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MIDI to Audio Conversion Dilemma


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I need to know how to put my MIDI compositions onto an audio cassette tape. What kind of recording devices, conversion cables, etc., . The software I have is great but I need to get this stuff off of my computer and onto an audio cassette for entry into a contest. Where do I go to get the equipment I need to make a professional sounding demo tape? I emailed 2 tech departments that yeilded no reply.

 

Somebody please respond.

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How do you want to tranfer to tape? Using a sound card or synths?

 

There are many way to accomplish this, from using a line mixer with the output of your sound card into the mixer and then the output of that to tape, or all your different synths also into a mixer then to tape.

 

Additionally, if you have a dedicated mixer/recorder like the Tascam Portastudio, you can run the output(s) of your sound sources to that and mix to the tape. And what about effects?

 

Give us all a better idea of your home studio, and you'll get a ton of answers

Setup: Korg Kronos 61, Roland XV-88, Korg Triton-Rack, Motif-Rack, Korg N1r, Alesis QSR, Roland M-GS64 Yamaha KX-88, KX76, Roland Super-JX, E-Mu Longboard 61, Kawai K1II, Kawai K4.
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There is no way to directly "convert" MIDI to audio. I'm not sure if what you said about "conversion cables" implied that you were thinking there was.

MIDI data is not an actual audio signal in any way. It's more like a piano roll, or "sheet music" that can be understood by your sound module, which reads it and then knows what to play. To get your MIDI compositions onto tape, you simply need to record the audio outputs of your sound module.

If everything is coming out of one multi-timbral box, then your task could be as simple as running a stereo audio cable from its outputs to a high-quality cassette deck.

If you're using multiple sound sources, the options become a little more complex. You could run all your synths into a little Mackie mixer, and mix in real time to cassette. On the other end, if your sequencer program offers audio recording (like the current versions of all such programs) you could "print" all your MIDI tracks to audio tracks, mixdown inside the computer, and record the resulting stereo track to cassette.

Stephen Fortner

Principal, Fortner Media

Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine

Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine

 

Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse

 

 

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There is also an inexpensive multitrack studio software called N-Track that has MIDI-to-WAV conversion. It's downloadable from fasoft.com, and I have used it to convert my MIDI files to wavs and burn them to CD. It costs about $39, I think.
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Originally posted by mproviz8r:

There is also an inexpensive multitrack studio software called N-Track that has MIDI-to-WAV conversion. It's downloadable from fasoft.com, and I have used it to convert my MIDI files to wavs and burn them to CD. It costs about $39, I think.

 

The "conversion" of midi to .wav requires a third element- a sound source. The sound source could be samples either in a sofware or hardwaresampler, synthesized by a hardware or software synthesizer.

 

N-Track "converts" midi to .wav by playing the sampler or synthesizer built into your soundcard, which can vary radically in quality depending on the samples and synthesis. N-Track can also drive other sound sources, either virtual or external.

 

It's a great program actually, if you can't do good work with N-Track for $35 you're wasting your money spending hundreds of dollars on a big-name package that may not have much or any more real functionality and is probably not as stable. N-Track and Cool-Edit 2000 together are the best argument against using cracked audio software.

 

There actually is a literal .mid to .wav conversion in the modular synthesis program FX2, but it just makes an unlistenable noise (ruin your speakers, it's fun!) and is only a way of integrating a file of control signal information into a synthesis algorithm in the program. I guess if you wanted the nastiest noise on earth for some kind of industrial abattoir music you could actually use the sound.

 

MIDI tells instruments and devices, soft or hard, what and when and how to play/function and that's it. There must be something to be played by the midi information.

 

-CB

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