Recording MIDI

MIDI, which is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is a set of special commands used by different pieces of electronic musical equipment to speak to each other. Vaguely speaking, the MIDI data contains information about musical notes along with detailed instructions telling how, when and how long each note should be played. DART CD-Recorder Basic allows you to play and record the MIDI music data, i.e. to synthesize the encoded sound and save it in a standard wave format.

To record MIDI:

1. Click the MIDI TO WAV button situated on the toolbar or choose the Convert MIDI to WAV command available from the List menu.

2. Select the MIDI file you would like to convert to a WAVE format (a typical MIDI file has a mid extension)

3. Set the recording mode by means of choosing the desired sampling frequency, number of channels and sampling resolution.

4. Select the name of the wave file where the results will be saved.

5. If your computer is equipped with more than one audio card, use the Settings button to select a particular MIDI mixer you would like to work with.

6. Click OK.

To audition a file prior to recording, click the Play button.

To choose a particular mixer device (if more than one is available on your computer), and/or to set the recording level appropriately, select the MIDI file you would like to record and press the Settings button placed at the bottom of the MIDI to WAV dialog.

The multicolor bar graph displayed on the right hand side of the evoked Recording properties dialog shows the instantaneous peak level of the synthesized waveform. If the recording level is too high - which occurs each time the red bars are displayed - the signal is clipped. Since clipping may cause audible distortions you should avoid it at all times by adjusting positions of the three sliders (MIDI output level, MIDI input level, Wave input level) appropriately. Please check documentation of your audio card to learn more details about the ways you can control the recording level (depending on the audio card some sliders may be mutually coupled and/or inactive).

If you wish to accept the current Windows settings, check the Use Windows mixer settings box at the top of the dialog.