MIDI Files
The following MIDI file formats are supported:
- .MID files: standard MIDI files. Additionally .MIDI and .KAR files can be imported, pasted or dropped, they'll be renamed to .MID automatically.
- .MIDI2 files: MIDI 2.0 Clip Files. This is a recent format that can store the MIDI 2.0 features. Isn't widely supported yet.
- .MPT files: MIDI Pattern Track files (see MIDI Pattern Editing).
.MID files can be saved as .MPT files and vice versa.
A MIDI file can contain more than one stream ('track' in MIDI terms, but renamed to avoid confusion). MultitrackStudio supports using multiple streams, although we don't recommend it.
MultitrackStudio does not support patch changes in a stream. If a program change or bank change is encountered in a file that is being opened a new stream will be created. Furthermore MultitrackStudio streams can only send messages to one MIDI channel (it uses the channel the program change is sent to). So if a stream in your file sends messages to more than one MIDI channel (which is bad practice anyway) the file won't load as intended.
MIDI 2.0
.midi2 files can't be opened in a track directly. If you import one it will be converted to a .mid file. Exporting to .midi2 currently isn't supported.Under the hood
MultitrackStudio stores MIDI 2.0 per-note controls in MIDI 1.0 files as NRPN values. Any software other than MultitrackStudio won't recognize the per note control values in exported MIDI files, but it will load the files regardless.
The higher MIDI 2.0 resolutions (16 bits for velocity, 32 bits for controllers etc.) are preserved in .mid files used in tracks too, again using NRPN parameters. The high resolutions do not appear in exported MIDI files, unlike per-note controls