Subject:tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Posted by: philfort

Date:11/5/2004 12:40:52 AM

I record a MIDI sequence in ACID 4 (from a keyboard). It plays back fine in ACID, but if I open the .mid file in another midi editor, the timing is all messed up (it either plays ridiculously fast, or ridiculously slow). Any clue why, or how to fix it?

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:11/5/2004 8:14:09 AM

This is because ACID doesn’t use the tempo data in a MIDI file and unfortunately, it doesn’t bother to set it either. So if you record a MIDI track in a project that is 80 BPM it will playback fine in ACID. But if you play the MIDI file outside of ACID it will play back at 120 BPM because that’s what ACID puts in every MIDI track regardless of the real tempo it was recorded at.

To fix this, go into the List Editor, find the Tempo data, and change it to the real tempo of the song. Then press the Save icon at the top right to save this data back into the MIDI file. The file should now play correctly outside of ACID.

~jr

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: philfort

Date:11/5/2004 8:49:46 AM

Thanks... that helps a little bit - the notes are at least understandable now when I load it into the other program. I changed it from 120BPM to 60BPM, and now the file only plays about 20 times faster than it should, instead a few hundred times faster. When I lowered it to 40BPM, the program wasn't able to load it properly.

The other program only understands "format 0" or "format 1" midi files... maybe that's the problem? Does ACID save as "format 2"?

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: pwppch

Date:11/5/2004 9:37:31 AM

ACID only reads 0 and 1.

We render/write to either 0 or 1, depending on the original.

New files are type 1
Recorded files are type 1
Edits made and saved to existing/loaded files follow the type they are.

What is this "other program" you are loading the ACID created MIDI file into?

Peter

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: philfort

Date:11/5/2004 8:21:07 PM

It's called Soundbox, and it is a very basic thing that converts midi files (and also plays them) into a format so they can be included in a type of old SCI video game (SCI is an old DOS video game engine for Sierra games from the 80s and early 90s). All other midi files I have downloaded from the web work fine.
If there's a bug, I'm pretty sure it's in Soundbox (it's pretty flakey), but there must be something about the midi files ACID creates that is different than most. I'll try experimenting a little more...

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: philfort

Date:11/5/2004 8:39:52 PM

I tried opening a .midi file that worked in ACID, and doing a save as, and then opening that new file in Soundbox - and now the sound was messed up. It looks like ACID turned it from a type 0 into a type 1 midi file.
However soundbox is able to open other type 1 files fine.

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: pwppch

Date:11/6/2004 3:05:23 PM

My guess is that Soundbox can't handle the timing resolution of our MIDI files.

Just looked at the source code for this tool. Yep, it is incorrectly reading our MIDI files and not using the specified timing resolution of the file.

Peter

Subject:RE: tempo of MIDI takes is off.

Reply by: philfort

Date:11/6/2004 7:34:23 PM

Wow, thanks SonyPCH! Unfortunately it is the only tool that does what it does, so I will need to find another program to record midi files with.