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Hello-

What is the best workflow for importing a .mid file into an existing session and getting its tempo information and time signature information etc in place? Import doesn't seem to work on .mid files (which is not intuitive) and dragging a multitrack midi file in to the edit page just seems to open it in a new song. I can copy and paste regions between songs this way, and also tempo to an extent but getting things exact in terms of placement is proving tricky. seems like there has to be a better way. Thank you!

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by studioj on Sat Jan 22, 2022 5:56 pm
no takers? :-D
I think this process is a little buggy in Studio One, and they need to give it a look as this is a common industry wide method of sharing MIDI data between orchestrators, composers, copyists, etc etc... makes it easier to move between DAWS too, which I would think would be a priority for Studio One.

Sometimes on drag and drop it comes into the session, sometimes it opens a new song, and there doesn't seem to be any specific logic here. Things like tempo and time signatures and Events can be copied between different open songs, but easily getting them pasted in the exact right locations is tricky and requires some careful clicking and selection. If studio one had event lists than this data could be copied and pasted more easily between lists without worrying about location selection... or .mid files should be allowed on "Import" and user should get asked various questions like "Do you want to import the tempo map?" or "Do you want to assign instruments to tracks?" things like that.

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by SwitchBack on Sat Jan 22, 2022 7:18 pm
In early versions of S1 this used to work if the midi file was the very first thing copied into an empty new song. Haven’t done it in ages myself but it’s worth a try I think.
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by markrobotham on Sun Jan 23, 2022 4:27 am
Not sure about MAC but on a PC right click on midi file then "open with" and choose Studio One :-)

Edit: Sorry, just realised you wanted an existing session.

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by studioj on Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:59 pm
Correct, all is good if it is the first thing opened, but there doesn't seem to be a streamlined way to bring .mid files with complicated tempo maps and markers into an existing session. Perhaps one could open the midi file first and then import all the tracks from the existing session into the newly created song, but that seems a little backwards :). but it could be a workaround I guess.

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by SwitchBack on Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:19 am
I think this is because midi is clock based. In S1 the ‘clock’ is the tempo track, which is singular in a song. So you can set up a song where the midi track configures the tempo track (initially), or you can have the midi track follow the existing tempo track, but you can’t have two clocks on the ship ;)
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by Janko Kezar on Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:59 am
Hey

I had to do this quite a few times recently and this is what ive discovered:

If MIDI file contains the tempo information you can drag it onto the tempo track directly form the browser (if the midi file is already in the arrangement dragging it from the arrangement doesnt work) and it will import the tempo curves (works this way since v5 i think, before you had to open the midi file as a new file). Then you have to additionaly also have to drag it to the arrangement to get the midi data.

One small additional note- if you want to export midi file in S1 via browser the tempo data doesnt get embeded- you have to do it via save as.. or covert to midi via the main File menu and the tempo data will get embeded.

Its a bit quirky but once you get your head around it its manageable.

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by studioj on Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:41 am
Janko Kezar wroteHey

I had to do this quite a few times recently and this is what ive discovered:

If MIDI file contains the tempo information you can drag it onto the tempo track directly form the browser (if the midi file is already in the arrangement dragging it from the arrangement doesnt work) and it will import the tempo curves (works this way since v5 i think, before you had to open the midi file as a new file). Then you have to additionaly also have to drag it to the arrangement to get the midi data.

One small additional note- if you want to export midi file in S1 via browser the tempo data doesnt get embeded- you have to do it via save as.. or covert to midi via the main File menu and the tempo data will get embeded.

Its a bit quirky but once you get your head around it its manageable.


Thank you for this! That sounds like a pretty decent approach, not really much more clicking/dragging than some dialog choices on import like you get in Pro Tools. Will give it a try, thank you!!

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by studioj on Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:28 pm
Janko Kezar wroteHey

I had to do this quite a few times recently and this is what ive discovered:

If MIDI file contains the tempo information you can drag it onto the tempo track directly form the browser (if the midi file is already in the arrangement dragging it from the arrangement doesnt work) and it will import the tempo curves (works this way since v5 i think, before you had to open the midi file as a new file). Then you have to additionaly also have to drag it to the arrangement to get the midi data.

One small additional note- if you want to export midi file in S1 via browser the tempo data doesnt get embeded- you have to do it via save as.. or covert to midi via the main File menu and the tempo data will get embeded.

Its a bit quirky but once you get your head around it its manageable.


I can not get this to work. Dragging the MIDI file from the browser to the tempo track or to the arranger area simply opens the midi file into a new song. It is pretty cool how you can expand MIDI files in the browser to see all the tracks contained... so I assumed maybe by dragging just one of these tracks to the edit window, it might only import that track and tempo? nope - still just opens all the tracks in a new song.

