johnnyV
Max Output Level: -48.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2677
- Joined: 2010/02/22 11:46:33
- Location: Here, in my chair
- Status: offline
Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
I was called out to go record a piano session by an elderly lady who I have worked with in the past. She likes to compose music for Puppet Shows and small Musical. She does a pretty good job despite the fact she has no musical training and cannot even play the piano. She uses Sibelius notation software. So She had a pianist come over and using a Costco Yamaha Digital Piano had her play the sheet music. Because the Yamaha sounded so bad I just recorded MIDI. There where a few issues with the notation the pianist pointed out so she opened her Software to make corrections. So I had a chance to mess with it while they where fixing things and find a MIDI export function?? SO I grabbed my USB stick and exported the 8 songs we were recording. So now I have two MIDI versions of each song and each has issues. 1. The ones played by the pianist have dozens of miss played notes I will need to fix, Also a lot of small timing issues. This will take about 3 hours I guess and the timing will probably still be off. ( No metronome used because she couldn't cope) 2. The Exported MIDI files are perfect,, too perfect, They lack any dynamics or human qualities and there is no sustain pedal. So I ask anyone here, and thank you for you taking the time to read this... Which way would you go? Edit the live version or add human touch to the notation generated tracks. And how is that possible? The old girl just wants it to sound like what was in her head, The resulting tracks will be used as a performance backing track. She is not rich either.
Sonar X3e Studio - Waiting for Professional Scarlett 6i6Yamaha Gear= 01v - NSM 10 - DTX 400 - MG82cx Roland Gear= A 49- GR 50 - TR 505 - Boss pedalsTascam Gear= DR 40 - US1641 -Mackie Gear= Mix 8 - SRM 350's i5 Z97 3.2GHZ quad 16 Gig RAM W 8.1 home buildTaylor mini GS - G& L Tribute Tele - 72 Fender Princeton - TC BH 250 - Mooer and Outlaw Pedals Korg 05/RW
|
Chappel
Max Output Level: -52.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2300
- Joined: 2009/07/11 14:55:32
- Location: California
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/05 23:11:52
(permalink)
Regarding the Exported Midi Tracks, you can always insert cc events (hold, soft, expression, etc) that may help them sound more musical. Also, the Cakewalk Midi FX have a nice randomize feature that works on both note start time, duration and velocity. I have used it to randomize note start times and velocities and it does have a nice effect on "too perfect" midi tracks. And if you're looking for a quick and easy fix, or a good place to start from, you might want to check that out. Process>Midi Fx>Cakewalk FX>Quantize/Velocity.
|
johnnyV
Max Output Level: -48.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2677
- Joined: 2010/02/22 11:46:33
- Location: Here, in my chair
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/05 23:36:46
(permalink)
Excellent! I'll give it a go. I was thinking of hooking up my sustain pedal and adding that, trouble is I'm not a piano player and would only be guessing at it's placement. Just downloaded the trail version of Real Pianos and a few other freebies from KVR. See if that helps. TTS-1 has sad sounding piano patches
Sonar X3e Studio - Waiting for Professional Scarlett 6i6Yamaha Gear= 01v - NSM 10 - DTX 400 - MG82cx Roland Gear= A 49- GR 50 - TR 505 - Boss pedalsTascam Gear= DR 40 - US1641 -Mackie Gear= Mix 8 - SRM 350's i5 Z97 3.2GHZ quad 16 Gig RAM W 8.1 home buildTaylor mini GS - G& L Tribute Tele - 72 Fender Princeton - TC BH 250 - Mooer and Outlaw Pedals Korg 05/RW
|
Chappel
Max Output Level: -52.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2300
- Joined: 2009/07/11 14:55:32
- Location: California
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/05 23:46:13
(permalink)
If you're comfortable working in the PRV, inserting cc events is pretty easy, and since you can see everything it's simple enough to put everything exactly where, and how, you want it. If you've never added cc events before in the controller pane it can be a little tricky to set up but once you see how it works it's a breeze. The randomizing is very easy to do right, and even easier to do wrong so I suggest working with copies of your tracks while you get the hang of it. A little randomizing goes a long way.
