Getting midi import files to play ?

[bcarwell]

Is there anything unusual about getting imported midi files to play sounds compared to regular templates ? I can get a score to play fine if I start with a template and assign instruments. But if I import a midi file and convert it to a staff, it looks like I've assigned instruments okay, but I can't seem to get any instruments to sound. What might I be doing wrong ?

Bob

[Surfwhammy]

Is there anything unusual about getting imported midi files to play sounds compared to regular templates ? I can get a score to play fine if I start with a template and assign instruments. But if I import a midi file and convert it to a staff, it looks like I've assigned instruments okay, but I can't seem to get any instruments to sound. What might I be doing wrong ?

Bob

Until approximately 15 minutes ago, my entire experience with MIDI and NOTION 3 was discovering how to export a single NOTION 3 instrument in MIDI format so that I then could import the exported MIDI to Reason 5 and use Reason 5 to play the notes with a synthesizer, mostly to make strange Dubstep noises, which I later discovered is easier to do with SampleTank, but so what . . .

So what!

I did a quick experiment, where I started NOTION 3 and then imported the following single instrument MIDI file, which plays a simple melody on a Wurlitzer piano . . .

"Surfwhammy-MIDI-Wurlitzer-Melody.mid" (The Surf Whammys) -- MID (4KB, approximately 10 to 15 seconds)

Having no idea how this might work, I started by creating a new NOTION 3 score, followed be creating one instrument, which was a SampleTank vibratone or some type of metal bar thing that you play with mallets . . .

Then, I clicked on "Import . . ." in the NOTION 3 menu and selected the MIDI file (see above), which curiously created a new NOTION 3 score automatically and put the MIDI notes on a sequencer staff . . .

I played sequencer staff, and it sounded like a Wurlitzer piano (more or less), but instead of having notes, there were long bars, which was weird, so I selected all the long bars and copied them to the Clipboard, followed by switching to the first NOTION 3 score, where I pasted them to the metal bar mallet thing, and the long bars automagically changed to music notation, and when I pressed "Play" the notes were played and heard but as metal bar mallet notes rather than as Wurlitzer piano notes, which is fine with me . . .

From this I make several inferences:

(1) The long bar sequencer things are interesting but only are interesting to me as a temporary repository or holding area for what should be music notation . . .

(2) If you import a MIDI file, it causes NOTION 3 to create a new score with the long bar sequencer things . . .

(3) If you select and copy the long bar sequencer things, you can paste them into a normal music notation staff and they will be transformed into real notes that sound like whatever virtual instrument you have assigned to the normal music notation staff . . .

(4) I am having a senior moment and have no idea what the metal bar mallet thing is called, but it might be a vibraphone, marimba, or xylophone, although it could be something else. It probably is not a glockenspiel or a spatially transformed array of tinkly bells, although with a big hammer, an oxyacetylene torch, an anvil, and a bit of time, I suppose it could be, but so what . . .

So what!