need some advice
Hello all you good people. I just started my venture into drumming with midi. I’ve got 3 questions:
1) is there a quick way to split a drum track? Currently all the parts of the set recorded into 1 track and I’d like them to be separated so I can apply fx to different parts in different ways. I just read that some programs have built in features to address this. Is there such a thing within NTrack? If not, is there a free or inexpensive utility that can do this well?
2) is there a way to quickly change all midi events of a particular note to be a different note? (to fix mapping issue rather than re-record the track)
3) how do you tell NTrack how to map the midi input? I need to find a way to remap at least one piece of the drum set to match up with the NSKit.
Thanks. anxiously awaiting your midi insights.
The answer to all your questions lies here:
http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm
Lots of free MIDI utility programs that will do what you need, including splitting and remapping.
(I use “mididrum” to separate drum tracks and it works great.)
Have fun…
I see those are all DOS programs. Do you need to go in and out of windows to use this?
which program do you use for remapping?
thanks
EDIT: Ok so I figured out how to use this. Just go to Run and type in the command line. I had put the program into a folder on my desktop named mididrum. I put the first track straight into the c: drive to keep things simple. Here’s what it looked like
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\mididrum\Mididrum.exe c:\drums.mid c:\drums1.mid
It does its job well. Thanks!
still to learn about how to remap… I’m new at this. How do I get to see how things have been mapped currently so I know what to even change?
" How do I get to see how things have been mapped currently so I know what to even change?"
Open the piano roll and click on each note. The sound will trigger and you can write down what is where.
I find drawing a piano keyboard out on a piece of paper (one octave per row, mark each note name, i.e. C1, C#1, C2, C3, etc, etc. in the corner of each note) and writing down each sound in the grid as I trigger them to be an easy way of charting. I just used that method to sort out a soundfont that I wanted to use in Kompakt.
ok, that’s pretty easy to understand.
and then I’ll use a utility to open up the midi file and change certain channels.
my guess is that same webpage you mentioned above has such a utility
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one last part still needs explaining. what you explained will help if the recording mapped some notes to an undesired note.
how do I get the drum module (I’m using the Alesis DM5) and NTrack to know about this in the first place. I don’t want to remap everytime I record. Is there some way to have the notes go to where I want in the first place? Is this something that I have to do from within the drum module? from within hidden setting in Nrack??
Awww, what the heck… I needed to do this in the computer to use later on anyway.
And if anybody out there needs to chart a soundfont or other VSTi…
Here’s a keyboard chart you can download from my server, print it out and use:
Tim’s Keyboard Chart
| Quote (soul&folk @ Feb. 09 2005,14:07) |
| how do I get the drum module (I'm using the Alesis DM5) and NTrack to know about this in the first place. I don't want to remap everytime I record. Is there some way to have the notes go to where I want in the first place? Is this something that I have to do from within the drum module? from within hidden setting in Nrack?? |
Ahhh, had to look that one up myself.
It's in the Help file under "Midi notes/drums name display"..... see boldface below:
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The left side of the piano roll window usually shows a vertical piano keyboard. This is often useful when composing or editing tracks of melodic instruments. Drum instruments are different than the usual MIDI instruments because each “note” of a Drum channel corresponds to a different percussive instrument (for example D4 is an high tom, D3 an acoustic snare etc.), so when editing a drum part instead of the classic vertical piano it is often useful to have the names of each drum instrument being written on the left part of the piano roll window.
Right clicking on the left part of the piano roll window opens a dialog box in which you can select how the notes are drawn.
If “Show piano” is selected a vertical piano will be drawn.
If any of the following entry is selected, the program will write each note name as set in the MIDI instrument definition. Instrument definitions can be edited in the dialog box that opens clicking on the 'Instruments' button in a MIDI track's properties dialog box, then on 'Edit'. The name of a note can be modified double clicking on its name while holding the Ctrl key.
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So it seems you can change the names to map whatever you want.
Have fun!
