Baldwin D-912 & MIDI

[Dave Rivers]

Way back in the 90's, I purchased a Baldwin D-912 for home use.. it's served
me well for many years as a rather decent practice organ.

However, after discovering Hauptwerk, I wanted to try and add to its
features, or at least let it drive a Hauptwerk virtual organ with its
midi interface.

I found the MIDI-IN/MIDI-OUT on the bottom rear of the organ,
but can't seem to get anything to work... If I plug my MIDI->USB
cable into another MIDI keyboard, the blue MIDI light illuminates,
but not so when I plug it into the D-912.

Has anyone got any idea of how to get the (albeit basic) MIDI
working with a Baldwin D-912?

Many thanks!

- Dave Rivers -

[playspipes]

I have a D-912 with a Wicks (Viscount) CM-100 pipe organ module. Perhaps the problem you are having is with the MIDI channelization. On the D912, the Swell is MIDI channel 1, the Great channel 2, and the Pedal channel 4. As a start, I'd check to be sure that the device you intend to use is set up to accept the MIDI keying data on those channel(s). I agree about the limited MIDI capabilities of the D-912 . . . it sends only keying information . . . no stop control, expression, or the ability to couple one division that has a MIDI voice to another. The CM-100 allows for a MIDI "split" mode where I can route any voice to any channel, so a bit of a work around. I will say that the CM-100 greatly improves the tonal palette of the D-912. i have it playing through a pair of speakers in the rear of the room behind in sort of an antiphonal arrangement. Also modified the audio channelling in the console to allow an additional pair of speakers to be powered by the internal amplifiers. One cabinet to the left of the console for the Great, another up high to the right for the Swell, and a subwoofer driven by the 1/4" Great output jack in the rear corner. This does a lot to minimise the feeling of "sitting on the engine" of the onboard speakers and increases spaciousness of the sound. Hoope this helps some and you get your MIDI working. Good Luck!

[Kurzweil]

If that blue MIDI light is on the USB cable device itself, then I would say that it is indicating that MIDI is coming out of the keyboard and NOT out of the organ. Such a device would not care about channels. Even if you send MIDI on the "wrong" channel, the device should still indicate the presence of the signal, just not respond to it. I have a vocoder I use with an organ. It reads note data to build vocal harmony chords when I sing (poorly) into it. If the channel is wrong, it still reads (flashing yellow LED) but the chords are ignored. It looks like your D-912 may not be putting MIDI out. You can connect the organ out to the MIDI in of the keyboard you mentioned using a standard MIDI cable. When you set the keyboard to the same channel as one of the organ keyboards, it should sound tones from notes played on the organ.