Does anyone use (understand) Midi?

[Richard Barrett]

I think we're now at the stage when you won't need to carry any cables

... unless I want to be sure that everything will work, and that if it doesn't, trying a different cable will often fix the problem!

[MrGongGong]

I think we're now at the stage when you won't need to carry any cables - though I don't know what technology will be optimum.

So yesterday we spent about an hour seeing if we could use wireless transmission from a laptop generating images to a projector
Casa da Musica in Porto, where I am now, is one of the best equipped halls in Europe BUT we ended up with an analogue cable.

Bluetooth ? NO WAY , far too unstable and far too many folks with it turned on on phones to make it trustworthy


And what Richard said.... though I had to dig in the shed for a long MIDI cable for this gig

[Dave2002]

So yesterday we spent about an hour seeing if we could use wireless transmission from a laptop generating images to a projector
Casa da Musica in Porto, where I am now, is one of the best equipped halls in Europe BUT we ended up with an analogue cable.

Bluetooth ? NO WAY , far too unstable and far too many folks with it turned on on phones to make it trustworthy


And what Richard said.... though I had to dig in the shed for a long MIDI cable for this gig

I suspected as much!

I don't suppose the cable was any more analogue than any others, but do you mean you didn't use digitally encoded signals? So length of cable would matter, noise, interference etc.?

Were you in the big hall - the Sala Suggia? I found this amusing quote from a site about the hall -

This is the only concert hall in the world with enough natural {light} to read music sheets without artificial lighting.

That rules out evening performances then.

From this site - https://lusitaniaexperience.pt/porto/casa-da-musica/

There are things I hate about that hall, though the sound is pretty good. I would like to hear a symphony orchestra there.
Although I can walk OK, I have big problems on some surfaces - maybe a perceptual thing - and also going up and down stairs - fear of falling.
I hate walking on polished surfaces, and some airports have very glossy surfaces, which can completely throw me - even if I don't slip. I don't like inclined surfaces either - going up OK - going down bad. Steps without handrails - not good for me any more.

The really odd thing about that hall is that they put a restaurant at the top - with a lift to get there, but the lift doesn't go all the way up. Why not? What planet was the architect on?

[MrGongGong]

I suspected as much!

I don't suppose the cable was any more analogue than any others, but do you mean you didn't use digitally encoded signals? So length of cable would matter, noise, interference etc.?

VGA to projector in Sala 2

There are things I hate about that hall, though the sound is pretty good. I would like to hear a symphony orchestra there.
Although I can walk OK, I have big problems on some surfaces - maybe a perceptual thing - and also going up and down stairs - fear of falling.
I hate walking on polished surfaces, and some airports have very glossy surfaces, which can completely throw me - even if I don't slip. I don't like inclined surfaces either - going up OK - going down bad. Steps without handrails - not good for me any more.

The really odd thing about that hall is that they put a restaurant at the top - with a lift to get there, but the lift doesn't go all the way up. Why not? What planet was the architect on?

HA

You should try the stairs from the artists cafe to the Sala 1 stage
Some really odd corners and odd angles and stairs with uneven treads BUT it is one of my favourite places to work (up until the end of the Month ? or maybe not ? or who knows ?)

(There is a stairlift to the resturant but I know what you mean about the lift!)

[Dave2002]

CD to score software

Over the last month or so I discovered a few things - though not tried them all. I can get some midi files to work reasonably well.

One thing I noticed was the ability to take a microphone, convert to audio, then have it rendered as a midi file. I also noticed several tools which seem to make at least a passing shot at converting midi files to music scores. Thus so for we have:

Audio -> Midi file.
Midi file -> Score

Of course when we play a CD or download we are doing something like:

CD -> Audio or Download -> Audio.

All of which made we wonder if it's possible to do something like this:

CD -> Audio :: Audio -> Midi file :: Midi file -> Score

Why not? So then - why bother with the audio step at all - surely should be possible to do this: CD -> Midi file.

Finally - do a search to see if anyone elese has done this before - don't reinvent the wheel - which enables us to discover this

Audioscore - https://www.neuratron.com/audioscore.htm which appears to do CD -> Music score directly.

I wonder if anyone round here has tried this, or similar software. When I have time I'll try the demo.

Are there other similar packages, and perhaps more interestingly, do any of them work?

[Dave2002]

CD to score software

Over the last month or so I discovered a few things - though not tried them all. I can get some midi files to work reasonably well.

One thing I noticed was the ability to take a microphone, convert to audio file, then have it rendered as a midi file. I also noticed several tools which seem to make at least a passing shot at converting midi files to music scores. Thus so for we have:

Audio -> Midi file.
Midi file -> Score

Of course when we play a CD or download we are doing something like:

CD -> Audio, or Download -> Audio.

All of which made we wonder if it's possible to do something like this:

CD -> Audio :: Audio -> Midi file :: Midi file -> Score

Why not? So then - why bother with the audio step at all - surely should be possible to do this: CD -> Midi file.

Finally - do a search to see if anyone else has done this before - don't reinvent the wheel - which enables us to discover this

Audioscore - https://www.neuratron.com/audioscore.htm which appears to do CD -> Music score directly.

