This can definitely be done if you do the
right steps in the right order. The crucial issue is reclocking the MIDI
file.
Any time a person makes a MIDI recording, they play to a
metronome click. When the original recording of this particular piece was
made, the pianist played to a metronome but did not listen to the metronome.
Accordingly, any music software program that is used to open the MIDI file
will look at the metronome data, assume that is where the beats are, and will
then transcribe the recorded notes accordingly. Obviously, the notation will
be a mess because the defined beats in the MIDI file have no true relationship
to the music as it was performed.
It is important to note that the
"quantization" feature that is available in many music programs will not be
any help in straightening out this problem. When you use quantization, the
notes get pushed and pulled to the nearest beats or sub-beats. If the beats of
the MIDI file don't have any close relationship to the notes as they were
played, quantization messes things up further.
To understand
reclocking, it easiest to think about the process in reverse. Suppose you knew
what the arrangement should look like in music notation, and you used a music
notation program to enter the notes manually, clicking them onto the staff
with the mouse. Of course you would end up with a beautiful score, but its
playback would be horribly mechanical and boring.
If you wanted to make
the playback sound just like your the pianist's recording, you would have to
do three things: (1) edit the note-on velocity of each note to match the way
that it was played it, (2) add pedal information, and (3) add tempo changes
every beat to reflect the human ebb and flow of the original
recording.
#3 would be challenging and time consuming, but it would be
necessary. The result would be that your score would look square, boring, and
mathematically perfect, but it would play with the tempo flexibility used by
the original artist.
The purpose of reclocking the file is to achieve
the same result: a score that is square, boring, and mathematically perfect
but which plays with the original tempo flexibility imparted by the
artist.
When you reclock a file, you go through a process of telling a
sequencing program where the true musical beats and barlines are in the MIDI
file. This is done in different ways by different programs.
I happen to
use Digital Performer for the Macintosh. DP has a feature called "Adjust
Beats." I set up DP to show me the recorded music in piano roll notation. In
this view, I see all of the notes laid out on a grid. When I turn on the
adjust beats feature, I can drag the beat markers on the grid to the notes to
which they musically apply. DP then moves the notes around to line up properly
on the rigid grid AND DP creates a tempo map that preserves the tempo nuances
of the original performance.
When using this feature, I have to drag
every beat marker to the correct note.
I could do this another way in
DP. The other way to do it is similar to the way that some of the Cakewalk
sequencers do this (using a Cakewalk feature called "Fit Improvisation"). What
you do is create a new track and set it to record. Then during the recording,
you listen to the original performance and simultaneously tap a key on your
MIDI keyboard. The idea is to record one note for every beat in the music and
to record each note so that it coincides with the musical beats of the
original performance. This new beat track enables the program to reorganize
the MIDI data in the file, line things up properly, and compute a new tempo
map. After this is done, the beat track is discarded.
The second way of
doing things is not as accurate, but it can be faster.
Once you have
reclocked the file, you can further quantize the notes in any program if you
wish.
Before importing the notes into a music notation program, I
generally view the notes in piano roll view in my sequencer and select the
notes that I deem to be left hand notes and cut-and-paste them into a separate
track. Having the left- and right-hand notes in separate tracks will result in
a cleaner transcription by the music notation
program.
Regards,
PianoBench
Setting up your MIDI Player to play MIDI files
It is important to check your Owner's Manuals, usually the Advanced Manual under the chapter dealing with Import Files, to make sure your piano is set up to play whatever MIDI data is located on Channel 1 and 2. On a Disklavier, these settings are usually the Default settings anyway, but you can check them by pressing Function on the Control Box, choose MIDI Setup, then Piano Part. The Piano Part should be set to Rcv Ch=01, then set the Piano Receive Channel to Prg(All) or better, L=Prg and R=Prg.
If you are planning to put MIDI files on a floppy disk and use the MIDI Player's floppy disk drive, make sure you are using compatible formats. A disk (or folder in new models) should only contain files of a single file format. Don't mix MIDI 0 with MIDI 1 or ESEQ on the same disk or folder. If you plan to connect a computer to your MIDI Player, refer to the section, Connecting a MIDI Player to a computer.
Not all MIDI files are created to play on a piano in an optimum fashion. In fact, once you start editing some of the free files you find on the internet, you start to realize what you pay for when you purchase them from Yamaha, QRS or PianoDisc. You can use a software program like gnmidi, and select from the pull-down menu choices "prepare program for PianoDisc" to convert any MIDI file to one (MIDI 0 file) that automatically puts the MIDI data on Channel 1 so it will play your piano keys. Sometimes the MIDI file will produce a poor piano performance and will need editing. See section on Editing MIDI files.
There are countless music files on the Internet, but only those in a MIDI format can play the keys on your Midi Player piano. Other types of music files on the internet are audio files like WAV, MP3, Real Player files, etc. These will NOT play the keys on your Midi Piano, but the Digital Audio files (.wav) may play through the speakers on your system. NOTE: CDs manufactured for player pianos contain both audio data (people singing and/or orchestra accompaniment) as well as the MIDI encoding that will play the keys on your MIDI Player.
