Rosegarden Audio/Midi Sequencer introductions

Rosegarden Audio/Midi Sequencer. Music creations without limit. Midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), Is a perfect way to build up music instrument by instrument. The Important of building up the midi song with structure are important because when you try to export the midi file to other then rosegarden, will make the chance for the midi file to work on others computer, synth/keyboards and so on much bigger. With Rosegarden follows it a easy way to do this as you can see below:

That is okay to use, IF you held your project to Rosegarden, My experience with this is when you try to export your midi to other applications, something will not work as you attend to.

This can sound difficult and time consumed, but if you are bit structured, and made the setup file at hand, you have everything ready for your next project without any delay. I have made ready one file like this for you, just download it(you find it below) I have also made a guide how to use this. With structure on your midi I mean the following thing: You set the standard for every midi file you make where you put your instruments. The example that follows on my file is:

Track 1 = piano

Track 2 = Bass

Track 3 = Guitar (muted, clean and so on)

Track 4 = Melody

Track 5 = second voice

Track 6-9 = here you can set up, strings, clarinet, oboe, sax, and so on.

Track 10 = Drum, this is always drums, this is standard in GM setup.

Track 11-16 = same as 6-9.

If you follows this setup on your every midi sound, there will not be any problem to made new melody.

Instrumental index.

No.	Instruments	No.	Instruments	No.	Instruments	No.	Instruments
1	Ac. Grand Piano	34	El. Bass finger	67	Tenor Sax	100	FX 4 (atmosphere)
2	Bright Ac. Piano	35	El. Bass pick	68	Baritone Sax	101	FX 5 (brightness)
3	El. Grand Piano	36	Fretless Bass	69	Oboe	102	FX 6 (goblins)
4	Honky-tonk Piano	37	Slap Bass 1	70	English Horn	103	FX 7 (echoes)
5	El. Piano 1	38	Slap Bass 2	71	Bassoon	104	FX 8 (sci-fi)
6	El. Piano 2	39	Synth Bass 1	72	Clarinet	105	Sitar
7	Harpsichord	40	Synth Bass 2	73	Piccolo	106	Banjo
8	Clavi	41	Violin	74	Flute	107	Shamisen
9	Celesta	42	Viola	75	Recorder	108	Koto
10	Glockenspiel	43	Cello	76	Pan Flute	109	Kalimba
11	Music Box	44	Contrabass	77	Blow Bottle	110	Bag Pipe
12	Vibraphone	45	Tremolo Strings	78	Shakuhachi	111	Fiddle
13	Marimba	46	Pizz. Strings	79	Whistle	112	Shanai
14	Xylophone	47	Orch Harp	80	Ocarina	113	Tinkle Bell
15	Tubular Bells	48	Timpani	81	Lead 1 (square)	114	Agogo
16	Dulcimer	49	String Ens 1	82	Lead 2 (sawtooth)	115	Steel Drums
17	Drawbar Organ	50	String Ens 2	83	Lead 3 (calliope)	116	Woodblock
18	Perc. Organ	51	Synthstrings 1	84	Lead 4 (chiff)	117	Taiko Drum
19	Rock Organ	52	Synthstrings 2	85	Lead 5 (charang)	118	Melodic Tom
20	Church Organ	53	Choir Aahs	86	Lead 6 (voice)	119	Synth Drum
21	Reed Organ	54	Choir Oohs	87	Lead 7 (fifths)	120	Reverse Cymbal
22	Accordion	55	Synth Voice	88	Lead 8 (bass+lead)	121	Fret Noise
23	Harmonica	56	Orchestra hit	89	Pad 1 (new age)	122	Breath Noise
24	Tango Accordion	57	Trumpet	90	Pad 2 (warm)	123	Seashore
25	Ac. guitar nylon	58	Trombone	91	Pad 3 (polysynth)	124	Bird Tweet
26	Ac. guitar steel	59	Tuba	92	Pad 4 (choir)	125	Telephone Ring
27	El. guitar jazz	60	Muted Trumpet	93	Pad 5 (bowed)	126	Helicopter
28	El. guitar clean	61	French Horn	94	Pad 6 (metallic)	127	Applause
29	El. guitar muted	62	Brass Section	95	Pad 7 (halo)	128	Gunshot
30	OverDr. Guitar	63	SynthBrass 1	96	Pad 8 (sweep)
31	Dist. Guitar	64	SynthBrass 2	97	FX 1 (rain)
32	Guitar harmonics	65	Soprano Sax	98	FX 2 (soundtrack)
33	Acoustic Bass	66	Alto Sax	99	FX 3 (crystal)

