Match time to existing MIDI track?

[elaw]

So... can anyone offer input on a dumb noob mistake?

Suppose hypothetically (yeah right) I were to sit down, fire up Mixcraft, set up a channel to record from external MIDI and arm it, hit the "record" button, then play a really cool riff without paying any attention to Mixcraft's tempo setting or metronome.

Is there any way after the fact, to adjust the project's tempo so it matches what I recorded? I know there's a "beat matching" feature for audio tracks, but it appears there's no such thing for MIDI tracks.

The riff isn't terribly long - 4 measures - so I guess one thing I could do is set the project tempo to something close, then go in and hand-edit all the notes' start times to line up with the beat. But that seems a bit kludgy and time-consuming. Does anyone have any better ideas?

[Mark Bliss]

You could experiment with quantization to change the MIDI to fit.

Giving specific guidance would really rely on some details about the riff however. If you wanted to share the MIDI file, desired tempo and instrument, I'd be glad to have a quick look and try to help you learn how.

[fredfish]

You could always try mixing the MIDI track down to an audio file and then try beat matching on that.

Just a suggestion.

Cheers

John

[elaw]

Hey thanks guys!

I managed to figure out how to do it using the "flexaudio" feaure of Mixcraft... I just set the project tempo to about the right number, then basically time-stretched the track to line it up exactly with the main grid.

Does anyone else here find MIDI track editing in Mixcraft to be a little... "quirky"?

A few things I've found which don't seem right (all these relate to MIDI track editing):
If you "cut" from the beginning of a track then hit the "+1 loop" button, the "cut" portion reappears at the end of the track. I've seen it reappear at the beginning too... I can't recall what I did to make that happen but it wasn't "undo".

If you have the "sound" panel selected and displaying the track in question for editing and you "undo" certain operations, the sound window gets cleared out and you have to click the track again to have it appear in the editor.

No matter what I do in terms of time-stretching or tempo adjustment (to the MIDI track), the grid in the MIDI editor seems "stuck" on the tempo the track was originally recorded at. For example I just created a project to mess around with, entered a few bars of MIDI data, then used "time stretch" and set the rate adjustment to 93%. Now if I put the cursor in the main window right at the start of measure 2, in the MIDI editor it shows the cursor about halfway between 2.1.1 and 2.1.2.

[Mark Bliss]

Drives you crazy doesn't it!
It would be my observation its not just Mixcraft, but that MIDI editing in general can be just- as you say.... Quirky.

If I understand you correctly, part of the function you are observing is due to the fact that the MIDI data in the sound tab has remained as it was created, and the audio track is now altered in time. They no longer match.

Speaking for myself, This can often become a mental puzzle that really messes with me. You can change the tempo of the MIDI in the editor, but if not careful, the situation just gets worse. And if you have a bunch of MIDI clips, and start messing with altering time...... Gives me a headache.

I will readily admit that Mixcraft's MIDI editing tools are overdue for an overhaul, even with that, I would suggest its very useful to set your tempo pretty much where its going to be before creating much content. Especially until some experience is gained. Time and space aren't meant to be easily manipulated I reckon.

I've been there and gotten so frustrated with the mess I created...... I just deleted the whole thing and started over.