Note ON/OFF velocity

[Fury Pilot]

Hi,

I use the note ON/OFF velocity to control the loudness of individual tracks in my MIDI files. Notation Player just seems to play all the tracks at the same level - whereas other MIDI players produce the variation in loudness.

Is there some way of getting Notation Player to response to work in this way?

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Notation Player is designed to be mainly a player for .not files that others have created using Notation Musician or Notation Composer, similar to the way that Adobe Acrobat Reader only reads files created with other programs. As such, it has limited capabilities - the volume levels between staves (tracks) cannot be changed, but you can control the overall volume using the volume slider on the main toolbar.

If you want to edit .mid files for sheet music (and some sound leveling), you can try out Notation Musician (www.notation.com/NotationMusician.php).

If you want to edit both the sheet music and finely edit the performance, you can try out Notation Composer (www.notation.com/NotationComposer.php) It's really a hybrid notation/sequencer application, done in a way that's more friendly toward everyday musicians.

If you have any further questions, please do ask away :)

ttfn,
Sherry

[dj]

Hi, Fury Pilot:

I think you'll find that Notation Player does respond to and play back note velocity properly.

It, as Sherry has said, isn't intended to edit the data.

Note velocity, though, is intended to deal with performance variation.
Velocity can, depending on the playback instrument, not only affect volume, but timbre, envelope, even pitch in some cases.

To set levels for each track you should consider using Controller 7 (Volume), which is equivalent to the volume knob on your stereo, or Controller 11 (Expression) which is equivalent to the expression pedal on an organ. That way, you can set one level and leave it, rather than setting each note's velocity.

Notation Musician and Composer have a sophisticated graphing function for just that.

Good luck.

David

[Sherry C]

Hi guys,

Minor correction: Notation Musician does not have the MIDI data graphing capability - that is found only in Notation Composer.

ttfn,
Sherry

[dj]

My bad. :o

David

[Fury Pilot]

Hi, Fury Pilot:

I think you'll find that Notation Player does respond to and play back note velocity properly.

It, as Sherry has said, isn't intended to edit the data.

Note velocity, though, is intended to deal with performance variation.
Velocity can, depending on the playback instrument, not only affect volume, but timbre, envelope, even pitch in some cases.

To set levels for each track you should consider using Controller 7 (Volume), which is equivalent to the volume knob on your stereo, or Controller 11 (Expression) which is equivalent to the expression pedal on an organ. That way, you can set one level and leave it, rather than setting each note's velocity.

Notation Musician and Composer have a sophisticated graphing function for just that.

Good luck.

David

Hi,

Notation Player may respond to note ON/OFF velocity in some MIDI files, but it doesn't in the ones I've tried it with. Whereas ones I've tried do provide different loudness in other players (e.g. Windows Media Player, my phone...)

I shall see if I can work out why there's a difference. If you could provide a link to a file which works in Notation Player, that would help.

BTW: If Notation Player can support this, I don't understand why Sherry's original reply didn't say so. :confused:

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Notation Player does only that - plays back MIDI files, with all the various MIDI controllers as they are in the file. What you will hear when compared to playing the same file in other programs will depend on the fact that you need to be using the same MIDI playback device, and this may be the rub here. Some MIDI playback devices (eg. the default GS Wavetable) are not as "nuanced" as other playback devices, and so playback in such a device may sound as if the player is not responding to note velocity.

But Player still doesn't allow editing Note Velocities ;)

ttfn,
Sherry

[Fury Pilot]

Hi,

Notation Player does only that - plays back MIDI files, with all the various MIDI controllers as they are in the file. What you will hear when compared to playing the same file in other programs will depend on the fact that you need to be using the same MIDI playback device, and this may be the rub here. Some MIDI playback devices (eg. the default GS Wavetable) are not as "nuanced" as other playback devices, and so playback in such a device may sound as if the player is not responding to note velocity.

But Player still doesn't allow editing Note Velocities ;)

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi,

I understand that Notation Player does not provide the ability to EDIT Note velocities.

As regards playing back pre-canned MIDI files 'as is', I've just created a MIDI file with note velocities varying from 1 (minimum) to 127 (maximum) with no discernible difference in the loudness output from Notation Player. This goes well beyond 'nuance' in my book! ;)

The Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth seems to be the only MIDI device selectable in Notation Player on my (Windows XP) PC. It also seems to be the only available MIDI music playback option in the Windows Sounds and Audio devices properties. I can't find MIDI options in Windows Media Player, but would expect that to use the default system device - so I don't understand why Windows Media Player is FULLY responding to note velocities. (I.e. a value of 1 gave inaudible o/p.)

Is there some way of changing the MIDI music playback device in Notation Player?

David: Are you using Windows XP? If so, what playback device is your Notation Player using? I'd still like to try a MIDI file which works on your system.

Cheers,

[Sherry C]

Howdy guys,

I'm attaching a file that has notes of the same pitch and volume, only different note velocities. Rather boring, but effective for testing. I've just tested it here in my installation of Notation Player using the GS Wavetable as the playback MIDI device, and I can hear the difference on my computer here.

685

It goes from pretty much nothing (vel 5) to medium loud (vel 55), then to rather louder toward the end (vel 109 - it's not a crescendo exactly, as the notes have the same velocities for a couple of measures' grouping). Are you able to hear the differences in this file when playing it on Notation Player?

Also, if you could please post the test file that you created so I can compare that here, it might help us to figure out what's going on.

My machine here is a Win 7, and I'm using the GS Wavetable as the MIDI playback device (you can select from any devices that are available on your machine by using the drop list in Setup/Quick MIDI Devices Setup.)

We'll see if we can't get this figured out :)

Also, fwiw, WMP switched over to have it's own internal synth some time back, so it will not list MIDI playback options, nor will it allow itself to be a playback option for other software. Iirc, it does use the GS Wavetable, but under its own engine.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Fury Pilot]

Howdy guys,

I'm attaching a file that has notes of the same pitch and volume, only different note velocities. Rather boring, but effective for testing. I've just tested it here in my installation of Notation Player using the GS Wavetable as the playback MIDI device, and I can hear the difference on my computer here.

685

It goes from pretty much nothing (vel 5) to medium loud (vel 55), then to rather louder toward the end (vel 109 - it's not a crescendo exactly, as the notes have the same velocities for a couple of measures' grouping). Are you able to hear the differences in this file when playing it on Notation Player?

Also, if you could please post the test file that you created so I can compare that here, it might help us to figure out what's going on.

My machine here is a Win 7, and I'm using the GS Wavetable as the MIDI playback device (you can select from any devices that are available on your machine by using the drop list in Setup/Quick MIDI Devices Setup.)

We'll see if we can't get this figured out :)

Also, fwiw, WMP switched over to have it's own internal synth some time back, so it will not list MIDI playback options, nor will it allow itself to be a playback option for other software. Iirc, it does use the GS Wavetable, but under its own engine.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi,

I downloaded and tried your example MIDI file. Result: No discernible difference in loudness between any note as played on my system with Notation Player. However, massive difference in loudness when played in Windows Media Player (v9).

As stated in my posting from earlier today, Notation Player and the Windows Sounds & Audio device properties only provide ONE option on my system - Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth. I've just checked my other XP Pro PCs (2 other computer types, and built from difference XP install discs), and they all just provide the above option.

So, based on my systems, it would seem that only players which use their own internal MIDI devices provide MIDI dynamic loudness on XP...

Anybody out there with XP which does give dynamic loudness?

Cheers,