Can RC import Midi with a pickup measure

[Brian Collins]

I wanted to try using RC as a tool to help me with some training I am doing. For one exercise, I am provided with a simple motif to develop into something more substantial:

Note the 2/8 pickup at the start.

I exported this as Midi and tried RC Midi Import:


But that gives me measures mis-aligned:


I can move the tracks in DAW mode, but that means that the analysed chords are in the wrong position. I can see no way of moving existing chords along the timeline.

I can also load it up first into my DAW, remove the pickup and fix-up, and then export into Midi to load (already aligned) into RC, but that is a lot of steps and means that I can't just use RC on its own for this.

So ... can anyone recommend a sequence of steps by which I can import into RC a version of this (and similar) music, with correct measure alignment and chords to match?

[thebutler]

I wanted to try using RC as a tool to help me with some training I am doing. For one exercise, I am provided with a simple motif to develop into something more substantial:

Note the 2/8 pickup at the start.

I exported this as Midi and tried RC Midi Import:


But that gives me measures mis-aligned:


I can move the tracks in DAW mode, but that means that the analysed chords are in the wrong position. I can see no way of moving existing chords along the timeline.

I can also load it up first into my DAW, remove the pickup and fix-up, and then export into Midi to load (already aligned) into RC, but that is a lot of steps and means that I can't just use RC on its own for this.

So ... can anyone recommend a sequence of steps by which I can import into RC a version of this (and similar) music, with correct measure alignment and chords to match?

Hi Brian - this is an interesting topic. Sorry, I don't have any immediate answers for you.

However, some thoughts...
1. Can you say what generated the exported MIDI file in the first place.? Any particular export 'settings' used (left out - e.g. tempo/time sig track).?
2. An interesting test might be to see how this same file re-imports back into another DAW/a different DAW.? Does that DAW have a 'chord track' enabled.?
3. Maybe you could help Attila and attach that MIDI file here for him to examine.?

Good luck.!

[Brian Collins]

Hi Brian - this is an interesting topic. Sorry, I don't have any immediate answers for you.

However, some thoughts...
1. Can you say what generated the exported MIDI file in the first place.? Any particular export 'settings' used (left out - e.g. tempo/time sig track).?
2. An interesting test might be to see how this same file re-imports back into another DAW/a different DAW.? Does that DAW have a 'chord track' enabled.?
3. Maybe you could help Attila and attach that MIDI file here for him to examine.?

Good luck.!

Good questions here - thanks for thinking about it.

Actually, the original source of the musical snippet is a .musicxml file - the standard interchange format for music notation. And I have two apps that can read this format. One is Presonus Notion, which also handles pickup measure incorrectly. I have reported this as a bug and it has been reproduced and acknowledged by Presonus. Maybe it will get fixed. But Notion has the useful feature of allowing the music to be sent directly to Studio One - my DAW of choice. However, in this specific case I opened the MusicXml file in MuseScore, from which I saved the Midi file. MuseScore interprets the music correctly and is the source of the score image above.

My DAW, Studio One, can't directly read MusicXml files (which is a shame), but loads the converted Midi file correctly:

Note that the first measure has a single beat. But the time signature and tempo are correctly set.

I attach the generated Midi file. I have had to Zip it up in order to get a file type that the forum will accept.

Note that I am quite happy to mix and match tools and can easily achieve what I want. And I may be pushing the limits of what RC is capable of, and how completely and correctly it interprets standard file formats. All I want to do is help make RC the tool of choice for almost every compositional task!

[musicdevelopments]

Hi Brian,

sorry for the late reply... When I dropped this MIDI on https://g200kg.github.io/midi-dump/ I immediately saw what was wrong. At the moment RC does not handle time signature changes inside the tracks, it imports everything using the initial time signature. This must be fixed, probably the whole MIDI import must be reworked, it won't be a simple fix. I'll do this in a next beta version.

Thanks,
Attila

[thebutler]

At the moment RC does not handle time signature changes inside the tracks, it imports everything using the initial time signature. This must be fixed, probably the whole MIDI import must be reworked, it won't be a simple fix. I'll do this in a next beta version.

Thanks,
Attila

Hi Attila - maybe the work you mention here to improve this behaviour, hasn't yet made it in to an RC release.?

Tried an import of Brian's attached MIDI file and am getting the results seen in his initial post screengrabs with v6.1.2... I followed Brian's steps regarding the import, but may still be doing something wrong or have set things up incorrectly...

(still playing around with other MIDI import tasks - and so far so good, when it's one time sig only in the phrase)

Cheers,
Bob

[musicdevelopments]

Hi Bob & Brian,

please download the new beta version (v6.2b1) that will properly import MIDI files with multiple time signature changes.
Technically, the sections with different time signatures are placed in different parts during import, each overriding the time signature. The composition time signature will be the most used time signature.

Thanks,
Attila

[thebutler]

Hi Bob & Brian,

please download the new beta version (v6.2b1) that will properly import MIDI files with multiple time signature changes.

Thanks,
Attila

Better now, thanks Attila... busy for a while, so will test more when I can.!

PS:- noticed this...

RC v62 beta_date.jpg

[thebutler]

deleted

[musicdevelopments]

Right, I don't think I can finish v6.2 in June... There is so much left to do. It makes no sense to release anything during the summer months so I plan a big release for early September.