Playing & Singing (with vocal harmony) along with a MP3

[scottyee]

I'd like to be able to trigger vocal harmony when singing & playing the Pa1000 keyboard live while playing along to a pre recorded MP3 song file.Is this possible?

So far I'm only able to play a pre recorded MP3 song while in "SongPlay" mode and only able to trigger the vocal harmonizer while in "StylePlay" mode.

An interesting observation is that while in "StylePlay" mode, I'm able to select and load an MP3 song into either Player 1 or Player 2
yet not able to play it while in "StylePlay" mode.

Am I missing something

Thanks for any help.

Scott

[ORGANGRINDER]

you can only play mp3 in song play mode. you can trigger harmony by playing the keyboard. I play along with all my mp3sand have no trouble with harmony,
in song play mode you play just as if you have a style running and press harmony button or foot switch when you want to kick in harmony parts. you may want to check your harmony preset button to see if you have one selected.

MEL

[scottyee]

Hi Mel,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. It’s encouraging to discover you’re able to get the vocal harmonizer to work when in “song play” mode.

When I simply switch from style play to song play mode, the chords (chord changes) played live by me on the keyboard continue to correctly display on the keyboard screen but the vocal harmony is no longer heard, even though the vocal harmony double button is still engaged (red) and the vocal harmony selection (via preset button) which was working fine while in style play mode hasn’t changed.

Mel, what Pa1000 OS version have you got installed? I’m running version 1.2.0, dated May 23, 2018.

I sure would like to get the vocal harmonizer to work while playing along to an MP3 in “song play” mode. Anybody got any ideas why it’s not working for me?

Scott

[DonM]

I'm thinking that the volume level of the harmony is causing the problem. Remember, we had to lower it quite a bit in order to make the foot switch work the vocal harmony volume.
Maybe it isn't translating to song play mode?
My PA1000 is in the bag, but I've been able to use the VH just fine on the 4X, in all modes.

[scottyee]

I'm thinking that the volume level of the harmony is causing the problem. Remember, we had to lower it quite a bit in order to make the foot switch work the vocal harmony volume.

Hi Don, that was the first thing I had initially suspected too, so in addition to disabling the assignable foot pedal and selecting factory preset vocal harmony entries . . . still no luck. My lead voice and vocal harmonies are heard loud and clear when in STYLEPLAY mode but the moment I switch to SONGPLAY mode, my lead voice remains but the vocal harmony disappears. I even went back into the Voice Preset (button) and the vocal harmony selection had not been inadvertently changed from what it was when it worked while in STYLEPLAY mode so dumbfounded what’s causing me to lose vocal harmony when in SONGPLAY mode. Could this be a software bug in the Os version (1.2.0 dated May 23, 2018) I’ve got installed?

Perhaps other Pa1000 owners here can check and report back if your Pa1000 vocal harmonizer works in SONGPLAY mode, including citing the Pa1000 OS software version you’ve got installed.

All help greatly appreciated.

Scott

[duby2]

in the song play mode the hormonizer work with MIDI if the channel is set right or track ...


For hormonizer to work in songplay mode, it just work half way...
if you know the song chords you are in good shape.. .. here is what I do ,,,,, I just make a new preset call Mp3 Notes this is in my download of pa4x style in a pa1000 , all of my stuff is in the file ...back to this all you have to do is

pick the preset Notes it is under Notes... then edit it ,, to read top right it will say
songplay control===change it to Lower === done now save it to your user set ...
now when you are in the songplay mode and you have a mp3 playing you can play the chords of the song and you get the vocal harmony ...

I would also change the release time to ==2000,,, and save it .you can play around with the songplay control to full or upper , I use lower this way i can play harmony with my left hand and still solo with the right..
I hope this help sonmeone..

[scottyee]

you can only play mp3 in song play mode. you can trigger harmony by playing the keyboard. I play along with all my mp3s and have no trouble with harmony,
in song play mode you play just as if you have a style running and press harmony button or foot switch when you want to kick in harmony parts. you may want to check your harmony preset button to see if you have one selected. MEL

I checked and rechecked (in SONG PLAY mode) to confirm that a valid harmony is selected, and all settings remain exactly the same as, and were working fine when in STYLE PLAY mode. At this point I'm at a lost how you're able to get the vocal harmony to work in SONG PLAY mode without any special setup, other than switching from STYLE PLAY to SONG PLAY mode.
Perhaps you got another Pa1000 OS version installed? I've got what I thought was the latest version: 1.2.0 (May 23, 2018). I'm curious what version Mel's is.

For me, when in both STYLEPLAY and SONGPLAY modes,
the chords I play live on the keyboard are displayed on the upper part of the Pa1000'd screen, but vocal harmony only works when in STYLE PLAY mode.

It appears from what Duby2 says below that an "extra" step must be made to get it
to work in SONG PLAY mode.

in the song play mode the hormonizer work with MIDI if the channel is set right or track ...
For hormonizer to work in songplay mode, it just work half way...
if you know the song chords you are in good shape.. .. here is what I do ,,,,, I just make a new preset call Mp3 Notes this is in my download of pa4x style in a pa1000 , all of my stuff is in the file ...back to this all you have to do is
pick the preset Notes it is under Notes... then edit it ,, to read top right it will say
songplay control===change it to Lower === done now save it to your user set ...
now when you are in the songplay mode and you have a mp3 playing you can play the chords of the song and you get the vocal harmony ...

