Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file

16 Oct 17 - 11:49 PM (#3882672)
Subject: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

So the other day I was sitting in the car, outside the hardware store and playing a soprano recorder. A white-maned guy parked his big motorcycle near me and said to his white-maned buddy, "It's running ragged." Then he proceeded to run the engine, which was indeed running ragged.

I decided to compose a tune to co-ordinate with the uneven, yet still predictable sound of the motorcycle. It involved a lot of Dm. When I got home, I noted the tune in Noteworthy Composer, (NWC) but incredibly NWC, does not offer a motorcycle sound. Helicopter yes, but not motorcycle.

Does anybody know how I can download a MIDI file of a motorcycle and get it into NWC, where I will know what to do with it?

FYI: Three customers came out of the hardware store and smiled at the music of the recorder.

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17 Oct 17 - 02:07 AM (#3882675)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Long Firm Freddie

Here y?are, Leeneia:

Vroom!

LFF

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17 Oct 17 - 02:51 AM (#3882679)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: BobL

Sampler + editor?

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17 Oct 17 - 03:54 AM (#3882687)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,Ed

leeneia,

It's a long time since I've used it but, as far as I'm aware, Noteworthy Composer does not offer any sounds of it's own. It simply produces MIDI messages which are then played back by your soundcard (or other external device).

The reason you can use a Helicopter effect is that it's part of the General MIDI specification, which your playback device supports.

There is a Car-Engine effect in General MIDI Level 2, but whether your set up supports that, I know not.

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17 Oct 17 - 01:09 PM (#3882812)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

Thanks for the try, Freddie, but those are mp3 files. I need MIDI files, so I can make them harmonize and use odd note lengths to make it idle roughly.

Ed, thanks for the info. I read the article and I have to ask what kind of set-up offers helicopter, jet plane and starship but not a motorcycle. (And a starship operates in a vacuum and is soundless.)

I'm not giving up yet.

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17 Oct 17 - 01:15 PM (#3882817)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

The askleo.com has this to say:

"Audio files contain actual sound recording while MIDI files are a type of computer program. Converting audio to midi is a nearly impossible task."

So much for that.

I have another idea. I have a Dear Husband who has a bass voice and is a virtual Gerald McBoing Boing. I'll invite friends over, let them play the melody, and invite the DH in to make the sound of a motorcycle idling roughly in Dm and 4/4 time. Everybody will have a good laugh, and we'll move on.

Thanks.

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17 Oct 17 - 01:42 PM (#3882825)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,Ed

I have to ask what kind of set-up offers helicopter, jet plane and starship but not a motorcycle.

Well I guess you'd have to complain to the The MIDI Manufacturers Association about that, but given that the standard was agreed over 18 years ago, I don't rate your chances...

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17 Oct 17 - 04:42 PM (#3882858)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Long Firm Freddie

Yep, I jumped in there a bit too quick!

However, BobL's suggestion of a sampler + editor is a good one.

Magix do a cut down sampler for free in the hope that you'll buy a full version that could be useful: Magix Audio

I use Logic on a Mac and was able to get the wav files on the site I linked to to trigger via midi - how it might work with Noteworthy I don't know, but worth a try, I guess!

LFF

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17 Oct 17 - 06:15 PM (#3882874)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

Yes, Ed. I kinda think that the chances the MIDI people listening to a 71-year-old babe who wants a motorcycle track are vanishingly small.

Freddie, I visited the Magix Audio site, and as with most sites of that type, I have very little idea what they are trying to sell. They should make a video of a human using each product. I appreciate your thoughts about Logic and your Mac, but as you say, getting NWC to link is problematic.

Right now I have gardening to do and refugees to help, so I believe I'll just use the DH-powered motorcycle sounds.

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17 Oct 17 - 09:24 PM (#3882898)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Joe Offer

"71-year-old motorcycle babe"? You go, Biker Babe!
-Joe-

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18 Oct 17 - 05:45 AM (#3882950)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST

Assuming the system uses soundfonts.

