Export multi track MIDI files to MuseScore

[JordiTR]

Hi you all. I've tried to export an orchestral-like composition in MIDI format but the resulting MIDI file is just a "composite piano-like" file, once I import it on MuseScore.

Is there a way to export the orchestral composition as multiple instruments tracks ?? Or maybe I have to export every track as a separate file ?? How should I merge them in an unified orchestral score on MuseScore ?? Is there any workflow for that ? Thanks !!

[pough]

You might need to set the MIDI channel on the MIDI clips. Waveform and most of the plugins you use don't really care about the MIDI channel and the default is for all the MIDI clips created in Waveform to be MIDI channel 1. I think that MIDI files group notes by MIDI channel into separate "tracks". So when you output MIDI from Waveform you get just one track with all the notes.

A track in Waveform is not the same thing as a track in a MIDI file.

Try setting the MIDI clips in different tracks to be different MIDI channels.

[Watchful]

J--

Here's the workflow.

A. Create the sheet music in Waveform

(Let's say you're doing something very simple--a three-staff piece for piano, with vocals, treble, and bass)

1. Bring up the "Useful" menu by clicking the arrow in the lower left corner of your screen. The menus should appear in the lower left, and the properties pane should be a big gray section to its right.
2. Set up three tracks in Waveform--one for each staff. Go ahead and name them "Vocals," "Treble," and "Bass." It doesn't matter, because MuseScore doesn't really capture this information.
3. Put the relevant MIDI clips into each track from your project--obviously, I recommend copying them rather than dragging them so you don't wreck your original project. Basically, set them up as you would the sheet music.
4. Select ALL the clips in "Vocals" (shift click first and last)
5. In the properties pane (which should now have activated), look for MIDI channel. Set this to 1.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each track, incrementing the MIDI channel as Pough suggests. 3 tracks? 3 channels. 6 tracks? 6 channels. And so on.
7. Shift+click these tracks to select which tracks you want to export--which is I why I advised steps 1 and 2. You want to export these almost as you'd want them to appear in sheet music. In other words, put your clips where they're supposed to go from left to right, up-to-down.

Clipboard01.jpg

This picture shows the clips set up like the sheet music. I've set "Vocal" clips to MIDI channel 1, "Treble" to channel 2, and "Bass" to channel 3.

B. Export!

1. Select File, from the lower left corner (you might need to click on the arrow in the lower left to make these menus appear if you didn't do so in the previous section)
2. Select "Export: Render to a file."
3. Change the File name (black bar across the top) to the desired path and file name. DON'T use Waveform's recommended file name as this often fails to render. I don't know why. You need to change the file name.
4. Change Fromat to MIDI File
5. Select "Only render selected tracks"
6. Deselect "Pass Through Plugins" if it's checked
7. Click Render, lower right

This exports your tracks to a single file you can drag into MuseScore.

C. Import!

Launch MuseScore and drag in the file you exported in section B. above.

Note--sometimes MuseScore only imports half the project; try again with Section C if this happens. It should get it right.

That's it! But obviously the hard work begins of clean-up editing and adding all the other elements in MuseScore.

[JordiTR]

Wow, thanks a lot "pough" and "Watchful".

I've never realized that changing the MIDI channel was the whole point, but now it looks completelly logical. I see that I have to set MIDI channel on "clips" because I can't find a way to set it onto the "track itself", is it right ?? That's a drawback, since makes the process very complex, and force manual adjustments, when it looks to me that setting the MIDI channel number to the track would make everything easier...

I'll have to read more carefully all "Watchful" description, but I've been already capable to export a basic 12 multitrack piece, converted to a "multi-instrumental" score. That methodology means that I can't export any midi file to more than 16 intrumental parts, can I ?? I guess the MIDI limit of 16 channels would be the maximum part that I would be able to manage.

Thanks again for you support

[Watchful]

That's likely true...not sure what Musescore would do, but I expect it will merge tracks with identical channels. But hey, it's 1983! Who would ever have more than 16 tracks?

It might be a painful workaround to export in groups of 16, open two or three separate files in Musescore and just copy/paste the first bar into the first position to create 17+ staff sheets. But I think Musescore would easily let you do that.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Can you define a logical interface with 2 MIDI "devices" and get 16 channels on each?

[Watchful]

I think you'd need to provide an example. Do you mean via plugins? Because to export to SMF, you need to bypass plugins.

And even so, not sure whether the 40-year-old SMF export would do much except merge those channels on you anyway. It's not a Waveform limitation...it's a protocol limitation.

[pough]

That's a drawback, since makes the process very complex, and force manual adjustments, when it looks to me that setting the MIDI channel number to the track would make everything easier...

Sure, from the point of view of conforming to a standard from the 80s. Waveform gives you the freedom to have whatever you like in a track. You can, for example, include MIDI clips that have different MIDI channels so that plugins like Kontakt can have more than one instrument controlled.

So "everything easier" really just means "something easier for me for what I'm doing in this instance." But if a track was constrained to just one MIDI channel then other tasks for other users would become impossible.

[Watchful]

It's just a matter of clicking on the first clip in the track, and then shift+clicking on the last one to select them all. It's not *that* complex a process.

I agree with Pough and will extend his observation about software synths, in that many modern hardware synths will put entire sequences, sounds, etc., as multi-channel events into a single clip for your convenience. I suspect between software and hardware, putting multi-MIDI events into a single multi-channel clip is done way more often than export dumps for MuseScore.

Waveform's not a sequencer--it's much, much more powerful than that.

However, what makes things way more complicated than they should be is the lack of documentation. I think KVR has more how-to information than the last 2 Waveform manuals combined. MIDI export is barely even mentioned in the manual, if I recall. THAT complicates things.