MIDI: Many Irritating Days Involved

[J Wah]

So I am trying to learn midi and so far it is not going very well . I have read the recommended tutorials and my n-tracks manual (the software I am using). This is the most intimidating subject I have studies. It makes Advanced Structural Analysis In Earthquake Zones seem pretty straight forward . Maybe I am just older and its harder to learn new things. Anyway…

As I said in a post in the Record Tech. Form, I want to be able to record a basic drum track from my drum machine and be able to edit it after audio tracks are recorded. Last night I hooked up my drum machine to my computer and attempted my first midi recording. I hit record and started to play the drum pattern. The recording vu meter did not show anything. I thought this was strange but then I remembered I am not recording audio but a bunch of computer noise, so maybe the vu meter should not show anything (should it?) . I hit stop on the recorder and not a wave file but a bunch of lines I have not seen before appeared on the track. And I thought this must be good. I went back to the beggining of the track, pressed play and anxiously waited to hear my first midi drum recording :. The track approached and when the song started my damn drum machine was playing the piano . I didn’t even know it was taking lessons. So I look at the track properties and it listed “Program”. Under program was a bunch of voices that must be from my sound card synth. When I changed this, the midi track I recorded would play what ever voice was listed (piano, sax, trumpet, etc). It would play anything accept my drum machine as I wanted. N-tracks manual talks about the “midi device” setting under preferences. I looked at this and it has settings for midi in device and midi out device. I had both of these set to my sound card in and out.

Let me see if I got this right in basic terms. I record a midi track and have my drum machine play while recording. The drum machine is telling the computer what buttons to push and when. The computer is recording this information. So when I play the midi track back, the computer the pushing the buttons but they must be piano buttons or trumpet buttons and not my drum machine buttons. (Am I really saying buttons? I feel my technical knowledge is at an all time low ). When the computer plays the piano, I here this through my sound card output (which goes into a channel on my mixer). If the computer plays my drum machine will I here it through my sound card or do I have to have the audio outputs from the drum mach going into my mixer?

I also tried to use MTC to start my drum mach and just record an audio track. I had the MTC setting to 30 fps. That’s how many times midi sends the time signal right? Can you just send one signal to start the drum mach instead 30 fps or 20fps. When I recorded an audio track this way the CPU usage was at 56% record the first and only track . It is usually about 3%. Then n-tracks got all screwed up. I would record an audio track, the vu meter would register but no wave file would appear when I hit stop ( by this time I was really HITTING stop ) and it wouldn’t do anything when I hit play. So I reinstalled the software and haven’t messed with it since.

If anyone has gotten this far in this post you are either know alot about midi or have too much time on your hands but I bet you can help me. I want to start with what I think would be the basics. How to record a drum machine in midi and play back the drum machine in midi? Is this the best place to start to accomplish my goal? You remember my goal don’t you?

Anyway thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this and even more thanks to anyone who dares to respond.


Wow, 3 days of midi frustration vented. I feel much better now .

 

[drstawl]

Solo: Open Channel D

Most of these setups playing computer noises under MIDI control
have the drums on channel 10. Theoretically this can be changed but there's no reason to do so. Software will create as many separate tracks for the drums as needed even though they will all be played back as one dense track on channel 10.

That MTC stuff is not relevant. That's for syncing up other toys with the MIDI tracks. Not needed if you're just playing some MIDI tracks and recording them as audio (.wav files).

 

[AlChuck]

J Wah,

Sounds like your understanding is mostly on track... part of why your confused might have to do with th somewhat complex nature of a drum machine as a MIDI device. It has three ways of working, unlike simpler playback devices (like a sound card):

• It can act like a single unit unto itself, playing a pattern by itself, without listening to any MIDI data coming in from the outside at all. This is how you use it as a pure rhythm box without any need to control it from or integrate it with other MIDI devices.
• It can also be set up as the controller, to send MIDI data out corresponding to what's happening -- either you tapping the pads, or its own sequencer playing back a pattern. (This is the mode you want it to be in to record drum patterns already done recorded in the drum machine's internal sequencer.)
• It can be set to synch to another device's MIDI clock, in which case you are using the drum machine's internal sequencer but triggering it from (and locking it to) the MIDI clock on another device. This is usually used when you want to use the song or set of pattern you've programmed into the drum machine's internal sequence to synch to a synch track on a tape recorder, and the drum machine is the only MIDI device.
• Finally, it can be set to act as a pure MIDI module, a box that merely plays sounds when it receives external MIDI messages. (This is the mode you want it to be in after you've recorded the patterns you wanted onto the computer's sequencer.)

Just remember that the MIDI data you record is distinct from any actual sound. It's up to the device that's receiving the MIDI data to respond to it. If that device is a soundcard, and the patch is set to be a piano, you'll hear a piano playing back the notes. If that device is a drum machine, you'll hear drums. Or you might hear nothing, if the drum machine is not set to respond to messages coming over the MIDI cable on a specific channel, or on any channel... depending on how the drum machine's MIDI options are set, it might do any of these things.

So the bottom line is, you need to understand how to change your drum machine's MIDI options so you can have your drum machine serve as a a master when you want to record its patterns, and as a MIDI module when you just want it to respond to your computer's sequence. Its documentation should tell you what you need to know.

I hope that helps clarify things. I know it's a head-scratcher at first but you'll get there...

 

[J Wah]

Thanks Alchuck. Nice explanation of the drum machine in midi. It helped alot.

 

[Gidge]

I have N-Track and it sucks for midi...i use Voyetra's Digital Orchestrator Plus for midi parts and import them in to N-Track.....