(7) The set-up measure

[JazzCat]

Hi John,

I believe that it's probably safest to have, as you suggest in paragraph 2 of the 'A Long Pause' section, a set up measure and a measure at the end that resets to defaults.

I've found that the best way to accomplish the shortest lag time while waiting for that silent set up measure is your suggestion to bump the tempo way up for that bar only.
My reasoning is this. If I let the intro tics play concurrently within the set up bar, the first tick may be much louder or quieter than the rest, as possibly the channel volume or expression CCs may not have kicked in yet. What even sounds worse is if one or two tics come after an effects CC comes into play. They may sound as if they are in a cave in comparison to the preceding dry tics. LOL
Cat >^..^<

[JohnG]

Hi Cat,

Sorry I posted the 2nd part before noticing that you'd responded.

When creating MIDI files for my own use I always use 480ppqn. The first measure is again always set to 120bpm. This way I know that each pulse is almost exactly 1 millisecond in duration. Knowing that the MIDI interface runs at 31.25kbps I can work out what pause I should leave between successive Sys-Ex messages. This is quite important if, as I do, you're sending a complete voice set-up message to a synth. Many hundreds of bytes.

But I think what you say is correct. Do a reset at the end of each file and then set up the voices / instruments you need and tweak them at the beginning of each new file.

You'll see that I've added quite a bit more in part two.

Best regards,
JohnG.

[thingyy]

Re :- What Reset All Controllers does.

But it will not reset controll 6 to -2 {detune}
This has to be done by opening and closing controlers 101 and 100

[JohnG]

Very good Thingyy. And several others.

That's why I listed those that the MIDI specification says should be reset.
Clearly you cannot rely on any of the others being reset.
Despite the command being known as "Reset All Controllers," it doesn't.
That was one of the points of the article.
JohnG.

[growe]

Hi John and other Members in thread,

Thanks for all this information, I thought I had bookmarked this sections, but no, so I have now.
I will need several looks at the information submitted before it sinks in, but it is good that someone has made the effort to give out the procedures etc. I have worked on (or tweaked for a better word) midi files to suit particular keyboard I have owned over the years and tended to do it by trial and error, so it is a whole new learning experience for me. Please keep up the good work.

Regards,
Gordon.

[JohnG]

Hi Gordon,
Thanks, good to know it's worthwhile. Yes, I'll try to keep up with the articles.
This one has a little bit more to go (at least one more post) with actual examples in it. The SysEx commands and the actual event timing etc. and, of course, I'm double checking it all to try to make sure no errors creep in.
It's nearly finished, 90% or so, and I hope to complete it over the weekend.
Best regards,
JohnG.

[JazzCat]

I guess I am going to really let down the members of the JAS right now. LOL! This really looks like the 'hard way' to do things. Ouch! If I'd have had to rely on knowing hexadecimal and binary, to this day, I would not have sequenced a note.

It appears the way I enter info is quite a bit different than the way you do. Perhaps part of it is the way in which our programs display the info to us? For instance, my program doesn't show what some people like to call track 0. Mine gives me a 'Conductor list 'which shows key sig, time sig and tempo.

My program also shows the channel numbers as 1-16 and uses decimal numbers I don't have to input a 0H to get ch 1 and FH to get channel 16.

I also enter bank and patches not in hex form but simply by bank (MSB LSB) and patch number. Or, by using the patch map for them, which shows them by name... no numbers to memorize.

I most always enter my basic info via the track view, meaning channel assignments, bank and patch assignments, pan, channel volume, reverb & chorus, ( if I use it at all) ( I can choose 2 controllers to show on the track view. The defaults are reverb and chorus, and I have left it that way.

Well I think I am finally beginning to understand one thing, and that's how much 'space' to put between certain events when I'm at 480 PPQN settings.

You said:
If there's a general call for the info. I could publish a list of the GM2 sound banks.

That would be nice as I have not found that on the web anywhere. I've only found the basic GM patch lists and the 9 GS drumkits only. If there is a site that shows them I'd be happy to get it there and save you the trouble.

[JohnG]

On the contrary JazzCat, as usual you have hit the nail right upon the head. (JAS still intact.)

