Importing midi drum kit from GarageBand

[wrldwdarr]

I’m wondering if anyone else has tried this.
I’ve been able to convert a drum sequence composed in GarageBand into a loop and then export it as a midifile.
I’m having trouble getting Dorico 3.5 (elements) to translate it into sheet music.
Do I need to create an entire drum kit from scratch first?
What items do I need to check or un-check from the midi-import menu to import a drum set line?
BTW importing guitar chords and bass line worked fine
Thanks!

[MarcLarcher]

Hi wrldwdarr,
I remember Daniel wrote, in a similar case as yours, that having the percussion on MIDI channel 10 could help Dorico “understand” better the percussion track… Not sure it would solve your problem but it is worth a try!

[wrldwdarr]

@MarcLarcher

I went into play mode and switched the percussion tracks to 10.
I then imported with JUST “interpret channel 10 as MIDI percussion” selected.
Dorico imported everything, but CREATED A NEW FLOW and assigned it to flute!
I didn’t state anywhere that I wanted to create a new flow.

You need to set the drums to channel 10 in GarageBand and then export the MIDI file. In Dorico MIDI import options, check the box that says to import percussion on channel 10.

[Derrek]

Dorico AFAIK always creates a new flow to hold an import. At that point one has two options:

• Delete the original flow, if it is empty or no longer necessary, leaving only the imported material.
• Copy the material desired from the new flow to wherever one wants in the original flow (and then delete the imported flow, if desired).

Now, if your imported flow contains flute and not drums, yes, that is a complication.

[wrldwdarr]

@Derrek

Dorico AFAIK always creates a new flow to hold an import. At that point one has two options:

• Delete the original flow, if it is empty or no longer necessary, leaving only the imported material.
• Copy the material desired from the new flow to wherever one wants in the original flow (and then delete the imported flow, if desired).

Now, if your imported flow contains flute and not drums, yes, that is a complication.

1. Deleting the original flow means deleting all the other material, so this doesn’t make sense.
2. And yes, it’s a flute sound that’s playing the drum track
   Dorico really needs to try and make it simpler to import midi.

[wrldwdarr]

Dorico still imports midi drum sets incorrectly
I’ve tried everything. Changing the name of the track and instrument to just plain “drum set” in my DAW, trying to check different importing options in Dorico, etc.
Nothing works.
I still just get four staves of flutes.

[wrldwdarr]

So I’ve found a work-around that allows Dorico to “take” midi percussion. First of all, make sure your kit is a GM kit.
You have to slim down the midi file to just the bare essentials: kick, snare, cymbals, maybe hi-hat if you’re lucky.
Anything that is confusing, remove. For example, my left foot hi-hat was notated in my DAW just below the kick, so Dorico automatically converted all of those to kick also.