The MidiSyn Home Page
MidiSyn is a very easy to use Windows program
that lets you convert your MIDI or .KAR karaoke files to WAVE. You can listen
to the generated WAVE files directly or you can convert them to MP3 or even
burn them into an audio CD. You can listen to the resulting CD as is or use it
for accompaniment while you sing live, in karaoke style. Welcome to the MidiSyn
home page.
MidiSyn is
a release of Future Algorithms.
This is a
software only process that uses your PC standard resources. You don't need any
dedicated hardware to successfully perform the rendering of the MIDI files into
WAVE.
If you are
looking for a more advanced solution to the problem of MIDI/KAR to WAVE
conversion you should take a look at our alternative product MidiKare. This
program does everything that MidiSyn does but in addition it lets you record
yourself singing or playing an instrument and mix that with the result of the
conversion. It has a KAR file player that shows the lyrics of the song being
played and also has a WAVE to MP3 converter.
As MIDI
files do not carry any sound information (they just include commands to be
executed by sound generating equipment) the rendering (also called synthesis)
process must be supplied with sound information and articulation data. For
this, MidiSyn uses standard SoundFont files (*.sf2) as defined by Creative/EMU,
and freely available at several Internet sites. If you have an AWE or Live!
Soundcard, you probably have several of these in your hard disk already. From
version 1.9 on, MidiSyn will also work with Compressed SoundFont files. If you
want to know more about SoundFonts both normal and compressed take a look at
the SoundFont
tutorial.
The main
advantages of using MidiSyn are:
·
Converts
standard MIDI files as well as .KAR Karaoke files.
·
Good
sound quality - You can use really big SoundFonts, even bigger than the
available memory on your PC.
·
Low
noise - There is no D/A and A/D conversion involved.
·
The
conversion is faster than real time, provided that you have a powerful machine.
·
A
batch facility to convert several files without user intervention.
·
External
control of Reverberation, Chorus, Tempo, Transposition, Master Volume and
Compressor Level parameters.
·
A MIDI
mixer that you can use to adjust the volume of each instrument in a MIDI file.
You can even completely remove one instrument or, conversely, single out one
instrument.
·
A
Delay effects unit that you can use to implement not only the classical Delay
unit, but also Echo, Phaser, Flanger and even Chorus.
·
It
automatically rescales the output file to the maximum volume, giving a
consistent loudness across a set of files
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.
MidiSyn will help you create your own Karaoke CDs so you can have as much fun
in your own home.
If you want
to have an idea of the sound quality that you can obtain by using this program
please listen to: travels.mp3
(2.64 Mb). If this site is down, try this alternative site. This
file is a rendering of Travels.mid, which is part of the distribution
package, using the 53.9 Mb Gm Alive! SoundFont. By using MidiSyn and the
indicated SoundFont, you will be able to duplicate exactly that sound.
If you want
to have a better idea of how MidiSyn works, please take a look at the Operation Manual.
If you are
interested in a more detailed technical explanation of the program's inner
workings please refer to the MidiSyn technical
page.
If what you
intend to do is to convert a MIDI or Karaoke file to WAVE, this is the right
page for you. However, if you want to perform other types of conversions
between audio files or manipulation of CD-Audio formats please refer to the Audio File Processing
page.
How to buy MidiSyn
MidiSyn is
shareware. The registration fee of US$ 29.00 (including p&p) will get you
two CDs: An Installation CD and a Demonstration CD. To take a look at pictures
of the MidiSyn CDs click
here.
The
Installation CD contains all that you need to start using MidiSyn (including
the default SoundFont), plus a set of alternative SoundFonts for you to
experiment with, together with some examples and a bunch of MIDI files.
The
Demonstration CD is in CD-Audio format (you can play it in your Hi-Fi or car
stereo), and contains a sample of songs rendered with MidiSyn.
To order MidiSyn, please go to the MidiSyn order page.