Are you able to try again what you're detailing here? Thanks much for any help!

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by Jemusic on Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:01 pm
Just thinking aloud here. Maybe try converting the midi to audio (or one of the midi tracks that spells out tempo eg drums) Then feed the audio into Melodyne and let it create a tempo track from that and then drag that tempo track into your session.

Studio One comes with Melodyne Essentials. You just need to install it.

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by SwitchBack on Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:27 am
Then I think it’s easier to drag the midi track into an empty song and convert it to audio there. It will have the correct tempo data embedded right away, without having to use Melodyne. Audio tracks won’t have signature changes in them though, so you have to enter those manually either way.
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by Janko Kezar on Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:14 am
It works for me if there is tempo data present in the midi file:

Image

Just note to drag the file directly onto the tempor curve and it will show the preview of the tempo if its present. As soon as you drag it a bit higher or lower it will open it as a new song file.

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miditempo.gif

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by studioj on Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:57 am
Thank you for the GIFs! Ok will give that another shot. Although it looks to be a bit hit or miss with making sure the tempo retains the same bar / beat relationship? I've got a midi file with over 100 tempo changes in it, and it's critical that they land on the matching bars / beats in the new song. Like I would need to look at the MIDI file first, see that the first change is on bar whatever an then make sure I drag it to that point...etc etc... not a great workflow for working quickly. Pro Tools - import MIDI file, pro tools asks: do you want to import tempo map? yes, done.
Interesting idea to export an audio file with embedded tempo information. I think sometimes wav files can have markers too? Something to try. Thanks for your help all-

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by SwitchBack on Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:48 am
Tempo changes should work out fine, everything should land on the beat. But the bars may need some work if the midi file has time signature changes too. You may have to enter those manually in S1 for the bars to match what you had in midi.
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by studioj on Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:23 pm
SwitchBack wroteTempo changes should work out fine, everything should land on the beat. But the bars may need some work if the midi file has time signature changes too. You may have to enter those manually in S1 for the bars to match what you had in midi.


This isn't necessarily true if the tempo changes are coming in separately from the MIDI notes / data. One just needs to be very careful where the content is pasted / dropped in. I think this workflow needs some attention form Presonus based on how much MIDI files are tossed back and forth in film / media circles. Thanks for your help!!

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by SwitchBack on Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:38 pm
Hmm, midi clock is note related by definition: 6 pulses per 1/16th note. The tempo may change the time between pulses but a 1/16th always takes 6. The clock just doesn't give the number of 1/16th notes per bar i.e. the time signature. So to get the bar lines (and the metronome) right in S1 you have copy the time signature changes from the score into S1, by hand as I think that's the only way. But I may be wrong :|

For syncing midi timecode is used, a fixed number of midi messages per (time)frame with no relationship to the (variable) tempo. The relation between clock and timecode can/will be used to derive bpm but not the time signature.
Last edited by SwitchBack on Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Tacman7 on Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:55 pm
I read midi clock uses it's own sync channel, when looking for that I noticed this, looked interesting...

There are 24 MIDI Clocks in every quarter note. (12 MIDI Clocks in an eighth note, 6 MIDI Clocks in a 16th, etc). Therefore, when a slave device counts down the receipt of 24 MIDI Clock messages, it knows that one quarter note has passed. When the slave counts off another 24 MIDI Clock messages, it knows that another quarter note has passed. Etc. Of course, the rate that the master sends these messages is based upon the master's tempo. For example, for a tempo of 120 BPM (ie, there are 120 quarter notes in every minute), the master sends a MIDI clock every 20833 microseconds. (ie, There are 1,000,000 microseconds in a second. Therefore, there are 60,000,000 microseconds in a minute. At a tempo of 120 BPM, there are 120 quarter notes per minute. There are 24 MIDI clocks in each quarter note. Therefore, there should be 24 * 120 MIDI Clocks per minute. So, each MIDI Clock is sent at a rate of 60,000,000/(24 * 120) microseconds).

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by Jemusic on Thu Jan 27, 2022 2:09 am
Its simpler than that. At 120 BPM the time per quarter note is 0.5 seconds. If 24 pulses per quarter note is used as the clock frequency then its just 0.5/24 which is 20.83 ms per clock pulse.

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by studioj on Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:02 am
This is a helpful presonus article on MIDI file import in case anyone is interested (shared by support):

https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/a ... e-MIDI-FAQ

There is a file size threshold for the .mid file on whether it creates a new song or imports into existing when you drag. That's an interesting approach, perhaps a little limiting. So I think the best workflow here is to open the MIDI file, save as Studio One song and then use import song data to get everything you need into your existing template / session.

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Mac OS 10.15.7
128 GB RAM
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by Jemusic on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:39 pm
Thanks for posting that link. It's a great article and clears up a lot of midi confusion.

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