jyoung60
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MIDI drum note confusion
Can anyone explain why I'm seeing the following? ... In my MIDI sequences created on the MC50mkII and Sound Canvas SC-88 hardware, the Kick and Snare drum are shown as: Kick - B1 (Note #35) Snare - D2 (Note #38) This agrees with the Roland GM/GS Standard. In SONAR, however, these same events are shown in the Event List as: Kick - B2 (Note #47) Snare - D3 (Note #50) While in yet another DAW they are shown as: Kick - B0 (Note #23) Snare - D1 (Note #26) All other drum events are similarly rendered in all three environments. What's up with that?
post edited by jyoung60 - 2016/02/08 07:59:45
DAW: Cakewalk by Bandlab (latest version) - x64VST: Roland Sound Canvas VAHardware: Roland MC50mkII Sequencer; Yamaha DGX-660 keyboard; Steinberg UR-44 InterfaceOS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
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scook
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/07 22:56:00
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Preferences > Customization > Display "Base Octave for Pitches"
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jyoung60
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/07 23:10:53
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Awesome, thank you! Though I find it strange that the standard isn't adhered to across platforms. In any case, easy fix! (when one is aware of it). :-)
post edited by jyoung60 - 2016/02/07 23:24:28
DAW: Cakewalk by Bandlab (latest version) - x64VST: Roland Sound Canvas VAHardware: Roland MC50mkII Sequencer; Yamaha DGX-660 keyboard; Steinberg UR-44 InterfaceOS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
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rabeach
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 00:05:46
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The MIDI specification only defines note number 60 as middle C and all other notes to be relative to that. As to whether middle C is labeled C4, C5 or something else is not specified.
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Kylotan
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 05:15:12
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It's a shame the standard doesn't have middle C as C0, with bass being C-1, C-2, C-3, and treble being C1, C2, C3, etc. It would be unambiguous that way.
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jpetersen
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 07:15:43
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Roland and Yamaha couldn't agree on Middle C back in the day. I don't know if it's still like that.
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jyoung60
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 07:56:55
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I find it a bit surreal that the standard doesn't simply coincide with reality. I mean, the very first note on an 88-key instrument is A. So why not call it A1/Note #1 (or even A0/#0), and go from there? The GM/GS standard starts the keyboard somewhere in the 20's, which never made sense to me.
post edited by jyoung60 - 2016/02/08 08:11:24
DAW: Cakewalk by Bandlab (latest version) - x64VST: Roland Sound Canvas VAHardware: Roland MC50mkII Sequencer; Yamaha DGX-660 keyboard; Steinberg UR-44 InterfaceOS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
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mettelus
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 08:34:49
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Most programmers like to play with bytes which yields 256 values, and they will squeeze more data into it by splitting it in half... So 128 (0-127)... Then "middle" is 64 (63 when starting at 0). Obviously "middle C" must fall into the middle of 0-127, so pianos are not properly designed... They are actually missing 40 notes; it just took a software engineer to prove it.
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jyoung60
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Re: MIDI drum note confusion
2016/02/08 08:55:43
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mettelus Most programmers like to play with bytes which yields 256 values, and they will squeeze more data into it by splitting it in half... So 128 (0-127)... Then "middle" is 64 (63 when starting at 0). Obviously "middle C" must fall into the middle of 0-127, so pianos are not properly designed... They are actually missing 40 notes; it just took a software engineer to prove it.
Ah yes, I hadn't considered it from that perspective. That does make sense from that viewpoint. So we must blame Mr. Cristofori for getting it wrong when he invented the piano. haha
DAW: Cakewalk by Bandlab (latest version) - x64VST: Roland Sound Canvas VAHardware: Roland MC50mkII Sequencer; Yamaha DGX-660 keyboard; Steinberg UR-44 InterfaceOS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
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