midi import - weird left hand/right hand splits?
Hi there. New user here. I could use some help with midi import, please.
I've read the user guide for midi import, but no matter what settings I use, the Musescore output is far from what I expected.
Here's part of the score generated by another program I found online, as a reference.
As you can see, it's not a complicated piece. But here is the score generated from the same midi file by Musescore.
I don't understand why Musescore is making such strange splits between the two staffs? And all those tie notes that just make it hard to read and play the piece from sheet music. What am I doing wrong? Are there some other options that will tidy up this mess and get it looking more like the first score?
I'm grateful for any advice you can share.
Comments
I'm not the person to help you, but that person will need to see the midi file so they can see how much of this is the fault of the midi output and how much is MuseScore and various import options.
In reply to I'm not the person to help… by mike320
Sure, here's the file. I'm trying to generate a score for the piano part on channel 3.
In reply to Sure, here's the file. I'm… by kingkatt
It looks like your other program used as a reference performed quite a bit of quantization and beat correction on the provided MIDI before turning it into notation. Also note that the duration in the first measure in the left hand is bogus in your reference image
![314329-MIDI-contents.png]( "314329-MIDI-contents.png")
For reference, this is what is actually inside the MIDI file for that channel (opened with MidiEditor):
Notice how measure 3 really is almost completely filled by a whole note duration chord. So MuseScore in that respect is a lot more correct with respect to the import than your other program was.
Now, knowing what is in there and what you're hoping to achieve. These are the settings I used when opening the file in MuseScore:
![314329-MIDI-import-settings.png]( "314329-MIDI-import-settings.png")
I chose to import it as a single staff, as your split point is easily pitch detected and doesn't require heuristics of letting MuseScore figure out what should be "playable" by both hands.
Then I right-clicked within that staff and chose "Split staff" using
G3as the split point. Now apply a treble clef to the top staff.Next up is to select the top staff (only the top staff) and use Tools → Implode. Repeat for the bottom staff. This'll "fix up" the voice assignment where possible to place as much as it can into voice 1; where rhythms overlap, both voices will be retained.
And now you're ready for the real cleanup; go over each measure, where necessary flip voice1/2 (Tools → Voices) so the top melodic voice is voice 1.
Delete voice 2 rests in measures that only have rests in voice 2.
Combine tied rhythms back into single duration values when appropriate.
See the attached for what a 10 min cleanup using the above techniques shows.
[EDIT]: as for "all those ties" you had; they stem mostly from you having limited the number of voices to 1, which prevents MS from writing multiple rhythms in ..well.. different voices; thus forcing it to tie what would've been 1 voice rhythmically to be able to merge in the other voice.
In reply to It looks like your other… by jeetee
Thanks for your tips, jeetee. And for taking the time to explain it clearly. It's really helpful. :-)
In your experience, is this amount of tidy-up par for the course when importing midi files? I read that some is always expected, but as a new user, I don't have any reference for the amount of work needed.
In reply to Thanks for your tips, jeetee… by kingkatt
It really depends on what kind of MIDI file you're importing.
When the file is already very well quantizised and contains single voices/staves there will be less cleanup. Piano music in that respect is often a bit more involved, like in your file. This is especially true when hands are close to each other in pitch range or overlapping.
I personally always import Pianos into a single staff and then split off from there, as I find that moving notes from one staff to another (which is done by cut and paste) is often easier if you first "correct" the voices assigned to those notes. Others prefer differently.
But generally speaking, yes, you'll have about this level of effort when working from MIDI files. That file format is namely not really well suited in transferring musical notation. It is a format containing playback instructions; but there is for example no way to differentiate between a staccato note of one duration vs simply a shorter note duration all together.
In reply to It really depends on what… by jeetee
Got it. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.