1. Create a sound font. eg here

2. Work out how to incorporate this in your midi system.

Some soundblaster cards (and maybe others) used to come with Windows software that might simplify things. eg. here

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18 Oct 17 - 10:13 AM (#3883036)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

I woke up with another idea. What if I found an existing MIDI sound that would suffice if played low enough? I think I've found an acceptable one - the synth drum. To me the synth drum sounds like somebody hitting the bottom of a garbage can. But set low enough, can it evoke the VROOM of a motorcycle?

I'll send the file to Joe for posting, and you can see what you think. You may have to use Internet Explorer to make it play.

It took me 2 minutes to write the melody and an hour to get the bass line. It's a renaissance dance piece, because that's what my brain produced on the fly.

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Click to play (joeweb)

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18 Oct 17 - 10:21 AM (#3883038)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: punkfolkrocker

rummage through your storage boxes for old 7" disc "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las


..there's the all time classic bike revving sample... 🏍

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18 Oct 17 - 12:34 PM (#3883078)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Joe Offer

Leeneia's MIDI posted.

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Click to play (joeweb)

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18 Oct 17 - 12:38 PM (#3883079)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Jack Campin

How many cylinders?

2-stroke or 4-stroke?

These things matter, you know. The Mods and Rockers trashed whole seaside towns over it.

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18 Oct 17 - 01:03 PM (#3883085)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: punkfolkrocker

When we were teenagers in the 70s and got our first real music equipment...

One of the first things we happily discovered
was heaving up and down the trem bar of an electric guitar played through a fuzzbox
could sound uncannily like a big bike revving it's engine...

This can be easily replicated by choosing a suitable general midi sound and rolling the keyboard pitch or mod wheel* back and forth...


[ * try setting up either for best result..]

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18 Oct 17 - 01:03 PM (#3883086)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: DaveRo

punkfolkrocker wrote: "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las"

That's great. I've never seen a motorcycle mime to a record before! Rather a puny bike, though.

My favourite motorcycle sounds are on Motorcycle_Irene by Moby Grape. It's a good song too.

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18 Oct 17 - 04:28 PM (#3883130)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,pauperback

https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/potato

Harleys and helicopters - that low frequency sound that triggers the fight, flight or freeze response (choppers)

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18 Oct 17 - 05:24 PM (#3883134)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Joe Offer

We have a 28-yr-old Star Trek enthusiast in the house, and he plays Star Trek videos and games constantly. Did you ever notice how at least some of the Star Trek shows have an underlying engine rumble playing through the entire episode? It drives me freakin' crazy!

-Joe-

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18 Oct 17 - 06:50 PM (#3883153)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

That would get on my nerves too, Joe.

How did you like the MIDI?

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MIDI was good, but sounded more like a drum, than a motorcycle.....Joe-

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18 Oct 17 - 07:43 PM (#3883162)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,pauperback

Here you go chief: Hop on your 45, gun-it, and roll like thunder on down highway to the rumble and don't forget ur chopper (Thompson 45 caliber submachine gun)

Spirit of John Wilkes lives on

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18 Oct 17 - 08:54 PM (#3883169)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Helicopters and cellos blended into a world classic piece.


www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/arts/music/13schw.html


When an art instructor gave an assignment to experience Nicholas Cage in a local performance, I was one of perhaps,75 in the audience, in a small 300 seat capacity recital room. Mr. Cage ... sat silent for about ten minutes....and then slowly, tediously, he began to toss pennies onto the open grand piano strings, after intermission he crawled under the piano lid and began assaulting the strings. Gross Absurdity.

Now,Stockhausen is a different story. My brother and attempted to recreate Stockhausen' s works all summer long. We had visited a Mormon family and after a weekend of church experiences we went to another teenager's home and discovered "tripping on sound." My brother thrashed with nightmares, on the living room carpet all night long...a couple times our parents came down from the second floor to quiet him.

N0 ! ! drugs, tobacco, alcohol....but...we learned, together, an awful lot about twisting, and tweaking sound files before even a WAV was imagined. And sound can create a multi-sensory ex mm 8....however, The Emperor Has No Clothes
9 9
Go out ......Explore ..... Tweek .....have FUN.

