musescore / musescore/MuseScore
Problem with Tempo and Time Signatures when importing MIDI files produced by a DAW
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Description
Describe the bug
Exporting a MIDI file from a DAW and then tryîng to import it to MuseScore produces tempo and time signature issues.
i.e. Tempo always seems to stick to 120 BPM and Time signature remains on 4/4
MIDI files exported from MuseScore or other notation software seem to behave properly however and the key recognition along with multiple staves and voices seem to work fine as well.
To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- Open a DAW and record some MIDI information on it.
- Export the MIDI file of the project
- Open MuseScore
- Import MIDI
- See the error described above: BPM sticks to 120 mostly and remains on 4/4
Expected behavior
While quantization is a matter all along, it would be expected that the information at least reflects properly in terms of Tempo and Time Signature changes.
Screenshots
MIDI File opened in other notation software:

Same file in MuseScore

Platform information
- OS: Windows 10
Additional context
This was tested exporting the MIDI file from the following DAW's:
- Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio
- Studio One 4 Artist
- Reaper
All yielding the same behaviour.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the issue in MuseScore with the attached MIDI files.zip and the DAW-exported files described in the report. Inspect the MIDI import entry point and compare the imported tempo and time-signature data with the source files; done means those values are preserved instead of defaulting to 120 BPM and 4/4.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- desktop-dev
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100