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Anvil Studio Bug Fix - resolved

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Marcus
Posts: 30
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

I've been using a MIDI editing software called Anvil Studio to transcribe Beethoven's 3rd symphony into MIDI format. So far, I've been able to finish transcribing the first movement, and now I'm in the middle of doing the second movement. While I believe my unfinished MIDI file plays like the movement very well so far, I can't help but think that there is some sort of bug either in the software or the MIDI file itself, and I'll explain why.

If you'd look at the PNG attachments, you'll see that in measure 114 of the MIDI file, the cellos section (String Ensemble 1 sound font) as seen in the first PNG displays note placement in an awkward way, unlike the double basses section (also String Ensemble 1 sound font) in the second PNG, which displays the notes in a proper fashion.

Lastly, please refer to the ZIP file, which contains the MIDI file in question. Since I know practically nothing about finding bugs in files and/or software and fixing them, I suggest that someone on this site more skilled in debugging take a look at it. Is there any problem whatsoever with the file and/or software?

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 10:05 am
Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas
Posts: 154
Estimable Member
 

I can't say that there is no bug in Anvil Studio, because all software has bugs. But in this case, the strange notation of the Cello part at bars 113 & 114 is understandable if you look at the MIDI data. Specifically, at the start time of the notes. The attached picture is a Matrix window (piano roll) of the Rosegarden software with your file loaded, showing two tracks: Cello in yellow and Double bass in grey with whole bars 113 and 114 and partially showing bars 112 and 115. Each grid cell represents a 32th note. You can observe that the cello notes are slightly displaced to the right, in contrast to the Bass notes that fit exact cell positions. You probably need to quantize the start time of the notes to fix the notation problems.

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 12:20 pm
Bavi_H
Posts: 267
Reputable Member
 

Here's another way of looking at it.

I opened the MIDI file in the MIDI sequencer software Sekaiju and looked in the Event List. At measure 114, I see the notes in the "Cellos" track are advanced 20 ticks compared to the notes in the "Double Basses" track. This slight shift is probably affecting the music notation view in Anvil Studio.

(The file is using a resolution of 960 ticks per quarter note, so 20 ticks is a 128th triplet note.)

Track "Cellos"                             Track "Double Basses"
════════════════════════════════════════ ════════════════════════════════════════
Position Ch Kind Pitch Vel Dur Position Ch Kind Pitch Vel Dur
───────── ── ─────── ────── ─── ─── ───────── ── ─────── ────── ─── ───
114:1:020 8 Note On 53 F3 64 480 114:1:000 8 Note On 41 F2 64 480
114:1:740 8 Note On 46 Bb2 64 80 114:1:720 8 Note On 34 Bb1 64 80
114:1:820 8 Note On 46 Bb2 64 80 114:1:800 8 Note On 34 Bb1 64 80
114:1:900 8 Note On 46 Bb2 64 80 114:1:880 8 Note On 34 Bb1 64 80
114:2:020 8 Note On 48 C3 64 480 114:2:000 8 Note On 36 C2 64 480
114:2:740 8 Note On 48 C3 64 80 114:2:720 8 Note On 36 C2 64 80
114:2:820 8 Note On 48 C3 64 80 114:2:800 8 Note On 36 C2 64 80
114:2:900 8 Note On 48 C3 64 80 114:2:880 8 Note On 36 C2 64 80
115:1:020 8 Note On 41 F2 64 480 115:1:000 8 Note On 29 F1 64 480
 
Posted : 16/11/2022 12:52 pm
Marcus
Posts: 30
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for your helpful replies guys! 🙂

From your pieces of advice, I think I might have figured out a way to fix my little problem using Anvil Studio. I believe I moved the notes in question to their proper places using some sort of grid view feature.

Please check out the new PNG images and the revised MIDI file and let me know if I fixed the issue. (The grid view I'm talking about can be seen in the PNGs.) If the answer is negative, please come up with a solution. Thank you very much. 🙂

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 3:14 pm
Geoff
Posts: 1043
Noble Member
 

Yes, assuming the notes are 'correct' as per the score, then there is nothing wrong here - other that the slight displacement of the data. Maybe the displacement, and the fact that notes are overlapping into the next space, is causing a problem for the Anvil display. If the Quantise will allow you to change the notes so they go back by 20 ticks then this will sort everything.

How were you entering the notes? The 20 ticks will be a tiny amount on the tip of the mouse pointer, so if you got the first note slightly out you may not have noticed, then the rest of the bars may have followed on. Or the actual error starts with the duration/length of the long note in 113 which may actually be too long, so it overlaps by 20, and the rest follow on from that.

Geoff

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 3:22 pm
Marcus
Posts: 30
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Hi Geoff! Thank you for your helpful reply! 🙂

You just solved my error! It turns out it was my mistake all along. I miscalculated that long note in measure 113 of the file to equal 1,580 ticks, when it really should have been only 1,560 ticks long! I fixed the problem, and now everything is fine. I'm not gonna even attach any file to this reply.

Resolved! 🙂

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 4:11 pm
Geoff
Posts: 1043
Noble Member
 

Marcus,

Thanks for the update.

I don't know what you've read about this, but your piece might end up sounding somewhat 'robotic'?

The general advice is that you should introduce some variation into the notes, while keeping the bars and the beat in mind. The details you show here shows all notes starting dead on the tick, finishing dead on the tick, all being full length and all the same volume. OK, other parts may be better? The degree of variation does not need to be much, just enough that the brain hears it, and thinks that humans are playing it.

Try to find another piece where the sequencer (the person who's created it) has actually played parts of it, rather than used step entry, and note what sort of variation they've used (or played) and how the pattern of the variation matches the pattern of the bars, and try to do something similar. Should sound a LOT batter.

Geoff

 
Posted : 16/11/2022 5:13 pm
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