MIDI - The complete lowdown?

As stated earlier in this thread, I have had no reason to know anything about PC MIDI and have been blissfully ignorant - until Ozpeter recently started extolling the virtues of SynthEdit. That aroused my interest, and I have learned quite a bit about PC MIDI since this thread started. I will share the results of that research in the near future. Until then, check out SynthFont at this link (it also will render MIDI to Wav using sound fonts):

http://www.synthfont.com/

It is still free (and is in development) and has the potential to be an amazing piece of software. However, the program will only play one MIDI file at a time. Because the playlist feature is not yet implemented, you must use an external MIDI player if you want to use a playlist (I use Winamp) and feed the MIDI data to SynthFont through a virtual MIDI cable (Hubi or MIDI Yoke). When you do this, you lose the ability to use the VST effects (reverb, etc.) with SynthFont. A minor technicality for now. Hopefully the playlist will become functional soon.

SynthFont will automatically create as many channels as you have channels in your MIDI file. You can assign a sound font to each channel. If the soundfont on any given channel has multiple presets, you can then specify which preset should be used. There is a built-in mixer for each channel that will allow you to adjust channel volume (to balance volume against the volume of other channels), transpose MIDI, pan, and change the MIDI channel number. You can assign a VST effect to each channel. And more. The program interface does not make it obvious that you can do all of these things. If you need any help figuring this stuff out, PM me.

I'm assembling a VST SF Player in SynthEdit that will accept playlist input from Winamp and still allow you to apply VST effects such as reverb. For now, my VST Player will only play up to six sound fonts simultaneously. That is my self-imposed limit - not a limit of SynthEdit. I haven't found the need to play more than six sound fonts at once yet.  My VST SF Player will also render MIDI to Wav.

More coming.

Get Audio Compositor here:

http://www.maz-sound.de/archives/ac44.exe
 __or
http://www.maz-sound.com/awe_text_only.html  (scroll about halfway down page)

This is a demo version - with only limited function.  With no place to pay for the program, it will likely stay demo with limited functions - so it's usefulness is also limited.  But you can at least see what the program looks like if you've never seen it.

Also - I've downloaded Vienna - but it won't install.  I get a message saying that the install routine cannot find a soundfont-compatible sound card, and then the install routine just stops.  I guess Vienna was meant to push the Soundblaster Live and such sound cards - rather than being provided to support sound fonts in general.

[a)]

I have decided that there is so much good info in this thread that a) it should be somewhat more appropriately named, and b) that it should be made sticky.

At present, this is the closest we've got to a FAQ system, so it will have to do. Any more useful contributions appreciated!

Get Audio Compositor here:

http://www.maz-sound.de/archives/ac44.exe
 __or
http://www.maz-sound.com/awe_text_only.html  (scroll about halfway down page)

This is a demo version - with only limited function.  With no place to pay for the program, it will likely stay demo with limited functions - so it's usefulness is also limited.  But you can at least see what the program looks like if you've never seen it.

Also - I've downloaded Vienna - but it won't install.  I get a message saying that the install routine cannot find a soundfont-compatible sound card, and then the install routine just stops.  I guess Vienna was meant to push the Soundblaster Live and such sound cards - rather than being provided to support sound fonts in general.

I believe there are some other soundfont editors out there that don't rely on a soundfont card, but I forget the names (try Google). In fact AudioCompositor has functionality for soundfont editing, but I haven't tried it so I don't know if it is any good.

As for AC - can some legal wiz tell me if this is allowed?: If the producers of AC have closed down and the product is no longer commercially available, can I share my copy with others for free? If it is allowed I am happy to do so, but I don't want to break any laws.

I have the lates full version and am very happy with it.

Bonnder, I've only glanced at the Synthfont site for about 30" but my first thought, translated into a quick and successful experiment, was that you can do the basically same thing with the mid file player module in Synthedit connected to the RGCAudio 'sfz' soundfont player, then on through any VST's you care to add, and out via an 'audio out' module.  But I'm really supposed to be doing anything except posting here, so I'll save Synthfont for a longer look another day.  Thanks for yet another good tip!

MarkT - I too have wondered what the ramifications would be of passing around a workable version of AudioCompositor.  Don't know that anybody has the answer to that one.  If we did something like that, I would almost be more comfortable establishing an escrow account and paying for the product - in case ACs creator appears at some point and wants his fair share.

Peter - I have the RGCAudio 'sfz' soundfont player, and I have tried to use it with SynthEdit.  The 'sfz' SF player will only load one soundfont at a time.  So, to play a MIDI file with a piano SF and an organ SF, I would need to launch two instances of the 'sfz' SF player.  With SynthFont, I just load the piano SF on my piano track and the organ SF on my organ track and away we go.  Plus I can add reverb.  I think I have read somewhere that SynthFont is streaming from the hard drive or some such.  I only have 128 MB of RAM on the machine I'm using.  The RGCAudio 'sfz' soundfont player won't even load one small soundfont, nevermind two - it gives me a "not enough memory" error.  But I can play three or more separate soundfonts simultaneously using SynthFont on the same system.  SynthFont would suit my purposes fine if it only had a functioning playlist.

