Midi Messages

[martin]

Mid files with lyrics are loaded ok with composer but can you tell me if composer is designed to recognise any other types of midi messages (other than time signature, tempo and key signature ).

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Mid files with lyrics are loaded ok with composer but can you tell me if composer is designed to recognise any other types of midi messages (other than time signature, tempo and key signature ).

Yes, and you can use the Graph Over Notes feature to edit them right on top of the score :)

ttfn,
Sherry

[martin]

Sherry Thank you for your reply which was helpful. I am writing software which takes lyrics for a song from the net into a word processor and allows the user to split the lyrics into syllables and add melody notes from a midi keyboard including the rhythm. This can then be saved as a midi file and opened in Composer. All this works well. Composer recognises midi lyrics pasted from the clipboard but what about chords? Composer seems to use copy and "paste special" for both chords and lyrics but can the chords be embeded in the imported midi file using some kind of meta event like a text event (or some other) in the same way the lyrics are embedded??

[Sherry C]

Hi Martin,

You're correct that since there is not a specified "chord name" field in the standard MIDI format (SMF) filetype, that Composer does not always recognize chord names. I say "not always" because it does recognize and display the chord names for Yamaha PSR chord names, and will also edit them in a .not file. So, if you write your software such that the chord names you enter there are in the field that Yamaha uses, they should be recognized in Composer 2.6.3

Hope this is helpful :)
Sherry

[martin]

Thanks again Sherry. I suppose Composer must be using its own internal format for chord symbols as they do not appear in an an exported midi file as lyrics do. There is a way round this ...... diplay chords as lyric events on a separate track. So in a way this solve the problem. The chords as well as lyrics will them be imorted and exported exported in a midi file format. Martin.

[Sherry C]

Hi Martin,

Yes, Notation Software products use a special field for chord names because they are musically tied to the score. If you edit the key of the score, for instance, the chord names will be updated accordingly. However, these musical chord names are stored only in the .not file format. The standard MIDI format does not have such a "tied" field. The workaround to have an option in our products to include the chord names as a separate lyric field in exported .mid files is indeed on the "wish list" of future features :)

ttfn,
Sherry