I can save a Biab song/track in MIDI and when I open it in Cakewalk (by actually letting Win Explorer open the MIDI file in Cakewalk), I'll get Cakewalk markers for the section substyles and start of chorus. I was hoping that section text might do a similar thing. On the "MIDI file" preferences, I've checked "Write Section Text as Text Events". But I don't get them in the Cakewalk project. I've looked at the Cakewalk Event List viewer, and there are no text events showing, so not sure what's producting the section substyles or chorus marker. Anyone dealt with this in Cakewalk or other DAW environment? It would be nice to have the Cakewalk project automagically have markers for the section text.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
Thanks, Pipeline. That gave me a couple of things to try, but no luck. My scenario may get different results as I have all RealTracks. So when I export the Biab song using the "drop zone" thing (strangest UI design I've ever seen...), I tell it to export Wave and MIDI and as individual files, Iget MIDI for some of the RTs. I tried exporting the Master track as MIDI but got no file. I do get the A, B, Chorus markers that you show in Reaper, but not getting the text MIDI track. I tried also with a MIDI only song, but the master MIDI file still didn't have the section text showing anywhere. I also checked Cakewalk's Event Viewer but they weren't there.
I did find this that gives an indication of where the markers are coming from - General text in the conductor track of a MIDI Format 1 file results in Cakewalk Markers view markers. So Biab must be doing that.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
Can you try it in Reaper and see if it shows. If you drag it into Reaper, then double click it to open in the MIDI Editor, and down the bottom left just above transport controls in the drop down select text events.
I don't currently have Reaper active - I did a trial a year or two ago, so don't know if I can reinstall/activate it or not, since I don't plan switching DAWs at this point. I could send you one of the MIDI files in question. Also looking around for a good freeware MIDI viewer/editor if you know of any.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
Reaper should still work I think you may need to wait 10sec then continue evaluation. Yes if you could upload the midi here if you like just click File Manager below when typing your post. Yes there are free midi editors, if you want to add markers I would have to try and remember if any did that as I looked into it some time back.
I had taken Reaper off a while back when cleaning up. Still pondering using it at some point - I know a couple of folks that use it. Wasn't doing much DAW work until I took the plunge on Biab a couple of weeks ago, and so far Cakewalk has what I need. I am a software engineer by trade, so there are some interesting aspects to Reaper from that standpoint, so who knows.
I attached a file. Markers show up for the A/B/Intro endings, but nothing for section text info. I read somewhere that was written to (or read from) a conductor track. I did load this up Midi editor Sekaiju, but no text events and nothing that would represent a Conductor track is evident.
Thanks!
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
What text events did you add ? did you add them like in my first pic in the notation window edit mode, right click Insert Section Text ? Reaper should still give you an evaluation option if you re-install it.
OKAY now I see ! They are Chord Sheet Section Text and what they mean gets written to the midi file as text events is the Notation Section Text. I will think about a workaround for it, but you can request it in the wishing well list to have an option to save them to markers but who knows if or when it will be implemented.
I just thought you could render the chord sheet to video and drag that into cakewalk. You made need to play around with the text size in the Display Options window to get it right in the video render.
EDIT: and set the bar offset in cakewalk to match the Biab bars.
Yep - notation section text comes thru - but would still have to write a CAL script to turn those into markers. They don't currently show up in the Cakewalk track display, but are present in the event list.
I can probably get most of what I'm after from the substyle changes that are showing as actual markers in Cakewalk - main thing I'm after is knowing the various sections without having to count too many measures. So probably not worth any extra Notation section text additions and CAL scripting.
Does Biab have any kind of scripting interface/API? Haven't seen any indications in my "extensive" experience (2 1/2 weeks). Still loving the results and haven't even scratched the surface. But a lot of stumbles along the way. Thanks for the in depth analysis, Pipeline!
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
There's not scripting in Biab that's what's great about Reaper. I had to use AutoHotKey to automate anything in Biab like the Chord Picker Tool. I made a video and imported it into BandLab, the section text font was made bigger as an example:
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