Midi to Mp3 converter software?

November 15, 2005 8:18 AM

I'm looking for a cheap/free programme that would enable me to convert a Midi file into a Mp3 or Wav format

I'm running Sibelius 4 (on Windows XP) and I've created a midi file and I want to play around with it in Pro Tools, but Pro Tools doesn't recognise the file. I thought that by converting it, it might work...

posted by ob to computers & internet (9 comments total)

TiMidity++ does exactly that.
posted by rycee at 8:26 AM on November 15, 2005

If you have the latest winamp (v5) you can go to options-->preferences-->plug-ins-->output and select "Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in" - it will write what ever you play in the playlist to a wav file on your hard drive. I'm pretty sure winamp plays midi files.
posted by pazazygeek at 8:30 AM on November 15, 2005

I've used Ringtone Tools before with varying levels of success. It is command line based.

You could also try MIDI Converter which appears to be more graphical but is commercial. However they do have a trial version available (which has some restrictions) but nothing you can't get around by splitting up the track into multiple files.

On preview: The other two suggestions look to be better than MIDI Converter.
posted by mr_silver at 8:32 AM on November 15, 2005

Does anyone know of a mac program that does that? In my Computer and Music class we had to just manually record the computer's output in order to have an editable waveform. There must be an easier way to do it.

In particular are there any options in Peak or Digital Performer that allow this conversion to be made?
posted by cloeburner at 9:10 AM on November 15, 2005

www.nuton.ca - Musiciendoz.
posted by jon_kill at 9:15 AM on November 15, 2005

Audio Compositor by Scott Mitchell was one of the first shareware utilities available to convert midi to wav. I can't find his home page, so the link leads to Harmony Central.
posted by klarck at 10:00 AM on November 15, 2005

cloeburner: good ol' iTunes can do it, but it uses Quicktime instruments to do it. Add the midi file to your library, and go to the Advanced menu and select "Convert selection to XX" - where XX is whatever encoding you set in preferences.
posted by O9scar at 10:06 AM on November 15, 2005

Oh yeah, I think I recall doing that. I think my bigger problem was when I created the midi in Digital Performer and saved it, at some point it would default to some sound that was not my chosen sound. So when I would convert in iTunes it would just be a midi piano or something as opposed to epic midi Gamelan... whatever, I hate midi.
posted by cloeburner at 10:15 AM on November 15, 2005

If you want to play with it in Pro Tools, it's better to convert to .wav or .aiff than .mp3.
posted by hellomynameisphil at 10:16 AM on November 15, 2005