Midi import - beats of doom, timing hell

[egalotron]

Hello, people of the MODPlug central forums! I just registered because I am stuck with a strange problem and cannot find any help by browsing old threads and the almighty internet...

My problem is this:

I am importing midi files to convert them to .it files at the moment because for my current project this file format is much more appropriate. Most of my compositions (I have been composing with my Midi Keyboard and various sequencing programs such as FL Studio, for example) import just fine and sound great -

some Midis, however, will not stay in time! The drum beats hobble around randomly, the synth piano is out of bounds!

Things I've tried:

- fiddling with ticks/row rows/beat to no avail, yet
- setting timing to alternative / moden (accurate)
- quantizing really hard before I import the files

Is this a common known weakness of the tracker format as a whole? Or why does it eat some of my midi files like it's the most tasty bitfood ever, and spits out some gross beat-trash some other times?


Thanks in advance, and apologize my wordy post.

[LPChip]

Midi importing never was supported that well in OpenMPT.

You can try setting a slow speed for the song making it synch with your quantisize as much as possible. I'd reccommend a setting of 6 or higher.

If that doesn't help, you can try setting a very fast speed and import the midi that way. You'll have to adjust then, but it might be easier.

[g]

Are you using the latest version? I think MIDI import got slightly better since it went open source. Some years ago I converted some MIDI game music to small XM files for a handheld device (the Tapwave Zodiac). I loaded a MIDI file in FL Studio, changed the speed to 120 bpm (or was it 140? I think it wasn't 125 because it didn't make sense and it took a while to figure out) and then saved the midi and imported it and it'd be all good. I don't think that's necessary anymore, but just in case... Make sure you have the latest version.

[Saga Musix]

I'm not sure, but I don't think that the MIDI source code has been touched that much since then.

[uncloned]

look for this and then convert to it in open mpt

it works really well

MIDI to XM File Converter (MID2XM) v1.4 - (c)1996-97 Ian Luck
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

What's the point?
=================
MID2XM is a MS-Windows program that, as the title suggests, converts
MIDI files into XM digital music modules (FastTracker 2 modules).

The purpose of MID2XM is to make it easier to create quality music
for demos, games or whatever. By using a MIDI sequencer and instrument
to record and edit the music before converting it with MID2XM to a XM
module. Rather than starting from scratch using a tracker.



Main Features
=============
* Volume, pan, expression, modulation, hold(sustain), all notes off,
 all sounds off, reset controllers, pitch wheel, pitch wheel range
 and tempo MIDI events are all handled
* Supports MIDI file formats 0 and 1 (99.9% of all MIDI files)
* Easy to use front-end, no messing about with text editors and
 config files
* Selectable quantization resolution and rounding of notes
* Notification of any lost notes during conversion
* Optimization of patterns (eliminate duplicate patterns)
* Optimization of samples (resampling, conversion from 16 to 8 bit)
* XM channels can be allocated to any selected MIDI channels
* Automatic calculation of the required channels for conversion
* Integrated WAV to XI converter
* Help sections on getting started and creating drum XIs
* XM playback on Win95/NT (listen to XM before saving to disk)
* MIDI file playback (listen to MIDI file before/while converting)
* Compatible with MS-Windows 3.1, 95 and NT

Registered Version Only
-----------------------
* Upto 90 drums can be defined using multiple drum XI files
* Automatic drum note duration (play the complete drum samples always)
* Integrated drum XI editor (no need for a tracker to create drum XIs)
* PAT/IST/SMP files can be used inplace of XI files as instruments
* Import complete PAT sets using ULTRAMID.INI or ULTRASND.INI file
* Individual optimization settings for each sample



Installation
============
Run INSTALL.EXE and enter a destination directory.

Upgrading
---------
If you are upgrading from a previous version of MID2XM you should
install this version in the same directory. Your old configuration
will then be used by the new version.



