Hi, I'm fairly new to BIAB, and am trying to set up a MIDI out to an external synth module, as I really like the sounds it produces. I've connected my USB linked MIDI interface to my Macbook Air laptop, and installed the correct driver. It shows as connected, but when I playback the song(s) from BIAB I can't get it to send out MIDI to the interface.

I realise there may be settings to change both on the Mac and on the BIAB setup screens, but I've tried various things and come up short. I know that MIDI is not getting to the USB MIDI interface - if it was, there would be flashing LED's.

I do have BIAB set up with playback to an amplifier without MIDI. I bought a jazz fakebook set of tunes from Bob 'Notes' Norton, and I understand that these are really MIDI files? Though they seem to be SGU suffix not MID.

Can anybody please offer any advice?

Thanks!

Rich

Hi Rich,

In Band-in-a-Box, click on Options, then Select MIDI Driver or Apple DLS Synth, choose MacOS X CoreMIDI, and click OK.

The Select Ports/Instruments window may appear. If it doesn't, click on Options again, then CoreMIDI (Choose Ports).

In the Select Ports/Instruments window, choose your MIDI interface beside Bass, click "set all ports to this", then OK. As long as the synth is General MIDI-compatible, it should just work right away.

The Norton songs will be Band-in-a-Box song files (SGU), and will use MIDI styles, but won't be MIDI files.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Hi Kent,

Thanks very much, that all makes sense!

I went through the process, and I still am not seeing any flashing lights when I play back the song(s), so MIDI info is not getting to my USB interface. Could part of the issue be that I am simply not playing back a MIDI file?

What Bob had said to me about his Fakebook BIAB files was "All the styles assigned to my fake disks are MIDI tracks. Often BiaB will suggest you substitute a particular Real Tracks style for the song."

So I'm a bit confused - I can see they are .SGU file not .MID format and so I guess he is referring to 'styles' not the songs themselves?

Cheers

Rich

Hi Rich,

Right, some Band-in-a-Box styles use RealTracks, which are audio, and some styles are MIDI-based, so all the tracks will be MIDI, but this doesn't mean that the songs are MIDI files. They just use MIDI styles.

What color are the track names at the top of the screen (Bass, Piano, Drums, etc)? Green means RealTracks, yellow indicates MIDI.

What exactly do you have selected for all the tracks in that "Select Ports/Instruments" window now?

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Hi Kent,

The tracks seem to all be green.

All instruments are still routed to 'Port A' in the 'Select Ports/Instruments' sub-menu.

I had the impression from Norton that it would be possible to route the audio out via MIDI to trigger my hardware modules, and I'd like to try to achieve this, if possible. I've only previously come across MIDI tracks, so I'm not clear what it means if only the styles are MIDI, in terms of output of the track data via MIDI.

Ultimately my aim is just to get the best sound I can, and it may be that RealTracks / RealBand is as good or better than MIDI. So far, it hasn't sounded that great to me for some reason - even though I'm going out to a high quality speaker / amp setup.

Cheers,

Rich

Rich,

If I may, let me try to explain. .SGU and .MGU are BIAB files. The BIAB program can play those files with output either as midi or as audio (or even as a mixture of the two). Whether the BIAB output is midi or audio is determined by whether you are using "Real" instruments or "Midi" instruments within the BIAB program. Those green instrument headers tells you that currently BIAB is outputting as audio, thus there is no midi data being sent to your external synth (or anywhere else for that matter).

To change the BIAB output to all midi, you need to select a midi style. Open the style picker, and under the "type" selector, pick "midi only". Then select one of those styles. Now all those instrument headers should be yellow.

Oh, I think the BIAB program default is to substitute "real" drums, so the drums may be green. If so, click on the "Real Drums" icon, and deselect "automatically substitute real drums for midi". Now the drums header should be yellow as well. If you now generate and play your song, all the output will be midi (BIAB will not output any audio, only midi). The sound you hear now comes from whatever midi synth is selected as Kent outlined above.

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Thanks, that all makes perfect sense and I'll give it a try when I have time this weekend. It may be that the Real Tracks sound better, but for some reason they are not sounding particularly good on my system...

Cheers

Rich

Thanks Bruce,

I tried it and it works!

I haven't yet found the correct setting for the drums. I thought I had, but it didn't actually change the drums from green (real drums) to MIDI, even though I clicked 'Generate & Play'.

Cheers

Rich

Hi Rich,

If you click the RealDrums button, then RealDrums Preferences, and uncheck "Enable RealDrums", you'll get MIDI drums on every song.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Cool, Rich. Glad you got it working!