Import a MIDI file

Hi,

I tried to import a midi file into beast, but got no sound.
I mapped all channels to an existing synthesizer, and could
not find out what more should be done.

Import from midi files would be very valuable, because a
lot
of free midi files can be downloaded from the internet. It
would be fun to orchestrate some of them in beast.

I have also a suggestion for the beast developers. Why
don't
you stop working on the code and first write a decent user
manual? I know this is not a pleasant endeavour, but
without
such a thing the app simply is not useable for a 'Jo User'
like me!

Regards,
Wouter Boeke
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On Sat, 26 May 2007, W.Boeke wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I tried to import a midi file into beast, but got no
sound.
> I mapped all channels to an existing synthesizer, and
could
> not find out what more should be done.

beast doesn't produce MIDI output yet.

> Import from midi files would be very valuable, because
a lot
> of free midi files can be downloaded from the internet.
It
> would be fun to orchestrate some of them in beast.

after you've imported MIDI notes into beast, you still need
to load instruments and assign those to the various MIDI
tracks,
otherwise there's nothing to play for beast.

> I have also a suggestion for the beast developers. Why
don't
> you stop working on the code and first write a decent
user
> manual? I know this is not a pleasant endeavour, but
without
> such a thing the app simply is not useable for a 'Jo
User'
> like me!

well, we're currently working on extending the stock
instrument
set, so we are able to assign instrumnets automatically to
MIDI songs at some point.

someone writing a manual/tutorial would be great, we don't
have spare resources for that though. but i'll extend on
that in another mail.

> Regards,
> Wouter Boeke

---
ciaoTJ
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   Hi!

On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 06:23:20PM +0200, W.Boeke wrote:
> I have also a suggestion for the beast developers. Why
don't
> you stop working on the code and first write a decent
user
> manual? I know this is not a pleasant endeavour, but
without
> such a thing the app simply is not useable for a 'Jo
User'
> like me!

Besides the stuff that Tim already mentioned why we don't
write a manual
first, before continuing writing code, there is also
something that is
frequently forgotten: in free software projects, often
various people
work on different things, because they can, because they
want to,
because they see a need for doing it, and so on. Somebody
may be an
excellent translator for Japanese, but just because the
Greek
translation is really bad, but required by lots of people,
you cannot
just reassign him from the Japanese translation team to the
Greek
translation team.

While in a company, you could at least try to do it (and
say: if you
don't learn Greek, we'll just fire you), in free software
projects it
may not work so well to reassign someone from one task to
another. If
someone loves writing code, then he will probably be more
happy
contributing code than documentation.

But you're right: there seems to be the need for better
documentation,
and it would be great if someone would start working on
that. For me
right now, the 0.7.2 release still is a more important thing
to work on,
and the release will benefit all BEAST users. But I'll
support
documentation writers as good as I can, without stopping to
work on
coding.

BEAST may also not be as hard to learn as you may think at
first. In
fact, I've seen several people learning to use the program
in very
little time, as long as they asked questions on IRC,
personally or
otherwise, whenever they occured.

Of course, mastering the subject of creating good music
electronically
is a task that will take years to achive. But its not BEAST
that is
guilty if you cannot produce decent music at first, in the
same way that
you wouldn't blame the piano if a player cannot produce
decent music, or
the word processor if somebody doesn't write good books.

   Cu... Stefan
-- 
Stefan Westerfeld, Hamburg/Germany, http://space.twc.de/~stef
an
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