Why does this idiot machine do things you don't tell it to?

I go into midi files on my hard drive to adjust them while it's playing, therefore using the master track, and the damn thing indiscrimnately changes volumes on me. Why?

One example. I go into track 1 to change a Fingered bass to a deep bass. NOTHING ELSE. The volume is at 45. I start the song to listen after it finshes saving and guess what? The volume is now 63. Too damn loud. So I try to drop the volume on the master track and save again. What does it do? Puts it right back up to 63 again. Completely ignoring me.

On another song, I wasn't even touching volumes, but changing instruments again. About 7 instruments dropped in volume. Some went down as far as about 16 when it was originally 55. What in God's name could be the reason for this? I would be about 5 times more ahead by now on my midi files being converted if thus stupid machine didn't do things like this.

does anyone have any idea why? It doesn't seem to do it to every sequence, just some.

I'd appreciate some help before I chuck this thing out the window. I don't need this aggravation.

Oh and by the way, in that second example, the instruments that were lowering in volume were not necessarily ones I was adjusting. Some I hadn't touched at all.

You have to use a program like Cakewalk or Power tracks to EVENT EDIT your SMF songs on your p/c program. There are control VOL changes inserted thruout the songs your talking about. When the song plays it stays at one vol but when it reads another control message it changes vol. Remove all the vol change events or change them to the same vol you want, then save the song and it wont happen anymore. The SD-1 is an excellent KB and has nothing to do with your problem.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 11-13-2002).]

Ya know Kendall , Donny is right .

I am sorry I did not return your call my arranger friend . I did get busy late this afternoon .

Computer software is more powerful than any thing the SD1 can do . I am sorry for your frustrations .

Have you ever transfered the song into the internal sequencer ? VS... the editing process your having frustrations with ?

dano
Ps...software = $30.00 to $80.00 !

I can forward this post to Italy if you wish . But software is the answer .

Down load samples and try them out !

dano

[This message has been edited by DanO1 (edited 11-13-2002).]

Thanks for trying to answer you guys, but I'm afraid you're wrong.

I know these sequences, and they DO NOT have volume changes in them. Some of them I have created myself.

In certain midi files I have, the volume is used as a swell/fade effect, but in these two particular examples there IS NOT any volume changes. They have only one C00 - 7 at the very beginning. I even erased all volume commands in the tracks and put one at the beginning in one of the songs and it made no difference. So it IS the Solton that is doing this.

I remember throwing this vague question out before when I was still tinkering around with the board. I seem to remember some people who posted back saying they have also experienced a similar problem.

In any event, there is no way that it is volume commands on the tracks. Trust me. i have been sequencing songs for over ten years, and I know every control change and it's effects on the instruments. So I would appreciate it if you would forward this on to Solton Dan01. It does seem to be a solton glitch. Just some sequences though. i can't understand it??

Does the song play on other KB's or on your P/c OK?

And just for the record I LOVE the keyboard.

I just have a love/hate relationship with it. Especially when I have been laboriously converting my midi files over to this thing for the last month and a half. I never dreamed it would be so time-consuming. Yesterday and today I have finally got to the point where the basic incompatabilities were fixed prior to loading all the songs into the hard drive. Now that I have started that, practically everything else is working fine EXCEPT for this idiot volume thing. It's gotten that I have been leaving some songs with an instrument I have not been as happy with just so I don't have to put any commands on the master track. Because then the volumes get skewed and I'm worse off than what I was. *sigh*.

There has to be an answer to this. It really doesn't make sense. If I'm not putting and control changes to the volume, and it only has ONE command set at the beginning, then how in blue blazes can it possibly be changing them???? That's why I'm so frustrated. It doesn't make sense.

To answer DNJ, yes. No problems whatsoever as to this volume thing.

But of course you have to realize the problem happens ONLY when I save commands to the master track on the Solton, so it starts from there.

why it affects the volumes is weird. Stranger yet, is sometimes the volumes go up and sometimes they go down. And these are on tracks I am not even touching in some cases.

It really is strange.

My guess it that the problem lies in the sequence, since it only occurs on certain songs. Some files will read differently on different midi playback devices, hardware or software.

How were the sequences created? Do you have a software program that provides a comprehensive analysis of all events. Have all tracks been rechanneled? Since tracks are affected other than those you're tweeking, there may be some channel event crossover. Look over the events list very carefully. Good luck.

Glenn

They were all altered by my Korg I2. However some were bought. some are midi files over the net. Some are ones I made from scratch. But I have edited all of them.

I have gone into the sequence and see no control changes I'm unfamiliar with. The kicker is that they don't change at at UNLESS I do something on the Solton with the master track and save it. That's when it gets screwy.

justforfun000,

I am assuming these files already reside in your MIDIFILE folder of your HD. Before loading them into the sequencer, please convert [CONVERT (F3) when accessing this files in this folder] - save as another name if you wish to maintain the old one. Now load the converted file into sequencer and proceed as you currently do.

This should help.

Thanks.

AJ

Hmmm...this is new to me?? I've seen the "Convert" button but I didn't know what it was for.

By sequencer I hope you don't mean the actual sequencer in the SD1. I haven't gotten that far yet. I am copying the midi files from floppy into the master folder and simply loading them up.

Then I let it play and change the few things on the fly like instrument assignment, volume, reverb etc. Save it back like that which I understand is the master track, and hope that does it.

I understood that the master track is easy because it overrides all other commands. In most cases I change things like volume and reverb in my old keyboard and re-copy it in the Solton if that will solve my problem. Much easier and surer that way (apparently). However, many instruments cannot be called up from my old board by program changes and therefore I need to change the instrument in the solton. If I knew how to change it by a control change in the Korg, I suppose I wouldn't need the master track at all, but I don't.

So is the way I'm doing this not advised? I still can't understand why the volumes would change for no reason.

Not sure if this is any help - but I noticed similar situations on the SD1 and found different sets of midi messages recorded on the master track that I don't know how they got there - but volume changes were part of the problem. I just started deleting random things and sometimes the problem got solved. There seems to be some proprietary anomalies with the SD1 sequencing system that drive one crazy. Track and channel assignment complexities for one.

MikeH

It sounds to me very much like a Sysex problem. What some people are unaware of is that midi files will play on many different keyboards and modules, but will not play or will do all sorts of unpredictable things on others. This is why I think you get the problem on some files and not others. The problem files may need a GM/GS reset sysex command (which is set automatically at the beginning of the midi file). It's good policy to always do this anyway on all your midi files, especially those off the net.
Hope this helps.
Ron

That sounds like a good idea.

I do have Cakewalk - Sonar. I know almost nothing about it except how to play the midi files. Can anyone give me a simple step-by-step way for me to put that Sysex reset command on all my midi's?

I copied this info from Cakewalk's FAQ Site section. If you do a search in Sonar's help menu, it should tell you in more detail, but if you still have problems let me know).

"Load the "Turn GM System On" system exclusive bank (GMSYSTEM.SYX in your Cakewalk directory) in the Sysx View, and set the bank to "Auto Send". This message will re-initialize a General MIDI compatible sound module to a known state".

Ron

Thanks. I'll give it a try