| How To - Converting Scores to Audio for CD Burning |
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| Converting MIDI Scores created in Finale Family software to audio for burning to an audio CD |
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Background
Scorewriters such as Finale, Allegro and PrintMusic are able to create music on the screen that looks and sounds exactly like real audio music. However, everything you see and hear is actually not real music, but streams of MIDI information. This is why you can't burn it directly to a CD.
The acronym 'MIDI' stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a universally accepted standard for communicating information about a musical performance by digital means. Encompassing both a hardware and software component, it was developed to allow digital musical instruments to communicate with each other by sending and receiving compatible Note, Control Change, Program Change and various other types of MIDI data, or messages.
In the world today, the two main categories of instruments are 'acoustic' and 'digital'. Let's consider an acoustic piano and a classical guitar as representative acoustic instruments. They are easy to understand. With the piano, you strike a key, and a hammer inside hits some strings and plays a note. With the guitar, you directly pluck a string and the note sounds. But how does a digital instrument go about playing a note? |
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Digital instruments do not work by producing real sounds through vibration as acoustic instruments do. The sounds produced by digital instruments are pre-recorded (sampled) sounds stored in an electronic circuit (tone generator). When a keyboard player strikes a key, say a middle C, on a MIDI keyboard such as the Yamaha PSR-275, the keyboard sends information in the form of number values to the tone generator. This information might include instructions on "with what voice," "with which key," "about how strong," "when was it pressed," and "when was it released," allowing the tone generator to select and play a sample appropriate to the key that was pressed. Of course, all this is done in a fraction of a second, so to the keyboard player it seems as simple as playing a key and hearing the sound.
MIDI does not actually transmit sound electronically; you couldn't connect a MIDI cable to a loudspeaker and expect to hear anything (you'd probably damage both your speakers and your ears if you tried!). MIDI information could be described as being like a piece of sheet music. Although the sheet music contains all the information needed for an instrumentalist to make music, it can't actually make any musical sounds itself. If you held the sheet music near a tape recorder and pressed record, nothing would happen. In the same way, when you try to export MIDI information to CD, all that happens is that the computer tries to export a series of silent MIDI instructions and no sound appears on your CD.
If you want to record sheet music, you have to record someone actually playing that music; i.e. you record the sounds, not the written notes. In the same way, if you want to export MIDI information, you have to turn that MIDI information into audio information (actual sounds), which can then be recorded onto a CD just like you would record a flautist playing Mozart from the sheet music.
Of course, you could record the sound of a digital keyboard by holding a tape player next to it and pressing record, but the quality would be less than acceptable. The same principle applies when using scorewriting software, such as Finale, Allegro or PrintMusic. What comes out of your computer speakers is audio information, but recording that wouldn't produce the quality results you might be looking for. The only way to record MIDI information to CD is to convert the MIDI information into audio information and then burn that audio information to CD using a CD burning software package such as Pyro.
For more information about MIDI you can download our
The Desktop Music Handbook - A guide to computer audio and music (PDF File approx 1Mb) |
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| Method 1 |
Using Finale 2005, Finale 2004, Allegro 2005 (Windows Users) |
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| In Finale 2005, Finale 2004 and Allegro 2005, Coda has included a feature that allows you to easily convert your MIDI file to either an audio file (with a .wav extension) or an MP3 file. |
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Step-by-Step Instructions |
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Step 1
First, preview how the audio file will sound. Finale 2005, Finale 2004 and Allegro 2005 use the SmartMusic SoftSynth SoundFont to generate audio sounds, so you will need to select that as the MIDI playback device. Select 'MIDI' from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Then select 'MIDI Setup'. Ensure that the MIDI Out is set to SmartMusic SoftSynth. Your score will now playback as audio, using the Human Playback style you have selected. Save your file. |
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Step 2
Select 'File' from the menu bar. Then select 'Save Special' and 'Save As Audio File'. This will open the 'Save As Audio File' dialog box. Give your file an appropriate name, and choose an appropriate 'save in' destination. Ensure that 'Save as type' is set to Audio Files. If you intend to burn to CD, make sure that you have selected 'Standard Audio File' rather than 'Compressed MP3 File'. Click 'Save'. |
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Step 3
Now you can use a CD burning software package such as Pyro, to burn the new audio file to your CD. |
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| Method 2 |
Using Finale 2005, Finale 2004, Allegro 2005 (Mac OSX Users) |
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| In Finale 2005, Finale 2004 and Allegro 2005, Coda has included a feature that allows you to easily convert your MIDI file to either an audio file (with a .aif extension) or an MP3 file. |
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Step-by-Step Instructions |
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Step 1
First, preview how the audio file will sound. Finale 2005, Finale 2004 and Allegro 2005 use the SmartMusic SoftSynth SoundFont to generate audio sounds, so you will need to select that as the MIDI playback device. Select 'MIDI' from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Then select 'Internal Speaker Playback', and then 'SmartMusic SoftSynth Playback'. Your score will now playback as audio, using the Human Playback style you have selected. Save your file. |
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Step 2
Select 'File' from the menu bar. Then select 'Save Special' and 'Save As Audio File'. This will open the 'Save As Audio File' dialog box. Give your file an appropriate name, and choose an appropriate 'save in' destination. If you intend to burn to CD, make sure that you have selected AIF. Click 'Save'. |
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Step 3
Now you can use a CD burning software package such as Toast, to burn the new audio file to your CD. |
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| Method 3 |
Using PrintMusic 2004 and all earlier versions of Finale and Allegro (Windows XP) |
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PrintMusic 2004, and pre-2004 versions of Finale and Allegro do not have a built-in facility for converting to an audio file, so you will need a piece of audio recording software to literally record your music from the soundcard. Cakewalk Pyro is ideal for this as it combines an audio recording function with a CD burner so you can complete the whole task on one piece of software.
