JT3_Jon Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Hello, I'm doing midi mockups of some cues a composer wrote in Finale. I've been given a PDF of the score, as well as the SMF from finale, but have run into some problems. First off, why does Logic insist on automatically opening instruments for each track! Granted I can imagine how this COULD be helpful to some, but in my situation its costing me time! Is there a way to turn this functionality off? I searched the manual and have come up empty. Also, logic doesn't seem to be importing any tempo information from the SMF! I believe all SMF's contain tempo information, correct? Any idea on why logic is not reading it? Its saying all my midi files are at 120bpm, which is wrong. Thanks in advance for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Are you importing the midi files or opening them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred B Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 First off, why does Logic insist on automatically opening instruments for each track! Granted I can imagine how this COULD be helpful to some, but in my situation its costing me time! Is there a way to turn this functionality off? I searched the manual and have come up empty. Press option while opening the MIDI file. This will create external MIDI tracks and prevent loading software instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3_Jon Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share Posted September 13, 2009 Just opening them from logic. Didn't know there was an import function. Will try that in the morning. Thanks for the option tip! That will prove very helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3_Jon Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Tried both opening a new logic session and importing the .mid file, as well as simply opening the .mid file from Logic and neither had ANY tempo information (tempo stayed at 120) Anyone have success with getting tempo information from smf's? Thanks again for everyones help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 If you receive an SMF that has only tempo information, Logic won't read it. What you want to request from your client is that they export a MIDI file that contains at least one track -- a dummy track -- which contains two notes: one at 1 1 1 1 and another at the very end of the song/cue. It's amazing to me that Logic is so behind the 8-ball with respect to SMF's. Been this way since Logic 7. Irritating as all getout. Same with OMF's too -- totally bogus implementation of OMF import even from other Apple programs (like FCP), but I digress... Anyway, try that and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred B Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Getting tempo from SMF into Logic works for me as expected. But according to the MIDI specs, tempo information on SMF is not obligatory. If missing, the default of 120 bpm is assumed. To investigate, you may attach one of your MIDI files here. Then I could analyze and see if it contains tempo or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Fred, As always you present the most interesting facts! The thing is, though, that (at least in my experience) Logic will import the tempo from a MIDI file but only if it contains at least one note. So it seems that Logic is acting inconsistently. A bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred B Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 ski, I'd think that importing an empty SMF makes no sense anyway (?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 ski, I'd think that importing an empty SMF makes no sense anyway (?). I think many people are under the impression that an SMF always contains tempo information, and thus it can used as a vehicle for transferring a tempo map between DAWs. So in that regard it makes sense, even if the information is incorrect. I can recall a time when Logic didn't have a problem exporting or importing MIDI files. I mean, sure, importing a MIDI file always brought up the dialog about creating/copying the environment, but once you got past that the data showed up fine. As of Logic 7 (in my experience, and IMO) MIDI file functionality went down the tubes. As of Logic 8 (last time I checked), Logic wouldn't even correctly open a MIDI file exported from a Logic project. Here's a lil' story... a few years ago I was working as a design consultant for a big keyboard manufacturer and I created some demo sequences using Logic. The keyboard itself was able to read MIDI files, but couldn't read the ones I exported from Logic. Turns out the engineers on the project had to write a special routine to deal with Logic-generated SMF's. This was back with L7.1.1. So at that time, something about Logic's SMF's were either non-standard, non-customary, or simply broken. But I got the ol' "we've never seen anything like it before" routine from the engineers. But I digress. I'd be curious to see the results of your test should JT post some files. Cheers! Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3_Jon Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Ok, I've uploaded a short midi file created in Finale. I dont know how the composer exported the file, or even what version of Finale he is on, but it indeed has all the parts as midi files; but the tempo should be 82.50, but it only shows up as 120bpm in logic (default tempo when one cannot be found). Any ideas? Cue 10.mid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Ok, I've uploaded a short midi file created in Finale. I dont know how the composer exported the file, or even what version of Finale he is on, but it indeed has all the parts as midi files; but the tempo should be 82.50, but it only shows up as 120bpm in logic (default tempo when one cannot be found). Any ideas? Just opened this file in Logic 9, its tempo is 93 bpm and shows up as such in the Transport bar. You need to OPEN the file in Logic, not IMPORT it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Wait a mn... I opened the Tempo list in Logic and found that there are 3 different tempo events at the start of the song! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 David, Confirming... I opened the song and without playing it, the tempo in the transport showed up as 83 BPM. But the tempo list looks exactly as it does in your screenshot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred B Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Looking at the file with a MIDI-to-Text converter I can confirm that there are 3 tempo events at the start position: 0000:1:000 TimeSignature 4/4 24 8 KeySignature 0 key_c major Tempo 500000 // 120.0 BPM Tempo 555555 // 108.000108000108 BPM Tempo 722891 // 83.0000650167176 BPM Note that tempo in MIDI files is represented as microseconds per beat (which is converted by the editor to BPM), Apparently Logic's tempo list doesn't reflect the order in which the tempo events are stored on the file, but the situation is ambiguous anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Thanks Fred! What software are you using to convert MIDI files to text? I've been wanting to do that a few times and didn't have the soft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3_Jon Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Odd. I open the same file in Logic 8 and without playing it does say 83 (not 83.50), but it wants to playback at 120, and I have no clue where that 110 came from! Very odd indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Odd. I open the same file in Logic 8 and without playing it does say 83 (not 83.50), but it wants to playback at 120, and I have no clue where that 110 came from! Very odd indeed! Looks like you need to talk with whoever created that MIDI file! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3_Jon Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Just saw freds post! THANKS FRED! looks like the problem is from the original file and not logic....I'm sorry for doubting you Logic! Will you ever forgive me? (looks like I'll be taking it to out to a fancy restaurant for this one!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred B Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 What software are you using to convert MIDI files to text? It's a Java program written by one of my students, free software under GNU General Public License. Attached I'm sending the .jar file which works as a double-clickable application. The user interface should be self-explaining, but feel free to ask any questions. MIDIConverter.jar.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fader8 Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Attached I'm sending the .jar file which works as a double-clickable application. Copyright 2000?!?! You've been holding out on us for a while, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Cardenas Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 What software are you using to convert MIDI files to text? It's a Java program written by one of my students, free software under GNU General Public License. Attached I'm sending the .jar file which works as a double-clickable application. The user interface should be self-explaining, but feel free to ask any questions. Thanx a bunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 What software are you using to convert MIDI files to text? It's a Java program written by one of my students, free software under GNU General Public License. Attached I'm sending the .jar file which works as a double-clickable application. The user interface should be self-explaining, but feel free to ask any questions. Awesome! Thanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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