Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com From: Stan Weaver Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.sound,scee.yaroze.programming.sound Subject: Re: MIDI conversion question. Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 15:29:05 -0700 Organization: Sony Computer Entertainment America Lines: 96 Message-ID: <344BDB1E.28C7@interactive.sony.com> References: <3446E938.62CF@dfwmm.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.41.6.40 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scea.yaroze.programming.sound:100 scee.yaroze.programming.sound:41 Mr. Dave Krampitz wrote: > > Hello, > > I have a question for all you MIDI experts out there. > > I had made a cheesy background game song using General MIDI with > Cakewalk, with track 1 being percussion (Channel 10 Patch 97) and track > 2 begin a baseline (Channel 2 Patch 87). Yes I am new to Cakewalk and > MIDI in general. > > I saved it in MIDI format 1 (jam1.mid), and then used SMF2SEQ jam1.mid > which gave me the following: > > control changes used in jam1.mid > > meta events used in jam1.mid: > > 1 (0x01) - 1 -> removed > 2 (0x02) - 1 -> removed > 3 (0x03) - 1 -> removed > 33 (0x21) - 2 -> removed > 84 (0x54) - 1 -> removed > 89 (0x59) - 1 -> removed > > First, I don't know what any of that means at the moment. Moving on... > > When I use seqplay to listen to it it sounded terrible, like a drunk > tuba player kicking around some beer bottles (yes, that is worse than > it sounded originally, thanks.) > > My questions are: > > 1. What does it mean to have the meta events removed? > > 2. Why is the MIDI file distorted so badly by SMF2SEQ/SEQPLAY or am I > doing something wrong? > > 3. Is it always necessary to sample all instruments (patches) in > separate .wav/vag/vab files for use in your programs with the .seq > files? If so, what is the best way to 'sample' and instrument and in > what note/key? Does this make any sense to anyone? > > Thanks greatly for your help. > > Dave Krampitz > krampitz@dfwmm.net Hi Dave, 1) Meta Events communicate information other than information couched in the MIDI language (i.e. text events, copyright notice, track names, and the like). If you're interested in learning more about this stuff, there are plenty of good books around, even at the library you’ll find some. As far as what the message that appears after conversion means, it's just informing you what Control Change and Meta Event messages were in the SMF and which ones were removed for reasons of compatibility. 2) The MIDI file should not be distorted at all. What I think may be the problem is that you're not specifying the appropriate programs at the beginning of each track (i.e. program change ##). I'm assuming that you're using the General MIDI VAB provided with NY. Is this true? If you look at my posting of 6/18/97 titled, "Re:STD0 Sound Map", you will see a list of all of the programs in the GM VAB. 3) Yes, the SEQ file references a VAB for the instruments. The VAB is made up of programs which in turn are made up of tones (up to 16). Each tone is a set parameters which references a particular VAG for playback. As far as sampling goes, again, a bit of research might be in order. But, to put it simply, you'll need some sort of sampler or sound card and waveform editing software like SoundDesigner II, Alchemy, Sound Forge, etc., so that you can sample the instrument of choice and edit the resulting file. You'll need to set up a good loop (at sample points divisible by 28, mind you) if the instrument is a sustaining type and create a DEF file which contains the desirable tone parameters. For more information on DEF files and sound for the PlayStation in general, please take a look at the updated reference docs located on the web site. The original manuals that went out were not very specific with regard to sound and we've modified them quite a bit. I hope I've answered some of your questions here. I know it might seem like a huge mountain to cross at this point, but hang in there, you'll get it. All the best, Stan Stan Weaver Audio Tools Technician Technical Support SCEA