Exporting MIDI tracks for External MIDI Instruments

[Fotu]

My understanding from doc and poking in exported files: when using "Export MIDI File..." Reason will create a MIDI file including:

• All Reason tracks represented with a MIDI track, whether corresponding to an External MIDI Instrument (EMI) or not

• All MIDI events transmitted on Channel 1 (binary 0) for every track

• For each track, a track Port reference (presumably meaningful within the DAW, but not outside the DAW)

Even if you've assigned a MIDI Channel to an EMI, it is overriden to 1 in the output MIDI file.

What I want is the exported file to only include tracks for the EMIs, and to not override my MIDI Channel assignments.

For now I deal with this using a kludgy process of editing the MIDI file to delete non-EMI tracks, correct the event Channel assignments for EMI track events, and replace the track Port reference with a track Channel reference.

I'm wondering if anyone else has used MIDI export for a similar objective and found better ways to deal with these limitations? Or maybe I'm missing some other MIDI export method available in Reason?

[jimmyklane]

My understanding from doc and poking in exported files: when using "Export MIDI File..." Reason will create a MIDI file including:

• All Reason tracks represented with a MIDI track, whether corresponding to an External MIDI Instrument (EMI) or not

• All MIDI events transmitted on Channel 1 (binary 0) for every track

• For each track, a track Port reference (presumably meaningful within the DAW, but not outside the DAW)

Even if you've assigned a MIDI Channel to an EMI, it is overriden to 1 in the output MIDI file.

What I want is the exported file to only include tracks for the EMIs, and to not override my MIDI Channel assignments.

For now I deal with this using a kludgy process of editing the MIDI file to delete non-EMI tracks, correct the event Channel assignments for EMI track events, and replace the track Port reference with a track Channel reference.

I'm wondering if anyone else has used MIDI export for a similar objective and found better ways to deal with these limitations? Or maybe I'm missing some other MIDI export method available in Reason?

Can you tell me the purpose for this? I work with almost exclusively hardware, and I simply leave the MIDI muted and closed down at the very bottom of the tracks in the sequencer, and out of the way in the rack. Very useful if you ever need to come back to the song. I take the additional step of recording SysEx for all the patches into one of my samplers and saving it onto a floppy per song so that I can recall at any date, and save the track as a scene preset in my console. It’s a huge housekeeping task but the last time I didn’t do this I needed to change a part in a track that couldn’t be done via audio!

So I’m keen to learn why you’re doing SMFs once you’re done with the track? Maybe you’ve found a better workflow than I have and if so I’d love to learn!

[Fotu]

Can you tell me the purpose for this?

In this use case, I'm using Reason to build audio backing tracks for live performance, so the main end product is just an audio file (Reason export to .wav, then to aac for performance playback). However, I also 'play' MIDI events synchronized with the backing track to automate things like vocal fx patches, guitar fx patches, and (my next automation steps) stage lighting (driving a MIDI-compatible DMX controller).

Live playback uses the app 'BandHelper' on iPads to play the audio, display synchronized lyrics / cheat sheets, manage setlists, etc. It also supports issuing MIDI events during playback, which have to be separately added with a rudimentary UI (nothing like a sequencer) within the app, and thus really only practical for a few simple program changes, etc. during a song. However, a future release of the app may soon support playing an SMF along with the backing audio track, lyrics, etc. That will be much better for my workflow, allowing me to maintain the events for the external MIDI devices (fx & lights) within Reason tracks so they can be easily sync'ed to audio within the DAW (not as a separate downstream step). (This is particularly beneficial if editing the audio arrangement, which today is a PIA if you have to also change (aka re-do) MIDI event timing in a separate app.)

However, I've been surprised to find out how restrictive Reason's MIDI export function is, and realizing it will lead to new steps to scrub the exported files so they are useful for live playback.

So all that said, it's different from your objectives and workflow in that I really need to retain some of the MIDI events to support the audio song performance, all happening outside of Reason. So, sorry, I don't think I have any useful tips for you!