Free Midi file editing software

[Gerry]

Hi

Thinking about having a go at editing Midi sound files.

Any recommendations for free editing software?

After something like Audacity but will handle Midi files.

Cheers

Gerry

[boatman]

Try Anvil Studio.

[peza2010]

http://www.reaper.fm/ handles midi pretty well.

[ojc123]

I'm not a MIDI expert. Musescore is one I use. It's a music scoring package. Most of the stuff I do is simply composing/arranging rather than editing existing MIDI files. I've edited a few MIDI files with it to create quick and dirty arrangements and it's worked ok. It suits my mindset.

E2A works on Linux and Windows which I find helpful.

[paulears]

Much depends on how you want to edit the files. Many of the free software works in blocks, so is essentially pattern based and lacking musical features. So what you want to actually produce has a big impact. Most of the dreadful midi files on the net have been produced on this kind of software. If you're producing dance music it generally works great, but if you want to mimic real instruments that need real time continuous controllers, some softwre makes this damn difficult to create and edit.

[Gerry]

I'm not a musician so I won't be creating any music.

What I think I wan't to do is have the ability to remove a track.

I often provide the sound effects and music for plays.

Sometimes it would be nice if I could remove, say, the vocals or the trumpet from a recorded piece of music.

Probably talking a load of nonsense but don't really know how midi files work or can be edited.

Cheers

Gerry

[paulears]

You've gt the wrong end of the stick Gerry. You don't want a MIDI editor, you want an audio editor - Audacity is the most popular free bit of software, and even though I have some paid for expensive ones, I have a copy of Audacity on all my computers - Mac and PC. As for source removal, the success depends on how it was recorded. A voice or instrument dead central, recorded dry can often be removed with some success, but if it's covered in reverb, then removing the source leaves stereo reverb, and it's a kind of ghost image of the original. This happens on some artistes more than others. Elton John is a good example . You can remove his voice, but there is a ghostly presence left behind. The theory dictates that anything recorded identically on both channels can be removed by changing the polarity of one channel - which results in cancellation of anything identical on both channels. It's difficult to predict how a song responds, so you have to try it, and Audacity lets you do it.

 

MIDI does not handle 'real' audio at all. It's simply a data stream containing control info - a bit like DMX. So it has a time sync, and bar and beat - so it knows you pressed C1 on the keyboard, it knows when you did it, and it knows (on some keyboards) how quickly you kit the key. That's not quite the same as how hard, but as a hard press is quicker, it's very similar. On some systems it also can tell if after pressing the key if you then pushed down harder. That's pretty well it for note information. MIDI can also send what is know as continuous controller data - this usually comes from the pitch bend and modulation wheels, and is a stream of data with a range of 0-127 which any devices on the system can react to or record. MIDI is a serial system, so when information is sent that contains lots of continuous data, the notes can be delayed - and often lost completely. If the one that gets lost is a 'note-off' command, then that note carries on - which can be very annoying. The timing of individual notes isn't usually critical apart from drums. So MIDI craftily sends notes on MIDI channel 10 first - with ch 10 being reserved in most cases for any drum control. MIDI therefore has no capability to carry sound, merely control it. So any real audio can be triggered by MIDI, but the end product sound quality depends on the samplers and synths hung on the end of it. So the £15 soundcard in a PC will probably have a piano that is OK-ish, but a saxophone that sounds like a Kazoo! A £700 hardware module will do the job much, much better. For studios - this means racks of hardware kit driven by MIDI, and lots of virtual instruments inside the computer, again driven by MIDI.

 

MIDI gets bad press by those that don't understand it - often you hear people describe a track as being one of those rubbish MIDI files. This isn't fair, and is like blaming bad lighting on DMX control. On the net there are some dire MIDI tracks created by non-musical people, where every note is the same volume and exactly the 'correct' length. Put in via a mouse rather than played in. Real music never has identical volume and note length, and has all sorts of other errors that sound good. Cheap MIDI sequencers produce very robotic results, as do expensive ones operated by non-musical people.

 

Lots of people assume that MIDI carries the music, but it's just controller data. The music is produced by the kit on the end - just like lighting. Hope this makes sense.

[kitlane]

If the instrument or vocal you want to remove is 'isolated' in terms of pitch then you may have some success with Melodyne Studio

[Gerry]

You've gt the wrong end of the stick Gerry. You don't want a MIDI editor, you want an audio editor - Audacity is the most popular free bit of software,

I have that installed on my 3 machines.

Excellent bit of software.

Thanks for the midi explanation.

I suppose what I am really after is multi-track recordings that I can then edit individual tracks with audacity.

Cheers

Gerry

 

If the instrument or vocal you want to remove is 'isolated' in terms of pitch then you may have some success with Melodyne Studio

It costs €699, I was after free software but because I didn't understand Midi, until Paul explained it, then I don't really need it anyway.

Cheers

Gerry