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| What is MIDI? Where can I find basic information? |
| MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and is an international hardware and software standard.
First of all, MIDI specifies the hardware interface, that allows you to connect electronic musical instruments (and computers) from different manufacturers. In other words, "the wiring diagram" so to speak. It also specifies a communication protocol for passing data from one device to another (such as from your CVP to your home computer). This means in plain English that the messages these devices send to each other are also standardized. That should do it, right? So let's make music! Wrong! Something in fact was wrong. MIDI worked all right, and the devices from different manufacturers could indeed communicate, but the results were sometimes unexpected. One of the main problems was in the instrument list (the manner and order in which the instruments are numbered inside the synthesizer). When a MIDI message tells a synthesizer to use instrument number 12 (and that IS how it works) then one synthesizer would generate the sound of a vibraphone and another one would generate the sound of a violin. The instrument lists were different. This produced a significant issue of incompatibility between the instrument lists of different MIDI devices. To overcome this 'little' problem the MIDI manufacturers put their heads together, formed the MMA (MIDI Manufacturers Association) and defined a standard instrument list. And while they were at it, they not only agreed upon a standard instrument list, they also specified some other things and called this total package, General MIDI (GM). The General MIDI (GM) specification includes the definition of: - an instrument list (also called Sound Set or Patch Map), - a list of percussion sounds with their matching note numbers and - a set of performance capabilities, like number of voices, types of MIDI messages recognized, etc. Here is the site of the MMA for more details: http://www.midi.org/ Although GM still works fine as a standard, it IS from 1984 and has its limitations. Therefore manufacturers started looking for and came up with extensions. Roland developed GS and Yamaha came up with XG. (Alas, they both went their own way.) Both systems are GM-compatible and I tried to find out for you what the exact specifications of both systems are. The message is, "it's better than GM", "it's something like GM, but much more". Yamaha did at least give it a good try and did some explanation. Roland (as usual) doesn't seem to care much to inform the customer. The "What is: GS/XG" URLs of the manufacturers themselves are included here. See for yourself at: http://www.yamaha-xg.com/english/xg/ or go directly to: http://www.yamaha-xg.com/english/xg/read/wxg.html Here is the Roland page: http://www.rolandus.com/ABOUT/GS.HTM If you like to see a dose of MIDI information concentrated, then you should visit these excellent on-line sources: http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/ http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/doc.html Another good start to dive into MIDI is this book: "The MIDI Files" by Robert Young. It comes with fifty short MIDI files, that demonstrate techniques explained in the book and can be used as practice vehicles so you don't mess up anything you've tried to put together. -- Prentice Hall -- ISBN: 0-133-262403-6 (pbk) |
| WAVE, MP3, MIDI and MOD, what's the difference? |
| ==> SOUND
For sound you need an instrument and a 'musician' (in the broadest sense of these words). If you like to hear a piano sound, you need to have a piano and someone playing it. If you love the sound of breaking glass, the neighbors window will do fine as an instrument and their son, throwing a baseball very wide, could be the great musician to satisfy you ;-). Let's stick to the piano. When the pianist is playing the piano, little hammers strike the piano strings. The strings start to vibrate and make the air-molecules around them vibrate. The air-molecules pass this on to other air-molecules, until finally this vibration of air hits your eardrums. Sound is how you (your brains) interpret this vibration. The continuous 'flow of vibrations' from the sound source (to your ears) is called the sound wave, which can be represented on paper (or on screen) as a wavy line, although this line would be very fanciful when it represents 'normal' sound. When two or more instruments are played at the same time, all the vibrations coming from those instruments will be mixed (in the air), so there still will only be ONE sound wave. (Even more complex than from the piano alone). ==> WAVE When you want to save sound, so you can hear it later, you can record the sound wave in several possible ways. In the past people could only save sound in an analogous way. The sound wave was 'printed' on a tape or a (vinyl) disk. A bit similar to the way you would draw a shaky, wavy line on paper. Nowadays it's possible to record sound in a digital way. Therefore the sound wave is 'cut' into thin slices, called samples. Each of these samples gets a value, depending on its position on the 'wavy line'. This way we 'convert' an analog sound wave into a string of values. But don't forget, this long string of numbers (values) still represents the sound wave, the vibration of the air. No more, no less. This string of numbers that can be stored on CD, hard disk, or Tape is called a WAVE file. Two things are important in this process: the sample rate and the sample value. The sample rate tells you how many samples are taken per second of sound, i.e. in how many slices a second of sound wave is cut. More samples/second (thinner slices) result in a better preservation of sound quality, but require more storage to save it and more bandwidth to transmit it. A typical sample rate for real good quality is 44,100 samples per second. Then these samples will be given a value. To be able to make a good distinction between the various samples you need a broad range of numbers. Think about the athletes that run the 100 meters. If we could only measure their time in full seconds, the numbers 1 through 16 would be sufficient. The good ones would all do the 100 meters in 10 seconds, ergo they would all be world champion. Since we don't want that, we measure their time in thousandth of seconds, which gives us a broad range of 16,000 numbers (in 16 secs) to make a good distinction between the athletes. We need something in that