Daqarta
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
Scope - Spectrum - Spectrogram - Signal Generator
Software for Windows
Science with your Sound Card!
The following is from the Daqarta Help system:

Features:

Oscilloscope

Spectrum Analyzer

8-Channel
Signal Generator

(Absolutely FREE!)

Spectrogram

Pitch Tracker

Pitch-to-MIDI

DaqMusiq Generator
(Free Music... Forever!)

Engine Simulator

LCR Meter

Remote Operation

DC Measurements

True RMS Voltmeter

Sound Level Meter

Frequency Counter
    Period
    Event
    Spectral Event

    Temperature
    Pressure
    MHz Frequencies

Data Logger

Waveform Averager

Histogram

Post-Stimulus Time
Histogram (PSTH)

THD Meter

IMD Meter

Precision Phase Meter

Pulse Meter

Macro System

Multi-Trace Arrays

Trigger Controls

Auto-Calibration

Spectral Peak Track

Spectrum Limit Testing

Direct-to-Disk Recording

Accessibility

Applications:

Frequency response

Distortion measurement

Speech and music

Microphone calibration

Loudspeaker test

Auditory phenomena

Musical instrument tuning

Animal sound

Evoked potentials

Rotating machinery

Automotive

Product test

Contact us about
your application!

MIDI Record

Controls: Sgram/PT Dialog >> Pitch-to-MIDI >> MIDI Record
Macro: MIDIrec

Introduction:

When you activate MIDI Record, a standard Windows Save As dialog appears prompting you for a file name. The default is 'PitchTrk.MID'.

The default folder for MIDI Record is "Documents - My Music", which is where MIDI players expect to find .MID files. You can create and/or navigate to another folder from the Save As dialog, and that will become the default for future sessions.

As soon as the name is accepted, the Save As dialog closes and recording begins. A small red indicator square is shown on the depressed MIDI Record button. Elapsed time (in seconds) is shown to the right of the button. The main Daqarta title bar shows the name of the file being recorded.

When you are done recording, click MIDI Record again to toggle it off. (Toggling Pitch-to-MIDI off will also toggle Record off.) A message box pops up showing the file name and prompting you to "Save this MIDI file (OK) or delete it (Cancel or ESC)?". If you hit OK (or Enter) the message line (just above the Generator title, above the trace area) shows the number of bytes written to the file, and on the line above that the amount of disk space remaining.

Note: Daqarta does not include a player for .MID files. To listen to a .MID file using the current default MIDI player, navigate to it from Windows Explorer or My Computer and double-click on it.

Tip: If you want the recording to start at the beginning of a Pitch-to-MIDI performance, you can hit MIDI Record while Pitch-to-MIDI is off. You will be prompted for the file name as usual, and when the name has been accepted Pitch-to-MIDI will be toggled on automatically.

Sometimes you may want to just listen to a performance for a while, until it seems to be getting interesting enough to record. When you hit Record, the performance will be halted (typically in mid-note) while you enter the file name; then it will resume from that point with the recorder running.

(See the Macro Notes below for a way to start recording directly, without any Save As dialog.)

However, if you want some leading silence at the start of the recording, hit Pause before you hit MIDI Record. As noted above, that will stop the Pitch Tracker so that no MIDI notes will be generated. Once the red MIDI Record indicator appears, wait the desired amount of time (shown next to the button) and then unPause to start the MIDI notes.

Alternatively, you could use Changes script commands to Wait for a specified number of beats before toggling any instruments on.


Recording .WAV instead of .MID:

You may prefer to have a .WAV file instead of a .MID file. A .MID file takes up far less space, but playback is dependent on the MIDI capabilities of the target system. Also, you may want a .WAV file for conversion to other formats, or for use with video production.

To record a DaqMusiq performance directly to .WAV using Windows XP, open the Input control dialog and select Stereo Mix. You may need to unplug headphones or any other cable from the output jack. Make sure both Left and Right Channels are enabled, then toggle Input on.

