importing midi

I’m having an issue with importing midi and cannot find the information around.

i have 7 tracks of midi for different instruments and i want to import them all into a single flow so that i can play them back simultaneously.

however it seems that when i import midi, dorico creates a new flow for each track. i already have flow ‘1’ with all seven instruments an nothing written in which i would like to add the midi to each of these instruments in flow 1.

Q: is it possible to import midi onto an instrument track within a flow that is already created?

If not then, Q2: is it possible to merge flows?

Thanks!

Import, either XML or MIDI, always creates a new flow.

You can copy-paste that material into the first flow. First, select the first (final destination) flow in Setup mode, and make sure all instruments are assigned to it. Then just copy the material from the other flows and paste it into the blank staves in flow 1.

Thanks alot Dankreider. i appreciate your quick response.

However, is it just me, or does that seem a bit ridiculous? It seems like a simple function, to import midi, and yet it has become very complicated by this process.
I imagine it to be as simple as having flow 1 with all the instruments set; right click on an instrument and import midi to that instrument in flow 1. rinse repeat for all instruments in flow 1.

does that not seem like the logical conclusion? or even just being able to chose which flow the midi is imported into and then chose an instrument already in that flow? or add a new instrument in the chosen flow.

Cheers,
me

Perhaps, but I don’t mind the default. A new flow gives you the option of flow-specific settings, if you wish. And it’s so easy to combine them—seconds, really—that I don’t really care either way. YMMV.

Once used to it i can understand. Im still fairly noob and so i suppose my thoughts are more from an intuitive user interface design perspective.

Regarding musical tastes, a professor once quipped to me, “People don’t know what they like, they like what they know.” I suppose that’s true for UI too!

See my response in the other thread

Carl, I find the idea that you have seven MIDI files, each representing a different track in the same piece, a bit weird: why not a single MIDI file with seven tracks in it? Dorico would import that as a single flow in one step, with none of this mucking about.

thats a fair point. i have written midi in pro tools for many years but never needed to export the midi itself. this is an area i am still learning.

initially i did try exporting a midi file from pro tools onto a “multitrack (midi1)” [as opposed to singletrack(midi 0) as pro tools refers to them] that included all seven tracks but in dorico it gave me 1 grand staff with all the information. not sure how to export from pro tools as separate midi files all within a single file yet, but im sure ill figure it out soon enough.

on a separate note i really appreciate the heightened responsiveness by you all on these forums. thanks!

If you make sure that each track in Pro Tools is set to a different MIDI channel, when you export a multi-track (type 1) MIDI file from Pro Tools, that will import into Dorico sensibly.

To add to Daniel’s post:

  1. Be careful with anything that is on channel 10 (for percussion) – non percussion instruments that are assigned to channel 10 may look really whacky when imported into Dorico. I haven’t tried how this works in Dorico but it once got me tripped up in Sibelius, where Sibelius “converted” a string instrument to a percussion staff … making me pull my hair out until I finally figured it out (before exporting midi, assign it to a different channel).

  2. In my experience importing midi for music prep purposes is never quite a ‘one button’ operation, you’re always going to have to do a lot of cleaning up of notes (note lengths), keyswitch notes in midi scores have to be deleted, you have to think of dynamics, instruments that are on different midi tracks (e.g. one track for legato violin, one for pizzicato), you have to consider whether it is actually playable. Midi allows for a lot of things that aren’t realistic with live instruments, you always have to use your musical mind and instincts as well.

Number 1 should no longer be an issue as the midi import dialog has options to specify whether a file has percussion on channel 10,or is GM (which implies ch 10 percussion)

sorry i didnt notice your reply Daniel. ill have to check whether how the midi outputs were routed in protools.

yes this is true. this is why i imported it into Dorico in the first place to add all of the articulation and dynamics so that it can potentially be played by real musicians. Certainly one must understand writing idiomatically for instruments. I always try to compose with the strengths and weakness’s of particular instruments and what is blatantly impossible in mind. However note lengths is almost never an issue if you use a mouse and a writing keyboard to write midi as opposed to a midi music keyboard. i figure out everything on my guitar as i write and then input with mouse and writing keyboard. :slight_smile:

In film music, going from midi to preparing scores and parts is a big thing, and a day job for high level professionals (not me). I’ve done this a few times and useful links are below. Tim Davies is the guru as proficient Hollywood orchetrator, google his “debreved” website for more tips.