Change or add MIDI patterns?

[Eric Samson]

Hi there,

Is there a way of changing existing MIDI patterns in EZKeys or adding new ones?

The typical case is:
I need to generate a backtracking for a song, with a given rhythm pattern.
I could not find one matching pattern in the existing libraries (I have Funk and Jazz MIDI packs).
How can I do that?

Thanks in advance.
Ciao, Erix.

Topic

[Henrik Ekblom]

Do you mean that you want to be able to use more MIDI than your current library?
In that case:
– You can expand your MIDI library by buying some of Toontracks MIDI packs for EZkeys
– You can add a folder from your hard drive to your EZkeys browser (from the main Menu/Browser/Add Folder to Browser)
– You can drag and drop MIDI from your hard drive directly to your song track

I’m not sure if that answers your questions?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Eric Samson]

As I said I already bought 2 MIDI packs, but their content is somewhat limited.
I’m glad I can add other MIDI files in the browser, I’ll definitely try it, but that’s for a different use.

What I really need is to get a piano backtracking that is suitable for me, e.g. with rhythm patterns that are compatible with what I intend to play on top of that backtracking.

The list of patterns is so limited (even with the 2 MIDI Packs) that I’m looking for a way to modify them so that they fit with my rhythmic needs.

[Donna]

You would want to edit them in a DAW sequencer. An example is REAPER http://www.reaper.fm

You can drag the midi block from EXkeys into the DAW track to edit in the “piano roll” screen where you can edit each event for timing, pitch, velocity etc.. Then you could drag it back into ezkeys song timeline if you want.

If you are just using the EZkeys standalone, you can only edit the midi blocks with the built in tools.. transpose, tempo, use browser midi style etc..

[Eric Samson]

Thanks Donna.
I know I can edit the blocks one by one in the DAW, but that is certainly not convenient.
Let’s suppose I have 20 different chords in my song and I want to have a slight change in the positioning of one chord within each bar.
I will have to edit the 20 chords, repeating 20 times the same long sequence of manual operations.
And next time I want to create backtracks with the same rhythm signature I will have to do it again and again?

No, I would like to be able to edit/tweak/fix the rhythm directly in the pattern in EZKeys, so that the MIDI blocks will be generated accordingly.

Right now, EZKeys proposes enough flexibility about how chords and harmony are generated.
(I’d like to see support for cadences though).
But I cannot see any way to influence the rhythm part, and that’s definitely missing.
We need to be able to position how chords are played in time, to support our compositions.

A tool like Songtrix provides great flexibility with regards to this.

Another to way to manage this would be to have a much more complete library of MIDI blocks.
Even with the MIDI packs, the list of available blocks is incredibly short.
With EZDrummer with have thousands of blocks when we not even have dozens of them in EZKey.

Right now, there is a very limited chance I can generate a suitable backtrack with EZKey, supporting what I cant to play, mainly becuase we cannot adjust the rhythm or pick one that fits my needs.

I think the toontrack team should really consider this.

[Bryan Block]

EZ Keys is definitely a “shortcut” to getting some backing tracks down, but IMO everything, even EZ Drummer still requires a little bit of MIDI work in the DAW after the fact. If for no other reason than to make it a little more “original” . If you find the MIDI to be too limiting, you might want to consider a couple of things:

1. There is a lot of flexibility in the built in tools if you really dig in. You can cut phases up into very small pieces, use the velocity and quantize tools to adjust the timing and dynamics, and combine different phrases together, then use the “merge” function to create a completely new, fully encapsulated phrase.

2. Here is a third party that offers lots of MIDI for EZKeys: http://piano-loops.com/

-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Eric Samson]

Thank you Bryan.

[guy perrin]

Thank you for that link to piano-loops dot com Bryan.

It was very helpful for TWO reasons:

1) They supply some very nice contemporary piano ‘grooves’.
2) It seems to indicate that Toontrack DO licence the internal format of the MIDI Pack libraries to 3rd parties.

I can see Erix point, but I would express it in a different way: How can I create a MIDI Pack for EZkeys?

I have examined the MIDI Pack files with Notepad in Windows (e.g. 000500@EZKEYS_MIDI) in which there appears a large quantity of ASCII Text data at the beginning of the file which appears to be a Table of Contents and corresponds very closely with the text displayed in the EZkeys GUI Browser.
There are obviously file offsets (binary code) which point into the various subsequents of the file which appear to contain the MIDI data (I use Midi2Mtx to decode MIDI data – however I can quite get the bytes to sync up to predictable boundaries).

Why would I like to create my own “in-house” MIDI Packs?

1) Toontrack (or EZkeys creator(s)) have created a very intuitive GUI which provides me with a very productive workflow.
2) I do studio work in an geographical area where there are a large number of talented and highly skilled keyboard players with styles that I would like to use, without having to bring them into the studio, or journey out to their homes with my portable studio every time I want to flesh out song ideas.
3) I want to take the style of their playing (using Celemony Melodyne poly mode) to create the MIDI representation of their style “personality”, and then plug it into the GUI browser structure of EZkeys.

Further more, there now appears to be a RED Record button in the Transport bar – with no explanation in the PDF as to its purpose or use. Very frustrating.

So, I’m going to do two separate posts, one asking “How can I create my own MIDI pack(s) for EZkeys?” and “What does the Record button do?”.

Many thanks to Bryan for his original post in this topic. I’ve been meaning to ask this for years now, but lacked the cohones. Bryan’s broken the ice on this one, so I am going for it

[guy perrin]

actually, it was Erix original post. sorry.

[Olof Westman]

>2) It seems to indicate that Toontrack DO licence the internal format of the MIDI Pack libraries to 3rd parties.

No, it indicates that EZkeys can read any folder with standard MIDI files.

Olof Westman - Toontrack
Coder

[guy perrin]

thank you Olle.
I just purchased PopPianoVol2 MIDI Expanded from piano-loops.com, and was able to confirm your statement.
my comments were pure speculation.
there IS a proprietary format for the EZkeys MIDI pack files, however, my requirements are served by implementing a directory structure similar to that used by piano-loops.

[Author]

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