.

[angelina83]

..

[greengate69]

Assuming you can play the MIDI file, a program called "Total Recorder" will allow you to digitally record the output direct to MP3 or (I would recommend) to a WAV for subsequent conversion to MP3.

There are a number of specialist applications for doing the whole process in one hit, but I don't have experience of them (have a look on download.com or tucows.com).

[Dasio]

You can’t. MIDI file for your hardware is like a music sheet for musician. Does not contain any sound, just information how to play it.
You need good sound card or external hardware like keyboard, play your file through it and re-record output as WAV. But remember what you hear trough your hardware is what you get as final sound.

I use Yamaha XG1000W card with very realistic sounds and internal mixer loopback for recording WAV files.

Darek

[greengate69]

That's not strictly true I think.

Totalrecorder will grab the digital signal before it has been output the soundcard and converted to analogue. Therefore you should be able to get an accurate high quality recording even with a mediocre soundcard (since the soundcard is not involved).

I think that Mediaplayer can play midi files on many OS, using the PC's own sound capabilities. Without connecting an external instrument, you can get very high quality results using a softsynth (such as Roland VirtualCanvas), and Total Recorder. On a decent spec PC this combination will give very good results.

[mkelley]

You're actually both right (or both wrong, depending on how you look at it :>)

The first poster was correct in saying there is no audio information in a midi file. A midi file is just a collection of data that is sent to midi devices to tell them how to behave. midi files can even control lighting, so there's no kind of "midi to wav" converter that would work. In general these are hardware devices that create the music sound we hear.

But it's also true a lot of computers nowadays (indeed, the whole music industry) are moving towards soft synths -- IOW, having software perform the task of a hardware device. In this case the soft synth output can indeed be captured digitally without having to record the output, as would be necessary if you were using a hard (hardware) synthesizer.

Many high end soft synths are very good indeed -- but they are also obscenely expensive and usually require a dedicated computer. Soft synths for consumers sound (at least to my musical ear) not nearly as good as even my Roland sound modules (which are pretty inexpensive).

If you're not critical though even the synths that come with the atrocious Sound Blaster sound cards are okay. Follow the second poster's advice and you should be fine. For more critical ears I would suggest (as the first poster did) recording the outputs from a decent sound module (some of my more expensive modules do have digital DTS like outputs for laying down on digital equipment, but that's a whole other story...)

[Cornucopia]

And, if you have Quicktime Pro installed, you can use the embedded softsynth in it (which is based on the Roland GS modules). Many of the voices sound better than the std. Sound Blaster voices (some don't).

BTW, if you do use the SB voices, the newer and better SB cards come with a choice of voice library. These usually come as 2MB, 4MB, or 8MB sample libraries (not sure of the extension). What you wanna do is specifically use the 8MB when rendering the softsynth to WAV. It's voices are tons better than the smaller libraries. I keep the library selection at 8MB all the time, but you could just use it when rendering if you wanted to maximize your memory the rest of the time.

Scott

[vitualis]

If you are happy with your standard MIDI voices, then you can just use Winamp to play the MIDI file. Set the output as "disc writer" and it will convert the MIDI file to a rendered WAV.

Regards.

[angelina83]

..

[vitualis]

Press Ctrl+P for "preferences"

Plugins - Output

Select the "Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in"

Click on "configure" and set your desired configuration.

The next time you load a midi (or any other audio file) with winamp and play it, it will save it to a wav file.

Regards.

[angelina83]

..

[vitualis]

Ditch Winamp3 (which is still IMHO nothing more than in glorified BETA) and go back to the latest version of Winamp 2.x (which, BTW, is NEWER than Winamp3)...



Regards.

[DivXExpert]

What are some of the best soft synths?

[mkelley]

The Best?

The absolute best, no question about it, no controversy about it, in the music world is the Gigastudio series. While some have run it on the same computer, it really requires a dedicated computer to run properly, and it's pretty expensive if you factor in the hardware (unless you have an old Pentium laying around you're not using). But it's supreme sounds are used quite successfully on nearly all major labels, and for a software cost of less tha $600 to get you going you essentially have bought an orchestra. There is no way to improve upon this sound unless you get studio muscians (and even then there is some contention Gigastudio can sound better :>)

There is no equal.

[angelina83]

..

[DivXExpert]

I've got the same problem. But I would actually like to run some of the songs through a software synth, with a nice sound library, orchestra sounds preferably. Any suggestions on software?

[Rhebs]

You could try Cubase or Cubasis, by Steinberg. You should be able to import the midi file, break it apart into seperate channels and assign different plugin type softsynths called virtual instruments(there are many free virtual instruments to download, but the best ones will cost you) to the different midi channels. It's a little involved, but not too hard once you get the hang of it. Most of the midi programs even work with cheap sound cards like soundblaster. There are a bunch of programs for midi sequencing like this. I know that there are some demo versions for Cubase, you might even be able to find a free midi sequencing program somewhere. Have a great weekend.

[vitualis]

Press Ctrl+P for "preferences"

Plugins - Output

Select the "Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in"

Click on "configure" and set your desired configuration.

The next time you load a midi (or any other audio file) with winamp and play it, it will save it to a wav file.

Regards.

While song is playing halfway, i went to the folder to check and refreshed it. Tada! No file generated.

I did what u told me to. After configuring ( i chose wav output), i closed it, then went to play the midi as normal. but nothing came out.

any ideas?

I just tried it myself and you are right, it didn't work...

Perplexed (as I have done this before) it seems that the newest version of Winamp has a much updated MIDI component since I last had a look at it. For me, these following settings allowed me to save the MIDI as a WAV file. If it works properly, you SHOULDN'T hear the midi as it is playing as it is being channelled into the disk writer as a wave file.

The settings as pictures:

Ctrl+P for preferences and then click on the Input --> MIDI as below:


Click on configuration and then change the default to the below:


And of course, you must of your output plugin changed to the disk writer as explained previously but here are some pictures too:



Regards.

[angelina83]

..

[DivXExpert]

worked like a charm.

[Cornucopia]

One more method that I mentioned before, but don't think got noticed--works pretty straightforwardly:

Quicktime Pro

1. Open midi or karaoke midi file (via Import)
2. Adjust voice selection and balance (via Get Movie Properties--"ctrl+J")
3. Save (for temp backup--as *.mov)
4. Save to AIFF (via Export)

If you want it in a different final format, you can just open up the AIFF and export as MP3, WAV, AU, AAC, OGG, etc.

Just wanted to make sure y'all had a number of good choices. 8)

Scott

[vitualis]

That assume that you've got QuickTime Pro installed on your PC though...

Nice tip in any case and probably easier than using Winamp.

Regards.

[secretagent]

ho hum.
open midi in supersonic. save as wave.

[ZoNE97]

Dont use winamp, here is a program for you tha may solve alot your problems.

http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/docs.php#usage

http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/download.php