Importing Audio and MIDI

NOTE. For Android 11 and above, please also refer to the section 'Scoped Storage for Android 11 and above'.

There are several ways to import audio and MIDI into Audio Evolution Mobile. The first uses Audio Evolution Mobile's built in browser to import files from within the app itself. The second allows you to import files directly into Audio Evolution Mobile using other apps (like file managers or Google Drive) on your device. The third way is to import a song from the music database.

NOTE. You can also directly import audio Sample Loops, with time stretching and pitch shifting to match the current project if they have been correctly named. This is covered in its own section next.

Importing from within Audio Evolution Mobile

In order to import audio and MIDI files into Audio Evolution Mobile from within the app, you need to press the Project button on the Arranger Screen. From the Options screen which opens, select the 'Import audio/MIDI file' option at the top. This will open Audio Evolution Mobile's file browser which will allow you to navigate to the place where your audio and MIDI files are being stored on your device. From there it is simply a case of either tapping on the file name in the browser to import it, or of selecting multiple files using the check-boxes to the left of the file names, then tapping on the name of one of the files selected to import all of them, each to their own track within Audio Evolution Mobile.

NOTE. If you long-press any audio or MIDI file from within the file browser, you will be given the options to either 'Play using media player', 'Delete' or 'Share' the file.

You will notice that the browser has four buttons and one option at the top under the text which identifies the currently displayed location within the device's storage. 

The first button is a 'Move directory/folder up' button, common to all file managers, to allow you to navigate through your device's file system.

The next button is a shortcut button which will take you immediately to the Samples folder of your current project.

The third button is another shortcut, this time to the device's Music folder. If you'd like to play along existing music tracks for example, you can import your music tracks using this button or by using the Importing a song from the Music Database option from the Project menu.

The final button is the SD card button. This allows you to jump directly to the top folder of the internal storage or an SD card - you can select which from the pop-up which appears.

You will also see that the browser has an option to Insert at Time Marker. This option only applies when importing a single audio file and will be ignored when importing a MIDI file or multiple audio files. Selecting this will import your audio file onto the currently selected track at the position of the green Time Marker . When doing this, it is important to note that when importing audio onto a track which already contains audio clips, it must have the same number of audio channels as the rest of the clips on the track: stereo audio tracks can only contain stereo (2 audio channels) clips and mono audio tracks can only contain mono (1 audio channel) clips. It is also worth noting that, if importing your audio at the Time Marker onto an existing track would cause the imported clip to overlap a clip already present on the track, the clip already present will be trimmed to avoid the two audio clips overlapping. All of the audio of the clip already present is still there though: just use the 'Clip Trimming Handles' to pull out and reveal the audio which was hidden by the resizing process if necessary.

By default, if the 'Insert at Time Marker' option is not selected, single audio clips - like MIDI clips and multiple audio clips - are imported onto new tracks at the beginning of the timeline.

NOTE. If you want your imported clip to be on an existing track rather than its own track, but don't want to use the 'Import at Time Marker' function, once it's imported onto its own new track, simply tap-hold-and-drag the clip to the desired track. For this, you need to have the Edit button selected if you are in the Beginner user interface mode.

Importing directly from other apps

You can also import your audio and MIDI from outside of Audio Evolution Mobile using other apps, such as your favorite file browser. In most file browsers, long press on the audio or MIDI file name to select it. Then select 'Open with', 'Send to' or 'Share with' from the options. This will display a selection of the apps on your device capable of opening that file type, one of which should be Audio Evolution Mobile. Select Audio Evolution Mobile. If you already have Audio Evolution Mobile running in the background, the selected file will be imported into the current project. If you do not have Audio Evolution Mobile running, it will automatically open and the selected track will be imported into a new project.

You can also use Google Drive for this purpose to import files stored on your Drive account. From within the Drive app, simply select the 'Send a copy' option for the file you want to import and select  Audio Evolution Mobile from the options shown.

Other apps may also feature a Share option.

Importing a song from the Music Database

If you're more used to using media players on your mobile device than finding your way around its storage using a file browser, you might find the 'Import song from Music Database' option suits you best. Your Android device has a system level app which automatically scans your device and places all references to media (video, audio, etc.) files in a global media database. It is this database that most media players use to let their users browse through the music (or video) stored on both the internal storage and SD card of their device.

