Hi, i have a problem with project loading. When files are loading first pattern form midi file loads as a second in device. Anyone know how fix it?
Are you trying to load a Type 1 MIDI File?
I think this happens when theres header stuff in there. It happens to me too with Type 1 files from Sonar
Someone mentioned Bitwig doesnt do this.
AFAIK itās a ādeal with itā issue, but you can contact Squarp at squarp.net/contact
Iām not sure I understand what you mean āloads as second in deviceā.
Pyramid has the ability to have patterns in it within tracksā¦ Iām not as far in my research on how to load external patterns in to tracks from external midi loading yetā¦ As CreepyPants notes there is a lot of unneeded header data within standard midi files that isnāt relevant to Pyramidā¦
So essentially yesā¦ If you load a standard midi file in to the pyramid without 3rd party editing you may get behavior of the Pyramid loading a midi line in to an entirely separate track. You can read what progress Iāve made sorting out these workflows here.
That is exactly what happens to me also.
Someone mentioned it does not happen with Bitwig.
Great, so do I should buy new software to import midi files from ableton project to Pyramid? @Squarp, any idea?
Umm
ā¦that didnt look like Ableton.
Unless they have updated specs for v11, Ableton does not export Type 1 MIDI files, so you wouldnt have been able to accomplish this anyway.
AFAIK Ableton can only export type 0 MIDI files.
I feel your pain.
If you would like to bring this up with Squarp, you can msg them at squarp.net/contact
Note: there are workarounds available, but they tend to be grunt work IMO.
It would be neet to start a thread if anyone can share which software exports Type 1 files that are compatible.
Curiously enough: nearly 3 year old thread
I think there is a nomenclature misunderstanding hereā¦ I meanā¦ Is it playing the wrong pattern? Is this a file that was originally created on the Pyramid? Is it a midi file you got elsewhere and are trying to load it on the pyramid for the first time? Did you export the midi merged as type 0 then reimport that and export it as a type 1?
The Pyramid is going to play whatever pattern it believes it shouldā¦
If itās playing the wrong thingā¦ Ok, thatās fixableā¦ If itās playing what it shouldā¦ itās just telling you what pattern it believes itās playing on track oneā¦
Againā¦ I think either language difficulty or misunderstanding of nomenclatureā¦ What is it that you are specifically trying to do that you can not?
If you have a copy of Reaper you already have the software you need which can import and export midi files suitable for use with Pyramid.
how type 1 midi files are dealt with (or not) varies between dawsā¦
I did a bit of a test a while back
my personal experience isā¦
you can import and export midi to/from the pyramid,
but the issue is midi only contains āpart of the storyā , e.g you dont have fx, sequences etc etc.
for me, this means the import/export is a kind of āend of the lineā activity, rather than something you can have as part of your workflow
e.g. the two scenarios I see working are:
a) start/develop your track on the pyramid, then export it to DAW, adapt to āfinish itā
b) start/develop your track in the DAW, then export it to Pyramid, adapt to āperform itā
what I think would be painful/not viable?
develop on pyramid ā develop on daw ā develop on pyramid etc etc.
because each step, would require adaptation (1)
that said, usually I just āprintā stems to audio when I do the pyramid to daw stepā¦ (2)
so perhaps others have found a suitabe workflow to go back nā forth?!
what have others found?
(1) perhaps you could automate the daw side a bit, but not much you can do on the pyramid.
(2) another approach, I think i saw on the octatrack that might be interesting on the pyramid.
forget importing of midi, get the pyramid to send tracks (midi) to the DAW one by one - so multtrack the midi. you could possibly automate some of this using pyramidi, and a suitable daw project template.
That is Reaperā¦ first I exported clips from Live to single midi files, next I made miltiple track midi file (1 type) in Reaper. I checked that in Studio One and ProToolsā¦ Sameā¦
Reportedly Bitwig works as expected.
it worked to the limits of my testing at the time I tested it ā¦ see my post above (*)
this test was pretty quick - as its not a workflow I use regularly - I would certainly not use that as enough evidence to recommend bitwig for this purpose - that said, you could download a trial to test the importing side ā¦ unforunately you need a license to test the exporting.
is anyone else using this regularly with bitwig or another daw ?
