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Topic: Midi to Wave to CD (Read 4616 times) previous topic - next topic

Midi to Wave to CD

I've checked the archives and in any case I knew *how*. But I still need help. I tried to use Noteworthy to play and Goldwave, Windows Recorder and Gamut Voice Catcher to record, but in all cases the play trips and sounds choppy and uneven, at least at the required record settings. I've closed all programs,even background ones, and still the choppiness. Why? Dont' I have enough resources with a Celeron 466Mhz, 120MB ram and 4 gigs free hard drive space?

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #1 –
The one thing you didn't specify was what creates the source sound -- i.e. what kind of sound card you have.

It could very well be that if you have a wavetable-type synth (AWE64, SBLive!) that the 466 mHz processor doesn't quite have what it takes to render the midi in real-time *and* record to hard drive at the same time.

Audio Compositor /might/ be a solution for you, as it renders the midi into wav by allowing it to take as long as necessary to avoid "skips". Other things to check: is DMA enabled on your hard drive? Does it work alright with simple one or two-voice midis? (If so, it's most likely a resource deficiency.)

HTH
Fred

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #2 –
Thanks for the reply

I have a C-Media CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device. I don't really know if it is based exclusively on Wave-Table synthesis or on FM synthesis since both are mentioned in the booklet.

DMA is enabled. Midi plays quite fine otherwise. In fact if the sampling rate is low and it's set for mono, the record and play devices work together just fine. But my software will not allow me to make a music CD from a wave sampled at less than 44.1 and stereo.

So I guess I'll have to rely on that Audio Compositor thing. I'll let you know how it went when I've acquired it.

Thanks again Fred.

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #3 –
>choppy and uneven

This is symptomatic of an underpowered computer, although the specs you indicate are vastly capable of digital audio recording to hard disk. Things that can make a PC with good specs actually go slow include:

- a fragmented hard disk
- some other program/task running in the background that is hogging CPU cycles
- some types of hardware faults, including some memory/cache faults, errors on the hard drive, and excessice heat

For starters, you can make NWC less demanding on your system for purposes of recording. Make sure you are using 1.70 + Web Update 10, then go to Tools | Options | Editor and turn off the "Chase playing notes" option.

>In fact if the sampling rate is low and it's set
>for mono, the record and play devices work together
>just fine.

Well, this confirms that you at least have full duplex capability, and tends to indicate there is a horsepower deficiency or problem as described above.

>But my software will not allow me to make a music
>CD from a wave sampled at less than 44.1 and stereo.

Most digital audio software allows you to convert a WAV sampling rate and double a mono channel to create the necessary stereo sample. However, this is NOT the right way to do this, as the quality of your WAV is only as good as the original sample rate that you use.

If the problem persists, and you really want to get to the bottom of this, I would do 2 things:

1 - Run a task monitor and determine if some process is excessively using your processor, bogging it down. If so, consider eliminating the offending process.

2 - Benchmark your PC to determine if you are really getting 400 MHz of performance. There are many choices in the benchmark software arena. One example is available at Passmark Software.

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #4 –
Thanks again Noteworthy and Fred. I find Noteworthy an *extremely* useful aid to my modest endeavours, which include teaching classical guitar and arranging for a folk band I play in, and the ability to put the midi stuff on CD is going to be even more useful.

Well, Audio Compositor works, no skipping on playback of the wave file.

I've started to check out my computer, find the leaking lemon juice, so to speak. Task monitor shows that NOteworthy uses 100% of my resources. Other midiers use about 35%, but there is still skipping when used with a recording device. I'm still to register Passmark Software so as to get a comparison chart for the numbers it's throwing up.

I'll see what I can do from here on in. At least I have a solution in Audio Compositor.

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #5 –
>Task monitor shows that NOteworthy uses 100% of my resources.

Please follow the advice we gave above, and this will no longer be the case.

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #6 –
Specifically -- turning off the note-chase feature. If this is on, NWC will report using almost all available CPU time (even though if other processes require time slices, it will happily release them as needed).

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #7 –
So, you want to make a good CD of your works.

Easy.  First go download a Windows Media Player from Microsoft.

Then, go into Noteworthy.  Noteworthy saves all compositions as WAV. files.

Click on and open your composition you want on the CD.  Then, Click on SAVE AS.

Once in SAVE AS click CHANGE.  Then, Click on 16 Bit, Stereo.

Then, go back into save and click on same composition.  Left click on that composition.  Click on Make an audio CD. Then, it will transfer into Windows Media Player.

From there you will figure out by copying the music. 1st it copies it and then 2nd it transfers the music to the CD.

By now you will have your composition on a CD.

Easy enough!

June Cherie

Re: Midi to Wave to CD

Reply #8 –
If you want to fit your whole song on the Sound Recorder from Windows Media Player:

1st=  Hit the record button and let it record nothing to 60.  Then, press record again to about 75.

OK.  Then, click the back button and click the minimize button.

Go to the first measure of your composition.  Hit Play or F5 then immiately hit sound recorder and push record.

When done click Edit and you can click the delete after this point here button and it will delete all that is after.

I leave about 4 seconds of nothing after a song so it does not encrouch on another song that I am playing later.

It just sounds better.

June Cherie