How do you adjust the MIDI tempo? -ACID Product Family

Subject:How do you adjust the MIDI tempo? Posted by: JohnnyRoy Date:5/30/2004 1:35:45 PM I have some MIDI files that are recorded at 160BPM that I need to use in a project that’s 80BPM. If this were a wave file, I could change its internal BPM metadata in Sound Forge to make it play slower or I could tell ACID that the number of beats was 8 instead of 4 (on the Stretch properties page) and it would play in half-time. Unfortunately, the MIDI properties don’t have a page to change the number of beats per measure. No amount of changing the Tempo in the MIDI data stream has any effect in ACID. (I don’t think it even looks at this) I’m getting the feeling that there is no way to change the playback rate of a single MIDI file (other than change the tempo of the project which I don’t want to do). Is there any way to adjust the playback rate (i.e., tempo) of a single MIDI file in ACID? Is there another tool that can do this? I assume it would have to change the timing on the MIDI event data to play in half-time. ~jr
Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo? Reply by: pwppch Date:5/30/2004 3:02:19 PM No. ACID does not let you do this. The ACID project tempo controls the tempo of any MIDI track. Because of this, ACID ignores any tempo meta data in a Standard MIDI File. Basically you want to change the durations and start times of the MIDI events with in the context of a "tempo". You might be able to write a CAL script in Cakewalk or perhaps just manually edit all events in an editor that would permit you to set a percent change to all note durations/start times. It is conceivable that ACID could have a play at half or double time mode, but I can't see there being a huge demand for such a feature. Why would you want to play a MIDI track back at a different tempo from the project? Peter
Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo? Reply by: JohnnyRoy Date:5/30/2004 5:07:52 PM > Why would you want to play a MIDI track back at a different tempo from the project? Thanks Peter, Why? Because I have these renditions of the same song that play at exactly the same tempo to the ear, but one person recorded their version at 160BPM and another at 80BPM. In other words, the person who recorded their MIDI file at 160BPM was actually playing in half-time. So now the songs don’t sync in ACID because one is twice the speed of the other. It makes sense to want a different MIDI tempo when the tempo difference is a double or half. I agree this is not called for a lot, but even in some drum loop libraries that I have from Betamonkey.com they realize that sometimes a drummer might play half-time while the rest of the band plays at normal time so they include half-time version of their loops. Being able to slow a MIDI loop by half or speed it up 2x comes in handy sometimes. ~jr
Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo? Reply by: pwppch Date:5/31/2004 8:46:20 AM Ok, I can see this application, but I would say that this is a very rare circumstance. Peter

Subject:How do you adjust the MIDI tempo?

Posted by: JohnnyRoy

Date:5/30/2004 1:35:45 PM

I have some MIDI files that are recorded at 160BPM that I need to use in a project that’s 80BPM. If this were a wave file, I could change its internal BPM metadata in Sound Forge to make it play slower or I could tell ACID that the number of beats was 8 instead of 4 (on the Stretch properties page) and it would play in half-time.

Unfortunately, the MIDI properties don’t have a page to change the number of beats per measure. No amount of changing the Tempo in the MIDI data stream has any effect in ACID. (I don’t think it even looks at this) I’m getting the feeling that there is no way to change the playback rate of a single MIDI file (other than change the tempo of the project which I don’t want to do).

Is there any way to adjust the playback rate (i.e., tempo) of a single MIDI file in ACID? Is there another tool that can do this? I assume it would have to change the timing on the MIDI event data to play in half-time.

~jr

Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo?

Reply by: pwppch

Date:5/30/2004 3:02:19 PM

No. ACID does not let you do this. The ACID project tempo controls the tempo of any MIDI track. Because of this, ACID ignores any tempo meta data in a Standard MIDI File.

Basically you want to change the durations and start times of the MIDI events with in the context of a "tempo". You might be able to write a CAL script in Cakewalk or perhaps just manually edit all events in an editor that would permit you to set a percent change to all note durations/start times.

It is conceivable that ACID could have a play at half or double time mode, but I can't see there being a huge demand for such a feature.

Why would you want to play a MIDI track back at a different tempo from the project?

Peter

Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo?

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:5/30/2004 5:07:52 PM

> Why would you want to play a MIDI track back at a different tempo from the project?

Thanks Peter,

Why? Because I have these renditions of the same song that play at exactly the same tempo to the ear, but one person recorded their version at 160BPM and another at 80BPM. In other words, the person who recorded their MIDI file at 160BPM was actually playing in half-time. So now the songs don’t sync in ACID because one is twice the speed of the other. It makes sense to want a different MIDI tempo when the tempo difference is a double or half.

I agree this is not called for a lot, but even in some drum loop libraries that I have from Betamonkey.com they realize that sometimes a drummer might play half-time while the rest of the band plays at normal time so they include half-time version of their loops. Being able to slow a MIDI loop by half or speed it up 2x comes in handy sometimes.

~jr

Subject:RE: How do you adjust the MIDI tempo?

Reply by: pwppch

Date:5/31/2004 8:46:20 AM

Ok, I can see this application, but I would say that this is a very rare circumstance.

Peter