Midi export creating note overlaps + gaps

[tombliss]

I need to output some scores, and as I'm still on 7 (for a now anyway) I've been exporting MIDI files and then importing them into Musescore.

The problem is that although I'm quantising then manually checking the note ends to avoid overlaps (where is the Cubase-style 'legato' command btw?), when I get the file into MuseScore, the darn thing shows loads of ties where it thinks there's an overlap, and little rests where it thinks there's a gap.

The MuseScore forum suggests I try exporting in MusicXML, but it doesn't seem to be available in 7, and I don't think it is in 8 either.

I'm about to buy a new MacBook JUST so I can go up to 8, but that seems like a stupid plan if I can't export clean midi files.

(I'll still need to go to MuseScore to add lyrics by the way - and, no, I can't afford Sibelius, and though I did buy Finale four years ago their support is so atrocious they STILL haven't resolved a registration problem so I can't use it !)

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

Tom

[filosofem]

Does the Note Grouping correspond with the Time Signature?

[tombliss]

Err, think so.

Where is Note Grouping please? (My manuals all stopped opening as of this week)

[filosofem]

Generally and without knowing your scoring/transcribing software follows basic music theory grouping rules applying to notes and rests. That is, anything that falls outside of these rules might get misinterpreted.

[tombliss]

Well, the moxt complex Protools file is just 16 bars of a simple jig, (shortest note being a 16th). Some of the files have two midi parts, a tune and harmony - but they're all input with no decoration or ornamentation.

The grid is set to 16ths and so is the quantise, and all the notes have been Q'd for start and end, and then manually checked and clicked to the grid. There are no gaps or overlaps at all in ProTools.

When you import into MuseScore it asks you to tell it what the shortest note duration is, and I've tried all the options from a minim to a demisemiquaver and the result is always the same:

Rests and tied note overlaps.

One of the tunes is a really really simple waltz - and even this one has errors.

Tom

[filosofem]

Try creating a really simple SMF first. Common Time (4/4) crotchet on each beat. Then step it up a bit, Waltz (3/4) crotchet, quaver, quaver rest, quaver, quaver rest. Then Compound Time (6/8) quaver, quaver, quaver, dotted crotchet rest. Will they translate?

[tombliss]

I've got half a dozen files, with varying time signatures, note lengths etc.

They all translate, but they all exhibit a problem in at least one place (sometimes lots of places) knowing where the notes end.

It's an issue I remember well from Cubase Score. If you played something in real time and did not quantise, then looked at it Score Edit, the notes were all over the shop. But once you'd quantised the note ends, it settled down and presented itself properly in score.

But then Cubase has a wonderful quantise feature called' legato' which specifically makes all the notes reach exactly to the start of the next note, with no gaps and no overlaps.

ProTools does not offer this, (unless I've not been told something), so the only solution is to check all the note endings carefully.

I've done this in PTLE, but when the midi file reaches MuseScore, there are the gaps and overlaps - even though they are not actually 'there.'

It's as if ProTools is not making a properly quantised midi file.

[filosofem]

Yeah, I know what you mean, there are a few MIDI idiosyncrasies. Ummm... there is a 'Legato/Gap' function with Real-Time Properties - Duration. Track-based RTP might be best.

[tombliss]

Thanks Aaron - I'll give it a go when I next manage to break free from this interminable Final Cut edit!

[tombliss]

Hmm, not quite sure what I did, or what it did, but it seems to have fixed one of the problem files - one problem note is now showing correctly as a minim instead of a tied dotted crochet and upteen tied duo-deca-hexa-quadralatic-paralitic-demi-moore-semiqavers (or whatever they're called) and a 64th note rest.

Thanks - I'll pursue that line on the others.

Tom