Stretch MIDI?

[bkshepard]

Is there a way to select a group of MIDI notes on a track and stretch them similarly to what you can do with a soundbite on an audio track? I know I can do it with the Scale Time tool, but it takes a bunch of trial and error to get the right result. I’d like to be able to select the notes, have the first note stay where it is and drag the final note to the correct point in time with the other notes adjusting their timing to maintain the contour of the original rhythm. Is that possible? Thanks!

[labman]

Grab the group of notes velocities at bottom of MIDI editor page, and then just hold control key down while you drag left to right whether you want shorter or longer phrases. Hold shift key down too, if you dont wanna have the notes velocities accidentally move while dragging.

[bayswater]

Holding the control key down brings up the local right click menu here. What are you doing differently?

[stubbsonic]

WOW!! This is a super cool trick!! Add this to the tips sheet!! I never would have guessed that selecting the velocities from that lower pane was the key!!

Here's how I got it working:

1. Go to the lower pane of the MIDI Editor (Dragging up the dotted pane divider below the vertical keyboard).
2. I was tinkering with the "Show Only..." and "insert event type" but I don't think it was necessary.
3. I lasso-selected the note velocities within the lower pane.
4. Hover over any selected velocity so you get the Finger-shaped cursor. Now press-and-hold CONTROL and it will switch to a different cursor (a small circle with bits sticking out on top/bottom/sides.)
5. Now you can drag left/right. A box will appear surrounding the selection from the start of the first note to the START of the last note. If you (like me) always have the grid snap on, you can also hold down command to drag more freely without snapping. If Grid Snap is off, you're good to go.

FUN FACT: If you don't hold shift, it doesn't drag the velocities, it scales them; giving you nice visual feedback about the resulting velocities before you release the button

50 points for @labman!! Congratulations!!

[bayswater]

Thanks for the step by step. It’s odd that you can drag the velocities to time stretch, but you can’t just do the same wth the notes in the main part of the MIDI editor, or in the Sequence editor. Also odd that you can’t do this by dragging the edge of a packed clip.

Note that if you select the notes, the usual Region > Scale Time … command will let you choose a percent change, a new start time, a new end time, or a new length. So is trial and error really required?

[bkshepard]

Wow! Silly me, I was trying to drag the notes, not their velocities. Thank you for that, labman!

Note that if you select the notes, the usual Region > Scale Time … command will let you choose a percent change, a new start time, a new end time, or a new length. So is trial and error really required?

I could never get it to work properly. I think it uses the time/length as calculated from the start of the first note to the end of the last note, not the start of the last note, so I had to trial-n-error it to get the start of the last note placed where I wanted it.

[bayswater]

I don't recall having this problem, so I did some tests. With Labman's solution, it's probably all academic, but I think this will work.

1. New project
2. Pencil in a series of 6 quarter notes starting at 1-1-0
3. Range select (I Tool) from 1-1-0 to 7-1-0 (the range of the notes)
4. Open Region Scale time.
5. Enter 200 in the percent box and Apply

The notes go from 1-1-0 to 13-1-0

6. Undo
7. Enter 150 in the percent box and Apply

The notes go from 1-1-0 to 10-1-0

8. Undo
9 Enter 5 as the new end time and Apply

The notes go from 1-1-0 to 5-1-0

That does what I want.

So I guess what you want is something that defines where the late note starts, not where it ends. I suppose you could select all but the last note, going up to the start of the last note but not including it, and put in a new end time that defines where the last note should start. That will change the percent time in the dialog box, but Apply will not move the last note. You could just drag it to the end of the new range. But you could also do the operation selecting all the notes, and use the computed percent from the earlier step.

Now, going back to Labman's solution, I couldn't get it to work until I got the step by step in the earlier post, but I notice that when you drag the velocities to the right to increase the time range, it's the end of the last note that ends up where you pointed to, not the end of the last note, so I don't see how this works any better.

[stubbsonic]

There's something wonky in your last paragraph. See step 5 of my description above.

I agree that it works better, because you can drag the box to a specific point (say the playback wiper position) and basically set the last note of the selection to start where the wiper (or other visual landmark) is. Not to mention being able to scale velocities in the same gesture.

[bayswater]

set the last note of the selection to start where the wiper is.

I thought the objective in the OP was to set the last note of the selection to end where the wiper is.
The scale time dialog box deals with setting the start time of the last note.

[stubbsonic]

set the last note of the selection to start where the wiper is.

I thought the objective in the OP was to set the last note of the selection to end where the wiper is.
The scale time dialog box deals with setting the start time of the last note.

In my example, I was just saying that if I wanted to visually drag to a specific spot-- I could use the wiper, or a marker as a visual destination for my drag. As opposed to typing a measure, beat, tick for where the last note will end-- which may have been an arbitrary release.

Also, the time scale dialog box does not deal with the start time of the last note, but rather then end of the last note. If I lasso select a range of notes, you can see that time-scale defaults to showing from the start of the first note to the END (not the start) of the last note: (BTW, can you name that tune?)

TimeScaleRange.png (206.41 KiB) Viewed 1428 times

[bkshepard]

I thought the objective in the OP was to set the last note of the selection to end where the wiper is.
The scale time dialog box deals with setting the start time of the last note.

No, I wanted to move the start of the last note to a specific location while leaving the start of the first note at its same location.

[bayswater]

I thought the objective in the OP was to set the last note of the selection to end where the wiper is.
The scale time dialog box deals with setting the start time of the last note.

No, I wanted to move the start of the last note to a specific location while leaving the start of the first note at its same location.

That’s what the command does. So I’m even more confused now.

[stubbsonic]

I noticed that when I did this velocity-selection-type of stretching, that the notes' durations didn't change. Is that true for you all as well?

[bayswater]

I noticed that when I did this velocity-selection-type of stretching, that the notes' durations didn't change. Is that true for you all as well?

Using the Scale Time command, note lengths did change in the same proportion as the stretch.

[stubbsonic]

Yea, and in that zone below, I didn't see an obvious way to include note-release-velocities in the selection-- which might have provided stretch of durations.

Also, I noticed that there seemed to be some special way of selecting, because sometimes I was unable to drag horizontally; but I could make it work if I tried selecting and dragging a few times.