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Topic: Midi Import (Read 3151 times) previous topic - next topic

Midi Import

Hi, I have seen some posts on this topic and I am curious as to how NWC handles the relationship between the midi info and the notated representation of it.  When I play back midi files I have imported, they sound stiff and mechanical and sometimes even a bit cacophonous and dissonant.  I assume this is because of quantisation (in time) of the midi events.
In many cases, midi events are slightly off the beat.  If NWC automatically quantises these events (according to the resolution setting during the import process) then the playback will be affected.  If, on the other hand the events are not quantised but the notation is “intelligently” simplified then the play back will be as intended and the notation much more readable.  This would of course require a layer of abstraction between time-phased midi events and the notation.
One strategy would be to create a quantised version of the midi file, which could be generated by parsing the raw events, and using this “ghost data” to drive the existing display and printing processes.  The raw, un-quantised data could then be used for play back and exporting to midi.  This way the two conflicting requirements of readable notation and smooth play back would be nicely decoupled, hence reducing the complexity of the required code and lowering the risk of subsequent instabilities.  It would also require a “piano roll” mode for viewing and editing the un-quantised events.  This would be a separate process but could be vastly simplified by not worrying about note tails and rests, which would not be required.  (Just like the piano roll mode in Band in a Box)
This would solve the ONLY problem that I have with NWC.
Are there any plans to do this?

Re: Midi Import

Reply #1 –
I don't speak for NWC, but I do import MIDI. Your proposal sounds worthwhile. There's a "wish list" - try that.

I would point out that there are occasions when I actually do want the playback or MIDI export to correspond strictly to what is on the screen, even if the originally imported MIDI did not.

Re: Midi Import

Reply #2 –
One workaround occurs to me, though it may be a bit cumbersome.  First, import the MIDI file with the import options set to the messiest looking, but least quantized settings.  That is, smallest possible note and rest values.  Hide all the staves and save this file as a .nwc file.  Import the MIDI file again, now with the import options set to give the cleanest looking notation, perhaps smallest note being a sixteenth note and smallest rest being an eighth or even a quarter rest.  In the first, messy-looking (but hidden staves) .nwc file, create a new blank staff for each hidden staff, the same number of measures in length.  Go to the newly imported file and one-by-one, copy and paste the clean notation from each staff into the blank staves in the first file.  Mute each of these new staves and re-save the file.  Now you should have a more natural-sounding and better-looking NWC file.  Good luck!

Re: Midi Import

Reply #3 –
I hardly import MIDI, but when I do, I have the same problems, and have come to accept them as part of life.
A problem I ran into just last week was when I imported Schubert's !u(Ave Maria).  [yeah, I was hopin' it would underline...]  The accompaniment is all these triplet arpeggios, which sound just like triplet arpeggios in the MIDI file.  After import, the sound like (and are notated as) eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth.  I can't even figure out how this happened!  I tried three times!

{What's that "Remember me" box up there for?}

Re: Midi Import

Reply #4 –
In NWC1.75, the triplet import to 1/16-1/8-1/16 (or whatever) is just the way the program does it. You aren't missing a setting, or anything like that.

Re: Midi Import

Reply #5 –
Usually the triplets import as something that resembles sloppy triplets, in sound anyway.  They usually look like dotted-sixteenth dotted-sixteenth sixteenth, or something messier.  This recent one sounds like (and is notated as)  exactly eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth.  Nothing sloppy about it.

{What's that "Remember me" box up there for?}

Re: Midi Import

Reply #6 –
Franklin, that's so you don't have to re-type your name each time.
 

Re: Midi Import

Reply #7 –
The "Remember me" box will set a cookie that remembers your name, so when you come back to our forum, your same name will appear in the Add and Reply pages (for any new responses you do). It also enables a "My Messages" link at at the top of forum pages.