Imported Midi file does not follow Sonar Tempo?

[Sal Sorice]

I exported a Midi file from MuseScore and then dragged it into Sonar, expecting the created track to follow the Sonar tempo I set, but it does not - it seems to (maybe?) be following a tempo embedded in the file? Am I (as usual :^) doing something wrong?

[57Gregy]

Open the project instead of importing it.

[David Baay]

1 hour ago, Sal Sorice said:

dragged it into Sonar, expecting the created track to follow the Sonar tempo I set, but it does not

If you drag the file into an existing project, it will take on that project's fixed tempo. If you drag it into the open Sonar window with no project open, you'll get a new project with the embedded tempos included.

[Sal Sorice]

2 hours ago, David Baay said:

If you drag the file into an existing project, it will take on that project's fixed tempo. If you drag it into the open Sonar window with no project open, you'll get a new project with the embedded tempos included.

^^^This is what is confusing.

I dragged the Midi file into and existing project that had a tempo of 60bpm. The dragged Midi was racing along at around 120bpm. I'll try uploading a sample tomorrow when I am at my PC. Thanks all!

[msmcleod]

5 hours ago, Sal Sorice said:

^^^This is what is confusing.

I dragged the Midi file into and existing project that had a tempo of 60bpm. The dragged Midi was racing along at around 120bpm. I'll try uploading a sample tomorrow when I am at my PC. Thanks all!

What was shown in the tempo track?  If it showed 120bpm, just set it back to 60bpm after you've imported it.

If it's still playing at 120bpm, then it's likely the project was just recorded in double time - by that I mean, who ever recorded it used a tempo of 120bpm but played at 60bpm.

There's two ways around this:

1. Set the tempo to 30bpm; or
2. Stretch the MIDI clips to 200% to slow them down to half speed.

[Sal Sorice]

4 hours ago, msmcleod said:

What was shown in the tempo track?  If it showed 120bpm, just set it back to 60bpm after you've imported it.

If it's still playing at 120bpm, then it's likely the project was just recorded in double time - by that I mean, who ever recorded it used a tempo of 120bpm but played at 60bpm.

There's two ways around this:

1. Set the tempo to 30bpm; or
2. Stretch the MIDI clips to 200% to slow them down to half speed.

@msmcleod - you were correct. Looks like it was the way the file was recorded. Tempo of around 30 bpm has it playing about what I expect/want. Thanks all for the comments!

[David Baay]

Listen to the playback without the metronome running and snap the Now time to a note that should be on a known bar:beat like 9:01.

Hit Shift+M to open Set Measure/Beat At Now, enter Measure 9, Beat 1 and OK.

Sonar will reset the initial tempo and timeline to match that actual musical tempo of the clip, and insert a matching tempo at 9:01.

If it was sequenced or recorded to a click with a  fixed tempo and/or quantized, that might be all you need to do.

In that case, you can delete the tempo at 9:01 and change the initial tempo to your taste.

If it drifts out of sync with the metronome before or after that, leave the tempo node at 9:01 as an anchor, and you can use SM/BAN to align as many additional points as necessary to keep the timeline in sync with the performance.

If you continue to have trouble with it, share it here or PM me, and I can help you sort it.

[Sal Sorice]

8 hours ago, David Baay said:

Listen to the playback without the metronome running and snap the Now time to a note that should be on a known bar:beat like 9:01.

Hit Shift+M to open Set Measure/Beat At Now, enter Measure 9, Beat 1 and OK.

Sonar will reset the initial tempo and timeline to match that actual musical tempo of the clip, and insert a matching tempo at 9:01.

If it was sequenced or recorded to a click with a  fixed tempo and/or quantized, that might be all you need to do.

In that case, you can delete the tempo at 9:01 and change the initial tempo to your taste.

If it drifts out of sync with the metronome before or after that, leave the tempo node at 9:01 as an anchor, and you can use SM/BAN to align as many additional points as necessary to keep the timeline in sync with the performance.

If you continue to have trouble with it, share it here or PM me, and I can help you sort it.

Thanks @David Baay. Not at my PC all day. Will take a look tomorrow and try what you recommended!

[msmcleod]

By far the fastest & easiest way to fix this permanently is to:

1. Select all your MIDI clips
2. (Main Menu) Process->Length, then set to 200%:
3. Click OK.



This will slow down the MIDI performance to 1/2 the speed, so it'll play correctly at 60bpm.

[Sal Sorice]

54 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

By far the fastest & easiest way to fix this permanently is to:

1. Select all your MIDI clips
2. (Main Menu) Process->Length, then set to 200%:
3. Click OK.



This will slow down the MIDI performance to 1/2 the speed, so it'll play correctly at 60bpm.

@David Baay, looks like the midi was recorded at 120bpm(?), as that is what appeared in the Tempo Map when I tried your suggestion. And it's comically fast. I've attached a small snippet. No way it was played that fast, so not sure how it ended up that way.

 

@msmcleod, your suggestion is indeed fast and easy - thanks! I ended up having to increase the length to 300% to have it play at a reasonable tempo.

 

SampleMidi.mid

[David Baay]

The sample clip opened up at 100bpm, but the notes are starting at 1:01:160. Dragging them back to 1:01:000 put the arpeggiated groups on beats with a perfectly quantized 16th triplet rhythm without having to make any other changes. To me it sounds reasonable at a tempo of 70bpm. At that it sounds like a sort baroque-style piece for harpsichord.

[Sal Sorice]

Thanks David. The offset is actually correct. It’s in 4/4, starts with a 16th rest and then groups of 6. It’s actually the intro of Schuberts Ave Maria, one of my late mom’s favorites (mine too). She always had it playing around the holidays and I’m trying my hand at an arrangement. 😁

[David Baay]

5 hours ago, Sal Sorice said:

It’s actually the intro of Schuberts Ave Maria,

Ha! I  probably should have recognized it.

[Sal Sorice]

Wish I wrote it... 🙃