turning on the arpeggiator on the r3, it does something unexpected on the tx7 instead. Maybe it's just a lucky(?) accident or maybe there's some sort of convention for it, i don't know, i haven't played with enough electronic instruments to know. And maybe there's something obvious i'm missing, i haven't had time to look into it more; i'll look into that and chaining the three together tomorrow.