Thank you John for this excellent feedback. It's wonderful to hear that my efforts are appreciated. Leon

I was also thinking the same

Gatti DelBorgo George Carlin would say this man a useful old fart. Though collecting social benefits, this old man is still useful in society.

Glad you enjoy our videos. Feel free to link or embed them as you wish. Best wishes, Leon

Sorry for late reply. Yes, of course you can use a MIDI only keyboard, like an Inovation or M-Audio. Leon

+Edwin Abdalian Hello Edwin. Thanks for the positive feedback. No you cannot connect from a Type B USB, also called “USB to Host” or “USB to Computer Port” receptacle on your instrument directly to the BK-7m. There does exist one product that I know of that allows you to accomplish this. It is made in the UK by a company called Kenton. Their product is called MIDI USB HOST. Here it is described on their website: www.kentonuk.com/products/items/utilities/usb-host.shtml This product will convert the signals that your instrument outputs to its “USB to Host” receptacle into conventional MIDI messages. It also provides “MIDI IN” and “MIDI OUT” receptacles for connection to any MIDI device. For the BK-7m you would connect a single standard 5 pin MIDI cable from the “MIDI OUT” of the MIDI USB HOST unit to the “MIDI IN” of the BK-7m. Note however that the “USB to Host” capability on your instrument must be above a certain version. I purchased one of these myself to allow me to connect a Yamaha YPG-235 keyboard to the BK-7m, but found out the hard way that my keyboard’s “USB to Host” capability was too old a version. So it didn’t work. I still have that Kenton product. If you are interested you can email me at castonguay.paul@gmail.com. Or you can purchase the product from an American distributor: www.ebay.com/itm/Kenton-Electronics-MIDI-USB-Host-INTERFACE-NEW-PERFECT-CIRCUIT-/291664004804?hash=item43e88786c4:g:Cd4AAOSwGotWnpZK The product costs about $140. It might be easier just to buy a MIDI controlling keyboard. You might also investigate using a laptop computer to receive signals from your instrument and output them to a USB MIDI Interface unit, like for example the Cakewalk UM-3G. Does this answer your question?

Yes. You can use your PSR S-750 as a controlling instrument for the BK-7m. This would expand your capabilities in some ways. For example, your S-750 has close to 300 accompaniment styles. The BK-7m has close to 500. Plus the BK can conveniently use an unlimited number of styles on the USB flash drive. I'm not sure if your S-750 can do that. Your S-750 has three intros and endings per accompaniment style. The BK-7m has four. On the other hand, your S-750 supports a 16 track recorder. The BK-7m supports only audio recording. Whether or not these things are advantageous to you depends on your needs and preferences.

Hi Roxy. Perfect. Clear explanation. That's the answer I was looking for. This convinces me to buy a backing module. And yes, the PSR-S750 is also able to play styles via an USB flash drive. It's simular to the PSR-S770, PSR-S950. Thanks a lot for your help and keep up the good work! Best regards from Belgium.

Acruz R Sorry for late reply. We do not always have time to monitor messages on this channel. Yes, style editing is featured on the BK-7m. I recommend that you refer to page 66 of the owner’s manual, which you can download free from Roland’s website. On the scale of things, the BK-7m is not a high end arranger. Still, its performance is amazing for the price. But don’t expect editing features as well as individual MIDI channel control to be as convenient and extensive as what you find on high end products like Ketrons Audya. Personally I feel that the BK-7m has the most bang for the buck. Leon

Acruz R You asked if the BK-7m is a sampler. Do you mean by that if the accompaniment styles use sampled sounds as opposed to synthesized sounds? The accompaniment styles use sampled sounds. They are very realistic. They are equivalent in quality to the Yamaha PSR series and Roland BK-9 keyboards. LEON

VirtualAccordionist thank you for the info....best regards

You definitely can use the BK-7m with the Yamaha Motif XS6. Just connect the MIDI OUT of the Motif to the MINI IN of the BK. You can also connect the audio out of your Motif to the audio in of the BK, thus playing your Motif sounds layered on top of the auto accompaniment of the BK. The BK will turn your Motif into a very high quality PSR type keyboard. Leon

Thank you Roxys for your time to answer my questions, u got a subscriber.

As far as I know, you cannot add new sampled sounds to the BK-7m. Also, you cannot add non western scales consisting of more than 12 notes per octave. But yes, you can use imported rhythms designed by others. I recommend that you look online to see what is available.

