Speshul thred for ad hoc MIDI questions

[JohnG]

After the locking of another thread which had gone well off topic I'm about to move some of the discussion that was on-going over here.

(Quite right Tubbs!) Mea culpa!

If anyone wants to post general MIDI questions here and anybody feels able to respond please go ahead. I may decide to start another thread on any particular topic if it seems of general or specific interest, then I'd appreciate people following it to that new thread in this MIDI technically oriented section.

Hope I've got the backing of you all?
Moderators could you direct people here if necessary?
I'll do some cutting and pasting shortly with appropriate attributes to the original posters.

Best regards,
JohnG.

[Emerald Midi]

Good work John.

I have made a post on the other thread to direct those interested to here

[JohnG]

On finding copyright info in MIDI files
N.B. posted originally by JazzCat
quote
Peter, please send me the file too and I'll tell you exactly where to look for that C/R info on this particular file.
Copyright info won't show in the event list.

There are a few different ways of inserting copyright info.
One is right where you would name tracks.
Another is where you would use and name markers.
Most sequencing progams also have an area where you can type notes in the file ( not meaning musical notation, but text)
Some programs also have another area strictly there for inserting copyright data.
Also, copyright data can be inserted as system exclusive data. To see that, right click on the file and choose 'open with' then choose notepad. You may have to scroll through a lot of garbage, but usually the copyright info is somewhere near the top. On occasion I have seen it near the bottom.
end quote

response by JohnG
quote
Yes, these are all good known ways which can be easily erased if you know your way around a MIDI file.

How about entering non-sounding melody or drum notes i.e. with the note velocity at zero, in a pattern that somehow spells out the name of the author? I think Glenn has alluded to this method in the past. These are IMO very difficult to find.
end quote

quotation from JazzCat
quote
They are simple to find to anyone who has a piano roll editor.
I should send you a file in which I have done this. The notes are not at a vel of 1 because the idea behind doing it was for new members of a mailing list I own to figure out how to read the welcome message within the file.

Also, I just learned something. You can't input a vel of 0. ( at least in my program you can not) Well, let me rephrase. I did know that, as any time I tried it the 0 would automatically change to a 1. I learned the why of it today. True velocity messages are reserved for 1-127. 0 velocity is reserved for note off messages. Apparently my program is smart enough to know that I don't want a note off message there as the note off message is there later.
end quote

[JohnG]

At which point Shyam interjected:
quotation from Shyam
quote
I really do want to know how to check whether a file is copyrighted or not. PLEASE do explain. Thank you !
end quote

response by JohnG
quote
Hi Shyam,
If you have a reasonable software sequencer that allows you to view the data in something usually called "list view" or "list editor" (it shows the MIDI messages broken down into their bytes usually displayed in Hexadecimal notation) then if it's a type 0 file you need to convert it to type 1 OR get the sequencer to display it with all the channels displayed in different tracks then look at each track with the list view (or list editor) and you can then see the messages written into the tracks as "meta events" of various different types.
Clear? If not just ask away my friend.
end quote

Shyam then responded (quite rightly IMO)
quote
Please.....please Johng,, let me digest what you've written !!!!! Cant you speak simple Liverpool English ( he he he)
end quote

to which JohnG replied
quote
Sorry Shyam,
My brain was working in a combination of Octal and Hexadecimal mode. I'd been reading the MIDI GM2 specification.

Yea! You're right, I'm one of those geeks who has shelled out readies (e.g. $s, £s etc.) to buy official specifications. I can't help it, it's my background of working in the data & tele & satellite communications industries with very early products and having to look at communications protocols (you have probably heard of TCP/IP the Internet Protocol) i.e. how messages get sent from one device to another, in order to try and find why things don't work when they should. (please don't EVER ask me about ISDN D channel protocols, not that you would!)

I'll try to frame that last message in a more simple way.
Looking back at it it was gobbledegook wasn't it? Sorry.
end quote

to which (the famous) JazzCat added
quote
Hi John,
I NEVER enter notes in the list editor. I'm just not a numbers person. In fact I royally suck at simple arithmetic! Why ya think I used 10% in my scaling and setting and offsetting velocities explanation for Shyam? ha ha ha!! And, I even had to think about that and hope I didn't need a calculator for it! LOL

My program also has no staff editor. I do more than 90% of my work in the piano roll and in the Controllers pane/lane. I go to the event list only to do detail work such as making sure pitchbends have been set to zero, or entering in the CC's for extended bend range... things like that.

Something tells me the event list editor in the program you use is quite different in appearance than mine is. Just for $h-+s and giggles sometime, when we both have time, we ought to compare screen shots of some of the views and discuss features of our programs.
I don't see meta ( text events) in my list editor. There are some things in the editor that I don't quite get. Maybe if you saw mine and I pointed out some of the things I don't really know what are, you could tip me off. <smile>

I thought about buying the MIDI spec, till I saw how they have this spec and that spec, all with a nice, fat price tag on each one... sheesh! I'd be spending a bundle and with my level of understanding, it would like like greek to me. LOL Maybe one day I'll cough up the bucks or maybe I'll see if the library has copys. Getting a good long look at them might be the clincher on if I do want to blow the dough.

So, tell me about ISDN D channel protocols. < Grinning, ducking and running!>
end quote

End of the saga (so far)

[JohnG]

Hi JazzCat,
No I never normally enter notes in the event list either. But putting in copyright info I wouldn't consider as normal note entry. I'd probably enter them in the drum editor section (it's like the piano roll but just does drums (what more can I say?), then edit them in list view.

XGworks v3 has Piano roll, drum, staff, list, master track, mixer and XG editor windows. Then a completely separate notation view under the print view section, used for printing scores etc. It also has a chord and arranger section and a sound to MIDI that I've used once! The Wave editor is another application. I know "show off!"

No, you won't necessary see things labelled "meta events" they are events that aren't "played" as such but provide information to the program like the key, whether treble and bass staves should be displayed or just one or the other in the staff view and printout, loop points, song section markers and so on. The name is the one used by the MMA in the MIDI spec. Regards things you don't understand in your sequencer, of course!

What, the JazzCat doesn't know? Surely not! Please don't shatter our illusions JazzCat? < big smile > One thing I've learnt over the years is "the more you know, the more you realise you don't know!"

Re the spec. if you were considering buying (and that would add your name to a list of very sad people, including me) then there's only two you need, "the Complete MIDI spec" and "the GM2 spec." Many of the others e.g. MIDI file format and GM(1) are contained within the first. Let me warn you though, they're NOT light reading. The first one is about an inch thick. You then have to download lots of RPs and CAs from the MMA site. The main spec hasn't been re-published since 1996!

Okay, you asked about ISDN D channel. The course is 3 full days. i.e. an evening practical for a couple of hours after dinner on days one and two. I'll book you on it, but I need payment up front! (standard practice for all participants) Have you got a protocol analyser or do you want to hire one for the event? They might not let you take it an board even as hold luggage. I had to get special customs clearance for mine. < I think ducking and running is the correct response > Ha, ha, only joking.

That should be it for copyright, unless, as they say on TV, that is you know different.
Best regards,
JohnG.