Tempo changes to midi

• Oct 20, 2016 - 17:40

I'm fairly new to Musescore and I already love it. But I've got a couple of issues:

1. I've created a score with multiple tempo changes throughout, ranging from 80bpm to 30bpm. When I export to midi all the tempo changes have gone. I've seen plenty of answers to the issue of the global tempo not exporting, but this is about all those tempo changes within a single score. Otherwise, I've got to go through the whole piece, once it's in Logic, and re-do all the tempo changes to make it sound human. And there's a lot. Please can anyone help? Also the pause (time stretch) doesn't export to midi either.

2. How do I make a volta stretch more than one bar? I can do it for visual/printing purposes - you just go into edit and stretch it over as many bars as you like. But I'm talking about playback. I would have thought there's a way to first select the bars you want it to operate on and then add the a single volta to them, but no, it only operates on the first bar in the selected group. Exactly similar problem with the Pedal. I sometimes want to hold pedal over several bars, or have 2 or 3 pedals in a single bar - fine for visual/print, but not playback. Any ideas?

Sorry, probably too much at once, but I'm new to this, and if anyone has any help on any of these things, that would be great thanks.

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• Oct 20, 2016 - 18:19

Hi Matt,

Could you please attach the score? which Musescore version you have?

In 2.0.3, all is ok with the tempo changes I think. I'm attaching 2 files (a .mscz and its export MIDI). The MIDI playback honor the altered tempo changes, at least in my computer.

Attachment Size
gg1.mid 189 bytes
gg1.mscz 5.1 KB

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• Oct 20, 2016 - 19:34

let me see (I'm on Windows, 2.0.3) ...

Matt, well, the midi you just attached ("test.mid", which saves as test3.mid), plays perfectly okay in my Windows (windows media player) - and by ok I mean regarding the distinct tempo markings.

And the score is ok too (it's marked with the tempo text ok) , and it sounds ok too even if I export it myself to MIDI again. Or even if I import your "test.mid" into Musescore, the resulting score and playback honors the tempo variation as well.

I don't think this is a problem directly related to Musescore. Which Audio device you use for the MIDI files playback? which program? note, I'm sorry, I'm not a Mac user :-(

edited: well, I can't speak for the Musescore 2.0.3.1 Mac release. I'm on 2.0.3 now on *Windows* at this moment.

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• Oct 20, 2016 - 20:36

Thanks for trying those. With your gg1 score, when I export that myself to midi, all your tempo markings are retained. So your score exports to midi from my Musescore version, but my own score doesn't. How wierd is that! Would you mind sending back my test score, saved from your version of Musescore and the midi file also exported from yours? If they work here, then it's something to do with my set up. I'm using the Mac's own soundcard and Logic Pro to play the midi files - but yourgg1.mid works fine. I don't get it (yet).

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• Oct 20, 2016 - 21:21

weird indeed. Well, I'm now at home - using my Windows 8, Musescore 2.0.2 . I see that @Shoichi sent you the files (thanks @Shoichi).

Matt, can you send us an attachment, with a print screen showing the settings of the Preferences->I/O dialog of your Muescore (ie: Edit->Preferences..->I/O )?

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• Oct 21, 2016 - 08:55

When I import your gg1.mid into Logic, it all works perfectly regarding tempo changes. So I think it has to be something to do with the way I'm adding tempos to my Musescore score. Is there a particular way you do it? I just drag a "crotchet=80" from the pallet over to the note where I want the tempo to begin and voila! Then I edit the bpm to my desired speed. Then on export no tempos are preserved. Whereas on your gg1, if I export to midi all tempos are preserved. So the difference must be in my Musescore "method" or my settings - I don't think Logic's the problem.

I really appreciate your time on this and your help. Thanks to all. I'll plod on looking into this and if I get success I'll post.

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• Oct 21, 2016 - 09:11

Hi Matt,

Well, I'm not doing exactly this way. I never drag tempo from the palette (I know, sounds stupid but old habits die hard :-) . With a note selected, I go to Add->Text->Tempo marking (ALT+T). Then, I edit the tempo beats number (or leave it at the default 80, depending on the situation). That's all (and that's the method I used with the gg1 sample).

One question (it would sound stupid but..). After adding the tempo, did you Save the score (before exporting to MIDI)?

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• Oct 21, 2016 - 09:31

Yep, saving the score before exporting.

I just tried your method on my "test" score and still no tempos exported to midi.

Here's a really odd thing: when I open your gg1 in Muse and then delete the tempo markings, and then export to midi and open in Logic, what do you know, the tempo changes are still there!!! even though I deleted them. There's something going on at a deeper level in your score than mine. Some sort of tempo embedding if you will.

"Curiouser and curiouser" cried Alice.

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• Oct 21, 2016 - 09:51

I checked your test.mid with a MIDI file viewer/analyzer (MidiEditor, for Windows). Attached is a print screen of the measure 4 (when you return to the fast tempo). It's all OK (the blue bar clearly indicates a longer duration in contrast to the previous bar).

Matt, I suggest you get a similar utility for Mac, and view the same measure 4 - on your test.mid that doesn't play ok. I'm attaching a print screen from "my side", it would be useful if you could locate some program for Mac to analyze - and check what happens to your test.mid in measure 4. It should be exactly like the one I attached!!

If you manage to get a similar view, and you check that a MIDI File viewer utility reveals that measure 4 has a correct duration (longer than measure 3), for me it's obvious there is some sort of problem in Logic. Because it's clear that all the MIDI files you have submitted have the correct timing and tempo variation (all of them plays OK in my computer, and all of them have internally the correct duration in m. 4)

Attachment Size
MidiEditor_Mattsamplemidi_OK.PNG 51.69 KB

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• Oct 21, 2016 - 10:16

Thanks, that's a good idea, I'll have a look. But it still doesn't explain why your gg1.mid works fine in Logic, whether it's when I export midi from your gg1 score or I use your original gg1.mid file - it works in Logic, but mine doesn't. There's something else in your midi file which Logic is recognising and saying to itself "there are tempo changes here let's use them", some trigger which my score doesn't contain. I'll let you know about that analysis.

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• Oct 25, 2016 - 11:23

Well, after looking into this quite thoroughly, it seems that the problem is with Logic Pro after all. For some reason when midi files are imported it strips away any tempo data. I've looked at import settings, but to no avail. The reason I thought your gg1.mid was importing/playing correctly was because I was viewing it in Logic's Score pane where the position marker moves through the score, not the midi piano roll - and so it looked like tempo was altering correctly, but in fact it was simply moving more slowly over minims than crotchets, as one would expect. I think I was so involved with the problem I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

So the problem is with Logic, NOT Musescore. Hoorah!

Thanks once again to you and everyone who looked at this for me. Much appreciated!

Matt

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