# Exporting Midi: Sibelius 7 to Logic



## Land of Missing Parts (Apr 7, 2019)

This seems like a common enough practice, I'm wondering what the best way to do it is.

Ideally, I just want to import the midi and have each instrument load up separately, labeled correctly, and just the notes, nothing else.

So far I'm exporting General Midi 2 and importing that into Logic, and I get some problems: 

-The general midi has extra junk I don't want-- each instrument loads with a cheesy instrument & effects, panning, and cc data that I don't want (volume, midi pan, reverb). And it takes a bit of time to go through and clean it up. 

-For some reason I can't drag the midi regions into another instrument. The only way to play it back is to modify the instrument it imported with.

Thanks.


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## Saxer (Apr 9, 2019)

Standard Midi File

I tried Sibelius MusicXML export to Logic but it was full of mistakes. Really and simply wrong notes. Not usable at all.

My experience

Don't open the midi file into a new Logic song. Drag the midi file into an existing (empty) Logic song. Otherwise Logic tries to load GM instruments selected by the program changes.

If possible start your Sibelius track with a bar of rest. At the beginning there are most of the pan/prg-changes and if you cut this first bar in Logic from the imported midi file you get rid of a lot of data junk.

After that it's the best to set all midi events in all tracks to midi channel 1 and delete some more CCs. I didn't find a way to get around that. Sometimes it's faster to select all notes in the Event List Editor (by switching off the view of all other events like prg/CC/pitch+select all) and copy it into new regions.

The Sibelius midi files are not bad. They even includes natural sounding trills that were written as "tr....." in the score and having overlapping notes where needed. You just need libraries that can handle that. I made a bunch of string tracks for a pop music project by importing midi files out of Sibelius and simply adding CC1 to Dimension Strings.


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## Wallander (Apr 12, 2019)

Land of Missing Parts said:


> This seems like a common enough practice, I'm wondering what the best way to do it is.
> 
> Ideally, I just want to import the midi and have each instrument load up separately, labeled correctly, and just the notes, nothing else.
> 
> ...


In Logic you can do this _very_ quickly from the "List Editor", which lists all MIDI events for a track, in order.

- Press "D" on your computer keyboard to bring up the List Editor.

- Deselect "Notes" in the List Editor, so that only non-note MIDI events are shown.

- Go through all channels one-by-one, select all and "delete" from your computer keyboard.

This leaves you with just the note events.


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## Land of Missing Parts (Apr 12, 2019)

Saxer said:


> Standard Midi File
> 
> I tried Sibelius MusicXML export to Logic but it was full of mistakes. Really and simply wrong notes. Not usable at all.
> 
> ...





Wallander said:


> In Logic you can do this _very_ quickly from the "List Editor", which lists all MIDI events for a track, in order.
> 
> - Press "D" on your computer keyboard to bring up the List Editor.
> 
> ...


Great advice, thanks to you both. I'll have to experiment some more.


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## Steve Martin (Apr 13, 2019)

When importing a midi file exported from Sibelius, I encoutered a problem when I was using a Kontakt String library after I played back one of the tracks in regard to panning. As the original string library was recorded in the correct stage position, no panning was needed. And during playback of the midi file in my DAW, it was really panned too much. I tried to solve this by going into the mixer, and resetting the panning to zero, but when I played back the track, you could hear it jump back to being panned. I couldn't work out what was causing it, until somehow I discovered by going into the controllers and checking the panning messages in the midi file I exported from Sibelius, that the controllers for panning were not at zero, but panned at a higher number. I then remembered that Sibelius apparently does panning for you, and when exporting the midi file, the panning messages were also sent and were controlling this function. I then solved this by going into the panning control part of the track, and rubbing out the panning messages and setting it to zero, and all was well. I just thought I would mention this, in case you run into a similar problem.


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## Wallander (Apr 15, 2019)

Steve Martin said:


> When importing a midi file exported from Sibelius, I encoutered a problem when I was using a Kontakt String library after I played back one of the tracks in regard to panning. As the original string library was recorded in the correct stage position, no panning was needed. And during playback of the midi file in my DAW, it was really panned too much. I tried to solve this by going into the mixer, and resetting the panning to zero, but when I played back the track, you could hear it jump back to being panned. I couldn't work out what was causing it, until somehow I discovered by going into the controllers and checking the panning messages in the midi file I exported from Sibelius, that the controllers for panning were not at zero, but panned at a higher number. I then remembered that Sibelius apparently does panning for you, and when exporting the midi file, the panning messages were also sent and were controlling this function. I then solved this by going into the panning control part of the track, and rubbing out the panning messages and setting it to zero, and all was well. I just thought I would mention this, in case you run into a similar problem.


If you import a MIDI file into Sibelius, all the controller changes will be in the score. They're displayed as techniques with tilde ~ symbols in the score. E.g. ~C11,34 means CC #11, value 34. "C" means "Controller" or CC. If you can't see them, make sure you're "showing" hidden items.

