moody music

[wedford]

It seems like it ought to be simple and hopefully it is (my mind can't take much more)

I want to include sounds (music ususally) in PTE. And no problem. But I email some shows and I want to keep things as "little" as possible to make it easier to send them (allright, I'm cheap. I'm still using "dial-up". I've got a 1 year old Lab and it takes all my extra money to replace thing's she's been "tasting".) The problem is if I find a "Midi" but don't necessarily like everything in it, then, I want to change it around. Right now, - I play it with "Winamp" - record it while playing with "sound recorder" save it to a "wave" - open it with a program called "Audacity" - alter it - and then "export" it as an MP3. I'm getting the hang of it after figuring out what each setting/control to use (I know I probably don't have it all correct but it works) And, it might seem convoluted but, if I do it right it's in stereo and it's not too bad. BUT, it's way bigger than the original Midi. I change it back from a Wave to a Midi/MP3 to make it smaller, but it's not always small enough. I've tried "Exact Copy" and a few other programs that will "compact" waves, but no luck. Maybe it's not even possible. HELP!

Any recommendations or comments? Remember please, I'm trying to keep things as least expensive as possible. (Christmas hangover? Nope, my lab lookin around and.............)

Thanks!

[JRR]

A user of PTE that I know has been making shows of 3-5minutes length in very small files. (less than 5mb)

He has been using low quality MP3, but unless you are listening on high quality speakers, I can't tell the difference (but then I have a tin ear )

Cool Edit 2000, while not as inexpensive as Acoustica, gives you tremendous flexiblity in choosing the MP3 output quality.

You need the Studio plug-in to mix music, but you can record, adjust volume, tone etc etc with the basic package

Jim

[JRR]

Oops!!!!!!

I forgot to mention dBPowerAMP MUsic Converter, available as FREE download, also gives good flexibility in chossing the MP3 specs

Jim

[alrobin]

Wedford,

MIDI is based on a series of coded commands which tells your computer, and through it, your sound card, what notes to play, how loud, what instrument, etc., etc. Hence MIDI is very compact. Once you play MIDI through your pc and convert these notes to either MP3 or WAV music files, the resulting files will be many times larger than the original MIDI file. And, there's no easy way to get it back into the compact MIDI format once it is converted.

There is a way to bring the MIDI file in and modify it without converting it to a music file (MP3 or WAV, etc.), but this requires software called a "sequencer" and some knowledge of music notes, tempo, velocity, pitch, etc.

I use "Cubase" but it is a little expensive. "MusicTime" is a little less expensive, and outputs music scores (sheet music), as well. Some are downloadable as shareware (e.g. "Midnight Express" and "MusicMaster") but I have no experience with these programs so cannot recommend any - there are others, too if you search around through Google.

Hope this helps.

Ciao,

Al