As such, Audio Evolution Mobile includes a media-player-like interface with its 'Import Song from Music Database' option. This displays all of the albums (folders) containing songs (audio or MIDI files) you have stored on your device and allows you to navigate through, and preview them without worrying about the file system. It also contains a Search function to help you more easily find the song/track you're looking for.

To use this function, press the Project button on the Arranger screen and select Import song from music database. The top level shows all of the albums on your device. Clicking on an album will display all of the songs contained within that album. Use the Play buttons to audition any of the songs/tracks. Tap on the song name to import it into your project at the beginning of a new track on the timeline. Tap on the magnifying glass symbol to the right of the top bar to search for your song by name.

Importing multi-channel WAV/FLAC files

Next to mono and stereo audio files, Audio Evolution Mobile can also import multi-channel WAV and FLAC files. These files could for example come from multitrack recording devices (digital mixers etc.) and can contain a multitude of tracks. After selecting such a file for import, the app will gather all individual tracks, write them to separate WAV files and import them to separate audio tracks such that they can be individually edited.

Notes on importing Audio

If you import an audio track into a project which doesn't already contain any audio clips, and the audio clip you want to import has a different sample rate than the project sample rate, you will be asked whether you want to resample the clip being imported to the project sample rate or import the clip at its original sample rate and change the project's sample rate to match it. Once an audio clip exists in the project, the project's sample rate is fixed and cannot be changed. As such, all audio imported after that point will be resampled to match that sample rate.

NOTE. It is important to remember that the lowest latency possible can only be achieved when using the device's native sample rate. As such, if you choose to use the sample rate of the audio file you're importing, you might find your whole project will then be fixed to a sample rate other than the native sample rate meaning you are unable to achieve low latency (without using a USB audio interface) for the entire lifetime of the project. This is particularly worth considering if you anticipate that you are going to be adding virtual instruments to your project at some point.

Regarding audio formats, WAV files, AIFF files and FLAC files will be imported without being converted and can co-exist in a project. All other supported audio formats, such as MP3 files, will be converted to WAV format upon import to ensure maximum performance.

As already mentioned above, if importing audio onto a track which already contains audio clips, it must have the same number of audio channels as the rest of the clips on the track: stereo audio tracks can only contain stereo (2 audio channels) clips and mono audio tracks can only contain mono (1 audio channel) clips. 

Notes on importing MIDI

MIDI files can contain more than one MIDI channel/track. What's more, there are two different ways this multi-channel information is stored depending on whether the MIDI file is a MIDI Type 1 file or a MIDI Type 0 file. MIDI Type 1 files contain separate information for each channel. MIDI Type 0 files merge all of the channels into one track, though the MIDI channel information is still retained. Thus, if you import a MIDI Type 1 file into Audio Evolution Mobile, each channel within the file will be automatically imported onto its own track on the timeline. The content of each track will be correctly placed in relation to each other to maintain the correct timing and arrangement of the original MIDI file. If, however, you import a MIDI Type 0 file, all of the channels are combined and will be imported as a single clip on a single track on the timeline. Since the MIDI channel information is retained in the MIDI Type 0 file though, you can now use the Split MIDI channels function to have each MIDI channel contained in the original clip onto its own track on the timeline if that's what you want.

MIDI files can also contain information identifying which instrument is to be used for playback based on the General MIDI Sound Set (https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/gm-level-1-sound-set). This information is stored as a Program Change number and may, or may not, be included in the MIDI file you import depending on the application which originally exported the file. This is the reason why you might find that all of your imported MIDI tracks initially have the Stereo Grand instrument, from the Default Sound Set, applied.

In order to allocate the instrument of your choice to imported MIDI tracks, simply press the instrument name in the Channel Strip to open the Instrument Selection screen. From here you can easily select the virtual instrument you want to use for that track.

NOTE. You can also manually place Program Change numbers within the Piano Roll editor, which will automatically change the instrument used for playback at that point, as long as the soundfont you are using has its instruments mapped according to the General MIDI Sound Set. If it doesn't use that mapping, you will need to experiment to find what Program Change numbers are applied to which instrument patches.