Talk:Comparison of MIDI editors and sequencers

Make the big table sortable
Somebody, please! :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.131.22.173 (talk) 09:25, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

MIDI editors and digital audio workstations are different
A lot of the items in this list don't actually deal with MIDI beyond interacting with external MIDI devices (instruments). Practically everything here can take MIDI as input, but doesn't really output MIDI, which is what I need. Since this is apparently considered dinosaur technology, I can't seem to find anything that actually works.

I currently need to use three separate applications in conjunction to get anything done. First is an old version of Jazz32 (Jazz++ doesn't work properly), the only software with even marginally usable editing controls. Second is Anvil Studio, a GUI disaster, which I only use to repair the broken note events saved by Jazz32 and change the tick resolution. Third is Midi2Mtx/Mtx2Midi, which I use for hand editing the events in text format to implement functionality that nothing properly supports. This whole situation is just sad.

The developers of these applications can hardly be blamed for most of the issues. Part of the problem is the MIDI standard itself. I considered making my own MIDI editor to suit my needs, but the standard is so messy and poorly documented that I just gave up.

I'm not asking for or expecting some kind of miracle. I'm just asking for someone with more experience with Wikipedia to separate MIDI editors from digital audio workstations ("music sequencers"). The table as currently formed is borderline unusable, comparable to including airplanes in a list of cars.

Also, a bicycle. TiMidity++ is a synthesizer, or basically a sound device. It takes MIDI as input and produces sound as output, with no editing control at all. It's like the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth "MIDI music playback" device on most Windows systems. Also, it's not just for Linux; it's cross-platform and runs on Windows (but not as a system device, unfortunately). In other words, nearly everything about its inclusion in this list is wrong. Literally the only part that's right is "GPL".

--99.240.223.41 (talk) 19:14, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

To do a specific thing
Used to have a MIDI editor that let you change/remove "intruments", like changing piano to guitar or flute or removing the piano sections entirely.

So far every one of the editors I've checked on the list don't do that (and O'm tired of having to install then uninstall each one to finbd out).

Anyone know of a specific editor that does what I need?

99.139.215.5 (talk) 15:50, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
 * (This is, strictly speaking, not the right place to discuss such matters.)
 * Have you tried Anvil Studio from Willow Software? -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 16:06, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi. Where did you see that LMMS can export to XML ?!! That's completely false ! Or else, please give the source of where you find this information. thank you --80.236.99.190 (talk) 11:34, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

re: Changing instruments/voicings easily, with SoundTrek's (http://www.soundtrek.com) Jammer SongMaker 5 (free) and Jammer Pro 6 ($30 retail; by mail or online upgrade for Jammer SongMaker 5), you can do that. For example, if your primary track is set for "Rhodes electric piano" you can click on that, get the drop down menu, and change it instantly to "guitar(nylon)", "alto sax", "Strings", or any other instrument listed on the menu. It's that easy. Same goes for any other track you've got set up. If you really want to learn how to do MIDI programming, the "Help" screens and the easy to understand, easy to use, 120+ page User Manual included with SongMaker 5 and Pro 6 will help you do just that. The only difference between v.5 and v.6 is that v.6 has greater versatility in selecting and editing Styles. I'm surprised that these two SoundTrek programs aren't included in the list of software sequencers, while LilyPond (an extremely difficult notation program to learn to use, and which has very little control over the program's MIDI output) is. Go figure. For the money, SoundTrek's two programs, similar to the Steinberg sequencer programs, are the best of the bunch. K. Kellogg-Smith (talk) 02:17, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Missing Entry?
The article doesn't say whether the notability is current or historical.

Evolution Audio and Evolution Audio Lite were originally written to support Evolution keyboards, but allow record/playalong from a PC keyboard. The support link now redirects to the M-Audio site which no longer mentions this software, but you can still find the (free, 1997, win16) Lite version for download and it remains a very capable midi editor/sequencer if you understand midi (or know how to Google). For instance if you want to remove unwanted sustain events it helps to know that sustain is controller 64. The help file is fairly good, and there's a Youtube how-to as well. Shannock9 (talk) 08:30, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

This list doesn't contain any hardware
If this is supposed to be a list exclusive to MIDI software, then it should be renamed. Otherwise, MIDI sequencer hardware should be added to the list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.44.73 (talk) 11:48, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
 * See Music sequencer. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:27, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

add
Can Ableton Live be added to this?  NYSM talk page  08:39, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

In addition, we might want to add LMMS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMMS Trainguyrom (talk) 22:55, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Software, which can import and export MIDI files is not necessarily a "MIDI editor"
This applies, in my view, for example to scorewriters like Sibelius, Finale oder capella, to name a few. I thnk this list should be separated into several lists according to classes of soft- and hardware which can write and/or read MIDI files, or at least get a column which to specify the class of "editor". I am looking for a program with which I can direktly poke in a MIDI-file... --L.Willms (talk) 11:34, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I can see where you're coming from, but those scorewriters can be used for editing MIDI files in a round-about way, so I think they should be included on the list. If I wanted to edit MIDI files directly, I would look at Cubase or Anvil Studio, or, in a different vein, at a pair of programs now almost 20 years old, MIDI2TXT and TXT2MIDI by Günter Nagler. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:46, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Chaotic article
The problem with this article, which makes it almost useless, is that the entries in this table are for very different kinds of software. So in the same table we have sheet music composers, things which in- / output MIDI streams, piano roll only editors and even things like FreeWRL, which is very unlikely to be whatever it is that this article's readership is looking for. What this article needs is separation in categories, which clear lists of pros and cons within each. Also, I note that some seemingly popular editors are mysteriously missing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.114.146.117 (talk) 08:36, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

An Open Source MIDI Editor that has been around for a while
Maybe someone will add "Sekaiju" to the article: https://openmidiproject.osdn.jp/Sekaiju_en.html 12.13.183.218 (talk) 21:46, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Only if someone writes an article, Sekaiju; see WP:WTAF. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 02:49, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Looks like they've moved to https://openmidiproject.opal.ne.jp/Sekaiju_en.html SidShakal (talk) 06:57, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

Missing and wtf
A software like Bars&Pipes Pro is missing — was a great tool on the Amiga, it was bought by Microsoft then, see The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks. Strangely, I remember it was listed somewhere on wikipedia when searching for "list of MIDI sequencers". Not anymore, or maybe my memory fails me. 79.46.235.43 (talk) 00:29, 30 January 2024 (UTC)