Recorded MIDI Files

Hi NathanShirley,

it might be a nice idea to have 2 separate destination folders for midi, one via auto-record, and one for our saved recordings via the stop button maybe or a new optional blue or green 'save' button to send the last played take to your folder of choice.

In the absence of that, I'm doing some things like the following, in case it's useful to yourself or others scratching their head about similar things:

When not using the auto-record-all-to-midi feature, then implicitly we might fairly logically be better off to explicitly save a file after we record it (esp. if we record many different projects and want these kinds of recordings to be saved in many places) - probably many other reasons, plus Pianoteq might keep recording for a billion years ;0) if we forget to hit the stop button.

I think of having auto-recording set to off, like this:

If I click "record" on anything, I kind of expect to then need to press "stop" and name a file/track/folder etc. as normal operating proc.

So that works for me in practice - because when I set Pianoteq to not record everything, I really don't want that setting to have too much in the way of even further implications/complexity than auto-record.

Unless clicking stop saves to a selectable different destination than the auto saves maybe.

It might have to be able to read my mind to know how long to record and where to put files unless I manage closely, or just set and forget them with auto-record set to on - but Piatnoeq's midi recording is still highly flexible as it is..

Let's say that you just want to record for any arbitrary short period without having to concern yourself over file names.

Then for just that time, re-enable automatic midi recording.

That way you can make any number of approaches to a piece, without having to stop/start or save out a specific file for each take (or any number of other reasons) at that time.

Just play and know your takes are sent as midi to a designated place.

Then turn off auto-record when done. It's pretty effort free and does more or less what I want.

You can set these midi files to be saved anywhere you find convenient by:

1.
Placing your mouse over the player's title bar "blues demo" - click

2.
At bottom of the menu, choose "Midi Archiving Settings..."

3.
Choose the "Browse" button to choose your output folder.

Other related settings are there, such as for basic clean-up.

Also here you can of course, set Pianoteq to archive your midi files from 1 hour, up to 1 billion years - which I think is rather generous.

Anyway, hope that helps you and anyone thinking about this.

Actually really liking the idea of custom naming conventions too!

Devil's advocate: Batch renaming could be done outside Pianoteq.

Very warm towards having settings saved with the midi files - having found this kind of thing so useful with "non destructive RAW photo processing" - it would make sense if Pianoteq did do something like it.

Eg. there are RAW image file processors which create a side-car data file in XML format incl. the settings (eg. if you made a colour image into B&W, the XML file would hold that info - rather than the program changing the original at all).

This obviously can also create soft lock-in, ahem, product loyalty (Adjusts neck tie) because users will open the RAW file in only that program.  There's no point starting from scratch processing the RAWs again in another program, if you have all the info in the side-car file, zero user attention required, it's just seamless.

If we can play our recorded session midi files back with the saved sound settings with a click, it would be very handy for sure.  How awfully some midi can play back with the wrong piano model!  Different volumes and velocities being maybe the most obviously affected thing - expecting a lullaby and getting Valkyries instead

You may have a look at those not-so-old threads :

embed preset
http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic.php?id=5615

silence lenght
http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic.php?id=5504

I set the file retention period to "a billion years."
MIDI files are stored in folders (one per month), clearly identified by date, time, number of played notes, so I could even retrieve improvisations that were years old. (I've never used it before but MIDI files aren't bulky so why not keep everything ? ...)
Sometimes I'd just missing a button to undo the last record.