Please click any of these topics to learn how you can:
This example creates a MIDI song file with three tracks:
a MIDI keyboard track,
an audio track, and
a rhythm track.
Anvil Studio lets you record to these tracks, one at a time.
All of the tracks can be played back simultaneously.
To make it easier to follow these
steps, consider printing this page by typing P while holding down the Ctrl key, or if you have Internet
Explorer version 4.0 or later, right-click on the page and select the Print menu item.
so it is
Step 1: Creating a MIDI track
If you don't have a MIDI Synthesizer, please skip to Step 2, or view Composer screen and follow the instructions on that page.
Ensure that your MIDI cables are connected as described in the
Connections screen.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Select New Song from the
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
This new song has one MIDI instrument track. If you wanted to add a second MIDI instrument
track, you could select the
Create / Instrument Track menu item from the
Track menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
If you'd like a countdown to synchronize your recording, click the metronome 
in the upper right corner of the screen.
Press the 
button to begin recording this track.
Press the stop 
button when you are ready to stop recording.
To edit this track, select Composer from the View menu and follow the instructions on that screen.
Step 2: Adding an Audio track
Audio tracks are used to record from a microphone or other audio source
connected to your computer. If your computer has no audio input device, please skip to step 3.
Go back to the Mixer screen.
Save the song file by selecting the Save Song... menu item from the
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Select the Create / Audio Track menu item from the
Track menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Select Composer from the View menu.
Click on the Quality button to select the audio quality you want.
Press the record button to record to this track.
Press the stop button when you are ready to stop recording.
Press the Filter to filter out noise from this track.
Follow the instructions on the Compose screen to experiment with other Audio processing.
If you hear no Audio, try selecting a different Audio In or Out device.
Select Synthesizers from the View menu.
Click the down-arrow to the right of the Audio In or Audio Out Port fields.
Select the desired device.
Go back to the beginning of Step 2 and try again.
Step 3: Adding a rhythm track
Go back to the Mixer screen.
Save the song file by selecting the Save Song... menu item from the
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Select the Create / Rhythm Track menu item from the
Track menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Select Composer from the View menu to edit the rhythm track.
Click anywhere on the grid with the left mouse button to add various drum sounds.
For more precision, click the Note: drop-down field and select 1/64 Note.
To remove a drum sound, click with the right mouse button on the note to be removed from the grid.
Click the Add Sounds button to select different sets of drums.
Click the Sampled Sounds tab to add sampled sounds to your song.
Press the Create Sampled Sounds button.
Press the Help button, and experiment with the options it describes.
Step 4: Playing all of the tracks
Go back to the Mixer screen.
Press the play button 
- Select Mixer from the View menu.
- Add a new Audio track to your song by selecting Create / Audio Track from the Track menu.
- Press the
button beside the Compose button.
- Select the sound card you want to use if it is not already selected.
- The audio sources listed below the button
control which hardware devices contribute to the audio signal that will get recorded.
Different SoundCards support different audio sources. Most SoundCards can only record from a single audio source at one time.
They, have a Selected box beside each audio source like this:
- If you want to record from a Microphone, make sure the Mic's Selected box is set, and its Volume control is set to full (all the way to the right).
- If you want to record from a guitar or an audio tape deck, make sure the Line-In's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
- If you want to record from a Music CD, make sure the Music CD's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
- Some SoundCards can record from a mixture of audio sources. They have a Mute box
beside each audio source to control which sources are not to be recorded.
- Select the Audio Track by clicking on it and making a green dot appear at its left.
This makes it the active track - the track that will get recorded.
- Erase the track by selecting Erase track notes from the Edit menu.
- If you are recording from an electric guitar,
and if the output of your guitar is line-level (usually is), connect it to your sound card's
line-in jack, getting an adapter if necessary from someplace like Radio Shack.
- If you are recording from a Music CD, put one into your computer's CD-ROM drive.
- Press the VU button to warm up the audio device, so you don't record power-on noise.
- Press the button on the Mixer screen.