With Windows Vista or later, simply toggle Input on. Windows automatically routes the output sound to the input to give an effective Stereo Mix by default.

Now hit the DDisk (Direct-to-Disk) button on the toolbar and select or enter the desired file name and type in the Save dialog. The .DQA format is the default, so use the Save as type control at the bottom of that dialog to select .WAV. Then hit the DDisk Record button to start (and later stop) recording. See the DDisk topic for more details.

However, this won't work to record a KaleidoSynth performance, since the Input line must be set to Mic or Line In, not Stereo Mix. In that case, you'll need to record to .MID and convert to .WAV later.

Note that some DaqMusiq setups may require you to toggle Input off to start the performance, then back on for recording.


Converting .MID to .WAV:

Although Daqarta doesn't include its own .MID player, you can use the Daqarta DDisk option to record to .WAV while the .MID is playing in the default or other media player.

However, note that Daqarta mutes MIDI synthesizer outputs when it is not using them itself. You'll need to right-click the little task bar speaker and select "Open Volume Control" or "Playback Devices" and unmute Synthesizer.

Then proceed as in Recording .WAV Instead of .MID, above.


MIDI Changes Script:

You can't toggle MIDI Record from a Changes Script command, but you can read the elapsed recording time in milliseconds via the mt option of the Changes Script Mouse and Miscellaneous Position command.


Macro Notes:

The same base MIDIrec command is used in different ways to start and stop MIDI recording.

MIDIrec= without a name will open the Save As dialog showing all .MID files, with the default set to PitchTrk or the most recent .MID file name.

MIDIrec="MyFile" will open the Save As dialog with the default name set to MyFile. (Note that quotes are needed around all filenames in macros.) If you accept this by hitting Enter or the Save button in that dialog, Daqarta will assume you want to record a file named MyFile.MID. If that file already exists, you will be prompted to replace it.

After either of the above commands, you may use IF.Posn?f=0 to see if the user has hit Cancel instead of choosing a file name. This allows your macro to exit gracefully or take other action.

A.MIDIrec="MyFile" will start recording to MyFile.MID directly, without any Save As dialog. Note that if the file already exists, it will be overwritten without any confirmation prompt.

MIDIrec can use string variables and expressions. For example, MIDIrec=Field1 will use the contents of Field1 as the default file name, and A.MIDIrec=Field1 will start recording using that name directly.

Similarly, if the Macro Variable Var0 holds a value of 12, then MIDIrec="Test"+Var0 will set a default file name of Test12. If you expect to use a large series of files, you can use MIDIrec="Test"+Var0(3) (for example) to set the decimal format to 3 integer places to get Test012. This will allow proper sorting by file name.

A.MIDIrec= will start recording directly using the current default file name. If you have previously set file names to Auto-Increment, either manually or using AutoInc=1, then this will save using the next file name (MyFile-001.MID, MyFile-002.MID, etc).

See Macro Variables for a way to use a Field to supply the initial name that AutoInc starts with.

MIDIrec=0 toggles Record off if it is on, and results in the normal save/delete prompt. If Record is already off, this command does nothing.

MIDIrec=S toggles Record off and saves the file without any save/delete prompt.

MIDIrec=D toggles Record off and deletes the file without any save/delete prompt.


If you read MIDIrec (such as by assigning it to a variable, as in X=MIDIrec) it returns the current state: 0 = Off and 1 = On.

MIDIrec?m returns the number of milliseconds elapsed, updated on every trace update (10 msec default) during the recording. This is the raw value that is formatted into H:M:S before being shown to the right of the button.

This same value is returned via the Posn?t option of the read-only Mouse and Miscellaneous Position macro, or via the mt option of the Changes Script Mouse and Miscellaneous Position command.

MIDIrec?b returns the number of bytes written to the .MID file, updated approximately every 3600 bytes.


See also Pitch-to-MIDI dialog, Pitch Track Toolbox - Overview, Spectrogram / Pitch Track Controls, Spectrogram / Pitch Track (Sgram/PT)


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