It is not likely that you would want to connect your RA-90 to the BK-7m. The BK is an external arranger that is more modern, and hence more advanced than your RA-90. Hence, the BK is intended to replace your RA-90. You can of course daisy chain your RA-90 and BK-7m together, as you can any MIDI instruments, and control them both from a common MIDI controller, but I'm not sure why you would want to.

RoxysMusicStore Tanks for giving me an answer so fast I wanted to sometimes go back to vintage. Iam trying now to sell it on KIJIJI i already have 3 offers Thank You again Denis

Denis Perron The proper way to daisy chain two MIDI instruments together is to configure each to receive messages on different MIDI channels. Still, without doing that configuration work, if you only want to play your arrangers one at a time, you might try just connecting your MIDI controller to the "MIDI In" of one of your arrangers, then the "MIDI Thru" of that arranger to the "MIDI In" of the other. The BK does not have a "MIDI Thru". I notice that your RA-90 has three MIDI receptacles. Hopefully one is labelled "Thru". This may or may not work. It depends on whether or not the RA-90 properly resends all messages unmodified to the BK. It may not. But this interconnection scheme may also cause both arrangers to get very confused. If this doesn't work, then you should reconfigure each arranger to receive signals on different MIDI channels and then send messages from your controller on appropriate channels for each arranger. Seems to me easier to just use your arrangers one at a time by physically disconnecting one while you use the other.

RoxysMusicStore Thank You again most appreciated good day Densi

Yes, I know the problem well. My guess is that you are very proud of the sound of your acoustic and you would like to use it with the auto accompaniment of the BK-7m. But as you point out, that's not realistic if you cannot mute the left part of the piano. People who sell acoustic/MIDI pianos, as well as acoustic/MIDI accordions never tell you this. Indeed, most people don't understand this until like you they try to do it. Still, there are compromises. You can for example still make video or CD recordings playing the piano as a controller and recording only the electronic sounds of the BK-7m. You'll hear the acoustic sound of your piano in the room, but it won't be recorded. The BK has 1,000 sounds. Won't you want to use them? Also, the BK, like any arranger, is really a full orchestra. Typically the piano tone would represent only a minor part of most performances. And even if you do favor a piano tone in your performances, the BK contains a very nice piano sound. Maybe it's not quite the same as your acoustic, but on the scale of things it's pretty good. I doubt your audiences would complain about it. Of course a great solution would be a Roland V-Piano. Best of luck with it.

2nd point: the bk isn't available anymore here in Germany. It might be too old (it's from 2011!? ) Just ketron devices, but they are much more expensive .... 😥

@@B-S-K I agree that the price as well as the small physical size of the BK-7m makes it very competitive. Ketron has nothing close for the same price. And although it's been on the market for a while, feature wise the BK-7m is still very attractive. But we agree that currently they are difficult to get. Still, Roland has not yet marked the product as discontinued. We are hopeful that they will manufacture more soon. Good products can remain useful for many years, like the DR-880 for example, which is over 10 years old but still on the market.

+Bruno Bauve Hello Bruno. I assume your piano system plays both acoustic sounds and at the same time generates standard MIDI messages representing all notes played. Whether or not you can use the BK with full auto accompaniment capability depends on if you can silence the acoustic sound of your piano system. The split function that you see me demonstrating in this video is controlled entirely by the BK. The Yamaha piano is sending MIDI messages equally for all 88 piano keys on only one MIDI channel. It’s the BK that decides, based on its own internal split point, what notes should be used to control auto accompaniment and what notes should be used to play treble melody. That is why in the video I had to turn the volume on the Yamaha piano down to zero. I did not want the lower bass notes of the piano to sound on top of the auto accompaniment. So, in my case the BK is playing all sounds, both auto accompaniment and treble sounds. The Yamaha piano is producing no sound in the room, only MIDI messages sent to the BK. The Yamaha piano is being used purely as a MIDI controller. This will work on your piano system only if you have the ability to silence (mute) its acoustic sounds. There are other playing styles where you might want to hear all notes played on both your piano and the BK’s sounds. The BK has a “Track Mute” feature to allow you to play in that manner, in which case some of the auto accompaniment is silent. Only the percussion and bass accompaniment tracks of the BK’s auto accompaniment are heard. In that mode six of the BK's orchestral tracks in the auto accompaniment are turned off. Many pianists of a classical or jazz background like to play the BK in that manner. So you see, even if you cannot silence your piano's acoustic sounds, you can still use the BK in "Track Mute" mode. But when using the full auto accompaniment capabilities of the BK, as you see me doing here, it is best to silence the piano. Does this answer your question? Leon

