Better importing of Midi files
Recently, I've been using my old Sonar (Producer, 8.5) to build some backing tracks for solo performance. There are some great sources of very well done popular songs available in midi format. So I'll usually uses these as starting points, deleting tracks I don't need, adding some real guitar tracks, etc. Well I understand Midi is a format with more violations then standards, and I AM happy to see that for the most part, drum notes are almost always mapped correctly. But what I don't understand is that when I import a midi file into Sonar via the normal import means, a lot of information obviously embedded in the file (such as song Tempo and instrument assignments for each channel, etc) seems to be getting lost. I can go to a site like freemidi.org that has some excellent files. Here is a nice version of JESSICA, by the Allman Brothers, for example...
Recently, I've been using my old Sonar (Producer, 8.5) to build some backing tracks for solo performance. There are some great sources of very well done popular songs available in midi format. So I'll usually uses these as starting points, deleting tracks I don't need, adding some real guitar tracks, etc. Well I understand Midi is a format with more violations then standards, and I AM happy to see that for the most part, drum notes are almost always mapped correctly. But what I don't understand is that when I import a midi file into Sonar via the normal import means, a lot of information obviously embedded in the file (such as song Tempo and instrument assignments for each channel, etc) seems to be getting lost. I can go to a site like freemidi.org that has some excellent files. Here is a nice version of JESSICA, by the Allman Brothers, for example...
Well, it looks like the forum isn't letting me show the link. Too bad because I'd say that's pretty awesome. In fact there are several passages of the guitar solo I've been able to learn more accurately by looking through the track on the piano roll. But anyway, I typically either start with the old reliable Sonar TSTS-1, or I might just output real midi over a wire to my physical Rolland Sound Canvas. But if I setup a template and import this file, the tempo doesn't get set, and very few of the instruments will map to the right midi patches. If I go to the website and just "play" it, whatever my browser is using to render the midi is doing a much better job, so I must be doing something wrong. Like i say, I don't expect any real standardization of actual sounds or sound quality, but if a track is called "Acoustic Guitar", and I know darn well there are several standard guitar patches in General Midi, it makes no sense that it just maps to a PIANO until manually sort through each track and re-assign each instrument. Then i still have to manually try to match the tempo. Surely at least the tempo should import?
So I must be approaching this wrong. Is there a better import a midi file and have Sonar at least respect the basics? I've looked carefully at the event list after setting it to show me everything. There are no patch change or tempo events visible, and I can't even see how the tracks managed to get their appropriate names (like Picked Bass or Acoustic Guitar) in the tracks.
I'd say that's pretty awesome. In fact there are several passages of the guitar solo I've been able to learn more accurately by looking through the track on the piano roll. But anyway, I typically either start with the old reliable Sonar TSTS-1, or I might just output real midi over a wire to my physical Rolland Sound Canvas. But if I setup a template and import this file, the tempo doesn't get set, and very few of the instruments will map to the right midi patches. If I go to the website and just "play" it, whatever my browser is using to render the midi is doing a much better job, so I must be doing something wrong. Like i say, I don't expect any real standardization of actual sounds or sound quality, but if a track is called "Acoustic Guitar", and I know darn well there are several standard guitar patches in General Midi, it makes no sense that it just maps to a PIANO until manually sort through each track and re-assign each instrument. Then i still have to manually try to match the tempo. Surely at least the tempo should import?
So I must be approaching this wrong. Is there a better import a midi file and have Sonar at least respect the basics? I've looked carefully at the event list after setting it to show me everything. There are no patch change or tempo events visible, and I can't even see how the tracks managed to get their appropriate names (like Picked Bass or Acoustic Guitar) in the tracks.