MIDI playing

[flyingb]

Hi all, this is my first post, I really hope to get help, this is the only home recording website I registered with!

Everything started when my old (very old) band decided for a reunion after some 25 years (see the gig logo attached to this message). I live some 300 km far from the rest of the former band members and from the place where the gig will take place, so sharing a MIDI file and making separate home reharsals could limit the number of "live" meetings beore the gig, scheduled by te end of July.

So I decided to build a very basic home recording studio, based on the fact that my wife and I like to sing and play and this sort of mini-studio could be a lot of fun in the future. That's enough for the poetry.

Requirements:

- I need to play a MIDI file that consists of various tracks. I need to solo, mute or play each of them and need to play together with the song with my guitar.
- Occasionally I need to record the song and send the resulting file (MP3, MIDI or whatever) to my friends.

What I have:

- PC with integrated Realtek HD Audio soundcard
- CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core + 2 Gb RAM
- Presonus AudioBox USB and updated drivers
- Cubase 4 LE (bundled with the AudioBox)
- Electric Guitar + Line 6 Pocket Pod (it plugs into the "instrument" input of the AudioBox)
- Shure SM58 microphone (in the "Mic" input of the AudioBox)

PROBLEMS:
- I still don't know if I sat up properly the soundcard. There is a document in the Presonus Knowledge base regarding setting up Cubase 4 LE with a generic "Presonus recording interface", but it gets generic exactly when it's supposed to be exact, that is in the VST connections section.

- I cannot play any midi song. I can load it in Cubase, it gets loaded as a single track (I'd like to see all the component tracks, but I cannot figure out how to do it). I click "play" and I see the indicators move, but hear no sound. I discovered that I should assign VST instruments to each tracks, and the existing literature tells that I should go to the "VST Instrument" in the menu, but... NO such item, there. Just "VST Performance" and "VST Connections".

- If I create an instrument track, the "NO VST INSTRUMENT" is the only option available. If I click on it, there's nothing else.

- VST Plugins: what is it? How to check they are correctly installed, whatever they are? The HalionOne directory is EMPTY.

As you can see I am a TOTAL novice, but longing to emancipate an maybe being useful to novices. I work with computer and I am going o understand tech language.

If someone is going to help me, thank you so much. Well... thanks for reading so far, anyway.

Cristiano
(Roma - Italy)

[tacman7]

Lots of issues here, I'll address a few.

Midi is not sound, just information, it needs a sound generator. This can be hardware or software, the software version is a VST instrument.

So unless you have a keyboard or midi module you need to get a VSTi like Halion.
There are some free ones out there, different levels of General Midi compliance.

That's the thing, if you want to play GM file you need something with a good GM soundset or library.

SMF- standard midi files come in two types:

Format 0:
All sequencer data is recorded as a single Track, which may include data for more than one MIDI channel.

Format 1:
An unlimited number of tracks may be used, each of which may contain data for more than one channel.

So you just have to get the midi file in the right format or dissolve the part into separate tracks.

[flyingb]

Lots of issues here, I'll address a few.
Midi is not sound, just information, it needs a sound generator. This can be hardware or software, the software version is a VST instrument.
So unless you have a keyboard or midi module you need to get a VSTi like Halion.

Ok, thank you, I got it. I have a USB keyboard, M-Audio Keyrig 49. It's, as you probably already know, a "dummy" thing that can some how "drive" a virtual instrument.
Halion. It's one of the problems that lead me to think there was something wrong with Cubase LE installation. There is, actually, a HalionOne folder in the installation directory that is empty.
Is it supposed to be so?

That's the thing, if you want to play GM file you need something with a good GM soundset or library.

Fine. So I need a soundset. What are, exactly, the steps I need to do?

[QUOTESMF- standard midi files come in two types:
Format 0:
All sequencer data is recorded as a single Track, which may include data for more than one MIDI channel.
Format 1:
An unlimited number of tracks may be used, each of which may contain data for more than one channel.[/QUOTE]

Well, I have a "songname.mid" file. I'd like to have it split in tracks so to, say, disable the lead guitar track in order to play guitar myself.

So you just have to get the midi file in the right format or dissolve the part into separate tracks.

Yes. How do I do that? If i see the "single track" midi song in Cubase, how do I "dissolve" it into separate tracks?

Please, notice that I am using Cubase LE although someone says it would be easier to use some other SW.
My aim is to evaluate Cubase (that's what LE versions are for) and be sure I am "mentally" fit to use Cubase, then upgrade to a commercial version.
I am probably suffering a bit, but hope that it's worth doing.

Grazie!
Cristiano.

[tacman7]

They were saying the halion one could play midi files by dragging and dropping them onto the interface or something like that but that's cubase 5.

Cubase is a great program, it's worth spending the time to learn. The full version is a good deal if you really want to get into this stuff, it will keep you busy for years.

You should get the halion working and see how it sounds, contact support maybe? or reinstall?

Go to emu.com and get the free proteus download, it's not gm but you can select your own patches, it's probably the best free thing out there.

There is a command on the midi menu, dissolve parts, I think, I'm not in front of a computer, it will place the different channels on different tracks.

[flyingb]

Originally Posted by tacman7

They were saying the halion one could play midi files by dragging and dropping them onto the interface or something like that but that's cubase 5.

I DID IT!

The problem is when you're a novice. Everyone gives you valuable information supposing they are detailed enough, but the problem is a newbie is a newbie and we need "step to step".

What to do, according to my experience
1) Make a project
2) Go to file->preferences->midi and in import options tell Cubase to import midifiles as multiple parts
3) now, add a number (not one) of new instrument track and make them HalionOne.
4) Now open My Computer, navigate to the midifile and drag it onto one of the tracks you previously added.
5) Now each midi track places itself on an instrument track

Well, you're not done. As everyone keeps telling me, midi is not sound, but a "music sheet".

Reading a music sheet does not mean you're actually playing anything. But reading music and working on a keyboard actually produces music and this is what we are going to do. The midi file is the music sheet, Cubase is... your hands, the keyboard is the HalionOne. Your brain (that's actually you) reads the music, then tells your hands to play it on the instrument.

For each track go to the output in the Inspector and click the button to modify the instrument (I do not have the music PC at hand, so I cannot describe it better) and it will open the HalionOne interface.

Click in the preset icon and access an interface where you'll be able to select an instrument for the track you're dealing with. This is where I am now. I do not know, still, what exactly a preset is (in Halion), nor if I am doing it in the complicated way, or if I can find a more straight forward procedure, but this is what I got yesterday at 11.30pm. Then I had to go to bed.

Oh, the most important thing: I could get a notebook to use as a Music PC and move everything from the (non recording) studio to the basement and unclutter the desk.

I have now the real challenge. I have a Behringer 1202 mixer and the Presonus Audiobox. I have to figure out how to have them live together.

Ciao!
Cristiano

[tacman7]

Yes grasshopper, someone could have told you how to do it but when you figure it out yourself it stays with you.

For you to understand how it works and what's going on is what is important because there's always going to be something come up and your the only one there who can fix it.

[flyingb]

Originally Posted by tacman7

Yes grasshopper, someone could have told you how to do it but when you figure it out yourself it stays with you.

For you to understand how it works and what's going on is what is important because there's always going to be something come up and your the only one there who can fix it.

Yes, you're right, definitely.