This seemed to be the only MIDI of "Rhapsody In Blue" on the internet and boy--did it have a problem! The file was great until the last 7 minutes of music... then one of the tracks seemed to go "out of whack" by an odd key change. There were no key changes in the "event" list--the entire file was sequenced from the key of C. After many months of trying to correct this, I put a transposition in that somewhat "fixed" the file--but it still sounded a "teensy-bit" sour. I figued it was the best I could do with a corrupted file and the difference was MUCH less noticeable than before.

I then worked with the dynamics of the file (volume, tempo, etc.) and was just about satisfied with the results when I was listening closely (and very slowly) to track 1. I heard something and listened to it again.... and sure enough, a sustained piano note actually "slid" off the mark and stayed off the mark for the rest of the file. Everyone knows you can't "slide" a piano note. I thought, "Oh, no!" and opened the "controller" listing, and BINGO!

The trouble with the "changed key" in track 1 was two controllers at M255:01:080. They were pitch bends--one of -4575 which lowered the pitch by approximately 1 tone and a 2nd of -29, which would lower the pitch by a "froghair". The controllers were never reset to 0 so everything in that track played a tone + a "froghair" flat for the rest of the song while the second track didn't bend out of pitch!! SHEESH!!

I deleted the pitch bends which threw my editing all out of whack.... and the last 7 minutes began to sound just as terrible as before since I had made a key-change in mid-stream! Since I had found the original problem, I decided to throw the out the baby and the bath water and start again..... This file is the result.

It's enough to make a preacher cuss.......

ps: This is the file I used to resequence into a fully-orchestrated file using the second piano as the orchestra (also on HamieNet)

January, 2006

pps: if you want a copy of the original file--I still have it!