Does anyone know of a program that will convert midi's to mp3's or that will record an mp3 from your line out? I'm looking for something that will do this and is free or has a demo that will record more than 1 minute of music. If you know of anything I would be very aprecciative.

I use Winamp for that with an MP3 plugin. Have to use a software synthesizer tho

Noir7 has a guide somewhere that I've been meaning to post on the site

Originally posted by Angelic@Aug 7 2004, 06:32 PM
I use Winamp for that with an MP3 plugin. Have to use a software synthesizer tho
any idea where to get it/how to use it?

I got the MP3 plugin from Winamp.com

For the MIDI settings in Winamp:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/aboot/winamp_mid.gif

And then you should be able to use any diskwriter plugin you want. Keep in mind to turn off the equalizer or your MP3 will sound screwed up when you play it.

You can get the MP3 output plugin here: http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=177

I use Finale 2004 and save a midi file as a wav, then I use CDex to convert it to MP3.

Originally posted by Gand@Aug 7 2004, 09:50 AM
Noir7 has a guide somewhere that I've been meaning to post on the site
Too bad Nightmare's forums (where I kept my tutorial) crashed. =_=

Thanks Angelic. That gives me everything I need. Gnomish, I don't have the money to buy Finale 2004 just for the MP3 ability and I like 2003 more overall.

Originally posted by Noir7@Aug 8 2004, 10:18 PM
Too bad Nightmare's forums (where I kept my tutorial) crashed. =_=
phpBB :D

Nah, it was just the idiot adminstrator on it trying to upgrade it to a new version, and somehow managed to screw it up.

Noir, I actually might be able to dig up the tutorial from the backup file I made if you can give me a few words you typed in it so I can find the whole post in all those pages.

Edit: Oh, and nice tutorial angelic ^_^

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.

- 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.

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.

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!

Good luck!

Yeah, I went through php hell and back to dig that out :)

Bad thing about your guide is that it requires software that has to be bought :rolleyes: My method is completely free ^_^

Who said you have to buy the software? Bwahahahahahaha *cough* I mean, yeah, that's right.

*smashes Nightmare with a big Windows®© Box* Now don't you even go there =P

Good thing about it is, that it will create perfect songs. It all depends of how serious the composer/whatever is. And no, the software doesn't have to be bought. :shifty:

Your method is fine, but it will never surpass the quality of mine. I'll take that back once you prove me wrong. ^_^

If only I knew of a site where I could download .DLS soundfonts =T

Audacity ^_^ Freeware, and a nice "frontend"/GUI :P...
Does all the business you'll need, with line-out recording and so on... to record to .mp3 you'll just need the lame_enc .dll (goto google + type lame.. find it, extract it to ur audacity dir.. and ur done ^^)

LameFE 2.0.. Save the MIDI as an image, mount it, and then launch the software, select the CD drive and then encode it to whatever format you want.

I'm too lazy to set all that up. All I do is crank up my speaker volume and let the MIDI play while Sound Recorder is recording. Lazy, but still gets the job done, if you're not looking for that much quality.

Errr.....actually, that was sorta the whole point.

I know this is a little late, but I'll add it for reference, in case anybody else wants to know. If you can get a double ended analog cable, connect the mic and speaker ports behind your computer. Then, turn on Sound Recorder and your favorite MIDI playing program. Make sure you go through the MIDI to see if it is of the quality that you want. What you hear from your speakers, using your MIDI player, is what you'll hear on the .wav file. Then, before saving, there's an option on SR that lets you decide what format to save in. Change it from PCM to MP3. Now, I don't know if the cables even exist, so if they don't, half my post was useless. Also, the MP3s that Sound Recorder spits out don't seem to be with Ichigo's upload feature.