Converting instrument samples

[Teebird]

I have been asked to convert some compositions from Sibelius, music composition software , to CD. The problem is they want to improve the sound quality as the samples from the program are not the best quality. It has been suggested that it could be run through a clavinova to re sample. I am not sure how to do this. The PCs have audio and midi out on phono plugs, the clavinova has standard outputs of midi din s and 1/4" jacks. Any thoughts would be much apreciated. The deadline is 14th MAy

 

Cheers

 

Teebird

[themadhippy]

Couldnt you change the midi samples that Sibelius uses?

midi out on phono plugs,

Are you sure?midi used to come via the joystick port.

[fogg]

If you havent got a standard midi out port have a look at the cheap usb midi devices on ebay, they cost around a fiver and for me they have worked fine. This will give you the midi in's and out's you require.

[Teebird]

Thanks for the fst reply. Let me try and explain a little clearer!

 

If possible I want to come out of the PC into the clavinova , then out of the clavinova onto a recording device. There are 4 midi ports on the clav;

• 
  

HOST with a slider switch to chose pc mac midi and

through

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Thanks for the fst reply. Let me try and explain a little more clearly!

 

If possible I want to come out of the PC into the clavinova , then out of the clavinova onto a recording device. There are 4 midi ports on the clav;

 

Host with a slider switch to give a choice of pc mac midi and 3 others labels thru, in, out. Also aux in and out on 1/4" jacks.

 

What I am thinking is that the superior sampling of the clavinova will then be converted onto the recording?

 

Dont know if this is poss , but appreciate any thoughts or other solutions.

 

Many thanks

[Rob_Beech]

Hi,

 

It should be relatively simple to wire up if you have the correct stuff at the computer end. Midi can't use phono as it typically uses 3 pins and phonos are 2. The cheap USB - Midi devices are fine for this application so if you don't have dedicated midi in and out from the computer, buy one of these.

 

The Host port on the clavinova might well be on 8pin mini din, this may well connect to a serial port on the computer, you might find a lead knocking about to do this and a disc containing the drivers to do this.

 

What device are you recording onto? If the computer, you'd need to come from the computer in midi signal into the MIDI IN port on the clavi, and then use the audio outputs into an audio input on the computer to record in audio format. If you are limited with your sound card, you may wish to spend a little more and get a usb sound card. Many of these offer enough audio inputs and outputs for you to do this and will often include a MIDI IN and OUT aswell, saving messing about with more than one device.

 

And now a few questions about the music.

Is it just piano orientated? or are there lots of different instruments to record? There are various stand alone / plugins available to do this if you wanted to use the software approach, though these aren't necessarily cheap, and I you have a clavi available then it may be somewhat wasted.

 

Which version of Sibelius are you using. IIRC the earlier versions were very limited as to what they'd read from the score. Eg, many of the directions and dynamics would not work properly. I found myself having 2 copies of each score. One of them was to listen to, one to read as the score would look wrong or sound wrong when using the other.

 

 

Rob

[Bobbsy]

Does Sibelius allow you to export the MIDI file to disk? (Most composition programmes do.) If so, a simple workround might be to just copy the appropriate files to a disk which can be read elsewhere...possibly directly into the clavinova, a PC connected to the Clavinova or perhaps one running a sequencer programme that has good VSTi instruments.

 

Edited to add: I've just been reading the Yamaha site. It seems that floppy drives are options on modern Clavinovas but they now seem to have the ability to read USB memory sticks which might be another route.

 

Bob

[Teebird]

It was the d connector , excuse my ignorance. So in to clav on midi and out on the aux to MD.

 

Cheers

[Rob_Beech]

Sibelius does allow you to export to .mid format. So could be read direct from whatever methods your clavi has, or could be connected to the via midi or usb or whatever other methods available.

[twiggy]

Which version of sib is it? A problem you might have is that the values assigned in syb might be different sounds than that on the clavinova, sometimes when exported to a disk and played it on my clavinova any drums seem to be wrong and you get some really weird trumpets.

And if its a recentish version of sib then doesnt it use konakt player samples which can be used to make it sound quite good although you might have to fiddle around in the playback settings.