same order when we assign values to samples. Since computers work with bytes and 1 byte (256 numbers) is not really enough for reasons of quality, we use 2 bytes per sample, which gives us 65,536 numbers to choose from. Now you also know, why (quality) WAVE files are huge. For one second of sound you need 44,100 x 2 = 88,200 bytes and that is just one channel. For stereo you have to double that of course, which brings you at a total of 176,400 bytes for one second of sound. A minute of sound will cost you roughly 10.5 megabytes! ==> MP3 MP3 is the file extension for MPEG Audio compressed files. The .mp3 files are WAVE files, but they are compressed in a very special way. Maybe you have heard of file compression methods or maybe you even use a program like PKZIP or WINZIP to make .zip files yourself. This however is a completely different compression method. When you compress a file and turn it into a .zip file, nothing is left out. It's a method to save ALL data in a smart way using less space. There are lots of possibilities to do that, but let me give you one very simple example. When there are 40 dashes in a standard file, they are written as: ----------------------------------------&nbbsp; taking 40 bytes of space. Another way of writing these 40 dashes is: 40x- (40 times -) which only takes 4 bytes of space. The compression ratio in this example is 10:1, which is, as you will understand, quite exceptional and certainly not the average for a complete file. The advantage is that ALL data is still there, although the file takes up less space. The downside is that a .zip file has to be 'unzipped' before you can use it, which means that (after 'unzipping' it) it will take up the same amount of space as it did before it was 'zipped'. In addition, 'zipping' a WAVE file will not bring you very much. A compression ratio of 2:1 at the most. The compression method that is used to make .mp3 files is totally different. In this method some things are actually left out, but in a very smart way, so you won't notice (hear) it. Information that is not important will be stripped. Based on the research of human perception the encoder decides what information is important and what can be discarded. When a sound wave hits your eardrums, the incoming data is analyzed by your brain. The brain interprets the sound and filters out irrelevant information, which means you just don't hear everything that is in the sound wave. Another simple example: You're listening to the Rolling Stones using your headphones. If you turn off the stereo, you can hear everything that's going on around you - the ambient noise. The headphones over (or in ;-) your ears do not really block the sound that is coming from the 'outside'. When you turn the stereo back on and listen to the Stones again, you won't hear 'outside' sounds, although they're still there. The music on your headphones is so loud in comparison to the 'outside' sound, that this 'outside' sound is filtered out by your brain. MPEG Audio compression does this job for you. It's called "perceptual coding." This is quite clever, because the information that would be stripped by your own "brain-filter" anyway, no longer needs to occupy hard disk space or internet bandwidth. You have to be a bit careful though, because if you encode at a very strong compression rate, MPEG also strips information that is audible, but with 'light' compression (up to a ratio of approximately 12:1) you won't hear the difference between the .mp3 file and the uncompressed original. Compression rates of 12:1 without loosing quality are pretty normal for MPEG Audio compression. The disadvantage of MPEG Audio compression is that there is a lot of processing power required to encode and play files. ==> MIDI Let's go back to the pianist we met in the section about WAVE. We see him play the piano ('commanding' the piano) and we hear the sound. We already saw that we can record this sound. (see WAVE) Suppose I don't like the piano player and I want to get rid of him (for whatever reason), but I still like to hear that piano play the tunes. In that case I must record the actions ('commands') of the piano player and find a way to execute these 'commands' upon the piano. Well, they thought of a thing like this ages ago and developed the player piano, also called Pianola. The 'commands' of the pianist were recorded on a roll of paper (the piano roll) by punching holes in the paper at exactly the right places. That way a 'smart' mechanism could play the piano. These piano rolls, representing a sequence of 'commands', are in a way the first MIDI files. Today's techniques give us many more possibilities and we don't need the roll of paper anymore, but the idea is about the same. In a MIDI file we record (lay down) all the 'commands' of the musicians playing their instruments. So there is no sound in a MIDI file, there are only 'commands'. In MIDI these 'commands' are called messages or events. ==> MOD Now that you have a general idea of MIDI and WAVE files, we can move on to MOD files. A Module (MOD for short) is sort of a hybrid, a mixture of MIDI and WAVE. The MIDI file depends on the instruments that are on your sound card or in your sound module. A MOD file has the sequencing information AND the instruments (in the form of 'samples') in it. These samples can be looked upon as short WAVE files of one note of an instrument. It's like a MIDI file with a soft-synth (software synthesizer) inside. It is up to you, the MOD composer, what samples you wish to include in the MOD file. This way you're not dependent on the instruments of the sound card, which means that the song will sound the same on any computer and you're not limited to the instruments and effects that are built into the sound card. On the other hand, you are limited in the number of samples you can put in a MOD file and changes are less easy to make. When you buy a better sound card or sound module, all your MIDI files will sound better, without any (relevant) changes. Whereas, in a MOD file the quality is laid down 'forever'. Also the size of MOD files is larger, because the wave samples are included and good samples take a lot of space. If you would like to learn more about MOD files, you can visit the following newsgroups: alt.music.mods or alt.binaries.sounds.mods and take it from there. |
| What can you tell me about General MIDI (GM) and Standard MIDI (SMF)? |
| Big difference! You can't compare the two. When people talk about Standard MIDI, they usually mean the Standard MIDI Format (SMF).
