MIDI to STYLE feature

[karmathanever]

Wow - used this last night for the first time and in just a couple of hours I now have some awesome STYLEs

It scared me how quickly it converts but it does a fabulous job - great bit of software Korg!!!

I have been converting very high quality MIDI files that have been created using MIDI standards and so the conversions were very good.
Of course there is a little bit of tweaking occasionally but a limited amount of effort to get a great result which could have taken many many hours done manually.
As MIDI files can be so so different in structure and channel assignments I would imagine that some would convert strangely.

I have a large collection of superb professionally created MIDIs and now look forward to many more great STYLEs from them.

If you have some great MIDIs - give it a try - you'll be amazed (I hope) - I recommend that if you are new to Korg arrangers then just spend a little time understanding the STYLE structure and STYLE recording basics.

Pete

[Jugoslovak]

I think that when it comes to this feature, it all comes down to what kind of midi file you have to begin with.
I have tried time and time again to convert our Balkan midi files to styles without success... but when I do english midi files, they convert almost perfectly, I mean yes, there is a little tweaking to be done on a few English files, but nowhere near the pain, sweat and tears I go through for the Balkan files!!
This is a great feature that Korg has integrated into the PA series and I believe more and more people will become acustomed to using it in the future, the only thing I would love to see with this feature is if we could somehow see the midi files opened up on the screen as you do when you import a midi file into a DAW so we can really get in there and really dial in where we want things... that would help some of us European musicians out quite alot
Because of the type of music I play, I can not rely on this feature at all and have to make my styles the old fasion way through a DAW, which takes a very long time... but in the end, I know I am getting what I want from a style when its complete, whereas for me to rely on the midi-to-style function, it is just not possible to get it to perform as it should for me.

[Jugoslovak]

Oh... just a quick question Pete, where do you source your midi files from? I would like to get myslef a few high quality files just to line them up against what I have from the Tune1000 collection.

Cheers.

[Bernie9]

This is very interesting to me,also, as I have thousands of midi's, including the Tune 1000 collection. Since I just bought my pa4X, I haven't gotten to that yet.

Bernie

[karmathanever]

YEP - Tune1000 work just great (so far)

Remember that if there's a 16 measure intro the PA4X will intelligently attempt to get the 8 measures before the song starts (track 4) SO you can always import the intro later!!!.

I've had some excellent success with these MIDIs - love it!!!!

Pete

[kbrkr]

I've been having hit or miss luck with this feature. Just yesterday I tried to convert a very good professional midi file, "Respect - Aretha Franklin" and it did not do a good job of the bass line. Also, it was throwing in some weird accompaniment almost like it had Tourette's syndrome or something.

I had to re-record the bass line and delete 2-3 accompaniment channels. It's a start, but some refinement is necessary.

[barry murphy]

I'm glad to see you got it to work pete.Some said earlier on that it was a useless feature. But I would say that they had not discovered the way of using the feature properly!
I suppose the styles will not work on the pa3x? ha ha. If they do, can we expect a torrent of new styles to play with?
By the way, I knew there would be plenty of tweaking to do(which I like doing).
Barry

[Chuck]

Well Pete, I must be doing something wrong. After following each of the steps in the manual, I've tried to convert 7 midi files and I was unable to get a decent style out of any of them. I gave up but after reading Pete's note perhaps I try again tomorrow.

[johnnie]

This is an excellent thread and I can see it growing. Well done Pete for starting it.
Johnnie

[karmathanever]

Hi Chuck

This conversion software has some limitations because MIDI files are so different.
It seems to follow the "unwritten" MIDI standards like Channel 10-drums, channel 4-vocal(lead song), channel 5-harmony part etc....

Many of the Tune1000 MIDIs are similar and hence work pretty well.
It seems that the software figures out where the intro is by checking where the song starts (channel-4)
Quite clever but if a MIDI file is just created without any thought to structure and channel assignment then it may well end up unusable.

Cheers

Pete