Upon registration, you will receive by mail the two MidiSyn Cds.
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 MidiSyn history.
Download trial version
There is a
trial version of MidiSyn that is identical to the registered version except
that it will only generate one minute of WAVE sound for each MIDI file. The
batch facility will also render only one MIDI file.
To get the
trial version of MidiSyn including the executable, auxiliary files and
documentation, go to:
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 trial version of the program, you need to
get at least one SoundFont compatible with the MIDI 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:
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 MidiSyn, 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 MidiSyn history.
Notes on Sound Quality
When the
MIDI standard was created back in the eighties, it was not intended to be used
as a music distribution system. That didn’t prevent it from becoming a major
one used firstly in Bulletin Board Systems and later on the Internet.
The
popularity of MIDI files is due mainly to its compactness; a five-minute song,
which takes about 50Mb in WAVE format, takes just a few Kb in MIDI format. The
biggest strength of MIDI is also its biggest weakness: MIDI files achieve the
compactness that is its main characteristic by leaving out most of the sound information.
In fact, a MIDI file consists of a string of commands for synthesizers. These
are supposed to reconstruct the audio information from the commands contained
in the MIDI file. It is similar to musical scores: They are used for music
interchange but it requires a musician to generate the sound that they
represent.
So, MIDI
files work on the assumption that both the author and the consumer have exactly
the same synthesis engine. That, of course, is far from the truth in most
cases; moreover, if the synthesis engine is based on user selected samples
(e.g. SoundFonts), as is the case for many popular sound cards, for MIDI file
interchange to work at its best, both author and consumer should use also the
same set of samples.
Of course
in the real world things are not that bad, otherwise MIDI files wouldn’t be as
popular as they currently are. The fact is that most of the MIDI files
circulating around the Net are tweaked by their authors to sound correctly on
the synthesizers included in the most popular sound cards. Even when this is
not the case, a MIDI file could sound pleasantly although very differently from
what the author had in mind.
In the case
of MidiSyn, as it tries to emulate the synthesis engine included on the
Creative Labs soundcards (AWE32, Sblive, Audigy), there is a good chance that
you can obtain from average to good results without further involvement on your
part.
However, to
get the best possible sound you have to invest a lot of time and effort: You
should be able to edit a given SoundFont using the Vienna editor and edit your
MIDI files using a MIDI editor (usually called sequencer). This process can be
very rewarding but it is certainly time consuming.
As a
compromise, you can adjust some of the synthesis parameters using MidiSyn, without
having to resort to SoundFont or MIDI file editing. In this case you can
control Reverberation, Chorus, Tempo, Transposition, Master Volume and
Compressor Level parameters.
The Master
Volume parameter is especially important when you are making a CD-Audio from
several MIDI files. All the songs should have the same sound level; otherwise
you will have to adjust the volume for each song, each time you listen to the
CD. Although MidiSyn includes a mechanism that automatically adjusts the output
sound to the maximum level, in some cases this does not produce the best
results, especially when there is a need to apply compression. In these cases
you have to adjust the sound level manually.
From
version 1.9 on, there is also a Delay unit. This is a very powerful unit that
will let you implement many popular sound effects like Echo, Delay, Phaser,
Flanger and Chorus.
From
version 1.7 on there is also a MIDI mixer. One of the major concerns when
experimenting with alternative SoundFonts is the fact that the overall
balancing of the instruments (their relative loudness) varies wildly from one
SoundFont to the next. With the Midi Mixer you will be able to get the best of
your SoundFont, and adjust the mix to your personal taste.
With the
MIDI mixer you can record a CD that you can use for accompaniment while you
play live one of the instruments in a MIDI file. For that, you render the MIDI
file and use the MIDI mixer to remove from the resulting WAVE the instrument
that you intend to play live.
Feedback
Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome and should be sent to fadevelop@clix.pt
This page last modified 2003-03-21 - Copyright
© 2000-2003 ACE