I would also change the release time to ==2000,,, and save it .you can play around with the songplay control to full or upper , I use lower this way i can play harmony with my left hand and still solo with the right..
I hope this help sonmeone..

Duby2: I'll attempt to re read what you wrote to better comprend what you said. I searched the Pa1000 User manual and found
a section starting at page 530 which seems to cover the topic (?)

I'm hoping others might chime in with their experience or advice as I had expected more people might be interested in using their Pa1000 in SONG PLAY mode to play their keyboard along with pre-recorded Audio (MP3) while singing and with added Vocal Harmonies too.

Scott

[duby2]

the Pa3x was the omly keyboard that had vocal harmony that could read it from a ( mp3 ) and make harmony in 4 parts ( is was not alway right but it work good ) korg drop it from the pa4x ( sad I use it allthe time ) the way i do it ,,,, you must play the chords alone with the song if you want harmony in it maybe not all the time ,,

if you set just one of your preset to what i say it should work..
is a mp3 is playing you must play the keybaord chords along with the song to get harmony ,,or just were you want the harmony to be,,,
, you must change the ...
songplay control ....
but if you want it to be automatic and just play a mp3 ,, then you need to buy the Pa3x keyboard or tc helicon voicelive 3,,, it built right in ...

here is the link that has the preset in it all done for you .. just download it and load it all in ..
always make a back up of you file first … backup ,

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... light=duby

[scottyee]

I'm not looking to get the vocal harmonies from an MP3 audio file as I know the chords and want to play them on the keyboard myself.

I was hoping to sing & play the keyboard and have it recognize the chords I'm playing and then trigger the vocal harmonizer to produce vocal harmonies while playing back a pre-recorded MP3 audio file.

Seems that playback of an MP3 file is only available in SONGPLAY mode and even though the chords I play live are recognized in SONGPLAY mode, the Vocal Harmonizer only produces harmonies while in STYLEPLAY mode.

[ORGANGRINDER]

Scott if you are in songplay mode, push the preset button under the mic volume button then select your preset for harmony. Hope this works and I think you can edit that and do like I did. Once I got it right I set up my my setting button and it now remembers it all the time.
MEL

[scottyee]

Scott if you are in songplay mode, push the preset button under the mic volume button then select your preset for harmony. Hope this works and I think you can edit that and do like I did. Once I got it right I set up my my setting button and it now remembers it all the time.
MEL

Mel, That’s exactly what I did. I selected a preset harmony that worked fine in Style Play mode, but when in Song PLay mode, when I play the keyboard, the chords I play are recognized and shown on the display screen but only my lead voice is heard. no harmony voices are produced even after attempting to edit the preset harmony selection’s volume settings. It clearly seems the Vocal Harmonizer doesn’t function in Song Play mode. Mel , I’m running Pa1000 version 1.2.0 (May 23, 2018) what Pa1000 OS are you running? Could the reason it works for you but not me be that? Scott

[duby2]

scottyee

did you try what I said ,,

songplay control===change it to Lower === done now save it to your user set ...

you do not need to play midi or mp3 ,, to make this work , it just in the songplay mode . you will have harmony and you need to hold down a chord ..

[scottyee]

scottyee
did you try what I said ,,
songplay control===change it to Lower === done now save it to your user set ...
you do not need to play midi or mp3 ,, to make this work , it just in the songplay mode . you will have harmony and you need to hold down a chord ..

Duby2:

Hallelujah! I was FINALLLY able to figure out where I needed to go (page 532 of owner's manual) to make the Song Play Control assignment: It was initially assigned to "Track 5" so I changed it to "Lower" and saved it as a USER Harmony and named it Duby2 . Works like a charm now in SONGPLAY mode even when triggered via the assignable footpedal, just as it does in STYLEPLAY mode. Thanks to Mel for letting me know that this is even possible in SONGPLAY mode, to my buddy DonM for help in assessing the situation, and to Duby2 for explaining the added step required to get it to work. I have a Christmas gig coming up in which I want to play the keyboard along with triggering vocal harmonies while playing along with MP3 audio files. Thanks again for all the help given. Scott

[duby2]

scottyee
Great it works..
I would look at the the release time .. and play around with that ,,, I set my time to the max , 2000 .... this way it does not cut off so fast and sound fake...
and you can see you can set the keyboard to play harmony for lower or upper or full keyboard..
if your a left hand bass player then you set the keys harmony to upper and so now... have fun

[scottyee]

scottyee
I would look at the the release time .. and play around with that ,,, I set my time to the max , 2000 .... this way it does not cut off so fast and sound fake...

Duby2,

There are four types of Harmonies to Select From:
1. Chord
2. Scales
3. Shift
4. Notes

I use “Chord” type harmony and can’t find a release time setting for This harmony type.

See illustrations of the setting windows for each of the 4 harmony types: page 536 of Pa1000 user manual.

The only release time setting I see Is For “Notes” type harmony only. All other harmony types don’t include a release time parameter setting.

Is there another place I need to go to find a release time settings when using Chord type harmony?