The MIDI Wizard's Individual Notes tab can be used to populate a sequence with timings and lighting effects based upon the notes that are played in a MIDI file's song. For example, lights can be made to flash whenever a trombone plays a G note.
The MIDI Wizard's Individual Notes tab
There are two ways to use the tab - while recording effects and while not recording effects. By default, hitting "Play" will play the song, and let you choose patterns for the lights, but no effects will be recorded to be inserted into the sequence. This allows you to adjust the patterns to your liking before actually recording effects.
To play without recording, simply hit the "Play" button.
To record, first select the instrument that you wish to record. The notes that that instrument uses in this song will be displayed as black boxes in the "Notes To Record" section, with white X marks in them.
Next, select the number of channels that you wish to use for the recording. If you choose a number less than the full number of notes that the instrument uses in the song, some of the white X marks will go away; the same number will be left as the number of channels that you selected. Those white X marks indicate the notes that will actually be recorded - one note per channel. They are decided based upon how often each note is played by the instrument in the song; the most frequently used notes will be recorded.
Next, a couple of options can be selected, if you wish:
| • | Selecting "Minimum On Centiseconds" will force any channel that turns on to stay on for at least the specified duration. This prevents very fast notes from causing your lights to blink very quickly. |
| • | "Map Unselected Notes by Octave" can be used to record notes of the same pitch class into a single channel. For example, if an instrument uses two or more different F-sharp notes (in different octaves) during the song, and you have not specified enough channels to record them individually, then if a F-sharp that is not directly mapped to a channel is played, but another F-sharp is mapped to some channel, then that note will be recorded into the channel assigned to the closest F-sharp having a channel. |
Next, select which channels from the sequence the notes will be recorded into, using the "Channel Selection" section (which is on the right). You will not be allowed to record effects until the full number of required channels (which you chose in the previous step) has been assigned. You can select a channel from the dropdown list, and add it to the selected channels by pressing "Add One", or you can add several channels at once (starting with the selected channel) by pressing "Add a Group". At the bottom of the "Channel Selection" section are buttons enabling you to remove a channel from the selected channel list, or to clear the entire list.
Next, click the "Record" button. If you have not assigned the required number of channels, you will be told that you cannot record until you do so. If, however, you have, the "RECORDING" label (near the top) will turn red, and you can then hit "Play" to actually play the sequence and record effects.
After play ends (either at the natural end of the song or by hitting "Stop"), hit "Record" again (at which point the red "RECORDING" label will turn off), and "Save" to save the recorded effects to the sequence. Or, if you were not satisfied with the recorded events, you can hit "Clear" to get rid of them.