Introductory Notes:
-------------------
A) MIDI data is NOT sound in and of itself. MIDI is nothing more than a
series of commands that tells your soundcard's wavetable synthesizer or
connected external synthesizers to perform these tasks:
- What sounds to play from the synthesizer
- When to play the sounds (what rhythm)
- At what pitch level the sounds are to be played (how high or low)
B) A MIDI file is similar to the piano roll in a player piano:
- A piano roll is a roll of paper with holes punched in it. When hooked
up to the player piano mechanism and as the piano roll turns, the holes
punched in the piano roll tell the mechanism which key(s) to depress,
exactly when, and how hard or soft to depress them. The player piano
then appears to play "by itself".
- A MIDI file contains the command data that tells the connected MIDI
synthesizer(s) to play the contents of the MIDI file.
C) There is a wavetable synthesizer built into most soundcards.
This is the synthesizer you hear playing when you open a MIDI file
on a typical multimedia-equipped PC and press the "Play" button.
More advanced setups include standalone MIDI keyboard synthesizers and/or
MIDI sound modules. A MIDI file launched from a computer can play these
external MIDI devices that are properly hooked up to the computer's MIDI
interface.
D) Find out if your soundcard supports internal MIDI to digital audio
recording. Soundcards such as the Turtle Beach Pinnacle REV F,
200K Refurbished and Montego II cards that have a wavetable synth built in
don't need any sort of extra connections. All of the data can be handled
internally in the hardware.
E) If all of your MIDI tracks are assigned to play from external outboard gear
(MIDI keyboards, drum machines, etc.), you will need to record them as Wave
audio by routing their Line Outputs to your sound card's Line In jack.
If some (or all) of your MIDI tracks are assigned to play from your
soundcard's wavetable synth:
- Open the Turtle Beach Pro Series Audio Mixer or the Windows Volume
Control Mixer and select "MIDI Synthesizer", "Digital Synth",
"Wavetable Synth" or similar as the recording source.
_____________________________________________________________________________
RECORDING THE INTERNAL MIDI SYNTH (step by step):
-------------------------------------------------
* NOTE: The Digital Orchestrator Pro program is included in these packages:
- Pinnacle Project Studio
- Pinnacle Project Studio Special Edition
- Montego II Home Studio
If you are using any of the Digital Orchestrator Series:
1. Enable your recording source as described above.
2. Set up a new track to record digital audio.
3. Be sure to MUTE any MIDI or Digital Audio tracks that you do NOT want
recorded into this new digital audio track.
4. Go to the Options Menu -> Digital Audio (Port Setup -> Options within DO
or DOPro) and make sure you have the "Simultaneous Playback and Record" box
checked.
5. Click on Record.
For a stereo recording, hold down the Ctrl key and click the second track
with the left mouse button. This will enable the second track to record
audio, giving you two audio tracks (one for the Left channel and the other
for the Right channel).
The output of the MIDI synthesizer should now be recording to your hard drive
as an audio track in Digital Orchestrator.
You may choose to export the recording as a .WAV file. This will allow other
Windows audio applications to play the audio recording of your MIDI song.
_____________________________________________________________________________ |