General MIDI (GM) is an agreement about musical possibilities of equipment and the Standard MIDI Format (SMF) is a description of the file format that is used to save MIDI files in a standard way. For better understanding I like to (loosely) compare GM to a symphony orchestra, in which case you can compare SMF with the full score of a piece of music. Like GM, a symphony orchestra is in a way an agreement of musical possibilities. If you bring together a bunch of musicians to form a symphony orchestra, you need for instance strings, brass, woodwinds, timpani and a couple of other instruments. The instruments (and therefore the musicians) even have a fixed place from the conductor's viewpoint. Violins and violas to the left, flutes in the middle, cellos to the right, timpani in the back, etc. GM is like that, because for GM you also need to have free disposition of certain instruments (sounds) like piano, organ, guitar, brass, etc. and these sounds must also have a fixed place. Patch number 1 always is the sound of an acoustic grand piano, number 25 is the nylon string guitar and the trumpet is number 57. Now Standard MIDI Format (SMF) is a quite different agreement. SMF tells you how MIDI data has to be saved. You can compare this with the sheet music the conductor of our symphony orchestra has. To write down music we use staff notation. It's an agreement about the use of staves, musical notes and symbols. Looking at the conductor's sheet music you will see different staves for different instruments (neatly organized), just like different tracks for different sounds in a SMF file. Staves start with a clef and some information like 'meter' and 'key'. In the same way we have headers in a SMF file at the beginning of each track with some information about the track. After the clef/meter/key information you'll find the musical notes, (with or without dots, stems and beams) giving you information on pitch, duration and timing. Again you'll find similar information in the SMF file after the header, where pitch, duration and starting time of each note are saved in the corresponding track. Staff notation ends with a closing barline (one thin and one thick vertical line) to let you know that's the end of the piece. And of course the SMF file (track) is similarly closed with some specific bytes to let the software know where the midi information ends. It's possible to go on and on, and continue this comparison to the last detail, telling you about all the special symbols in staff notation and the comparable controllers in a SMF file. However, that would only extend this text and not really contribute to the answer of the question. Important is, that you understand why and how General MIDI (GM) and Standard MIDI Format (SMF) are different. )? |
| What can you tell me about XG? |
| The Yamaha XG format is basically a set of rules describing how a tone generator will respond to MIDI data. The current GM (General MIDI) format is a similar concept, allowing GM music data to be reproduced accurately on any GM tone generator from any manufacturer. GM, however, applies only to a limited set of parameters. XG significantly expands on the basic GM format, providing many more voices, voice editing capability, effects, external input, and other features that contribute to enhanced musical expression. XG is totally upward compatible with GM, so GM data can be accurately reproduced on any XG tone generator. XG is backward compatible in a limited way, in that XG files can be played on a GM tone generator; the tone generator will substitute the appropriate sounds as closely as possible, but will lose all of the enhanced capabilities. |
| What is a sequencer? |
| When we talk about a sequencer in relation to MIDI, we normally refer to a computer program that lets you record, playback, and edit MIDI events
in a MIDI file. You can compare this to a word processing program (like Word or WordPerfect), that allows you to enter, edit, and print a text file.
