Trackman MIDI Song File Conversion Utility

The conversion utility accepts one or more standard MIDI files 
and outputs standard Trackman files.

Screen Resolution

The converter runs in ST medium (mode 2) or ST high (mode 3) 
only. If you use Trackman in TT medium (mode 5), you will need to 
switch to ST high to use the conversion utility.

File Menu

Convert MIDI Song File - converts a single MIDI file.

Convert All MSF's - converts all MIDI files in the selected path.

Quit - exits the conversion utility.

Goodies Menu

Format - a floppy disk in drive A or B, single or double sided.

Autoskip Off - duplicate file names are normally skipped 
automatically. Selecting 'Autoskip Off' will present a dialog box 
each time a duplicate file is encountered. You can then choose:

     1. Save        overwrite the existing file.
     2. Skip        the file is not saved.
     3. Rename      you can rename the file before it is saved.

Short Notes - you can choose how short notes are processed:

     1. Off         no changes will be made.
     2. 1/16        short notes will be stretched to 1/16 note.
     3. 1/32        short notes will be stretched to 1/32 note.

Use the short note facility when converting drum patterns. Often 
the drums in a MIDI song file will have notes so short that it 
would be difficult to use Trackman's 'Screen Edit'. The process 
is applied to all very short notes in the MIDI song file.

If you need to alter the note lengths for a specific track then 
make the conversion without using 'Short Notes' and instead use 
Trackman's 'Post Quantise' or 'Set Gate Time' to get the effect 
you want.

Notes

Prompts will appear in the menu bar to let you know what is 
happening, this confirms which menu selection you made when the 
file selector is displayed.

If the MIDI song file contains tracknames they will be put in the 
tracksheet for the sequence.

System exclusive data is supported and converted.

System Limitations

Running tempo is not supported.

Converted tempo may be one tenth BPM out due to rounding errors 
in the conversion process - if you see a tempo of 119.9 BPM you 
can probably guess what was intended. 

About MIDI Song Files

Some MIDI song files use General MIDI, which attempts to 
standardise drum and voice assignments to increase portability 
between synthesizers. This system is supported. Files containing 
this information will have extra tracks containing controller 
setup data and patch changes. Typically, this data will be in bar 
one and will be used to set up your General MIDI synthesizer.

General MIDI tracks are usually named 'GM/GS', 'FADE', 'PATCH CH' 
or may be any un-named track.

If you do not use General MIDI synthesizers you may wish to 
delete the first bar to remove the unwanted information. 
Alternatively you could erase the tracks containing the GM data.

Drum Maps

Unless you have a General MIDI drum synth it is unlikely that the 
drum maps in the MIDI song files will match the drum map of your 
synth. You can create a drum map using Trackman's 'Drum List'. We 
have noticed a number of different drum maps in use, but each 
supplier tends to use the same one across all files.


(c)1993 Hollis Research