MIDI File Import Assistant

[Brozilla]

Great news.
I downloaded and tested the last version of OpenMPT. One thing that I hope can be improved are cymbal sound. It stop too fast instead of gradually fade out like in the original. (Maybe sound like ts.!, instead of tsssss......)  Strangely if I downgrade to IT and adjust the ticks/row, the cymbal sounds as expected.

Saga Musix kinda already mentioned this but you could just change the instrument envelope on the offending cymbal. The MS Roland GM library is pretty lame if you ask me so not sure why it's a problem.

Sorry if I cannot describe it well as my knowledge about musical terms are fairly limited. I attached a MIDI sample which often make use cymbal sound.

I don't think we use "musical terms" here that much but it's important to know the program isn't magic. Some teachers/professors like to say "what you put in is what you get out," and the like. Apparently there are bugs/fixes going on but I'm still on "revision 6609" and have no notable issues with the midi import.

[Saga Musix]

The MS Roland GM library is pretty lame if you ask me so not sure why it's a problem.

Indeed, and there are so many better soundfonts that can easily replace it (while testing, I have been particularly fond of "Yamaha XG Sound Set.sf2", which makes the MIDI files almost sound like a mid-90s module ).

I'm still on "revision 6609" and have no notable issues with the midi import.

Then you should get a recent test build from https://buildbot.openmpt.org/builds/ and be amazed how much more accurate MIDI import is now. In particular, the most important feature for anyone wanting to make serious use of this feature is the proper alignment of MIDI beats to the pattern grid.

[RyanBram]

Hi Enumeratingw7,
Technically the MIDI Importer is much improved and tidier than in the previous version of OpenMPT. But in my opinion sometimes some instrument doesn't sound good compared to the original. Even replacing default GM.dls with another .sf2 still doesn't automatically solve cymbal problem. Thanks to you and Saga help I can begin to figure out the problem although I have to admit I still far for knowledge about using OpenMPT due to my lack of musical terms knowledge to give better understand about what have been writen in the manual. I know some musical terms in my language Bahasa Indonesia but it is often confusing when translated to English even by using Google Translate because too many difference when learning music in my own language and understand it in English.

For Saga,
I am aware about your warn about your intention in improving MIDI importer. But by looking your effort in creating MIDI importer from scratch and how often your commit in SVN (this is the first time I watch sorce code progress of OSS project daily) for MIDI importer improvement, then I talk myself "maybe" I still have chance for asking Saga to do small fix like cymbal sound improvement, at least before next OpenMPT stable release which mean you will focus on another improvement. Because if MIDI synthesizer can handle hi hat and cymbal sound well, there must be a way to make it works in OpenMPT which once again I am aware it is not your intention in the first place.
I use technology mainly to make more accessible for me to reach something that I don't have many knowledge about it. That's why I prefer to use simple MIDI editor like Sekaiju over full featured DAW like LMMS, simple game creator like Construct 2 over advanced game creator like Unity, and OpenMPT instead of Renoise. Because OpenMPT is a software that make it easier for me to access tracker music creation (something that increasingly rare today) than Renoise thanks to the much improved MIDI importer.

Finaly, I want to apologize if asking you too much. I understand that it is my own job to solve my own problem. I really appreciate to what you and Manx done so far. Many, many thanks to both of you and OpenMPT contributors for all of your efforts.

Best regards,
RyanBram

[Saga Musix]

But in my opinion sometimes some instrument doesn't sound good compared to the original.

You need to understand that instruments have absolutely nothing to do with MIDI import, and there is no easy way to fix it. OpenMPT is not a soundfont player. End of discussion.

[Harbinger]

If you can just put the notes on the right row, i'll figure out the rest! I'm just happy those old files aren't lost in their binary purgatory, thanks to your efforts...

Thanks for whatever extra you can do!!

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

If you can just put the notes on the right row, i'll figure out the rest! I'm just happy those old files aren't lost in their binary purgatory, thanks to your efforts...

Same here.

Saga Musix, manx, and whoever else helped in the development of OpenMPT and the late and improved MIDI imported,  thank you.

[Brozilla]

I am aware about your warn about your intention in improving MIDI importer. But by looking your effort in creating MIDI importer from scratch and how often your commit in SVN (this is the first time I watch sorce code progress of OSS project daily) for MIDI importer improvement, then I talk myself "maybe" I still have chance for asking Saga to do small fix like cymbal sound improvement, at least before next OpenMPT stable release which mean you will focus on another improvement. Because if MIDI synthesizer can handle hi hat and cymbal sound well, there must be a way to make it works in OpenMPT which once again I am aware it is not your intention in the first place.
I use technology mainly to make more accessible for me to reach something that I don't have many knowledge about it. That's why I prefer to use simple MIDI editor like Sekaiju over full featured DAW like LMMS, simple game creator like Construct 2 over advanced game creator like Unity, and OpenMPT instead of Renoise. Because OpenMPT is a software that make it easier for me to access tracker music creation (something that increasingly rare today) than Renoise thanks to the much improved MIDI importer.

If you have some funds you might want to consider hiring a musician or audio programmer. Otherwise just play with the program some more. Look at the tracker files in the free music downloads section. Not only does it [OpenMPT] have an excellent MIDI importer but the program is capable of so much more. I've barely scratched the surface!

[Saga Musix]

A couple more recent (and not-so-recent, I just forgot to mention them) improvements:
- Support for channel transpose (RPN 2) and master transpose (XG SysEx) - note that both will only affect notes triggered after that command
- Support for RPN increment / decrement (CC 96/97)
- Support for type 2 MIDIs (does anyone have any of those?)
- In addition to embedded soundfonts in RMI files, OpenMPT now also searches for soundfonts with the same name as the MIDI file in the current directory - so if you have e.g. foo.mid and foo.sf2 in the same folder, foo.sf2 will first be tried when loading instruments for foo.mid, and if an instrument is missing from there, OpenMPT's MIDI Library is tried instead.

Oh, and the SF2 coarse tune property was previously ignored, which could also lead to some instruments not being tuned correctly. This is now fixed.

[phanoo]

good work. OpenMPT stayed so much time with buggy sf2 imports it was almost ridiculous

[Saga Musix]

Everyone was welcome to fix it.

[RyanBram]

Everyone was welcome to fix it.

Out of curiosity, is it possible to use code from this project https://github.com/schellingb/TinySoundFont to improve OpenMPT SF2 support.

[Saga Musix]

No, because OpenMPT is not a soundfont player at heart. It does fundamentally different things (stuffing SF2 data into its own limited module-centric world) when importing a soundfont file compared to any regular soundfont player.