standard MIDI files

richard8199 · Post by **richard8199** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:23 pm

Having trouble saving DP 5.12 as a SMF. Any takers out there?

Richard

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:44 pm

You need to be more specific what are your problems? Did you look at the manual in the MIDI export section?

richard8199 · Post by **richard8199** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:11 pm

I'm using a MacBook Pro with finale 2007 and DP 5.12. When I save a DP file as SMF, it doesn't open properly in Finale••”basically nothing or only 1 part (out of 6 or 34 doesn't seem to matter). I've followed the correct procedures in DP for exporting to SMF (I've been doing this for years and had no problems on the G4 laptops). Tonight I saved a file in DP 4.6 from my MacBook, bounced it over to a G5, opened it in DP 4.6, saved as SMF, then opened on my Intel machine in Finale and it worked.

So is this an Intel issue, DP 5.12 or what?

Thanks

rcannonp · Post by **rcannonp** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:33 am

What options do you have set in the MIDI File Options after you tell it to save as a MIDI file?

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:06 am

richard8199 wrote:I'm using a MacBook Pro with finale 2007...

Have you tried it in an earlier version of Finale or even opening it in Quicktime? Finale 2007 is the first update that almost nobody is using. 2008 is a waste of your money.

You might even try downloading the demo of Sibelius and seeing if it will import. DP has never faltered for me in the area of exporting a MIDI file.

richard8199 · Post by **richard8199** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:32 am

When exporting from DP 5.12, I select format 1 (multi-track) and the end of the file in measure, beats. etc. I turn off print effects and loops as there are none, but tried that anyway to no avail.

It's odd that Finale 2007 will open a smf from DP 4.6 but not from DP 5.12. I'm stuck with Finale 2007 at the present time. Don't have Quicktime Pro at the moment, so that's not an option.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:37 am

richard8199 wrote:Don't have Quicktime Pro at the moment, so that's not an option.

I thought standard QTime would open MIDI files...?

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:36 pm

Have you tried reopening the SMF file in DP? That's a good sanity check on the save procedure. Even though you're doing things the way you always have, there's something funky in DP 5 if your project has interleaved audio and MIDI tracks. It doesn't give errors on save, but won't reopen.

This is just a guess. It only take a minute or two to verify. Just close your current project file and open the MIDI from the file menu. It might crash, in which case you know you need to change your MIDI export methodology.

I do a lot less MIDI export now as a result of how poorly it plays with complex projects anymore. On occasions where I really cannot avoid it, or am nervous about not having MIDI backup in case the project itself gets corrupted, I carefully select the MIDI tracks one by one in the Tracks Overview and then do a save to SMF. This works flawlessly, but is time-consuming.

There might be easier ways, without restructuring how one sets up projects (I pair MIDI and audio tracks, in cases where I don't record the audio live). My project structuring works for my workflow so I'm not going to change it just to better facilitate MIDI export.

richard8199 · Post by **richard8199** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:57 pm

Yeah! When I reopened the same sfm in DP, the 1st 2 bars showed up••”out of a 475 bar symphonic piece. it looked something like lightening (as depicted in a comic book)••”very strange.

I need the smf to export to Finale, as I do that kind of thing often. Just wondering if anyone with Dp 5.12 and an Intel machine had noticed this. It didn't happen on a G 4 or even a G 3••”never! In over 20 years of doing this, I've never seen this before.
Weird!

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:12 pm

When You export, is everything play enabled? What is the end time of sequence in the dialog box?

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:51 pm

Ah yes, the "play enabled" feature is critical in getting proper MIDI export. I forgot to mention that when talking about selecting the MIDI tracks directly.

And now I'm realising there might be a somewhat faster shortcut to exporting MIDI from a complex project with tarck folders, VI's, and interleaved MIDI and audio: perhaps switch to Mix view, set up a mix and disable all but the MIDI tracks, then do an export? Worth trying. Might be a faster way to get the MIDI to export properly.

I'm still not sure why there's a problem, but haven't used a hex editor yet to analyse the flawed export files. Possibly something to do with metadata and how it's handled in the new world of track folders? Maybe MOTU uses some MIDI SysEx internally for some of this stuff, and it gets put into the MIDI file unless only the MIDI tracks are selected and play-enabled?

richard8199 · Post by **richard8199** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:12 am

To all-thanks. I made sure that the current chunk was play enabled and deleted all but the MIDI tracks, including a click track which I thought might be a problem. The end time for this project is 475, but I tried smaller files as well. For example, a 10 bar seq. with only 6 tracks, and all whole notes. Only track 5 showed up. With the larger file, Finale kept reading well beyond the 475 bar end point. I could have gone upstairs and made a sandwich and the Finale would keep transcribing the file.
Again, all very weird. It must be some kind of corruption, because others who have tried it on an Intel machine were unable to duplicate the problem.

I managed to get a copy of Finale 2006, and will wee what happens over the weekend.

Richard

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:44 am

richard8199 wrote:...

I managed to get a copy of Finale 2006, and will wee what happens over the weekend.

Richard

This should be interesting...

gspin · Post by **gspin** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:39 am

If it is any consolation to you I am experiencing analogous problems exporting a SMF generated in DP5.11 into Sibelius.
Sibelius will only read the first 2 tracks. If I break the sequence down into chunks it might read 3 out of 4 tracks. Will try exporting from an earlier version of DP and see what happens.

gspin

gspin · Post by **gspin** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:21 am

Okay, I tried pulling up the SMF generated by DP5 in Quicktime Pro and then exporting from Quicktime as a MIDI file and pulling that up in Sibelius and it worked. Sibelius was able to read all the information. The only problem is that all tracks are combined into one! So I guess I would have to export each track individually... unless someone has a better idea

best

gspin

MOTUnation.com

standard MIDI files

standard MIDI files

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