Tech: midi to MP3

Subject: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 09:57 AM

We put tunes into ABCexplorer and export them as pdfs and as midi files. Is their a simple way of turning midi files into MP3 files?

Thanks

L in C#

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 10:20 AM

If you have a sound editing program that lets you add MIDI files, you can simply open a new project, add the MIDI, then save it as an MP3.
I use Garage Band, and do this all the time. Audacity, which is freeware, does this too.

Garage band has some fairly natural guitar sounds in it, so I tend to open the MIDI, change the sounds from what are often tinny source sounds to the ones I like, and save.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Ed.
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 11:08 AM

Garage Band is a Mac only program.

If your using Windows, download Audacity and then click on file, and import

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 11:19 AM

Free Audacity should do it.

But you need to configure 'Stereo Mix' as well. Google search 'configure Stereo Mix' for instructions. With Win XP this is already done. With Win 7 you need to do it. Its quite simple.

Another way of converting a midi file is to set up two adjacent Audacity sessions. Set one to play the midi file. Set the other to record this using Stereo Mix. Play the midi file in the first session and record the sound in the second. Then 'Save As' the second recording in MP3 format - you'll need to download the free Lame add-on to save files MP3 format. Use at least 192kbps otherwise the recording will sound 'muddy.'

Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 11:21 AM

BarFly for the Mac can create MP3s directly from ABC. You can probably pick up an old Mac that can run it for free.

Otherwise, use Audacity. It has a truly icky user interface but can do what you want.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 12:29 PM

Les, if you need further advice (quality considerations ...), please tell us what you need the mp3s for. Midi files are much smaller and play on most computers. If you need a temporary conversion to burn on an Audio CD, use the .wav format (e.g. from Audacity, as described above).

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 01:22 PM

Thanks Grishka,

we have a website on which we put all sorts but one feature is our Tune Book:


Here

we put tunes on as pdfs ie sheet music and is ABCexplorer files. We have put some up as midi files but it has been suggested that MP3 might be better.

I would value and advice that's going

Les

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 01:36 PM

MP3 would not be better. Many times the size, and if you're generating them from MIDI you won't get any improvement in quality.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 01:43 PM

I would suggest you just make an MP3 of the session itself.

It's easy using a decent digital recorder, like an Edirol R9(which many of us have). A lot of people even do this with a digital camera or phone, but the sound is much better if you use a good recorder.

You can make MP3s of the individual tunes by editing the session recording in Audacity (or Garage Band, and yes Ed. I know it's a Mac only program, which is why I mentioned Audacity in the first place!)

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 03:19 PM

Jack and Stim beat me to it. MIDI files will do. Best of luck!

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Brakn
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 07:09 PM

If you listen to tunes on you laptop it won't matter what format as long as it works. Trouble is that you can't play midi files in your car or on your tele. When I'm out walking the dog I don't want to be lugging around a laptop. If people are going to get to learn new tunes they perhaps will want them in a format they are familiar with, be it mp3, midi or wav.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 07 Dec 12 - 09:35 AM

Thanks Mike, I guess we will ponder a while - maybe do what the 'R*ck St*rs' do and release in all formats?

Les

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 09 Dec 12 - 03:55 AM

Ok I have put loads up as midis. they sound a bit crap but it makes the tunes very clear.


In our website

Any other ideas out there?

Thanks again

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Spectacled Warbler
Date: 09 Dec 12 - 11:09 AM

I use 'Free Midi to MP3 Converter' from Polysoft.   It's free from here, or plenty of other sites through Google.

Highlight the midi file you want to convert, tell it where you want the MP3 to be saved, click convert. Job done.   Single tune or batches. As it happens, I use it for converting ABC Explorer midis to MP3 to play in the car.   Sounds familiar........

Cheers,

Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 09 Dec 12 - 02:03 PM

Sounds good Joy - I will give it ago

Les

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Mysha
Date: 09 Dec 12 - 02:20 PM

Hi,

Well, midi and mp3 aren't really the same kind of thing.

Midi is intended as a standard for recording how music is played on a digital instrument, rather than what the performance sounds like. They can be played back by midi instruments, and quite a few computers have midi players installed to play midi files back as well, implementing a virtual instrument. Providing midi files you have no control over the sound, and especially with generated midi files that include the bare minimum of information to play a note, played midi files will sound like manure. TTBOMK, using the midi standard is free in itself, but it will of course be primarily available on performance-related hardware, not on hardware geared towards play-back only.

