MIDI to Batari BASIC Conversion

[+Gemintronic]

VisualbB has gotten me by in a pinch for music. I thank jwiewer for that. However, the dream is Mario Paint Composer for VisualbB/Batari. http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/

 

A first step may be to avoid VisualbB and use a standard MIDI composer. Of course, this means conversion of the output from MIDI (.MID) to Batari data. Dead end? Maybe not!

 

MIDICSV has a command line tool to convert MIDI files to CSV (Comma-Separated Value)

http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/midicsv/#Download

 

MIDI2RTTL Converts MIDI to Nokia ring-tone format

http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm

 

Both options convert MIDI files to easily readable (and thus easily convertable) text files. Please note these utils are command line only.

 

All it would take is programming yet another converter from CSV or RTTL to Batari data.

 

Needless to say I'm mulling things over. Thought this might spark some interest!

[+atari2600land]

Have you seen this?

[+Gemintronic]

Have you seen this?

 

Yeah, thanks for the lead! Seen it. Got it to work er, maybe never. Random Terrain got it down with the info. And one can make do with VisualbB's keyboard in a pinch. What is needed is something where you can slap notes on the screen and play them back until you've adusted the composition properly like Mario Paint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Paint

[Pioneer4x4]

Have you seen this?

 

Yeah, thanks for the lead! Seen it. Got it to work er, maybe never. Random Terrain got it down with the info. And one can make do with VisualbB's keyboard in a pinch. What is needed is something where you can slap notes on the screen and play them back until you've adusted the composition properly like Mario Paint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Paint

Sounds cool, I have Mario Paint. It was fun in the day.

[+Gemintronic]

Sounds cool, I have Mario Paint. It was fun in the day.

 

Absolutely. For me, music composition is visual as well as aural. The notes have different shapes related to duration. Higher or lower notes have varying height values. Seeing the patterns in note combinations is critical to composing a tune. A virtual keyboard ala VisualbB is an important first step. The next logical leap (for me) would be a music bar system.

 

Anywhoo, I think I'll try learning enough about Excel to convert notes from a .CSV file. Pending jwierer getting excited about coding the music system further I think a more realistic route is to:

 

A. Find the best "Mario Paint" like MIDI composer and

B. Find a good conversion route between the MIDI format and Batari BASIC.

 

Any more feedback would be great. Panky the Panda got me excited over what the 2600 can do musically! http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/145482-panky-the-panda-new-wip-homebrew/

Edited July 30, 2010 by theloon

[+Random Terrain]

The problem with music on the Atari 2600 is that there are very few notes that are in tune or close to being in tune. That's why the music in some Atari 2600 games is an offense to the ears because they forced a tune into the Atari using a conversion tool. If you want to make a tune specifically for the Atari 2600, you have to stick with notes that sound good on the Atari. The keyboards in the Music and Sound Editor is an attempt to help bB users make music that doesn't sound like somebody trying to flush a cat down a toilet.

 

It would be cool if jwierer could make a more advanced version of the Music and Sound Editor where you can drag and drop notes (just generally move around bars until you are happy with the tune) and adjust the duration for each bar, but if he can't do that, I'm still pretty happy with the tool we have right now. I right click on the keyboard images to find the note I want, then left click to add it. If I want to move a note, I just cut the note data and move it where I want it, then preview to make sure I put it in the right place.

[+Gemintronic]

..make music that doesn't sound like somebody trying to flush a cat down a toilet.

 

LOL. See, the problem with Random Terrain having an awesome sense of humor is that I've got a vivid imagination. I actually started to think about the equipment and files needed to achieve cat-in-toilet -> WAV2MIDI and AutoHotKey for conversion into Batari commands. Padded gloves and a good microphone are a must.

 

Well, if status quo is deemed "good enough" I think I'll suggest a new item in the settings tab for an external music editor. Less work for jwierer. If you can't please them all give them a button for their own tool.

Edited July 30, 2010 by theloon

[jwierer]

The biggest inhibitor to me is I cannot read sheet music. Sorry, I never played an instrument. If somebody created a midi to bB chart, converting a CSV in code wouldn't be that hard and a UI front end can always be created for the commandline tools.

 

-Jeff

[+Gemintronic]

The biggest inhibitor to me is I cannot read sheet music. Sorry, I never played an instrument. If somebody created a midi to bB chart, converting a CSV in code wouldn't be that hard and a UI front end can always be created for the commandline tools.

 

-Jeff

 

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I know nothing about sheet music either. Notes on a bar is good enough for me. Here is a VERY rough idea of what I'm talking about:

[jwierer]

The biggest inhibitor to me is I cannot read sheet music. Sorry, I never played an instrument. If somebody created a midi to bB chart, converting a CSV in code wouldn't be that hard and a UI front end can always be created for the commandline tools.

 

-Jeff

 

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I know nothing about sheet music either. Notes on a bar is good enough for me. Here is a VERY rough idea of what I'm talking about:

I am not sure that bB has an analogue to that. I think the best would see is instead of spitting out the raw code as the music editor does today, you would just see the sounds as notes along with timing per channel. I am not sure how useful that would be though.

 

Note (length)

 

Channel 1 F4(100) A4(150) etc…

Channel 2

 

Of course the code would still need to be generated on the backend. It definitely makes it a more difficult UI to create because the code has to be in sync with the visualization.

 

-Jeff

[+Random Terrain]

I am not sure that bB has an analogue to that. I think the best would see is instead of spitting out the raw code as the music editor does today, you would just see the sounds as notes along with timing per channel. I am not sure how useful that would be though.

 

Note (length)

 

Channel 1 – F4(100) – A4(150) etc…

Channel 2 –

 

Of course the code would still need to be generated on the backend. It definitely makes it a more difficult UI to create because the code has to be in sync with the visualization.

If possible, you could have little drag and drop boxes that have text on them. The control number (a.k.a. tone, voice, and distortion), the note such as C5, and the duration that could be changed at any time. When the player drags a note box, and plops it somewhere in the tune, the editor would just move the data to the same place. (If the user can drag a note box from one channel to the other, that would be nice too.)

 

This drag and drop thing would probably be a new editor based on the Music and Sound Editor. It would still have the keyboard images and the expert mode at the top, but you might want to hide the data and only display it when the user hits a generate data button since fooling with the raw data would screw up the drag and drop stuff.

 

So, to be clear, we'd keep the Music and Sound Editor the way it is and have a separate drag and drop Music and Sound Editor (that you could give a different name) which will have a similar look at the top, but the drag and drop boxes would be below the keyboard images/expert mode area.

 

[if we want both channels to have independent durations instead of sharing, the code can be changed for this new editor. Just let me know and I'll get to work on it.]

Edited July 30, 2010 by Random Terrain

[+Gemintronic]

..Just let me know and I'll get to work on it.]

 

@Random Terrian: How many cats and plungers should I order for accurate sound effects?

http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3/petsOvernight/

 

Thanks guys for even considering my idea. I know we can squeeze better music out of the Batari users with a little more visual music composer.