MIDI FILE → TD-3 PATTERN
The TD-3 cannot read MIDI files, and SynthTribe only moves patterns that already exist. TD3 Studio reads the MIDI file and cuts a sixteen-step pattern out of it: the bass line of a track, a lead you hummed into a DAW, a MIDI file from an archive.
What the conversion does
- Chords — one note per step; choose the lowest, highest or latest note in the conversion settings.
- Accents — notes at or above the accent velocity get the accent dot; the threshold is yours to set.
- Slides — overlapping (legato) notes become a slide into the next step.
- Ties and rests — long notes hold through following steps, gaps become rests.
- Root note — the root follows the notes inside the window, so the pattern fits the TD-3's three-octave reach; switch it off to keep the file's own pitch.
- Triplet time and the active step count (1–16) round it off.
Picking the right sixteen steps
A track is a hundred bars; a pattern is sixteen steps. The timeline above the plate shows the whole clip in red; the amber window is what becomes the pattern. Drag it, scroll it, step by bar with the arrow keys — and in a long clip, Ctrl + scroll (magnifier keys on the timeline) zooms in around the window so the offset can be placed to the exact step.
Then tweak by hand
Three ways in, one set of keys. Drop a MIDI file and the sixteen steps are cut for you — or start from an empty plate. Or play the pattern in yourself, 303-style, from the on-screen keys or your own MIDI keyboard. Either way, an accent or a slide is one modifier away — hold Shift or Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) while you play a key or click a step, and the same combination sets a tie or a rest. Fix any note later by scrolling over its cell.
Where the files come from: your own folder, the Online tab in the library (a search across free MIDI archives that downloads straight into your folder), or the 107 bundled Acid-Tabs lines to start from.