It seems like converting MIDI into sound should be simple enough: record all possible notes, and then just superimpose the individual sounds according to the MIDI data (offsets, duration and volume), and compress the result into MP3 or send it to the sound card.Yet, the MIDI synthesizers I tried ( timidity on Ubuntu, and a few others I don't recall) sound distorted and overall much worse than MP3 recordings of actual musicians.Why is that?Update: I just tried Fluid Synth on Ubuntu, which uses about 100MB worth of 'sound fonts', compressed. It seems to be vastly better, but still rather bad. MIDI is only a specification for what instrument (patch) to use, what notes to play, how long and loud to play a note and other things like tempo, time signature and text lyrics. The concept is very similar to how an old player piano works. The midi data is like the, the sound you hear is from the physical sound produced when the hammers strike the strings. Likewise, the way music sounds when played via the MIDI specification is up to the quality of the patch sounds.
Its possible to even hook up a MIDI connection to a machine that played physical acoustic instruments and that could sound great. Likewise I could give you a set of my singing for every instrument patch and it would sound awful. It all depends on the patch set you have or the instrument that you've hooked up the MIDI sequencer or controller too.An example of how the sound quality can be different is back in the 90s there was a game called Doom II which used MIDI files for the music. Depending on what sound card you had the game would sound better or worse because of the quality of the instrument patches that your sound card included.
It was even possible to hook up MIDI cables from your computer to an external synthesizer and use the sound synthesis there. One time we hooked it up to a Kurzweil K2000 and it was kinda like having a live band playing the Doom II music for you while playing the game.As a protocol and file format, MIDI has been surprisingly adept and has required little revision over the last 30+ years. Although in the beginning of 2015 the MIDI Manufacturers Association announced that there is a new MIDI 'HD Protocol' under development. “MIDI is not sound.” – indeed, and that's really the whole answer to the question. — I don't quite agree with how you contrast free/bad synths with good ones – truth is, some of the more expensive ones make it more feasible to achieve results close to a human performance on a real instrument; but ultimately the quality depends a lot on how well the arranger knows the particular synth. Professional synth-only productions are usually not just MIDI, at least not in the traditional GM sense: there's a lot of dynamic tweaking of all the parameters required.–May 25 '15 at 16:15.
MIDI is just a stream of instructions, like:. 'Tell channel 1 to turn on note 60'. 'Tell channel 2 to turn off note 72'. 'Tell channel 3 to set parameter 1 to value 231'There is a set of conventions such as:. Channel 1 is piano, 34 is electric bass, etc.
Parameter 1 is modulation, 7 is volume, 64 is sustain, etc.This is called General MIDI.General MIDI was specified later than MIDI itself. Users of MIDI are free to use any instrument on channel 1. You don't even have to control an instrument - MIDI can be used to control lights, or anything else.If you get a MIDI file from the internet, it's likely to be written for GM, but sometimes it's not.Imagine the simplest case of a MIDI file - a recording of one person playing a piano part on a keyboard. It's a bit like getting a robot to exactly mimic the movements of a pianist, then putting the robot at the keyboard of a different instrument.If the robot is at a good piano, it'll probably sound good. This piano might not have exactly the same response of key velocity to volume, so expression will sound subtly different. But it'll sound pretty good.If you sit the robot at a toy keyboard, it's likely to sound awful.
A good musician could probably coax a decent sound out of that toy keyboard. But here the musician has 'played' a nice instrument and had their input moved to a different instrument, so they can't take account of its limitations.Then there's all the other parameters. What effect does 'modulation 127' have on the sound?
How much does '100 pitch bend' change the pitch? It seems like converting MIDI into sound should be simple enoughrecord all possible notes, and then just superimpose the individual soundsaccording to the MIDI data (offsets, duration and volume), and compress the result into MP3 or send it to the sound card.And this kind of thinking (the wrong kind, that is) gives you exactly the results you hear.First and foremost, you have two main problems here.a. Crappy sound chains.b.
How To Make Midi Drums Sound Real
Crappy sequencesLet's see why.On instruments other than piano, no two notes sound alike. There are a million ways to change the sound of a note on a guitar. Choose between pick, fingers, fingerpicks and you have different sounds. Choose where to fret the same note and you have different sounds. or registers.Electric instruments and effects in widespread use in music production are often nonlinear.
The free sound fonts typically installed with Timidity are of very mixed quality. Routing playback through some vintage Midi expander of good quality will greatly improve results, routing it through some reasonably current good quality offering will give some more improvements at much more portable hardware size. Naturally, the analog paths involved here will decrease quality again.You can improve Timidity's action somewhat by working with other sound fonts and adjusting its parameters, but it does not really compare.There may be some commercial software MIDI expanders doing a good job but their expected useful life time is a lot less than hardware expanders (hardware expanders are likely to continue running in 20 years, software expanders not unless you keep some hardware+OS around with them) and there is a lot of variation regarding pricing and quality. And they will not likely run on GNU/Linux, and may get on your nerves with DRM/licensing schemes.Feeding a good MIDI expander with good MIDI data will actually produce sound that's rather useful for a number of purposes (partly depending on what the MIDI expander specializes in). Some instruments with continuous and 'analog' controls like solo strings are pretty hard to do convincingly particularly when not using continuous MIDI controllers (analog pedals, MIDI accordion or wind instrument with pressure sensor etc): string sections work better in that regard. There are 2 possible problems here.1) The midi file is created straight from sheet music. Every note starts at exactly the right time and lasts the exact duration and all the note velocities are 100.
