Recording Midi to audio

  • Thread starter Thread starter leedon
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leedon

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Hi all,

I'm sure you've been asked this question a thousand times, so I'll make it 1001.

I am using Cakewalk Guitar Studio, with an SB Live. I want to record midi files to wav files. The way I do it at the moment, is mute the channels I don't want (vocals, guitar), then create a left and a right to record to. With the SBlaster I set the recording to midi. This records fine. I just wanted to know this :
I have to adjust the volume and recording levels each time to avoid clipping. Is this normal, or is there a global setting to use ?

Also, are there any tips/tricks to get the drums and bass sounding really good ? I am using a good sound font, but of course it still sounds pretty static - drums always hit at same volume. Is there any way to give a drum track a more realistic feel ? Like someone was actually playing it ?

I hope someone can help out...

Cheers
 
When you started that way, I thought you were going to ask "how do I get my MIDI tracks onto a CD..." :)

As far as the dull, static feel of the drum parts, well, there is a lot you can do to improve that. First off, where did you get your drum parts and how com they are all hit at the same volume? That's a huge dullifying factor all by itself.

Second major issue, if the drum tracks are "played" in a metrically perfect manner, they will sound somewhat unnatural and boring. All real drummers breathe with the music when they play -- they push the time a little, or pull back against it, speed up or slow down a hair when changing from the chorus to the bridge or under a burning solosit, etc. ... just a little bit makes a huge difference in the way drum parts feel.

The #1 best thging you can do is: record a real drummer playing real drums! Second best is, record the MIDI messages from a real drummer playing an electronic kit. Third best, get a real drummer who can program drum parts realistically from whatever MIDI controller available.

Failing that, you can play with editing features, and Cakewalk has a lot of tools that can help. As far as the first point goes, you can always edit the velocity note by note (grin)... actually I think Cakewalk has a function that allows you to randomize values a bit between an adjustable range, and maybe you can get it to accent the 1 and 3 and stuff like that... if not there's probably a CAL script that somebody has cooked up to do this.

For the second point, there's the groove quantize feature and the Style Enhancer. Experiment with those, they're a little tricky but they can do wonders in one fell swoop. These can help on bass parts, too. (In fact, for all I know off the top of my head they might also adjust the dynamics too...)

Hope that gives you a starting point.

-AlChuck
 
Thanks Alchuck

The midi files I have downloaded - they are covers of well known songs. The option of getting a drummer is out, and re-recording them is too.

I play guitar along with them, and just wanted to try get a better 'feel' from the drums.

I have played around a bit with the groove quantize - didn't think of trying it on the drum track though.

Another thing - once I convert the drum track to a wav file, is there anything I could do to it (soundforge etc), to give it a different feel ? Any filters or plugins you could suggest (I'm just trying to find out if anyone does anything like this) to get a realistic sounding kit ?
 
I have played around a bit with the groove quantize - didn't think of trying it on the drum track though.
Click to expand...
LOL!

once I convert the drum track to a wav file, is there anything I could do to it (soundforge etc), to give it a different feel ? Any filters or plugins you could suggest (I'm just trying to find out if anyone does anything like this) to get a realistic sounding kit ?
Click to expand...

No, once it's audio you'll lose almost any chance of manipulating the realism of the MIDI tracks...
 
AlChuck. More info on the "randomized values" function thing-a-ma-jig. Is that the "swing" function, and do you know how it is applied???? I've done the note-for-note editting trip for velocities, timing, etc., in Event View, and I think it's giving me carpul tunnel. I'm going blind and my hand is numb, and I haven't even been had the pleasure of porn to cause the symptoms. Thanx, Tom.
 
I tried the 'Groove Quantize' function last night, and couldn't notice a difference to the drum track - this was if I used a standard groove pattern.

I know you are able to groove something based on another track, but where would I get a reference from for a drum track ?

If anyone has used Groove Quantize successfully on a drum track and got a more realistic feeling track from it, please let me know how it's done.
 
Once you've made a wave with your midi drum track, you can add some effects to it. A little reverb always help to make it feel less synthetic.

Good luck
 
Fmmahoganyrush,

The randomizing thing is often called "humanize." But I don't see it in Cakewalk's help system, so maybe I'm thinking back to MasterTracks Pro...

However, there is a CAL program that can be run that does this, called RANDOM TIME.CAL

From the help system, here's its description:

This program randomizes event starting times. It asks you for a number of ticks. The program then changes each event time by an amount that is randomly between ± one-half the number of ticks that you supply.
For example, if you type the number 4, each event time will have -2, -1, 0, 1, or 2 added to it.

And leedon, WISEPAT had a good comment there, but I would suggest you not apply reverb to an entire drum track. If the kick isn't pretty dry, things really turn to mud quick. Some ambience on the cymbals and the snare can really help, though. To do this, though, you need to split your single drum part into separate tracks, one for each part of the kit you want to isolate. Then you can record an audio track for each and apply reverb as desired.
 
Thanks,

How could I slpit a midi drum track though into it's components (snare, kick etc) ? Is there an easy way of doing this ?

I didn't record the midi - downloladed it. I'm pretty new to cakewalk, so any help would be great.

Cheers
 
Ooops, sorry, I meant to mention that there is a CAL routine that comes with Cakewalk called SPLIT NOTE TO TRACKS.CAL. Not sure how self-explanatory it is, but basically it makes one new MIDI track for each note value in the MIDI track -- so all the C4s go to one track, the D4s to another, etc. Since MIDI drumkits use different notes for different parts of the kit, this has the desired effect when applied to a drum track.
 
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