Throughout the process you will need to switch between your scorewriting software (e.g. PrintMusic 2004) and your audio recording software (e.g. Pyro) using the buttons on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. |
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Step-by-Step Instructions
For convenience, these instructions refer to PrintMusic 2004 and Pyro 2004. |
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Step 1
First preview how the audio file will sound. In PrintMusic 2004, open the score of the piece of music that you want to burn to CD. From the menu at the top of the screen, select 'MIDI' and 'MIDI Setup'. The MIDI Setup dialog box will appear. Here, you can choose your MIDI Out device. If you are using PrintMusic 2004, then select SmartMusic SoftSynth. Otherwise select a MIDI device of your choice - the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth is probably the most common choice. |
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Step 2
Open Pyro 2004. From the opening screen, select 'Record an Audio File' (located under 'Other Tasks'). This will open the 'New Project' screen. Before you start working, it is a good idea to save the new file under a recognisable filename in a location you will be able to find again easily (see TIPS). Click on the 'Browse' button in the top half of the screen and save your project. The new filename will automatically appear in the 'Filename' field on the main screen. |
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Step 3
The next step is to set up the Windows Mixer for recording. From the 'Start' menu select 'Programs', 'Accessories', 'Entertainment', 'Volume Control'. The 'Play Control' dialog box will appear. (You may be able to access the 'Play Control' dialog box by clicking the volume control icon at the bottom right of your Windows screen). |
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Step 4
In the 'Volume Control' dialog box, select 'Options' from the menu, then 'Properties'. Select 'Recording'. Under 'Show the following volume control' ensure that the control that will allow you to record sound that comes out of your speakers is selected. In this case, the correct control is 'Stereo Mix' but it may be referred to 'What U hear', 'Wave', 'Stereo Out' etc. depending on your soundcard. Click OK. |
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Step 5
The 'Recording Control' dialog box will open automatically. Under 'Stereo Mix' ('What U Hear', 'Wave', 'Stereo Out' etc.), ensure that 'Select' is checked. Here, you can also adjust the recording volume by moving the 'Volume' slider with your mouse. Close the dialog box. |
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Step 6
Return to PrintMusic and play the piece. While the music is playing, switch to Pyro and check the volume levels in the volume bar in the top half of the screen. The bars should be heading towards the 'OK'. If they go much beyond the 'OK' then there is danger of distortion on the recording. You can adjust the volume levels in the 'Recording Control' dialog box (see Step 5). |
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Step 7
When you are happy with the volume, it is time to record. Return to PrintMusic and ensure the music is rewound back to the beginning. In Pyro, click 'Start Recording' and then return to PrintMusic and press 'Play'. Return to Pyro and allow the piece to play to the end. When the music finishes, press 'Stop'. The waveform of your recorded piece will appear in the bottom half of Pyro's screen. |
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Step 8
Click 'Save' and select 'Save Project'. Give your project a name and save it in an appropriate location. At this point, you could burn your music to CD using Pyro's 'Burn CD' function. However, you may wish to tidy up your recording a little first.
Because of the recording method, it is likely that there will be some empty space at the start and end of the recording. This can easily be removed. At the bottom right and left of the waveform are two small arrow buttons. Clicking on these allows you to adjust the start and end position of the recording, effectively cropping off the empty space. You can reposition the entire waveform at the start of the time frame by clicking on it and dragging it to the left.
For a smoother ending, you may wish to leave a little empty space when you crop the end and then apply a fade. This can be achieved by clicking on the small, square, fade button on the middle line of the waveform at the right-hand side, and dragging it to the left to determine the extent of the fade. Of course, you can fade in at the beginning in a similar way.
Clicking on the 'Volume' button will allow you to select 'Set Volumes Automatically' which will adjust the volume of the recording to the maximum it can be without distortion.
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How-To Tips
Tip
While editing audio, make sure to start with at least three times the space of your files open on your hard drive. 44,100, mono, 16-bit audio is 5 megabytes per minute, so if you want to record 4 tracks, each 5 minutes long, you will need:
4 tracks x 5 minutes x 5 megabytes x 3 = 300 megabytes |
Tip
It is probably worth creating a separate file for your audio tracks in My Music as you will need to be able to find your new audio file easily in order to use it in your CD burning software later. Windows users, select 'My Music' from the start up menu. Then select 'File', 'New' and 'Folder'. Give your new folder an appropriate name and then ensure that when you save your new audio file, its 'Save in' destination is the new folder you have created. |
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