metronome ticks in midi playback

[paulmennen]

My piano teacher occationally gives me sight reading excersizes which she wants me to tape so we can review them during my lesson. So what I do is record them using the floppy drive on my CVP-92, and use my notebook computer to play them back using Windows Media Player. This almost works well except for the fact that she wants us to be able to hear the metronome ticks as well. My only solution so far is to play the midi files back using the CVP (with the metronome enabled) and record the sound from the CVP's output jacks onto my stereo system's cassette tape deck. Then I can play the tape back using her portable tape player. This solution has many disadvantages. The audio quality is poor due to the tape player. The tape is harder to navigate (to replay sections, etc) than the media player. And most importantly, it takes me a long time to make the tape. (My stereo system is in a different room, so I have to run back and forth - not to mention having the wires strung across the house.) So you can see I really need a better solution. I'm hoping one of you midi experts will have an idea for putting metronome ticks into the midi file, or some other trick to allow me to hear the metronome during playback.

~Paul Mennen

[ClavinovaGuy]

Maybe you could create a simple style that would just play some drum sound that is similar to a metronome click. Either that, or create a drum track manually to do the same thing, playing along with the metronome.

[paulmennen]

> Maybe you could create a simple style that would just play
> some drum sound that is similar to a metronome click.
> Either that, or create a drum track manually to do the same
> thing, playing along with the metronome.

Would that require me to get some midi software, or are
you talking about something I could do on the piano?
(The latter would be preferable, since I'm not sure I'm willing
to buy anything or work that hard to solve this problem.)

~Paul

[ClavinovaGuy]

Either of those would be done right on the piano. I don't know much about creating styles, but an accompanying drum track would be really simple. Just set your metronome to whatever BPM is right for the song, find a drum sound that is similar to the metronome click, and record it to track 2. Just play along with the metronome click, stiking the drum key on each beat. If your timing is slightly uneven, you can quantize the track when you're done recording. Then record your piano part on track 1, playing along with track 2.

[paulmennen]

Thanks for your response, but I actually solved the problem
myself. It was as simple as finding a different program to play
the midi file. Turns out there is a weath of free software out
there (although part of the problem is that there are too many).
I tried a few programs that looked like duds, but about the third
one I tried was Anvil Studio. Looks like a winner.

Way more powerful than I need, in fact I'm just using it as a midi player and not as the midi editor for which it was designed. But
you can turn the metronome on or off which is basically all I needed
for now. As a bonus, I can adjust the metronome volume and choose among many sounds for the metronome click.

In the staff view I can look at the notes that I was playing -
kind of nice, although again something I didn't really need at
the moment.

Thanks again for your responses.
~Paul

> Either of those would be done right on the piano. I don't
> know much about creating styles, but an accompanying
> drum track would be really simple. Just set your metronome
> to whatever BPM is right for the song, find a drum sound
> that is similar to the metronome click, and record it to
> track 2. Just play along with the metronome click, stiking
> the drum key on each beat. If your timing is slightly uneven,
> you can quantize the track when you're done recording.
> Then record your piano part on track 1, playing along with
> track 2.

[ClavinovaGuy]

Your solution sounds way too easy, Paul!

:D