- Play your guitar, sing into the microphone, or play your music CD or audio tape.
- Press the stop button, or the button again when you are ready to stop recording.
- Right-click the audio track's On field so that it changes to solo.
- This makes it the only track that will be played when the Play button is pressed.
- Press the play button
- Press the stop button and right-click on the track's solo field,
so that all tracks are enabled again.
- If the track is too quiet or too loud, adjust the audio source's volume at the bottom of the Mixer screen.
Anvil Studio does not yet directly support .MP3 files.
You can use other shareware/freeware tools to convert .MP3 files to .WAV files you can use with Anvil Studio.
http://www.mthreedev.com has some very good free mp3->wav and wav->mp3 conversion programs.
After you convert the .MP3 file to a .WAV file, read the next section to see how to import a .WAV file into Anvil Studio.
To load an existing .WAV file into an Audio track:
Select New from the File menu
Select Mixer from the View menu
Click the Type field of Track 1, changing it from Instrument to Audio
Select Save from the File menu to save the new song
Select Import from the File menu, and then select a .WAV file to import.
You can also import .WAV files as individual drum sounds on a rhythm track as follows:
Select Mixer from the View menu,
Select the Track / Create / Rhythm track menu,
Press the Compose button, or select Composer from the View menu,
Press the Add Sounds button, then
Click the Samples tab, then
Press the Create Sampled Sounds button.
This example creates a WAV file with Audio Effects:
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Select the New Song menu item from the
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
On this screen's track list, there is a row for every track in the song,
showing that track's name and other attributes of the track.
Now, change track 1's Type from instrument to audio by clicking on Instrument and selecting
Audio from the list.
Select Composer from the View menu.
Save the song file by selecting the Save Song... menu item from the
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Press the record button ,
sing into the microphone, and then press the stop button when you are ready to stop recording.
Press the Filter to show the filter window, and press its Ok button
to filter noise from this track.
With the left mouse down, drag the mouse over part of the window to select part of the recorded song.
Press the Play Selection button to hear the selected sound.
Select Reverse from the Edit menu
to replace the selected sound with the same sound played backward.
Press the Volume and Pitch buttons to adjust the volume and pitch of the selected sound.
If you have the Multi-Audio accessory, add another Audio track to this song by selecting the Create / Audio Track menu item from the
Track menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Record some sound onto this track.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Click the fx column for any track to add a delay, or echo effect to that track.
Click the fx button in the upper-right corner of the screen to add native or DirectX effects to the entire song.
Press the play button to hear all the tracks played together.
Experiment with the Track Volume, Delay Intensity and Time controls, pressing
the Play button to hear the effect of the change.
After your song sounds the way you want it, you can mix the entire song down to a single .WAV file by following these steps.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Open the song you want to work on using the File menu.
Select Export Mixed Audio... from the File menu
to save the mixed audio track to its own .WAV file.
If your song has any MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support mixing audio and MIDI to an Audio file,
it will ask you:
Your song has some MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support converting these to an audio file.
Do you want to just mix your song's audio tracks and sampled rhythms?
If you reply Yes, it will just mix the audio tracks. Otherwise, it will do nothing.
or it will ask you
Do you want to include your song's MIDI notes?
Your song has some MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support mixing these to an audio file.
If you want to include these MIDI notes, you need to press Yes and then select:
"Create / Audio Track by mixing enabled MIDI tracks" from the Track menu.
That will create a new audio track that contains a mixed copy of all of your MIDI tracks." & vbCrLf & "Then, select ""Export Mixed Audio"" again, but this time, just mix audio tracks." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "If you just want to mix Audio tracks, press NO.", vbYesNo)
Press Yes if you want to only mix enabled Audio tracks and sampled rhythms.
Press No if you want to mix Instrument tracks as well.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Click on the stereo audio track that you want to split, to make it the active track.
Select Split Track into two Mono Audio Tracks from the Track menu.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Click the On column of all other tracks, so that the only two tracks that are On are the two you want merged.
Set the left track's Pan column all the way to the left.
