I guess it is supposed to? Since even the free VanBasco Midi/karaoke player does. So is it anything in the setting I have overlooked ?

Thank's in advance...

Hi Trygve,

It's been a while since I last saw you. I hope things are going well for you and your family.

If the MIDI file has been saved with tempo information, then BIAB should read it. The file will need to start playing, though, for BIAB to pickup that information.

Could it be that the file has not been saved with tempo data?

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel ! Thank's for ur always quick respond and for ur care.. Yeah, not much around here anymore.. Just making music as usual most of the days, and seldom encounter any big problems anymore... Hope u r well as well !

When it comes to the midi tracks I working on now, mostly Classical Music, downloaded from different sites, I use to play them first in VanBasco player, to check it out. And YES, there I can see the BPM changes as the song plays.. BUT, when I import to Biab, there is no changes in the Biab.. I just especially observed it today, played Beethoven Overture and Introduction - The Creatures of Prometheus. And the playtime was 6:32, there. I did not play the whole song, just imported it in Biab, added VST instruments a.s.o, till I was happy, and render it. To my surprise, the rendered track was 29:03 loong ! So I played it again in VanBasco and that was the time I observed that after a while the BPM changed from around 48 to 300 after a little while, and then up and down as the music played...

So yes, the miditrack HAD BPM, but was not read by BiaB obviously...;)

Hi Leo,

1:
Did the song show that the length was 29 minutes on the top form caption, or did it actually play for 29 minutes?

I understand that BiaB simply checks the BPM (tempo) value for the first bar, and the number of bars, and determines the song length using this tempo start value. It doesn't 'look ahead' at other changes to tempo values within the song when calculating the predicted song length.

I'm interested to know if the song actually took 29+ minutes to play, or if that was the initial suggestion from the program only.

2:
When you mention 'and render it', does that mean 'Generate' the song, or render to an output audio file?

Yes, It actually took 29 minits to play the song...

Ok, then THAT is highly inadequate for playing midi with differences in BPM during the song..

Render to an output...

I don't think BIAB reads tempo at all from MIDI files, other than the initially set tempo when you open the file. When I look at the event list on the Melody Track (which is where MIDI files go), I don't see tempo at all). It does read things like volume and panning, though.

Wow. 29 minutes. Did it sound slow and drawn out? Did it play repeated sections? Did it take a long time between notes?
What did the 29+ minute result actually sound like?

Since it is midi after all, make it sound normal. And since I never had heard that song in its original speed before, I could not tell. But it was of course a bit "boring"... No really long time between notes at all... And no repeated section.. Just looooong...

So if this is not a bug or something, just lack of the ability to read this kind of info from a midifile, that makes BiaB actually useless for many classical midifiles.

I suggest PG music look into that and see if it is possible to implement such reading of tempo in the program code.. I mean, VanBasco is a FREE midiplayer and does it. So it can't be that hard...

"So I played it again in VanBasco and that was the time I observed that after a while the BPM changed from around 48 to 300 after a little while, and then up and down as the music played..."

Maybe that is your answer. If BiaB only picked up the 48 BPM then the fast original 300 BPM parts were played at 48 BPM, i.e. much slower. Thus every minute of 300 BPM would take around 6 minutes at 48 BPM.

BTW, I did a google for the topic and saw that I have addressed the problem before here. That time about making karaoke songs in Biab. https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=456562

Here it was suggested that perhaps RB was a better choice for working with midifiles. So I was thinking; Ok, let me try that again. But guess what? I open same midifile in RB, and it started with 120 BMP ! Same midifile as BiaB starts whit 48 ! ! !

This particular midifiles has A LOT of tempo-change, so for me to manually set those with the Bar setting, is out of the question..

And THEN, to try the file in the 120 BPM speed, thinking it would at least sound closer to the original, I tried to open Kontakt 5, Thinking RB now was also a 64 bit program, I tried first the 64 bit version. But guess what???? Kontakt 5 is NOT a valid VST plugin... So, thinking ok, RB is not a 64 bit program yet, so let me just open the 32 bit version. But guess what again???? NOT valid again ! So WTF ??? IS RB a 32 bit program or not???

Is it ANY DAW out there that DOES NOT have all this problems and limitations`???????

When I was using Sonar if I clicked on a MIDI file and opened it with Sonar, Sonar would include the tempo file.

If you had Sonar open and inserted a MIDI file the file would follow Sonar's tempo track.

You might want to check the new free Cakewalk by Bandlab and see if that is still true. Or maybe a user can confirm this.

Hi MarioD ! I tried it in the trial version of Reaper, and it works there. Will download Cakewalk and give it a try also there. Most midi works fine in BiaB, except a few till now, so I don't see any BIG reason to invest in another DAW... But since Cakewalk is free, then why not give it a try, I think..