[Rosegarden-user] Re: Old MIDI files

[Bungee <bu...@er...>]

> Silvan:
>  > On Tuesday 28 June 2005 05:01 pm, Bungee wrote:
>  > 
>  > > I have some MIDI files laid down in the middle 80s that I tried to load
>  > > into Rosegarden. They sort of load, but the channel and instrument
>  > > numbering seems to be all overe the place. 
>  > 
>  > It"s not just a simple +1 problem by chance?
> 
>  I think those (e.g. whether programs start at 0 or 1) are usually just a
>  question of
> on-screen presentation, not of substance. 
 
>  My guess is something to do with the way we split tracks where they contain 
> events on more
> than one channel. Generally we"re happy to have lots of tracks at one channel
> each and make
> no effort to retain the original track structure of the file, though the 
> result in terms of
> playback should be the same.  Does that sound reasonable, or is the playback
> quite different
> too?
>  
>  
>  Chris

Umm, just had to resubscribe I seem to have got dropped off the list :(

Anyway...

When the tracks were laid down, they were done strictly in order Track1 was MIDI
channel 1 etc. All the control information for a channel was put into the track
as well.

When the file is loaded on to rg I find that, typically, instead of a maximum of
16 tracks I get up to 40 tracks, about half of these seem to be empty. Most of
the others have giberish titles. It is very difficult to find all the bits and
get the right instruments set again. I haven't completely suceeded yet :(

The original tracks were set up for a Yamaha SY22 using channels 1-8 and a
Roland Sound canvas using 9-16 (I only had one MIDI port available). This
combination allowed me to do quite a lot of instrument as well as other control
changes in a running piece of music (the SY22 lets you swap multis while
playing). I'm wondering if it is this that has upset rg.

-- 
Bungee