Re: Import a MIDI file

[Stefan Westerfeld <stefan space twc de>]

   Hi!

On Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 03:25:20AM +0200, Tim Janik wrote:
> On Tue, 29 May 2007, Stefan Westerfeld wrote:
> > On Tue, May 29, 2007 at 12:54:52AM +0200, Tim Janik wrote:
> >> On Mon, 28 May 2007, W.Boeke wrote:
> >>> I imported a MIDI file and got all the channels listed correctly
> >>> in the beast window. I then mapped each channel to an existing
> >>> synthesizer, however then the show stopped. What can I do further?
> >>
> >> hm, testing it out it seems you still need to assign the tracks
> >> to at least the Master mixer bus for playback.
> >>
> >> beast also has a script that is meant to be usable for this, however
> >> it currently doesn't work for me.
> >> Stefan, does Tools/Song/Assign-Tracks-... work for you? it doesn't
> >> seem to work after a MIDI file import or a new project with a single
> >> unconnected track here. can you reproduce that or do you need a bug
> >> report about it?
> 
> > It works the way I designed it, that is, it only reassigns those tracks
> > that are connected to master, and no other bus. It does this because:
> 
> > So: just the midi import needs to be fixed, the script does the right
> > thing.
> 
> i don't agree with that statement. granted, the midi import needs to be
> fixed, but there are other ways to end up with an unconnected track.
> in such a case, the script name is simply misleading when it says
> "assign tracks to individual mixer busses". it should either be renamed
> (according to your description, to: "assign _connected_ tracks to
> individual mixer busses", but that triggers the question of where an
> *unconnected* script variant is) or be fixed to reconnected
> disconnected tracks as well. i'd say the latter is the obvious choice
> and fail to see a good reason for the script to not connect currently
> unconnected tracks.

I often use modulation-only tracks (assigned to the same midi channel),
like

Track-01   Master    [ Part1 ] [ Part 1 ] [ Part1 ] [ Part 1 ]
Track-02     -       [  Filtersweep Up  ] [ Filtersweep down ]

This allows me to sequence notes and controls individually, i.e. repeat
the same notes over and over again, while changing the frequency of the
filter within the instrument. Of course, I don't want that these
modulation only tracks "waste" a mixer channel, so I made the script
only reassign those tracks that are assigned to master.

You can see the effect in "Party Monster" - the synth bass modulation
track (which is such a modulation only track) gets ignored by the script
if you run it.


So as far as I can see there is a use case for the behaviour I
implemented, unless we find a way to express seperate modulation in
beast with the same elegance but in a different way than I do it right
now.

But I've personally never encountered a use case for reassigning
unconnected busses other than the midi importer, which could be
relatively easy solved by assigning all imported tracks to the master
bus, which is consistent to where manually created tracks get assigned
to.

   Cu... Stefan
-- 
Stefan Westerfeld, Hamburg/Germany, http://space.twc.de/~stefan