Ever wonder how you can be so stupid?

[Scubacpa]

For those of you who have been following my posts you know that I am doing the CD tuturial course. My CVP is in the family/living room so I usually have to use it with head phones (if I'm playing no one wants to hear it).

So the first few times I used the CD I had two sets of head phones around my neck one for CVP and one for my portable CD player. A couple of times I had both sets on my head with one ear pad from each on one ear so I could listen to both at the same time. That was pretty stupid and I realized it pretty quickly.

So the next thing I did was jury rig the headphone out of the CD player and the headphone out of the CVP to a splitter (using it backwards) and plugging in one set of headphones. That worked sort of OK but volumn control was an issue. When I would play the keys on the CVP the volume fo the CD would go down. If I turned the volume of the CD player up but then stopped hitting keys on the CVP the volume went up and blasted me.

Tonight I had a big DUH!!! and realized there was a much better way. I put the CD headphone out to the line in on the CVP. Plug the headphones into the CVP and "presto" I can now hear both very clearly and can use the line in volume control and/or the CD volume control to get it just right.

Why did it take me so long to figure out something so obvious???? I'm supposed to be a fairly bright person.

That has led me to another good use. I have been learning Imagine over the last few months (before the CVP with my Technics) and think I have it down pretty good (it's the one song I can play without friends and family scrambling for the door) but I have been wondering if I was playing at the same tempo as John Lennon played it. A few times I would listen to the CD on the home stereo system and try to play along with it. Kind of inconvenient. After my DUH moment tonight on the portable CD player hookup I realized I can use the same arrangement to listen to an audio CD through the CVP (with or without headphones) and play along with it very much like a midi file (with admittedly less control). So tonight I was jamming with John Lennon!!!

Has anyone else ever used this kind of hookup?

[wally]

That's simply brilliant, Gary! I hadn't thought of that.

[ClavinovaGuy]

Exactly! When I got my 209 a few years back, that was one of the features I appreciated most (my old CVP-83s didn't have a line-in). Fun, huh? :D

[wa7bqb]

I use my mp3 player that way when I (attempt to) play along with mp3's.

[Scubacpa]

Since this moment of enlightenment (the DUH moment) I decided to check if the manual made any such suggestion. It says nothing about a CD or other kind of music in. It does mention a guitar. So I tried plugging my electric guitar in. It works great. I have been leaving a separate guitar amp under my piano with the guitar on a stand next to it. Now I can just plug the guitar into the CVP and put the amp away. One less piece of equipment in the room. My wife will love that! Before I had the CVP I would occassionally do the hook up in reverse to the Technics (out fromt the Technics to the amp) because the speakers in the Techincs were so small. Never thought of going the other way.

For those who have not tried this yet make sure you move the input switch from "mic" to "line" first. One reason you want to switch to "line" is that I found if you have a CD player going in and it is still on Mic when you hit the damper pedal it muddies the sound of the CD. Also if you plug in a mic while in the "line" position you get a lot of noise. So the switch does do something.

[ClavinovaGuy]

You can also put effects on your guitar, like distortion, etc. My nephew plugged in once when he brought his guitar over and had a lot of fun with it.

[Scubacpa]

Yes I found that out last night.

About a year ago I had purchased a fancy gutiar amp a Fender G-DEC because it had digital effects. If I had known I was going to get the CVP I could have skiped that purchase. Oh well ... Boys and their toys! But then again I'm not sure I want to take the chance of blowing out the speakers of the CVP banging on the guitar, so I will only do it for low level practice.

[ClavinovaGuy]

Yup, probably not worth trying to crank the Clavinova up to "11" - LOL!

[pianogirl]

I use this set up when I am practicing piano concertos. I have a set of CD's that have tracks with the piano and orchestra and one without the piano. I have my cheap CD player play the CD...boy does it sound fantastic through the my 307, and as it is playing, I accompany the orchestra. This is a fantastic practice tool both for myself and my piano students. I love it. But I must admit it took me awhile (ok, 6 months) to figure out that it was possible to do that. Too bad I couldn't blame it on a senior moment...oh wait I'm blond...that's it!

pianogirl

[Scubacpa]

So then I shouldn't feel bad that it took me three weeks to figure out?

[Ian J. Evans]

Scubacpa/Gary

If I understand you correctly, you are connecting the earphone out of a CD player directly into the MIC IN of the CVP.

On page 153 of my CVP 209 manual it indicates connecting the OUT of an audio source to the AUX Input jacks of the CVP, left and right for stereo and to the AUX IN L/L+R for monaural.

Is there a reason for using the MIC In instead of the AUX IN...?

I have yet to try it as I do not have the proper cables and we are in the midst of a snow storm, too bad to go shopping...<GRIN>

Ian

[Scubacpa]

Yes. The mic/line-in works for an input source without a preamp. So for a portable CD player which only has a headphone out jack this works best.

