How To Guide: Importing Midi Into Fl Studio & Cubase
Our How to guides series take a quick look at importing MIDI files like those you'll
find here on DMS and assigning one of FL Studio's built-in synths to play the sequence.
1) Open up FL Studio and create a new project (we've chosen to use the handy 'Minimal' template).
2) Click the 'Channels' menu, choose 'Add One' and then select an instrument of your choice.
3) Right-Click your new channel and choose 'Piano Roll' from the top of the drop-down menu that appears - this will open up FL's piano roll editor window.
4) Now to import our MIDI file! From the Top left of the piano roll window click the small arrow, and then choose 'File' from the top of the drop-down menu. From the 'File' menu choose 'Import MIDI file...'.
5) Navigate towards your downloaded MIDI files (.mid) and select one. A dialogue box will appear named 'Import MIDI data' - click accept to import all channels (almost all MIDI files on DMS will only have channel 1 available, however many MIDI files you'll download from the web will have multiple channels - i.e an entire song's worth of MIDI data).
6) Hit play! You'll now hear the imported MIDI data playing! The piano roll editor allows you to edit the note data of the imported MIDI data in the same way that you'd edit your own musical creations.
Importing MIDI into Cubase
Take a look how to quickly import a MIDI file into your Cubase projects for editing and assigning your own sound.
1. Start a new project (File - new project - empty - create a folder and name it "track 1" for example).
2. Save the project: (cntrl - s) then name the project within the folder you have created
3. Import MIDI File (File - Import - MIDI File)... if it asks to save as new project say no.
4. Choose instrument/ synth (F11 - choose synth of your choice).
5. Go back to your MIDI track -make sure the "show inspector" tab is highlighted blue (top left).
6. Go to "out" and select the synth you have added (should be in the black tabs around the middle).
Congratulations! You now have imported a MIDI track & added a synth of your choice!