When FL Studio does not open a MIDI file properly, the cause is usually one of eight things: no instrument is loaded, the file has one track, the tempo did not come across, the notes are off the grid, the drums sit on the wrong keys, the notes are in the wrong octave, the file is not real MIDI, or it came from audio and is full of stray notes. Each has a quick fix. If your file came from a converter such as our free MP3 to MIDI page, the last three apply most.
I describe menus in general terms, because they change between FL Studio versions. If a setting I mention is missing, search the FL Studio help for its name.
A MIDI file holds notes, timing and settings, not sound. FL Studio has to pick an instrument to play those notes, and it can only guess. Most "wrong" imports come from that gap. The notes arrived, but the sound, the speed or the layout did not match what you expected.
Knowing that makes the fixes below easier to follow.
FL Studio puts imported notes on channels in the Channel Rack. If a channel has no instrument loaded, or the default one is silent, you get notes but no sound.
Fix: Click the channel and load a plugin or sampler on it. Pick any piano or synth to test. If the mixer meter does not move, check that the channel is routed to a mixer track and that the track is not muted.
Some MIDI files use a layout where all instruments sit in a single track and are told apart only by MIDI channel numbers. That layout is called Type 0. Another layout, Type 1, keeps each instrument on its own track. FL Studio may show a Type 0 file as one crowded channel.
Fix: Check how the file is split after import. If you see one big pattern, separate the notes yourself in the piano roll, or ask whoever made the file for a Type 1 version. Files you make from one recording usually hold a single part anyway.
A MIDI file has its own tempo, but your project has one too. FL Studio may keep your project tempo when you open the file, or take the file's tempo, depending on how you imported it and what your version's import window offers. If your version shows an import options window, read the checkboxes there. They control things like whether the file's tempo comes in.
Fix: Set the project tempo to match the song by hand. If you know the BPM, type it in. If the notes sound too fast or too slow, the tempo is the cause.
Audio-to-MIDI conversion hears a human performance, and humans are not perfectly on the beat. So the notes start a little early or late and do not sit on the grid.
Fix: In the FL Studio piano roll, select all the notes and quantize them. Or fix it at the source. Our Audio to MIDI page has a Snap to beat switch that lines the notes up before you download. A setting called Shortest note drops tiny blips, which also cleans up the grid.
In General MIDI, drums sit on channel 10, and each key stands for a different drum. A kick is one key, a snare is another. If your drum kit in FL Studio is mapped differently, the pattern sounds wrong, even though the rhythm is right.
Fix: Load a drum kit that follows the General MIDI layout, or move the notes in the piano roll to the keys your kit uses. Do not expect audio to MIDI to give you a good drum part. Drum hits are noise, so converters read them poorly.
FL Studio and other programs can disagree about which octave a note number lives in. Or the recording was just in a different register than you need.
Fix: Select the notes in the piano roll and move them by octaves. When you make the file yourself with our converter, the Transpose control shifts everything up or down in semitones before you download.
A file may fail to open for a plain reason. It might be empty, cut off during a download, or not a MIDI file. A renamed MP3 or WAV with a .mid ending is the classic case.
Fix: Check the size. A real MIDI file is tiny, often only a few kilobytes, but it is never zero. Try opening it in another program. If it fails there too, get a fresh copy. If you wanted a MIDI file from audio, use a converter such as MP3 to MIDI to make a real one.
If you converted a whole song, the MIDI has notes for every sound at once. Vocals, bass, drums and guitar all become notes, and the piano roll fills with them.
Fix: Split the song first, then convert only the part you need. The Unmix Studio stem splitter gives new accounts 5 free credits. In our test, a 4-minute-44-second song became six tracks in 56 seconds. The Piano Extractor is a good start for keys.
Keep the pitch bend switch in mind. With Keep pitch bends on, slides in a voice or guitar come through as bend data. If FL Studio plays them oddly with your instrument, turn it off and convert again.
How you bring the file in changes what you get. Dragging a MIDI file into a channel's piano roll usually places notes in that one channel. Dragging or importing it to the project usually creates patterns and channels for the whole file. If one way gives you a crowded result, undo and try the other.
Making MIDI from a song for practice or study is fine. Releasing a track built on someone else's song needs permission from the rights holders.
The notes arrived, but no instrument is loaded on the channel. Load a plugin or sampler on it and check that it goes to an unmuted mixer track.
The project tempo and the file tempo can differ. Set the project BPM by hand to match the song.
Files made from audio follow a human performance, so timing is loose. Quantize in the piano roll, or turn on Snap to beat in Audio to MIDI before you download.
Yes. Any standard .mid file works. Convert the MP3 on the MP3 to MIDI page, which is free and runs in your browser, then bring the file in.
The audio had more than one sound. Split out the single part you want first, then convert it.