How do I load a General Midi file to edit?

DavidSinger wrote on 11/11/2003, 10:10 AM
I've got MIDI files on a floppy courtesy of the musician.

I want to use Vegas 4.0c to do the following:

(a) listen to the music (got to get it from disk to Vegas)
(b) edit the music
(c) write the edited music back to disk as General MIDI so the musician can play the edited version on his equipment.

I'm having difficulty locating the specifics in the manuals, especially for (a) and (c). Maybe I just don't know where to look, being a newbie and somewhat lost in the forest of information.

Thanks,

David

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/11/2003, 10:14 AM
You won't find it because Vegas doesn't do MIDI.

If you could convert the MIDI files to WAV files then Vegas would let you edit these. But you probably won't find any good way to get them back into MIDI afterwards.
DavidSinger wrote on 11/11/2003, 10:22 AM
Thanks. Nice to know I wasn't being unobservant or careless (just frustrated). Am I the only one who wants MIDI in Vegas?
Rednroll wrote on 11/11/2003, 2:10 PM
Acid has MIDI although it is in it's infant stages and to me is the better place for MIDI, although others may disagree. I think Acid is the better place, because it has a master tempo control, along with a master key signature for transposing audio. This way having the master tempo allows you to change tempos freely as you can in the midi environment. To me MIDI is more of a preproduction tool, and Vegas is your record, edit and mix tool, so this is probably why I feel this way.
KevBill wrote on 11/11/2003, 3:22 PM
If you look at many of the posts in the "vegas 5 what would you like" posting people would like midi to be included.

As a total solution I would agree. As long as tempo changes, program and control changes were included. Also the ability to edit the midi.

But no offence to SF they do have to make money and this may take many sales from Acid. So their best bet may be to have the ability to use Acid within vegas or have the viewer window of vegas oen in Acid while running both programs so you could create the music with the visuals on show.

Kevin
MJhig wrote on 11/11/2003, 3:44 PM
The problem with keeping all the MIDI support in Acid is that many do not need or want all the elaborate audio looping functionality Acid supplies.

I have no need for loops myself at all and obviously would prefer not to spend the kind of money required for Acid just for basic MIDI editing. I don't even need VSTi or DXi support in Vegas nor expect to force the audio to conform to any and all tempos, in fact one of the assets of MIDI is that it's tempo can be changed with no unwanted side effects.

MJ
Rednroll wrote on 11/11/2003, 5:17 PM
MJ,
It sounds like what you need is strictly a MIDI sequencer editor then? This is exactly what I've been doing for years, in conjunction with using ACID and Vegas. Every program I've seen has a bad implementation of Audio and Midi combined. Pick your choice, Logic Audio, Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar. In either scenario I always find I like the audio features in one app, and the midi features in another app or vice-versa. I have yet to find the uber app that makes me happy in both regards. A lot of people use Cubase for Midi and Vegas for Audio....yet there's audio features in Cubase. If I where to use Cubase, this is exactly how I would use it, but the audio features get in my way.

I've been using Opcodes Studio Vision for PC for about 7 years now, started using it on the MAC side in conjuntion with Pro Tools. There's no audio features to get in my way. If I need to add audio loops, I open up Acid and run them together by sending midi beat clock from Acid into Studio Vision. If I'm working in Vegas and decide I need midi, then I send Smpte Time Code from Vegas, to sync up with Vision. Most of the time I do all my preproduction of building tracks by using Acid and Vision, then record all my midi tracks into ACID, then layoff all the audio tracks and open them up in Vegas and start recording vocals, editing and then mixing. If Vegas could open Acid projects once I finish my recording into Acid, then this would be ideal for me, instead of having to import the individual tracks. Also if Acid would allow me to record more than a stereo pair at a time, this would save me some time also. My other option is to record more than one stereo pair at a time by laying the tracks off in Vegas, but then I'm using Smpte which may have a possibility to drift compared to Midi Beat Clock.

If Sony is going to do anything on the MIDI side, I wish it was to make a seperate strictly midi app, rather than doing it as a side feature in one of their audio programs. After all...Opcode did go out of business and it would be nice to move my midi app up to the Windows XP platform.