Hi Jørgen,


Thanks a million for all your excellent MIDI Tools and supporting the Yamaha Arranger Community for over 30 years!!

The XF Format is critical to Yamaha Arranger Players. This allows embedded meta Chord Events to drive the accompaniment. The Chord Symbols and Lyrics also show up on the display screen.

So far I have found 6 ways to convert a General MIDI File into the Yamaha XF MIDI Format.


1.

Yamaha XF Tool (FREE)

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/psr_soft/xftool.zip

Thanks Jørgen for keeping this link alive!

This light weight MIDI Editor lets you add Chords to a MIDI File along a time line on every Measure or every Beat.

You can also enter Slash Chords like G/A, Bm/A

You can also enter Lyrics.

It saves to an XF MIDI File.

This program has the simplest interface.

The only downside is that Yamaha never published any updates to XF Tools. You can run XF Tools on Windows XP but not 7, 8 or 10.

I just verified this on an old desktop running Win XP (32-bit).

The XF Tool Manual can be downloaded from Heiko Plate's website.

https://www.heikoplate.de/xftool-manual.html




2.

XGWorks 3.0.7E (FREE)

This software can convert a Standard MIDI File into a Yamaha XF MIDI File.

You may also include meta events to control the Styles complete with Intros, Endings, Fills and Variations.

This software had the most potential. It runs on Windows XP, 7, 10.

Imagine if Yamaha released an update to XGWorks to work with the Yamaha GENOS.


3.

PSRUTI Tool by Heiko Plate (FREE)

This program analyzes the MIDI tracks and computes the Chords. The saved MIDI File contains the XF meta chords and lyrics.


4.

GNMIDI 3 by Dr. Gunter Nagler ($44)

This program computes the chords in a general MIDI File and inserts the XF meta events.
It saves to a true Yamaha XF MIDI format.

It comes with an elegant Chord Editor and Lyrics Editor for manual input if necessary.


5.

MuseScore 3.2.6 (FREE)

This software can import a Music XML File (MXL).

If the source contains Chords, they are displayed.

The nice part is that this program embeds the actual notes of each chord when saved as a MIDI File.

It does not make a true XF MIDI File. However you can see the chord notes being played on any keyboard. When the Arranger is set to full scanning mode, it picks up the chord changes. So in essence it still mimics the function of an XF MIDI File.


6.

Notation Composer 4 ($98)

This is the best solution.

This program reads an MXL File. When exported as an XG MIDI File, it embeds the XF Meta Chord Events as an added bonus.

It also reads standard MIDI Files and auto computes the Chords. When saved, you get an XF MIDI File.

You also get an elaborate Chord Editor and Lyrics Editor.

If you load a lead sheet in the MXL Format, it could also generate the backing tracks using any style you select from the Band-in-a-Box plugin ($69).

I think it is worthwhile purchasing Notation Composer. It opens up the world of General MIDI Files that can be played with chord changes on any Yamaha Arranger Keyboard with just a few mouse clicks.

Professionally developed Yamaha XF Files are expensive. They sell around $6.99 each.


Best regards,

David Das