there is no default sound mapping for midi files?

[befuddled logic]

I can easily import midi files of songs into Ableton Live. And no sounds are emitted so I have to go fetch sounds from Instruments to put into the tracks. Why can't Ableton automatically try and fetch what it thinks are the closest matching sounds? I've search high and low on this forum and can't find how to do this. I have over 50,000 midi files and each midi song has about 15 tracks of which I have to go searching for the right sound sample instrument after loading the midi file into Ableton. It should seem easy enough to find the right sound sample instruments but in fact it's not for me. There are hundreds of midi sample sounds to select and it takes a long time just to find the right one for each track. For example, there are more than a hundred different bass sounds and I can't even find the right sound for a song which just wants a nice electric fusion sounding bass.

Even Windows Media Player, Nero Showtime Player, Quicktime, or Cubase will automatically try to match the midi tracks with the right sounds and can start playing. After hours going through the instruments samples, I still can't get ableton live to sound as half descent as the default sounds grabbed by any of those players.

All the other programs seem to be able to grab sounds to match the midi tracks. Why can't Ableton do this? It would be so nice to simply pull in a midi file of a song into Ableton Live and just start playing.

I tried going into preferences, midi sync and turn on midi ports Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth on all track, sync, and remote. Clicked output to Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth and also changed Midi clock type to Song. But seems to have no effect when I load the midi song files into Ableton. The midi pattern tracks are all there, but just blank for the sounds which I have to go and search for. Ableton has so many sounds it's almost impossible to find the right match. It's like going into the ocean searching for a particular fish.

[H20nly]

no offense, but i think your logic might be a little befuddled.

i don't know that i would want Ableton to randomly pick out of anywhere from 1 - 10,000 or more kicks and then do it again for the snare, and the... and the... just because it picks some sound isn't going to make it sound good. i think the idea of MIDI in a DAW (like Live) is that you get to choose the sounds not that the DAW gets to choose them for you.

Ableton has so many sounds it's almost impossible to find the right match. It's like going into the ocean searching for a particular fish.

if you think this from your perspective, how is Live supposed to look at it? the more files you have, the bigger the ocean. on an older machine with a vast library, how long should Live attempt to make you a beat out of the available sounds? got time?

remember, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, even Cubase are just picking sounds from a pre-configed set of MIDI instruments... most likely from the General MIDI (GM) Specification. so you're right... Live doesn't do that... YOU DO... you don't need software like Live to pick from that limited bank of ancient digital representations.

i think what you're asking for was a little more reasonable back when choices were a lot more limited.

[yur2die4]

Using output to the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth SHOULD make sound (and it will probably select the appropriate ones also). Check your volume controls on your Windows mixer to make sure it is activated. It would probably play through your computer soundcard, instead of an external audio interface though.

Many vst's have Bank Select. If you can find the appropriate kind, you should be able to design one that can mimic what you are after... It would be a P in the A, but it may be the quicker option compared to constantly having to choose instruments in blank channels. Also, any outboard keyboards usually have General MIDI.

[befuddled logic]

Well I was able to set the output of each individual channel to Microsoft GS Wavetable, and it sounded pretty awful. I'm wondering why Windows Media Player seems to be able to grab and match better sounds. Cubase also. Although they all are using Microsoft GS Wavetable, they seem to grab better matching sounds.

To give you an idea why I find having to manually try and match the sounds to the MIDI channels so tedious, there is 1.Drum Rack 2.Instrument Rack 3.Analog 4.Collision 5.Electric 6.Impulse 7.Operator 8.Sampler 9.Simpler 10.Tension. For example under Electric there are about 12 classic electric pianos and about 30 custom electric pianos. NONE of them sound like a basic piano. Under Operator - Piano and Keys, there are 40 piano sounds and NONE of them sounds like a regular piano. I'm trying to use Sampler's Piano and Keys - Keys grand piano. And Simpler's Piano and Keys - Keys acoustic piano. But they don't sound anywhere close to a real piano like any of the basic Yamaha electric keyboard pianos.

So perhaps somebody could point out a few sounds to use that sound like a real band. I'm just looking for basic sounding Bass (like a Jazz Fender Bass), keyboard , drums, guitar rhythm. I don't want to sound too electronic like it's not like a instrumental recording. Am I being unreasonable?

[yur2die4]

Most of all the available sounds are also in the Instrument Racks. They like using the macros to control basic parameters, and stuffing them in with the native fx to spice up the perceived sound. With the Drum Racks, I would use any of the "Lite" kits, those have the GM sounds added. Or, there is a separate GM kit I THINK (not positive)

Most of these instruments will usually not come off sounding perfect for the performance. Plus, there may be extra modulations that these instruments are not 'listening' for. You may have to add effects and tinker around to really get extra quality out of the sounds. Even recordings of bands need post-production to sound a bit more polished.

In the end, the hard truth is that you may be best off either finding a place to route the MIDI tracks out to, with quicker instrument access, or you may have to invest in some vst's that do GM sounds by default (I don't think they would be free). In this day, they are becoming more and more rare.

Edit: This is kind of a basic idea of what you would be looking for http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=re ... t=1&rpp=15 Still, the sounds on those aren't ALWAYS the most convincing. and some of them would work better than others of course. I got these results searching for a "GM Module".

[doghouse]

I can easily import midi files of songs into Ableton Live. And no sounds are emitted so I have to go fetch sounds from Instruments to put into the tracks. Why can't Ableton automatically try and fetch what it thinks are the closest matching sounds?

SMFs vary depending on who programmed them. You might run into any of these:

1. The programmer used GM sounds and placed a GM message at the start of the file. Only instruments that conform to GM will recognize that message and select the right sounds for each track.

2. The programmer used GM sounds but left out the GM message. GM compliant instruments may need to be placed into GM mode manually or you have to edit the SMF and add the GM message.

3. The programmer did not use GM sounds so all program change messages are meaningless...unless you have the same setup he used with all the same patches in the same memory locations it won't play back properly.

4. The programmer did not put any program change messages in the file at all. This is pretty much the same as #3.

If you know the SMF is properly programmed for GM, then just place a GM compliant plugin instrument on all the tracks.

The reason that the Microsoft GS synth may sound different in Live is because it's GS, not GM. GS is a Roland-specific extension to GM (XG is Yamaha's extension of GM) that defines 98 additional instruments, 15 more percussion instruments, 8 more drum kits, 3 effects (reverb / chorus / variation) and some other features. Live is filtering out the sys-ex commands that tweak the sounds, so GS synth defaults to GM sounds.