MIDI Export should have the same Range option as Audio Export

[Anthony Bennett]

I regularly need to export MIDI tracks to a file (essentially a MIDI 'stem'), that exactly matches the Start/End point of Audio stems I'm exporting.

I use Project Start and End markers by default in my projects.
When I export Audio stems, I have the Range option that lets me change from Entire project to a specific Range (defaulting to Start/End markers), and also custom Start/End.

I need the same capability on MIDI File Export.

Ideally, the same behaviour - a Range option that mimics the behaviour in the Audio Export.

Currently, the only way to achieve the desired result is a kludgy workaround of putting a 'dummy' MIDI event at the start point you want to export from.

OR

Export everything, re-open the exported MIDI file, trim space at start, re-save.

[David Baay]

16 hours ago, Anthony Bennett said:

Currently, the only way to achieve the desired result is a kludgy workaround of putting a 'dummy' MIDI event at the start point you want to export from.

OR

Export everything, re-open the exported MIDI file, trim space at start, re-save.

Just select the time range in the timeline before exporting. If you have Start and End Markers, you can use those to define the selection by various methods.

[Anthony Bennett]

7 hours ago, David Baay said:

Just select the time range in the timeline before exporting. If you have Start and End Markers, you can use those to define the selection by various methods.

Thanks David. I wish it were that simple and obvious.

I find that this does not work, or
I have created conditions / 'found' scenarios where it doesn't work  

Ref - 

 

[David Baay]

On 10/24/2025 at 5:37 PM, Anthony Bennett said:

Currently, the only way to achieve the desired result is a kludgy workaround of putting a 'dummy' MIDI event at the start point you want to export from.

Okay, I misunderstood what you want. The above is correct, but the limitation is not Sonar; it's the Standard MIDI File format. If you want the file to start before the first note, there has to be some event to define that point. Another option is to insert a tempo 'change' at that point; it can have the same value as the initial tempo. Since the tempo map is included in the SMF file, including that tempo node in the time selection will define the start of the file.

[sjoens]

You can't export empty space.  In Cakewalk you can slip out the ends of MIDI clips beyond 1st and last data points, but this creates empty space.  Useful within the DAW but has nothing to do with MIDI data on the track.  When exporting a clip, it's mixed down and bounced to the 1st and last data points so a .mid file has no clue where the ends of the original clip inside the DAW were slipped out to since there's nothing tangible to export.

The Tempo trick David mentioned adds a data node to the mix, as does the "kludgy" way you're already doing it.  A muted note, controller, automation node, etc. So long as there's data, it will get exported.

Edited 17 minutes ago by sjoens