Construction of "Where's Prince Brilliant" for ZynAddSubFx/Yoshimi
Chris Ahlstrom
2012-01-20 to 2016-03-04

This file describes the importing of one of my old Cakewalk transcriptions, a
rendering of "Where's Prince Brilliant?" from (unreliable) memory.

Also note the usage of another MIDI file in the "User Testing" section of the
Doxygen-generated Developer's Reference Manual of this project.

Here's the original song:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G52Pw6tpFUY

(I think they "cheated" with the percussion... live drums.  But that was 1970.)

Obviously, my version is way off and raggy, due to my very weak musical
skills and not-so-good musical memory.  But I was able to use it to learn
how to work with the Seq24 MIDI editor and the Yoshimi/ZynAddSubFx software
synthesizer.  Although Seq24 is geared towards creating patterns, it works
pretty well for full tracks as well.

Imported the original (created for Sound Blaster Wave and FM,
plus MT-32) *.mid file into Seq24.  Reduced it to 8 voices:

   1. Lead
   2. Base
   3. Strings
   4. Alarum
   5. Lead Alternate
   6. Harpsichord
   7. Accompaniment
   8. Drum kit

Picked a pre-existing drum kit for Yoshimi, the original Drums_Kit1.
Remapped the MIDI tracks to this kit:

Transpose   MIDI Note, Name            ZynAddSubFX Note, Name

    -8      44, Bass Drum 1            36, Bass Drum 2
     0      50, Tom Mid 1              50, Tom
   -15      56, Shaker / Brush         41, Tom
    +7      41, Tom Low 1              48, Tom
     0      38, Snared Gated           38, Snare Drum 1
   -15      57, Hi Hat Closed          42, Hit Hat (closed)
   -19      54, Hand Clap              35, Bass Drum 1
   -15      59, Hi Hat Open            44, Hit Hat (pedal)
            
Actually, we changed the key range of "Tom" from 41-50 to 41-60 to
have access to more electronic toms at the high end.

Saved instruments to wpb_yoshimi_params.xmz
Modified Home Piano to be softer in volume.

Yoshimi parts:

   1. Ch 10.  Drums/Drums Kit (0001-Drums_Kit1b.xiz)
   2. Ch  6.  Bells/Music Box (0002-Music_Box.xiz)
   3. Ch  7.  Strings/Saw Strings 4 (0004-Saw Strings 4.xiz)
   4. Ch  9.  Bass/Electric Bass (0041-Electric_Bass.xiz)
   5. Ch  8.  Harpsichord Piano/Warm Piano (0139-Home Piano.xiz)
   6. Ch  3.  Pad/Resonance Pad 2 (0009-Resonance Pad2.xiz)
   7. Ch  2.  Pad/Resonance Pad 2 (0009-Resonance Pad2.xiz)
   8. Ch  5.  Brass/errrrr (?)
   9. Ch  4.  C_Ahlstrom/Sub Pseudo Steel Drums

Channel 9 ("Alarum") is muted, doesn't really add anything good.

Seq24 settings:

   [1] seq24 1 Channel 10

To set up and play the tune (using ALSA):

   1. Make sure that the seq24 or sequencer64 config ("rc") files
      specify 0 for manual-alsa-ports, and do not set up any MIDI clocks.

   2. yoshimi -a -A -l wpb_yoshimi_params.xmz

   3. sequencer64 wpb_yoshimi.midi &

   4. File / Options / MIDI Clock:  Verify which MIDI buss Yoshimi is
      on.  In our case, it is on buss 5 (buss 0 is Midi Through, and 1
      through 4 are ports created by TiMidity).  There are probably better
      ways to do this, but right click on each pattern to select buss 5 and
      the channel shown after the dash in the lower left corner of each
      pattern.  Probably best to save this to a new file, just in case.

   5. Open the Song Editor of sequencer64.  Click the red play arrow.

