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Topic: Struggling importing midi files (Read 1948 times) previous topic - next topic

Struggling importing midi files

I've been using Noteworthy for a few years but have recently bought Capella scan to scan in files and then edit them. I am a complete (know nothing) novice importing midi files. When import a file, SATB music, it divides it onto loads of staffs and the music is all over the place. I've looked at old advice and it is too advanced for me, I did try Steve Pearson's suggestion of Midi 0 or Midi1 but that didn't seem to help with my problem. I need the scanned music to look like it does in the book (we have licences). I know I'm probable being rather useless but at the moment I've wasted my money!

I would be grateful for any (very basic!) advice.

Thanks

Kath
 

Re: Struggling importing midi files

Reply #1 –
I'm not familiar with the method that Capella scan uses to export MIDI. Presumably, its MIDI output is intended to sound correct when played directly as MIDI, without regard for what might happen if the MIDI is imported into another program (such as NWC).

OCR music recognition programs, in general, are notorious for misinterpreting part of the music. The first thing you must ask yourself is whether the MIDI, when played as MIDI directly in your system's media player, sounds the way you think it ought to sound. If not, then there is little that NWC can do. But if it does sound substantially correct, then perhaps the MIDI is organized so that notes are not placed on channels that correspond to the 4 voices. That is quite possible.

If the original sheet music is on four staves (S, A, T, and B), it is quite possible that the MIDI uses four, less than four, or even more than four channels. If the original sheet music is on two staves (SA, TB), then the MIDI may likewise be on any number of staves.

To debug your problem, take a look at what happens when the MIDI is imported into NWC. How many staves are there? Are they labeled in meaningful fashion, or merely numbered? Is it the case that NWC (lacking any other information) divided the notes by pitch? If NWC divided the notes by pitch, then your job is to rescue low Soprano notes from the Alto or Tenor staff, and so forth. If there is a lot of that happening, then you might find it faster to enter your music directly into NWC.

You might also consider scanning your music with lyrics omitted. It may be that the OCR is misinterpreting lyrics as staff notation. It is easy enough to re-enter the lyrics, within NWC.