Noir7
September 14th, 2004, 09:19 pm
I'll be writing an article about mp3 making, since so many people don't know how to do this, but really want to.If you have any questions or opinions, please don't PM or email me about it...use this thread as a help topic, and post all of your questions here. I also don't want any questions if you haven't read the whole article. I wrote a complex way to do it, and a simple way. The complex way is much, much more professional, and lets you create your music exactly the way you want though. Be aware that the complex version will let you edit your mp3 into climax, anything is possible with Cakewalk:sonar3.
Material needed: Cakewalk Sonar3: Producer's Edition & a proper soundcard [ Complex version, best quality ]
Finale2004 [ Simple version, simplistic mp3s ]
COMPLEX VERSION
-The first step is to get a good soundfonts. Soundfonts replace the original MIDI sounds with real instrument samples (mostly). There are alot of good, free soundfonts out there, but the trick is to find them. I would suggest www.hammersound.net for your primary soundfont downloading. Of course there are more sites, just take a search on google. When you're looking at the soundfonts, choose the instruments you need for the MIDI. So if you have a MIDI file with piano and strings only, just download a good piano soundfont and a good string orchestra soundfont. When you've downloaded them, you must add them to your soundcard. Depending on your soundcard, there are many ways to do this. The easiest way is to locate your soundcard software (ie. C:/Programs/Creative/AHQTB.exe). When you've opened the program, you will get a control panel of some sort, depending of what soundcard you use. If you have Soundblaster Creative, it looks like this:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/Xaijon/ahqtb.jpg
When you are there, go to \"Soundfonts\" and if you're not totally incompetent you will know what to do here. XD
- Okay, now when you have a good sound, it's time for you to get the right software. The best, in my opinion, is a program called Cakewalk Sonar3: Producer's Edition.
I don't care how you want to get it, if you are getting it legally or illegally, that's not my problem. When you have that program opened, simply load your MIDI file. Once you've done that, you will see different tracks. These tracks represent the instruments, so if you had piano and strings, you'll see 2 tracks. Click "Insert" and then choose Audio Track.
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/Xaijon/sonar.jpg
By doing this, you see a new track appearing, and now you can start recording the MIDI file! (later on, in this tutorial)
- Now you must open your computer's soundcontrols. You do this by clicking on the icon next the clock in the lower right corner of the screen. You have probably set the recording as "Microphone". Uncheck that box, and change it to "MIDI".
- Now when you've done all this, it's time to record. If you have done everything correctly, you can now do it with no problems. First off, click the little "R" button on the Audio track that you added. Then, search for a button (below the top menu) that will turn OFF the Metronome. Now click "Record" and wait until the MIDI has played through. When that's done, go to File > Export Audio and then choose the destination folder. Also make sure you save is as a .WAV file! This file will probably get big, somewhere around 20-30MB, depending of the song length. Now when you have the wave file, the hard part is done. Now you just have to find a converting program that lets go convert WAVE > MP3. A good program is Awave Studio.
- Another thing you can do to highly spice things up, is to add ambience effects. This is done fast and easy, but needs testing and such to make it feel right. First click CTRL+A, so that you mark the whole audio track, and then go to "Process", and from there, search the Audio Effects (I think it's Audio Effects, I don't have the program right now..) and then look for "Reverb". There you can choose from a lot of different reverbs like concert halls, rooms, space etc...
Just to make things clear, you don't have to do all this stuff every single time you convert. Just repeat the process you made in Cakewalk: Insert the MIDI, record using the "MIDI" option in the soundcontrols, instead of the "Microphone" that will probably be marked, and then export as Mp3!
Questions? Anything that is unclear or doesn't work? Post everything in this thread, and I will help you out. Also note that I can't help out with the actual hardware issues, like your soundcard errors etc. I hope this tutorial has been to good use for all the people out there who wanted to spice their 8mb MIDI sounds to a full live orchestra!
SIMPLE VERSION
- Be sure to have Finale2004 installed on your computer. Not Finale notepad, it doesn\'t have this special feature...
- Load your MIDI file into Finale2004. Finale won't always playback the MIDI the right way... some MIDIs sound weird, but it's not that common. Just wish for luck.
- When you've checked that the MIDI file sounds as it should in Finale2004, you simply save it as an mp3, instead of something else. You have this option in the top main menu.
- By doing this, you will get a MIDI sounding mp3, but it will still sound ALOT better than a MIDI file. If you want to make it sound more realistic, or add special instruments/sounds you can get new soundfonts. I explained how to do this in the complex version.
I added some mp3 samples. These are MIDI sounds that I convert via Sonar3. These are all originally MIDI files, converted with the "Complex version" of mp3 making.
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Harp.mp3 [Harp]
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Piano.mp3 [Piano]
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid...estra%20Hit.mp3 (http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Orchestra%20Hit.mp3) [Orchestra Hit]
So...it's up to you to choose how good quality you want for your mp3s. It's exactly like comparing MS Paint with Adobe Photoshop. With Paint, you can do all the basic stuff, and very fast too, but with Photoshop, you can make incredible graphics and stuff...but it takes time to properly learn how to use it! If you learn how to handle the complex version, you will surely have compositions so realistic that no one will hear the difference, since many soundfonts are recordings of REAL samples of an instrument.