Set the right track's Pan column all the way to the right.
Select Create / Audio track by mixing all enabled audio tracks from the Track menu.
Select Mixer from the View menu
To the right of Track 1, click on Instrument and change it to Rhythm
Click the Composer button at the bottom of the screen, or
select Composer from the View menu.
Click on the grid where you want various drum sounds.
Press the play button .
Select Save from the file menu to save the song.
The file you save can now be played on any standard MIDI player,
copied to a web page, sent by email, etc.
Ensure that your MIDI cables are connected as described in the
Help / Connections menu.
Select Synthesizers from the View menu
Change the MIDI In port to the one your synthesizer is connected to.
Depending on what SoundCard you have, it might be named something like MPU-401 or MIDI In.
If you want to record more than one MIDI channel at the same time:
Select Options from the View menu.
Click the Record Multi-Track MIDI box.
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Select New Song from the File menu.
If it is more important that the recorded notes look good on the staff, than it is for the music to sound exactly the same as you played it,
Consider setting the option Record No Rests on the View / Options / MIDI screen.
Turn the metronome on by clicking its ICON in the top-right corner of the screen.
Play the notes along with the metronome as accurately as you can.
When you are done, if some notes don't look right, try selecting Transpose Entire Track from the Track menu.
Press the button and begin playing.
If you set the Record Multi-Track MIDI option, each of the 16 tracks will record all of the MIDI events sent to its MIDI channel.
Otherwise, all MIDI events will be recorded to the active track.
When you are finished, you might want to turn off the Record Multi-Track MIDI box on the View / Options screen.
If nothing is getting recorded:
you could double-check your MIDI cables or try selecting a different MIDI In port.
you may have unintentionally set MIDI Sync, which should only be set if you want to start recording/playing
when you press the Start button on your synthesizer. To make sure it is turned off,
Select Mixer from the View menu.
Press the Sync button just below the Time: field.
Uncheck the box named
Record and Play wait for external MIDI Start event to begin.
Press the OK button.
Try recording again.
Try selecting Synthesizers from the View menu and press the Test MIDI Connections... button.
If you have the MIDI Manager accessory installed, press the MIDI Scope... button and then the Test MIDI Connections... button.
you may need to try selecting a different MIDI In port, or double-check your MIDI cables.
Anvil Studio assumes that each track in a song plays a single instrument on a single MIDI channel.
If you want a song to play two instruments, create an instrument track for each instrument you want to play.
On the Mixer screen, you can change which MIDI channel and Instrument each track plays.
If you already have the whole song on a single track, select Split track into single-channel tracks
from the Track menu.
To change the instrument associated with the current Instrument track:
Select Mixer from the View menu
click the track's Instrument column
select a different instrument
Select Synthesizers from the View menu.
Click the down-arrow to the right of the Midi Out Port field.
Select the port your synthesizer is connected to, e.g. one that has MIDI Out as part of its name.
Now, all songs played by Anvil Studio will be sent to that MIDI port.
Anvil Studio can also support multiple MIDI Out ports and Patch Bays,
with the optional MIDI Manager Accessory.
Select Catalog from the Help menu
for details.
Ensure that your MIDI cables are connected as described in the
Help / Connections menu.
In the Piano-Roll view, simply drag the right edge of the note to the right.
In the Staff view, enter the same whole note several times, and then
right-click on each but the last and select the pop-up menu option
named Tie to next
The quality of sound for Instrument tracks is determined by your SoundCard.
Select Synthesizers from the View menu.
Change the MIDI Out port to some other device.
If none of them sound good, try downloading the Microsoft Media Player, version 7.0
from www.microsoft.com
It includes the Roland software synthesizer which has great sounds.
After you install it, it will appear in Anvil Studio's View / Synthesizers page.
Anvil Studio has special support for sound cards like SoundBlaster Live! that support SoundFonts.
These cards can dynamically load different set of instrument sounds from files with the file extension .SF2.
SoundFont (.SF2) files are widely available for free on the internet.
