Posted
Seems like this software would be exponentially more useful if it were able to convert auto-accompaniment files like Yamaha's .STY into whatever format Harmony Navigator uses.
Apologies if this has been mentioned before.
Mon, 2009-06-22 - 09:19 Permalink
If you can point us to a file format specificfation, we will be happy to implement a converter for STY styles (at least we could try). I doubt however that Yamaha is willing to share their trade secrets.
Christian
EDIT: Ok, STY and KAR seem just to be simple midi files with extra information added. I will ask Andre to add this to our list.
Mon, 2009-06-22 - 18:01 Permalink
Thanks for responding, Christian.
Other arranger-keyboard manufacturers, like Roland and Technics, have their own style formats. I'm not sure what they are, but my Casio keyboard has an on-board converter, so I'm guessing it's a pretty simple modification to a SMF (although, as you noted, some of them may be proprietary, trade secrets).
Tue, 2009-06-23 - 06:27 Permalink
I've had time to look into this a bit further, and the issue of style formats turns out to be pretty confusing. For example, Roland's .STY standard---they also have .STL and .STH formats---is, despite having the same file extension, not compatible with Yamaha's .STY format (which, as far as I can tell, is the most popular one).
There's a program called Style Works 2000 that can make file conversions between any of the most popular makes of arranger keyboards. I don't know whether they had to pay the manufacturers for the use of those formats.