quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

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quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

Okay, so I have some MIDI files of drum beats. I want to just open them and loop them. What's the fastest options?

I successfully dragged one to Qtractor, looped it, set output of Qtractor to Qsynth. That worked, but it's a bit tedious.

I got it to play in VLC, but it won't loop for some reason!

I tried Audacious but it said Fluidsynth didn't have a soundfont chosen, and I failed to figure out where to do that.

I'd like to make it work with Hydrogen, but there's apparently not MIDI-file import still.

Any other thoughts?
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by j_e_f_f_g »

Have you tried BackupBand? https://sourceforge.net/projects/backupband

Its drummer will loop forever playing drum arrangements in 60 different styles. And so will its bassist and guitarist.

If you're looking for fast and easy pop/rock band accompaniment, this program's all about that.

There are 44khz and 48khz versions on the Files page.

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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

Thanks for the reminder!! I have an old copy of BackupBand and liked it. I see development has continued! Yay!

I still want to know in general the quickest, simplest way to open MIDI files and play them with the ability loop and change tempo etc. But the alternate suggestion here is also totally welcome. Cheers!
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by ssj71 »

I'm pretty sure carla will loop midi files. I'm confident it does audio files, but I don't recall doing midi.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

Hmm, I didn't realize Carla loaded plain audio or MIDI. I see it does. But how do I then do anything with that?

I can plug in the audio file to the output in the patchbay, but then what? Jack transport doesn't make it play. Giving it a MIDI input doesn't make it play. What tells the audio file to play?

I assume if I can learn how to do this with audio files (which would be useful too), I can then figure out MIDI files also.

Thanks
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by Pablo »

I use Audacious every day to loop midi files. I don't know if it can change tempo. If I need tempo changes or specific loops in a particular midi file, I use jack_capture, oggenc and playitslowly :D

Edit:
I load a soundfont (sf2 file) months ago and I didn't remember how I did it, but I remember it was not obvious. I have tried again for you :D

Settings, Plugins, Input, AMIDI-Plug. There is a button on the bottom which I didn't notice at first: Settings. From there add the soundfont.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

FWIW, playitslowly is not as quality a result as Mixxx or Sonic Visualiser.

Anyway, I found the Audacious thing again, so the soundfont works finally. Had to turn off cross-fade for smooth looping. It worked, but the lack of tempo change makes it not too practical (it can do a crappy audio-based change through editing the effect, very clunky interface and bad sounding result). I have some other complaints about Audacious. Was confusing about special qt-interface version versus gtk version.

Still looking for a simpler solution.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by ufug »

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like you could just drag this onto a midi track in Ardour (or Qtractor), and loop it. Add one of the AVL drumkit plugins to the track to generate the drum sounds. Pick any tempo.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

ufug wrote:Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like you could just drag this onto a midi track in Ardour (or Qtractor), and loop it. Add one of the AVL drumkit plugins to the track to generate the drum sounds. Pick any tempo.
Yeah, that's similar to my Qtractor + Qsynth that I mentioned initially. But it's certainly not as quick and easy as I'd like. I have to manually drag, set the loop, and open Qsynth or start a plugin.

Audacious and VLC just play the file straight away. I would be happy with those if they just had functioning tempo controls and the looping were easier and more reliable and didn't have other awkward interface issues.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by stanlea »

Why don't you use Giada ? It's a looper, with midi loop features.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

stanlea wrote:Why don't you use Giada ? It's a looper, with midi loop features.
When I load a basic MIDI file (which opens elsewhere), Giada says "Unable to read this sample"
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by milkii »

you want a midi player with in-built synthesis, something like TiMidity++, ADLMIDI, WildMIDI

if you want the ability to break out different drum parts, personally i'd recommend seq64, though that would still require patching to a soundfont (or such).

they/them ta / libreav.org / wiki.thingsandstuff.org/Audio and related pages / gh

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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by wolftune »

Thanks. Timidity at least last I tried (not that long ago) had a problem with creating high CPU use upon waking from suspend. I didn't know about the others. I guess I'll explore them.
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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by milkii »

i forgot to mention that part of reason i recommended seq64, other than the peasy part control, is that it has two levels of midi bpm control for both quick and subtle changes. i use a cheap dj controller with its two jog wheels mapped to those.

for a quick setup when beginning teaching, try a bit of automation through bash scripting.

they/them ta / libreav.org / wiki.thingsandstuff.org/Audio and related pages / gh

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Re: quickest way to loop a MIDI drum file?

Post by ssj71 »

wolftune wrote:Hmm, I didn't realize Carla loaded plain audio or MIDI. I see it does. But how do I then do anything with that?

I can plug in the audio file to the output in the patchbay, but then what? Jack transport doesn't make it play. Giving it a MIDI input doesn't make it play. What tells the audio file to play?

I assume if I can learn how to do this with audio files (which would be useful too), I can then figure out MIDI files also.

Thanks
Carla has transport controls. Find them and click the play button. You can also select it in the menu IIRC. Its possible this feature got removed/broken in the last release of carla.
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