If you have volume or pan messages in the score they will override the settings from the mixer. A volume message would be a controller 7 value, e.g. "~C7,110". The mixer in Sibelius simply resolves to MIDI messages to whatever playback device is loaded.

If you want to select/delete all CC values from the score, you can select all and filter our text events including the tilde ~ character from the advanced filtering dialog, and delete. If you just want to delete volume events, you can filter by "~C7".

Also, make sure you deactivate Live Playback, or dynamics may resolve to the note velocities from the MIDI file rather than the dynamics entered into the score.


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## lancemontgomery (May 28, 2021)

I am wondering if anyone else has a better way of filtering out MIDI data from Sibelius exports (to Logic, in my case). For years I've been doing what's stated in this thread, going into the List Editor and deleting what I don't want. But this has become so tedious when dealing with large scores, and multiple files a day. I just wish there was a utility app out there that chews up and spits out a midi file, filtering the things you choose to exclude. I don't want to just delete everything from the list editor. It's sometimes useful to keep Expression and modulation as a starting point for fine tuning in Logic.

Any MIDI filtering apps anyone knows of? Or a setting/plugin in Sibelius that's basically: "STOP including the volume and pan CCs!"


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## Wallander (May 28, 2021)

lancemontgomery said:


> I am wondering if anyone else has a better way of filtering out MIDI data from Sibelius exports (to Logic, in my case). For years I've been doing what's stated in this thread, going into the List Editor and deleting what I don't want. But this has become so tedious when dealing with large scores, and multiple files a day. I just wish there was a utility app out there that chews up and spits out a midi file, filtering the things you choose to exclude. I don't want to just delete everything from the list editor. It's sometimes useful to keep Expression and modulation as a starting point for fine tuning in Logic.
> 
> Any MIDI filtering apps anyone knows of? Or a setting/plugin in Sibelius that's basically: "STOP including the volume and pan CCs!"


I didn't try it, but it's possible that you can make your own custom version of the sound set .xml for the MIDI device, where you remove the volume and pan controllers from the .xml file, but leave expression in.

The MIDI controllers in your exported .mid file should reflect the sound set being used.


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## lancemontgomery (May 28, 2021)

Oh awesome! I’m actually using Noteperformer in Sibelius, so you’re the perfect person to talk to! Is there any chance you’ help me figure it out?

At the most basic level, I really just need nothing other than the notes exported. Keeping Expression could be useful, but definitely not Volume or Pan, and other things NP exports like CCs 14, 20-24, Reverb, and others. I assume that I’d want to make an “export only” version of the sound set, which I’d switch to only when exporting, so as not to affect NP’s playback.

Another big bonus would be to export all staves as MIDI Channel 1. In Logic I use Articulation Sets to define articulations, and having notes in other channels messes with that, so I always have to reset them.


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## Wallander (May 28, 2021)

lancemontgomery said:


> Oh awesome! I’m actually using Noteperformer in Sibelius, so you’re the perfect person to talk to! Is there any chance you’ help me figure it out?
> 
> At the most basic level, I really just need nothing other than the notes exported. Keeping Expression could be useful, but definitely not Volume or Pan, and other things NP exports like CCs 14, 20-24, Reverb, and others. I assume that I’d want to make an “export only” version of the sound set, which I’d switch to only when exporting, so as not to affect NP’s playback.
> 
> Another big bonus would be to export all staves as MIDI Channel 1. In Logic I use Articulation Sets to define articulations, and having notes in other channels messes with that, so I always have to reset them.


I can have a look at it when I have a computer with Sibelius in front of me.

It shouldn't be too hard, if it works, that is.


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## Wallander (May 28, 2021)

Please see my attached sound set. This is probably as good as it gets. When exporting a MIDI file from Sibelius, you can optionally use a different sound set. Select this one, called "General MIDI 2 (stripped)", and all tracks will use MIDI channel 1. Here's how to install a sound set:



Sibelius - the leading music composition and notation software



I could not get rid of all MIDI messages, but you can very easily create your own MIDI Transform preset in Logic, which deletes all CC messages in a custom CC range, for all selected regions in your project in a single operation. Please see my screenshot below, where I've made a transform which deletes CC events between CC1 and CC10. You can create similar presets for other unwanted events.


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## Wallander (May 28, 2021)

By the way, if you familiarize yourself with the MIDI Transform window in Logic, you can disregard my Sound Set and just make a group of transform presets (to apply sequentially).

If you want only Expression controllers, you can first create a transform to delete all "Status" = "Control" messages, where "Data Byte 1" is "Unequal" to "11". You set "Mode" to "Delete selected events", like in my screenshot.

Then you make a second transform which converts all messages to channel 1. Create a new transform, leave everything as is, but change the "Thru" setting in the bottom row for channel to "Fix", and "1".

This is just two operations, and it leaves me only notes and expression, all on channel 1.


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