Laptop cant read Midi??

[jerrymc]

Folks.

I have a file that plays perfectly on my PC, In Cakewalk, and Vanbasco, but whan I transfer it to my Laptop, only some of the instruments are heard. I am not...as you can see...a Midi techie!!

Its the only file from many thousands that I have, that reacts in this way. Can anyone help.

Jerry

[frank]

Send me the file I will check it out in Cakewalk for you.

[kenja]

This is similar to a problem I posted about some while ago. My laptop (Vista) will only play the drum track of certain midis which will play perfectly in all other circumstances.
I didn't get any answers at the time so I will be watching this one.
Ken

[frank]

I looked at the file and made all the tracks GM bank 0.Deleted the sys ex message that was a GS reset. There are a lot of controllers on each track for Roland gear but I compared them to the ones that could be heard and there was no big deal.
Not having Vista I am not sure what the problem is except that there are lots of notes in each bar and it may be a note limitation issue.
I suggest you mute the tracks and let them thru 1 at a time and let us know from there.

[JohnG]

If you would like to send me the file too, I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what's going on. If you'd like to send me your problem file too, Ken, I'll look at that as well.
If you visit my profile you'll find my pm there.
JohnG.

[kenja]

Hi John
Sent you the file by e-mail
Ken

[JohnG]

Hi Ken,

Got it and responded. We'll try a few experiments with it. First of all I've removed the Roland SysEx commands from it. try it and let me know.

JohnG.

[kenja]

The file now plays on my Vista laptop. Thanks John. What software does one need to do this editing? - other than Cakewalk that is.

[frank]

I did that to Jerry's file but it did not fix it.Why only on the laptops is this happening.

[jerrymc]

Im so sorry folks....its as if Ive been ignoring you....but truth is Ive been away for a while, and have not seen the Forum until today.

Many thanks to Frank for trying to fix this....but no luck, as you know.

I will send it to John, just to see what happens. BTW....my Laptop is quite old, and Im running Windows 2000.

Jerry

[JohnG]

Hi Ken, Jerry,

Glad that removing the Roland GS SysEx commands fixed it, Ken, but it's not necessarily a universal fix. If you have CakeWalk, then opening "View" then "Sysx and removing the Roland specific SysEx commands, i.e. not the GM reset may, in some cases, fix the problem.

Jerry, having taken a quick butcher's at your file, and finding after a quick glance no GS specific stuff, I'm going to insert a GM reset at the start and move other events back a smidgeon and see if that works. I too have a laptop that still runs Win2K so I'll give it a bash in that in VB and CW.

As Arnie says, "I'll be back!"

I have a feeling that it may be specific to the audio/MIDI chip and its drivers on a laptop. Usually they aren't noted for their quality. Further research is needed.

JohnG.

[JohnG]

Hi All,

Just thought you'd like to know, Jerry tells me that the file I tweaked for him now plays.
All I did was insert a GM reset up front, and slide the voice select messages along a bit so the reset didn't interfere with them.

Tutorial?

"List View" is your friend,
JohnG.

[frank]

Do you think putting the voice select messages in the event edit tiles would be a better idea ?

[JohnG]

Hi Frank,

My own take on this is to use CakeWalk's or Sonar's own voice setup mechanism to select the voices because it's easy (once the correct "instrument file" has been loaded). Then I go into "list view" and move them ... always. Yes, every d@mn time.

The problem I have always found with Cakewalk and Sonar and, for that matter, most other sequencers, is that they insist on inserting the MSB, LSB bank selects and the program change messages all at 01:01:000 if you use the "normal" voice select mechanism. Normally, if you are creating a sequence, and start with the GM reset then add tracks and assign instruments to the tracks all the commands will be in order in the file, even though they may all have been put at 01:01:000, but if one then goes and edits the data, chaos can be the result.

If you add a GM reset at the start too (which of course is pretty well mandatory if you don't want the previous file messing things up), it becomes pot luck which order they get put in the MIDI file. At least, I have found it unpredictable.

Hardware sound modules/cards take, on average, 200ms to do the reset, some as little as 50ms, a few older ones as long as 500ms! Yes that's half a second.

Of course many will buffer the following commands and implement them in sequence, but if the voice setup message(s) are interrupted by a reset then the results are totally unpredictable.

When creating my own sequences, almost all classical music, I have a 4/4 measure at 120 bpm (2 seconds) at the start, then change the tempo at the beginning of measure 2 to what's needed to play the file.

Measure 1 starts (apart from meta data) with the GM reset then, if necessary, at 01:01:240 (480 ppqn) the GS or XG reset goes in. They need about 50 ms to implement, so other system setup messages can start at 01:01:360. However I usually start voice setup at 01:02:000, just for tidiness, and then make sure each message is separated from the previous one by at least one tick. The timings I use are over-cautious and could be reduced a bit.

With SysEx messages I leave a longer gap. I count the number of bytes and work out roughly how long it will take to send over MIDI, and leave an appropriate gap before the next one. If you're interested I can explain in more detail.

I guess the important thing to remember is that none of the MIDI transmission processes is instantaneous, and that it can matter very much what order the sound module receives the MIDI data in.

In conclusion then, what I tend to do is to insert a GM reset, if there isn't already one, remove GS or XG resets, if I know they're not appropriate for the person I'm altering the file for and, for that matter, SysEx messages, then move the MSB, LSB, program change messages to 01:02:000 and separate them by a few ticks, e.g.

Track 1
01:02:000 MSB bank select
01:02:001 LSB bank select
01:02:002 Program change
01:02:003 Channel volume
01:02:004 Pan
etc

Track 2
01:02:010 MSB bank select
01:02:011 LSB bank select
01:02:012 Program change
01:02:013 Channel volume
01:02:014 Pan
etc

Track 3
increment by ten ticks, and so on.

Any help?
JohnG.

[frank]

Good info.
When I was using the Kawai sequencer I would allow 1/2 a bar before I put the controllers etc in.
I just baked my PC today luckily I had just finished copying all my midis to flash drives.
I did a Frank Spencer inserting a card back to front. Fat fingers and failing eyesight is my excuse.
Using my old laptop for now off to the computer shop tomorrow.
Good excuse for an upgrade.
Frank