The MidiKare Home Page

This program is collection of tools that include all that you need to convert your MIDI or KAR files to WAVE. You can also record yourself singing or playing an instrument and add that to the WAVE file. You can use the resulting WAVE file to burn a CD that you can listen to on your Hi-Fi or car stereo or convert it to MP3 with one of the tools included in MidiKare, in order to obtain a compact file that you can mail to your friends, post on Usenet or put on a Web page. Welcome to the MidiKare home page.

MidiKare is a release of Future Algorithms.

MidiKare includes the following tools:

¨ MIDI Converter – To convert MIDI or KAR files to WAVE using its embedded SoundFont based softsynth.

¨ Player – To play MIDI, KAR and WAVE files. It shows the lyrics in a KAR file, in synchronisation with the music.

¨ Recorder – To records sounds to a WAVE file. This can be used to record yourself singing while playing back another file. If this is a KAR file, it will show the lyrics in a window. This tool can also be used to convert a MIDI or KAR file to WAVE using an external synthesizer.

¨ Audio Mixer – To mix two or more WAVE files together to a single WAVE file while applying sound effects.

¨ MP3 Converter – To convert WAVE files to MP3 and vice-versa.

If you want a simpler tool that does just the conversion from MIDI/KAR to WAVE, you can try our other product MidiSyn.

Karaoke is a form of entertainment in which a live person sings a song with a pre-recorded accompaniment. The word "karaoke" is Japanese for "empty orchestra". This great form of entertainment originated in Japan and is spread throughout the world. A typical place to see karaoke is a bar, restaurant, or a club where people come to have fun by singing pop songs. MidiKare will help you create your own Karaoke CDs so you can have as much fun in your own home.

For an overview of the operations involved in building a track of an Audio-CD using the MidiKare tools, take a look at the MidiKare tutorial.

To convert your MIDI or KAR files to WAVE you can use any Windows standard synthesizer, internal or external, or use the SoundFont based softsynth embedded in MidiKare. If you don’t know what is a SoundFont, you might want to take a look at the SoundFont tutorial.

If you want to have an idea of the sound quality that you can obtain by using the embedded softsynth please listen to: travels.mp3 (2.64 Mb). If this site is down, try this alternative site.

If you are interested in a more detailed technical explanation of how the embedded softsynth works please refer to the MidiKare technical page.

With MidiKare you can add your voice to the resulting WAVE file. If you are using KAR files, which contain embedded lyrics in addition to the instruments sounds, MidiKare will show you the lyrics playing synchronously with the music, highlighting each word at the appropriate moment while you record yourself singing.

You can also record yourself playing an instrument and add that to the final WAVE file. You can do that while the MIDI or KAR file is playing. If the instrument that you want to play is already in the MIDI or KAR file, you can mute it while the file is playing so that it does not appear in the WAVE file after the conversion.

You can apply several sound effects to the WAVE files that you record with your voice or the playing of one or more instruments. The sound effects available include Reverberation, Chorus, Compression, Echo, Phaser and Flanger. For an overview of the sound effects available in MidiKare you might want to take a look at the Sound Effects tutorial.

You can mix the WAVE files resulting from the MIDI or KAR conversion with the WAVE files resulting from your own recordings with the audio mixer included in MidiKare. This allows you to align the several files to mix and to add sound effects to the final mix.

If you want to have a better idea of how MidiKare works, take a look at the Main Help page.

If you want to know more about sound file formats, the types of conversions between audio files or manipulation of CD-Audio formats please refer to the Audio File Processing page.

How to buy MidiKare

MidiKare is shareware. The registration fee of US$ 65.00 (including p&p) will get you an installation CD with everything you need to use MidiKare (including the default SoundFont), plus a set of alternative SoundFonts for you to experiment with, together with some examples and a bunch of MIDI and KAR files. To take a look at pictures of the MidiKare CD click here.

To order MidiKare, please go to the MidiKare order page. Upon registration, you will receive by mail the MidiKare CD.

If you already know the program and you just want to know what is new in this version you can take a look at the MidiKare history.

Download trial version

There is a trial version of MidiKare that is identical to the registered version except that it will only generate one minute of WAVE sound.

To get the trial version of MidiKare including the executable, auxiliary files and documentation, go to:

The MidiKare download page

At the download page you will also find instructions for installing and uninstalling the program on your system.

CAUTION The trial version does not include a SoundFont. The reason for this is to save bandwidth and download time (these files are usually very big), especially when you already have some of them. If this is not the case, to be able to use the softsynth embedded in MidiKare, you need to get at least one SoundFont compatible with the MIDI or KAR files that you want to convert.

First of all you should look in your hard disk for SoundFont files. Go to the Windows Explorer, right-click over a folder name and choose Find. Then:

o In the Named field type: *.sf2

o In the Look in field select: Local hard drives

o Hit the Find Now button

If this process can successfully locate some files, use the biggest one. If not, you have to download one from the Internet. If you are comfortable with the use of SoundFonts, you can go to one of these sites:

o HammerSound

o The Sound Site

o SoundFont Central

If, on the contrary, you are not sure what to get, go to one of these sites:

o Site 1

o Site 2

And download the GMCSFont. Then activate MidiKare, go to Options and set that as the default Sound Bank.

If you already know the program and you just want to know what is new in this version you can take a look at the MidiKare history.

Sound Card Issues

Some of the MidiKare functionality is dependent on your sound card capabilities.

Some sound cards let you record the sound that they produce when playing a MIDI/KAR file. This feature can be used as an alternative to the MidiKare MIDI converter, as another way of converting MIDI/KAR files to WAVE, using your sound card synthesizer. In this way you can also use any other Windows defined synthesizer, internal or external, soft- or hardware based.

The ability to playback a WAVE file while recording another depends on your sound card hardware. This is referred to as “full-duplex” in the list of features. The majority of modern sound cards have this capability.

Feedback

Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome and should be sent to fadevelop@clix.pt