How to speed up a MIDI part

[Tyrannocaster]

I want to take part of an existing MIDI track and play it twice as fast but I don't want to change the tempo of the song - I want this one track's notes/phrases to come out at double tempo but the rest should stay as it is now. I bet this is really simple if you already know how to do it, but I can't find it in the enormous docs.

Ideas?

[Tod]

Originally Posted by Tyrannocaster

I want to take part of an existing MIDI track and play it twice as fast but I don't want to change the tempo of the song - I want this one track's notes/phrases to come out at double tempo but the rest should stay as it is now. I bet this is really simple if you already know how to do it, but I can't find it in the enormous docs.

Ideas?

Just turn the quarter notes to 8th notes, 8th to 16th, etc.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by Tyrannocaster

I want to take part of an existing MIDI track and play it twice as fast but I don't want to change the tempo of the song - I want this one track's notes/phrases to come out at double tempo but the rest should stay as it is now. I bet this is really simple if you already know how to do it, but I can't find it in the enormous docs.

Ideas?

I actually don't like this method, but if you're SURE you won't need to change the project tempo in the future...
Right click the midi item, choose "Source Properties". Check the box that says "Ignore project tempo, use:___" Type in the value you want and hit apply. Done.

Note that this doesn't actually play at double-time your project tempo. Other than Tod's suggestion, I'm not sure you can do that.

[groundhum]

Select the MIDI notes. Show Item Properties. Divide Position by 2 (put /2 in the position field). Apply.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by groundhum

Select the MIDI notes. Show Item Properties. Divide Position by 2 (put /2 in the position field). Apply.

Hey Michael, thanks, I didn't know about that one and it works.

[gofer]

Or
do a split to the left and the right of the part you want faster, so that it is a single separate item. Hold alt, grab an item edge and drag it to be half as long. The playrate readout should show "Rate: 2.00".
Or open the item properties of the item and change the playrate from there.

Just saw the /2 method, that's pretty cool Wouldn't you need to divide length as well?

[Tyrannocaster]

Originally Posted by gofer

Or
do a split to the left and the right of the part you want faster, so that it is a single separate item. Hold alt, grab an item edge and drag it to be half as long. The playrate readout should show "Rate: 2.00".
Or open the item properties of the item and change the playrate from there.

Just saw the /2 method, that's pretty cool Wouldn't you need to divide length as well?

The /2 method didn't work for me but the Rate: 2.00 worked perfectly.

Thanks; I knew it was possible somehow.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by Tyrannocaster

The /2 method didn't work for me but the Rate: 2.00 worked perfectly.

Heh heh, effectively what you did is turn quarter to 8th, 8th to 16th, ect.. So how did you make up for the empty space Tyrannocaster, did you copy and paste to double up on everything?

Originally Posted by gofer

Or
do a split to the left and the right of the part you want faster, so that it is a single separate item. Hold alt, grab an item edge and drag it to be half as long. The playrate readout should show "Rate: 2.00".
Or open the item properties of the item and change the playrate from there.

Question gofer, what that does is just squash all the midi items down to half the length and distance, basically turning quarter to 8th, 8th to 16th, ect.. So why the Rate 2.000 thing, the item itself isn't actually speeding up?

Its still the best way to do this but leaves a little confusion in the wake.

[gofer]

I'm confused about your confusion . It doubles the speed of the item, of course a 4th will be a 8th if you do that. And of course the time it uses up will be shorter. Isn't that exactly what was asked for? And wouldn't that happen with any given method you use to do what's requested?

As of "why the rate 2.0 thing", if your thinking is "I see an 8th in the editor and I see a playrate of 2.0, so I expect to hear a 16th note", I think that's the nature of the method. With audio it's the same thing. If you give an item a playrate of 2 and look at the waveform, a note which was originally 4th has now the visual length of an 8th, yet you don't expect to hear a 16th.

[igorpan]

I don't see reason for confusion neither. Rate: 2.0 = whole item is played twice as fast (and note lengths are 2 times shorter ofcourse).

[Tod]

Originally Posted by igorpan

I don't see reason for confusion neither. Rate: 2.0 = whole item is played twice as fast (and note lengths are 2 times shorter ofcourse).

Hi igorpan, think about it. With quarter to 8th, 8th to 16th, and a two bar phrase shrunk to 1 bar, it's already twice as fast. If the Play Rate for the item was truly effective it would be 4 times as fast as the the original 2 bar phrase.

Originally Posted by gofer

I'm confused about your confusion As of "why the rate 2.0 thing", if your thinking is "I see an 8th in the editor and I see a playrate of 2.0, so I expect to hear a 16th note", I think that's the nature of the method. With audio it's the same thing. If you give an item a playrate of 2 and look at the waveform, a note which was originally 4th has now the visual length of an 8th, yet you don't expect to hear a 16th.

Okay my friend, when I tested this I was mildly surprised to see the playrate set at 2, since it just shrunk the measures and everything in it in half. Heh heh, I figured it was one of those arbitrary (figure of speech) type thingies.

[igorpan]

We just misunderstood each other here than. If you set rate to 2.0 , you don't need to do " /2 " division.

Anyway, both methods should do the same thing, but I find rate altering a lot easier and do it really often. Just alt+mouse move, can't get simpler than that :P