Advice - midi sysex message leading to BSOD?

Riaan-Combrink

Hi guys,

Hoping for some advice from the sequencers / midi boffins out there!

I have found a midi that, at the very end of the playback (on the last midi signal) sends my computer into reboot - the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Over the years I have found variations of this same midi file (Crowded House's Don't dream it's over), with the same effect - instant reboot. This has happened both on a desktop running Vista and a laptop running XP SP2. Playback is through Cakewalk 9.

Its the only public domain version of the song that sounds any good (in fact its great!), so its really irritating.

Anybody have any idea what may be causing this? Is it some kind of sysex?

I tried inserting a few measures between the last and penultimate measures [hoping to just redo the last notes in the new 'space' using the piano roll view - and leaving enough space to stop the playback (live) before it reaches the 'real' last measure (where I think the sysex is hiding)]. When I tried the save the new file, simply pressing 'save as' on the Cakewalk file menu triggered the reboot!

Any ideas?

This is the file:

http://www.box.net/shared/87knfgy2p8

AlanRatcliffe

I had no problems playing it back, but I removed the final sysex event for you anyway (on track 3 at 4:29:08, BTW).

Try it, see if it works: http://www.box.net/shared/33l1kqlc0z

aja

What's a sysex? ???

If it is a big ass research topic I will just pretend I never read it hehe ?

Riaan-Combrink

Thanks, Alan!

It plays through now. What's weird is I changed some instrument values, and saved it as 'midi 0'. Immediately rebooted again. When I, without changing any values, simply moved it - via 'save as' to a different folder, it again rebooted - even though I saved it as a Cakwalk work (wrk) file. Very weird!

aja wrote What's a sysex? ???

Its short for 'system exclusive'. I know VERY little about this, but I think it is a way in which the sequencer sends information to a certain instrument, eg to change volume or patch sound etc.

aja

Riaan C wrote Thanks, Alan!

It plays through now. What's weird is I changed some instrument values, and saved it as 'midi 0'. Immediately rebooted again. When I, without changing any values, simply moved it - via 'save as' to a different folder, it again rebooted - even though I saved it as a Cakwalk work (wrk) file. Very weird!

aja wrote What's a sysex? ???
Its short for 'system exclusive'. I know VERY little about this, but I think it is a way in which the sequencer sends information to a certain instrument, eg to change volume or patch sound etc.

aha! Thanks 8)

AlanRatcliffe

Riaan C wrote It plays through now. What's weird is I changed some instrument values, and saved it as 'midi 0'. Immediately rebooted again. When I, without changing any values, simply moved it - via 'save as' to a different folder, it again rebooted - even though I saved it as a Cakwalk work (wrk) file.

Hmm... It's still sending a message that something on your system objects to. What synth are you using for playback? I think this was written for a very specific sound module, so it could be that the NRPN events are somehow causing trouble too.

Anyway, Try this Format0 version with all Sysex and NRPN events edited out and also with the lyric track edited out (which was on a normal MIDI track - I think the file had been converted from a KAR file). I tested playback both on my Audio PC and my work machine (with Windows software synth) with no incident:
http://www.box.net/shared/ayp1nyycza