What tools to composers use to make Midi's

[HyperLuke]

Says it right there, what tools do you use to make midis? Well, the best ones. Darn, I made a spelling mistake in the title, sorry.

[MFG38]

I personally use Guitar Pro, which is primarily a notation/arranging program but can also export MIDI files.

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.03

[Ribbiks]

I dreamed a dream in time gone by

[Gifty]

I use a freeware program called Sekaiju which is pretty handy, once you switch the interface to English.

[Deadwing]

I use Sonar, it's good if you want to record yourself

[silentzorah]

Not gonna lie, I used to use a shareware copy of Noteworthy Composer.

 

For 13 years.

[Doomkid]

I've always been a Guitar Pro man.

[Crunchynut44]

The one and only (and aptly named) Fruity Loops.

[HyperLuke]

8 hours ago, Gifty said:

I use a freeware program called Sekaiju which is pretty handy, once you switch the interface to English.

I think I will try using that, I know you already answered my question on Youtube so it's a bit silly of me asking here.

[HexenMapper]

FL Studio (which was called Fruityloops 'back in the day')

Any DAW would work though.

[jmickle66666666]

I use Reason with the Roland Soundcanvas soundfont to write with, then go through a silly export as midi > import to fruityloops > apply instruments > export process to get my midi at the end, because Reason doesn't support midi properly.

[Revae]

Always wanted one where I could hum into my mic to get the timing and tone for the tracks, and convert that to instrument sounds - since I'm not a musician in the least, but occasionally hum a random tune I think sounds nice.  Why does no one cater to my specific, borderline moronic wants?!

[ukiro]

Those of you using FL Studio, what's the setup? I.e. how do you arrange your project so that it exports DOOM compatible midi* and gets instrument assignments right?

 

^{*Or midi that adheres to the MUS spec, I guess}

[NaZa]

Anvil Studios. Minimalistic but extremely handy.

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

I don't really like using FL Studio for exporting MIDI files...among other things, it adds a bunch of Pitch Bend Sensitivity commands with values of 1536, which can sometimes screw up pitch bends in subsequent MIDIs played ingame.

If for some reason I need to use FL Studio to export a MIDI file, then I open the exported file in Cakewalk Pro Audio for clean up and further editing.

[Psyrus]

On 4/17/2017 at 8:44 AM, TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.03

I would be continuing to use CPA 9 if I could get it to work properly and detect the Microsoft synth on anything higher then Windows XP.

I'm currently using Sekaiju until I get something else.  Unfortunately, I find that Sekaiju is much more temperamental than CPA 9 and does not do certain actions properly (e.g. it has an uncanny persistence to copy/paste notes in the wrong track and channel).

[HexenMapper]

12 hours ago, ukiro said:

Those of you using FL Studio, what's the setup? I.e. how do you arrange your project so that it exports DOOM compatible midi* and gets instrument assignments right?

 

^{*Or midi that adheres to the MUS spec, I guess}

This is how I set up FL studio - pretty much make a bunch of "MIDI Out" channels set them to Port 0 (or whichever port you assign in your MIDI settings), and assign instruments to them.

You'll need to set up your MIDI options so that FL plays sound when you're writing and playing back - go to OPTIONS -> MIDI SETTINGS and set it up so that sound actually come out when you hit play (or draw a note) Make sure OPTIONS -> Enable MIDI Output is checked.

 

This is how my MIDI settings are set up:

 

Then once you've written your piece, use the FILE -> Export -> MIDI File

Choose a name to save your file as, and a location then Click "Start" and you will have a MIDI file that any computer can play, and that will work fine in doom.

 

There are a few things to consider when writing for midi, I'm no MIDI wizard but I've picked a few things up over the years:

• Maximum 16 channels (so 16 different instruments) - Channel 10 is always reserved for percussion
• Maximum 24 Simultaneous notes (if you use more, you will notice them being cut off after being triggered)
• If you're writing for vanilla doom, try to keep file sizes below 124kb. Any larger and they may not play.
• You can use automation (controlling volume, pitch, panning, etc) freely, but remember this will take up file size, so even if you have very few notes, a lot of automation data can still take up a lot of space (I've had to cull automation in the past to keep file sizes down - you can use a more "granular" automation - instead of a smooth curve with 300 points, use a staggered curve with 10 points.)

