Importing and editing midi files

Aloha  Charlie,

I'm not sure what you have in mind exactly.  You have midi files from someone else you want to edit?  You can do that.  BUT
the how to do it so that you have something useful at the end of the process is the hard part.  I would recommend you read the tutorials here about midi --- go to the top of this page
you will see a tab titled SUPPORT  clik that
look down to the heading SONAR clik that   
inside you will see all the different versions of Sonar - clik on yours
look for the heading  ONLINE RESOURCES
inside that folder is the Desktop Music Handbook.
All the midi info is in there and then some.  

You won't have all your answers but you will have a good start.
Read thru all this info. (It's not as much as it appears).
Using midi is very similar to playing a musical instrument - it's complicated.
Jump in and mess about but don't think it's gonna make a whole lot of sense at first.  It will be a while before you have GOOD results unless you are very clever and/or lucky. 

If you want to have backing tracks right away I would suggest you investigate the 2 very excellent programs that are available.
The Jammer and Band In A Box. 
Both are excellent and have many supporters.  I myself have Jammer 2.0 and have used it for many years for drums bass and keys backing for tunes.
They give you lots of choices for genre and styles within those genre plus the ability to mix it up and make lots of goonie (or intelligent) changes to the accompaniment and instrumentation.  Plus you can take the midi file out of Jammer, enter it into Sonar, then open the event list view and see how the programming tells the instrument to play its changes.  If you were entering the info to a track you'd be entering that very same info.  It's like reverse engineering in that you see how it was done.  Way cool huh?

Get to the Desktop Music Handbook and read that.
Also available is Rob Young's excellent book "The Midi Files"
I have the first edition and I'm told there is a second.  He included a 3.5 floppy disk with the first edition and I assume in the 2nd a disk or cd with lots of samples of midi programming of instruments and effects.  If you need help with arranging you could check out Eric Turkel's book "Arranging Techniques for Synthesists" which is a manual on how to be a very effective musician and arranger and composer and will help enormously with using multiple instrumentation.

ALSO GOOGLE midi programming and see what results you get - there are lots of websites with answers and suggestions.

Do explore and read.  When you have more questions do come back and ask.  I myself love midi and it's capabilities.  You can make a lot of music using midi and I am very surprised that more folks haven't jumped onto the midi bandwagon. 

aloha

gato

Aloha Tim,

Thank you for your kind words.  I was going to post a longer reply here but decided to put it in the Coffee House as, at this point, there isn't much else to say, directly, about this particular subject.  From me.   Anyone else is welcome to give a few words of encouragement and advice though------it would be nice to find out how other folks approach creating backing tracks for themselves or others.  

Actually the weather has been coolish but we are nearing winter so....  The good part is it stops all the tropical storms trying to become hurricanes so I really see no reason to complain.  Plus my swimming pool is heated and I had it built elevated to be at the same level as and to be a part of my back lanai (deck), so I can just pop out and into the pool in just a few steps which is very very neat.  It is surrounded by a privacy/security fence on three sides and crowned with a lovely pergola.  So now, I find waiting for Godot to arrive with the goodies or my muse to show up with a new tune, extremely pleasant.  Why on the 2nd floor?  I am on an island and this being Florida, crocs, gators and cayman(s)? and assorted other reptilian critters crawl up out of the water and stroll about.  Lots of folks wake up in the morning to be missing their dog and find there is some very large creature at the bottom of their pool.  Sleeping.  You don't want to be the one to wake it.  What if it's cranky in the morning?

    
 
aloha
 
tom cat