Originellement posté par MarioD
Hi Lazy Bird,
Since you didn't have this problem with BiaB 2020 I believe the problem is the interaction between BiaB 2025 and the Clavinova. I left out Win 10 because if the issue was between BiaB 2025 and Win 10 all of us with an external sound sources would have the problem. Have you contacted the Yamaha people? Maybe they have some incite on this and/or can help you set up some MIDI configurations that may help.
"- I don't know of any multi-instrument VSTi with the sound quality of the Clavinova at a reasonable price (I bought the Garritan JABB3, and I'm very disappointed)" - That is a correct statement. To get good sounding VSTs it can take a lot of money. I have a lot of great sounding VSTis but I have been using MIDI since the mid 1980's. I also was very disappointed in JABB3.
"unless I'm mistaken, there are no good pre-mapped multi-instrument VSTi in GM" - I agree. There are some good sounding ones (Soundfonts, SF2) but probably not as good sounding as you Clavinova: there are a lot of good free ones so you might want to check them out,Timbres Of Heaven is one of the best GM SF2s. Once you get great sounds it is very hard to go back! And yes it does take some time to set up VSTis, plus you have to do it for every song. Note that you can set up a template but it wouldn't work for every song as each song will require different sounds.
Here is my advice:
1- If you want to go the VST route pick either Kontakt or Sampletank. I have Kontakt and a lot of Native Instruments and third party patches for it: a lot of companies produce patches for it, some are free. It is my go to sound source. I hear SampleTank is also very good but I have no experience with it. Both are expensive but if you are serious about VSTs wait for sales. Kontakt can be purchased at half cost during sales.
2-Since you have solved the problem, at least for now but hopefully forever, stay with your Clavinova.
I hope this makes sense to you.

Hello Mario D,

Thank you so much for all this advice!

I'm going to contact Yamaha in France. I know they have a very competent technician/demonstrator: he already advised me a few years ago, and he should be able to shed some light on how MIDI works in my Clavinova.

I'm glad to know that you also find JABB3 disappointing... because that means your Native VSTis are better ;-). If I switch to VSTis, I'm also leaning towards Kontakt/Komplete: it seems to me that Sampletank ages faster and is updated less than Kontakt/Komplete.

But, since I'm a bit lazy and afraid of doing more computing than music, I'll probably stick with my current setup for a while longer. Especially since I just read Simon's last post, which suggests that there may be a bug in the way Utility Tracks work: if that's the case and if PG Music fixes the problem, my Clavinova will still be used as a sound generator for some time!

Thanks again and take care!

Lazy Bird