MIDI channel per part on Electro 5&6?

[Nadroj]

I couldn't see it in the manual for the 6 but I assume it's the same as the 5: if I wanted to use an Electro 6 to control a synth sound from another keyboard, could I use it like the external section in a Stage? Electro 6 has 3 parts now: if I set the sample synth MIDI channel on the Electro to the same as another synth and made sure the sample section was muted I could use its designated section on the keyboard to play the external keyboard while playing organ/piano on another split,right?

[maxpiano]

I am afraid this is not supported, at least the manual doesn't talk about that option, only one single Global channel

11 - Channel
Global
this sets the transmitting and receiving MIdI channel for the Global channel. the Global channel transmits all keyboard, pedal and panel actions as MIDI signals. It can also be used as a receiving channel with full control of the entire Electro 6.

But no possibility to assign MIDI Channels to the split zones, apparently,

[anotherscott]

I couldn't see it in the manual for the 6 but I assume it's the same as the 5: if I wanted to use an Electro 6 to control a synth sound from another keyboard, could I use it like the external section in a Stage? Electro 6 has 3 parts now: if I set the sample synth MIDI channel on the Electro to the same as another synth and made sure the sample section was muted I could use its designated section on the keyboard to play the external keyboard while playing organ/piano on another split,right?

The 6 is very different from the 5 in how it handles sound assignments. The 6 has instrument sections as you describe, the 5 doesn't, it has Upper and Lower parts (i.e. on the 5 you select keyboard regions and assign sounds to them, whereas on the 6 you do the reverse, selecting sounds and assigning keyboard regions to them). So MIDI channels on the 5 are assigned to keyboard regions, not sound engines (there's no such thing as a "sample synth MIDI channel" - there is a global channel, and some additional options for Lower and Upper). On the 5, you can do what you want from the Upper part (i.e. you can play external synth above the split point, whether by itself or layered with an internal sound, while playing an internal sound below the split point). It's still pretty far from the functionality of the EXT feature of a Stage.

As far as I can tell, the 6 is a step backwards here, it has no comparable functionality at all, there appears to be no way to mix internal and external sounds over different regions of the keyboard. There are only two MIDI channel assignments: the global channel, and a "LO" channel which is used if you want to trigger an internal sound from an external keyboard (i.e. 2nd organ manual, or piano from an external board while playing organ/synth from its own keys). The different sound engines don't have heir own MIDI channels (and neither do the different key regions).

[Nadroj]

Ah, that's a shame. I don't know why I assumed each engine would have its own MIDI channel. Thanks guys.

[maxpiano]

Ah, that's a shame. I don't know why I assumed each engine would have its own MIDI channel. Thanks guys.

Which would make sense, or at least having the possibility to assign say one engine per program to an "external zone"; maybe in a future OS Update (?)

[Nadroj]

Just want to confirm there's been no update in recent years that's changed this? Meaning if I had an external synth playing from the Electro's keyboard, it would always be layered with any of the active sounds coming from the Electro? Not having the ability to have more than one MIDI channel over the whole keyboard is shocking.

[anotherscott]

It's true on the Electro 6, not on the Electro 5 (which permits a separate MIDI zone for the Upper section).

MIDI zoning is a useful feature, but there are plenty of boards that don't have it.