Topic by sandalholme

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  • sandalholme
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Topic: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

I've been experimenting with combining midi files, e.g. joining two halves of a sonata movement, together with the occasional edit of a glaringly wrong note. Experimenting with Aria Maestosa, which I'm finding to be a steep learning curve.  (Up to now, I process the PT wav files with Audacity, joining the 2 wav files together and dealing with the transition as best as I can, trying to eliminate the click at the join. No wrong note editing. I don't use a DAW.) I can join 2 midis in Audacity and PT renders the midi but I then have no gap when there should be one. (second half of a sonata runs on from the first without even a semiquaver break? Ugh) If I then edit the joined midi in Aria, PT then can't recognise the midi file. I have edited a single note in a PT midi in Aria and PT renders it, but it seems a bit hit and miss. I'm not looking to provide a note-perfect midi (would take too long!) but create single movement midis which are slightly more acceptable and easier to save/find for subsequent re-rendering if/when I change an fxp.

Is there anything I need to do to save PT originated midis after editing them in a 3rd party app to enable PT to see them?  Using Mac laptop and PT 7.2.

Hope this is clear enough.  Difficult to explain.

Reply by MeDorian

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Re: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

Hi sandalholme. I'm no expert on MIDI files, to me they are something that can be bypassed in the music production process as far as editing.

I think a DAW would be a good solution to your requirements though, using multitrack for your different sections, although this would result in a rendered audio file not a single MIDI file. For multitracking audio, even a video editor will allow you to blend the sections together using key frames or just lining up the parts on different tracks.

As for playing the Sonata in two halves, why not play up to the first cadence for example, in other words, make this easier and divide as many times to complete the piece.....Glenn Gould would re-work sections and have them spliced together, although this wasn't to correct his mistakes, but to improve the 'line' of the music.

Nick

Last edited by MeDorian (29-03-2021 15:20)

Reply by budo

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Re: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

i use Midieditor:

https://www.midieditor.org/

it's very easy to use and has never given me any trouble with Pianoteq.  it doesn't run on Macs, though (only Windows and Linux).

another option, depending on your comfort zone with such things, is to use midicsv:

https://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/midicsv/

you can convert the midifiles to csv format, which are then human readable plain text.  they can be loaded in excel and edited, or manipulated with a python/perl script, etc.  (if you only want to merge two files, you'd just have to strip the headers off the 2nd and adjust the time data in the 2nd file to include the space you want).  then the final file gets converted back to midi with another tool in the collection.  it may seem like overkill, but if you wanted to merge lots of files this is the way to go.  you can also do things like randomly tweak the velocity to humanize a file, etc.

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Reply by Gilles

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Re: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

For serious MIDI file editing, I use Sonar in a Windows VM on my MacPro, but for simple edits and concatenation, maybe you could use the Java editor MidiSwing (available at https://macdownload.informer.com/midiswing/ ). It's free and simple to use. I just did a test and the output plays correctly in Pianoteq. To combine two MIDI files, you have to launch another instance by creating a new document, load it and copy/paste into the original at the chosen position.

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

sandalholme wrote:

I've been experimenting with combining midi files, e.g. joining two halves of a sonata movement, together with the occasional edit of a glaringly wrong note. Experimenting with Aria Maestosa, which I'm finding to be a steep learning curve.  <...>   If I then edit the joined midi in Aria, PT then can't recognise the midi file.
Is there anything I need to do to save PT originated midis after editing them...?  Using Mac laptop and PT 7.2.


Hello Mr. Sandalholme,

I have only read your initial post, and have not yet read the replies, so my response might be redundant.

It seems to me if PT cannot recognise the midi file, then Aria is encoding it in a format that is incompatible with PT.  You might try "exporting" (rather than simply "saving") your edited Aria file as a standard midi file, whose format includes a suffix ".mid" .  In this way, PT should be able to read the fruits of your labour.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Joe

P.S.  The act of simply editing the suffixes of your midi files edited in Aria to .mid will probably not work with PT.  Try the long way of exporting Aria to a standard midi file.

Last edited by jcfelice88keys (29-03-2021 17:54)

Reply by aWc

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Re: Edited midi files can't be opened in Pianoteq

Since you're on mac, you can do  basic midi editing with GarageBand which is free. However, exporting midi files from GB requires a hack called "GB to MIDI" (which actually works, but it's not ideal). If you can afford it, I recommend Logic. It's expensive, but it's very easy to use, and also extremely powerful. Last year, I decided to splurge for it and never regretted the move. It's something about the interface: elegant, simple, user-friendly.

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