Importing, Editing and Exporting MIDI Files

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Sometimes you get surprised. It happened to me today and I thought I'd note it down to see if anyone else has noticed the phenomenon.

Like many people, I use a music sequencer/DAW/host software/MIDI and Audio sequencer as a way of turning ideas into music. I tend to use the native file format of the software, because that usually has the most comprehensive support of all the features of that particular (I'll say 'sequencer' and show my age - I was raised in a time when little red lights flashed along sequencers on stage behind people like Edgar Froese or Keith Emerson) sequencer. This is just like the way that a very popular document format is the .doc format, used by Microsoft's 'Word' word processor.

At the back of my mind, there has always been the implicit assumption that if I needed to export the music, then apart from the obvious MP3 and FLAC (or even WAV) audio forms, I would use a MIDI File. Having used and/or reviewed The Music System and Ample on the BBC B Micro, C-Lab's Notator (now Apple Logic and on the Mac), Steinberg's Cubase (now a company within the Yamaha group), Trackman, Dr. T's KCS and Intelligent Music's RealTime (possibly my all-time favourite MIDI sequencer!) on Atari STs, and Pro Tools, Bill Southworth and company's Total Music, Opcode's Studio Vision, MOTU's Performer, Intelligent Music's M, etc on the Mac, plus a few others, then I knew that you could almost always also save as a MIDI File (.mid these days, although I remember the .smf 'smurf' (Standard MIDI File) suffix also being used in the days of floppy disks).

The shock came when I discovered that whilst MIDI File import is alive and well (in most cases: one 'you know who you are' sequencer I downloaded and tried today would not import MIDI Files at all!) the reverse is not necessarily true. Apple's Garageband is one example where you can't export a MIDI File, although apparently you can import the Garageband file into Logic and then export it as a MIDI File. Even my current favourite, Ableton Live, only exports MIDI Files of individual phrase clips, and not complete songs. In many cases, trying to find out exactly what the MIDI File capabilities of a specific piece of music software were was not easy. It seems that some people expect you to buy and then find out, which is a little sub-optimal for me. My preference is to have the manual downloadable (or browsable on-line) so that I can find out before I buy.

Mac MIDI Utilities

Once I realised that sequencers didn't seem to be quite as MIDI-frendly as I expected, then I started to assemble a 'toolkit' of useful utilities for the Mac. I have grouped them into 32-bit and 64-bit apps (the 32-bit apps won't work on Catalina and beyond, the 64-bit apps should work on earlier OSes...).

32-bit (Up to Mohave)

QuickTime Player 7. Note that QuickTime stopped supporting MIDI file playback in the Mavericks OS (OS 10.9 in 2013), but the QuickTime Player 7 still plays them. You can download the last QuickTime Player 7 from here: https://support.apple.com/kb/dl923?locale=en_GB The 'Pro' version was a purchasable version that provided additional editing and conversion facilities. I included the screenshot of the Windows version of QuickTime Player 7 because Apple stopped supporting QuickTime back in mid 2016...

64-bit (Catalina and beyond, plus earlier)

Hex Fiend. The Hex Editor shown here is the one that I also use to check what is in a MIDI File: Hex Fiend The web-site version was 2.8, but you could get a later version (2.12) from the GitHub site.

QuickTime Player 10+. No support for MIDI Files. (Included in macOS)

VLC. This video player makes a nice alternative to QuickTime Player 7 (or 10+), AND it plays MIDI Files! Download from: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.en-GB.html

MIDIKit 4.3.2 is a toolkit for MIDIFiles. SMF analysis, editing and some batch processing functions. For people who work with MIDI Files a lot, and who want detailed information and deep editing. Download from: https://www.mixagesoftware.com/index.html

Garageband is included with MacOS and is a pretty good way of visually examining a MIDI File.

Wavetable Sound Effects 0v03 - Update!

After getting my head around some of the features of Max again (like having to make sure that you use 2000. to indicate a float instead of 2000 which is an integer), I've now updated my Wavetable Sound Effects Max For Live (M4L) instrument to version 0v03. The intermediate 0v02 version was superceded during testing of a different wavetable device that I'm still working on...

This new version has much the same principles behind it, but now allows finer control, and has better LFOs. The new LFOs include a 'Shape' control that samples the waveform and gives a kind of Sample/Hold effect, plus there's now a frequency modulating LFO for each LFO, which extends their usability quite a lot. I also added three new wavetables, so there's lots more sound generating capability. This device is intended to be explored, much as one would do with the analogue synths of old like the EMS VCS3... So feel free to explore.

You can find it on the Max For Live dot Com library site here.

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Max For Live - my first device!

