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Export to MIDI not always consistant

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 2:17 am
by camarok
Hi All,

Exporting songs / shows / set-lists seems to be very hit or miss. We are using Show Buddy to program lights, then export the show, into Cubase to match our backing tracks. Some midi files when imported are one continuous track, others are in chunks that we have to glue together. Sometimes tracks are perfect as is, some seem to get altered either on the import into Cubase, or during the export from Show Buddy.

What I've noticed on the "bad" midi tracks, is that there will be sections that line up correct on the correct notes, but then there will be sections where the dead space in-between notes is more or less than it should be, causing the notes to no longer line up to where it should in the song. Another thing we've noticed is that the notes themselves may be different in places, causing the incorrect scene (preset) to trigger. I'm trying to figure out what is happening but I cannot pinpoint a common item between the bad tracks.

I've also made small edits to the tracks to potentially alter the file but this also does not have any change.

Thanks all, hoping to get this sorted out in the next week without tons of manual adjustments in Cubase.

~Kevin

Re: Export to MIDI not always consistant

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2022 4:05 am
by camarok
Further testing shows importing the exported tracks in other MIDI editors shows the same issues, leading me to believe that the issue is with the export of the MIDI file for the track. Of a batch of 10 songs that I have time-coded in Show Buddy > Export MIDI > Import / Add to the Cubase click-track of the same song > the exported MIDI> a handful of the files are not the same length, generally shorter than the song leading to the hits not lining up as they are hitting faster than they should. There are some songs / MIDI files that are perfectly lined up and require no adjustments out of Show Buddy and into Cubase to our click track.

Things I've tested and tried to pinpoint the source of the issue.
  • Change the tempo in Show Buddy to match temp of song
  • Noted PPQN in Cubase, and matched that in Show Buddy
  • Imported / Created a new track in Show Buddy, copied the song hits from original and paste in to new track
  • Renamed default light show and updated naming convention to "00x xxx" updating all presets in Show Buddy after doing so
  • Exported MIDI from Show Buddy, import to another MIDI editor to rule out Cubase, confirmed timing off as well
I may have tried other things but cannot recall them at this time.

This leads me to believe there is some metadata? somewhere in the presets causing this. Possibly some weird thing with the name of a preset or 2 causing the overall track to have different timing or something like that. I'm not sure where to go with this, I will unfortunately have to edit the midi track and line everything up for the affected songs manually in the Cubase VST DMXIS plugin, but moving forward with new songs leaves me apprehensive in continuing to use what is other wise amazing software.