Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

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Joepno
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Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Joepno » Sat Dec 05, 2015 5:11 am

Hi,

after importing midi files all tracks have the standard piano assigned to the individual tracks. Is this expected

Best,
Joepno

P.S. Congrats, Rim!

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Rim » Sat Dec 05, 2015 5:59 am

Yes, this is normal. There's no way an app is going to know what instruments to put of which of your midi channels ;) So I picked a piano as the default instrument.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Joepno » Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:21 pm

Apps such as Music Studio or Sweet Midi can! The instrument assigment is contained witin (almost) all GM or XG midi files. I undestand that it requires a mapping of this information to available instruments in the app but if you use the general GM tables it should not be too difficult.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Rim » Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:33 pm

Sure, but unless there's something I'm missing, there's no "table" in a midi file that tells a DAW which instrument should be assigned to which track. GM is just a specification that says this program change number means a piano, this one means bass, etc. So it's not something a DW typically reads, since PC messages are just passed into the synths to interpret. The synths in Auria are not GM compatible synths, so this would not be useful unless you load an DF2 file into Lyra, as those files contain presets. But EXS and SFZ files don't support presets, so GM is meaningless in those formats.

Maybe those other apps use SF2 files, or aren't samplers at all.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Washboy » Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:39 am

Would a future enhancement be feasible which allows the user to specify (in Settings) a different default Lyra instrument (than Stereo Grand)?

In addition, Auria should be able to extract patch/program names from SF2 files and present them as a list of available voices (Bismark's bs-16i app does it, for example). If the user had installed an SF2 as the default Lyra instrument, presumable Auria should be able to translate embedded MIDI program changes into track instrument names (and track titles). So, loading a Type1 MIDI file in Auria should result in creation of appropriately named tracks for each part/voice.

Lastly, perhaps WML could even come to an arrangement with S. Christian Collins (or some other SoindFont author) to make his GeneralUser GM SoundFont available for free download in the Auria Store.

I do appreciate these suggestions are very much for the 'wish list', @Rim. You have more than enough on your plate for the moment :wink:

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Rim » Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:52 am

Lyra doesn't currently display SF2 presets, but this is something I'll add in the future. In the next update, you'll be able to select presets in an SF2 file using the Patch and Bank selectors on the channelstrip.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by rossFen » Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:59 pm

I’ve been working with downloaded MIDI files of pop songs the last few months and, opening in both Logic Pro and MultiTrackStudio, instruments are automatically assigned to each track. Logic uses presets from its Library, MTS from internal instruments. It must be GM mapping. Drums get assigned to a default drum kit, Electric Bass (Pick), Acoustic Guitar (nylon) etc. to a default preset that matches those descriptions. It’s not always totally accurate, especially for non-standard sounds, but it’s very handy for getting started. If I load a MIDI file into Auria, is there a way to see what the instrument is supposed to be?

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Rim » Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:11 pm

These MIDI files must have a bank and patch message at the beginning of the file. It's the only way I can think of that they would be automatically assigned. If that's the case, you can load a GM SoundFont into Lyra and it should pick the correct preset. A popular free Soundfont that has multiple GM presets is called GUGS.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by rossFen » Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:43 pm

Thanks, Rim, that would be helpful. Looking at the Event Editor in Logic, there’s “Program” under Status, a value, and an instrument name. This must be standard for these kinds of MIDI files, along with other Control info like volume, pan, and reverb. Logic doesn’t use SoundFonts, it must just map its own patch/channel strips as it sees fit. If an app wants to be a MIDI player, it uses these messages—perhaps not a much requested feature for Auria.

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Washboy » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:35 pm

Rim wrote:...A popular free Soundfont that has multiple GM presets is called GUGS.
GeneralUser GS SoundFont - that's the S. Christian Collins one that I referred to earlier.
http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php
:wink:

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Joepno » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:14 am

Rim,
are you saying, when I load a sounfont file such as GUGS into Lyra, this will work already today?
Awesome!

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Re: Auria Pro does not assign instruments to midi tracks

Post by Rim » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:55 am

Yes.

Rim

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