Can a Digital Piano play "minus one" pieces?

[schwammerl]

I am considering the purchase of a more sophisticated digital piano than my 2014 Kawai CN24. 

I wonder whether the newer digital pianos would allow me to do something like buying a "minus one" version of a musical piece, where I am the "missing player".
 
Say: digital piano plays 2 hands of Schubert's "Marche Militaire" and I play the other two. Or, even better and one fine day, piano plays some piece with a manageable piano part but without the piano, and I am the piano.

I am not interested in the keys moving, "being played", player piano-style. I would be very happy to either hear the part I do not play from the speakers or from the headphones.

I wonder if the instrument (something along the lines of a Kawai CA79 or 99, or Novus 5 or 10, or Yamaha CLP 775 or 785, or NU1X/N1X) would allow something like that, and if there is a market for it. I don't want to visit the shops yet as, when they reopen here, they will be full post-pandemic.

Thanks
S 

   

[timothy42b]

Your CN24 has MIDI out and in, right?

I think you can probably do this now, with the right cable. 

[schwammerl]

Your CN24 has MIDI out and in, right?

I think you can probably do this now, with the right cable.

Thanks Timothy,

Do you know whether such pieces exist or where to find them? In other words, is it "a thing"? Something people actually do? I'd like to find some library and see what might work for me.

And how does it work exactly? I download the software, link the computer to the digital piano and click to start the piece like I would with a video? A bit of an issue now (I would likely need a laptop), but the new instrument would likely have bluetooth.. 
Thanks
S

[ranjit]

I'm pretty sure they do. Some of them also have bluetooth functionality. If you have a midi file, you can use that for one part while you're playing the second part.

[timothy42b]

Thanks Timothy,

Do you know whether such pieces exist or where to find them? In other words, is it "a thing"? Something people actually do? I'd like to find some library and see what might work for me.

And how does it work exactly? I download the software, link the computer to the digital piano and click to start the piece like I would with a video? A bit of an issue now (I would likely need a laptop), but the new instrument would likely have bluetooth.. 
Thanks
S

I haven't looked for examples myself.

MIDI files are everywhere, you'd have no problem downloading as many as you want.  The trick would be finding half of a duet instead of all of it.

And yes, you have a MIDI file on your laptop, the laptop connects to the piano, and you hit start and it plays through the piano.

My laptop and my digital piano are both old.  The piano has only the 5 pin MIDI connectors.  So I needed a MIDI to USB cable to connect to my laptop.  That was inexpensive and worked, but later on I bought a USB-Audio interface.  That is a way of getting sound in an out of my laptop.  It has microphone inputs and outputs to my stereo, and it came with MIDI connections too. 

Modern digital pianos often have USB connections, and all you need is a cheap cable.  Bluetooth is new to me so I don't know how that would work. 

Then, what software do you need on the laptop?  If you google you'll find everyone recommends a DAW, a Digital Audio Workstation I think.  There are lots of good ones out there.  I found the learning curve intimidating but then I'm not exactly young.  However, any computer can play MIDI files on a media player so you don't really need one.  It's just that you can use fancier sounds than the built in MIDI. 

One other method, might be tedious or not depending on what you do.  You can use a notation program like Noteworthy, Musescore, Finale, etc.  Notation programs can all save and open MIDI files.  If I typed a Bach invention into a notation program, I could put the two hands on different staffs.  I could mute one staff and save it to MIDI, mute the other staff and save it to MIDI, and have two files I could play duets with.  I could also vary the speed at will, and use different instruments for the sounds.  With a DAW I could do lots more but like I said I'm not good with them. 

[lostinidlewonder]

You can just make these midi files yourself. Open a midi orchestration of the performance in some midi editing program and delete the piano part and then you have what you want.