Auditioning MIDI Files in LPX

Hello all.

 

I realise there is a post about this on the forum, but it's very old. I was wondering if there is an easy way to do this in LPX?

 

I have a MIDI pack containing thousands of MIDI chord progressions and loops etc. Is there any way I can audition them without having to drag them all individually onto tracks in LPX?

 

Thanks in advance.

You can convert them one by one to Apple Loops - but that's not really a great idea with thousands to process!

 

I'd be inclined to open finder and press spacebar on one so you can preview it that way and then cursor up/down in finder to listen to them to find the one you want, then drag it into Logic.

Thanks for your reply skijumptoes. I tried your finder suggestions, but when I hit the spacebar for each MIDI file in finder, nothing happens. Do you know if I need to enable something to have them playback using this method?

There's been a lot of changes in regards to quicktime, which is what MacOS uses to preview MIDI files.

 

I'm not near my mac at the moment to test it, but looks like Apple have removed it (just done a google search)... That's a shame if so, but looks like it went a long time ago..

Thanks again for yore reply skijumptoes. That's a pity about Quicktime

 

I've found that VLC will allow me to drag multiple MIDI files into it and audition them. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.

 

So strange and annoying that this isn't a basic feature in LPX.

Just upgraded to Mojave and lost the Quicktime Player 7 I used to quick listen to midi files. It didn't come installed with the apps in Mojave. Guess it's possible to install QT 7 in this new machine, but I'm not doing it. Found out this week that, yes, VLC will play .mid format files, so I've been doing that.

 

Tonight I was about to give in and try to install the old Quicktime 7 .... because using it was so easy. But installing old code ( 32 bit ) is just holding off the inevitable. QT 7 seems guaranteed to not work in 10.15 when that appears. Turns out it isn't necessary. Because, the Quicktime that now comes with Mojave WILL play midi files. Before, in previous OS's the Quicktime Player wouldn't. It popped up a warning. Now, this current one will. Amazing. Saves me having to open them in Logic just to do a quick listen.

Edited June 21, 2019 by JimDavidson

I'm one 10.13.6 (17G7024)

And use QuickTime 7.6.6

 

Download it from Apple here

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl923?locale=en_US

 

If you're going to make this easy to preview, you'll need to change Open With... to QuickTime 7.6.6 for .mid files too.

At the moment I prefer VLC because I can drag multiple MIDI files in and they play one after another. I suppose there's a way to do that in QT& as well.

Best thing would be if Logic offered a preview function as Cubase does with its MediaBay. From all I know, you can just scroll through your files and they will be previewed in song sync automatically, using the chosen instrument. Pretty much what we can do with Apple Loops. IMO that's a most elegant solution. Could make a lot of use of that when it comes to drum MIDIs (right now, I play them through the Abbey Roads drum library, which has a MIDI file player integrated).

Yes, a preview would make sense. Why it hasn't been there for years is a mystery.

Yeah the Cubase browser works well, plus you can apply any MIDI phrase straight into the chord track no matter what chord structure/key the original phrase was in. I think Logic will look to add something like that as it would compliment the current suite of tools well (i.e. Drummer/Apple loops)

Fwiw, at least for drum-MIDI-files, my kinda workaround using one of the Kontakt-based drum offerings (for me that's Studio Drummer and the Abbey Road libraries) works amazingly well, all I needed to do was placing a symbolic link (aliases won't work for unknown reasons) inside the directories where their MIDI files are located. Once happy with a groove, you can drag it into Logics arrangement and use it for other things as well.

Hi Sascha. Would you mind explaining how you do that? It sounds interesting, but I don’t really understand how to do it.

Hi Sascha. Would you mind explaining how you do that? It sounds interesting, but I don’t really understand how to do it.

 

If you have one of the mentioned plugins (can't tell about how other plugins are doing this), you will find that inside their content folder (which also contains the samples, documents and what not) there's a subfolder called "MIDI Files". Each of the mentioned plugins come with their own sets of files. But you can add files to these folders if you like.

However, as I rather prefer to keep all drum MIDIs in one central folder, I am using a symbolic link to that folder. To create symbolic links without going through whatever Terminal hassles, I'm using a freeware tool called "Symbolic Linker" (who would've guessed...), you can find it here:

https://www.macupdate.com/v1/app/mac/10433/symboliclinker

Now, I just created a symbolic link to my main drum MIDI folder and copied that symbolic link into the MIDI Files folder of each of the drum libaries.