In a text file you have a sequence of characters and together these characters make the words, the sentences, the document. Normally a document also has some sort of layout: section-headers in capitals and bold print, interesting parts are underscored or in Italics, etc. For this you need controlling commands. These controlling commands are not printed; they only tell what action must be taken on one or more characters to give your document the layout you want. For instance, when there is an 'underscore' command, all characters will be underscored until the program encounters an 'end-underscore' command. Same in a MIDI file. In a MIDI file you have notes. (We say notes, but in fact we mean note events.) Together these notes make up the chords, the melody, the song. Normally these notes do not all sound the same (same instrument, same volume, etc). To make these notes sound different (different instruments, different volume, etc), you need controlling commands. You won't hear these controlling commands, they only tell what action must be taken to make the notes sound, like you want them to sound. For instance, when there is a 'hold' command (like when you use the right pedal of a piano), all the following notes will be sustained until the program encounters an 'end-hold' command. So, in a way, a sequencer is the 'word-processor' for MIDI files. |
| How can I convert a WAVE file to a MIDI file? |
| In general, you can't. These are completely different concepts. It's like asking: How can I convert a cake back into 'the separate operations of the
baker' AND 'the original ingredients (eggs, sugar, butter, flower, etc)'?
A MIDI file is a sequence of commands to control one or more pieces of equipment (synthesizers most of the time). These commands are not sounds; they are recorded operations to DO something (mostly to GENERATE sound). A WAVE file IS sound. It is the recording of a sound wave. It is the mix of all the given things (instruments, voices, background noises) you could have heard at the moment of recording. A lot of info (in fact most of it), that you need for a MIDI file, is lost. Like with the cake. When the cake is at your table, all data about the baking process is gone. There is a lot of discussion going on (continuously) about WAV-to-MID conversion, done by computer/software. Don't be confused by people who say it can be done or that it is (should be) possible. You'll hear all kind of academic twaddle in this respect. Like FFT, one of the most popular buzzwords (which by the way stands for Fast Fourier Transform) or some other kind of fancy gobbledygook. The problem is a lot harder than these theorists like you to believe. For people, some sounds sound as music. We can like the sound of 50 musicians playing 50 instruments at the same time, because for us humans, the notes that are played by these 50 musicians are related in some way. To us it's music, to a computer it's just noise. Because of this relation between instruments, that we humans hear in music, we can distinguish the separate instruments (or instrument groups like violins). Therefore we are able to 'translate' a piece of music into a MIDI file by listening to it. A computer (program) does not have that ability, that sense. It can not distinguish music from noise. To the computer (program) it's just sound and we ask it to unravel that. If you'd like to know what that means, try to imagine the following: There are 50 musicians on stage, all having hearing protection so they can't hear each other. They all start playing a different piece of music at the same time. Do you have any idea how that sounds? It's still only those 50 musicians you liked so much before, but do you think you could make a MIDI file out of it this time? I will not confuse you with all kinds of technical details that form the basis for some folks to say it is possible. Take this advice: just give them a nice, full-blown wave file of an orchestra and ask for a demonstration. Works all the time :-). In cases of great simplicity it is possible to convert a WAVE (file) into a MIDI file with more or less success. We're talking about a WAVE (file) in which you have ONE instrument playing ONE note at a time. The degree of success depends on the quality of the hardware and software you use and of course the instrument you want to 'convert'. Instruments that allow less human influence will make a conversion easier. For instance: you can hit a piano key with more or less 'velocity' and you can hold the key long or short, but that's about it. When you play the saxophone, there's not just 'velocity' and 'hold'. There are a lot more human influences to the sound. The way you breathe, open the valves, hold your mouth, use your tongue, bite the reed or even add a little human sound to it. This makes the conversion of the sound of a saxophone a lot more difficult than the sound of a piano. When you feel like experimenting with WAV-to-MID conversion, you might like to try the following programs: - Sound2Midi - Autooscore from Wildcat |
| How can I convert a MIDI file to a WAVE file? |
| There are 2 ways to do this. If you want the WAVE file to sound exactly like the MIDI file does, then the only way to do this (and the easiest overall
method) is to open up an application to play the MIDI file and open up an application which will allow you to record the piece as a WAVE file.
Then hit 'record' on the WAVE application and 'play' on the MIDI player.