(*) both the firmware of the pyramid and bitwig has been upgraded in since I tested nearly 2 years - hopefully this only brought improvements, but given it appears to be little used - it may have also brought problems 
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Yes, I regularly import files from Reaper in to Pyramid and know that itās possible.
What I havenāt experimented with yet or know if itās actually possible is exporting a midi file and trying to export it with multiple patterns in one midi fileā¦
I suppose I should maybe try to do thatā¦ Since it seems thatās whats being desired in this scenario.
So, my initial findings are that Reaper, and probably every quality DAW out there canāt edit and then export what the Pyramid is expecting in terms of MIDI files with multiple patterns.
Upon loading the file Reaper asks if I want to make that one midi file in to multiple tracks. If I uncheck that option it loads as one midi file with merged/overlapped midi data. If I do not uncheck that option it will load the second pattern as a midi file on a new track but the timing will seem to be displaced by a note.
I think whatās needed here is a little more information on how Squarp used the MIDI spec wrt patterns and some research in to if there is a software that is a strict MIDI editor that will export the marker flags that the Pyramid is expecting.
It is my belief, that because DAWs had their own specific requirements while being developedā¦ Nobody ever coded this specific requirement in to the software. Whichā¦ is why Iām hoping there is a MIDI analogue to the software called Irfanviewā¦ (A popular free software which for many years has been able to open any type of image and doing many editing tasks and is extremely in depth wrt the options to edit using the underlying image spec.) Basically, what Iām saying is that while I think itās technically possible to edit patterns and then reimport them to the pyramidā¦ The ability to do so wonāt be found in most peoples DAWsā¦ If Reaper doesnāt allow the option somehowā¦ Itās pretty unlikely the other popular DAWs are going to be able to do it either.
Pyramidās use of MIDI Type-1 is rather peculiar and while thereās technically within spec, itās semantically incompatible with everything else out there. I wrote a tiny Python script to export tracks from Type-1 midi to separate Type-0 files which might be helpful (plenty of other related info in that topic as well). I initially planned to extend that to a more generic utility that could work in the other direction too etc but as importing MIDI is something I almost never do, it keeps falling down the priority ladderā¦
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as mentioned above, I tested a few of the major dawsā¦
I didnāt try reaper, as I dont use it - but it sounds like its most othersā¦ importing but not exporting
however, Bitwig does appear to be the best, it could import and export midi that would successfully load into the pyramid.
Perhaps, but the midi export was either locked [demo] or unable to do what I was looking to test in the first place. It can import but bitwig will load it as two separate clips of a group. Iām unable to verify if what I edited could be exported successfullyā¦
Seems sort ofā¦ I would say unnecessary to hobble midi export on a program like bitwigā¦ On the other handā¦ It is pleasant to look atā¦ Unfortunately itās not very far off of the price of Ableton so itās out of my bracket to fully test whether it can or notā¦
I will also say though that if it was indeed verified that bitwig could in fact export what Pyramid expected it would go a long way towards me actually wanting it at allā¦
Eureka! or somethingā¦ I think the recent activity on this subject has shaken me out of my depression enough to stop procrastinating and actually finish up this academic exercise.
So! That saidā¦ Reaper actually can export a type 01 midi file that Pyramid will actually accept as individual patternsā¦
I said earlier that the second pattern seemed to be a note short of a bar. I just just went in to that midi clip and pulled itās length equal to the other clip. Then I significantly changed the second clip so that it would be visually distinctive at a glance.
I then selected both and exported again type 1, renamed and then loaded on the Pyramid.
The odd note is that even though there were only two tracks (midi clips) when I exported there were three patterns. An empty pattern and the two original onesā¦ after the empty pattern. So I changed the p1 and saved it on the Pyramid and nothing crashed so Iām gonna call that a success.
Reaper can do the thing.