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19 Oct 17 - 11:21 AM (#3883303)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

All very well, but did you listen to my piece?

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20 Oct 17 - 12:53 AM (#3883406)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

Comedian George Goble sums up how I feel

"Did you ever feel like the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?"

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20 Oct 17 - 07:25 PM (#3883613)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,pauperback

I wear Bob Hope shoes...

Bob threw them out, I hope they fit.

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23 Oct 17 - 12:45 PM (#3884115)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

Here's something I don't get. I thought threads went away if nobody posted for 24 hours. Today's the 23rd. Last post was the 20th. This thread is done.

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23 Oct 17 - 02:15 PM (#3884126)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Stanron

Threads now last for three days. It says so just left of the 'Refresh' button.

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24 Oct 17 - 08:22 PM (#3884388)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,ripov

If the bike sounded like that, "running a bit ragged" barely does it justice!

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25 Oct 17 - 09:20 AM (#3884509)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: FreddyHeadey

Good tune.

I got a tune from my android
organ/recorder melody with a veryvery faint percussion/tick in the background.

I got a tune from my pc
recorder melody with a one note drum/bodhran in the background (reminds me a bit of Ravel's Bolero beat).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
;) You might like to do something with the Bolinder engine in NarrowBoat Spey
https://youtu.be/H39drBmwxL8?t=193

or the Dane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO-LJVYqsto

or Dory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-4DmpLrXvM


or the track The Stour
on the album Bold Navigators
https://open.spotify.com/track/0zpX5sqSThk0wXbk17xiO9

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25 Oct 17 - 10:54 AM (#3884540)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: Bill D

Just saw this thread and listened to midi using Van Basco. Interesting tune, but it does sound like a drum. Trouble is, a midi file exists to represent actual notes... or combinations of notes, and a motorcycle sound is not 'exactly' notes. You'd need to find an instrument category recognized by midi software... perhaps by using a digital tuner like the Korg I have, and identifying a few underlying tones AS low-register notes.... then finding which- if any- midi instruments would approximate those notes. (If someone wrote midi files for a contra-bass sarrusophone, you might have a chance.)

I used to have a bass recorder, but I doubt even it would have come close to an actual cycle noise. Anyway... let us know if you do any further experiments.

Oh, here is another midi player/editor... http://ariamaestosa.sourceforge.net/

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25 Oct 17 - 06:10 PM (#3884645)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,ripov

I'm not good enoughj with the tech - but midi is just a control system that turns things on and off, doesn't matter what they are. Nothing to do with music except in the name. Wikipaedia talks about using it to control a sampler to play back recorded sounds.
No doubt this is not a cheap or easy option, but it is do-able (is that the proper use of the suffix 'able'? I cringe when people talk about 'breathable' shoes, or 'recordable' televisions!).

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03 Nov 17 - 06:35 PM (#3886646)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: GUEST,ripov

Leenia - I realised what I said there (24 Oct 17 - 08:22 PM) could be taken the wrong way - I was referring only to the motorbike part, not your tune! Actually amazed how well you transcribed it, I could almost analyse the reason for the misfire! Nice to see some one else writing "old" music!

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03 Nov 17 - 08:15 PM (#3886657)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

Thanks for listening, ripov, Freddie and Bill. It was fun constructing the sound of the ragged engine. Much of it is dotted quarter notes, and I mixed in sixteenth notes and sixteenth notes in triplets. The notes are seven lines and a space below the bass staff.

The small difference between triplets and non-triplets is what makes the engine sound ragged.

The tune, which is in Dm, came bubbling up in my head as I sat there, listening to the motorcycle.

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19 Nov 17 - 01:50 PM (#3889316)
Subject: RE: Tech: how to download a motorcycle MIDI file
From: leeneia

I now have an even better motorcyle sound. I duplicated the original bass line and changed the Instrument from drum to Seashore. Then I marked it fortissimo. The rushing seashore sound, rendered very low, now adds reverberation to the engine noise.

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