The other way is to get a program that will use it's own sounds to directly generate the WAVE file. But that is also the downside to it. These programs use their own sounds, so a MIDI file that sounds good on your MIDI equipment may not sound good when such a program turns it into a WAVE file. Also, they are usually not XG or GS compatible. |
| How can I convert a MOD file to a MIDI file or vice-versa? |
| Conversions to and from MIDI, although more or less possible, are very difficult. MIDI files have a very different set of commands. One of the more important differences is that the MIDI device 'knows' how to process it's sounds when it receives commands from the MIDI player - for example, how fast to decay a piano waveform. This information is not stored in the MIDI file itself; it's in the synthesizer. A MOD file however would have this included. A MIDI-to-MOD converter has no means of asking the MIDI device how it would handle a certain situation, so it has to assume certain things. Patches in a MIDI file are also a major problem for conversion to MOD files. While a simple patch event in the MIDI file will find the correct instrument in your synthesizer, a MOD file needs the actual sample. The other way around is far from easy too: a MOD file may, for example, have sounds included that are 'unknown' to the MIDI device. |
| Type 1 and Type 0 MIDI files, what is the difference? |
| There are in fact three different "Types" ("Formats") of MIDI files. Type 0 files contain only one track, and all the MIDI messages (i.e. the entire performance) are placed in that one track, even if it represents musical parts on different MIDI channels. Type 1 files separate each musical part to give it its own track. Both Type 0 and Type 1 store one "song" or musical performance. Type 2 files, which are extremely rare, represent a collection of Type 0 files, all packed into one MIDI file. Type 2 can be used to store a collection of songs or patterns. |
| Can I convert a MIDI Type 1 file to a Type 0 file or vice-versa? |
| A lot of sequence programs allow you in the operation "Save as", to choose for one or the other. Sometimes (like in Cakewalk) you will find this under "Options". Then there are (small) utilities, that will do this transformation for you. |
| Can I print MIDI files as sheet music? |
| The answer is 'YES'. It depends however on how serious you want to get. If your needs are simple, most sequencers will do. But don't forget that
most sequencers are meant to sequence and have this as an extra. When they do, you normally will be able to get a window with 'staff view' and
print this. The possibilities to edit the sheet music (like you edit text with a word processor) will be limited and sometimes non-existent. There are
special (professional) programs to create very good sheet music from a MIDI file ('Finale' is one of them), but don't expect much of their
sequence capabilities.
Another thing to keep in mind is this: programs that can produce sheet music from a MIDI file put the notes on staff right where they are in the MIDI file, NOT necessarily where you like them to be. Especially when you record a live performance, most of the notes will not fall exactly 'on-the-beat' and the duration will not be an exact multiple of 1/32. So if you don't 'quantize' the MIDI file to put all notes "on the beat" and make their duration a recognizable 1/32 or a multiple of that, it will be hard to read the sheet music. |
| What does SysEx mean, and what does it do? |
| SysEx stands for System Exclusive (message). It's a special kind of MIDI message (event) meant for a specific MIDI device. It therefore has
some sort of address included, so when a SysEx message is transmitted, only the addressed device will act upon the content of the message.
What you need to know is that a 'normal' MIDI message has a fixed length. This means when a message starts (with a specific byte), the hooked-up synthesizer automatically knows when this message ends. This is not the case with SysEx messages; they can vary in length. Therefore they need more than a specific start-marker (byte) at the beginning to indicate the start of a SysEx message, they also must have an end-marker. In between these two markers, any number of data bytes may be sent. That's why SysEx messages need the end-marker. If it's not clear right from the start, what the length of the message will be, then the end must also be marked. This is important for the addressed device that has to know what data belongs to the message. It's also important for the other devices that are hooked up and don't understand the content of the message. They too must know the end of the message, so they can pick up the stream of commands (messages) right after it. SysEx messages serve two main purposes. They can address one single MIDI device in a setup with different MIDI devices and, maybe more important, they can control a MIDI device beyond the 'normal' MIDI messages. Manufacturers like Roland (SG) and Yamaha (XG) add so many features to their sound modules that it is not possible to access them all using only the 'normal' MIDI messages. |
| What is WSS, Wave Sample Synthesis? |
| A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument capable of generating, modifying, and combining a wide range of sounds using digital
instructions. The two most-used methods for generating sound are Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis and Wave Sample Synthesis. FM
synthesis mimics musical instruments by mathematical manipulation of simple sine waves.
Rather than manipulate sine waves, Wave Sample Synthesis uses high-quality, digitally recorded samples as a basis for creating sounds. The result is an overall sound, which is much richer and more realistic than that of FM synthesis. |
| What is a soundfont? |
| A soundfont is data (in a standard format) which contains the detailed information necessary to create musical notes (or sound effects) using
Wave Sample Synthesis. Such a soundfont contains both the digital audio samples, which have been captured from a sound source, and the
instructions to the wave sample synthesizer on how to articulate this sound.
