D-50 & PG-1000

Before I get one of these PG-1000s it would be great to know if this can be done....anyone?

Yes, it is possible. I have the PG 1000 and the D-550 which is the rackmount version of the D-50 and I have done something similar. The PG-1000 has the standard MIDI IN, OUT, and THRU jacks, and it also has one called "parameter in." You plug the MIDI OUT from the D-50 to the "parameter in" and the MIDI OUT from the PG-1000 to the MIDI in on the D-50. This configuration allows you to have the MIDI out from another keyboard or sequencer (computer) plugged into the the MIDI in on the PG-1000 which sends note messages on to the D-50. As for transmitting note messages from the D-50 back to the computer, I believe you will need to send the MIDI OUT from the D-50 to a MIDI splitter first, unless I'm missing something.

The manual for the PG-1000 can be found in the list of manuals here:

ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/productsupport/Manuals/

Thanks for the info so far! Do you mean a midi splitter cable or a midi merge? A midi merge sometimes has 2in/2outs or 4in/1out at least from what I've seen so far. There's one that midiman used to make though I'm not yet sure that this is what I would need to do this. I'm not sure if one midi in splits out automatically to the 2 outs in this case.
A midi cable with a split out would be the better solution but I'm not sure these exist. Do you know of any or can you tell me what you use to split the out from the D-50 so one out goes to the PG-1000 and one to the computer?

I have a MIDI splitter/din sync box that I bought on eBay. It has one MIDI in, 6 MIDI outs, and 2 din sync outs. I believe the correct term, which I should have originally used, is a MIDI THRU box. A THRU box has 2 or more MIDI outs and should carry all data received at its MIDI IN on any of the 16 possible channels unless its manual says otherwise. I have never used my THRU box to send data from my D-550 to any units because it is a rackmount unit with no keys. The only thing the D-550 needs to output MIDI to the PG-1000, because a two-way communication is required for the PG-1000 to work.

The setup I described in my last post will let you use a computer or another keyboard and a PG-1000 to control your D-50 as a sound module. If you want to be able to send note data from the D-50's keyboard to the computer, plug the MIDI out from the D-50 into a THRU box. Plug one output from the THRU box to the "parameter in" on the PG-1000 and another output from the THRU box to the MIDI IN on your computer interface.

Before you buy a MIDI THRU box, check to make sure the MIDI THRU on the PG-1000 doesn't mirror the data received at its "parameter in" instead of its MIDI IN. I really don't think it does, and thus you should have to have a THRU box to send note messages from your D-50's keyboard to the computer, but it is not necessary to have a THRU box to send note messages from you computer to the D-50.

Hit me back if you have any more questions.

-Lee

The Parameter In jack on the PG-1000 does NOT mirror data received to the OUT or THRU jacks.

I use a D-50 as my controller along with a PG-1000. Here's how I have it set-up. I have a MOTU MTP AV 8x8 midi interface, I plug the MIDI out of the D-50 into one MIDI in port on the MTP, then route it to two MIDI out ports, one goes to the Parameter In and the other to the MIDI In on the PG-1000. The MIDI out on the PG-1000 plugs directly into the D-50. So the MTP does the MIDI "Split" you need and sends the MIDI note info to your software. I think I had to turn off the local control on the D-50, but can't remember?

Hope that all makes sense and helps.