Tim, from what you described, it’s still not what I need. Correct me if I’m wrong. That will only change the name that NTrack is calling it. So if until now note x was making the sound of a floor tom, I can change it’s name to some other thing - I can call it bass or cymbal or even Harry. but it will still be on that note, sounding like a floor tom.
But I need to know how do I get the module and NTrack to not send that trigger to note x, but to know I want it sent to note y.
I’m pretty sure that can’t be don’t in n-Tracks.
What you want is a MIDI mapper that will convert note value on the fly at playback time. For example, I have an older Alesis drum module that isn’t quite GM compliant. The kick is note value 34, which does not map to a GM kick. The only valid kick values are 35 and 36 for GM Standard (other are extensions of the standard and therefore not standard any more), but I liked the sound of the one at 34 so most of my old MIDI files had the kick as value 34…and the drums are channel 11, but that’s another story.
The only way to properly play a MIDI drum track that was originally created to map to the Alesis is to either edit the file by changing every note to the one needed for the new module or to have that done on the fly at playback.
Some MIDI sequencers can do it on the fly, but this is a function that n-Tracks lacks. The only real way to do it in n-Tracks is to edit the track manually. Highlight all the notes of a specific value (all of value 36 for example) and right-click on the group of highlighted note and select Properties. In there you can select in half-steps how far to move them (-2 to make them all 34). …or simply drag all the highlighted notes to the desired line.
Highlighting all the notes of a specific value is easy. Just click the drum name on the left.
oh phooie!! (pun intended) that’s a bummer.
I’ve been hearing all about how great NSKit is. Only problem is that it maps the floor tom to one of the snare notes in GM
so if I want to record and playback and tweak, it’s going to be some real painful extra steps between takes… that’s a bummer 
- kinda takes the creative wind out of you if before you you can even hear back what you’ve just played, you’ve got to start copying and pasting and changing values…
Is there nothing I can do from the drum module’s end to change where it is sending the floor tom? I’ve got an Alesis DM5 Currently it sends it all correctly to GM standards. Perhaps the DMPro can do this?
I would hope you could map the DM5 to send to any value. But, I’d also expect the NSKit to be a little more GM compliant, or to allow input mapping. Either way it’s outside n-Tracks. I don’t have either so I can’t really comment too much.
[quote=soul&folk,Feb. 09 2005,18:07][/quote]
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| Quote |
| 1) is there a quick way to split a drum track? Currently all the parts of the set recorded into 1 track and I’d like them to be separated so I can apply fx to different parts in different ways. |
The way I do this is clone the midi track a number of times and go into each track then select all the notes except the ones you want to keep. You can select all insances of a note by clicking the note on the actual piano keyboard onthe left of the screen. You can select all instances of multiple notes by dragging across several notes.
Usually I have kick and snare all by themself, hi-hats on another, then keep all cymbals on 1 track and all toms on another etc.
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| 2) is there a way to quickly change all midi events of a particular note to be a different note? (to fix mapping issue rather than re-record the track) |
Select all instance of the note (as above), right click on one of the selected notes and then change the note in the properties.
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| 3) how do you tell NTrack how to map the midi input? I need to find a way to remap at least one piece of the drum set to match up with the NSKit. |
As already stated I don’t think N can do this and it’s not really the sequencers place to do this. You have recorded/programmed a C2, it will send C2. What your module does with this is play C2. If you want C2 to be a different sound then you need to tell the module to play a different sound.
I use RMF which makes it easy to map a sample to a particular note. That’s one thing I don’t like about soundfonts for drums - you are stuck with the kit they have mapped out for you.
HTH
Rich
You can use MIDIOX in conjunction with MIDIYOKE to transpose any number of individual notes to other notes on the fly. It’s a little confusing to set up and get working the first time. But assuming you have a standard format for saving your tracks, you can save different MIDIOX setups to convert to handle drum synths with different key maps.
The other thing to know about n-Track is that you can select all events for a given note (drum) by clicking on the list to the left (the instrument names or keyboard). Then you can ^C copy the lot of them and ^V paste them into a new track. However, be sure to put a note at some reference location (like measure 1 beat 1 tick 0) before doing this, and put the time cursor at that location before pasting (as usual with copy/paste in n-Track).
