about midi "ghosts notes"

Hello Messr. imyself,

I do understand what is meant by the term "ghost note," a midi note that seems to fire without input from the player.

The following questions need to be answered, so one may determine the origin of randomly firing midi notes:

Does this occur when you play the k2500x as a standalone unit?
Does this occur when you use the k2500x as a controller for Pianoteq?
Does this occur when you use the k2500x as a controller for other virtual instrument software?
Does this occur when you are recording multiple tracks or multiple takes into a sequencer?

* * * * *

If this problem happens fairly often, then perhaps the best way to detect them (in the midi stream) is by using a sequencer in 'record' mode to capture the spurious data along with the notes you are playing on your Kurzweil k2500x.  Assuming you can play back the recorded midi sequence, THEN you will be able to gather information about the spurious notes.

Upon reviewing the nature of the random notes in the midi stream (assuming they are present when you left the sequencer in 'record' mode, and were able to capture these spurious notes), we may obtain a better sense of the source of these extra notes.

Under normal circumstances, I would not expect the Kurzweil keyboard to be a source of spurious notes -- unless there were a loose midi cable coming out the keyboard and/or going into the computer.  (Do you have a separate midi box for handling midi, or does the sound card handle midi by means of USB cable?)   A loose or low-quality midi- or USB cable might be a source cause of spurious data:  Try switching cables, if possible, and check whether the problem persists.

About 21 years ago, when I was first getting into midi-controlled instruments, my sequencer (called Master Tracks Pro-5) was the culprit!  At times, random notes would seem to fire, and their lengths were sometimes in excess of 25 measures!  This is why I asked if this problem occurs when using the Kurzweil in standalone mode.

If you get short spikes of unwanted midi data, the sequencer data will help you determine the midi channel on which it occurred;  it may also indicate a midi continuous controller might be inadvertently switched to send midi note-on messages.

I hope some of this information may be of help to you.

Cheers,

Joe

A shot in the dark - did you perhaps try to change the MIDI cable? Sometimes it can do wonders, surprisingly enough.

Another big shot in the dark - for the time being it might also be worth ensuring that the K2500SX is only transmitting on one MIDI channel, and if it has the capability to transmit polyphonic aftertouch, disable that too. The reason being that if it is transmitting a lot of MIDI data, it could overload your DAW or something else in the chain.

Greg.

Yep, no poly AT transmitting in K2500x, I believe.

Hello imyself,

If the problem went away when you changed midi cables, and now the problem is back (even after you changed cables again), I might suggest that the problem may still lie in the quality of your midi cables.

If the midi cables you are using happened to come with the equipment you purchased, then I am sure those are the lowest quality cables possible.  Usually the lowest quality cables have injection-molded plastic connectors with cheap metal contacts.

Here is my suggestion:  Go to a store where professional grade electronic instruments are sold, an purchase one or two sets of good quality midi cables.  I forget the name of cables I use, but they are of metal rather than injection-molded plastic.  The better stores will allow you to return them for your money back (hint: use a credit card so the sale may be canceled easier).

Try these new, high-quality cables in your system for a week.  I suspect the problem will go away permanently.

Cheers,

Joe

Is there an arpeggiator in the kurz?
If so check if it is switched on or sending midi clock signals or alike. Maybe remote transport function or something similar. If you don't know your keyboard very well and you have no personal patch or preset I'd suggest to try a hard reset of the thing

After what you have explained it is clearly your midi interface somehow.
Could be a bad connection in the midi input connector since it got better exchanging the cable but then got bad again.
If a new cable doen't help it's your midi interface.

as i am afraid olepro may have right, can you,please, give me advice for buying a good quality usb external sound card/MIDI box...

thank you

(and,always if olepro is right; do you think it is possible/easy to fix the MIDI trouble in my alesis sound card?)

i receive my midi monster cable today, feel happy because i can play 3 hours without any troubles and... it came back!!!

one thing i discover: one of my pedal have 2 Controller...
i assign 64 and there is 4 too ???

for Michael,

i translate your advice but i do not understand it,
my english is very poor, sorry

ok! i do not try this yet... and this is it !!!

i take off my Alesis io2 express and every thing is fine now...
but what does it mean?
is my external sound card not good?
because, before (as a reverb) alésis was very knows for quality product and it seem that it is not same thing for external sound card right?

but in this way, i only use my little (but not too bad) altec lansing output...

do you think i may do something to fix my external soundcard ?

thank you a lot for your advice Michael, you finally found it

ok! here is what i do:
1) i exchange the usb cable
2)as i do not use any more my k2500: i do not need my old Behringer XENYX 802 (and it seem there was few little electric troubles) so i go now straight in my amplification,
3)i must admit that all my audio cables are almost new, but not the best quality (it was ok before, but not for use with midi and computer, and a external sound card)
and with latency, no problem

thank you for help

EVERYTHING IS FINE NOW, YESSS!!!

i keep using my external sound card, and stop using midi cable...

what i do not understand before, it is that the VMK 188+ do not need any midi connection!

well,i buy monster cable for nothing, but i feel so good that my "ghost note" finally disappear...

Michael: merci beaucoup