However, I have pretty much completed the SF Player I am building with SynthEdit. All I have left to do is to pretty it up.  I've expanded it so that it will play 10 separate sound fonts at the same time (assuming your CPU doesn't choke), along with reverb.  I use Winamp's playlist to send MIDI data into the SF Player.  I can even change sound fonts while the song is still playing - something you cannot do with SynthFont.  This is useful for auditioning different combinations of sounds.

I will post it soon for anyone who might be interested in playing with it.

Some more MIDI to WAV software:

MIDInight Express. Gets a lot of mentions, but I haven't tried it. It's supposed to be good, though.
WAVmaker is from the same stable as MIDInight Express... and there's
a load of stuff here - the explanations appear to be in English, so this shouldn't be a problem.

This is all untried and untested - but you never know, it may be just the thing you're looking for.

The following is a response I made at the AA Forum in this thread:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@176.NcZmc3JWIFn.524979@.3bb4a43d

I'm double-posting for those who might be reading here and not know of the other thread or forum. If the moderators want to edit this post, or take it out entirely, feel free to do so.
---------------------

Real simple you can't convert midi to wave... ...The only way to take midi and turn it to a wave is to ...

I've seen this thought expressed essentially in this format in a number of different places. (I'm not saying they were all written by Hink.) Hink, I don't doubt that you know MIDI. But you have contradicted yourself in the same paragraph. For those just beginning to grasp the fundamentals of MIDI, your paragraph can be mighty confusing.

"Wav to MIDI Converters" and "MIDI to Wav Converters" ARE standard headings at any number of sites that categorize PC music products. thanh vu was simply using generic terminology in his question. I think most folks know what he meant: "how do I turn a MIDI file into a Wav file?"

I will beat the drum again for SynthFont as an elegant yet simple solution to thanh vu's problem. This will play MIDI files through soundfonts and will render to wav files. But it is a simple and elegant solution only if you have some decent soundfonts. Note that SynthFont is still under contruction - but it plays and renders to wav files well.

SynthFont: http://www.synthfont.com

You can get some quite nice soundfonts for free from Hammersound or Merlin here:

http://www.hammersound.net
http://www.midi-contest.com

At the Merlin "midi-contest" site - type in any name in the "Name" field, and then click on "Guest". When the slow-loading screen is finally up, click on "Soundfonts" toward the bottom of the screen on the left side. Pull out the individual soundfonts you want by using Awave Studio:

http://www.fmjsoft.com/awframe.html

Put them back together again in a new multi-preset soundfont, using 'megafont'. Some of the text implies that you need a SoundBlaster Live or Audigy to use this. I have neither and have created multi-preset sounfonts from other soundfonts that I extracted using Awave Studio.  (Some authors of multi-preset soundfonts request that users do not pull out individual soundfonts and reassemble them in a different multi-preset soundfont.  Obviously, one should honor such requests.)

http://www.hammersound.net/mirrors/last_night/mf_download.htm

You can either load and play files one at a time in SynthFont (playlist function not activated yet. My guess is that one will need to pay to get that function activated when SynthFont gets out of beta stage). Or you can use the playlist function of a MIDI player such as Winamp - but then you would need to patch Winamp to SynthFont using Hubi's or MIDI Yoke (either seem to work with WinXP).

You can get a nice Native Instrument's B4 clone for free here:

http://www.soundfonts.it/vst/ORGANized/

Most recent version that I have found as of 6-04 is ORGANized Trio v2.0.

.... and I'll thank Bonnder here as there for ORGANized - nice one!

You're welcome.

Given that ORGANized (Hammond?) and Jeux SoundFonfonts (Pipe Organ) are free, I'm thinking that this fall sometime we should start a thread to list folk's favorite organ settings.  I've not had any training on the organ at all, so I'm flying blind when it comes to knowing the theory behind creating good organ settings.

jOrgan's another one.

ORGANized has been upgraded to v2.1.  The author of ORGANized has also just released a Fender-Rhodes Electric Piano clone.  Both can be found here: I haven't tested the Fender-Rhodes clone yet so I may be recommending a flawed product.  But it was authored by the author of ORGANized, so I'm willing to go out on a limb here.

http://www.soundfonts.it/vst/

Oh... oh... oh.... that piano!   Superb!  A must-have!!!

The updated organ has a new sound from the old one.  The documentation in the download lists the changes.  Keep both versions!  Run both at the same time for a mighty sound!!

The "Audio Compositor" is a good program. Too bad that the site dissapeared. It does a proper polyphonic rendering.
For de-bug of the cable and I/O card: it has a "direct play" mode from the MIDI input port, although not so good for full real-time rendering of complex sound fonts.
Also, CEP has a remote control feature built in. Just read the status line to verify the connection and the note being played. This helps when you are trying to detemine the correct device address etc.

Good eveing from Greece.

Your posts about midi are really very interesting but I am still confused if I can play my midi files through audition in multitrack mode track 1 and record them onto separate tracks  2+3 or onto track 2 only as stereo wave files.

I need to record stereo wave file from midi files and I ask to know please if this can be done with audition 1.5.

I do not have any external midi devices, only the internal Sw synthesizer from Microsoft under Windows Xp pro Sp1.

What I can do with midis and audition ?

Thanks.