Missing channels when exporting to MIDI
Hello,
I am trying to create symphonic metal songs, originals and covers, for myself. I would like to export the music that I've made to MIDI, so when I get a DAW like FL Studio and some good VSTs, the songs that I have created will sound great!
However, and this might just be a minor issue, but there are a lot of instruments in my songs (Since there is a full orchestra in my songs), and that means that when I export the song to midi and look at the MIDI file using something like Anvil Studio or LMMS, around 5-7 channels are missing (Instrument and notes).
Also, I noticed that the instruments are wrong. Channel 1 and 4 should be flutes and Bassoons respectively, not string ensemble 1 (I noticed as well that some instruments are portrayed differently on LMMS than on Anvil Studio.)
I don't know if this is because I only have 1 MIDI interface (aka, me not having one of those MIDI interfaces) or something else, but if someone can help me out, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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Comments
Different MIDI-based tools have different channel assignments. See this post of mine for more light: https://musescore.com/groups/3642106/discuss/3659006 . I your "workstations" are really work-worthy, they should offer some degree of flexibility as to channel assignments. As you can read there, I had to write my own code to map a MuseScore score's channels to a different product's. Right now there is no user interface to assign channels in MS, although I believe you can do that editing the XML (.mscx) representation of the score, but that doesn't help you very much.
In reply to Different MIDI-based tools… by [DELETED] 1831606
So, what you're saying is that in order to take what I have made in Musescore and turn that into MIDI, I should just start from scratch? I say this (even though you don't seem to point to that) because, I noticed when looking around old forum posts, people say that Musescore's MIDI export is not that great, and that I should use it's MusicXML export instead (Which is, from what I tested, miles better than the MIDI output when I tried to play it on Soundslice). The problem is that Fl Studio doesn't support XML files (I don't want to switch from Fl Studio to another DAW even though I don't have it yet, because it has a lot of feature that I will need), plus from my research, MusicXML files can be different from program to program. So now I am kinda loss on what to do,
In reply to So, what you're saying is… by dylanprashker@…
I'm saying you either need (1) external tools that can reroute MIDI channels, making a new midi file from the one MS produces (I wrote my own such, but I'd be surprised if widely-known ones don't exist), (2) learn how to assign channels in the DAW's you have (I would think that a workstation would barely deserved to be called that if it didn't provide that facility), maybe you haven't looked hard enough (3) Assign channels in MuseScore by carefully counting tracks/staves until they line up as you expect (4) Edit channel assignments in the .mscx.
I would be surprised if there were not a user community for FL-Studio that did not have simple answers to "how do I map the midi channels produced by my score editor into the ones that FL Studio expects?"
In reply to I'm saying you either need … by [DELETED] 1831606
Alright, so I tried you're 3rd method, which was to assign the channels in Musescore. So I downloaded Musescore "master" version (development build of Musescore 3) and I assigned all the tracks that I used (which ended up being 15 channels exactly, but that was because I put all the stringed instrument, except the harp, into 1 channel), and it seemed to work. All the tracks show up in the correct spot. There were some blank channels, but I am pretty sure that's due to the fact that those channels were for staccato, mute, etc... versions of the instruments. There was one issue, and that was that half of the instruments were strings, even if the instrument of my DAW said it wasn't. That's not really a big issue though, since the only reason I need the MIDI file is to copy and paste the piano roll/MIDI data into the channel that had the VST on it.
Even if I did need all the tracks just like how it was in Musescore, I have found another solution (the best part is that I found out it can be done on Musescore 2.3.1). Just export each track SEPARATELY into separate MIDI files (For example the flutes track gets it's own MIDI file, and so do the the Clarinets, bassoons, etc...). That way, Musescore and the DAW will only have to deal with 1-3 channels per MIDI file instead of 20+ channels per MIDI file (Which means all the channels and the instruments will be correct. I also don't have to import an entire MIDI file into a DAW, I can just import the MIDI file I want with the track I need and just cut and paste the MIDI data onto the channel with the instrument I want, which is the VST. Then I can delete the MIDI file from the DAW and move on to the next track).
Thanks for the help!