MP3 is a standard for compressing files. It's intended for use with audio files, as it's developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) for inclusion of sound in their film files. The compression is done, in part, by leaving out minute details of the sound. This is why, according to a lot of people, an mp3 doesn't sound as good as a CD. TTBOMK, mp3 is patented, which is why open source computers generally don't include mp3 players out of the box. Mp3 players, apart from being a device in themselves, will often be included in hardware geared towards play-back; you're less likely to find it on digital musical instruments.

Converting from midi files to mp3-compressed sound files, again the converter will have to introduce a virtual instrument that will play the midi and whose sound can then be compressed. Obviously, if the midi files include just the bare minimum for the notes to be played, the virtual instrument, just like that of the computer midi player, will sound devoid of any style, as that information isn't present in the generated midi file to begin with. Compressing that sound is not going to add any quality, so it'll still sound like manure.

As you can see from the above, offering midi files and/or mp3 files, is largely a matter of audience(s). But since the mp3 files include the sound, if compressed, for simple midi files the mp3 files will be much larger.

If you do want to convert midi files to mp3 audio files, apart from the options already mention, there are also on-line conversion services. A search like this will lead you to several of those.

Bye
                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 09 Dec 12 - 06:06 PM

Les, for the purposes of your website, quality of sound is not very important. Your users seem to be instrumentalists, so the sheet music is the most important format. They may want to listen to the MIDI file to make sure they understood the rhythm and the tempo. Since this only works when they are reading the sheet music simultaneously, it cannot be done while driving or jogging. (It would be different if they were singers.)

To sum up, the mp3 is not likely to be much added value. I would upload the mp3 files only if storage on the web server and traffic is no financial problem at all, and/or if people ask for it.

Let me also second what Stim wrote, that a live recording, if available and of reasonable quality, is highly preferable, and takes exactly the same amount of storage/traffic as an mp3 converted from a tiny MIDI file of equal duration.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 12:27 PM

I agree with Grishka.

Speaking as a musician, I believe that MIDI file is superior to an mp3. If Les posts a MIDI, I can download it and modify it to suit my band. I can take a MIDI and change the key, write new parts, speed it up or slow it down, and change the clef to suit different instruments.

All one can do with an mp3 is listen to it.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 12:58 PM

You also have to think about how your people want to use these things.
There are a few general ways that people learn tunes:

1) They play them from sheet music

2) They memorize the tune, then work it our "by ear"

3) They follow what others are playing

4) Some combination of the above

In my experience, if you are working with a group of people, you have to pick one of the first three and prepare your materials in the appropriate fashion. Pick the fourth and you'll get bogged down really quickly.

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Spectacled Warbler
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 05:01 PM

Les, I had a look at your website - looks really good. Thanks for trying so hard to make these superb tunes accessible to so many people, you've obviously put a huge amount of work into this.   

Informative thread this - I wondered why so many websites used midi - never realised it was so versatile.   

Your website's inclusion of ABC, PDF sheet music and midi seems to be spot on, anybody can use it no matter how they learn, ABC images can be converted to PNG and resized to put into people's own tunebooks, people can convert any midi tunes they want into MP3 for CD to play along with if they, like me, don't practise by a computer.   Keys, tempo etc can easily be changed via altering the ABC, or Midi or MP3 via Audacity, it doesn't matter that the midis don't sound like the Old Swan Band as the tunes are quite clear.    Making live recordings of over 100 tunes is a massive undertaking, I wouldn't have thought it was practical or necessary.      

If that was my website I'd be proud of it and wouldn't tweak it any more.   Hope the Beech continues long and strong,

Cheers,

Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 05:06 PM

Amateur instrumentalists often take the pitches from the sheet music, but learn the rhythm by hearing. (And - secret - so do some professionals.)

Subject: RE: Tech: midi to MP3
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 10:45 AM

Thanks Joy and everybody else. We have been putting the Tune Book together over 4 years using ABC as the source so it's really just a case of a bit noe and again.

We are for ever inspired by the people who come to The Beech. I think 70+ have played during the last couple of years. A core of around 10 and another variable 20 or so. We play as an acoustic Ceilidh band of between 20 and 30 and it seems to work well.

Thanks again

les