Latest Version
==============
The latest version of MID2XM can always be found at the Coast to Coast
Software Repository :

   http://www.coast.net/simtel/win3/music.html

And at the Hornet Archive :

       http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/convert/index.html

And at MAZ Sound Tools :

       http://www.maz-sound.com/



Copyright, Disclaimer etc...
============================
MID2XM is not free, it is SHAREWARE. You are allowed 21 days to
evaluate it and decide if it's of any use to you. If you want to
continue using it after this period you must register your copy.
See REGISTER.TXT for details.

[uncloned]

you may have to run it in dosbox

ymmv

[Saga Musix]

MID2XM is a MS-Windows program that, as the title suggests, converts
MIDI files into XM digital music modules (FastTracker 2 modules).

Yeah right, run win95 in dosbox and then run mid2xm in it, huh?

[Harbinger]

Yes, MIDI conversion is shoddy at best. I have a myriad of .mid files from my days of sequencing that i'd love to work on in MPT. I've been able to salvage a few, but it usually requires a lot of trial-and-error.

I suggest you try each of the numeric values in the File Import speed of the MIDI tab in the Options dialog, and look at the converted file to see if it's something you can work with. If the rows are evenly spaced, you can use that and adjust your spacing if possible. Then you can convert to .it or .mptm or whatever...

[uncloned]

MID2XM is a MS-Windows program that, as the title suggests, converts
MIDI files into XM digital music modules (FastTracker 2 modules).

Yeah right, run win95 in dosbox and then run mid2xm in it, huh?

Crap you may have to do that....

it seems to lock in XP pro and certainly vista 64 barfs....


but wait - wasn't Windows supposed to be backwards - I mean backwards compatible?

Perhaps Ubuntu and Wine would actually work where M$ doesn't....

Sad thing is - the program worked really well.

[Saga Musix]

Well, I have VirtualBox for such cases... If you're using Vista64, you most likely have the power for running a Win98 or WinXP (mid2xm worked well in XP32 here) in VirtualBox.

[uncloned]

I am running XP 32 (XP Pro) in virtualbox and midi2xm hung.


I wonder what I did wrong....?


When I tried to put Win98 into virtualbox it was tremendously slow due to a bug that M$ had in 98 - there was a work around but I wasn't *that* interested and deleted it.

[egalotron]

Thanks a lot for your answers!

I have tried midi2xm before (running under winXP), and it did not hang or anything, but it also didn't produce any results, the export didn't work somehow. Maybe I'll try it on my Linux system.

I am using the latest version of MPT, yes. Maybe I will try importing the midi files to FL Studio and exporting them on 120 or 125 bpm and then importing them to MPT -

You know, what really bothered me wasn't that it didn't work properly, but that it worked like a charm on some of my midi files, but some others didn't work at all, and I could not find any system behind this. Maybe some of them were "accidently" exported on the right bpm rate?

I'll try your suggestions, thanks again!

[Saga Musix]

egalotron, can you provide us with a few midis to play around with? I dunno if you are doing something wrong or I'm simply listening to the wrong kind of midi music, but midi IMPORT works fine here, apart from the bad quality of the default soundfont (GM.DLS) and pattern stuff like randomly cut notes, pitch bends that go too far, etc... But timing works quite well here.
But yeah, as MIDI is not a pattern-based format, you can't really expect perfect timing or even "aligned" patterns.

[Harbinger]

That last line is actually the most informative part your paragraph. I didn't realize (and should have known) that MIDI files are indeed not PATTERN-BASED, which for me explains why conversion can be problematic. That is after all what needs to happen: take an event list and separate the data into quantities we call patterns.

But what i'm missing is how the File Import Speed is used to determine how to convert the .MIDI file. This may better determine what we should set it to in order to unpack the events evenly into patterns. Does it help to know any of the settings of the MIDI file in question, such as tempo, or number of tracks?

[Saga Musix]

Generall I'd say, the more "detailed" your tunes are, the lower the speed should be (remember, small values are faster here). I dunno, I always use 2 myself.