A soundfont bank is a collection of sounds in the soundfont standard format. The term soundfont is used because it is very much like a typefont. It is designed to contain information in such a way that a variety of wave sample synthesizers can reproduce the sound with an accuracy dependent only on the hardware's capability. A piano sound for example is just like a letter 'p' in a type font. The different sounds produced by different keys and velocities of the piano in the soundfont are analogous to different displays of the letter 'p' in the type font. The shape of the letter 'p' is defined, but you may display or print it smaller or larger, normal or bold. |
| How do I become a "MIDIot"? |
| To become a MIDI-ot, just keep playing and pressing the buttons. Also, you might get the book, "What's MIDI" by Jon Eiche published by Hal Leonard. It's a decent first book on what all this MIDI stuff is. After reading, you'll be well on your way to becoming a "MIDI-ot" ... ;-) |
| If I own a CVP, what sequencer should I get? |
| (This response was contributed by Dennis Stanfill, "The Wizard of MID")
For PC Owners... (Macintosh owners scroll down.) The choice of a sequencer program is dependant on several factors. The best way to choose is to sit down and make a list of everything you want it to do. For example, here are some lists, done in order of priority of functions, that someone in the group may want... List One 1. Basic editing of notes from performance 2. Basic notation of piano part 3. Insertion of sys-ex messages for GM and XG List Two 1. Insertion of Karaoke Lyrics for playback in CVP 2. Good Notation of all parts of CVP performance 3. Changing of GM voice asssignments to CVP instruments List Three 1. Inserting special META event commands ( exp. to mark the tracks for Guide Mode, turn functions on, etc) 2. XG editing 3. Creating Accompaniments to songs either from basic melodies or inserting chords 1 at a time These could go on and on. As for which sequencer, here's what I would recommend if someone gave me these lists... List one would be a basic sequencer package. For this, I would use PowerTracks Pro from PG Music. It's a nice little program costing around $30.00 that would do these three things for the individual. However, I would not use it if I wanted Karaoke Lyrics (it doesn't save the data correctly to be used in most instruments on the market) or allow for easy changing of the Bank Select commands for the voices (used for gaining access to the CVP voices). But if all you wanted to do was what was listed, it's a good little program. List Two expands on the basics from the first list. In order to accomplish these goals, I would recommend Cakewalk. By far, Cakewalk has a much easier method for entering Karaoke than most sequencers. Cakewalk also has good notation printout that is getting better all the time. It's not a true Notation program, but it works for most peoples needs. As for changing the GM voices to the CVP, I have the instrument list for the CVP 90 series done and I am working on the CVP 100 series for Cakewalk. This makes it very easy to open the file and change the GM voices to XG. List Three expands even further. Cakewalk is a great sequencer but for some unknown reason they have never given the user access to META events. META events are very important as they allow you to control the various buttons and functions of a specific instrument. For example, the tracks that are automatically assigned to the Guide Mode section can be set using META events. This means that one can take a GM file, open it up, determine which parts are the piano tracks, insert the proper META event, and the CVP would automatically turn on the Right/Left buttons in the initial display and set the correct track to those buttons. Also, Cakewalk is a good sequencer when used to edit note data but contains no facility to graphically edit XG data. As for auto accompaniment creation, Cakewalk has no way to record a melody and then have Cakewalk "create" a multi-part accompaniment based on a style of music. So, for list three, I would recommend XG Works. I know that some people will say,"But I want it to do it all." Sorry folks, there isn't one that will "do it all". Every program has it's strengths and every program has it's weeknesses. The best advice I could give you is the better you can define what it is that you want a program to do, the easier it will be to find one that you can work with. For example, I am very comfortable with Cakewalk as I have used it ever since the old DOS days. However, lately, I have been using XG Works so much that I am using Cakewalk less and less. I have found that, even though some things are easier to do on Cakewalk (like putting in lyrics is a LOT easier with Cakewalk), my needs are for editing of performance data using XG and CVP specific items like setting the Guide Track flags. With time, I may find an easier way to work with lyrics in XG Works that may have me give up Cakewalk entirely. For what I do, I have found XG Works a very impressive program. For the non-musician, it has a couple of dynamite things that are just a knockout. For one, it has a plug-in program where you either play or sing in a melody ( XG Works has a pitch to MIDI note mode for single note entry - wow), select auto arrange, set a few parameters like the feel of the music and style, hit auto arrange start and XG Works creates the backup tracks including intro and ending with chord changes! It's like Band in a Box, but you don't have to know what chords to use. Another thing, XG Works has a way for you to enter chords and styles one at a time (like Band in a BOx). Then, it creates the backup parts for you to use in your MIDI file. Really, this little program has a lot going for it at under $100.00 price tag (Cakewalk is a lot more expensive). So, bottom line, if your just starting out you might consider getting Power Tracks Pro at around $30.00 and "get your feet wet". Use it for a while and keep a pad handy to write down everything you want it to do that it doesn't. Then, after 