Converting Songs, Slicing and MIDI Tools
The Universal Audio Hub (slicing and song-to-MIDI), the Track Compositor, the MIDI Workshop, Skip Intro and MIDI Bounce Filtering.
MIDI or Song: which to use
MIDI gives the cleanest result. It carries the exact notes and timing, so with Perfect Beat Bouncing the ball lands on every note and the tune stays recognizable.
An uploaded song has no note data. You can either play it in slices (each bounce plays the next piece of the real recording) or convert it to MIDI (the Studio listens for notes and writes them out). Conversion is always less precise than a real MIDI file, so listen through the result.
Tip
- Search for the song name plus "midi" and prefer a simple, single-instrument arrangement over a dense multi-track one.
Universal Audio Hub
The Universal Audio Hub works on one of your uploaded songs at a time. Pick it under Pick an uploaded audio source; it then shows as the Working Source.
| Control | What it does | Range / default | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Play Original Song | Plays the real song in the background instead of synthesized notes. Only shown when the active MIDI was extracted from a song. | On / Off, default Off | Use Background Song Volume to balance it. |
| MIDI Detail | How many notes the extraction captures. Higher gives a denser MIDI. | 10 to 100 percent, default 60 percent | Start at the default. Raise it if the melody has gaps. |
| Slice Length | Length of each piece Standard Slice cuts. | 0.05 s and up (slider 0 to 5 s), default 1 s | 0.5 to 2 s sounds best. |
| Extract YMIDI (Peaks) | Converts the song to MIDI using only its strongest peaks. Saved with a YMIDI tag. | Button | Good for punchy, beat-driven songs. |
| Extract Full MIDI | Converts the song to MIDI with as many notes as it can find. Saved with a Full MIDI tag. | Button | Good for melodic songs. |
| Standard Slice | Cuts the whole song into equal pieces of Slice Length. Each bounce plays the next piece. | Button, up to 1,000 pieces | Shows "Sliced into N segment(s)". |
Technical parameters
- Extraction covers the whole song unless you have drawn exactly one slice on the timeline, in which case only that part is converted.
- Every extraction is saved to your Media Library and listed under Separated Pieces From This Source, where Use makes it active and the bin deletes it.
Slice playback settings
When a sliced song is In Use, these settings appear under it.
| Setting | What it does | Range / default |
|---|---|---|
| Skip Intro / Trim | Two boxes in seconds. The first starts the song at that second (the skipped part never plays, not even on a loop). The second stops it; 0 means play to the end. | Start 0 and up, End 0 and up, both default 0 |
| Continuous Playback | On: the song keeps playing continuously. Off: strictly one slice per bounce. | On / Off, default On |
| Reset on Time Limit (when Continuous Playback is on) | Restarts the song from the beginning after a silent pause, on the next bounce. | On / Off, default Off |
| Stop on Overlap (when Continuous Playback is off) | Stops the current slice when a new bounce starts the next one. | On / Off, default On |
| Manual Crop & Slice Timeline | Opens the waveform editor below. | Show Timeline / Hide Timeline |
The slice timeline
The timeline shows the Loaded Song as a waveform. Drag on it to cut a slice, tap to drop one, drag a slice to move it and drag its edges to trim it. Each bounce plays the next slice in order.
| Control | What it does | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom | Zooms the waveform. | 0 to 1 |
| Snap / Snap to notes & edges | Snaps cuts to detected notes and slice edges. | On / Off |
| Slice N / total: Start (s), Length (s) | Exact position of the selected slice. | Start 0 to song length; Length 0.02 s to song length |
| Preview / Delete | Hear or remove the selected slice. | Buttons |
| Auto-Slice: Every (s) + Even Cuts | Cuts equal slices of the chosen length. | Every 0.05 to 10 s, default 0.5 s |
| Detail + Min (s) + Smart Slice | Detects the song's notes and cuts a variable-length slice on each one. Raise Detail for more, smaller slices. | Detail 0 to 1, default 0.75; Min 0.02 to 2 s, default 0.08 s |
| Add Slice / Clear All | Add one slice, or remove them all. | Buttons |
Track Compositor
The Track Compositor stitches pieces of several tracks into one new track and saves it to your library as the active track. A track is either all MIDI or all audio; choosing a source of the other kind switches the type and clears your segments.
- 1Choose MIDI tracks or Audio tracks.
- 2Type a New track name.
- 3Under Add a segment, choose a source track (your uploads, or Built-in tunes for MIDI).
- 4Set Start (s) and Length (s), then press Add. Repeat for each piece.
- 5Check the Segments list and its Total, then press Save as new track.
Technical parameters
- A composition can be up to 5 minutes long.
- Audio compositions are saved as uncompressed WAV, and uploads are limited to 10 MB, so an audio composition longer than about 50 seconds may fail to save. MIDI compositions are not affected.
MIDI Workshop
The MIDI Workshop is for adding MIDI by file or by pasting note data.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload MIDI File | Upload a .mid file. If Name is empty you are asked for one. It becomes the active track. |
| Name | The name to save under (up to 45 characters). Required for Save to Cloud. |
| MIDI or Frequency Data | Paste a MIDI file as Base64 text, an Online Sequencer export, or a list of frequencies in hertz such as [261, 329, 392]. |
| Preview Notes / Stop Preview | Plays what you pasted (or the active track if the box is empty). MIDI previews play the first 15 seconds. |
| Save to Cloud | Saves the pasted data to your library and makes it the active track. |
MIDI Bounce Filtering
A full MIDI file often has more parts than you want the ball to play. MIDI Bounce Filtering decides which notes make the ball bounce. It needs a MIDI as the active track. A live count shows "N of total notes bounce". If your filter lets nothing through, the song bounces unfiltered and the count turns red until you widen it; Reset returns to Full Mix.
Under What Should Bounce?, pick a preset. It reads "Custom" once you change the advanced settings by hand.
| Preset | What bounces |
|---|---|
| MAIN | The lead or melody track if one is named that way; otherwise the middle pitch range. |
| BASS | The bass track; otherwise notes below C3. |
| HIGH | Notes above C5. |
| PERCUSSION | The drum or percussion track. |
| FULL MIX | Every note (filtering off). |
Advanced Filtering and Skip Intro
Open Advanced Filtering to set the filter by hand. PREVIEW plays only the notes that pass.
| Setting | What it does | Range / default |
|---|---|---|
| Start At (s) | Skips the start of the song. Notes before it never bounce or sound. | 0 to song length, step 0.5, default 0 |
| End At (s · 0 = end) | Stops the song at this second. | 0 to song length, step 0.5, default 0 (play to the end) |
| Enable Filtering | Turns the filter on. | Default Off |
| Play Background Tracks | Tracks that do not bounce still play in the background. | Default Off |
| Use Exact MIDI Duration | Each note rings for its written length instead of a short hit. | Default Off |
| Tracks: Bounce / BG / Mute | Per track: drives bounces, plays in the background, or is silent. | One choice per track |
| Min Velocity / Max Velocity | Only notes played at least / at most this hard. | 0 to 127, defaults 0 and 127 |
| Min Pitch / Max Pitch | Only notes in this MIDI pitch range (60 is middle C). | 0 to 127, defaults 0 and 127 |
| Min Length (ms) / Max Length (ms) | Only notes of this length. | 0 to 10,000, defaults 0 and 10,000 |
| Mute Bass (below C3) | Drops the low notes. | Default Off |
| Mute Lead (above C5) | Drops the high notes. | Default Off |
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