Medeli SP4200 User manual

Medeli SP4200
Instructions
Anders Borg, 2023-02-24, revision 10
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................2
Auto Accompaniment.............................................................................................................................................3
Harmony .................................................................................................................................................................4
Performance Assistant............................................................................................................................................5
Function..................................................................................................................................................................6
Registration Memory..............................................................................................................................................7
Record.....................................................................................................................................................................8
Song ........................................................................................................................................................................9
Lesson Mode.........................................................................................................................................................10
Chord Dictionary...................................................................................................................................................11
USB .......................................................................................................................................................................12
MIDI Functions......................................................................................................................................................13
Voices, Styles and Songs.......................................................................................................................................14
Tips .......................................................................................................................................................................15
Reference.............................................................................................................................................................. 15

Introduction
I enjoy this stage piano a lot, in part because of its oddities, and despite it being launched 2017 it’s in my
opinion still worth every penny, at least for home use, and with the stand with pedal unit, its many voices,
styles, songs, connectors etc., yet…
Mileage may vary, but I found the owner’s manual to be quite confusing, and hard to grasp how to use each
feature, especially recording. Also, the UI/UX design of the piano is rather poor (Function times out, Record
works in mysterious ways, etc.). With the number of buttons at hand, this could have been done much better.
The instructions are based on practical research, and I use it myself, so any new insights will be added over
time.
It’s not complete, but rather drilling down into the topics I found needed clarification at the time. I might go
through Performance in more detail, a rather unique and odd feature, but quite pleasing when you get the
hang of it. And you are supposed to be able to upload Yamaha-compatible styles to it (I got instructions from
Medeli support that don’t work). They partly deny this, as Medeli keyboards don’t support Yamaha CASM. Etc.
It’s intentionally split up into one page per topic, so you get the full description of each topic on one (printed
or viewed) page. The text is also intentionally brief but hopefully to the point. I don’t point out whether you
need to press Shift, as that’s obvious from the function (rather than button) name.
It works as well with Thomann SP-5600 (that I have), Kurzweil KA-120, Beale Stageperformer 1000, Classic
Cantabile SP-250, Fame SP-4, and possible other rebrands of the Medeli SP4200. I don’t guarantee it works
with any other Medeli piano or keyboard, even if they are also based on the A2S synth engine, as Medeli tends
to switch things around in each instrument.
Thomann tried to improve on the original manual, but rather made it even worse (other clone providers didn’t
make that mistake). Stunningly, all manuals still list drum sets as “Chinese Instruments” in the Voice list. That’s
impressive. And why did they remove the Chinese instruments from the international version? I would have
appreciated them.
Feel free to point out omissions and errors. Please also mention any other clones based on the SP4200.
You can contact me at [e-mail].

Auto Accompaniment
Select
1. Either press Style or a quick selection button.
2. Select the desired style.
Prepare
1. Press any of Fill A, Fill B, Fade, Intro/Ending, Sync Start based on your needs.
2. Press a chord to start accompaniment if you pressed Sync Start earlier, or press Start/Stop.
Chord Mode
Press Chord Mode for:
1. A.B.C.: Use the left part of the keyboard to play simplified or full (recommended) chords.
2. Full Range: The whole keyboard is used to play full chords. Release the chord (with possible sustain) to
play the melody (accompaniment will not trigger on single notes).
3. No auto chords; Use this for no accompaniment at all or just rhythms.
O.T.S.
1. Press O.T.S. to activate it (A.B.C. is also activated).
2. Press M1 to M4 for different instruments.
Notes
•Rhythms without A.B.C.: Deactivate Chord Mode and press Start/Stop.
•A.B.C. chords without accompaniment: Don’t press Start/Stop or Sync Start.
•Choose a new style when accompaniment is stopped unless you want the tempo of the first style to be
used with the new one.
•If you find the accompaniment to be too loud you can lower it with Accomp v and save a registration
possibly with A.B.C. and other settings activated suitable for accompaniment play.
•I’ve found using accompaniment for correct timing much better than using Metronome, as it’s more
natural and interesting, even with only rhythm playing, and can be varied with the accompaniment-
related buttons. The metronome is also quite sharp sounding, not blending well with softer instruments,
and it’s not possible to lower its volume via the mixer.

Harmony
Harmony makes it easy to add harmony and other note effects to one or more notes you play with the right
hand, based on played chords or automatically, depending on type.
Use
1. Press Function^ until you see Duet (by default).
2. Go through the list of harmony types with ●until you see the one you want. See Function for a list of
harmony types.
3. Wait until Function exits.
4. Activate by pressing Harmony.
5. 1+5, Octave, Echo, Tremolo, and Trill don't need Chord Mode A.B.C. activated. The others do.
6. You can deactivate Harmony or choose some other harmony type via Function^.
Notes
•From a MIDI perspective also the auto-generated notes are sent, so if you record what’s being played,
they are recorded as well.

