Geekido

When I compose music, I tend to use Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO) as an Audio Unit in Logic Studio. This works well as long as I stay within GPO, but when I want to start out with somebody else’s MIDI file, or use and instrument set other than GPO, it can be a problem.

Unlike other products, GPO uses the mod wheel for volume and timbre adjustments for real-time adjustment. So, where MIDI files out on the Internet use the Volume channel (channel 7) for dynamics, GPO uses the Modulation channel (channel 1). Fortunately, it is easy in Logic to move all the events from one of these channels to the other.

This example uses Logic 8. In this scenario, I have downloaded a MIDI file of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, 2nd movement, from the Internet. I want to play it using GPO, but the volume is on channel 7. I need to move the volume events to channel 1, so they will trigger the modulation control.

In pictures, I need to go from this:

Volume on channel 7.

To this:

Volume on channel 1.

The magic happens with the Transform function in Hyper Edit. Here’s how to find it:

Finding the Transform function.

Once you’ve found the Transform function, pick one of the pre-existing selections. You’ll be able to edit it, and save it with a new name. Here’s how I set it up:

Setting up the transform.

I have set this up to match just about anything I select. It’s very inclusive. All I have to do is highlight a region, hit “Select and Operate”, and everything on channel 7 moves to channel 1.

If you want to be more selective, and protect yourself from the “Oops” factor, you could limit the transform to particular channels. You could also select part of a region, then say “Operate Only”.

Note that if you created something in GPO, and you want to put the MIDI out for general use, you can reverse this by swapping the 7 and 1.