Not sure where to start here...

I have a biab song that I have loaded into Sonar x3.
All the tracks are realtracks.
From there I want to send midi data to my Vocalist Live Pro that controls the chord changes while I generate my harmonies with Vocalist. The Digitech can receive midi data to control the chords. I can make everything work except for this........

How do I generate a midi file from BIAB to play say the rhythm guitar or something with only the chord pattern as midi data to send to the Digitech vocalist.

Not sure I've made myself clear here or not..... lol
But any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance......

Oh. Oh. Oh. I know this one. But I am on the run right now. But rest assured BIAB can do this nicely. Someone will likely step in before I get back.

Hey jazzmandan!
Hope you find your way back, doesn't seem like anyone jumping in on this one...:)

Not at a computer now, but yes, the way to do this is to go into Preferences. Then I think it's in MIDI Channels, but it's definitely in one of the MIDI preferences dialogs. Look for something called Output Chords.

Thanks Matt you put me on to that some time back, works great it save it to a midi chord track. If you export to a DAW you can use midiChordAnalyzer VSTi to show what chords are being played.

? Gotta check that one out. Thanks.

Actually a couple ways to do this (like most in BIAB)
The guys have been referring to this option in "output Chords"



I generally like to use another option which gave me a little more control over the chords. If is simple since you are moving everything to a DAW and not trying to do it inside BIAB. So take you chords and change the style to a midi simple piano:


This will play a simple piano held chord over each bar. Then drag and drop the piano midi track to your DAW and thee you have it.

Good luck

Yes, correction, it's not in one of the MIDI dialogs; it has its own dialog in Preferences called "OutputCh." as shown.

You might find this interesting. There are two MIDI styles that PG Music made at my request (from the Wishlist forum), and this goes back maybe 15 years. They output just whole note chords for each instrument, but have a drum beat (one is swing, one is bossa).

Guys thanks soooo much for your input.

Jazzmandan! Your method worked like a charm.
I've imported the file into Sonar and can see midi data light on the Digitech Vocalist flashing away. "You are 'THE MAN'.... thank you.

Just out of curiosity is anyone else using the Vocalist Live Pro?
I've used it before on vocals with good results. I'm experimenting using it for generating guitar harmonies and getting reasonable results,althought tracking sometimes is an issue. I usually find the high harmony drifting off into never never land, but perhaps some more playing with settings in the Digitech might solve that.

At any rate a big THANK YOU to all replies and look forward to any fellow Digitech Live Pro users comments.

That's what the Output to Chords does makes a midi track with those chords, see in acid, and I put the text Chords in the Makers, Reaper is just Markers only in the mid as they show in the track.

That must be a manual process, right? There is no automated way to enter text into markers, or is there?

Close your eyes and make a Wish Here

Ok so I have jazzmandans method of creating the simple piano and saving that midi file and importing into sonar. Now I'm curious about this output chords thing. I have found the option in preferences, but its my understanding that also creates a midi track and midi file.
Question is where is this track and how do you save it?

Click on the Save As Button > Save Midi File and it will be a track in the midi file, if you open it in RB you can see and add Chord Markers if you like then just do Ctrl+A Drag Export the Chord Track. You can use midiChordAnalyzer to display chords.
In Chord Output Options the # tick before chord change should be 0 if you want it to sync.

Hi, I use the vocalist pro also. I do not use midi because my presonus 24.4.2 does not have midi input 0r output although I guess I could use their daw sequencing software but it is a hassle. So what I do is just record a basic guitar strum pattern within BIAB and put it into the presonus, then take that track and out put it to the input on the digitech vocalist pro and it works like a charm. Just like plugging a guitar into the unit and strumming along. It tracks the harmonies quite well. It works for me. I have used midi with other recording devices and BIAB does a fine job with this as others have explained.

Nelson

BIAB works great with TCHelicon's Voice Live Touch here.

Airtcon-161......funny you bring this up.

After all my efforts trying to get the midi to work and you guys in the forum taking the time to help me thru it, another fellow from Sonar forum suggested once I import the BIAB tracks into Sonar, to simply route the BIAB rhythm guitar track back to the Vocalist Live Pro and BINGO.....much the same as you are doing except I don't have to even record another rhythm track myself.

I have to say, I actually think the Vocalist Live tracks better for some reason using the actual rhythm track routed back into the front end.

Ya, midi or audio can be used to drive these harmony units very nicely. Some folks here also just send the entire final mixed backing as input and report good results. More than one way to do it.

I don't actually play a rhythm track, I just use one from the style I used and just import it into the presonus recorder. It works very well as you know.

Nelson