Good luck!
Material needed: Cakewalk Sonar3: Producer's Edition & a proper soundcard [ Complex version, best quality ]
Finale2004 [ Simple version, simplistic mp3s ]
COMPLEX VERSION
-The first step is to get a good soundfonts. Soundfonts replace the original MIDI sounds with real instrument samples (mostly). There are alot of good, free soundfonts out there, but the trick is to find them. I would suggest www.hammersound.net for your primary soundfont downloading. Of course there are more sites, just take a search on google. When you're looking at the soundfonts, choose the instruments you need for the MIDI. So if you have a MIDI file with piano and strings only, just download a good piano soundfont and a good string orchestra soundfont. When you've downloaded them, you must add them to your soundcard. Depending on your soundcard, there are many ways to do this. The easiest way is to locate your soundcard software (ie. C:/Programs/Creative/AHQTB.exe). When you've opened the program, you will get a control panel of some sort, depending of what soundcard you use. If you have Soundblaster Creative, it looks like this:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/Xaijon/ahqtb.jpg
When you are there, go to \"Soundfonts\" and if you're not totally incompetent you will know what to do here. XD
- Okay, now when you have a good sound, it's time for you to get the right software. The best, in my opinion, is a program called Cakewalk Sonar3: Producer's Edition.
I don't care how you want to get it, if you are getting it legally or illegally, that's not my problem. When you have that program opened, simply load your MIDI file. Once you've done that, you will see different tracks. These tracks represent the instruments, so if you had piano and strings, you'll see 2 tracks. Click "Insert" and then choose Audio Track.
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/Xaijon/sonar.jpg
By doing this, you see a new track appearing, and now you can start recording the MIDI file! (later on, in this tutorial)
- Now you must open your computer's soundcontrols. You do this by clicking on the icon next the clock in the lower right corner of the screen. You have probably set the recording as "Microphone". Uncheck that box, and change it to "MIDI".
- Now when you've done all this, it's time to record. If you have done everything correctly, you can now do it with no problems. First off, click the little "R" button on the Audio track that you added. Then, search for a button (below the top menu) that will turn OFF the Metronome. Now click "Record" and wait until the MIDI has played through. When that's done, go to File > Export Audio and then choose the destination folder. Also make sure you save is as a .WAV file! This file will probably get big, somewhere around 20-30MB, depending of the song length. Now when you have the wave file, the hard part is done. Now you just have to find a converting program that lets go convert WAVE > MP3. A good program is Awave Studio.
- Another thing you can do to highly spice things up, is to add ambience effects. This is done fast and easy, but needs testing and such to make it feel right. First click CTRL+A, so that you mark the whole audio track, and then go to "Process", and from there, search the Audio Effects (I think it's Audio Effects, I don't have the program right now..) and then look for "Reverb". There you can choose from a lot of different reverbs like concert halls, rooms, space etc...
Just to make things clear, you don't have to do all this stuff every single time you convert. Just repeat the process you made in Cakewalk: Insert the MIDI, record using the "MIDI" option in the soundcontrols, instead of the "Microphone" that will probably be marked, and then export as Mp3!
Questions? Anything that is unclear or doesn't work? Post everything in this thread, and I will help you out. Also note that I can't help out with the actual hardware issues, like your soundcard errors etc. I hope this tutorial has been to good use for all the people out there who wanted to spice their 8mb MIDI sounds to a full live orchestra!
SIMPLE VERSION
- Be sure to have Finale2004 installed on your computer. Not Finale notepad, it doesn\'t have this special feature...
- Load your MIDI file into Finale2004. Finale won't always playback the MIDI the right way... some MIDIs sound weird, but it's not that common. Just wish for luck.
- When you've checked that the MIDI file sounds as it should in Finale2004, you simply save it as an mp3, instead of something else. You have this option in the top main menu.
- By doing this, you will get a MIDI sounding mp3, but it will still sound ALOT better than a MIDI file. If you want to make it sound more realistic, or add special instruments/sounds you can get new soundfonts. I explained how to do this in the complex version.
I added some mp3 samples. These are MIDI sounds that I convert via Sonar3. These are all originally MIDI files, converted with the "Complex version" of mp3 making.
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Harp.mp3 [Harp]
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Piano.mp3 [Piano]
http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid...estra%20Hit.mp3 (http://www.mediashrine.com/Downloads/Fluid3-Orchestra%20Hit.mp3) [Orchestra Hit]
So...it's up to you to choose how good quality you want for your mp3s. It's exactly like comparing MS Paint with Adobe Photoshop. With Paint, you can do all the basic stuff, and very fast too, but with Photoshop, you can make incredible graphics and stuff...but it takes time to properly learn how to use it! If you learn how to handle the complex version, you will surely have compositions so realistic that no one will hear the difference, since many soundfonts are recordings of REAL samples of an instrument.
Good luck!