Hi John,

I’m sorry to respond so slowly. At times my health care responsibilities interfere with my true love, music. Please keep in mind I’m just a self taught amateur and may not be able to answer your questions with great precision.

Converting Yamaha styles to the KN7000 starts with recording the Yamaha styles on the Yamaha sequencer very much like you would record on the 7K. Yamaha sequencers generate MIDI files which in the case of the PSR 3000 must be saved to a 3 volt Smart Media card. The Smart Media cards look very much like the SD card used in the 7K.

In order to get the MIDI file into the 7K, I transfer the style file from the Smart Media card to a floppy disk using my computer to do the transfer. I use a floppy because the MIDI files are small and it seems like over kill to use the SD card.

After the floppy is loaded into the 7K, I play the sequence and write down the measure on which each component of the style starts and stops, while watching the Sequencer window. As I mentioned before by recording a single piano note at the start of each variation the components are easily located.

The tracks where the instruments used in the style, can be found by clicking the Mixer on the Sequencer window.

With the info above noted, click the Composer button and then the Seq to Composer button. Now one by one you will need to note the start and the end of each component of the style. You are already in the key of C and you must select where you want the file placed in Composer Memory. On the far right of the window insert the track you want for each of the instrument parts of the Composer patterns. When complete, press OK. Repeat for each Composer part.

When all the parts are moved to the Composer you can substitute the MIDI instruments for your favorite Technics instruments. You can extend the length of any pattern by changing the number of measures in the pattern window. Going from 4 to 8 measures will play the pattern one extra time, thus allowing a new counter melody to be added to the pattern that doesn’t have to start on the first beat, thus sounding less mechanical.

While we have been talking about converting Yamaha files, this technique works very well with standard MIDI files and is a great source for drum and bass lines on which to build new Composer patterns.

That’s the best that I can do.

Frank