Hi all.............advanced searched this with all sorts of keyword combinations to no avail.

Sometimes when I import/load a SMF (standard midi file), the file name also shows up on the Motif screen as the name. 

Most times when I’m renaming midi files on my PC and then load to the Motif, the file name does not load.... I then have to enter manually.

Anyone familiar with the manner in which midi file names need typed in order to load with the data?

many thanks

rich

hey richie,
googled. found this:
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/471247/

richie1027 - 28 November 2014 10:08 PM

[...]Anyone familiar with the manner in which midi file names need typed in order to load with the data?

You can name an SMF whatever you want, but that won’t change what the Motif calls it. The Song title is part of the data in the SMF - it has to be entered and saved with the file.

If you want to convince yourself of this, find an SMF where the name of the file agrees with what the Motif displays when the SMF is loaded. Then rename the file, and load it again. You’ll find that the change in file name doesn’t affect what the Motif thinks the title is.

That makes sense.  Still puzzles me how/why some midi files indeed load with an existing (and correct) name.....some that I may have just downloaded.  From what you wrote, the motif is reading the data put in the SMF by someone or some program, correct?  Or could it just be a fluke?

The Standard MIDI File spec allows for a lot of data to be incorporated into a file’s header. How much of that data is included is at the discretion of the SMF’s creator.

In many cases the SMF creator will include the name/title of the Song (in the data), and then similarly name the file - so it might appear that the Motif is reading the file name, but that’s not actually happening.

As an example of what kind of data might be in an SMF header, I extracted what follows from http://jbaber.freeshell.org/misc/MIDI/20Macabre.mid

MThd 
- ðMTrk ü ÿ
Danse Macabre ÿ1996 by Jason M. Stone ÿ
=Camille Saint-Saens, composer Jason M. Stone, sequencer ÿ
l This sequence represents my most ambitious and, hopefully, successful endeavor yet. “Danse Macabre” has always been one of my favorite pieces, and it’s been a real challenge to stay true to the score and what Saint-Saens intended.
ÿ

“Danse Macabre” is considered a “tone poem.” That is, the composer based the music on a story. In this case, a poem by Henri Cazalis…
ÿ
O------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ÿ
Danse Macbree (Dance of Death)
ÿ
!Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
ÿ
Striking with his heel a tomb,
ÿ
&Death;at midnight plays a dance-tune,
ÿ
Zig, zig, zig, on his violin.
ÿ
-The winter wind blows and the night is dark;
ÿ
%Moans are heard in the linden-trees.
ÿ
)Through the gloom, white skeletons pass,
ÿ
&Running;and leaping in their shrouds.
ÿ
%Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
ÿ
.The bones of the dancers are heard to crack--
ÿ
+But hist! of a sudden they quit the round,
ÿ
2They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.
ÿ
O------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ÿT`  ÿX ÿY ÿQòä ÿ&"Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-SaensÔ0ÿSequenced by Jason M. StonepÿQ