After you’ve done this with the different instruments, you can use “Track Properties -> Transpose” to change what note is played or echoed. And you can apply different FX – though I’d generally wait until rendering to wave before applying most FX.
learjeff, using that dos utility is proving to be much qucker and less tedious a way to put each not onto a separate line (note)
I was looking for that transpose feature. I’m glad it’s here.
But how do you use it?
I made a file to just experiment with and am trying to move it up a line. I first slected the whole line, then went to Transpose and put in +1
at this point I would have expected to be able hit a button that says “apply” or something. but there isn’t
So I closed the window and nothing has changed. What am I doing wrong?
UPDATE: learjeff, are you sure transpose will do this? I just did a google search for ntrack transpose and came up with a page saying that starting version 2 NTrack has REAL TIME TRANSPOSING. Wouldn’t that mean that this function is meant to change the pitch of notes as they are being recorded, but unfortunately for my needs, not for changing them once they have been recorded? …or am I totally missing the boat?
The DM5 does give you the option to change the note that each trigger sends over MIDI. I don’t recall off hand exactly where the option is, so you’ll need to parse through the manual again. The only draw back to changing the MIDI notes on the DM5 is if you mate them with NSKit’s mapping they won’t match the GM mapping.
I currently have my DM5 mapped to use GM so that it will play back with a small footprint soundfont while tracking and I will manually edit the track if I need to match it to another non-standard soundfont - or find a sampler that I can configure to match GM.
Another alternative would be to use a sysex editor to back up a variety of patches to match each mapping so that you could easily switch between them.
you’re way ahead of me. I don’t know what a sysex editor is. please catch me up.
But if that transpose thing works, between the dos utilty that divides the drum tracks and transpose, I’ll have everything I need.
Have you ever looked into using transpose as learjeff suggests?
Soul & Folk, you’re skipping steps. The “Transpose” feature in Track Properties applies to the whole track, not just what you’ve selected. If you want to use that, you have to cut or copy the selected notes and paste them into a new track.
However, you can also do this: select all the events for one note (instrument) and right click on one of the selected notes. There’s a transpose box there for you to use, that moves the notes up or down the given amount.
The first method (separating notes into tracks) is good if you want to apply FX, or if that instrument is on a different MIDI note (key) in two different soundfonts or drum synths you want to use .
The second method (moving the notes in the track) is good if you want to change the notes so they’re where you want to keep them. Probably not ideal if you’re going to switch back and forth between different keyboard maps.
If you have a number of different keyboard maps you use frequently, and you want to be able to use drum patterns/tracks on all of them, then MIDIOX is the best solution. But it’s a bit technical, especially getting started.
<<select all the events for one note (instrument) and right click on one of the selected notes. There’s a transpose box there for you to use, that moves the notes up or down the given amount.>>
THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! That’s what I was looking for! the holy grail at last!!!
btw, there’s a slight correction on the steps you showed me.
Here’s the exact way to do this…
select all the notes in one line
right click over one of the notes and move it a bit until you get the crossed arrows cursor
then select PROPERTIES
then by the box that says note, add or subtract - that’s where you transpose
If you don’t wait until you get the crossed arrows, this will only work for that one note.
UPDATE: after being told on the audiominds to try an easier method I did and it’s working.It can save you a step or two.
after selecting the lines as mentioned above, and getting the crossed arrows, just drag the cursor to the line you want it go to and click. In a slow computer, you may need to wait about 20 seconds unti it responds, but it will eventually.
Once again, thank you! Now I can get back to making music!
Sysex is just a set of data that defines patches, parameters etc. for a given MIDI device. The data is proprietary to each manufacturer but can be saved to your computer using NTrack or a sysex editor and reloaded back to the device to restore your patches. A sysex editor is just an application that transmits/receives this data, like the DM5Editor program that I think you’ve already found.
Even if you don’t take this approach it is an area you will want to investigate eventually to backup your DM5 drumkits - sure beats entering them back in from the front panel if anything gets lost.