Performance Assistant
1. Press Perform. The display should show Perform to the right.
2. Select SteelGtr or Piano with ●.
3. Select beat with +/Yes.
4. Exit with Perform.
Guitar
•Black keys: Noises (same for each octave)
•Chord Part A0 to B3: Similar to A.B.C..
•Sub Area 1 C4 to B4: Broken chords.
•Sub Area 2 C5 to A5: Play strings 1 to 6.
•Rhythm Area:
oC6 to G6: Rhythms
oA6 to B6: Endings
•Position Change C7: High position. The display shows Perform.H.
Piano
•Chord Part A0 to B3: Similar to A.B.C..
•Sub Area C4 to B5: Phrases.
•Rhythm Area:
oC6 to G6: Rhythms
oA6 to C7: Endings

Function
Press Function^ and step to each setting.
Setting
Display
Range
Default
Tune
nnn Tune
-50 to 50
0
Beat Type
nnn Beat
0,2 to 9
4
Split Point
nnn Split Pt
1 to 88
34 (F#3)
Sustain Pedal
nnn selected
Sustain Pedal, Soft Pedal, Start/Stop Accompaniment,
Select Memory
Sustain
Pedal
Soft Pedal
nnn selected
Soft Pedal, Start/Stop Accompaniment, Select Memory
Soft Pedal
Harmony Type
nnn selected
Duet, Standard Trio, Full Chord, Rock Duet, Country Duet,
Country Trio, Block, 4 Close 1, 4 Close 2, 4 Open, 1+5,
Octave 1, Octave 2, Strum, Echo 1 to 4, Tremolo 1 to 4,
Trill 1 to 4
Duet
Equalizer Type
nnn selected
Pop, Rock, Classical, Jazz, Dance, Reset
Reset
Reverb Type
nnn selected
Room 1, Room 2, Room 3, Hall 1, Hall 2, Hall 3, Church 1,
Church 2, Delay, Pan Delay
Hall 1
Reverb Level
nnn Rev Lev
0 to 127
Voice
Chorus Type
nnn selected
Chorus 1, Chorus 2, GM Chorus 1, GM Chorus 2, Flanger
1, Flanger 2, Rotary 1, Rotary 2
GM Chorus
2
Chorus Level
nnn Chr Lev
0 to 127
Voice
MIDI In Channel
nnn Receive
1 to 16, All
All
MIDI Out Channel
nnn Transmit
1 to 16
1
Auto Power Off
nnn PowerOff
Off, 30, 60
30
Notes
•Harmony types in italics require Chord Mode A.B.C..
•Harmony types Echo, Tremolo and Trill are synced with Tempo and get shorter with increasing numbers.
•Pressing Yes/No at the same time resets to the default value, as shown in Default.

Registration Memory
You can store up to 48 registrations (8 banks by 6 memories), that are combinations of selected voice, style,
tempo, mixer, and most other settings.
The display shows selected bank and memory under Memory.
Registrations are only accessible when O.T.S. is off.
Select
1. Possibly press Bank (cycle 1 to 8).
2. Press M1 to M6.
Store
1. Possibly press Bank (cycle 1 to 8).
2. Hold Store and then press M1 to M6.
3. Confirm with +/Yes.
Notes
•A registration saves almost all settings (voice, style, function, mixer, tempo. Start from scratch (power on
state) and make only needed changes, so you don’t get surprises when you select it later.
•Preferably set the volumes equal via Mixer and Accomp for all registrations so that you can switch
between them without volume differences.

Record
1. Press Record.
2. Choose what song to save to (RecSong1 to RecSong5 = Song 121 to 125). If you choose one that’s already
been recorded to, you can add tracks to it, or delete tracks from it.
3. You can leave recording mode at this point via Voice etc.
4. Press Record again to enter recording preparation mode. REC is displayed.
5. An empty melody track is selected automatically (shown flashing on the display). Possibly choose some
other with Melody n.
6. Select a Voice and Tempo. You can even select a registration.
7. Press Accomp if you want to save accompaniment to a track. If you do you can now select a style and a
chord mode (A.B.C. is recommended). You can even change this while recording.
8. If you only want to record accompaniment, you can silence all other tracks. That serves as a good
foundation for later melody tracks.
9. You can delete some or all tracks by pressing Record for more than 2 seconds (Delete? Is shown). Delete
with +/Yes. If you delete all tracks the song is deleted too.
10. Press Start/Stop or just start playing to record, possibly with accompaniment.
11. Press Record to stop recording or to leave without recording.
12. The recorded song with all parts will now play automatically on repeat. Stop with Start/Stop.
13. Press Record to go back to step 2.
Notes
•You can save recorded songs to a USB stick as MIDI files. See the USB section.

Song
Play
1. Press Song twice (if you don’t it will auto-play all songs after each other).
2. Select a song. Recorded songs are at 121 to 125.
3. Press Start/Stop to play the selected song. The song will count in one beat (seen on the display).
4. The song will repeat after completion unless you press Start/Stop again.
Control
1. Hold >> or << for fast forward/backward.
2. Press || to pause or play.
3. Press ↻to set loop start and end. While looping press ↻to leave loop mode.
4. Press Start/Stop to stop playing.
Exit
1. Press Voice etc to leave song mode.

Lesson Mode
Prepare
2. Press Song twice.
3. Select the song you want to use for the lesson.
4. Press Lesson. Lesson is shown on the display.
5. Press Lor R, or Land Rsimultaneously, depending on what hand(s) you want to train. See the selection
under Lesson.
6. Select type of lesson by pressing Lesson. See the selection under Lesson.
1. Only tests timing.
2. Only tests pitch.
3. Both timing and pitch are tested.
7. Press Start/Stop to start the lesson.