Bug 1696 – Dragging MIDI track into Audacity says the file can't be played

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Audacity 3.0.3 development began 19th April 2021

Audacity Bugzilla

Bug 1696 - Dragging MIDI track into Audacity says the file can't be played


Summary:	Dragging MIDI track into Audacity says the file can't be played

Status:	RESOLVED QUICKFIXED

Product:	Audacity
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	MIDI
Version:	2.2.0
Hardware:	Per OS All

Importance:	P3 Repeatable
Assigned To:	Default Assignee for New Bugs

URL:
Keywords:	test_single_OS

Depends on:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2017-07-20 09:37 UTC by Steve Daulton
Modified:	2018-08-20 11:51 UTC (History)
CC List:	8 users (show)

See Also:
Steps To Reproduce:	Drag a MIDI file (with .MID extension) into an open Audacity window. An error message appears and says that Audacity cannot play MIDI files
Release Note:	MIDI (.MID) files cannot be dragged into Audacity. Attempting to do so will produce an error message that says that it cannot be played, which is not the case if a suitable MIDI device is attached. To open a MIDI file in Audacity: File > Import > MIDI
First Git SHA:
Group:	---
Workaround:
Closed:	2018-08-20 00:00:00

Flags:	james.k.crook: Test‑OK‑Win+ petersampsonaudacity: Test‑OK‑Mac+

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Description Steve Daulton 2017-07-20 09:37:14 UTC

On dragging a .MID file into an open Audacity window, an error dialog shows:

Error Importing
"path/filename.mid"
is a MIDI file, not an audio file.
Audacity cannot open this type of file for playing, but you can
edit it by clicking File > Import > MIDI

The message is very misleading as Audacity can now play MIDI files on OSX.

Comment 1 Peter Sampson 2017-07-20 10:50:15 UTC

On W10 audacity-win-r36dcddf-2.2.0-alpha-19-jul-17

Dragging and dropping a MIDI file does not create a Note track - bath rather uses "Import Audio" to inport the file as a converted audio file.

Related note: it is possible to use File>Import Audio on Windows to similarly convert (not very well) the MIDI into an audio file.  I don't theink that we should be allowing that now that we have MIDI playback.

Comment 2 Steve Daulton 2017-07-20 11:18:10 UTC

(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #1)
That has probably been fixed in the next nightly.
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/cfab325af

Comment 3 Paul L 2017-07-20 13:10:43 UTC

Correct, I recently committed so that the bad rendering of Midi as a Wave track done by FFmpeg is blocked.

But with a little more work, drag-and-drop can be made to go the proper path of Midi import.

Comment 4 Paul L 2017-07-20 13:34:41 UTC

Done at https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/69d6f36ef6e1c6f84082ca7c29f663e4eae4c7ab

Now that drag-and-drop works for either Midi or audio, it seems a nuisance that the menus can't also make import a single thing.

But, we are feature-frozen now.

Comment 5 James Crook 2017-07-20 14:03:49 UTC

RESOLVED FIXED

On Windows tested drag and drop of .mid and .midi file, and got note track. Cool.
.wav and .mp3 still drag and drop fine.
Looked at code and reckon this is test_Single_OS, so marked it so.

Comment 6 James Crook 2017-07-20 14:04:27 UTC

Actually it's QUICKFIXED

Comment 7 Peter Sampson 2017-07-22 09:01:59 UTC

(In reply to James Crook from comment #5)
Tested ok on macOS Sierra 10.12.5 with Cliff's 21Jul17 build