Logic Pro 9 MIDI exports and MIDI specs

Edgold

Logician
I have a problem concerning the Classical Archives website. My old MIDI files are posted on it as well as some of my original compositions on a separate page.

Last night I unexpectedly got an email and phone call from one of the guys on that site (Layne Tippets, and later a separate one from Pierre Schwob, his employer. Pierre had not yet checked them.) that two of my four Brahms Symphony 1 MIDI files don't play all the way through (presumably on their MIDI player) and can I resubmit them.

I am thinking, since the files seem intact on download, that the problem may be in the changed MIDI specs which don't easily allow for program changes in one region, eg: legato to pizz. strings even though these program changes show in the List view. As though to confirm this, the files won't play in QuickTime 10 but insist on QT 7.

If I go to the trouble of changing this in Logic by putting the pizz notes in a separate region, is this likely to work if I export the MIDI file from Logic?
 
I am thinking, since the files seem intact on download, that the problem may be in the changed MIDI specs which don't easily allow for program changes in one region, eg: legato to pizz. strings even though these program changes show in the List view. As though to confirm this, the files won't play in QuickTime 10 but insist on QT 7.

I'm going to venture a guess that this is a problem with QT10 (or perhaps the sound source that it plays within the Mac) because the MIDI spec hasn't really changed all that much in 30 years. Sure, the spec has been amended from time to time, but the spec for what kinds of data a MIDI file can hold have not changed.

Let's put it this way... you could have a program change on every note if you wanted, and there's nothing in the spec to prevent that data from being exported in the MIDI file.

If I go to the trouble of changing this in Logic by putting the pizz notes in a separate region, is this likely to work if I export the MIDI file from Logic?

Yes, but this may not be feasible. It all depends on the number of instruments and the number of articulations required for each. For any given piece, add up the number of discreet instrument parts + the number of articulations for each part; if the total is greater than 16 then it's not a viable option. This is because MIDI files can only contain a maximum of 16 tracks, where:

- track 1 = channel 1's data
- track 2 = channel 2's data
....
- track 16 = channel 16's data

I would try and narrow down the problem to QT10 specifically. And if that's the only culprit then you can make a decision as to whether it's worth the investment in time to make a separate set of files for the purpose of circumventing this particular situation.
 
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