help with midi source file problems

[Esperado]

Hello all, I decided its time to get serious about all this music stuff. so here I am, the place that inspired me!

Anyways, so here I am trying to import a midi file into ableton, and BOOM all of the notes for the WHOLE SONG show up in one giant midi clip. But then when I load the midi file in garageband or logic it loads up each bit into a seperate channel (although, with seemingly random synth sounds).I wanted to just take the melody and other recognizable bits, chop them up and mess around with them. I know the obvious choice would be to just use logic for the project, but I have little idea how logic works and have been using ableton since I first starting fooling around on my own little music projects since I enjoy its alternative workflow.

So Im left with two real questions :

1. For any ableton users out there, is there a way to import the midi source file without it mashing it all into one clip?

or

2. for any logic users out there, is there a way i can just export each individual midi clip to a folder ?

Either way, thanks and I hope to get to know the community better

[GallenWolf]

I don't have logic open now - but IIRC you should be able to select midi region in logic, then under the file menu there should be a "export selection as midi" option.

[Moseph]

It sounds like the problem is that you're trying to import a type 0 MIDI file (where everything is bunched together on one track), you want it to be a type 1 file (where everything is separated), and Ableton doesn't let you convert the type on import. I found another message board thread in which someone has the same problem with Ableton, and there are a couple of conversion programs listed in that thread. I've never used them myself so I can't vouch personally for them, but it's a place to start, at least. Googling midi type converter would probably also be fruitful.

[SnappleMan]

You should be able to dissolve the MIDI type 0 parts into separate tracks without having to convert to type 1 and re-import. Search the help file in Ableton for that. One thing that I have to warn you about is that Abletons MIDI support is pathetic. It does not import MIDI tempo data from your files, so you'll have to set the tempo and time yourself.

[Rozovian]

Logic's built-in instruments don't care about midi channel, but it's a bigger deal in midi files... for obvious reasons. If some program can't import the midi regions properly as separate tracks, it might just want to separate them by channel... or at least that shouldn't be too hard.

If the type 0 issue doesn't get you anywhere, this might get your around the problem.

[SnappleMan]

That depends on how the MIDI was created. If the original composer moved chunks around from channel to channel (like in a DAW) then the imbedded channel data per note will be different from track to track. That means that MIDI channel 1 will have chunk of notes in it that were recorded originally to channel 6, so when you split that by channel you get a clusterfuck.

[Esperado]

ill try dent du midi, if that doesnt work, i might try other midi converters until i find something. the tempo syncing seems to be the most annoying part. ableton does have an "original tempo" feature for syncing tempos of samples/clips and such, but it doesnt really seem to work so well with the midi files. Otherwise i would just surgically pick the files apart and seperate them by melody, harmony, etc. and tempo sync them. I might end up having to go that route and then just replay the parts on my keyboard. tedious but it would work i guess. Ill let you know what i figure out in case anyone else is curious. thanks

EDIT: i cannot for the life of me find a working copy of dent du midi, and it seems like the creators website is down. anyone know of any other good midi conversion programs? i have virtualbox on my laptop, so if its windows , i can use it as well. i hope they fix this issue in live 9.