Silly Old Bear

From time to time I will post information about software that I use and find useful. Today’s post features a program that does one thing, and does it remarkably well. Piston Software’s “Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter” allows you to convert a MIDI file to an audio file in any of the following formats: MP3 , WAV , WMA , or OGG Vorbis .

It’s simple interface is very intuitive. You click the “Open File(s)” button and then browse your computer for the MIDI file(s) you want to convert. Using the built-in MIDI player, you can listen to the MIDI file and adjust the tempo and volume prior to converting the file. You can also transpose the song into a different key and add varying degrees of reverb prior to converting it! That’s way cool! Once you have everything set like you want it, you press the “Convert” button, and you’re done! It’s that simple.

The quality level of the converted file is adjustable as well.

For MP3 files, you can set the following parameters:

• Sample rate: 32,000; 44,100 (standard); or 48,000.
• Channels: Stereo, Joint Stereo, Forced Stereo, Dual Channels, Mono (I don’t even know what some of those mean, but it’s cool that they are available as options!).
• You can select a Constant Bit Rate (default) with values from 32 kbps all the way up to 320 kbps; or Variable Bit Rate with Minimum and Maximum Bitrate values in that same range, plus a Quality Selection slider.

For WAV files, you can set the following parameters:

• Sample rate from 11,025 to 48,000.
• Channels: Mono or Stereo.

For WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, you can set the following parameters:

• Sample rate from 8,000 to 48,000.
• Channels: Mono or Stereo.
• Bit rate: 32 kbps to 320 kbps.

For OGG Vorbis files, you can set the following parameters:

• Sample rate from 11,025 to 48,000.
• Channels: Mono or Stereo.
• Quality: Low to High.

In my previous post, “Danny Boy (Part 2, in 4 Parts)“, there are five different MP3 files you can listen to from within that post. All five of those were produced using Piston’s Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter. Here’s how the process worked:

1. I arranged the song “Danny Boy” in four-part harmony using a music notation program called MusicTime.
2. From MusicTime, I saved the four-part score as a MIDI file. The resulting MIDI file produced a four-part harmony version of “Danny Boy” on piano.
3. I then loaded the MIDI file into Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter, tweaked a few of the settings, clicked the “Convert” button … and, voila … I had an MP3 file that could be shared via the Internet!

Pretty cool stuff!

Just for fun, here are a few other songs that I converted to MP3 using Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter. I copied the scores for these songs from various song books that I have collected through the years, and then went through the process outlined above. Enjoy!

Alfie

Blowin’ in the Wind

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Flee as a Bird

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Irish Lullabye

My Wild Irish Rose

Pickin’ the Sun Down

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This entry was posted by Paul O'Rear on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 PM. If you would like to keep track of Comments on this post left by other Silly Old Bear visitors, you can do so through the RSS 2.0 feed. You are invited to leave a Comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.