MIDI Event Editor

[DJG$$$1]

Help!

I need an Event Editor software to change/rearrange the MIDI channels of about 100 SMFs. I want all the MIDI files (from different producers) to have a uniform format. e.g.: piano-channel 1, bass-channel 2, lead guitar-channel 3, drums-channel 10 (of course). The purpose is to be able to mute/unmute tracks in live performance with an Arranger-Style keyboard without having to guess what track is on which channel. Some gigs we have a guitar player, some gigs we don't.

I don't expect to alter all the MIDI files in one batch (however that would be GREAT)! My current software is 'Sonar Artist' and I don't want to upgrade all the way up to 'Sonar Platinum' just for the Event List Editor.

Does anyone know of a less expensive (or freeware) program which ALLOWS EDITING of Event List items?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Two possible programs:

- SynthFont 1 (donationware, but works for free with an occasional "nag" screen) (SynthFont 2 is not free)

- Anvil Studio (the basic program is free, and includes event editing)

I should think there will be two main problems you'll need to overcome:

(1) If all 16 channels are being used in the file, then shuffling them around might be tricky. For instance, if you move all channel 1 events to channel 2, then the events on channel 2 will be the ones you moved plus the ones that were already on channel 2. You really need at least one unused channel so you can shuffle the other 15 around without getting things totally confused.

(2) The same instruments might not be used in all of the files, making it difficult to standardize them such that the acoustic piano is always channel 1, the electric piano is always on channel 2, the lead guitar is always on channel 3, the rhythm guitar is always on channel 4, the bass is always on channel 5, etc. (or however else you want the different parts to be arranged).

Also, it would be a real pain to try to edit the events on an individual basis. You really want to just move all events from one channel to another, which shouldn't require an event list editor per se.

Let me think about this for a bit to see if I can come up with any workable suggestions.

 

[happyrat1]

First of all, Cakewalk closed its doors for good a few weeks ago so don't expect any sort of upgrades or even updates in the future. There's a huge discussion about it over on the Cakewalk Forums.

Secondly, what you're asking is pretty much impossible to automate or even simplify.

Different songs will use various tracks for different instruments, but not only that, but also a lot of songs simply don't break down to simple piano, guitar, bass and drums and may not even be labelled as such depending on who wrote them to begin with.

And if songs are in MIDI format 0 instead of MIDI Format 1 then you have a situation where all the instruments are combined onto track 1 and pretty much inseparable.

Basically you're going to be stuck hacking each song individually and saving it with your changes no matter which program you end up using.

Another program which you can use is Reaper which while technically not free has an unlimited uncrippled evaluation period. I've been evaluating my copy for over 2000 days now The interface however is very non intuitive. Look at a few Youtube tutorials to learn how to import and work with MIDI files.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

When you import a format 0 MIDI file into a DAW, the DAW may or may not display all of the channels as one track-- e.g., Cubase does, but Anvil Studio doesn't. If it does, it usually has a function that can separate them to individual tracks-- e.g., in Cubase it's "dissolve." But even if you leave the channels combined as one track, the channel numbers are still there, so I think you should be able to filter and edit the event list by channel.

It definitely won't be a simple project, and you'll probably need to define some basic instrument groupings (or use the 16 instrument families from GM1), as well as rules for correlating instruments that use nonstandard bank-and-program combinations with their more-or-less equivalent GM1 instruments. And you might run into files that have multiple channels that use the same instrument, such as two guitars, or two pianos. Or you might want to differentiate between a guitar used as a lead instrument versus a guitar used as a rhythm or accompaniment instrument, etc. And even if you establish a set of channels for specific types of instruments, you might need to reserve some other channels for "miscellaneous" instruments which differ from file to file-- e.g., channels 1 through 9 for standard instruments, 10 for drums, and 11 through 16 for miscellaneous.

It will definitely be a hands-on project, not one that would be easy to automate. But it doesn't sound like an unreasonable thing to want, and I can see how it could be useful.

One other wrinkle that I just thought of is that many, if not most, keyboard manufacturers have their own set of SysEx messages, and while many SysEx messages are system-wide rather than channel-specific, there are definitely some SysEx messages which are used for specified "parts"-- roughly equivalent to channels-- so you might need to deal with those types of messages as well.

 

[Biggles]

Whatever DAW software you go for if its paid for then please download a trial version first and test it out fully.

I downloaded Reaper but gave up on it as I could not get any sound out of my laptop when using it, after a 1/2 day researching and trying the posted workarounds I gave up and deleted the programme.

 

[DJG$$$1]

Two possible programs:

- SynthFont 1 (donationware, but works for free with an occasional "nag" screen) (SynthFont 2 is not free)

- Anvil Studio (the basic program is free, and includes event editing)

I should think there will be two main problems you'll need to overcome:

(1) If all 16 channels are being used in the file, then shuffling them around might be tricky. For instance, if you move all channel 1 events to channel 2, then the events on channel 2 will be the ones you moved plus the ones that were already on channel 2. You really need at least one unused channel so you can shuffle the other 15 around without getting things totally confused.

