MIDI

[Piano Jon]

I have a library of piano tracks from the 1990s recorded on Atari with Notator software using floppy discs. Whats the best way to update these files? I have kept all the gear and it all works. I assume that any digital piano with midi in/midi out will playback these files. But will the piano also record them assuming that the piano has its own recording device ?

[muzines]

Current versions of Logic will still open Notator song files directly, so as long as you have a modern computer with a USB floppy drive, you can get the contents that way.

Otherwise - what are you trying to convert the old Notator files to?

If you just want to play them back and record them on your piano with inbuilt sequencer, as long as it will record incoming MIDI you should be fine, but do some tests (or check it's manual) to confirm this.

[Piano Jon]

The end result would be a music file (wav) for each piece of music. I probably cannot go the Logic route as I havent got a Mac. I do have a windows 10 pc with a floppy disc drive if thats of any use

[muzines]

Well that’s easy enough, just play the files back to your instruments and record the audio with whatever you are using to record audio.

[Sam Spoons]

If you have the Atari with a working copy of Notator all you need is another computer with a DIN midi interface and record the midi files in real time* onto the newer computer in your chosen DAW. Then you'll have the midi files in a format you modern kit can use.

* My long out of date midi knowledge and poor memory suggests you will need to set the Atari to master clock and the PC to slave but beyond that I'm a bit lost.

[adrian_k]

Failing all of the above you may be able to find a studio with the right gear to convert Notator files to .mid.

A quick search found this:
https://deepsignalstudios.com/file-conversion/emagic-logic-lso-and-son-pro-4-pro-x-file-conversion
There must be others out there.
(I’m not connected with them btw and have no idea if they are any good)

[innerchord]

Firstly, make sure you have copies of the data on the floppy disks! I never used Notator, but I would assume it has a feature for exporting MIDI files in standard format. You then have them in a more useful format. Then, as others have said, it may be possible for a digital piano to play them directly. Also, to echo other comments, you could play the files from the ST into the piano, and record that, if the piano can do it.
I know you want to end up with audio files, but I would want to keep the MIDI data too, in a format easily readable by modern software.

[Piano Jon]

Thanks all. Im going to try atari midi in to focusrite 8i6 and see if "pro tools first" (comes free with focusrite) records

[Piano Jon]

I have now connected the Atari ST, focusrite Scarlett , Pro Tools first, keyboard and followed all the setup procedures. Pro Tools records the keyboard MIDI but will not register the midi coming from the Atari ST (via focusrite). Does anybody know what I have missed?

[adrian_k]

I have now connected the Atari ST, focusrite Scarlett , Pro Tools first, keyboard and followed all the setup procedures. Pro Tools records the keyboard MIDI but will not register the midi coming from the Atari ST (via focusrite). Does anybody know what I have missed?

A couple of possibilities:
- have you set up the Scarlett as a MIDI input device in Protools?
- do you know what channel the Atari is transmitting on and have you selected that channel in Protools (you might have the option to select Omni in which case you don't need to know the Atari channel - I don't use Protools so can't help on that)
cheers
A