Raster Music Tracker and entering notes by MIDI input

[starfighter]

Hello,

is anyone using a midi device (virtual or real) to enter notes in Raster Music Tracker?

 

I experimented a bit with this and I was able to hear the tones in RMT for a selected instrument that were played by another MIDI software, but I did not managed to edit a song, i.e. so that the played notes were written to a track.

Also I was able to switch between the tracks by selecting channels 2-5  and according to the documentation I understood that by selecting channel 1, it should be switched to EDIT mode in RMT. 

However, the only thing that happened was that RMT got muted.

 

I was able to connect other MIDI software successfully, but I guess there is some configuration issue with RMT.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Thanks and kind regards,

starfighter

[makary]

Hey,

 

I suppose you should switch off the "Prove mode" if you want to record midi notes to the pattern. It's that prohibition sign (?) button.

 

When using midi channel 1 you can indicate with a mouse or cursor which pokey channel/track is going to be played with midi. But when using midi channels 2-5 you "tie" midi channel to a given pokey channel/track. Midi ch. 2 -> pokey ch. 1; 3->2, 4->3, 5->4. So for example, midi channel 2 is going to use pokey channel/track 1 no matter which pokey channel/track you're editing at the moment in RMT.

 

I hope it helps.

[starfighter]

11 hours ago, makary said:

Hey,

 

I suppose you should switch off the "Prove mode" if you want to record midi notes to the pattern. It's that prohibition sign (?) button.

 

When using midi channel 1 you can indicate with a mouse or cursor which pokey channel/track is going to be played with midi. But when using midi channels 2-5 you "tie" midi channel to a given pokey channel/track. Midi ch. 2 -> pokey ch. 1; 3->2, 4->3, 5->4. So for example, midi channel 2 is going to use pokey channel/track 1 no matter which pokey channel/track you're editing at the moment in RMT.

 

I hope it helps.

Thanks for your answer.

 

I have switched off the the prove mode (the red sign) and switched on the midi sign.

I can hear the tones played by my virtual keyboard in RMT, e.g. on midi channel 2 for pokey track/channel 1, but nothing is ever recorded on the track.

Any other settings I need to consider?

 

[makary]

Maybe you try to record something when there are no patterns to record in. Like in case of default setting/project when starting RMT. So creating patterns by writing some numbers to the song lines might solve the problem.

[Justin Payne]

So, when I push the midi button in RTM 1.28, nothing happens and the instructions lack details. How do you map the channels to a specific midi device? I also don't have a real device so I assume I can use a software package to simulate this. Yes?

Edited April 27, 2021 by Justin Payne
typo

[makary]

You need to go to View / Configuration / MIDI and set midi in device. The midi button starts to work then (on/off positions).

 

Regarding a real device: not sure if I get the point, but I guess that virtual midi cables (like LoopMidi or LoopBe) might be helpful. DAWs, trackers etc. see those as real midi connections. So you can 'slave' RMT to Cubase or any other midi/sequencer software. No real device needed in this case.

[Justin Payne]

Ah. OK. I didn't see that. So, when I said, "real device" I was actually meaning hooking up a real keyboard to my PC so I could key in the notes BUT as you mentioned, I would need sequencing software and was thinking that RTM would be able to identify a connected midi devices w/o sequencing software but this is probably ignorance on my part since I'm totally new to all of this.
Thanks for the software suggestions. I'll install those and see what I get.
 

One more question. I was playing around with notes last night and mapped them all in Excel (since the instructions didn't seem to have these listed). Three things I noticed.

1. Some keys are duplicated for some reason (For example, C-2, D-2, D#2, E-2) are duplicated elsewhere on the keyboard. Why?
2. Some notes are missing. For example, no A-1, B-1, B-2, A-3, B-3, G#3. Why are these notes missing?
3. What the heck is note H as in H-1 & H-2. H isn't a note an any scale I know.

I'm guessing this has to do with how the Atari produces sounds but #3 just throws me.

 

[ivop]

H equals B. What do you mean by notes are missing? It's just Z.../ and Q...] with the "black" keys above it in between. For example, G#3 is the 6 key, if you have set the octaves right.

 

[Justin Payne]

22 minutes ago, ivop said:

H equals B. What do you mean by notes are missing? It's just Z.../ and Q...] with the "black" keys above it in between. For example, G#3 is the 6 key, if you have set the octaves right.

 

Another mistake on my part. Started the scale with A, not C. It's been a while since I took piano. I've fixed that. Now, why did they use H instead of B? That's honestly strange, right?

Edited April 27, 2021 by Justin Payne
More typos. I've very good at those.

[+mytek]

Since we now have some relatively cheap MIDI interface devices available for our A8, it would really be cool to have some more modern software applications written to take advantage of this. I could see a suite that offers playback, recording, and music development. Unfortunately it's presently beyond my abilities to do this being predominately a hardware guy, and not having any musical inclination or talent.

[Justin Payne]

Well, please share whatever you find out. I'm trying to learn this thing so I can do, at the very least, an introduction video tutorial. I've mentioned getting help with this and I think this interaction has been the most feedback I've gotten so I think others might be interested in something to get them started.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Justin Payne

[makary]

1 hour ago, Justin Payne said:

Another mistake on my part. Started the scale with A, not C. It's been a while since I took piano. I've fixed that. Now, why did they use H instead of B? That's honestly strange, right?

It's a difference in traditions of notations. In some countries, like Poland for instance, H is used instead of B. Moreover, we use B too but it refers only to B-flat  Anyway, the full story behind the difference has to do with some historical debates on scales.

[Justin Payne]

Ahhh. I didn't think about the origin of the person writing the program but I'm looking over the Polish Alphabet and B comes after A and before C so.....what they smokin' over there? ??

[ivop]

Yes, in Germany, around 1500, they used B to denote what we would call B♭ nowadays. C D E F G A B, where B is flat. Now to unflatten the B, there's this symbol that people familiar with musical notation might recognize: ♮, the natural sign. The unflattened B was denoted as B♮. With a bit of imagination, you can see an H in there. BH, which became H.

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by ivop