Midi export -- notation editor tips

[mrvegas]

I was trying for a long time to export midi files from modplug and then bring them up in a notation editor.  Everytime I would try it, things would be way off, but here's what finally seems to work reasonably well.

1.  Save your mod as a separate file because you will have to make changes to export properly.

2.  Set ticks per row to 5.  

3.  In Song Properties set it to modern-accurate.

4.  Setting the tempo to 100 seems to help -- I have no idea why this would make a difference.  This is the tempo that my notation editor starts off with, though.

5.  Then export to midi.  Depending on the number of tracks you have and what you want your music to look like, I would strongly recommend exporting each track to a separate melodic midi track  -- note that percussion will likely be off unless you are using an instrument that follows general midi drums.

6.  I have been able to successfully bring music up in Print Music (a Finale product).  (Note that my old Cakewalk Music Creator seems to still have trouble with the staff view even thought the midi file sounds right.)  Anyway, I'm glad I finally found a way to see sheet music made from a modplug file.

[LPChip]

This is a really nice post, and deserves to be moved to Technical Documents. Therefore moved there.

[shnurui]

Ok, all those sound samples that come with midi gear(INCLUDING NEW SOUNDCARDS) and windows are listed over there on the left.

They are not protected copywritten material, because

A) ALL instruments make basic sounds.

B) They are Single Notes.  That'd be like copy writing the letter E so noone else can use it.  massive havoc would ensue.

So, how do we use direct instrument library  samples out of the basic libraries as instruments?

[Michael_Rybak]

A setting that works too is 120 bpm, 6 ticks per row. Looks like it's about the ratio being equal to 20.

120/3 works too.

[Relabsoluness]

Based on quick examination, it seems that at the time of writing MIDI export has (at least) the following limitations:

-The only mod effects taken into account are set speed and pattern break; effect like position jump, set tempo, note delay etc. have no effect in MIDI export. So for example changing tempo with pattern command won't have effect, so if possible, set tempo to its desired value from general tab, not from pattern as effect.

-Module is always exported with 'classic'-tempomode regardless of the actual tempomode setting.

[mrvegas]

Thanks for the information,  guys.  I had only posted what worked for me after many experiments.  Keeping the tempo/ticks per row ratio to 20 was just something that I had not figured out.

Anyway, even a limited midi export feature is nice to have, and not often found in trackers.  (I am not sure, but I could not find midi-export listed as a feature in Renoise, for example.)

[farvardin]

Hello,

I had the same issue, I was lucky enough to have most of my tracks in a tempo of 120, so I could figure out the exporter had something wrong with the tempo.

However, I had some other problems with the exporter. I can't really tell what is the problem, but another software I was using told me "Error - note too short!". I could fix it by loading the midi track into my sequencer, and export it again. [edit : I see now the last note from each track seems to be really too short, because after the 2nd exportation, it's no longer in the midi file, and my sequencer couldn't even display it)

Here is a little tutorial for how to create some nice partitions from modules:

- load the module into modplug tracker (as a linux user, I'm enjoying schism as a regular tracker, and I'm using modplug tracker for the midi export)
- export to midi
- load the midi track into rosegarden (or any other sequencer)
- use midi2abc to convert the midi track into abc notation : http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/
- tidy the abc with a text editor (adding repeats, keys and such)
- export to postscript/pdf with abcm2ps http://moinejf.free.fr/ and eventually export again to a clean general midi track with abc2midi

[Sam_Zen]

Welcome.
I don't deal with MIDI, but this seems like a nice piece of work.

[michaelmd]

I had problems with the tempo when exporting midi from modplug

so I use "lifeamp" for midi conversion.

http://www.oocities.com/lstnght2000/life.htm

Its a winamp plugin that exports a midi file and an sf2 file when you load a XM/IT/MOD/etc file

Its old but it does a pretty good job for midi conversion.


... you might also want to check out reVisit which is an actual tracker that is a VSTi
(runs in sync with the host)

http://www.nashnet.co.uk/english/revisit/