I can now add any MIDI files to my personal drum MIDI folder and they will instantly show up in the player of the "treated" libraries. Here's how things relate to each other in Finder:

And here's how they show up in the integrated player of the Abbey Road libraries:

 

So far, this works a treat.

Oh, one further note: Some of the Abbey Road drums MIDI Files folders contain further subfolders based on the different kits. The symbolic link for the global folder has to be placed inside those, it won't show up in the grooves browser otherwise.

Don't the toontrack EZ products have some form of MIDI file browsing/playback too? Like the piano?

Don't the toontrack EZ products have some form of MIDI file browsing/playback too? Like the piano?

 

Yes. And while I'm not entirely sure, it's pretty likely that it also comes with a subfolder for its MIDI files, so the same workaround might apply.

 

Fwiw, it should be possible for someone to program a MIDI plugin playing back MIDI files. No idea whether it'd be easily possible to drag and drop suitable files straight to the arrange, though...

For a program that was pure MIDI at its inception, it's bizarre that LPX doesn't have a MIDI file browser/librarian. And the way MIDI groove files are implemented is a a long-running head-scratcher. There's already a browser that could easily be leveraged to collect/display/preview MIDI files as well as MIDI groove files, but apparently it's just not in the cards. I see threads almost a decade old with the same complaints. Kind of a puzzler. Especially as they have something as amazing as Drummer.

At the moment I prefer VLC because I can drag multiple MIDI files in and they play one after another. I suppose there's a way to do that in QT& as well.

There's no need to drag and drop files, your Folder view is your list. You just click on what you want to hear.

 

I've setup Quicktime to preview, AIFF, WAV, M4A, MP3, MP4 as well.

Since I purchased the Pro version, I can also stay within Quicktime to export from one format to another as well as extract an audio from an mp4.

Fwiw, at least for drum-MIDI-files, my kinda workaround using one of the Kontakt-based drum offerings (for me that's Studio Drummer and the Abbey Road libraries) works amazingly well, all I needed to do was placing a symbolic link (aliases won't work for unknown reasons) inside the directories where their MIDI files are located. Once happy with a groove, you can drag it into Logics arrangement and use it for other things as well.

I'm curious, how did you get this to work with EZDrummer 2, Superior Drummer 3 and Addictive Drums 2?

I'm curious, how did you get this to work with EZDrummer 2, Superior Drummer 3 and Addictive Drums 2?

 

Easy: I don't.

No, seriously, I just don't own any of these. Have the Addictive Drums demo installed, though. The MIDI information seems to be embedded in some proprietary files.

I'm curious, how did you get this to work with EZDrummer 2, Superior Drummer 3 and Addictive Drums 2?

 

Easy: I don't.

No, seriously, I just don't own any of these. Have the Addictive Drums demo installed, though. The MIDI information seems to be embedded in some proprietary files.

 

Okay, I have a scripter that can map Logic Drummer to EZDrummer 2, Superior Drummer 3 and Addictive Drums 2.

When I saw your post, I thought maybe you developed another way to map from GM to each of these kits I mentioned.

Thanks very much for sharing that Sascha Franck. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Hi ValliSoftware. When I do that it didn't work before, but it does now. Thanks!

Hi there, for anyone who owns Bidule by Plogue I found a solution that works quite nicely. Just insert Bidule as a Midi-Fx PlugIn, insert the "midi file player" into the layout and connect it to the "Bidule Plugin output". Then you can drag and drop your Midi files from the Finder to the Midi File Player and they can be auditioned via the PlugIn that is loaded in the Instrument slot.

 

Andreas

Thanks Andreas!

At last! Dragging multiple MIDI files from the browser into LPX now produces acceptable results by dragging them into the Live Loops Grid. This places all the MIDI files into cells in order on the same track. They can then be easily auditioned by playing individual cells. It would still be a lot better if they could be auditioned from the browser the way it's done in Ableton Live, but at least this is an improvement!

Hey Friends, found a great product in searching this issue. Although I am a musician I was seduced by the large midi library purchase. Then discovered that I couldn't audition them. FRET NO MORE! $2 solution: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midiplayer-x/id954177929?mt=12

I discovered this solution from this youtube tutorial:

Peace!

Hey Friends, found a great product in searching this issue. Although I am a musician I was seduced by the large midi library purchase. Then discovered that I couldn't audition them. FRET NO MORE! $2 solution: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midiplayer-x/id954177929?mt=12

I discovered this solution from this youtube tutorial:

Peace!

 

Excellent! Thanks for sharing your findings.

I also found this, in case someone fancies hacking stuff... https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Quicktime