Can I program a note sequence to the LEDs in S88 MK2?

Let's say that for learning purposes I want the LEDs above the keys in the S88 MK2 to turn on in sequence the keys that I have to play next in a song, with all the others unlit.

Kind of like when you playback MIDI notes in your DAW, which makes the LEDs brighter as the playhead goes through the current note/s, but in a way that I could record to an instrument I have in the current track, pressing the keys in the sequence I specified earlier.

Is this possible? Maybe some kind of software that sends the light sequence to the S88's internal memory or something similar?

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aafanatic

@ProfessorChaos This may be too simple, but what if you had the midi notes in the order you want them played with the timing right but the velocity pulled down to zero? Wouldn’t the S88’s lights trigger even though there was no sound? As you played along with some velocity you would hear your own playing.

ProfessorChaos

Maybe I didn't make this too clear, so I think it's better if I explain what I want to achieve. You know those piano tutorials on YouTube where the notes fall kinda like Tetris, and eventually they reach the piano keys so you know those are the notes you have to play at that particular moment? This is one example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYAcjoCj4s

OK, so what I want to find out is if the S88 MK2 can do something similar. And this would be for mostly simple note progressions, like cellos or violins with long notes.

So let's say you're familiar with the tempo and you have a good idea of when you have to hit that note. But you're just learning piano, and you're having trouble differentiating the notes, especially because the American notation system seems created with confusion in mind, so you don't have octaves starting at A but C instead, so for example, A4 and B4 are higher notes than C4, not lower and coming right before it (which by the way, doesn't make any freaking sense to me).

So even if you know what notes are coming next because you did markers from a song you want to learn, if you are just getting started, especially if you are an old fart like me, seeing a bunch of white keys and black keys, given a second or two, you might tell, this is E4, that's F5 and so on, but if you are playing a song that has a note progression, and the piano keys are a bit confusing at first, then you're going to miss a lot of them, especially because of the absurdity of the letters going C, D, E, F, G, A, B instead of the way we've been taught since 4 years old, A, B, C, D, E, F ,G.

So, to find a way to "retrain" your brain around that and make sure you hit the right notes, what if you could program a sequence that corresponds to the notes, but with a specific pre-delay, meaning, you would see F4 light up one second before you're supposed to play that key. The rest of the LEDs would be off to avoid confusion.

Then the sequence would keep going in whatever order you programmed them, most likely from another track, or even a .MID file. it would have to be for rather simple songs, but then again, this is for beginners, so they can train their brain to the keys better, kind of like the little wheels on a bike when you're 4 or so. Eventually they come out.

So does that give you a better idea, and if it does, do you or anybody else knows if this is possible?

JesterMgee

I have done something like this for my daughter but you need a DAW and some time to setup things correctly.

I just have 2 tracks, track 1 is set armed and the keyboard has focus on it, a piano instrument loaded so you can play it.

Track 2 has a MIDI pattern loaded onto it with the same piano instrument but set to output MIDI to the keyboard port. Usually I would make a phrase to listen to and watch on the keyboard then the same phrase again with velocity 0 which will show the LEDs but without sound. The idea is you set the metronome going, listen and watch, then play along on the second phrase while the LEDs guide your playing. I use Ableton Live which is perfect for this because you can setup a launchpad (or Push) to step through different musical pieces easily and no need to know anything about music, just download a MIDI pattern of any song and then modify it to suite the way you want to learn.

ProfessorChaos

Thanks for all the great tips!

So you have another track that has the MIDI notes and you set it to output MIDI to the keyboard port. Is that something you do in Komplete Kontrol, Kontakt 7 or through Ableton? In my case I have Logic Pro X, and I guess there's probably a way to do that, I need to dig into it.

Now, in Logic there's no way that I know to set velocity to 0, 1 is the lowest it will go. However, I've noticed that even if you mute the selected track where you have the MIDI note progression you want to use as the source, when playing the timeline, the LEDs will light up as they notes are hit by the playhead, and I was able to record that to a separate track.

So that is a big step, but I wonder, is there any way to turn off all the LEDs and show only the ones for the notes that are being played in that particular moment?

JesterMgee

Is that something you do in Komplete Kontrol, Kontakt 7 or through Ableton?

That is done in Ableton

Now, in Logic there's no way that I know to set velocity to 0, 1 is the lowest it will go.

Sorry, should have said "minimum velocity" since no you cannot have a velocity of 0.

So that is a big step, but I wonder, is there any way to turn off all the LEDs and show only the ones for the notes that are being played in that particular moment?

That is not possible, you just get "highlighted" keys when the signal is received. It is good enough to do some practice but haven't used it in a while

Peter Harris

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/56043#Comment_56043

Holy @#$& @JesterMgee! You just totally blew my mind!!! Had some serious creative thinking.

Maybe ProfessorChaos should get a couple of Roli Lumi keyboards. Lots of fun learning tools including musical games. They're not cheap but they sure look and work great. But one downside is that it all really works best on an iPad.

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