6 months or so, look at your list. If you have a lot on it, you will be able to better select a package to fit your needs. If you don't have a lot on it, then you've spent $30.00 to get something that is right for you. However, if you wanted to add the program Band in a Box to your Power Tracks Pro, you would be better off getting XG Works as it has the facility to do both things in one package. If you already know you want a sequencer and you have a CVP, I would have to give XG Works a long look. Prior to release of version 3.0 in the US, I would have said to go with Cakewalk. But, version 3.0 of XG Works is a great package for the money. In some ways it's not as easy to use as Cakewalk, but in others it flat out blows it away. Maybe in a few more months, I would have found more shortcuts in XG Works. However, for now at least, I am finding it harder to recommend a program that cost well over $200.00 (Cakewalk Pro is the only way to go as Cakewalk Home Studio does not allow you to access sys-ex data that is very important and something that both Power Tracks Pro and XG Works does allow for) when there is a program for under $100.00 that will do the job most people who own a CVP would need. So, why get Cakewalk? If you are doing heavy music production for film where SMPTE time code is an issue or you're heavily into creating Media files where music must line up with full motion video, then Cakewalk is where you need to go. As for what it runs on... Power Tracks Pro will run on DOS, Win3.1, Win95, Win98 XG Works will run on Win95, Win98 Cakewalk will run on Win95, Win98, and WinNT* Prevous versions of Cakewalk can run on DOS or Win3.1 but may be difficult to find older version of program. *For those with NT, the real problem is not the program itself but more the interface design for the MIDI ports. NT's network is confusing to many MIDI interface designs. Until this changes, NT is not considered a good operating environment for MIDI programs. This is also the reason why people should not upgrade to WIn2000 (or whatever they are calling it these days) until these issues have been resolved as Win2000 integrates NT into the Win operating system. Ok, for MAC owners, there are a couple of choices. Again, the best way to choose is to sit down and make a list of everything you want it to do. For example, here are some lists, done in order of priority of functions, that someone in the group may want... List One 1. Basic editing of notes from performance 2. Basic notation of piano part 3. Insertion of sys-ex messages for GM and XG List Two 1. Insertion of Karaoke Lyrics for playback in CVP 2. Good Notation of all parts of CVP performance 3. Changing of GM voice asssignments to CVP instruments List Three 1. Inserting special META event commands ( exp. to mark the tracks for Guide Mode, turn functions on, etc) 2. XG editing 3. Creating Accompaniments to songs either from basic melodies or inserting chords 1 at a time These could go on and on. As for which sequencer, here's what I would recommend if someone gave me these lists... As for list one, I would suggest a shareware sequencer program called MIDIGraphy. You can download a full copy of this program from... www.harmony-central.com Go to the MAC area and download this program. While it isn't as pretty as some other sequencers, this little program is wonderfull. It has one of the best Event List editors I have seen. Once you get use to how this little program works, you will find that, other than doing notation (which this program does not do and will not do), this is a great program. Being shareware, you pay for it on the honor system (I sent the guy a check within an hour of using the program). As for List 2, investigate Metro from Cakewalk. It's a good program but a little pricey when you consider that MIDIGraphy does everything Metro does for a shareware price. Metro has a better looking interface with the user. Also, Metro does have notation available. However, you could get a real notation program like Music Time Deluxe or Scorewriter and combine it with MIDIGraphy and have a better package than just getting Metro. So, bottom line, you might look into getting two programs for List two, MIDIGraphy and a notation package. As for List 3, there really isn't a complete package (yet) that will do what was listed. Now, Performer can be made to do some of this (XG Editing) using controller messages and entering Sys-Ex commands. However, you can do this from MIDIGraphy so why spend the big $'s on Performer? Because it's easier to do in Performer than in MIDIGraphy. With the money you spend on Performer, you gain ease of use. Plus, Performer is the most used sequencer for high end recording on the MAC (film scoring, etc.) So, on the MAC, I would say that you should download MIDIGraphy and use it for a while. If you don't like it, don't pay for it. Great way to do things. Keep a pad next to MIDIGraphy. If you find that you like the functions but it's just too hard to use, then investigate Performer. BTW, there is another program on the MAC that people should also look into. I have not had the chance to work with the most recent upgrade to this program so I am relying on other peoples knowledge. The program "Freestyle" has supposedly been revamped to include Sys-Ex creation and editing commands. If so, Freestyle would be another program for people to look into. It has one great advantage over most other sequencers. You "create" your song by selecting the members of your "band". You don't think in terms of tracks or MIDI Channels. Instead, you create by thinking about "parts" and instrumentalists. Not sure of how it handles XG though. Maybe I will be able to get more info to pass on at a later date. Now, I left a little tid bit hanging earlier (isn't a complete package yet). It is my understanding that Yamaha is currently working on a MAC version of XG Works. If they are, then I would have to say that it would be my first choice. Will pass on any info I hear about this. Now, depending on your MAC model, there is another way to go. If you