Back to Gilwell Song in MP3?

[bleedorange 10]

I have searched and searched for an MP3 format of the Back to Gilwell song and can only find the MIDI version. Tried to convert the MIDI to MP3 and apparently thats not possible?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

~Jeff

[OldGrayOwl 10]

What you can use is a program called "Audacity" and start the recorder on it, then start your midi player. When you have finished, save the file as a wav file, then convert it to a MP3 file.

[bleedorange 10]

OldGrayOwl, thanks. The recording isn't working so well however. I am assuming I need an external mic or something. Once recorded the playback is very faint and fuzzy?

[NEPAScouter 10]

The big problem in this kind of conversion (MIDI to anything other than MIDI) is that the MIDI file doesn't contain any sound data, only instructions on what synthesized instruments' notes to play at what time and for how long.

 

This conversion requires at some point to have the MIDI played and the audio captured into a "digitally sampled file format" (e.g. WAV, AIFF) that can then be converted to MP3. When you tried using Audacity, that's effectively what you were doing: relying on the computer's built-in mic to pick up what is playing through the computer's speakers and store it into a sampled file in Audacity. As you've found, bleedorange, your mileage may vary.

 

Audacity won't do the recording "internally," which is what we'd prefer instead of adding noise and distance between a built-in mic and separate computer speakers. A look on Google and download.com shows some software packages that will directly convert without playing the MIDI "out loud," but the majority of them cost $20 and up.

 

I know iTunes on the Mac will do the conversion directly, with the end result usually sounding a little deeper than the original. I'd guess that iTunes on Windows should support the same feature. If you have access to iTunes, go to the "Advanced" menu, pick "Convert to MP3," and select the midi file. It should sound much less faint when you listen to the final MP3 file. "Fuzzy" or "deeper" might still happen.

 

Good Luck!

[dylfrick 10]

Do you want a version with or without words? I can record it with audacity and send it to you. The problem with audacity not recording correctly is that Windows Vista blocks the feature to record via line-out. If you have an older version of Windows you will most likely be able to do it.