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I would like to able to add a part from a midi file (created with a different app) to an existing BIAB file with other parts played by BIAB. When I open the midi file, it goes into the Melody part, and that is all that plays. Don't see a way to have a REAL melody, as well as bass, drums, etc. play along with the string part that I would like to include from midi file. The string part sounds great, but need the other parts too. Any way to do this?? Ideally would like the midi stuff to go into the Strings part, or something other than Melody. Thanks.

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Well, I do this all the time, but not in BIAB. Not really what BIAB was made to do.

Instead, I merge all the necessary midi and audio from BIAB and where ever else in Reaper. The right tool for the right job! grin


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Think I got it solved. When I opened the midi file, it seemed to default to having style disabled. When I switched to a different style, it prompted me to enable it, so other parts work. Also, by copying the midi part to Soloist, I can enter the melody as I need to. :-)

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Does the midi "line up" with BIAB? Often BIAB puts a 2 bar intro into everything which makes it difficult to synch when you insert content. Would there be a way to adjust what bar the midi start at??

Glad you got it to work for what you need.

Last edited by MusicStudent; 03/26/17 12:45 PM.

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MusicStudent:

Use the dropdown for Melody at the top of the screen. Go to Edit Melody Track > Import Melody from MIDI File. That will give you a dialog box where you can tell BIAB to put the imported notes.

Good luck!
LLOYD S

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What the heck, may have to give this a try, just to say I did. thanks for the idea and feedback.


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No problema.
If it still doesn't exactly line up, say it's off by a quarter note or whatever, just open up the melody in the piano roll, select all the notes and slide them where they need to be.

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Quote:
Does the midi "line up" with BIAB? Often BIAB puts a 2 bar intro into everything which makes it difficult to synch when you insert content. Would there be a way to adjust what bar the midi start at??


BIAB gives you two options:

# bars to offset from the start of MIDI file - lets you tell BIAB to import into BIAB at a location other than the beginning of the file.

# blank bars to insert at beginning - effectively lets you tell BIAB to start the import at a location other than the beginning of the song (this will account for the two bar intro by entering "2" here).

I use the second option all the time. You can also see lots of other options on the screen, to include specifying which channels to import. Of course, if you import them all, they all go to the melody track (or soloist track, if that's where you're importing to), and using the "Sequence" feature, you can preview and delete the ones you don't want there (otherwise, you have to already know what's on each track).

This feature has been in BIAB for as long as I can remember.

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Originally Posted By: Bill Rowland
Think I got it solved. When I opened the midi file, it seemed to default to having style disabled. When I switched to a different style, it prompted me to enable it, so other parts work. Also, by copying the midi part to Soloist, I can enter the melody as I need to. :-)


Can you give a step by step of what you are doing to accomplish this? I can't seem to wrap my brain around it and would like to learn how to do this.

Thanks

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Originally Posted By: Bill Rowland
Think I got it solved. When I opened the midi file, it seemed to default to having style disabled. When I switched to a different style, it prompted me to enable it, so other parts work. Also, by copying the midi part to Soloist, I can enter the melody as I need to. :-)


Quick Tip: Simply click on the style and a window will open. The first selection allows you to enable the style. A preceding X is placed before the style name when the style is disabled.

Charlie

Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 03/28/17 03:07 AM.

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Thanks to everyone for ALL the great help! I hadn't discovered the function to enable/disable style, so that explains a lot. Someone asked me to give step-by-step details of what I did. That would probably be "the blind leading the blind". So instead I'll try to summarize what I SHOULD have done.

For a little background, the song I'm working on is Beatles' "Yesterday". I had created a pretty accurate version of the string part, using the Finale program, and printed out music for me to play live with our classic rock band. Then I wanted to create a BIAB version for my solo guitar/vocal performance, using that string part. I went back to Finale, transposed it to my vocal key (had a tenor singing it with the band), and created a midi file. Then here is what I think I SHOULD have done:

Find or create the basic BIAB file, which would have bass, drums, melody, chords. Then use the "Import to Soloist from Midi" function to get my string part into Soloist.

Instead, I started out with "Open Midi", which put the midi part into the Melody, apparently with some random style, with style disabled. Then I had to move the string part from Melody to Soloist, and stumbled across the feature to enable style.

The only lingering problem I have is that the volume control for Melody doesn't seem to function for the song now. Just always max volume. I noticed this with the midi part when I imported to Melody; so now seems to be a holdover from that which has the volume control for Melody disabled. Any ideas about that??

Thanks again, everyone!

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