have a MAC that has a standard MAC 8 pin modem port (not the iMAC's with only USB), you may be able to run Virtual PC and get MIDI data to transmit and receive via the modem port. A friend has run Virtual PC on his Powerbook and successfully run Win95 MIDI programs on this MAC. You would reset the MAC modem port to emulate the PC serial port. You then load the Yamaha PC "CBX Driver" into Virtual PC, assign it to the PC serial port, connect the MAC modem port to the To Host port on the CVP and set the CVP switch to PC (even though it's connected to the MAC). After doing all this, it appears you can use PC MIDI programs on the MAC. I can't say for sure as my MAC hasn't enough memory and is too slow to run Virtual PC. However, it has been done so you will need a MAC with a lot of memory and fast enough to run Virtual PC and have a standard MAC 8 pin modem port. So, suggest you investigate MIDIGraphy first (it's shareware), then look into either Metro, Freestyle, or Performer. If and when I get any info on the MAC version of XG Works, will forward to the group. |
| Where can I find MIDI files that work with my CVP? |
| Virtually any MIDI file can be used as CVP software. There are literally thousands of free files available for download from the internet. But like anything else "dot com" there's good stuff and bad stuff. The CVPUG maintains a web page for links to CVPUG members' favorite web sites for MIDI software. Just click on the WebLinks button at the top of the page. |
| How can I find a MIDI file for a particular song? |
| With the CVP's ability to teach you how to play a song from a MIDI file (see the FAQ discussion about the CVP's Guide Control feature), there
may be a particular song that you wish to learn and you'd like to find the MIDI file for it. There are several really good MIDI search engines on the
internet. Here are the ones I really like:
1) The MIDI Farm has over 15,000 free MIDI files, making it one of the largest MIDI file sites on the internet. They have a search engine that will search their enormous database based on the song's file name, the original artist's name, the MIDI file's creator's name, or by the highest rating (quality of the file). You can also specify the category of music you're looking for (original, country, pop, classical, jazz, etc.). You can find The MIDI Farm's home page at http://www.midifarm.com and their search engine is at http://search.midifarm.com/search.asp. 2) If you want to find a web site for a particular popular artist, I'd recommend going to The Ultimate MIDI Page. This site is ideal for finding sites that specialize in MIDI files for specific popular artists, such as Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Beatles, etc. The list of artists is exhaustive, so it's very likely that you'll find the artist you're looking for. Unfortunately, the list isn't tightly maintained, so expect to find occasional links that will return the "404 File Not Found" error message. The Ultimate MIDI Page can be found at http://www.ultimatemidi.com/midi1.html. 3) Believe it or not, there's a MIDI meta-search page on the internet. For those who don't know what that means exactly, it's a page that allows you to search for MIDI files using multiple search engines. The Standard MIDI Files on the Net (SMFN) web site is a meta-search page that provides you with several search engines. The page is pretty easy to use, although I'd redesign it a bit if it was mine. The SMFN home page has some very useful information that will help you learn how to search for MIDI files. The home page can be found at http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/SMF.html, and the SMFN meta-search page can be found at http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/midi-search.html 4) Finally, one of the MIDI search engines I like to use the most is called The Music Robot. This search engine is unique. Let me give you an example of how it can be used. Let's say I want to find a MIDI file for the song, "All I Need is the Air that I Breath" and that's all I know -- I don't know who the artist is, or anything else about the song. If I search on a phrase from the song's title, such as "All I Need", I'll get a return for two song files: "All I Need is a Miracle" by Mike and the Mechanics, and "All I Need is the Air I Breathe" by the Hollies. The engine will return a list of all the sites on the net where you can find these two particular song files. When you click on a link to get the file, you'll be taken to the page where the file exists, but you'll have to look around on the page to find it. The advantage of this engine is that you can potentially access many different versions of the same song (created by different MIDI musicians) and pick the one you like the best. The Music Robot can be found at http://www.musicrobot.com. |
| Can I find Style Files on the internet for use with my CVP? |
| Tom Kuehn writes: I've run across a couple of sites that have style files available for download.
Here are two sites that will link to others that have a lot of styles: http://home7.inet.tele.dk/js/musik/740pages/ http://osenenko.chat.ru The second site is in Russia, and it's the Mother Load of style files! There are over a thousand, there for the downloading. I've downloaded them all, and checked out a bunch of them on my CVP-92. With a few exceptions, they work just fine. Some of them are really good! There appears to be some good stuff on the first site as well, but you have to dig a little more to get to it. On both sites, the styles were written on/for PSR-type keyboards, but they seem to work fine on CVP's. I believe the .sty format is the same across the Yamaha line. There is also, now, a Yamana PSR Styles Group on YahooGroups. You can find a lot of style files on this site that are compatible with your CVP. The addres is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yamaha-psr-styles/files/. You'll have to join the group to access the files repository, but it's a free membership. |
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