To load a new set of instrument sounds:
Select Options from the View menu.
Click the MIDI tab.
Make sure the box named Enable SoundFont Support is checked.
Select Synthesizers from the View menu.
Change the MIDI Out port to a sound card that supports SoundFonts, like A: SB Live! MIDI Synth
Press the Load SoundFont File... button
Select the file you want to load
Press the Open button
Select Mixer from the View menu
Click the Device column of any Instrument or Rhythm track
In the resulting window, set the Synthesizer field to your SoundFont sound card
Set the Bank field to any value
Click on the instrument that you want to assign to that track
SoundFont ® is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc.
To insert a note without shifting all notes that follow it, uncheck the Insert Mode box on the Composer screen.
To enter several notes as a chord, hold the shift key down until the last note has been entered.
To delete a single note, point to it with the mouse,
hold the right mouse button down, and select the Remove Note menu item.
If you want to delete one or more notes, and cause all following notes to shift left,
point to the left of the notes with the mouse, hold the left mouse button down and
drag the mouse right until the entire group of notes to be deleted has a dark background.
Make sure that both the treble and bass clefs are selected
by holding the mouse between the two clefs.
Then, release the mouse button and select the Edit/Cut or Edit/Delete menu.
To delete a rest, hold the mouse down to the left of it, and drag the mouse right until
the entire rest (or rests) have a dark background.
Make sure that both the treble and bass clefs are selected
by holding the mouse between the two clefs.
Then, release the mouse button and select the Edit/Cut or Edit/Delete menu.
When composing, each note's volume is determined by the VOL slider to the right of the Staccato box.
You can later adjust a single note's volume by right-clicking the note and editing the note's properties.
You can adjust the volume of a selection of notes by selecting a range of notes with the mouse and moving
the same VOL slider. All selected notes will be set to that volume.
To shift a note right or left within a measure, right-click on the
note and select the "Shift Note's Start time" pop-up menu.
Select Transpose / All Tracks in song... from the Track menu.
You can change the tempo of all Instrument and Rhythm tracks in the song by selecting Metronome from the View menu.
If you want to change the tempo of individual sections, or graphically alter it
and other MIDI parameters over time, you need our optional Pro-Mix accessory ($19)
which is described at, and can be ordered from, our website: www.AnvilStudio.com
When you record Audio tracks, Anvil Studio creates a different .WAV file for each track.
These .WAV files are saved in the same folder as the song's .MID file, and have the same
first 4 letters of its filename.
For example, if the song is named "ThisIsMySong.mid", the audio tracks will be saved in
files with names like "Thisg_a.wav", "Thisg_b.wav", etc.
The filename of each track's .WAV file is displayed on the Mixer screen in the Instrument column.
These .WAV files can be emailed and played by any Audio player, including
the Windows Media player and Web Browsers.
If you load the .MID file into another application, such as a Web Browser, you will only
hear the Instrument and Rhythm tracks.
That is because there is no standard for storing audio data within .MID files,
so Anvil Studio simply stores references to the .WAV files inside the .MID files.
See the section: Mixing all tracks down to a single .WAV file
for a description of how to mix all of your Audio, Instrument and Rhythm tracks down to a single .WAV file.
The single .WAV file can then be played by any application, including Web Browsers.
If you want a .WAV or .MID file to be played by your website, you need to use FTP to transfer the
file to your website. Be sure to use the Binary transfer mode.
Then, include this text in your webpage:
<BGSOUND SRC=xxx.mid LOOP=0 AUTOSTART=TRUE>
where your webpage and xxx.mid are in the same folder on your website's server.
You can use a variety of shareware/freeware tools to convert the .WAV file to an .MP3 file,
which can be 1/10th the size.
Anvil Studio does not yet support creation of .MP3 files.
Your audio recording time may be limited by the amount of free disk space on either the drive the song is saved to,
or the Windows Temporary drive. Anvil Studio stores its temporary mixing files on Windows Temporary Drive.