Sometimes you
may download a MIDI file from the internet, put it on a floppy disk, and find it
doesn’t work in your piano. If your disk drive on the Midi Player will not
even read the disk, the file is probably in the wrong format. Most of the
MIDI files you will find on the Internet are in SMF format 1. Refer to
the Chart: Disk and File Formats
to
determine the correct file formats for different Midi Players.
Only files of
the same type should be placed on a floppy disk. A disk should contain
only SMF-1 files, or SMF-0 files, or ESEQ
files.
Unless you have speakers attached to your MIDI Player, and they are turned on, you may not hear anything while the MIDI file is playing. It may be that no MIDI data is assigned to Channel 1 or Channel 2, and/or the audio or tone generated part is playing. Only MIDI data assigned to these channels will play the keys on your piano. If you have speakers attached to your system, you may hear other musical instruments, but the keys are not playing. The use of Sequencer Software enables editing to correct this. Yamaha Disklaviers have software built into them that will reassign the channel assignments. Refer to the Owner’s Manual.
Playlists are very handy when you don't want to change the disc every 20 minutes, or want to organize just the songs you want to hear. There are several ways to create Playlists for your MIDI Player depending upon how old it is. You can connect the MIDI Player to a computer via a MIDI interface, use a Jukebox program, the drop the files you want to hear into the playlist. Details are in two sections Connecting a MIDI Player to A Computer and Music Software for MIDI Players sections.
For Yamaha Disklaviers, the hardware upgrade DKV-850 Control Box (same as the E3 Disklavier) offers a selectable option to create playlists from any songs already entered into the internal memory. The MarkIV Disklavier also does this.
The newer models of MIDI Players from PianoDisc, QRS PIanomation, and Yamaha Disklavier will also play songs from playlists on Smart Phones, MP3 players, and other hand held devices that have an audio out jack (headphone jack) and running appropriate software.
In order to make keyboard recordings, there must be some kind of sensor that reads key movements. Almost all Disklaviers have a Record feature with optical sensors built in under their piano keyboards. Along with hammer and pedal sensors, Disklaviers provide the most accurate keyboard recordings. Disklavier Pro models are also capable of high resolution recordings. There are other ways to record piano performances using MIDI sensors that can be retrofit into any piano.
PianoDisc has the MIDI Controller Retrofit system. See www.pianodisc.com for details. QRS Pianomation also makes PNOSCAN, a MIDI record strip at: http://qrsmusic.com/pianomation-p.asp?pid=3382
Newer MIDI Players today are doing away with floppy disk drives and using special CDs that encode audio as well as the MIDI tracks that play the piano keys. You can burn entire libraries of MIDI files from your computer to a special CD that will play your piano. See MID2PianoCD in the Music Software for MIDI Players Chapter.
Converting MIDI to Audio Files
Sometimes, you might want to make audio files of your MIDI Player performances to listen, say, on your car stereo. This process has certainly become much easier since the original MIDI Player Tools was written in 2003! I tried the following procedure on a PC using the latest version of iTunes and it worked. Import the MIDI files that you want on a CD into your iTunes library. Then select the Music Library and create a new playlist. Drag the MIDI files you want on the CD into the Playlist. Then select the Burn option to write them to CD. I used the Audio file option, instead of the MP3 CD option, because my car stereo only plays regular old CDs. The MIDI files were converted to audio files on the CD. It was playable on my computer by iTunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp!
I am assuming the above process used the piano synthesized sound on my computer's soundcard to produce these audio files of a piano playing. They were all right, but sounded tinny to me. For a car stereo in traffic it is probably all right.
However, to get a REALLY GOOD piano sound, run the MIDIs through a Virtual Piano explained in the Music Software section. Virtual instruments are not cheap and they require really fast computer processors. I prefer this method when I want to distribute a high quality CD of piano performances someone has recorded on my own Disklavier. I even prefer this method over setting up microphones and making a true digital audio recording, explained in the Making Recordings of Your MIDI Player section.
The MarkIV Disklavier will also record a song as audio data. You can even choose which voice from the Ensemble sounds in the tone generator to use. See page 55 in the Owners Manual.
MIDI files can be purchased from the various manufacturers of midi players. Many of these files are encoded to only play on specific products, so be careful when ordering.
PianoDisc - http://secure.pianodisc.com/iwwida.pvx?;products_no_tree?comp=pia
QRS Pianomation - http://qrsmusic.com/music.asp
Yamaha Disklavier - http://www.yamahamusicsoft.com/en/pianosoft-info
Live Performance LX - (Zenph Studios) http://www.zenph.com/the-music.html
Spencers E Rolls - http://www.spencerserolls.com/
Warren Trachtman - http://www.trachtman.org/
Terry Smythe - http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/archive.htm
Robert Kuhmann -
MIDI and ESEQ files at:
http://www.kuhmann.com/Yamaha.
Cyberbass - choral
sites,
http://www.cyberbass.com/
http://www.ragtimewest.com/li00002.htm a page with lots of links!