Dance Music MIDI Files

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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jonny72
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Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:43 pm

Dance Music MIDI Files

Post by jonny72 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:06 pm

Am I the only person that loves midi versions of commercial music?

I just downloaded a collection of dance music midi files and they're great. Loads of club tunes (mainly trance) and when played back through QuickTime they sound like some keyboard player in a pub knocking them out on a Bontempi organ. Reminds me of Phoenix Nights (Techno, Techno, Techno, Techno!).

They are (in general) so crap, they're brilliant.

Its a pity that Live doesn't support both midi file types properly and that there is no general midi instrument provided - then I could easily use them in Live. Anyone know of a decent general midi instrument I could get for use in Live?

Aequitas123
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Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:58 pm

Post by Aequitas123 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:19 pm

What do you mean by "Midi Instrument"?

bendybones
Posts: 355
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:43 am
Location: Galway, Ireland

Post by bendybones » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:27 pm

preview the MIDI files from Live's file browser and capture the output of your cue outs.
Wouldn't describe it as bontempi exactly, but I got nice results with this.

audiojunkies
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:37 pm
Location: uk

Midi files in Live 7

Post by audiojunkies » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:33 pm

simply drag or drop the midi file and open it and edit it in piano view

Aequitas123
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Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:58 pm

Re: Midi files in Live 7

Post by Aequitas123 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:45 pm

audiojunkies wrote:simply drag or drop the midi file and open it and edit it in piano view
+1

Exactly! Whats the problem jonny72?

grumblenoise
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:12 pm

Post by grumblenoise » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:59 pm

Fine if you want to do a remix I guess, couldn't ever see the need to use them though (unless you are learning).

jonny72
Posts: 790
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:43 pm

Re: Midi files in Live 7

Post by jonny72 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:34 pm

Aequitas123 wrote:
audiojunkies wrote:simply drag or drop the midi file and open it and edit it in piano view
+1

Exactly! Whats the problem jonny72?
First problem is that there are two different midi file types and Live doesn't handle one of them correctly - rather than loading each channel as a separate clip it loads all of them in to a single clip. I did raise this with Ableton and they said it was working as designed, maybe it is but that doesn't mean it works properly.

Second problem is no support for general midi (as far as I'm aware). Load a general midi clip in to GarageBand and it loads each channel to a separate track and assigns the correct instrument to it. I don't think there is even a general midi instrument set in Live.

Obviously general midi is a bit crap to say the least and some implementations are better than others but it does make midi files playable at least straight away.

None of this is a major problem though, its just a bit of fun playing about with them. Some of the midi tracks I just downloaded are scarily accurate to the real thing though, one of them had the intro piano spot on (The Prodigy / Your Love).

dj_huck
Posts: 261
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:19 pm

Post by dj_huck » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:36 pm

where did ya get em ?

jonny72
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Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:43 pm

Post by jonny72 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:40 pm

dj_huck wrote:where did ya get em ?
Google for "dance midi files torrent".

dj_huck
Posts: 261
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:19 pm

Post by dj_huck » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:43 pm

thanks. i guess i need to learn to use the internets :)

Aequitas123
Posts: 1204
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:58 pm

Re: Midi files in Live 7

Post by Aequitas123 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:39 pm

jonny72 wrote:
First problem is that there are two different midi file types and Live doesn't handle one of them correctly - rather than loading each channel as a separate clip it loads all of them in to a single clip. I did raise this with Ableton and they said it was working as designed, maybe it is but that doesn't mean it works properly.

Second problem is no support for general midi (as far as I'm aware). Load a general midi clip in to GarageBand and it loads each channel to a separate track and assigns the correct instrument to it. I don't think there is even a general midi instrument set in Live.

Obviously general midi is a bit crap to say the least and some implementations are better than others but it does make midi files playable at least straight away.

None of this is a major problem though, its just a bit of fun playing about with them. Some of the midi tracks I just downloaded are scarily accurate to the real thing though, one of them had the intro piano spot on (The Prodigy / Your Love).

I've opened a MIDI track in Ableton and it seperated all instruments to individual tracks.

How are you opening the file>?

jonny72
Posts: 790
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:43 pm

Re: Midi files in Live 7

Post by jonny72 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:49 pm

Aequitas123 wrote:I've opened a MIDI track in Ableton and it seperated all instruments to individual tracks.

How are you opening the file>?
The problem is with type 0 midi files. These only have one track and Live loads it as one track in a single clip. If you load the same clip in GarageBand it splits it in to separate tracks. So technically Live loads it correctly, but in reality that ain't much help and it could be handled better.

Plus GarageBand automatically loads the correct general midi instrument for each track, the same functionality in Live would be good.

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