|
johnnyV
Max Output Level: -48.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2677
- Joined: 2010/02/22 11:46:33
- Location: Here, in my chair
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/06 00:47:49
(permalink)
Thanks for you help Chappel. I just tried your first idea and it sort of works, I guess you have to play with the settings to see what happens, So I opened the event list to look my damage and was surprised that the lyrics are inserted as events! On an after thought I hit undo ( the Velocity randomize) and looking at the original file was a mix of velocities from 70 - 101? Wonder how they were generated? I was expecting all one value. Maybe Sibelius has a auto randomization feature she was using. But a big improvement was made by using RealPianos! It seemed to take the mechanical edge off. I'm going to buy it when demo runs down. Getting sleepy so tomorrow will try the sustain pedal. Do piano players step on them as they push the keys down then release when they lift their hand up? I have done tones of event editing and yes, it's a time suck. That's what I'm trying to avoid. 8 songs would take to long to do a lot of editing too. I think she'll be pleased with the Sibelius MIDI export version if I can get them a little more natural sounding. The version played by the pianist sounds even worse when I play it now, It lurches along pausing and you can tell it's sight read.
Sonar X3e Studio - Waiting for Professional Scarlett 6i6Yamaha Gear= 01v - NSM 10 - DTX 400 - MG82cx Roland Gear= A 49- GR 50 - TR 505 - Boss pedalsTascam Gear= DR 40 - US1641 -Mackie Gear= Mix 8 - SRM 350's i5 Z97 3.2GHZ quad 16 Gig RAM W 8.1 home buildTaylor mini GS - G& L Tribute Tele - 72 Fender Princeton - TC BH 250 - Mooer and Outlaw Pedals Korg 05/RW
|
Chappel
Max Output Level: -52.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2300
- Joined: 2009/07/11 14:55:32
- Location: California
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/06 01:37:58
(permalink)
The sustain (hold cc#64) pedal keeps the notes going after the note has stopped, or after the player lifts his/her fingers. Sostenuto is similar but affects only notes that are played when the Sostenuto (cc#66) pedal is engaged. Both are very effective at creating legato and lush sounds. The difference between sustain (cc#64) and sostenuto (cc#66) is that sustain can be inserted before/during/after notes are played and it will hold the stop note message until sustain is put back to 0. Sostenuto only affects notes that are playing when it is inserted/pedal is pushed down, So if you play a C chord and insert sostenuto the C chord will keep sounding after the end of the note duration. Any notes played while sostenuto is in effect will not be sustained. I think that's right. Anyway, it's a good way to mix sustained/non-sustained notes in the same phrase. In the case of wildly varying midi velocities, one thing you could try it to select the very loudest velocities in the controller pane and scaling those velocities down. Then select the very lowest velocities and scale them up. That would put the notes in a more reasonable dynamic range. When I randomize midi velocities I like to put a limit on how loud it can get, use a small number in Amount like 8 or 10, and set the Tendency between 5 and 10. And, of course, you can use different randomize settings on different parts of the song. Too much can sound ridiculous but a little here and there can make a big difference.
|
johnnyV
Max Output Level: -48.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2677
- Joined: 2010/02/22 11:46:33
- Location: Here, in my chair
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/06 09:43:05
(permalink)
Sorry That should be Truepianos. Thanks, That's important info if I try to insert the cc manually. I'm going to try the pedal and record in a new track, It should effect all notes in channel 1 ??? I hope. Anyway, still half a cup of coffee to make it through first. Sun just came up.
post edited by johnnyV - 2011/06/06 09:46:35
Sonar X3e Studio - Waiting for Professional Scarlett 6i6Yamaha Gear= 01v - NSM 10 - DTX 400 - MG82cx Roland Gear= A 49- GR 50 - TR 505 - Boss pedalsTascam Gear= DR 40 - US1641 -Mackie Gear= Mix 8 - SRM 350's i5 Z97 3.2GHZ quad 16 Gig RAM W 8.1 home buildTaylor mini GS - G& L Tribute Tele - 72 Fender Princeton - TC BH 250 - Mooer and Outlaw Pedals Korg 05/RW
|
Chappel
Max Output Level: -52.5 dBFS
- Total Posts : 2300
- Joined: 2009/07/11 14:55:32
- Location: California
- Status: offline
Re:Converting Sibelius MIDI export into a Piano track
2011/06/06 10:50:51
(permalink)
While you can choose the midi channel number of cc events when you insert them, you only need to do that when the midi track's channel is set to None. If you choose midi channel 16 when you insert the cc's and the midi track channel is four, the cc's will affect the midi data on that track or external midi gear on channel four. So if you're using a soft synth with that midi track it doesn't make any difference what channel the cc events are. I'm pretty sure. Almost positive.
|