+RoxysMusicStore Hi Leon. Thanks a lot for your prompt and complete answer. It's perfectly clear to me now. I'm thinking of acquiring a Yamaha acoustic piano equiped with a silent system to replace my Clavinova CVP405. This device silences the piano (U3, B3 or any other) by preventing the hammers to hit the strings ; optical sensors send the information from the keys to the built-in sound processor. The MIDI messages can be sent to any external device, BK 7m for instance, through the MIDI out output. This seems to be a nice solution allowing three alternatives: acoustic piano only, digital piano from the original keyboard using the sounds of the 'silent system', or control an external expander such as BK7m. B/rgds. Bruno

When you turn the system ON, the "Wizard" comes up every time, but simply bypass it by pressing the "Exit" button. You will see that the selections that you previously saved are still in effect. I don't know what you mean by, ... the 4 set instruments all changed to 'Stacked Piano'. Are you talking about the tones that come up when you press the "One Touch" buttons? Can you be more specific? Leon

Hello Leon, Thanks so much for your reply. Yes it is the tones that change. It seems that whatever set of tones are used(according to the rhythm), while I am playing, at some stage all 4 tones change to 'stacked piano' and I have to change them manually -then they change again. Maybe I need to get hold of your DVDs which are relevant to this situation. I have gone through the manual but quite frankly it seems to be for those who already know how the BK-7m works! Any help you can give would be appreciated. Very many thanks and kind regards. John

Hi Leon, It's me again! The change of tones happens when I change the tones on the piano - say from Concert Piano to another piano tone. It seems that any change I make on the piano affects the tones on the BK-7m.

I believe I finally understand your situation. Correct me if I am wrong but you are using a keyboard to control your BK-7m, and you are using sounds that are resident on both your keyboard and the BK, perhaps layering them together. Do not purchase my DVDs. They are for V-Accordionists, which represents an entirely different kind of configuration. For example, 3 MIDI channels are used, whereas on a keyboard typically only 1 MIDI channel is used. Also, my DVDs do not address the problem of when tones on the controlling instrument are selected, they result in changing sounds on the BK as well. The problem you are experiencing is common. First, although I'm not sure you have done this, make sure you have only one MIDI cable from the MIDI OUT of your keyboard to the MIDI IN of your BK. Do not connect a second MIDI cable. The reason selecting tones on your controlling keyboard affects the BK is because your keyboard is transmitting control messages. Every time you select a different sound on the keyboard, it sends a message to the BK. You need to stop this. There are several ways. You can shut off the MIDI channels on which these messages are being sent. Typically they are Channels #10, #13, or #15. You can shut these channels OFF either at the BK end, or the keyboard end. The fact is, if you have a standard keyboard configuration, you only need one MIDI Channel, and that is Channel #1. A second solution is to read the owner's manual of your keyboard and see if there is a menu selection for turning off control messages to an external arranger. Both solutions work, the first is the easiest, but usually some fiddling is required. Let me know if this helps. Leon

I would like to add that no matter what the controlling instrument, electronic piano or accordion, I do not recommend using the sounds (tones) of the controlling instrument. When you do that you must control two instruments, which makes the creation of orchestral variety more challenging. The BK-7m has 1,000 tones. That's more than enough, don't you think? Also, using the "One Touch" feature is an "old school" approach. I advocate that you formally orchestrate your music. For each song you should create a "Performance List" on the BK-7m, which I call a "Song Performance List" and that list should contain multiple "Performance Memories" each one representing the parts of the performance in the order that they should be played. That way you can create much more orchestral variety without the need to press buttons. You control the performance using a foot pedal that activates the "Perf Next (Performance Next)" feature, as demonstrated in the following links: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y8WDpaWKrM20g2g.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fbRzgMh-2L-ye5c.html&spfreload=5 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iKd2ibaJ1s7KqmQ.html&spfreload=5 The second link explains the construction of a 17 part orchestration called "Liebestraum". You can even download the "Performance List File" and try it out yourself. Even when playing simple, beginner level music, as I demonstrate in the last link, more orchestral variety can be controlled by using the "Formal Saved Multi Part Song Orchestration" approach to playing. The "One Touch" buttons are a technique from the 1990s. The "Performance List" approach is a more modern technique of the 21st century.

Please call the store.

An electronic arranger, like the BK-7m, requires an electronic piano with MIDI capability.