I'm sure there are other things to take into account, and/or my information may not be 100% accurate, but check out the General Midi page for more info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_MIDI

 

Hope that helps :)

[NinjaLiquidator]

I am using FL studio too :D

 

About setting up the project - I never create a project. I always open an existing midi and do it from that, because I also dont know how to set it up :D :D :D

[HexenMapper]

18 minutes ago, NinjaLiquidator said:

I am using FL studio too :D

 

About setting up the project - I never create a project. I always open an existing midi and do it from that, because I also dont know how to set it up :D :D :D

Nice! as long as it works for you :)

 

I saved a template file with 10 MIDI out channels, set to MIDI channels 1 through 10 (MIDI channel 10 being drums) and use that to start MIDI files.

Saving templates is easy, just make a new folder in your templates folder, and save the template with the same name as the folder.

[Varis Alpha]

hey @HexenMapper, if i wanted to make the automation in my projects take up less file-size space, how do i edit the curves to be less smooth, but functioning like i want them to?

[Kristian Nebula]

FL Studio for midis like for my other music projects Nebula Meltdown and Rye Smugglers, too (Psychedelic Trance). Rye Smugglers more and more on Studio One though these days :)

[HexenMapper]

@Viscra Maelstrom Make the curves more coarse, so there are less data points in them. It might depend on the DAW you're using, but most should be able to do more jagged curves

 

In FL this would be a normal kind of curve I use - nice and smooth

 

But this curve would do roughly the same thing, and use less space

 

If I was tight on filespace I would usually look to my automation as the first thing to get edited. Its always a trade-off: you still want the automation to sound smooth to the listener, but just to cut some of the data points out of it. Experiment and see what works best for you :)

 

In reason it looks like this:

Smooth, but probably too much information (reason will automatically remove any unnecessary points - I had to add them back in here!)

 

Same effect, but 3 times less information:

 

Hope that helps! :)

[Xaser]

On 04/18/2017 at 5:20 AM, jmickle66666666 said:

I use Reason with the Roland Soundcanvas soundfont to write with, then go through a silly export as midi > import to fruityloops > apply instruments > export process to get my midi at the end, because Reason doesn't support midi properly.

Heh, I mentally call this "the Essel Method" -- no idea how you two manage to not lose your brains doing this. :P

 

Of course, I also use a bastardized combination of MIDI Tracker (it's terrible; I do not recommend it) for sketching out a song and Sekaiju for touchups, so what the frig do I know? :P

[NinjaLiquidator]

HexenMapper: You seem experienced in FL Studio. Will you help me one more time? I have one more problem with exporting midi with tempo changes. Tempo changes works on FL and on wav export, but in midi I get broken 7 hours midi where it doesnt work :D

[HexenMapper]

3 hours ago, NinjaLiquidator said:

HexenMapper: You seem experienced in FL Studio. Will you help me one more time? I have one more problem with exporting midi with tempo changes. Tempo changes works on FL and on wav export, but in midi I get broken 7 hours midi where it doesnt work :D

That is very strange. I haven't had any problem exporting MIDIs with tempo changes. Not sure what the fix would be there, sorry. You can send me the .flp file if you like and I can take a look. My email is in my doomworld profile

[Varis Alpha]

@HexenMapper oh i see, you're using the event editor for that. what if i wanted to use automation clips for pitch-bending and the like? is there a way to make the curves more coarse there?
 

[HexenMapper]

14 hours ago, Viscra Maelstrom said:

@HexenMapper oh i see, you're using the event editor for that. what if i wanted to use automation clips for pitch-bending and the like? is there a way to make the curves more coarse there?
 

Automation clips use up just as much space as the event editor. Try to avoid curves in automation clips if you want to save space. A nice exponential curve will take up ~15 times more space than a clip with sharp corners.

 

For example - the top track is done in the event editor, using 4 or 5 single points - file size is 272 bytes

Bottom track is an exponential curve in an automation clip - file size is 4.12 KB

 

Its easier to see how many points you have in the event editor, but if you want to use automation clips, just avoid curves or diagonal lines.

This would be the smallest possible file size for an automation clip doing -roughly- the same thing - file size is 432 bytes:

 

It might sound a bit jagged, so make smaller steps if it does. Unfortunately for things like pitch bend you want very smooth curves, so using up space is inevitable. If you do find you file size is too large, simplify the volume and panning automation first, then look for unnecessary pitch bend information - like random minor changes that are imperceptible. I wouldn't recommend simplifying pitch bends like the examples above, as they won't sound much like a bend. Hope that helps!