LinuxMusicians

This looks like a friendly place, thanks for that! I have a couple of noob questions about Rosegarden, and hopefully someone can set me right. I'm making a game, and for music I'm simplifying public domain MIDI files. This mostly involves deleting or moving sections (as I don't yet have the skills to create music from scratch). But I have two problems:

1. How do I make a section quieter? Can I highlight a section of a track and change its volume?

2. How do I move tempos? When I move or delete a section of music the tempo line does not change, so all the notes are now at the wrong speed.

Thanks for any help!

It's been a while since I've used Rosegarden, but I'll give this a try.

tolworthy wrote:1. How do I make a section quieter?

There are a few ways to do this. One of which is to edit the note velocities, see the bottom of this page: https://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tour/midi/
Alternatively, if you don't want to touch the velocities of individual notes, you can use midi CCs (continuous controls). For loudness, you want either volume (CC#7) or expression (CC#11).

tolworthy wrote:2. How do I move tempos?

Somebody else more familiar with Rosegarden can help you solve this, but I can explain why it happens. Even though the midi spec includes tempo changes, No region-based DAW that I have ever used keeps track of tempo changes in midi regions. I think this is because multiple overlapping midi regions on different tracks might indicate different tempos, which one should be considered the correct tempo?

Many thanks! I'll have a look at midi CCs now. And maybe I should just avoid MIDI files created by concert pianists. Most files don't have too many tempo changes, so it's not too hard to change them manually. But when I find a MIDI that was recorded live by a skilled pianist, the tempo changes on almost every note! So if I need to remove a section the results can be very strange.

There is a lot you can do with Rosegarden. You can set things like volume and tempo maps. Have you looked here?

folderol wrote:There is a lot you can do with Rosegarden. You can set things like volume and tempo maps. Have you looked here?

I did, but I somehow overlooked the one line I needed (the manual) and instead got bogged down with the tutorials. Thanks to your tip I am now experimenting with "set tempo from beat segment" etc. I don't think it's what I want (the feature is clearly and rightly aimed at composers, not amateur editors) nut I'll keep persevering. Thanks.