Hello Antonio. Congratulations for purchasing the BK-7m to use with a Yamaha CLP-430. Great combination. First, unless you are an expert in MIDI, you should connect only one MIDI cable from “MIDI OUT” of CLP-430 to “MIDI IN” of BK-7m. Secondly, if you feed the “Audio Out” of the BK-7m to the “Audio In (AUX IN)” of the CLP-240, then of course you will hear the “Upper Part” of the piano and UP1-UP2 of the BK-7m at the same time. As far as I know, that is what your piano is designed to do. It is much better to connect the Audio Out of the CLP-240 and Audio Out of the BK-7m to a mixer and then to a separate external audio system. This is what I do. To silence the sound of my piano, I turn the volume at the piano to zero, as you saw me do in the video, or at the mixer. Connecting both your CLP-240 and your BK-7m to an external audio system, like a good home Hi-Fi system for example, will greatly improve the sound quality of both your piano and the BK-7m. I wish you success with your CLP-BK setup. Leon.

One more thing, the BK-7m contains an internal mixer. So you can connect the “Audio Out (AUX OUT)” of the CLP to the “Audio In” of the BK. Then connect the BK “Audio Out” to an audio Hi-Fi or stage amplifier-speaker system. So you don’t need to buy a mixer, but I did because it allows more convenient control of BK, CLP, as well as microphone for singer. Again I wish you success. Leon.

Hello Leon! Thank you for your time and your explanation. I really enjoy your videos. You are a very nice person. At home what sound system do you recommend? Roland CM-110 or 2 Monitors Yamaha HS 5 to connect BK-7m? I work with 2 Roland CM 30 and i don´t like the sound very much. Feels like empty space...The sound system of my Piano is much better. Is for that i want connect BK-7m to the sound system of my piano. I feel the surround... I think it is possible disconnect the internal sound generator of my piano in the internal settings. That way the BK reproduce is sound in the piano and we don´t ear the UP1 of the piano anymore. Don´t you agree?? Best wishes António Xavier (Music at Home)

António Xavier Hello Antonio. I do not know if it is possible to disconnect the internal sound of your piano. If you can, then I agree that it will work. But I do not know if you can. You are correct in recognizing that small portable stage speakers, like the Roland CM-30, are not as good as the sound from your CLP piano itself. And you are very smart to try to improve the sound when you use your BK-7m. I have never heard the Roland CM-110 or Yamaha HS-5, so I cannot comment for sure, but I suspect that both are better than the CM-30. However, I cannot say for sure if they are better than the speakers in your CLP piano. I recommend that you visit a store and listen before buying. Myself, I use large 3-way speakers (three speaker cones for bass, mid-range, and high-range) made for home Hi-Fi. In general, speakers made for home Hi-Fi are designed for more accurate sound reproduction than stage speakers or monitor speakers, which are made more for portability. Leon

Hello Leon! I found it is possible disconnect the internal sound of the piano. In the Menu Settings set the function "Local" to OFF. Many thanks for talk with me.

+AetherElemental Sorry for late reply. I don’t check this channel as much as I should. Your idea works, and I can appreciate that it might make you feel like you are getting more performance for less money. But it is not to my liking. I don’t use the resident (internal) speakers of my Clavinova, even when I play it on its own. A much better solution is to feed the electronic audio output of the piano to a Hi-Fi amplifier/speaker system. It doesn’t take much to improve the sound of any electronic instrument’s internal speakers. Even a standard $150 Hi-Fi receiver/amplifier with half decent speakers will make a world of difference. I consider internal speakers on any electronic instrument to be just monitors. They are convenient for verifying that the instrument is working, but not for practice, and certainly not for formal playing to family and friends. In my opinion a $2,500 instrument like my Clavinova with its superior tonal quality deserves better audio reproduction than any internal speaker system. Also, the internal speakers of my Clavinova would not do justice to the many studio quality orchestral sounds of the BK.

If your piano is electronic and supports conventional MIDI output, then it is easy. This video shows you how. If your piano is only acoustic, you might research a MIDI retrofit, but it's probably easier to just buy an electronic piano, like Yamaha Clavinova, Roland RD-700, or Roland V-Piano.

roberamujazz Your baby grand would need to have MIDI capability to use any external arranger, including the BK-7m.

Claudio Lugli Sorry for late reply. I did not notice your comment when you posted it. Yes, of course the BK would be a good match for your Technics KN7000. The approximate 500 resident accompaniment styles of the BK plus unlimited import of new styles would represent a considerable expansion in capability. Leon