Converting MIDI to WAV ?

[robfigee]

Hi, I recorded a Midi file and would like to convert it to Audio.
Is this possible on the PSR 770 or do I have to use Audacity to do this?
Thanks in advance,

Rob

[tyrosaurus]

Hi Rob,

It's very easy to do this in the keyboard using the USB Audio recorder.

First connect a suitable USB memory stick.

Now load your MIDI into the S770 Song Player.

Start the USB Audio recorder and then start the Song Player.

The audio that is produced as the MIDI plays will be recorded to the USB as a '.wav' file.

Note that the recording level is not set automatically, so you may want to try a trial recording and adjust the Song part level if it is too high.

There are instructions for using the USB Audio Player/Recorder function starting on page 71 of the Owner's Manual, with specific instructions for recording in the section 'Recording Your Performance as Audio' starting on page 73 (of the English version!).


Regards

Ian

[robfigee]

Thanks for your help. Ian.
I will try this directly tomorrow.
Regards,

Rob

[Toril S]

And I thought the recording level was set automaticly! Learned something again!

[tyrosaurus]

Hi Toril S,

I don't have an S770 or S970 so I'm not certain about this, but as far as I know, on a PSR you can't adjust the actual audio recording level, but you can adjust the various part levels to stop the audio recording from 'clipping'.

On my Tyros4 the levels are not automatically set for recording although there is a real time meter/indicator to show if clipping is occurring, however the recording level defaults to a value (90) irrespective of the actual audio level, which I find frequently does produce 'clipping' and distortion on the recorded audio.  Fortunately there is a recording level control, so I always set the recording level to a lower value.  Even if the resulting audio is too quiet, you can always 'normalise' the recording later to increase the volume, either on the keyboard if it is a Tyros, or using a PC program such as Audacity for PSRs, but once you allow clipping to occur in the audio recording, you can't easily remove the resulting distortion by reducing the audio level using either of the above methods.

I would have thought that it would have been easy enough to limit the signal level in real time when recording to prevent distortion on the recording like many hardware audio recorders, but Yamaha doesn't seem to have gone for this approach!  Maybe they feel that the results from this method would sound too compressed and artificial!

If you really want to check what happens on the PSRs, you could try recording the audio from the same MIDI with the song part level set to maximum, and again with the level set to say 50% of maximum.  Now play both audio recordings back and see if there is any obvious distortion on the first one compared with the second.  The results will also depend on the actual note velocities in the MIDI so it is not by itself a conclusive test, but you might get some useful information from the exercise.

Perhaps some one with a PSR can provide more information about this!


Regards

Ian

[Toril S]

Thanks, Ian. I find Audacity to be a better way of recording, in my opinion the recording made by my S970 is not as clear as I would like it to be. I must do some experimenting to see if it can get better. I expected chrystal clear music, but was a little dissapointed.

[tyrosaurus]

Hi Toril S,

The USB Audio '.wav' recordings on the PSRs should be as good as it gets from these models!

Perhaps you are recording with the level too high! 

The audio outputs on the rear of the keyboards which presumably you are using to record to your computer will not be better than directly recording to USB!

Do you have an external audio/USB interface to connect the keyboard to your computer, or are you simply using the computer's 'mic/line' input?  If you are, these are not usually the best quality!

Regards

Ian

[Toril S]

Hello Ian. I have an audio interface.  But the S970's onboard recorder is good, i just made the mistake of converting the file to MP3 before burning it on a CD! When I used a CD burning program and kept the WAV format, the sound was much better.