Re: Tempo change in Midi file

[Neil Killeen]

Mats

I have waded back through the archives on this issue.  There appear to
be two basic statements of truth :

1) Many people commented that *only* midi files produced by Lilypond
   had this problem.  This has been my experience too, that I can happily
   play tempo-changing MIDI files from other programs ( I installed
   4 different MIDI players as well as Quicktime and Realplayer and none
   of them picked up the tempo changes).

2) Nigel Warner made an analysis - see
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2003-10/msg00286.html

  where he found that the tempo changes were not in track 0 (the conductor
   track) where he asserted they should be (his argument made good sense to 
me).

  You commented that it was you who had removed the tempo changes from 
track 0
  as you endeavoured  to provide other functionality; see
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2003-10/msg00296.html

  However,  no fix appears to have ever been made and this bug remains.


I do find MIDI files very useful.  When I write some music, these
are my first real chance to hear how it sounds as a whole, despite
the limitations of MIDI so I would be greatful if some small effort
could go into fixing this.

regards
Neil




From: Mats Bengtsson <address@hidden>
> To: Neil Killeen <address@hidden>
> CC: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Tempo change in Midi file
> Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 15:55:48 +0200
>
> I think there was an insightful email in the mailing lists a couple of
> years ago that explained that the current solution of handling MIDI
> tempo changes will only work with certain MIDI players but not
> with all. I just tried to listen to your example using kmidi (which
> internally uses timidity, a software-only MIDI interpreter) and it
> certainly plays the correct tempo changes, but it may fail for your
> combination of sound card and software.
>
>   /Mats
>
> Neil Killeen wrote:
>
> > Hello
> >
> >
> > according to the mail archives, I should just insert a \tempo directive
> > whenever I want to change the tempo (I think this should be in the
> > manual).
> >
> >
> > 1) For multiple staff music, should I insert just one
> >    set of markings for one of the staves (does it matter
> >    which one) or should they all have a (redundant)
> >    tempo marking ?
> >
> >
> > 2) Regardless, this does not seem to function.  Here is a little bit of 
> > test   music.
> >
> > sopNotes = {
> >    \relative c' {
> >       \tempo 4=100
> >       e2 e2 e2 e2  e2 e2 e2 e2
> >       \tempo 4=50
> >       e2 e2 e2 e2  e2 e2 e2 e2
> >     }
> > }
> > %
> > mezNotes = {
> >    \relative c' {
> >       \tempo 4=100
> >       c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2
> >       \tempo 4=50
> >       c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2 c2
> >     }
> > }
> >
> > \score {
> > \new ChoirStaff
> > <<
> >  \new Staff  { \context Voice = sop { \sopNotes } }
> > %
> >  \new Staff { \context Voice = mez { \mezNotes } }
> > %
> >
> > > >
> > \layout {}
> > \midi {}
> > }
> >
> >
> > The resultant midi file (attached)  does not change tempo.  It makes no
> > difference whether I use one staff or two (and also if I
> > use one staff and drop the \new ChoirStaff syntax it also
> > does not work).
> >
> > I am using V 2.6.3-1 on a Mac Powerbook
> >
> >
> > regards
> > Neil
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > lilypond-user mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
>
> --
> =============================================
>         Mats Bengtsson
>         Signal Processing
>         Signals, Sensors and Systems
>         Royal Institute of Technology
>         SE-100 44  STOCKHOLM
>         Sweden
>         Phone: (+46) 8 790 8463
>        Fax:   (+46) 8 790 7260
>         Email: address@hidden
>         WWW: http://www.s3.kth.se/~mabe
> =============================================