How to convert MIDI to Audio in Cakewalk9

[EddieRay]

I just discovered that I can't simply include my MIDI tracks in the mixdown to a .wav file, that I have to convert them to audio tracks first.

My searches here didn't turn up the procedure (for Cakewalk 9) and there's nothing about it in the help text. How do I do it?

[Middleman]

1. Open a new audio track
2. Mute everything you don't want to record to it
3. Arm the new audio track for recording
4. Hit record and your midi tracks will be recorded to the new track.

- You need to run a couple of tests to make sure you are recording the midi tracks loud enough.

Optionally you can delete your midi tracks and save the whole project to a new revision of your track. Never delete a file with your original midi data, you may want to get back to it at a later time.

Hope that helps. If you have a problem it's in the routing of your inputs and outputs to and from your sound card, or, your mixer software is not set correctly. That's all I can offer wthout knowing your gear.

[AlChuck]

My searches here didn't turn up the procedure (for Cakewalk 9) and there's nothing about it in the help text. How do I do it?

You must not have looked very far. It's been discussed here countless times, and it certainly is in the Help system and the manual.

[EddieRay]

Originally posted by AlChuck
You must not have looked very far. It's been discussed here countless times, and it certainly is in the Help system and the manual.

Yeah I did. There is no "Converting" topic in the help text, nor is it a subheading under MIDI or AUDIO. I don't have TFM and from my limited experience with Cakewalk7 the manual is pretty much a hardcopy version of the help text. If it's in there - and I'm not sayng it isn't - it must a tangent off of some other topic.

And I did find some very useful discussion here but I'm getting the impression I need to connect a keyboard. I'm only trying to convert MIDI drums to audio. Seems to me that should be some kind of internal routing trick.

[moskus]

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/lessons/burningcds.asp

[AlChuck]

I'm only trying to convert MIDI drums to audio. Seems to me that should be some kind of internal routing trick.

Maybe your problem was your teminology. MIDI is not audio data, so it cannot be "converted" into audio in any direct way. It is instructions for what notes to play. The sound itself needs to be produced by a MIDI instrument -- a device that accepts MIDI messages and responds with the notes the messages told it to play. A term often used is "render," as in "render the MIDI data to an audio track."

You don't say if you have any MIDI instrument, but I suspect you must have something that plays your MIDI tracks. What must be done is to route the output of that device to an audio track in Cakewalk, and record it. If it's an external device, you connect its Line Out(s) to the sound card's Line input(s). If it's a synth chip on the sound card (SB Live, etc.), you enable the MIDI synth as a recording source, which routes its output to the soundcard's WAV input stream so it can be recorded. If it's a soft synth, I'm not sure how you do it with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, integrated DXi and VST instruments weren't supported yet in that version.

[EddieRay]

Originally posted by moskus
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/lessons/burningcds.asp

Thank you! That lays it out about as plainly as I could have wished.

[EddieRay]

Hey, it actually works! Life is good! Thanks for the help!

I'm still not understanding something though. I have two soundcards: a SB PCI512 and an Aark24, so there are lots of options cluttering my list of MIDI devices, audio drivers, and track sources and ports to confuse me.

Using the SB Soft Synth enabled me to convert the MIDI track into audio. But can someone tell me what these are? I mean, why do I have an A: and B: MIDI Synth? (left and right?). What's the diff btwn MIDI Synth, MIDI UART, and Soft Synth? Which, if any, are just useless clutter?

MIDI Output Ports
A: SB PCI512 MIDI Synth
Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Aark 24
MPU-401
B: SB PCI512 MIDI Synth
SB PCI512 Soft Synth
SB PCI512 MIDI UART
Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth

[AlChuck]

A: SB PCI512 MIDI Synth
B: SB PCI512 MIDI Synth

These are the synth chips on the card. Having two, each of which can respond to up to 16 MIDI channels, is how you get 32 voice polyphony out of the card.

SB PCI512 Soft Synth
This is a software synth that Creative supplies.

SB PCI512 MIDI UART
This is simply the MIDI port on the SB card. If you sent the output of a track here it would go out the interface via a MIDI cable to an external device. UArt (pronounced u-art) is short for universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter. It's a computer component that handles asynchronous serial communication. Every computer contains a UART to manage the serial ports, and MIDI interfaces have one as well.

Aark 24
MPU-401
Is there really a MIDI device just labeled "Aark 24?" Or did you mean that there's one labeled "Aark 24 MPU-401?" This would be the MIDI out port on the Aardvark card. MPU-401 is the designation for a particular implementation of a MIDI interface designed by Roland that became a defacto standard. It has two modes, an "intelligent" mode and a "dumb" UART mode. Most cards that have a MIDI interface implement UART mode only.

Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
Microsoft MIDI Mapper
The first of these is a softsynth that comes along with Windows. The MIDI Mapper is a utility that allows you to create a mapping of MIDI messages from input to output. That is, you can transform the messages. This might be useful if you had some old MIDI gear that was not General MIDI-compliant and you wanted to map the MIDI messages from a GM sequence to the appropriate equivalents to use the old box as if it were GM-compliant.

[moskus]

Originally posted by AlChuck

MPU-401
Is there really a MIDI device just labeled "Aark 24?" Or did you mean that there's one labeled "Aark 24 MPU-401?" This would be the MIDI out port on the Aardvark card. MPU-401 is the designation for a particular implementation of a MIDI interface designed by Roland that became a defacto standard. It has two modes, an "intelligent" mode and a "dumb" UART mode. Most cards that have a MIDI interface implement UART mode only.

I thought MPU-401 is the MIDI interface that's built into your mainboard...

[EddieRay]

Originally posted by AlChuck
Aark 24
MPU-401
Is there really a MIDI device just labeled "Aark 24?" Or did you mean that there's one labeled "Aark 24 MPU-401?" This would be the MIDI out port on the Aardvark card. MPU-401 is the designation for a particular implementation of a MIDI interface designed by Roland that became a defacto standard. It has two modes, an "intelligent" mode and a "dumb" UART mode. Most cards that have a MIDI interface implement UART mode only.

Yes, the Aark 24 and MPU-401 are separate devices. I haven't messed around with the Aark's MIDI capabilities.

Much thanks for the very helpful reply.

[AlChuck]

I thought MPU-401 is the MIDI interface that's built into your mainboard...

On those computers that have on-board sound hardware that includes a MIDI interface, that interface is no doubt a MPU-401 in UART mode. Same as the one on a Sound Blaster card and virtually any other sound card that has a MIDI interface.

Yes, the Aark 24 and MPU-401 are separate devices.

Hmmm... I wonder what the one just called "Aark 24" is.

[EddieRay]

Originally posted by AlChuck
Hmmm... I wonder what the one just called "Aark 24" is.

I probably should have omitted the Aark. I posted everything in my list of output devices. That's my Aardvark soundcard, PCI w/breakout box, 8 ins, 8 outs, SPDIF, MIDI in/out, $595 new but I got it the store's demo model for $125.