Programming a General MIDI File to Trigger Loops

By now you have mapped out the process, and you can see where everything is going to go. You've also worked with converting the sample rate of all of your loops, and you are ready to start putting this together.

Because you probably want this remix to start out silent, the process involved in making that silence impairs your ability to "audition" all the loops and make sure that they all work together. So, that said, you'll have to make the final decisions on what's going to stay later on, like after you've checked it on a Web browser.

Step 1 -- Following your map, make a MIDI file with the same number of tracks as you have loops. For our example we have set up 16 tracks of MIDI information. Keeping in mind the length of our loops (some one bar, some two bars) we have copied all this information so that the file is around 6 minutes long. What we've done is set up a number of MIDI events to trigger our loops at the appropriate times (one bar, two bars, on the first beat of the second bar, and so on).

Step 2 -- Now that you've entered all the MIDI events, you have to enter some controllers to make the MIDI talk to Beatnik Editor Pro. Go to the first bar of every track and enter the following MIDI controllers:

Step 2A) Add a patch change controller and enter the track number as the instrument number (or -1 as we did, so MIDI track 1 controls MIDI instrument 0 in the Beatnik Editor Pro, track 2 controls MIDI instrument 1, etc.).

Step 2B) Add a volume change controller, which is controller #7, and set the value to 1 (Beatnik does not like the value "0" for volume changes, so use 1, you will not be able to hear anything). We are doing this so your remix will load up silent until triggered by the user.

Step 2C) Add a bank change controller, which is controller #0, and set the value to "2" to trigger the loops you're going to set up in the Beatnik Editor Pro's Bank 3; User Instruments. Yes, set it to "2" to trigger bank "3" -- your eyes do not deceive you.

Step 2D) To make sure that all the MIDI controller commands are run BEFORE triggering a note you *MUST* -- we really can't stress this enough -- set the event time of the first note for every track one "tick" ahead, like this. See the "1-1-001" instead of "1-1-000" in this screenshot? In English, this reads, "bar one, beat one, tick one." If you do "1-1-000" you will be in trouble! Don't do it!

Step 3 -- Now Save as a Type 1 General MIDI file (separate tracks may be referred to somewhere else in your MIDI sequencer), and save it to the appropriate place on your hard drive as you will need to use this file very soon.

On to the Beatnik Editor Pro!