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Topic: WMA to Midi (Read 3304 times) previous topic - next topic

WMA to Midi

I have a audio CD of music performed by a client whom I was a Bodyguard for during one of his live performances. He wants me to add one of his songs from this CD to his website as background music. I have Windows Media Player 9.0 but it only saves the audio files in WMA format. I need to convert this WMA file to a MIDI file. I attempted to download the converter from Microsoft but I have a win98SE system and that program won't work on my system. Any suggestion? (I do have Thomson mp3PRO evaluation version, WIDI 2.7 evaluation version and CD Stripper V4.0.1 from sorcerer software. I am willing to purchase the full version of any of these programs, but I need to know which one would benifit me the most.)

Re: WMA to Midi

Reply #1 –
First, there is no magic solution for creating a MIDI file from a digital audio sample. You can find ample information on this by searching in this forum for "WAV to MIDI" or "MP3 to MIDI" phrases. Someone on this forum once described this process as rather like converting a cake back into its original ingredients. This is a good analogy. In general, the best way to do the conversion is by using your ear, then transcribing what you hear.

Here is another way to look at it. A MIDI file can be considered very much like a transcript of a musical performance. If you convert an artist's analog performance into a MIDI file, it is likely that the performance will lose the key analog characteristics that identify it as the artist. If there are vocals, you are all but assured that MIDI files will not work in your situation.

Re: WMA to Midi

Reply #2 –
As Noteworthy noted above, you can't get what you want.

Let me go back to the original problem: Adding the sound to a web page. For that, WMA format is just fine. It will take up more file space than MIDI (a LOT more), and also require a lot of bandwidth to get the sound across.

But it's not impossible. If the sound doesn't have to be of the highest fidelity - especially if it can be monaural - the WMA format performs reasonably well at high compression, so that it can be streamed over a 56K phone modem.

The catch is that not every browser and every system will be able to play WMA format. If the platform is Windows, and the browser is Internet Explorer or is Netscape 7.1 (not earlier Netscape, must be 7.1), then the Windows Media ActiveX control can be embedded in the web page using an OBJECT tag. There are some other players that can handle WMA, but they are likely to place a player window on top of the page's visible content, and that might not be what you want to do.

If you understand the above, and it will suit your needs, then go to the Microsoft web site, and look for developer (MSDN) information about Windows Media. But if you don't understand what I've been writing, forget it - trying to do it may just cause problems on your web page.