MIDI, Digital Music Composition, Windows Digital Audio Software, Digital Audio Recording, Live Audio Engineering, MIDI Guitar, General Music Theory and Composition.
Experience
Experience in the area:
- 25 years working with Computers and Digital Music.
- 10 years as a professional Live Sound Engineer.
- 5 years as a professional Studio Recording Engineer.
- 2 years as Creative Director of an internet-based Audio Production Company specializing in Sampling and Digital Audio.
Organizations:
- Currently active as a Beta Tester for various Audio Software Companies.
- Regular contributor to various Software Support Forums.
Education/Credentials:
- Dip. Technology Telecommunications Electronics (B.C.I.T.)
- A.A. Degree (U.B.C./S.F.U.)
- College Cert. in Jazz Guitar Composition (V.C.C.)
- College Cert. in Fine Arts (E.C.I.A.D.)
Question I am attempting to transfer some songs from my older Mac to my new studio PC by playing the MIDI from the Mac and recording it on the PC.
However, when I connect a cable from the MIDI out of my Mac interface to the MIDI in of my PC interface, I do not get any MIDI input activity lights on the PC interface, and nothing gets recoded.
Curiously, using an older Yamaha MIDI cable did get the activity lights to flash, but still would not record any note data.
Saving the MIDI data as a smf would cause me to lose a lot of the non-destructive editing that is present on a lot of my tracks, so this is really not an option.
Any thoughts?
-Jack (MIDI user since 1985)
Answer I can see no reason why the MIDI would not get recorded. Can you record MIDI from a keyboard or other MIDI device? And can you send MIDI from the Mac to a MIDI device and have it play? If so, then hooking the MIDI OUT of the Mac to the MIDI IN of the PC should record whatever you send from the Mac. I can't think of any technical reason this would not work... I would suggest using a MIDI monitor app in the PC to read exactly what is coming in on the MIDI port... but if the leds are not even lighting, then one can assume it is nothing... though I would certainly suspect a dodgy cable and at least use the "older Yamaha MIDI cable" ... I mean, all MIDI cables are exactly the same, so this cable should not be any different, but the other one may be faulty.
So using the Yamaha MIDI cable, use a MIDI monitor in the PC and try to see what MIDI info is coming in. If you can see data, then it may just be a question of setting up the PC software correctly (setting the correct port in your DAW that you are using to record the MIDI track).
I'm not sure what data you will lose if you save in SMF, but perhaps there is another format that you could use? What format is the original MIDI file in? Perhaps there is a translation program available? Save the original file as a zip... transfer it over to the PC, unzip it... then translate it to what the PC DAW uses.
Other than that... you'll just have to save as SMF, and redo the editing data... or try doing a sysex transfer directly.
Well... that's about the end of my "thoughts" ... ;-)
Good luck... feel free to follow up if you try any of these ideas out and have further information or details that may be of interest...
