Dropping MIDI notes

[Wagnergrad96]

Occasionally, when I have a complete song sequence, during playback some notes will drop. But if I play the same thing back again there could be no problems at all.

It's most noticeable with drums, such as crash cymbals, but I've noticed it on organ parts too.


My opinion is that it is related to the same reason why I seem to get clicks and pops when I record audio in my sequences - a defect and / or RAM issues.


Anyone else deal with this?

[Wagnergrad96]

An example would be the song I just finished.

It took me forever to mix it down to a .wav file because each time the organ comes in, it would sometimes not play the top note. It comes in three times so a few times I got to the third time and it didn't play and I would have to start the mix over.

I was finally able to get through it, though.


https://soundcloud.com/user-831858763/s ... lson-cover

[StephenKay]

What you describe sounds like a problem with voice-stealing. You are exceeding the available polyphony at various points. When there are not enough voices, notes will be dropped. Exactly which ones are not always entirely repeatable, due to the inherent timing delays of MIDI data. So if you have a bunch of notes all hitting at the exact same beat, sometimes a low note or a high note will not issue, but not always the same one. Or the bass note might drop out one time, and a drum note the next time (at the same spot). You can watch the polyphony usage on the Perf Meters page. But in general, a lot of times when a song is playing you could be hitting polyphony limits but not hearing the results, since the algorithm that does the voice-stealing is pretty intelligent and tries to cover it up. But eventually you may hit a spot where something obvious happens.

[onsenonsen]

Turn on the Track Priority check box in P2:Track Parameters - MIDI page.

[Wagnergrad96]

Thanks for the suggestions. I almost always have things very quantized. So what I did was to slightly alter the time when the notes enter. Instead of both entering on beat 3.000, I will make one come in on 2.470. Would that fix the voice-stealing issue or was I just lucky that the notes I needed were played?

[StephenKay]

Thanks for the suggestions. I almost always have things very quantized. So what I did was to slightly alter the time when the notes enter. Instead of both entering on beat 3.000, I will make one come in on 2.470. Would that fix the voice-stealing issue or was I just lucky that the notes I needed were played?

Well, yes - this type of editing can cover up the voice-stealing. But it still may be there, you're just not hearing it. Some other note less important may be being stolen.

Having said that, I've done similar type edits in polyphony heavy songs - if you don't hear it, then it's really not a problem.

However, as the other person said, sometimes the use of the Timbre Prioirty checkbox can help. For example, if you were to turn that on on the organ part you reference, it would make sure that *those notes* didn't get stolen.