What are the best programs for editing midi files?
I'm looking for a Mac OS X program for editing midi files.
Specifically, I'm using the program Synthesia to learn how to play songs on the piano, but a lot of the midi files I have don't have the notes split into a right hand and left hand track. I'm looking for a program where I can load one of these midi files, add a new track, and then manually move notes from the existing track onto the new track.
Are there any good programs I can do this with?
Solution 1:
I'll admit I'm biased because I've been working with it for years now, but Apple's Logic has one of the best MIDI editing interfaces going. If the Pro version is a little too much for you to stomach there's an "Express" version that's pared down when it comes to plugins and samples, but has the same excellent MIDI editor.
On the cheap-but-effective side you've got Reaper which will run on OS X and includes MIDI editing facilities. You can try it out for free and it's $40 (at the time of writing) to buy it if you like it. Hard to beat that deal.
And then in between these two running the gamut of price and features you've got a whole slew of other options: Cubase, Sonar, Abelton, etc. Each of them offering slightly (or not so slightly) different interfaces and feature sets.
Solution 2:
I had this same problem, and I've just discovered that you can actually do it in Synthesia. Just do this....
- Select the song
- Click on 'Hands Colours and Instruments' button
- Click where it currently says Left Hand, Right Hand or Background and choose the 'custom' option
- Click on 'Split from here' at the top
- Click where you want to split left/right and then click on continue. It will split all of the future notes left/right from where you click. So you can then progress through the song and click higher or lower on the keyboard as needed.
- To fine tune any notes that you want to change click on each notes with the left or right mouse button to assign it to the left or right hand