MIDI editing options

[Gary Shore]

Interested in hearing about what processes people here use to edit MIDI tracks in terms of things like velocity/duration for a complete section (vs.single note editing)....

Given the option of using the Event Inspector on the Control Bar,the MIDI FX plugins,the CAL scripts or the Event Filter,which do you prefer and why?

(This would be for MIDI tracks where the PRV velocity process using selecting an area in the Time Ruler then being able to affect the velocity of a group of notes wouldn't really produce the intended results....)

Edited August 31, 2020 by Gary Shore

[Promidi]

1 hour ago, Gary Shore said:

Given the option of using the Event Inspector on the Control Bar,the MIDI FX plugins,the CAL scripts or the Event Filter,which do you prefer and why?

 

Custom made CAL scripts and custom made Studioware panels are my go to.

For instance, add triangle wave of pitch bends to get vibrato; Select pitch bends and then change the selection to ease in (or out).  Set the last event of multiple pitch bends to zero.  Select a bunch of pitch bends and then change them to a series of pitch bends that start and the first selected value to the last.  Align a controller, wheel event, or lyric event to a note.  etc.  Split note into 2, 3, 4 notes, you know, those kinds of things.  

Next would be the PRV.   I really only really use Event view to view event details - and to see patch changes.  I never use the Event Inspector or MIDI FX plugins.

Note: I do CAL scripts and custom made Studioware panels while in PRV

Why ?

Speed of editing and also, I can be sloppier with my mouse precision (which again makes editing quicker).

It should be noted that you can bind CAL scripts to keybindings.  You cal also add CAL scripts to Studioware buttons and add Studioware panels to keybindings .

The bakers really should consider allowing the editing of these with from within Cakewalk again. (To hell with those who couldn'/wouldn't t use it - those who would will benefit greatly).  Mind you Some CAL commands behave differently with the latest Cakewalk by Bandlab)

Edited August 23, 2020 by Promidi

[Gary Shore]

Promidi-

Again much thanks for taking the time to reply to my threads over here;looking forward to taking some time to do some online research/Ref Guide study etc  to be able to understand the various concepts you mention,some of which(StudioWare,key bindings used in this context)I'm not familiar with.....as well as the ability to create custom-made CAL scripts;this is all "the next level"for me as I'm just finding out about CAL scripts and thx to the excellent online info I've found(i.e.pdf by Scott Garrigus etc)will be adding this kind of thing to my overall CW skill set....

In terms of-

8 hours ago, Promidi said:

I really only really use Event view to view event details - and to see patch changes.  I never use the Event Inspector or MIDI FX plugins.

would appreciate more info about why this is...

I'd been thinking of using both after studying some tutorials,for ex.liked the idea of using the Quantize MIDI FX to set a group of selected notes to a given note value,being able to set up an overall percentage reduction/increase for the Duration/Velocity parameters using the Event Inspector as well as getting a better sense of how to work with the Event Filter in a similar context....

BTW re-my thread last week about "Console View/Screensets',found out from one of the FB Cakewalk groups that all I had to do was make sure the box at the bottom of the Track Manager setting up sync between the Track/Console Views was checked,however appreciate your heads up about Lenses in this context as I rely on using screensets 24-7,am focused on unlocking/locking them before leaving one to go to another if I've made any changes,and will be reviewing Lenses as this is something I looked at when initially learning about the DAW but haven't actually done anything with since then,not sure what setting I'm using and which of the various options might be better for a given situation.......

Edited August 23, 2020 by Gary Shore

[Promidi]

The reason I never use the Event Inspector or MIDI FX plugins, is probably more the do with my work flow.

I mainly do MIDI only projects.  I work with single clips per track.  If I used MIDI FX plugins, they would effect the entire track.

As regards the Event Inspector, the parameters that I can change using this I use CAL scripts.

One thing I see people changing with this are the channels of events in a track to be the same.

I have a quicker way to do this.  In Cakewalk.ini (in the "%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core" folder ) there is a setting under the [WinCake] section which is RechannelMIDI=1.  What this does is that, when I bounce to clips, it changes the MIDI channels of all the event's in the clips to be bounced to match that of the MIDI track itself.  You see, I have 16 tracks, the MIDI channels of which are 1 to 16 respectively.  Therefore, all I have to do is selected all, then do a bounce to clip.  This corrects the MIDI channels of the entire project so that their MIDI channels match the track number.  Of course, the resultant clips stay on their original tracks.  These MIDI channels arenot really important for notes as these MIDI channels are overridden by the track's MIDI channel.  Those Individual event MIDI channels become important when you are in single lane controller view.  If individual controller events that are on the same track are set to different channels, you may not see some of those controller events on a given lane, because those lanes are restricted to a viewing controller events single channel.  I use many, many MIDI, RPN and NRPN controllers in my MIDI projects.  I do not want to miss any.

As far as inspecting events....  I only really would use this for drum notes, so I can know what NRPN values to use to change those individual note paramters.  There are many times I need to know the actual number, not the name (c#, Bb, ect).  I have a CAL script that tells me channel, number,  velocity and duration of a single selected note.  Yes, I could just mouse over it, but the text is tiny.

Note: There are some CAL commands that categorically will crash Cakewalk. An example is EditSlide and EditSlide40.  If you want to slide an event, you have to find another way to do it. (By adjusting the Event.Time value)

There are also some differences in the say some commands are handled between versions.  For instance, in Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, the using the Editcopy, Editcut and Editpaste (and their *40 variants) with without parameters, brings up a dialogue box for the respective command.  In the latest Cakewalk by Bandlab, these commands, without parameters, simply perform their respective functions without prompting - which is great for scripts.  That is something you will not find in any manual anywhere.

Sorry.....  I'm waffling now......  I'll stop here......

[Gary Shore]

10 minutes ago, Promidi said:

I mainly do MIDI only projects

I'm glad to hear this man!!Will most definitely be checking everything with you as I'm just getting into the more advanced aspects of working with it....

Will post some more once I get a chance to go over your reply completely......