(2) The same instruments might not be used in all of the files, making it difficult to standardize them such that the acoustic piano is always channel 1, the electric piano is always on channel 2, the lead guitar is always on channel 3, the rhythm guitar is always on channel 4, the bass is always on channel 5, etc. (or however else you want the different parts to be arranged).

Also, it would be a real pain to try to edit the events on an individual basis. You really want to just move all events from one channel to another, which shouldn't require an event list editor per se.

Let me think about this for a bit to see if I can come up with any workable suggestions.

Thanks!

This works out great. Anvil comes bundled with IntelliScore which I plan to buy VERY Soon. I'll try SynthFont in the meantime.

My SMFs rarely use more than 7-8 tracks + drums. Two more tracks will be devoted to EFX Processors & one channel for lights so that should still leave 2-3 extra tracks.

 

[DJG$$$1]

First of all, Cakewalk closed its doors for good a few weeks ago so don't expect any sort of upgrades or even updates in the future. There's a huge discussion about it over on the Cakewalk Forums.

Secondly, what you're asking is pretty much impossible to automate or even simplify.

Different songs will use various tracks for different instruments, but not only that, but also a lot of songs simply don't break down to simple piano, guitar, bass and drums and may not even be labelled as such depending on who wrote them to begin with.

And if songs are in MIDI format 0 instead of MIDI Format 1 then you have a situation where all the instruments are combined onto track 1 and pretty much inseparable.

Basically you're going to be stuck hacking each song individually and saving it with your changes no matter which program you end up using.

Another program which you can use is Reaper which while technically not free has an unlimited uncrippled evaluation period. I've been evaluating my copy for over 2000 days now The interface however is very non intuitive. Look at a few Youtube tutorials to learn how to import and work with MIDI files.

Gary

Can't really say I'm sorry or surprised to hear about Cakewalk. Their quality and customer support have declined tremendously since I used it (faithfully) in the 90s.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually I'm still using a 1997 copy of Cakewalk Home Studio 9.01 that i purchased for $!50 new.

The trick is I'm using it under Wine in Linux with a WinXP emulation.

And here's some good news for ya. It has a MIDI event editor, Piano Roll view and Notation View as built in options.

The only thing it's really missing is the ability to use soft synth plugins since they weren't invented back then.

Anyway, it still loads up and runs like a charm and it was before Cakewalk installed their super paranoid challenge authentication system so I should be able to use mine for ever.

If you ever owned one of those old versions try installing it in compatibility mode in WinX and maybe you'll get lucky.

Gary

 

[DJG$$$1]

Actually I'm still using a 1997 copy of Cakewalk Home Studio 9.01 that i purchased for $!50 new.

The trick is I'm using it under Wine in Linux with a WinXP emulation.

And here's some good news for ya. It has a MIDI event editor, Piano Roll view and Notation View as built in options.

The only thing it's really missing is the ability to use soft synth plugins since they weren't invented back then.

Anyway, it still loads up and runs like a charm and it was before Cakewalk installed their super paranoid challenge authentication system so I should be able to use mine for ever.

If you ever owned one of those old versions try installing it in compatibility mode in WinX and maybe you'll get lucky.

Gary

I still have copies of Cakewalk HS 7, 8 and 9. I absolutely LOVED this program back then. It had all the features I needed. What do I hafta do to run in 'compatibility mode' in Win10?

I do still have a XP computer. Maybe I'll try loading CWHS9 on that. Thanks for the great idea!

 

[happyrat1]

In windozer to access compatibility mode just load the CDROM into the machine, use Windows Exploder to select and run the Setup.exe program with a right click, select compatibility mode from the menu and follow the prompts to install as XP.

Likewise once the icon is on your desktop select with right click and choose compatibility mode when you want to run the installed program.

That should get you going. Google "running programs in windows compatibility mode" if you hit any snags along the way.

Good luck man

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

OH and even better news. Cakewalk has not changed the format of the INS file in thirty years, so any Instruments you load in from Sonar will work just fine with CWHS 9.XX

Be advised though, that the WRK files that 9.XX uses are not backward compatible with whatever Sonar is using now. You may have to export all your projects as MID files and resave them as WRK project files to use them with CWHS 9.XX

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

Let us know if the install works out for ya. If not you could always consider setting up a Linux machine

I've been running CWHS9.01 under Linux for almost 15 years now.

Gary

 

[DJG$$$1]

In windozer to access compatibility mode just load the CDROM into the machine, use Windows Exploder to select and run the Setup.exe program with a right click, select compatibility mode from the menu and follow the prompts to install as XP.

Likewise once the icon is on your desktop select with right click and choose compatibility mode when you want to run the installed program.

That should get you going. Google "running programs in windows compatibility mode" if you hit any snags along the way.

Good luck man

Gary

Thanks. This is very helpful! :-D