It's been a long time. My invoice for Max 2.01 is dated the 27th of June 1994, from the days when you got a huge ring-binder of information and Max came on floppy disks! I've been a little distracted since...

After a few days of re-orientation, I've now got my first M4L (Max For Live) device in a releasable (usable but not perfect) form. It is a wavetable-based (always loved PPGs, as I've said before) sound effects generator, which isn't something that is exactly mainstream these days. Nothing clever inside: a wavetable scanner, some modulation, and some wavetables which, of course, I made up myself from samples that I originally made for my Korg Electribe S Mark II.

You can find it here ( http://www.maxforlive.com/ ), at a web-site that allows those of us who haven't been invited into the beta trial of the official Ableton sharing system.

As with any effects generator, you will need to provide an acoustic environment for it, so add your own preference of spatialization, imaging, echo and reverb. The two slightly misleadingly named wavetables cover grungy sounds (Vox) and sweepy sounds (Sines) - future versions will add some more tables, but there's already plenty of scope for making lots of wierd noises already. As with any sound-generating device, the best sounds come with time, so be prepared to spend some time with it, learning what it does.

But most of all, have fun! This is a free present to you all.

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Karaoke Concatenated

Ever wished that you could listen to just one line from a karaoke performance, and then jump forwards to the next performer? (Yes, I do realise that this would require either highly efficient stage control, or some sort of super-sized sushi restaurant conveyor belt, but read on!)

Well, this is now what you can do on a promotional web-site that is part of the launch of the new 'Lips Number One Hits' game for the XBox.

Try it out here.

It's interesting to hear a song where each line is sung by different people - you could describe it as a form of hocketing - but it turns karaoke into much more of a spectator sport, and it turns up the fun factor too. So if you are an armchair commentator, then it lets you significantly increase the frequency of informed comment. Unfortunately the video-booth is no longer touring the United Kingdom, so you've missed your chance to be featured singing one line of Lily Allen's 'The Fear'.

The title of this post is also interesting: quite a tongue-twister!

Max and Live: Aptly Named!

It isn't often that big things happen in music technology these days. The market has been pretty mature for some time, and apart from refinements, it has been pretty quiet - as have I! This isn't a coincidence - I stopped doing synthesizer and sequencer reviews when I figured that we were at more or less the peak of technological development, and it has been quiet ever since - just gradual minor improvements and the 'things discovered/invented ages ago finally becoming possible/affordable because of increases in processing power' effect.

So it is really good to be alive and present at something truly huge: Max for Live.

Why is this a momentous event? Because it is the first time that what I call host software, and others call DAWs or sequencers, has changed the way that it fundamentally works. Up until now, the sequencing/audio software that acts as a host for audio/instrument/processing plug-ins (VST, AU, etc) has not allowed you to do anything much with how the hosted plug-ins have worked internally, or how they have integrated into the host - the only route has been to write your own plug-ins or your own host software ( or go down the Reaktor route). But Max for Live changes that, forever.

I'm expecting wonderful things to come out of this...

Pure Magic-netik!

I've enjoyed a full subscription to the excellent PureMagnetik website for the past year, and I have to say that it has been completely worth the money. The quality of the samples, sounds, instruments, effects and racks in the down-loadable Micropaks has been uniformly superb, and I thoroughly recommend it for anyone who uses Ableton Live, Kontakt or Logic.







So it gets my coveted 'Thoroughly Recommended' award, and would qualify for the rare and fabulous 'extra' star, if it weren't for one glitch in an otherwise faultless performance:

I had a problem with one of the 'Amp' racks in the 'Model C' (Hohner Clavinet) micropak, where I got no sound at all from it. I posted a message on the support forum (The Board) but got no replies at all, so I'm not entirely happy with the support, but then this is the first time I've needed it!

For the next year, I'm going to make some samples, sounds, etc. of my own for Live, so watch this space!

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Back from the Future?

On the 17th of September, my son came in from an evening appointment all flustered. (What follows is pure tech-movie-geek stuff almost totally distanced from music or sound synthesis, so you have been warned!)




"We've just seen a DeLorean!" he exclaimed.

Apparently he had been in a car with some mates on the way home, and going around a roundabout a car had pulled onto the roundabout ahead of them from the left. One of them noticed that it looked unusual, and my son got his iPhone out. They didn't get very close, and had to turn off at the next roundabout, but my son did get some shaky pictures of what seems to be a DeLorean DMC-12 sports car...

Trying to take photos in a car which is attempting to catch up with an albeit legendarily allegedly slow sports car is never easy, and the photos go some way to proving this!

Of course, if this was CSI-world, then we would be able to digitally 'enhance' the photos, get the numberplate, see the driver's face, extract a 3D model, notice that the front left tyre was slightly deflated, etc. Unfortunately...

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