Hello,

I understand that English may not be your first language, but I'm not sute that I understand what you're doing here.

I assume that you saved the midi files on your original system, and everything was OK there. You've then loaded the files onto your new system, and now you're having problems. Are you getting any sort of error message, or is the new system just not finding the files, or what?

I'm having some problems unpacking your .zip file, but this is to do with the way you've named the files, and folder names in the .zip file. When I get the files out, and look at the contents, the files seem to be OK, and the data seems to be normal, although there are some items that seem to have been duplicated but this should not cause any problem. So the midi data does not seem to be damaged, I'm wondering if the problem is more to do with you taking some liberties with the filesystem. Keep things simple!

The two Sequencer systems may each be using a variant of the DOS/Windows filesystem, but neither may be exactly MS, and the differences may be confusing your new system?

Geoff

I'm looking some more at the innards of the .zip file you sent. As I suggested above, the data in the midi files I've got out so far seem to be OK.

Some of the paths of the files in the .zip seem to be normal, as far as I can tell, although most of them seem to refer to 'untitled folder 5' which is somewhat wierd and MIGHT not be liked by your sequencer. A number of files use paths like: __MACOSX/untitled folder 5/.escape me 1.mid and it may be VERY likely that the sequencer might have a problem with this, especially regarding the . (dot) just before 'escape'. Later versions of Windoze, also MAC systems and Linux, might be OK.

Before we investigate further, I suggest you try to tidy up/simplify the directory structure of the files you want to transfer to the new machine, and see if that helps with the problem.

Geoff

The zip file was created on a Mac, it is perfectly valid. The extra folder structure is a byproduct of the Mac OS file system.

There are a total of 7 files. They are all perfectly valid.

The only oddity I see is each track name ends with "\x00", which is a text representation of the NULL character. That is still technically part of the track name, so I don't THINK it should cause any issues? Unless your device cannot support the null character as part of a track name. Ideally, that should not be there.

How are your devices connected together? How are you transferring the files from one to the other?

Yes, I noticed the NULL byte at the end of the filename, but the length value for the text item includes the null byte so this ought NOT to be an issue.

The question is - what is causing the problem for the Hapax? No indication it's anything with the midi files. But, how has the data been transferred there?

Geoff

Geoff- Jason thanks a lot for taking the time to dig into this! Geoff I’m English haha but typing on my phone and was in a hurry.

So these files were originally recorded into Ableton from my Roland mc707 then saved. Then at a later date I recorded them into the hapax. Set up some program change messages in the hapax which along with note data goes out to my synths. This causes an issue but no other users have this issue.

The midi data gets into the hapax from Ableton via midi over usb (maybe this is causing an issue along the way?) the midi notes playback as they should. But at some point it creates an issue in the hapax which prevents project loading.

I also tried some files from my sequentix cirklon again first into Ableton then to hapax. Common potential culprit here is Ableton.

Can a file name cause issues even though they are simply send over via midi into a sequencer? It’s not like I’m saving the actual midi file on my sd card. Perhaps midi over usb is to blame and maybe I should try record directly into hapax from the 707 or cirklon.

???

You're still not saying what the 'issue' is! Why so vague about this? Are you getting a message to say there's a problem? Is something happening that should not, or is there something NOT happening that should?

Did the song play OK UNTIL you added in the Program Change? Did you use ONLY the PC message, or does your system need Bank Select as well?

Geoff

Are you using a MIDI USB adapter? If so, there's a good chance that is your issue. Many of the cheap adapters "work", but cause problems. The Roland UM-One seems to solve a lot of the problems people have when using problematic MIDI USB adapters.

I would also trying cleaning your track names, just in case by some odd technical issue that NULL character is causing a malfunction.

You can try using some random midi files from the web, load those the same way you do your own files, and see if you get similar results. That may also help narrow down the issue.

Hey Geoff it’s literally stated in the 2nd paragraph of my first post

The issue is something is causing a bug that prevents me from loading new projects on the hapax at some point during playback.


Jason- thanks! I’m using a usb cable with no adapter it could wel be usb midi is causing the issue as I hardly ever use usb midi due to it’s instability compared to 5pin. So I’ll try using 5pin and change up the file names. Is there any naming convention I should try and stick to?

OK, but this line that you quote means nothing to me at all. You need to explain what is happening/not happening.

I am not familiar at all with the 'hapax' device.

I'm not at all sure that there is a 'bug'.

I assume that you are in one project. You try to 'load a new project'. Is this an existing project, or are you creating a new project. I guess that you would normally click on an option to do this, is the option present, and does not work, or is the option disabled? If it does not work, is there any sort of error message? What actually happens? If this relates to an existing project that you need to add to the project already open, I assume that the 'new' project exists in a file, does the system find the file, does it seem to be searching for the file, does it find the file but there is something wrong with it (it thinks)? Is it the same extra project that you have a problem with, or is it the same already active project that always has problems loading (adding) ANY extra project?

If one of the files you've already posted has problems loading extra projects, which one? If one of the files you've posted will not load as an extra project, which one?

This is another thing entirely, maybe - but your last note refers to 'instability' with the USB midi. What sort of instability? USB midi can have problems with timing/latency, but this is nothing to do with midi per se, it is to do with the OS and the way things are set up and all the other tasks that the computer may be trying to do at the same time.

Geoff

I don't think file names would be an issue. But most older devices/software would most likely need 8.3 format, so up to 8 characters plus the .mid extension. Normally I don't believe the file name gets transferred to a device, only the actual MIDI data in the file.

I haven't heard of any problems with USB MIDI aside from faulty adapters. However, I don't own any MIDI hardware myself, so I don't have any personal experience with it.

So for troubleshooting, yes, give the 5 pin DIN a try if you have it available.

Also try other MIDI files that you have nor created yourself.

You can also try using a different DAW in place of Ableton, and see if that helps. There are many free ones available for PC, not sure what's around for Mac.