That makes for a song with absolutely no feel. If you have a musician play the song with expressive velocities, tempo variations, arrangement improvements then it'll sound much much better.2) The synth you're using may be lame. Timidity uses soundfonts I think. That's a pretty old tech where the sample rate is not always CD quality, the samples are short loops, and not very many samples per instrument. Modern softsynths usually have a ton of overlapping samples per instrument.Regardless, if you're a musician, that might be the only sheet music you'll find of your favorite pop song. I find those things invaluable.
MIDI-based music will be as good as its designer. It's not that MIDI-based music sound quality is inherently bad; the final results depend on whoever designed the MIDI, and whoever is using it. In other words, if it sounds bad it is because of the people involved with it. Even if you didn't design it and you are just using it you are responsible of its output quality since you are deciding which device with which settings will be used.There's two distinct areas in MIDI music design:.The MIDI file. If it was captured the quality will depend on the performer. If it was programmed the quality will depend on the designer/programmer. There's no sound involved here (yet), so you can think of this step as the quality of the carving of the instructions that will later be interpreted by a device that understands MIDI.The sound design.
Now the instructions need to be interpreted by something like a sampler, a drum machine, a synth. The quality here depends in both the device you are using and your skills as a sound designer.If you don't like the output then something went wrong in these steps.You don't give much details, so it's hard to know for sure what's wrong in your case.
Wilson walker canada. I'm not familiar with Timidity, but if it's a synth (subtractive, FM, etc) you are the one programming it, so the quality of the output is a reflection of your skill. If Timidity is a sampler, maybe the samples are low quality. Maybe the distortion comes from clipping, it can be many things.There shouldn't be distortion, so try using a good quality synth and/or a good quality sampler with good quality samples.
And get your songs working!Orchestration, whether for MIDI instruments or the real thing, can be a bit like walking a tightrope. Done well, MIDI can sound real enough to fool most listeners, and you’ve got what sounds like a full orchestra at your disposal. Done badly, MIDI can take your musical ideas and make them sound artificial and corny. And the scary part is that there isn’t a big divide between the two possibilities. The trick is to always write for MIDI as if you’re writing for real instruments.Orchestration is an entire field of study in itself, quite apart from songwriting. If you want to add MIDI instrumentation to your song, and want those instruments to sound real, you’ve got to always consider what the real instrument actually sounds like.
In short, a MIDI orchestra needs to be treated like a real one if you want it to sound real.So buy orchestral recordings, played by real orchestras, and listen. Get familiar with the sound of an orchestra. You can’t write successfully for an oboe if you don’t know what the instrument sounds like played by a professional.The most common problem I hear in bad MIDI orchestration comes from getting MIDI instruments to play in a way that isn’t possible with the real instrument.For example, a pizzicato violin sound (i.e., the plucking of the strings) can add a wonderful sense of transparency and lightness to an orchestration.
How To Make Midi Horns Sound Real
But you must consider that there is a physical limit to how quickly a string can be plucked. So having more than 4 or 5 plucks per second starts to sound artificial, because no human can easily do it.Another common problem is writing too high or too low for an instrument. A basic orchestration manual should give you the range of each instrument. Stay within that range.Some other bits of orchestration advice:. Strings blend nicely together, so use strings in unison and octaves. But with wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, etc.), too much doubling and octave writing can result in a “grey-ness”, a boring mix of sound.
Use doubling, etc., when writing for loud sections, but try as much as possible to feature wind instruments in solo situations. They add beauty and clarity to orchestration. Resist having all instruments sounding at the same volume. In reality, some instruments are louder than others, and so treat MIDI instruments with the same care you would real instruments. Varying volume within a musical phrase allows the music to “breathe.”. Pan your instruments carefully. Take a look at a picture of a real orchestra, and try to pan the instruments to simulate that positioning.
Go to your local university and play your MIDI orchestration for someone who teaches orchestration, or an advanced student who is studying orchestration. Solo specific tracks for players of the chosen instrument, and ask for their comments. Does it sound like a real instrument to them? Why or why not?. Buy a text that teaches how to orchestrate for real instruments. My favourite authors on the topic are Samuel Adler and Kent Kennan. If you have some basic music theory, you should be able to get through those books.Including MIDI orchestras with your music can add a touch of class and personality to your songs that can allow them to rise above other songs in your chosen genre.But keep in mind that even good MIDI orchestration will sound bad if the song itself has problems.
Make sure your song’s form is solid. Look closely at melodic construction, lyrics, chords, etc. Once that’s all working, MIDI orchestration can be the icing on the cake!Written by Gary Ewer, from ““The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle will show you how to write great songs, harmonize your melodies, and give you hundreds of chord progressions in the process.the e-books for your laptop/desktopor.
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