Fading midifile volume at the end

[Chickinox]

Hello dear Brothers and Sisters in Music!

What should I do to fade the volume of the whole midifile at the end. I hope it would be possible to use only one controller and not act on every instrument.
Thank you so much!

Paolo

[dj]

Hi, Paolo:

There is no Master Volume continuous controller in the MIDI spec. The CC for Volume controls only each individual channel.

To send a Master Volume (All Channels) message to a device, you would have to use a System Exclusive message, such as:

0xF0 ; SysEx
0x7F ; Realtime
0x7F ; The SysEx channel
0x04 ; Sub-ID -- Device Control
0x01 ; Sub-ID2 -- Master Volume
0xLL ; Least Significant Bits 0 to 6 of a 14-bit volume
0xMM ; Most Significant Bits 7 to 13 of a 14-bit volume
0xF7 ; End of SysEx

When Mark Walsen was developing Composer, he didn't want to get the user into such arcania, so Composer doesn't deal with SysEx.

At the same time, I find that an even fade-out usually requires different curves for each instrument, so individual channel volume fades are usually best.

Hope that helps.

David

[Chickinox]

Dear David,
thank you for your answer. It seems rather difficult for a MIDI dummy like me, anyway I shall try to study this issue. In any case, if you could explain how and where shoud I attach this SisEx message ... it would be really great.

Thanks a lot, again

Paolo

[Sherry C]

Hi Paolo,

There is not a way to enter Sys Ex information in Notation Composer currently.

To get the fade outs that you would like to do, you'll need to do as David suggested (fade for each instrument). I also agree that his technique suggestion - a different fade "curve" for each instrument - gives the best results. You can do this using the tools in the Graph Over Notes palette, and using your mouse to "draw" a fadeout over one staff. The User Guide (Help/User Guide) gives some very detailed steps that you can use to work on this in your own score. Just open the Users Guide, and use the Index to look up "graphical editing". I'd suggest first choosing the "overview" topic.

ttfn,
Sherry

[dj]

Hi, Paolo:

Easiest way:

Select GraphOverNotes(TM), then the CTL with a red question mark icon, then Controller 7 Volume, then the Draw Line tool (second from left: pencil with a straight line).

From there, simply click where you want to start the fade for each track (there should be a red volume line on each) and draw it.

David