Sound quality; midi to wave.. no instruments...just the computer

[kboad]

No keyboard... no instrument. I hope this doesn't sound wierd to you all. I love making my own sound tracks for my singing group. I play no instrument. All I do is use Noteworthy or Guitar Pro and let the computer do the rest for me.... Time consuming eh???? That's all I know.

Is there any way I can convert the midi to a wave file and make it sound like the real instrument with just the computer? If that will not work, is there any equipment I can buy at a lower price to help me achieve that quality? I'm a poor student.

[Jeyan]

If you have the urge to put some effort in, then it doesn't matter how poor you are for the time being, you are gonna get the sound you wanted. YES! it is possible to make midi sound like real instruments. Any Keyboard with midi input/output is cable of giving that to you. Also a sound module which has tons of sounds which you can trigger from the midi and record it as a wave in your computer. Now I guess you are using the general midi that comes with the soundcard, it sjust teh same principle but instead of your soundcard GM sounds you will be using sounds from different modules or Keyboards. So any keyboard or module with a midi i/o is capable of doing that for you.

[kboad]

Thanx Jeyan, u've been helpful. Can anybody let me know some basic equipments I may need to start a mini studio? Also, which programs do u think will help me make good music? I want to explore a little further. I am new, and have no knowledge about how these things work. I was just working with the programs so long as they gave me sound. Noteworthy is the program I use most. I write everything in notation, including drums (channel 10 gives me that option). When I'm done with the notation I save it in midi, then export it to wave file, using Guitar pro. But all I get is still the midi sound. I was asking if there's any way to make the sound better, like original.

[AlChuck]

There's only so far you can go with making MIDI intruments sound better.

First, there is the issue of the instrument sounds themselves. There are two basic types-- completely synthetic sounds that are built up and sound something like a real instrument, or like nothing that ever existed. Then there are the sounds that are essentially digitally-recorded snippets of real instruments. These can often sound startlingly lifelike, or unbelievably fake, depending a great deal on the complexity of the real instrument and how it is really played. For example, one doesn't play a saxophone by pressing keys, one blows into it. It is very difficult to make a sax part played on a keyboard -- or more so, typed in as notation -- sound like a real sax played by a human being, no matter how good the sax patch might be. There's just too much subtlety present to be captured that easily, and that's what makes the difference.

This brings us to the issue of performance. If you enter the notes on a staff, the piece will play back perfectly -- which human beings never do. It will therefore often sound somewhat stiff and soulless, especially music that swings or grooves. Real instruments are played expressively and, depending on the intrument, often have all kinds of factors that are at play that simply are not captured by a single set of samples. Back to the sax again. You can slur, you can overblow, you can tongue the reed, all kinds of things that players do all the time that makes what they play sound interesting and distinctive. This simply cannot be easily faked by just playing pitches that are part of a sax patch. They can be faked, but the amount of work is often prohibitive -- it's probably easier (an cheaper if you consider the cost of your own time) to hire a sax player to play your part and record him -- that is, if you want the music to sound real.

An in-between approach that many people take is to use MIDI synths only for the parts that are relatively easy to mimic that way -- drums, pianos, organs, in general instruments that have less of a variety of ways that they can be played. Then they layer real people playing the more distinctive parts, especially guitars, horns, violins. Real drums really breathe life into a recording, too, and even just doing the snare and ride or hi-hat over a MIDI drum part will go a long way to making it sound "real."

[minofifa]

aww. i posted on the other thread, two posts not cool....

anywho like i mentioned int he other post. you can get some dang sweet sounds frnm a program like reason which has midi synths and midi triggered samplers. I agree with Jeyan that you cannot get a perfect replica of some instruments though midi.... yet... who knows in future hey? You can, however, get pretty close a lot of the time. Check out this music sample done with the orchestra samples in reason. http://www.propellerheads.se/product...fRona-Maya.mp3
Although it is not a violin solo or anything, it sounds awfully real. good enough for me anyways

[Synesthesia]

I guess I'll add to AlChuck's excellent response. Basically, it doesn't matter how much money you have, there's no way to make a MIDI file sound like human performance just by converting it. The MIDI itself has to be sequenced to sound human — different velocities for varying emphasis on different notes, dynamics, tempo and pitch variations, etc. The same passage played twice by a real musician won't be exactly the same each time. Listen to lots of your favorite musicians and try to emulate their styles using all the techniques available to you. Only after the sequencing is set up to sound human can you hope to make it sound "real" when you apply samples. That's the easy part — you can use VST or DXI to get some pretty realistic sounding sounds out of your MIDI. But the believability of the performance depends entirely on how you notated it to begin with.

[James Argo]

Originally posted by kboad
No keyboard... no instrument. I hope this doesn't sound wierd to you all. I love making my own sound tracks for my singing group. I play no instrument. All I do is use Noteworthy or Guitar Pro and let the computer do the rest for me.... Time consuming eh???? That's all I know.

Is there any way I can convert the midi to a wave file and make it sound like the real instrument with just the computer? If that will not work, is there any equipment I can buy at a lower price to help me achieve that quality? I'm a poor student.

Most beginners came to me, wanted "real instruments sound" with MIDI and asking what they need, amazed by thirty bucks SBLive! with soundfonts I suggested. Creative cards suck for serious recording, but nothing beats it's MIDI capability for it's price. Just make sure you have AT LEAST 256MB RAM in your PC, and you're ready to go with thousands fairly good free downloadable soundfonts all over the net. Then you need new entry MIDI sequencer/audio multitrack program like Cakewalk Home Studio to sequence MIDI and record them (at the end) to audio. Mix them and ready to burn. It doesn't even cost you hundred bucks to achieve. Upgrade only when you feel into it. Stick with the forum for further details...


Jaymz

[James Argo]

...and yes, I agree with AlChuck & Synesthesia. We may say that with general sound quality of samples and synths available todays, getting "real sound" using MIDI is 70% sequencing skill, and 30% is sound to worry about...


Jaymz