MIDI file import

Drag a .mid or .midi file into the sequencer and its notes become ordinary MIDI clips, ready to edit, transpose and play with any instrument. Pitches, velocities, note lengths, leading and trailing rests and sustain pedal presses all come through; each musical part becomes its own clip on its own track.

When to use it

Use it to bring in a sketch from another program, a downloaded chord progression or drum pattern, or a part you exported earlier. Because the result is a normal clip, everything that works on a drawn clip works here: the piano roll, groove, arpeggiator, chord track and automation.

Controls

Dropping a file

Drop the file where you want it to start. The position follows the sequencer’s snap grid; dropping on a track header places the file at the cursor. Several files dropped together share the same start, the same way audio files do.

Where the parts land

The first part goes on the track you dropped it on if that track is an instrument track, so its sound and settings are kept. Every further part creates a new instrument track with the default synth. Dropping on empty space or on an audio track creates new instrument tracks; audio tracks stay audio tracks. Each file is one undo step, including all the tracks and clips it created.

Import audio / MIDI

The toolbar button and the File menu open a file picker for the same import, which suits files that are not easy to drag.

What follows the project

Notes play at the project’s current tempo and time signature. Tempo changes and meter changes stored in the file do not change the project; the import message says so when a file contains them. Program changes, pitch bend, aftertouch and controllers other than sustain are not mapped, and the message lists what was skipped. Percussion channels arrive on the default synth too, so choose Drums afterwards.

Tips

• Set the project tempo before importing if the file was written at a different speed; the notes keep their bar positions, so the song stays aligned.
• Select the right instrument track before dropping a single-part file and the clip lands with that instrument already in place.
• A file that cannot be read leaves the project untouched, and in a batch the files before it stay imported.