MIDI or XML import - is it possible to load articulations?

[bhuether]

This is something I have been wondering about. Say you have a score in Finale. In Finale you added dynamics, articulation markings, etc.

Now, in Reaper you know you use certain VSTis for various orchestral instruments and you know which articulations are available.

I think it would be awesome to be able to import MIDI file or XML format or whatever such that the following happens:

1) Reaper reads meta data for the file.
2) Based on instrument names in the MIDI file, and based on some text file that you would have in Reaper that determines MIDI file instrument names to VSTi mapping, Reaper loads the relevant VSTi.
3) Reaper checks for articulations for a given instrument, and if the instrument supports articulations (maybe this would also require text file with settings for a VSTi that specifies available articulations), loads individual articulations as instruments in multi-timbral VSTi instance or loads individual articulations as separate instances. Or loads one instrument that has key switching. This would require settings/parameters so that Reaper kows how you want to the instruments loaded.
4) Now based on what was done in step 3 above, Reaper can do several things. If you chose a key switched approach, then through yet more settings that you specify in Reaper (mapping of the key switches) reaper will go through the MIDI data, and anywhere where there is an articulation entry it will add the corresponding kyswitch. If you have individual instruments loaded with the different articulations, then Reaper will either a) create X number of MIDI tracks for that instrument (like violin) where each track in one articulation and then Reaper will need to place MIDI data in corresponding tracks; or b) Reaper creates one MIDI track, and uses multi MIDI channels to represent the articulations.

This would be powerful, and I think one could make the case to standardize this so that VSTi developers, scoring software, and DAWs all know how to communicate about articulations. In the meantimne, I think it could still be implemented if Reaper's scripting enables it, and if Finale can include articulation events in its export.

Think about it - this is a next logical step in the DAW/Scoring community. Because of how complex VSTis are getitng, we really need a way to abstract articulations so that we don't have to manually set everything up in DAW when we go from Finale to Reaper. Conversely, should also be able to create a project in Reaper that has articultions, dynamics, etc, and for all this to be carried over when importing in Finale. This suggests the need for standardization, but I really wonder if Reaper scripting can allow this now.

Imagine how incredible this would be for streamlining orchestral work between scoring and DAW program and VSTis.

Thanks, Brian

[lunker]

Finale has the built-in "Human Playback" engine.

https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/...n_Playback.htm

I have only used it for the Garritan instruments (which, fortunately, Make Music has already set up in the Human Playback engine, so it didn't take much effort on my part). It works wonders -- tempo changes, dynamics, keyswitching for different playing styles, etc. -- all automatically read from the markings in the score.

You might want to look into how easy/difficult it would be to configure the Human Playback setup for the VSTi that you want to use, so that they react directly to the articulations in the Finale score.

The Human Playback results can be saved in the MIDI file when you export the MIDI data from Finale, and then it's all set to go when you import the MIDI file into Reaper.

[bhuether]

Hi, yeah in Finale it has great capability to playback, but I am talking about exporting a MIDI file from Finale, importing in Reaper and Reaper then being able to load your instruments of choice and set up the tracks with as much articulation capability as possible. So you import from Finale, then maybe you tend to use East West Strings and through some settings file Reaper knows how to build a track/tracks that is a very accurate representation of what you scored in Finale.

thanks, Brian

[lunker]

I understand.

I am not aware of anything that would be able to determine which VSTi to load just based on the MIDI file.

But the Human Playback information from Finale can be embedded into the MIDI file (if you set up that particular VSTi in the Finale Humane Playback preferences, and if you select to include Human Playback in the MIDI data).

I would consider that to be more than half of the solution. All that's left to do it load the VSTi you want, and assign the MIDI to the appropriate tracks. I find that setting up a Track template for a particular VSTi configuration takes much of the work out of that.

I agree it would be great to just load a MIDI file, and have Reaper set everything up. But I think there's a pretty good solution available if you export Human Playback MIDI data from Finale.