And that was the index of the instrument, below you have the index overt the Percussive instruments (drums)

No.	DrumKit	Uses
1	Standard GM kit 1	Everything
2	Standard GM kit 2	Same as 1
10	Rom Kit	Pop Ballads
17	Power Set	Rock, hard rock
25	Electronic kit	Ballads
26	Analog kit	Also used in ballads
27	Dance Kit	Uses in Dance, Teckno
28	Dance Kit 2	Same As 27
33	Standard GM kit 3	Same as 1,2 and 74,75
41	Brush/jazz kit	Uses in jazz, or ballads
49	Orchestral Kit	Uses in classical music
57	Effects Kit	Uses to make effects around your melody
65	Percussion kit 1
66	Percussion kit 2
74	Standard Gm Kit 4
75	Standard Gm Kit 5

No.: representing the Programchange

Midi setup

Midi setup, in this case midisetup.rg file will I show you how to change settings. I will introduce you to some controllers that you will find usefully to your midi setup

No.	Controller	What does the controller do
7	Volume	This sets the volume on the midi track 0 if lowest setting, 127 is the loudest setting
10	Balance	This controls sett the balance on the midi track, 0 is for the left side, and 127 is right, 65 is center
32	Bank Select	This controller select the different sound banks on your synth/keyboard "LSB" (fine) bank select
0	Bank Select	This controller is the MSB (coarse) bank change
91	reverb	This sets the room size on the midi track, 0 is for no acoustics, and 127 for max acoustics

With this out of the way, you have setup a structured setup of the midi segment that tells your synth/keyboard what it should do. And then you simply can export the midi to any devices you want, even mobile phone.(if the mobile supports polyphonic midi)

here you can download the finish setup file

midisetup.rg

how to change bank select.

Sometime you wish to use different sounds on your Synth/keyboard that not belong in the GM standard, then you have to use controller that take care of this. Controller 0 and 32.

This functions are taken in use if you also want drums on other tracks then 10. Example percussion effects on tracks 16, that my favorite tracks to use for this functions. Then with controller 32 on data1, and number 4 on data2, changes what track 16 should do, in this case drums. And then with program change 57, will that track change to effect kit.

Controller 0 and 32, with number 0, is gm standard, use it on tracks 1-9, 11-16

Controller 0 and 32, with number 1-127 are those different banks, used on track 1-9, 11-16

Controller 32, with number 4, are for mine synth drums, that is use for standard on track 10, and on special need on any track you to your liking.

Yamaha keyboard with Gm2/Xg have some more options, I recommend you to read the manual that gives you the complete overview of the instrument on your keyboard, and there also says what banks the instrument exist on.

Let me take one example for you:

my keyboard have a instrument on controller 0(MSB) on value 8, and in controller 32(LSB) on value 1, and last on program change 3.

so the following is,

controller 0 with value 8

controller 32 with value 1

and last the program change with value 3

the order on when controller 0 and 32 and program change comes are important

remember that controller 0 and 32, have to come BEFORE program change.

i have included this in the standardupsetfile.

How to make rosegarden to automatically put controller and program change in the start of your segment, for exported midi

This is actually something I just found out. You use the instrument parameter to have the reverb, volume you want, and then the trick is to press a key on your keyboard when rosegarden count up for you, so you actually get one note in the count in before record. You can do this on every segment. And when you export the song to midi, the info will automatically be put inn. The only thing is, that you have to import the new midi file you made, and remove the note you don't need and save it again.

As I said, this is not necessary if you just held your project as a rosegarden file.

how to add a new midi device

All synth have many sounds, and you will not get to all the sound that are available with the GM only on the "quick instrument parameter pick". So if you follow this way you can try to add your synth/keyboard as your default device, and take in use all sound that lives in your keyboard/synth. New devices are added on new releases of rosegarden, so if you not find your own device here, you can just wait to see if it show up, or you can help the rosegarden project and make the instrument indexing your self, and simply send the *.rgd file to them, and at the same time join the rosegarden list: http://rosegardenmusic.com/support/lists/

Placing your audio file for your new project

It's very important to be strict when there comes to where you placing your recording live instruments, vocals. Because without that you will after a wile get problem to find what files you are working on. it's not impossible, but without any structure on it, you will use allot of time find it. So lets say you have made your self a new midi melody "shallala", and you want to record your vocal on it, then you just remember to make a director that has the same name as your melody, and place your recorded audio in there.