Keywords: Blue, Csound

Importing MIDI Files
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### Importing MIDI Files

Blue is able to import MIDI files and set up a Blue project file from the note information in the MIDI file, using the settings given by the user. To import a MIDI file, choose the "Import MIDI File" option from the File menu. Next, using the file dialog to locate the MIDI file to import. After selecting the desired file, Blue will show the following MIDI Import Settings dialog for you to configure how you would like to import the MIDI note information. (Note: Blue will only show information for tracks where note data was found.)

MIDI Import Settings

The table column information is as follows:

MIDI Import Settings

Track

  The original MIDI track number to which this setting is to be applied to. This column is not editable is for reference purpose only.

Instrument ID

  The Csound instrument ID to use for this track. This will replace the <INSTR_ID> key within the note template. This value is treated as a string to allow users to assign the track information to Csound named instruments. If one is doing so, one must quote the name, i.e. use "trumpet" instead of trumpet (without quotes), otherwise the output will not be legal Csound SCO. Default value is the number of the MIDI track.

Note Template

  Template note text to use for generating Csound SCO from the MIDI data. The default note template is "i<INSTR_ID> <START> <DUR> <KEY> <VELOCITY>". By having note templates, the user can massage the note information to work with any number of pfields that their instruments require.

  The following values are allowed in the note template:

  Table 1.3. Key Values

  Shortcuts | Description
  --- | ---
  <INSTR_ID> | The instrument ID assigned in the track settings.
  <START> | Start Time of Note
  <DUR> | Duration of Note
  <KEY> | MIDI key number
  <KEY_PCH> | MIDI key number as Csound PCH
  <KEY_OCT> | MIDI key number as Csound OCT
  <KEY_CPS> | MIDI key number as CPS
  <VELOCITY> | MIDI velocity number
  <VELOCITY_AMP> | MIDI velocity number as amplitude

  The button labelled "Reference" on the dialog will pop open the above information for quick reference of the allowable replacement keys for note templates.

Trim Time

  This option will shift the generated SoundObject to the time of the first note and then take the generated notes for the track and shift them all so that the first note starts at time 0 so that there is no empty time at the beginning of the track's note information.

After finishing configuring settings for the imported MIDI data, Blue will generate the notes with one SoundLayer per MIDI track, and on each SoundLayer it will contain one GenericScore SoundObject containing the converted MIDI score.

### Note

The current implementation does not handle cases where there are overlapping notes of the same MIDI note number within the same track and results are unpredictable. Also, only MIDI files where time is PPQ is supported at the moment (non-SMPTE). Users wanting support for either of these cases or have other ideas they would like implemented are requested to make feature requests on the Blue mailing list or to use the help menu "Request a Feature" option.

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