MIDI Conversion to MP3
 

Alright, I need to convert MIDIs that I have from Battle Bugs and Chex Quest into MP3s. I done it before via pretty bad quality methods and I thus need help. What's a high quality method of converting MIDIs to MP3s? Also is it possible to make the MP3s sound louder because with the my previous methods, the MP3s had very little volume.

Thanks in advance!!

Epsilon,

To show Moguta, tenseiken and others that I usually do know what I'm talking about, I'll try and handle this one.


Basically, you don't 'convert' MIDI to MP3. MIDI is a format where all data is stored about the instruments used, the instrument volume, the notes, et al.
MP3 is a digital 'lossy' format converted from original pure quality WAV recordings, which is digital audio, as in, only stores audio data (as opposed to MIDI's which store everything).

MIDI files are also usually designed to be played back on a specific device, usually again, the one they were composed on.

Digital files generally-speaking playback the same, no matter what the device (although sound card quality and headphones/etc do make a difference to what you hear).
MIDI files will sound quite different on different devices (for example, a Roland MIDI will sound different on a Yamaha device and vice versa).


So, you can't 'convert', because they're different kinds of formats. If you have the actual device the MIDI file was composed for, you can record the MIDI digitally, making it a WAV. (Note: recording/converting is not the same process, although it essentially achieves the same result.)


If it's too quiet once recorded, use a digital editing program (Cool Edit, Adobe Audition, ProTools, Sound Forge, etc) to simply select and amplify the WAV file before converting it to MP3. You can also delete silence and unwanted bits of audio that way.

Regards, and hope I was helpful,
- Spike

Don't discourage the kid, Spikey :(

I suggest downloading some nice soundfonts and rendering them with Synthfont, if you don't have a Creative sound card. (I usually render to WAVE, then encode with LAME to MP3.) As to where you can get nice soundfonts.... you gotta ask around!

Making MP3s louder? Not a problem. When the MIDIs are converted in wave format, open them up with Audacity and yank up (amplify) the volume. I don't recommend directly editing MP3 files, because it's going to be recompressed once you save.

Um, aside from being typically longwinded, how exactly was I 'discouraging' the 'kid'?

I'm all for new VG rips. Just done with a clue.

- Spike

Well, I pretty much knew that much, but the point is to get from the MIDI to the MP3, regardless of the actual specifics in the technicalities.

Okay, so basically convert the MIDIs to WAVs, amplify the volume, and convert to MP3. Sounds sorta like what I did before...

What programs do you recommend using for MIDI-->WAV and WAV-->MP3? Use Audacity for volume amplification, got it. Oh, I don't really care about soundfonts so much because I want it to sound exactly how it sounds when you play the games.

http://www.geocities.jp/shansoundfont/

SGM is the best (reasonably sized) soundfont I've ever heard, and it's what I use for (most of) my music.

If you really wanna go overkill, look for a soundfont called Crisis. Your PC will indeed go through a crisis trying to load it; it's 1.6 GIGABYTES large. It sounds awesome though =p

I'd recommend SGM, though.

Synthfont supports VST plugins, so I'd recommend you look for a VST called Freeverb, which'll let you add a nice bit of reverb to whatever you're recording =)

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how the same operation might be done on a Mac? I've been toying with the idea of converting some old original MIDIs (and, coincidentally enough, some from Chex Quest) for use on my iPod, but they sound pretty terrible on my PowerBook's native MIDI.

Yes, I got that. ;)

Basically..

Personally, what I do is this. I use a MIDI editing program, and loop tracks (not many people want to hear a 50 second piece for 50 seconds, they want to hear a loop and then a fade out/slapped on ending, etc). Well, it's much more complex than that but I'll keep it simple.

Once the MIDI's edited, I'll record it ('convert' as you say) as a digital WAV, using Total Recorder (although you can use pretty much anything these days). To do this with any recorder, you have to set it up to record on a certain input, whether that's your sound card's MIDI, an external MIDI device, or onboard computer MIDI.

Once you have a WAV you open it in digital audio editing software. From there, you can raise the volume to a normal level (I usually hear a few game OST's to see what the normal kind of level is, so my tracks aren't really loud or quiet), and add reverb and other effects if you want (although I personally do that in the MIDI stage).

Converting WAV to MP3- well, since I don't use MP3 as a format, you're better off asking Moguta, who's something of an expert.


As for your soundfont and this comment:
That's a funny kind of thing to say. Because, as what I was getting at earlier is that with General MIDI games, how it sounds when you play it probably isn't what it sounds like when someone else plays it. That's why I use the device the game was composed for, ensuring regardless of whether person X has a good MIDI setup or a bad one, they hear it how the composer intended.

It's why MIDI game rips annoy me, because, usually they're recorded by a person with a bad setup. But, I prefer any kind of rip to no rip, it should be said :)


At any rate. I'm happy to help you further if you have any other queries.