If you have more free space on your D: drive than on your C: drive, you can tell windows to use drive D
with the following steps:
Select Settings / Control Panel from the Windows Start menu
Double-click on the System icon in the Control Panel
Click on the Performance tab
Click the Virtual Memory button
Click "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings"
Select drive D:
Press OK buttons to close all dialogs
Restart your computer
To increase Windows temp file space under Windows NT, start the Control Panel, double-click on System,
turn to the Performance tab, change the max value, and press the Set button.
There are several things you can do to increase the volume of a recorded sample.
Experiment with one or more of the following until you get the sound you want.
In the window brought up by Create Sampled Sounds... or Edit Samples..., set Volume all the way to the right.
In that same window, press the Edit... button to edit the waveform.
Then, press the Louder button until it warns you that doing so would introduce distortion.
On the Composer screen for the Rhythm track, set the volume control all the way to the right.
On the Mixer screen, set the volume for the rhythm track all the way to the right.
On the Mixer screen, set the volume for Audio all the way to the right.
To add a Copyright message to your song,
select Comments from the View menu.
Set the Track field to .
Add the Copyright message.
A playlist is a file that can be opened by Anvil Studio's File / Open Play List... menu item.
Using your favorite editor, make a copy of the file autoplay.ply
Replace air.mid, and all of the other lines that have .MID
with the names of MIDI songs you want to play.
In Anvil Studio, select Open Play List from the File Menu.
It will play all of those songs.
If the last line of the XXX.PLY file has a line naming itself, i.e. XXX.PLY,
it will loop and play all the songs forever.
A skip button also appears when a Play list is playing that lets
you skip forward in the play list.
A good sound card is the first step. Fortunately, there are many good ones that
can record 2 lines in (stereo) and play 2 lines out for under $30.
Make sure it is Full-Duplex, which means it can and play at the same time.
The SoundBlaster Live! Value is reasonably priced, has good sound, and lets you load SoundFont files
with different sets of instrument settings, just like a MIDI Sampler.
If you want to record from more than 2 audio lines at the same time, consider
the MidiMan Delta 44 or MidiMan USB Quatro 4x4 audio cards from MidiMan at www.MidiMan.com.
You can use a MIDI keyboard to record tracks with Anvil Studio.
Consider starting with a VERY inexpensive MIDI keyboard, like a Yamaha or Casio
from Costco, WallMart, K-Mart, etc. for around $70. They have very good sound for the money.
Make sure that it has full-size keys - not 3/4 size miniature keys.
The next step up would be to get a synthesizer with weighted keys, so it feels
like a real piano. Something like the Kurzweil PC88, but expect to spend over $1000.
The best reasonably priced microphone out there is the Shure 57, which you can by
used for $50 and new for around $80. They are the workhorse of garage bands everywhere.
For optimal recording of voice, you need to then advance to a condenser mic, which can cost around $400.
The good news is that the Shure 57 won't go to waste after you do buy a more expensive mic.
You can always use more mics.
www.HarmonyCentral.com has a wealth of recording information, from the theoretical
to the practical, including a great classified ad page for buying used equipment,
as well as reviews of equipment. It is a good jumping-off point.
For more website recommendations, please select Links... from the Help menu.
The version of Anvil Studio you are running may be outdated, even if you
recently downloaded it. This is because Shareware WEB sites sometimes take
a while to upgrade to the latest version.
To see a list of new features and bugs fixed in the latest version of Anvil Studio,
and to download a free copy, please visit our Web-based Catalog.
When you download a new version of Anvil Studio, the new version automatically tells you if
your optional accessories are up-to-date. It will tell you how to upgrade them if new ones are available.
We would appreciate hearing why you want to uninstall Anvil Studio.
We promise not to try to sell you on keeping it. We just want to learn how we failed, so we can improve it.
To uninstall Anvil Studio:
select Settings / Control Panel menu item from the Windows Start menu,
double-click the Add / Remove programs icon,
select Anvil Studio from the list,
click the Add / Remove button
If that doesn't work, you can delete the contents of the folder:
c:\Program Files\Anvil Studio
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