I tried putting in into the aux/in jack and the volume is not loud enough. If I turn the CD player volume all the way up, then turn the CVP volume to the point where I can hear the CD player properly - if I then hit a piano key it is way too loud. I assume that if you hooked up an audio source from a preamp (like the audio out of a home stereo system) then it would be OK.

By using the mic/line in jack I have three sources of volume control (the line in knob next to the line in, the CD player, and the main CVP volume). This allows you to adjust them so that you get the correct relative volume to each other.

Good question!

[Ian J. Evans]

Thanks Gary

I've got it...! I'll give it a try when I get the cables.

BTW, I also just received the 'Smith' tutorials.


Ian

[Scubacpa]

Originally posted by Ian J. Evans
Thanks Gary
I've got it...! I'll give it a try when I get the cables.
BTW, I also just received the 'Smith' tutorials.

Ian

Then the set up I described is perfect for listening to the tuturials. Especially if you have to listen with headphones to not disturb the rest of the household.

[Scubacpa]

Oh ... almost forgot. Besure to go into the Mic settings and change it to "talk" and then go into talk settings and be sure reverb is set to zero. Otherwise Mr Simon will sound like he is speaking in an echo chamber to you.

[Ian J. Evans]

Gary

I have it working following your instructions. However, I still get an echo chamber efrfect when 'Simon Sez' play a key on the CVP.

It is not a major problem, but would be nice to eliminate if possible.

Any suggestions...?

It sure is a handy way to listen to the Tutorials.

Ian

[Scubacpa]

Hit Mic Settings (far left top of keyboard)
Set "Talk" to "On" (it will default back to off everytime you turn the power off)
Now while still in the Mic Settings/Vocal Harmony screen hit the button that says Mic Settings (on my 309 it's button I)
Then go to the second tab labled Talk Settings
Then to the drawbar (on mine it's number 5) labled Reverb Depth and move it to zero.

When you turn the power off the reverb depth will stay at zero but the talk setting will go back to off (strange), so in the future you will only need to do the first step to turn talk on.

Also I noticed that when you go into step record mode the talk goes back to "off" for some reason. So when you listen to that chapter you will have to just deal with the reverb.

[Ian J. Evans]

I do not have a choice of TALK on or off.

I have two pages showing when I press the Mic Setting button: OVERALL SETTING AND TALK SETTING.

The REVERB DEPTH is in the TALK SETTING page.

I do have DSP MIC; ON or OFF choice on this page, so I set it to ON to see what would happen.

Turning the CVP off does not affect these settings...!

I have a CVP 209, so maybe Yamaha changed these functions in the 3xx series.

I would like to hear from a 209 user to see if they have tried to hook up a CD player in this fashion, and with what results.

I still get a strange background voice offset from Simon but not as objectionable as previous. Interesting...!

Thanks Gary for your help, I followed your previous instructions to the letter.

Ian

[Scubacpa]

I don't know the settings for the 200 series. If there are equivlent settings hopefully someone else who has a 200 can help you.

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi Gary

It is working, just not perfectly...<GRIN>

It is a very convenient way to listen to the tutorials, I haven't tried to use it for music CD's.

If there are any 2xx series users out there that are also using the tutorials, please let us kinow how and what you did to set it up. And how is the performance, thanks.

Ian

[Scubacpa]

Yes, but let's strive for perfect!!!

[kempedkemp]

That is good news Gary. I will want to use that feature when my new CVP307 at church gets here this week.

My home theatre stereo has a remote and my CLP170 is in the same room so I have been jamming quite a bit with Carol King, Billy Joel and Elton John (just to name drop a few of the musicians I'm hangin with.) Its a ball to crank up the sound system and piano together. Who needs midi files when you have the artist's own recording, a huge sound system and a deluxe Clavinova?

Ed Kemp

CLP170 home
CVP370 at church starting tomorrow!

[Ian J. Evans]

It seems appropriate to change the subject title.

I realized after close inspection that I was using a monaural connecting cable. I now have a stereo cable and the audio sound is improved.

Judging by the lack of posts from 2xx series users I assume that they do not have the tutorials. Probably have it all figured out by now. I admit to not using many of the CVP functions, mostly just play it as a piano at this time. Hopefully the tutorials will inspire me.

Ian

[Scubacpa]

I am pretty much with you. Mostly using the CVP as a piano. I have learned a tremendous amount of things from the tutorials although I don't currently have the talent or skill to really use them effectively. But at least now I know what all the buttons do and when the talent and skill finally comes I know what's available.

My favorite feature that I do use a lot is the music finder. I have the "The Best Fake Book Ever" and just about every song in that book is listed in the music finder data base. It picks my style and voices for me and I just start playing.