Dave,
Wups is my dog's name. Mine is Ian. Please send me an email to wam(at)ram.net.au so I might send you some zip files of midis.
If you get MidiSwing working, it will be perfect for your needs. The midis will open in that app and you will see them as a piano roll,
Here is how I use MidiSwing:
Drag the midi you want to open, onto the desktop;
Doubleclick on the MidiSwing icon. It will open showing about 4inches of blank virtual piano roll
Hit Command O. (for Open) A window will open with a heading which you may have change by clicking on the arrow on that box heading.
Get it to read "Desktop" and then scroll until find your midi
Click on that to highlight the title, then
in the bottom right of that window click on the button marked "Open"
Your midi will appear on screen as dashed lines (which represents the note slots in the paper as would have been seen in a piano roll). The darker the blue notes the louder they will play back, and the paler they are, the softer they will play.
Look at he first row of clickable buttons above the piano roll A loudspeaker, an arrow, a pencil and a music note are shown there.
Click on the Arrow
then hit Command A which highlights all the notes.
In the middle of any note, click and hold then drag to the right (or the left) until all the notes move and the first note lines up with the number 1 in the heading above the piano roll.
That has now given you a couple of seconds of silence which is the equivalent of a blank paper lead in to the music.
If you clicked too far from the middle you will have stretched the notes or altered their relative loudness or softness. (More on that later).
If you have made that mistake, Command Z will get you back to your last Save.
Unlike some Apps, you can't go back any further than Last Save
Now, at the left of the very bottom of your MidiSwing window is a long blue button which you click on, hold and drag to the right until you get to the finishing end of the midi on the virtual roll.
Click on the finishing edge of the virtual roll and arrows will appear allowing you to add a few inches of blank roll as a lead out from the roll.
What you have just done becomes important when you are playing your optimised midis from a playlist, where a few seconds between tunes is far better than having one tune playing hard upon another.
OK, you've added a bit of length to the roll after the end of the music
Now, beside that row of buttons I mentioned is another one with a word in it – probably "Keyboard" with up and down arrows at the right side.
Click on those arrows and get "Hold pedal" to replace "Keyboard"
You will see now, at the bottom of the screen, blue bands which activate the sustain pedal on your piano. If the sustain pedal of last note has has been stretched to where the roll stops, then click on the pencil icon, go to the bottom of the blue sustain band for that not an from the middle drag to the right which will shorten the sustain to where it should have stopped. Experiment clicking and dragging high and low on these band to add or subtract from the sustain pedal.
NOW, look at the menu bar at the very top left of your computer screen.
Beside the word "MidiSwing", is the word "File"
Click on that menu and run down the list of options until you see Convert to SFM0.
When it is highlighted, release the mouse and a pop-up notice will ask you if you are sure you want to convert the file to SMF0.
Hit YES, then Hit Command S which will save your file in correct format.
(If it is already an SFM0, then your only option will be "Convert to SMF1"...... DON'T – Simply hit Command S to save all you have done thus far.)
We are NEARLY THERE!
In the heading, look for the label "Output". with arrows.
Hit the arrows and highlight 'USB Cable' which will appear in the window when you leave it.
Hit Command A
Select the arrow icon and click on any note they are all hollow in appearance but while they are hollow, they can be manipulated.
Hold and click your mouse on the start of the note and a horizontal line with up and down arrows will appear in your cursor. If you hold the click on the mouse and drag down the screen a quarter inch, then release the mouse.
The dark blue notes will have lightened, meaning they are less likely to pound you piano when they play it
NOW Hit the Play arrow on the button at the top of the MidiSwing window and the first notes should play.
If still too loud, repeat what you just did to lower the note velocities.
Had you clicked your mouse at the right-hand end of the note your cursor would have given a vertical line with left and right arrows which means you could drag right or left to lengthen or shorten a note.
If all notes are hollow, your action will proportionally alter every note. This is marvellous because the loud soft relationships are preserved as are the note lengths relative to each other.
Playing thru the entire file will allow you to adjust notes that are not loud enough to play correctly. If the bass notes are too soft. Highlight the whole lot of them and with one click and a short upward drag you can boost their volume.
Adjusting the slider in the slot beside the arrow and pencil icons, will allow you to view the entire piece from start to end.
The other tempo slider allows you to play back at a speed which is more to your liking. Having found a tempo setting you like, click the square button to the right of the slot and your choice becomes the new tempo for the file.
Where you have the word "Hold Pedal" click the arrows until you can highlight "Tempo" and a grey line appears across the bottom. The higher it is , the faster the file is played back.
With the pencil icon, you can adjust them tempo throughout the file – I do this to very accurately match the pacing and phrasing of audio CD performances.
IF MIDISWING IS NOT BY NOW IS NOT PLAYING YOUR PIANO:
Save everything!
Make sure you are properly connected to the piano and that it is setup to read from the Midi-In port
Shut down and immediately restart your computer with the piano switched on
It should now recognise the piano.
There may be further fiddling required to get connection but we can do that via email.
I await your email so I can send midis.
Good luck
Ian
