MidiFile Tempo Map & custom songs

[Jefbyos]

Hi everyone,

 

I discovered that forum quite recently, when searching the way to build my own CDLC. I have yet little experience on that (but a bit in audio & musical instruments in general), so i first gave a try by modifying existing CDLC - looks like a good way to learn. I also build one CDLC of my own (that i'll gladly share since i'll understand how) : a (noguitar) and a (nobass) version of "Man in a box", from Alice in chains. I didn't build it from scratch, though : i used the existing one, and just replaced the audio for a mix without the concerned instrument, from multitrack source.

 

Here is the problem i faced : the mixdowns i got were a bit slower than the tempo map in the existing CDLC song. That looked not a problem to me, as I already had a tempo map done in my DAW, wich is possible to import in EOF as MIDI... BUT, when importing any "real guitar"/"realbass" Rocksmith track, the tempo map is replaced by the one that comes with the notes. Unfortunately, i found the contrary didn't work, loading the tempo map after the track notes does not replace it. :(

 

I was not ready to redo the sync job in EOF, so for that song i finally time-streched the audio mixdowns, to conform the existing tempo map (with one or two adjustments). That worked well, but i'd like to know that i missed, and being able to import my midi tempo maps easily. There is a major reason to that : EOF allow to to a good job for editing tempo maps (even though i find doing this with my DAW more quicker and accurate). BUT as it happens, i already have several multitrack songs with midi tempo tracks already done - that i would like to use to build more (noguitar) and (nobass) CDLC.^^

 

Any idea how to solve that issue ?

[raynebc]

The easiest way to go would be to open the existing Rocksmith XML files in one EOF window and use a second EOF window to open up your version of the project with the correct tempo map for your audio. You can use select all to copy track difficulties one at a time and paste them into the new project. You'll want to make sure to seek to the correct location for the first note before each paste operation, but EOF will automatically quantize the notes to match the original chart content. There are some things that EOF won't import from XML files, and some things that can't be pasted, so you may need to re-author a bit of stuff for your project. If you have any questions, let us know.

[GetTheLedOut]

Unfortunately, "Man in the Box" is an official DLC from Ubisoft, so you won't be able to release that here. Obviously, the same goes for any other songs that are available of official DLCs.

[Jefbyos]

Damn, i didn't realise that. So i guess i'll keep this multitrack version for my personal use only. I'll try to choose my next projects more carefully, so i may share with the community. ;)

 

Thanks raynebc, i tried some copy/paste cheats on a same session - but i didn't thought to open two instances of EOF. I'll give it a try and let you know... ;)

[Jefbyos]

I just tried today what you suggested (sort of).

 

I'm still learning so i figured that it would be a good idea to open one CDLC that i like to play on bass (namely, david bowie's Starman), that needs polishing (in my opinion). I found the tempo on that one not to be very accurate sometimes, which been confirmed when i looked more closely at the tempo map. So, i started by correcting all the faulty tempo bars. There's the catch : all the notes were placed (i assume) depending the old tempo map, and did not followed the modification. That may makes sense, not to impose the modification to the user and letting him to decide if notes has to follow the tempo modifications, or not. So, i turned the grid on, then the "grid snap"... And nothing happened.

 

:(

 

Looking at the EOF help, i saw that the software just indicates when a note does not match the grid by adding a small thin red line... but i couldn't find any feature to quantize selected notes to the grid. Which means that i have to manually match every note to the grid (exception to those who may be left intentionally a bit off, or fast notes under the grid quantification). That, for each difficulty track, for each instruments.

 

:o 

 

So i tried to erase the notes from a difficulty track, and copy/paste the exact same notes from another EOF instance. Unfortunately, the result was exactly the same, so it seems that manually correct each note is mandatory...

 

:angry:

 

It took me almost 1 hour just to correct each notes on the bass tracks (without counting the work to fine-tune the tempo track, of course), so if anyone has any suggestion... I still have lead and rhythm guitar to do, each having 4-6 difficulty levels... ^^

[raynebc]

Go into File>Preferences and make sure the "Note Auto-Adjust" option is enabled. Generally the only reason notes would not be moved automatically when you click and drag beat markers is because this option is disabled. You can set a grid snap value for placing/moving notes by using "Edit>Grid snap". Enabling the grid lines feature is also useful to see how notes line up. Additionally, you can use the "highlight non grid snapped notes" option in the Song menu to highlight notes that don't line up with any grid snap value and are more likely to need checking/fixing. If you find a note that is not grid snapped but should be, you can click and drag individual notes or you can select several and use the "Note>Move grid snap" functions or the "Note>Resnap" function (that latter one moves all selected notes to the nearest position of the CURRENT grid snap setting, so make sure this is a small interval like 1/48).

[GetTheLedOut]

There's a check box under the preferences pane for "note auto-adjust." Checking that should ensure that the notes move in conjunction with any changes you make to the beat map. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the reason for your troubles.

Also, you can automatically grid snap all notes by selecting them with CTRL+A (or a series of notes with SHIFT+left click) and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+R, which will snap them to the nearest value. You'll usually want to set the grid snap to 1/32 or 1/48 beforehand for better accuracy.

[GetTheLedOut]

Ahhh ninja'd by @@raynebc :D

[Jefbyos]

I knew that function should have been implemented, but i'd honestly never thought searching in the preference panel. ^^

 

Thanks for helping me, I keep you posted ;)

[Jefbyos]

I confirm that was the "Note auto-adjust" checkbox.

 

Now i blame myself not to have started by searching harder that function, because it would have saved time to just correct the tempo track and having all notes moving accordingly from the start, and not to have to correct the faulty bits by hand... That's a lesson learned, i guess.

 

Thanks RayneBc, and also Magna Charter for the shortcuts ;)