EZkeys producing corrupted midi files

[Loz Rabone]

I have already raised this issue but have received no reply. EZkeys sometimes produces midi files that play incorrectly in places and as such are unusable. Although The file itself looks correct, EZkeys (or any other virtual keyboard) in places extended and discordant notes into a new bar  – none of which is actually written into the midi file.

This is demonstrated in the attached files. The BPM is 95 and the key is Em. Listen to the audio recorded from the midi at 25 seconds, 44 seconds and at I minute. The audio corresponds with the midi file at bars 11, 19 and 25 respectively. Its is particularly bad at the latter 2 points as the audio produced is unusable due to the length of the unwritten notes that play! The file produces the same error whether in Protools, Reaper or in Standalone and whether played by EZkeys or any other virtual keyboard.

EZkeys version: 1.3.0
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

• This post was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Loz Rabone.

Topic

[Erik]

Hey Loz,

Could you attach an EZkeys project with the offending MIDI files in the song track, so we can take a closer look at the individual clips? You may need to put it in a zip archive for the forum to accept it.

Erik Berglund — Toontrack

[Loz Rabone]

Hi, attached as requested. Note how at bar 19 it doesn’t correct itself till bar 23. Then at bar 25 it doesn’t correct till bar 30

EZkeys version: 1.3.0
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

[Loz Rabone]

Sorry, forgot to attach as zip file. Note how at bar 19 it doesn’t correct itself till bar 23. Then at bar 25 it doesn’t correct till bar 30

EZkeys version: 1.3.0
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

[Erik]

Hi Loz,

I’m sorry it’s taken a while to get back to you.

Your issue stems from the sustain pedal not receiving a release signal, meaning it keeps being pushed down even when you don’t mean it to. I looked through the Urban Jazz MIDI and all clips that use the sustain pedal have that signal at the end, so this issue appeared when you were editing the MIDI.

It’s entirely possible that you simply removed the sustain signal by mistake. See the following comparison between your track (blue) and the original unedited clips (green). If you open the MIDI editor in your DAW and add a sustain pedal node with value 0 at the end of bar 18, your issues in the pre chorus should go away. Notice that the two “offending” blocks didn’t have any sustain pedal signals at all in them, so at some point in your editing the signals in bar 23 and 24 slipped in there.

It could also be related to some kind of quantizing being applied to the MIDI when you moved it from EZkeys to your DAW (causing the signal to be cut off when the DAW inserts the MIDI into the track). This is a problem we run into from time to time with Pro Tools. Since there are sustain pedal events present that aren’t in the original clips, this is unlikely to be your issue.

Hope you get it to work when you adjust the sustain pedal!

Erik Berglund — Toontrack

1

Thanked by: Loz Rabone

[Loz Rabone]

Hi Erik

Thanks for that, its been a big help. I removed the sustain pedal signal and the issue is resolved. I don’t have a sustain pedal as such so I presume in the editing process I must have written the additional midi notes at a point where the sustain pedal was still on but this is not automatically shown in protools. Anyway, thanks very much for your help its much appreciated:o)

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