Dawproject Export: No Midi Track Export!

Nuendo
1
  1. Open Nuendo or Cubase
  2. Create a MIDI-only track and generate a few notes
  3. Save it as DawProject
  4. Import the DawProject file into existing project

What happens:

Nothing is imported. No import MIDI present.

What I expect it to happen:

Nuendo/Cubase is supposed to import plain MIDI tracks with all notes intact.

I only stumbled over this issue today as I was trying to import an extracted EP-133 song/pattern via this online tool: https://ep133-to-daw.cc/

The tool itself is fantastic (props to this developer) and it exports your songs into either Ableton or Dawproject format.

When I imported this into Nuendo, I had a problem: all tracks were being loaded as an instrument with no VST assigned to it. I had to do extra steps in order to turn these tracks into plain midi tracks and re-assign them. This is sometimes tedious.

So I tried to find out what’s in this Dawproject xml that makes Cubase/Nuendo think that this is an instrument rather than a Midi track. Apparently, I wasn’t even able to make a plain MIDI track export from Cubase/Nuendo itself!

IMHO, this is an internal issue of Cubase/Nuendo as it doesn’t seem to be able handling the tag inside Dawproject files properly or - there is simply no Midi data being routed into the export.

Because if I look at a test file that I made, the only XML I can see is for some EQ bands - but there is no track information visible at least to my eye.

Test XML from the dawproject file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Project version="1.0">
	<Application name="Nuendo" version="14.0.32" />
	<Transport>
		<Tempo unit="bpm" value="112" />
		<TimeSignature numerator="4" denominator="4" />
	</Transport>
	<Structure>
		<Track contentType="tracks" loaded="true" id="id25" name="Eingang/Ausgang" color="#939393ff" />
		<Channel role="master" audioChannels="2" id="id0" name="Stereo Out" color="#737373ff">
			<Mute value="false" name="Mute" id="id22" />
			<Pan value="0.5" unit="normalized" min="0" max="1" name="Pan" id="id23" />
			<Volume value="1" unit="linear" min="0" max="2" name="Volume" id="id24" />
			<Devices>
				<Equalizer id="id1" deviceRole="audioFX" deviceName="EQ" deviceID="297BA567D83144E1AE921DEF07B41156">
					<Band type="lowShelf" order="1">
						<Freq value="100" unit="hertz" min="20" max="20000" name="Freq" id="id3" />
						<Gain value="0" unit="decibel" min="-24" max="24" name="Gain" id="id4" />
						<Q value="1" unit="linear" min="0" max="12" name="Q" id="id5" />
						<Enabled value="false" name="Enabled" id="id6" />
					</Band>
					<Band type="bell" order="2">
						<Freq value="800" unit="hertz" min="20" max="20000" name="Freq" id="id8" />
						<Gain value="0" unit="decibel" min="-24" max="24" name="Gain" id="id9" />
						<Q value="1" unit="linear" min="0" max="12" name="Q" id="id10" />
						<Enabled value="false" name="Enabled" id="id11" />
					</Band>
					<Band type="bell" order="3">
						<Freq value="2000" unit="hertz" min="20" max="20000" name="Freq" id="id13" />
						<Gain value="0" unit="decibel" min="-24" max="24" name="Gain" id="id14" />
						<Q value="1" unit="linear" min="0" max="12" name="Q" id="id15" />
						<Enabled value="false" name="Enabled" id="id16" />
					</Band>
					<Band type="highShelf" order="4">
						<Freq value="12000" unit="hertz" min="20" max="20000" name="Freq" id="id18" />
						<Gain value="0" unit="decibel" min="-24" max="24" name="Gain" id="id19" />
						<Q value="1" unit="linear" min="0" max="12" name="Q" id="id20" />
						<Enabled value="false" name="Enabled" id="id21" />
					</Band>
					<Enabled value="true" />
					<State path="plugins/FA6C1829-C115-4734-8F98-F3DA9B7200A9.vstpreset" external="false" />
				</Equalizer>
			</Devices>
		</Channel>
	</Structure>
	<Arrangement>
		<Lanes timeUnit="seconds">
			<Lanes track="id25" />
		</Lanes>
	</Arrangement>
</Project>

As you can see the Arrangement tag is completely empty despite me having midi data in there.

PLEASE fix this.

2

Hi I have just upgraded to Cubase elements 15.0.6 and I’m getting the same problem. I do a DAWproject export of a project that is mainly midi tracks then re-import it to a new blank project and only get the folders with no midi content. I note the DAWproject export file is only 2KB whereas the raw midi file is over 70KB and the cubase file is 1.2MB. I am new to Cubase and this forum so don’t know if this has been filed as a bug?

3

After I escalated this to Steinberg support, they responded with this:

Thank you for contacting the Steinberg support team. Please excuse the inconvenience and the delayed response due to a high number of support requests.

MIDI Tracks are not part of the DAWproject file, and only Instrument Tracks are supported.

However, if you look at Bitwig’s Github page you will see that midi/note data is supported by default.

I understand that Steinberg’s reasoning is based on the Dawproject format not exactly being standardized as any other format, like JPEG or MOV since it’s opensource and every developer seems to have their own take on it and/or implements different features and data. For the moment, it’s just good enough to import/export channel settings. I sincerely hope that there will be a more “fixed” set of features.

4

Thanks for swift response, I too had a look at the Bitwig’s Github page to check that midi was actually supported in DAWproject and as you would expect it is. I’m rather surprised and I have to say a little disappointed at Steinberg’s incorrect response, not filled me with confidence on their dev team! MIDI is so fundamental to modern music production and has been for years and also is an open source standard for format. Perhaps it’s time to look at a Cubase alternative that actually fully supports DAWproject.

1 Like
5

DAWProject

Exporting MIDI to DAWProject Format – Workaround

Open a empty Cubase Project. Go to Edit>Preferences>MIDI>MIDI File. In the box “Import Options” change “Destination” from “HALion Sonic” (the default) to “MIDI Tracks”. This will ensure that when importing a MIDI file just the MIDI tracks are created.

Import the MIDI file in the usual way eg File>Import>MIDI. Add an Instrument Track with the required VST and load a Preset into the appropriate channel.

On the MIDI track select all events and with the mouse move the MIDI track into the VST Instrument track. The original MIDI track can now be deleted.

The Project can now be exported as a DAWProject file. The file XML content can be viewed by unzipping the .dawproject file with 7zip and ten use any text editor to view the XML note data.