Page 1 of 1
Assigning instruments to midi tracks on cover tunes
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:49 am
by Cyberdude
Is there a way to recreate a cover tune using a midi file?
Example: You download a Depeche Mode song in midi format, after loading into to Ableton Live, how do you know what sounds or instruments to assign to each midi track?
The drums and bass are usually some of the first tracks but beyond that it's merely guessing... no?
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:23 am
by 8O
It depends on the midi file. Some files come completely unlabelled and you have to guess, as you mention. I usually assign a simple synth to each midi track and when they're all playing, solo them, and figure out from listening what each one should be. Other midi tracks come labelled with the instrument for each track, in the form of the GM sound set:
http://www.midi.org/about-midi/gm/gm1sound.shtml
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:33 pm
by tanawana
Yes, this is the way I've been doing it for a few years. Each song you bring in will be different though. Some have all the instruments labeled, some don't, some are really well put together, some aren't, some are MIDI 0 files, some are MIDI 1 files.
It's a learning curve to get it down, but once you do it can really work out well.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:09 pm
by laird
and don't neglect to erase the "Patch sELECT" data if the MIDI files were meant to be played back on a Standard MIDI instrument (like the one's web browsers use to play back smf files).
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:27 am
by Cyberdude
OK, all three of these responses make good sense and are what I suspected all along.
Does anyone have any pre-defined Depeche Mode midi files?
I'd like to modifiy using my own sounds.
Thanks in advance,
Cyberdude
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:51 pm
by laird
Re:
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 11:13 am
by Cyberdude