Bandstand out of tune!

When playing certain midi-files most Bandstand instruments are completely out of tune! Listening is unbearable. On the other hand some files play beautifully completely out of tune. - Has someone experienced the same problem. - I suspect these midifiles are somehow corrupted: the problem files have been created with Sibelius + Photoscore! Could the way I created the midi files be the cause. - The reason why is suspect this is that some other files , e.g. a full symhonic file downloaded from the net plays perfectly. - I am not an expert in midi files, can there be some setting in the midi file messages that can be the reason?!?!
My dealer said the problem would be that Bandstand itself is the problem: I can´t see how this is possible!

 

It can't be Bandstand, the software only plays samples according to midi instructions received. Your dealer is obviously unfamiliar with the product. If your results are sounding out of tune then rogue midi messages must be the problem, e.g. pitch bends that shouldn't be there. How do you create your midi files? If you use a sequencer of some sort, e.g. Sonar, Cubase, etc. then you can open a 'midi events' view and examine the messages that are part of the song. Look at the ones other than note messages.

John

 

Midi messages can be the problem

Thanks for the rapid reply John. - Problems with midi messages was also my hunch about the problem. - My files are created in the notation software Sibelius with the scanning plug-in Photoscore. I can imagine Sibelius is creating some channel messages that dont´t work in Bandstand. Sibelius´ own sample player Kontact player plays the files beautifully but obviously the messages don´t work in Bandstand.

I tried to study the files both in Cubase and Sibelius but my knowledge on midi messaging is limited. Furhermore I even opend and resaved the midi files in another old notation software just to see if I could delete the inappropriate messages there. But this was no success.

I would be grateful for any further hints you can give me; what midi messages should I look for? How can I see them in e.g. Cubase

Pekka

 

Pekka, I'm afraid I have no idea at all how Sibelius and Photoscore work so I can offer no clues as to what they're adding in the way of midi messages.

Midi is acrually a very rich language and clever users can use it to make the sound souces (hardware or software) articulate just like the real instruments by using the various midi program commands. I'm afraid I'm just a guitarist who uses programs such as Band In A Box and Jammer Pro to help me make instrument parts and I also buy commercial midi backing tracks which I edit to a limited degree. So I don't create my music from notation upwards. I don't read or write notation. If you describe to me exactly how you're producing your music I can perhaps take a guess at how things may be going awry for you.

Also, I'm a Sonar user so I can only tell you how to see midi events listed in a Sonar track! However, I'm 100% sure Cubase must have a similar 'view' function so you can see all the midi events listed for each track. I'm not sure how that will help you though as editing them at that micro level could produce unpredictable results unless you know precisely what you're doing.