For me the question is (was) "when writing about the creation of the set-up measure, how do I represent the data in a way that all can see and maybe understand?" The obvious answer was to choose a sequencer and explain using that program. Okay which one? I've got about half a dozen here to choose from, XGworks, Sonar, Cubase, Voyetra Record Producer, Anvil, MIDI Locator, Cakewalk Pro and Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and last and by ALL means least Jazzware. Oh! And VanBasco of course.

(95% of them I only use on any regular basis to help other people. I got them initially to help me to understand the different ways of recording MIDI data or for specific features like "groove quantise".) Just in case you thought I was completely nuts. (One look at the avatar should tell you a lot though!)

I looked first at the free ones and found such a wealth of difference in interfaces and facilities and ways of representing set-up data (if they did it at all) that I realised none of them met the need to represent the information in an appropriate way.

So I decided to present the data in its raw form.

Of course there will be a better way to do it in the sequencer you use (everybody). And naturally you should do just that. As always JazzCat you have the knack of getting to the heart of things. Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees in the way. Especially when I get bogged down in the detail inside, for instance, the MIDI spec. And I've been writing this article, on and off, since early December.

What I shall do (I thought I'd already done it somewhere but I'll do it again) is to warn people at the start of the detail, that they will need to interpret the raw data and make it relevant, using the appropriate commands or facilities in the sequencer they use.

So a very big thank you JazzCat.
As always,
JohnG.

Oh! And please keep the criticisms coming. I can only find out what you need and whether I'm writing it in an understandable format by your feedback. All I ask is that you be gentle! JazzCat and Shyam, to name but two, usually have it spot on.

[JazzCat]

Yes you warned, but golly! You spun my head. LOL! Because my math-arithmetic skills barely exceed those of a carrot's skills, anytime numbers are involved, especially anything where I must attempt to convert something over or even figure out anything so simple as adding 2+2, ( don't know why but I always come up with 22 as the sum <grin>) I pretty much fall apart. That has slowed my lMIDI education seriously. Very fortunately for me, my sequencing partner has another wonderful talent few posess in this world. He is an exceptional teacher. He can take something quite complex and explain it in ways that make you feel like you should have easily been able to figure it out on your own. I understand the concepts of binary and Hexadecimal because of him. He also, on his own figured out formulas for converting decimal to hex and hex to decimal. Me? I wrote out a chart. Now because I understand them doesn't mean that I can rip through and spit out their usage or convert on a dime. ( or is that a 16 cent piece? .....yeah yeah... a groaner. LOL )

I understand your point about the raw data completely though so don't misunderstand me. I understand why one would be utterly perplexed in how to explain something that appears differently in each sequencing program. It's simply not a task that can be accomplished without writing a separate tutorial for each one, and we all know that ain't-a-gonna happen. Perish the thought!!

You have Record Producer eh? Hope you have the deluxe version as the standard version is a horribly crippled version. Even the MIDI version is missing a couple of features I found should be there.
BTW, RP Deluxe is the program I use and know well. I use it for MIDI work only as it's audio features just don't cut the mustard. And unfortunately for others, that's the only program I feel qualified to yack about, or to teach anyone to sequence in. (I have done some of that in the past) Just curious, would you agree with my thought that it's event list is pretty intuitive? No hex to deal with, thank goodness!

One of my favorite things about it is its markers and how they continue down through the piano roll. Too bad they don't extend down through the controller pane as well.
There are a couple of irritating 'bugs' I'd fix and features in it I would change, tweak or add, if I were a hot shot programmer.

Vanbasco has a sequencing program?? I thought all it has was a glorified file player.
agreed on Jazzware. If I were to rename it I'd have to name it Crippleware or Sorry, Can't Do That-Ware. Hee hee hee hee!

'Groove quantize' sounds really familiar. Which proggie has that feature? Cakewalk/Sonar?
I certainly understand flipping back and forth from one to another. I used to go back to an ancient version of PTP ( Power Tracks Pro), made for Windows 3.1 for one feature that I would add to RP in a hot second if I could. That feature being part of the copy/paste abilities.
In RP you must go through the pain of creating a space for copied measures to be pasted in-between other measures. In PTP an option dialogue box would pop up when you used paste. It asked if you wanted to merge the data or create a space for it. Man, that was handy.

Say, I love your grids or tables or whatever you call them. I know this probably isn't the place to ask but, I'm going to anyway. How'd you do it?

