# Film Scoring/Butchering MIDI Files/Importing Starwars into GarageBand

These instructions are designed for GarageBand 3 plus the sounds of a symphony orchestra. GarageBand is easy and fast yet powerful enough to do film scoring. Please, tell me if you find anything as good!
This course in music and filmmaking is:
Film scoring introduction for filmmakers
This lesson is:
Lesson #4 - Butchering MIDI files with GarageBand
The pages in this lesson are:
Page 1: Borrowing from classical MIDI files
Page 2: Importing Beethoven into GarageBand
Page 3a: Importing Starwars into GarageBand
Page 3b: Simplifying Starwars in GarageBand
Page 3c: Modifying Starwars in GarageBand
Page 4: Creating more sounds from Midi files - 6 points
Page 5: Create a musical cue for the motion picture "Graduation Day" - #2 - 20 points :
* Importing Starwars music into GarageBand
* A second example
* Here is another example of borrowing music from Midi files.
* For the movie "Seduced by the Dark Side!", I want pieces of music that sound like Starwars.
* Therefore, I start with actual music from Starwars. Later, I butcher this so it not longer is anything like the original but still has the same feel.
| Step #1 Step 1 - Locate the file on the Internet There are a large number of midi files on the Internet from Starwars. I am interested in the music from the first Starwars movie. The name of this file is "swtheme.midi". Use Google to find this file and download it to your computer. | Screen shot of searching for the file |
| Step #2 Step 2 - Clean up Midi file GarageBand will not accept this Midi file. Therefore, I open the midi file in QuickTime Movie Player and export it as a Midi file which cleans the file up. In the picture to the right, you see the file open in QuickTime Pro's Movie Player. It is being exported as a Midi file (to a different location or with a different name.) | GarageBand with the midi file click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #3 Step 3 - Drag to GarageBand After I cleaned up the midi file, I drag the icon of the midi file from the Finder to GarageBand. Note: The Finder rarely looks to good. I cleaned it up and simplified it for this example. | Dragging Midi file to GarageBand click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #4 Step 4 - importing into GarageBand GarageBand creates multiple tracks during the import. | The import feature is totally automatic click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #5 Step 5 - Fully imported When completed, the import of the midi file looks like this. | A track can be broken into regions click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #6 Step 6 - Locate the start of the desired theme Now I need to find and then isolate the notes I am interested in. I do this because otherwise the file is too large and awkward to work with. I select all the tracks and put the play marker before the notes I want. Then I select SPLIT from the menu. Don't worry about accuracy. If I get extra notes included in the section, I can eliminate them later. Better to have too many than not enough. | All the tracks can be broken into regions click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #7 Step 7 - Locate the end of the desired theme Now I need to find the end of the notes I am interested in. I select all the tracks and put the play marker after the notes I want. Then I select SPLIT from the menu. Don't worry about accuracy. If I get extra notes included in the section, I can eliminate them later. Better to have too many than not enough. | I split the tracks again after the theme click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #8 Step 8 - All the regions before I begin deleting After I have broken the song into regions, I am ready to delete the unwanted regions at the beginning and the end of the midi file. | The same tune reduced to a few chords click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #9 Step 9 - Select the first batch of regions After I have broken the song into regions, I must first select the ones I do not want so I can delete them. | The same tune reduced to a few chords click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #10 Step 10 - The remaining notes I delete the unwanted regions at the beginning and then I must select the ones at the end I do not want so I can delete them. | Preparing to delete more unwanted regions click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #11 Step 11 - The remaining notes After I have deleted the both unwanted regions, this is all I have left. Now it is a manageable size. Now I need to move the remaining notes much closer to the beginning of the song. | The same tune reduced to a few chords click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #12 Step 12 - All the regions before I begin deleting I see that some tracks have not notes. So I highlight the tracks and delete them. | Select and delete the empty tracks click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #13 Step 13 - Listen to all the tracks separately This is all that I have left after trimming the unwanted notes at the beginning and end of the song and then deleting all empty tracks. Next, I need to listen to each track individually to see if I like the notes or not. In my example, this is all I have left. | Some of these tracks are too noisy click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #14 Step 14 - Isolate the good tracks First I listen to the tracks separately and find the interesting tracks. Then I play just the interesting tracks with the ugly sounding tracks turned off. | The tune sounds better with some tracks turned off. click on picture to enlarge |
| Step #15 Step 15 - The good tracks After importing, cropping, and thinning the Midi file, this is what I end up with. | The tune simplified. click on picture to enlarge |
| Authors name (Your Name) or section heading The next steps I have successfully reduced the Starwars music to a simple theme. Now I must turn this into a film score. | Simplify more The music is not simple enough Even after all I have done, the music is not simple enough. And it is not clean enough. |
| Authors name (Your Name) or section heading The next steps I have successfully reduced the Starwars music to a simple theme. Now I must turn this into a film score. | Solve the copyright problem Not classical music Because this is not classical music (old music), I cannot use the exact music. I must butcher it more to make it copyright free. |