I wonder if anyone round here has tried this, or similar software. When I have time I'll try the demo.

Are there other similar packages, and perhaps more interestingly, do any of them work?

[Dave2002]

Midi success at last

And finally - like Robert the Bruce and the Spider - got output from Reaper to two external hardware keyboards.

This has only taken me the best part of a year trying out different techniques. I was about to give up on Reaper, and try Logic Pro X instead - though I was alarmed at the reviews of the latest versions of Logic Pro, which suggest that it's got buggier.

After faffing about with interfaces - one from a Casio keyboard via a Roland UM One wired interface, and a Yamaha wireless Bluetooth interface, and working round the macos Audio Midi Setup programme, I eventually managed to get input to MuseScore and also to Garageband. Getting output was harder. I wasted a lot of time trying with Garageband - before finally getting confirmation that it just doesn't do that at all - what a load of junk!

I thought I might try Logic, but then decided to give Reaper "one last try" - and now at last it works with the two external synthesizers. I also managed to record through the microphone on my MBP, and further than that - actually managed to get playback. So now if I get this working consistently I will be very happy to pay for the Reaper licence. I still need practice at working with this software tool, though, but this is definitely encouraging.

I was also thinking that there might have been advantages with Logic - as it has an inherently multi-machine licence - but it wouldn't work out quite as easily as that, as I'd have to upgrade some of the machines. I'm guessing that I should be able to do most of the same things with Reaper, now that it is actually doing something at last.

[Dave2002]

Pity that there doesn't seem to be a standard way to reverse a Midi track - for example in a DAW. I don't mean it can't be done (even by me ...), but just that it would be useful to have a standard way. Of course it is possible to generate output from Midi, record it, and then reverse the audio track, but why there isn't a standard for just reversing whole chunks of Midi I don't know. I don't particularly want the sounds to be reversed - which some seem to think is a useful or funky effect - though I'm not stopping anyone else from doing that. I simply want the order of the sounds to be reversed.

OK - maybe I'm the only one who wants to do this, and I can do it, but it's more tedious having to do it using somewhat tricksier ways.

Of course I might have missed something - but so far searches haven't turned up anything useful. Most of the searches find sites which show how to reverse the audio - which is not what I want. There are ways which might work in some DAWs - but they're not always too convenient or easy.

[MrGongGong]

Pity that there doesn't seem to be a standard way to reverse a Midi track - for example in a DAW. I don't mean it can't be done (even by me ...), but just that it would be useful to have a standard way. Of course it is possible to generate output from Midi, record it, and then reverse the audio track, but why there isn't a standard for just reversing whole chunks of Midi I don't know. I don't particularly want the sounds to be reversed - which some seem to think is a useful or funky effect - though I'm not stopping anyone else from doing that. I simply want the order of the sounds to be reversed.

OK - maybe I'm the only one who wants to do this, and I can do it, but it's more tedious having to do it using somewhat tricksier ways.

Of course I might have missed something - but so far searches haven't turned up anything useful. Most of the searches find sites which show how to reverse the audio - which is not what I want. There are ways which might work in some DAWs - but they're not always too convenient or easy.

This worked fine for me in V8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9qGK_7oO0&list=UUxO6hYY7v6uT-pkalptFKew&index=1&feature=plcp

Why do you want a "standard" way?
The world isn't "standard"

Simple to do in Sibelius also

[Dave2002]

This worked fine for me in V8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9qGK_7oO0&list=UUxO6hYY7v6uT-pkalptFKew&index=1&feature=plcp

Why do you want a "standard" way?
The world isn't "standard"

Simple to do in Sibelius also

Obviously the world isn’t standard, but there are merits in having some commonality in different systems. Otherwise I might decide that 1 T T T 4 U are the first few notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, which would not be so helpful to everyone.

The method you suggest for Ableton seems similar to this https://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/d...f07c701321528b

Is there a practical limit to the length of a section to reverse?

I think there may be a way by selecting a region, and then using a context sensitive menu option - in some systems.

If there is, that might be very quick and effective, and perhaps less error prone.

[MrGongGong]

Is there a practical limit to the length of a section to reverse?

I have a MIDI file of the whole of the Rite Of Spring and it reversed that in no time at all

So I would think not really unless you are getting close to system limitations

There will always be different ways to do things depending on the circumstances

It's in the composing tools in Sibelius .... very simple to do

[eighthobstruction]

....someone somewhere has been having trouble with Midi since 18.03.19.........but only 25 posts........you'd get twice the response if you caught c19 five minutes ago

....I had an 1956 MG Magnet was just great until I bought it....

[MrGongGong]

....someone somewhere has been having trouble with Midi since 18.03.19.........but only 25 posts........you'd get twice the response if you caught c19 five minutes ago

Everyone who uses it has trouble with MIDI
it's part of the fun innit

[eighthobstruction]

Everyone who uses it has trouble with MIDI
it's part of the fun innit

....a concept not nec' a reality....

[Dave2002]

This might work for retrograde in MuseScore - https://github.com/ellejohara/newret...ster/README.md though it seems perhaps limited, and I”ve not tried it.