[JohnG]

Ha, Ha. Yup I thought it might for some. Would you suggest I leave out the hex altogether 'cos it just scares people away? I did sort of wonder. It's always a dilemma when I'm writing these articles.

Please notice, I did say that I have all these programs and use them some of the time, but not that I do any sequencing in them. For sequencing I use exclusively XGworks. Then I may take the file into another program to use a feature like a groove quantize. Cubase has some pretty nifty quantising features in it and so does Cakewalk. It's Cakewalk that has the Groove Quantise feature in it.

No, I just got the MIDI version of the Voyetra s/w. Thought about the full one but since it's not my mainstream sequencer I decided not to go the whole hog. Can you tell me what's missing that I might want between the MIDI version and the full one? Yea, I know, audio. I looked at the feature list before deciding.

The thing I like about XGworks is that it has loads of GM and GM2 SysEx messages built into it as well as XG, of course. So it makes it easier to set up complex instrument parameter assignments. This is absolutely essential if your using a raw synthesiser like the PLG150-AN. A Yamaha digital copy of the old Prophet 5 analogue synth done in hardware on a daughter board that just plugs into my sound module. It makes some wonderful Moog like sounds. I've also got a daughter board that is an up-to-date Yamaha DX7 the best selling synthesiser EVER. But setting up is complex.

So I don't swap back and forth between them. I use XGworks 98+% of the time and the others very infrequently. I've just dug out a copy of Cubase as I'm going to try using the EastWest orchestral sample library for some of my classical music sequencing. All my effort is in this area now i.e. classical. Trying to get realistic orchestral sounds means layering of instrumental sounds, slight offsets of note quantising by a tiick or two backwards and forwards and also fractional channel detune, not to mention big swings in dynamics. That's why I've now got three sound modules. Two XG modules sharing 5 blocks of 16 channels via a "to host" serial connection and the other GS module with 4 blocks of 16 channels via USB. Then a combination of SP/DIF and analogue feeds back to the DAW for recording. It makes for an interesting life!

And last. Tables are easy peasy even for a non-mathematical JazzCat. In the following example replace the round brackets with square ones.

(table) starts a table (/table) ends one
(tr) starts a row (/tr) ends one
(td) starts table data (/td) ends it

So a single line table goes:
(table)(tr)(td)1st heading(/td)(td)2nd heading(/td)(td)3rd heading(/td)(td)4th heading(/td)(/tr)(/table)

1st heading

2nd heading

3rd heading

4th heading

to add a 2nd row remove the (/table) and add a similar line starting (tr) and ending (/tr) then put back the (/table). It's just a slightly modified form of html table data formatting. You'll see some little boxes at the top of a new message which give you the format. Capice?

All the best,
JohnG.

[JohnG]

Re: decimal to hex etc.

No need to go boss-eyed over this. Open up the normal Windoze calculator, you know, the one that's hidden away in accessories?

Now click on the menu item called "view". It should say "standard" and "scientific". Click on scientific and you'll see the display change quite dramatically (don't panic). Click on "view" again and you'll first notice that below the standard and scientific selections are "F5 Hex" and "F6 Decimal"and F7 octal and F8 binary. Decimal should be selected. Okay now go into scientific mode again.

Type in 15. then press F5. All of a sudden you'll see "F". Now press F6 and the display returns to 15. You'll see the dot move just below the numeric display showing you what notation is currently being displayed. So all we've done is convert between how humans best view numbers and how a computer stores numbers.

Okay now press F8 and you'll see "1111" in the display, so that's decimal 15 or hex F converted to binary.

Okay press F6, we're back in decimal, do + 12 = and you have 27 (decimal) then choose either F5 for hex or F8 for binary.

Back in the view menu you can choose digit grouping. When you've done the sum 15+12=27 and press F8 you'll get 11011. If you select digit grouping then you'll get it split up into nibbles thus: 1 1011. This will also divide hex into blocks of 4 and insert commas between decimal thousands.

So you don't need to be an arithmetical genius JazzCat, you can be hexing with the best of 'em just by using what's there in your PC. For once, thanks Microsoft.

You can do binary addition, hex addition multiplication, division, whatever. Genius!

Why make things tough when they can be simple?
There ya go,
Hope it helps?
Best regards,
JohnG.