Roph- a 1.6 Gb soundfont? Geez, overkill alert. Wish such stuff had existed when I used to use soundfonts with my old SB Live! :) I think the largest one I used was 32 or 100 something MB, and even that caused my Celeron to near-crash. Ah, memories :)



Orion- if the MIDI's are GM, software synths like Roland's Virtual Sound Canvas (excellent), or Yamaha's SYXG ones are good bets, even better I've found is Roland's Hyper Canvas and Orchestral VST instrument sets. With Cubasis (or other VST-based programs) you can open the MIDI file, play it back, and have it be recorded digitally at the same time (although I've never done it, it would work and sound nice).

- Spike

This soundfont is awesome. I'm prolly gonna use this one.

It took me so long to get this soundfont because the site doesn't let u dl more than one part at a time. And I's say it was a waste getting it. I don't like it compared to SGM.

? Using that plugin just makes the MIDI sound really far away and with low volume. What's the point of it?

To render midi files, there's also Timidity (free software) included with many Linux distros (for instance Ubuntu).

Ugh, I've been trying to get this soundfont, but for some reason the link on that site always cuts me off before it's finished downloading. And I can't find any other places to get it.

E: I finally managed to get it using my FTP client.

A method that I use in order to change midi to mp3 is through recording. Basically it goes like this. You just play the midi file in any player (I use Winamp) and then use a recording device (in my case Advanced MP3 WMA Recorder by XAudiotools, which is a very easy to use recording program:http://www.xaudiotools.com/) to recording the track directly from your sound card into MP3 format. You can even record louder if you wish to. I sometimes use Audacity next to edit it a bit. It's not the fastest method if you want to convert a lot, but at least the sound quality is excellent. Below in an attachment with the original midi file and it recorded mp3 couterpart I made for example.

Hey Spikey, can you elaborate on this? You're right, some of the MIDIs that I have don't loop and I would like them to loop. What program should I use to be able to do this and how would I do it? Thanks. ;)

Don't know if you figured it out yet, but I haven't been around for a while. :)

There's two ways of doing this. Note that it's difficult unless you're really lucky and someone's edited the files well (more on this later).

1. Edit digitally (only recommended if you know what you're doing with digital audio editing). Basically, you record the MIDI with the one loop, it ends.

You open the recorded WAV file in your audio editing program, and you edit silence out at the start and end according to your liking.
Then, you copy the music from start to end and "mix paste" it over the end of where the music ends (not the last note, but where the music's last note/notes starts to end). If you get it right, it will sound like it's looping and not a cut/paste job (even though it is) :)

2. Of course, the ideal way is to use a MIDI editing program and loop it so when you record, you have minimal work.

The way to do it is select all the MIDI data, all channels (use the mouse and highlight in a 'track view' page all the data), copy (Ctrl-C), and then click at the top of the end of the data (the first channel, but the next place that's blank after some data) and Ctrl-V.

Hopefully that'll make it loop. But there may be a gap of silence between the end of the first loop and the start of the second. You could digitally "mix paste" the second and third loops over the first and second (not a bad idea actually) but of course you could (if you have experience) manually cut and paste the MIDI in a "channel data view" section (where you take each instrument in the file individually and cut the second loop of notes and paste it back a little bit until it's at the right place, and rinse and repeat with the others). It's annoying, but sometimes the only way.



2a. Because I hate editing MIDI files so they loop, I usually record the MIDI data with a MIDI recording program, with the game running (and let it play 2 1/2 times over and then delete the MIDI 'junk' at the end and either make it end or fade out).

If the games are DOS, you can use DOSBox to record MIDI data (much easier I've found). If the games are DOS let me know.

If they're Windows you could record the MIDI straight.

- Spike

Btw, i have some windows program that plays sound via midi. Is there a way to record that midi sound to midi? I got Cakewalk, but i haven't figured out how to do it yet.

I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9- to record a live MIDI stream (in other words, when you hit record, from that point onwards all MIDI data is recorded until you hit stop) you need to do the following:

Select the relevant channels to be recorded- usually, 1-16 (inclusive), and hit record. You may need to disable the metronome and other things like that.

To select channels, there should be a blank list on the left-hand of your Cakewalk program. Make the first 'channel 1', and the next below it 'channel 2', and so on (you don't need to type it, it'll be a dropdown menu). It's very easy.

- Spike

fruity loops does it....I..think

If I remember correctly, open a MIDI in Quicktime Pro (included with Final Cut Pro or $19.95 from Apple.com) and go:

File --> Export --> to MP3 (or AIFF)

Pretty simple if I recall correctly. PM me if you need help with getting a copy of Quicktime Pro.

Additional Spam:
Oh, Orion - one more thing:

Garageband can open up MIDI files. You can re-arrange them and change the instruments to Apple's high quality virtual ones and export to iTunes. They sound awesome!!!

Garageband is free with most recent macs as part of iLife.