Piano Clues

“Normalizing” is a post-processing step that is done to make recordings as loud as possible.

It works like this: the computer scans the recording to find the loudest part. Then it determines how much louder it can make this part. Finally, it amplifies the entire recording by that amount.

I explained in a previous article how to normalize your recordings with Audacity and other audio programs.

That method works fine. However, there is an alternative method and that is to use the free program MP3Gain.

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If you have a digital piano, electronic keyboard or MIDI controller, you can easily get access to many more sounds by hooking it up to the computer using a MIDI interface. Instead of being limited to just the on-board tone generator of your piano, you can now use an almost infinite number of “virtual” instruments.

In this article we will look at this quick and relatively inexpensive method to make your digital piano sound even better. Some of this software will cost money, but we’ll also look at free options.

In another article, I explain how to convert a MIDI recording to MP3 using software instruments. Although the idea is similar, the article you’re reading now focuses on live playing: you press keys on your piano and sound comes out of your computer in real-time. Of course, you can also record your live playing and we’ll talk about that too.

NOTE: The article was written with Windows in mind. If you use another operating system such as Mac OS X, the directions are similar but the software will be different.

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Music software doesn’t have to be expensive. There is a lot of good free and almost-free software on the web, you just have to know where to find it. On this page you’ll find links to legal versions of music programs that I use and recommend.

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This article explains how to convert MIDI files — music files with the extension .mid or .midi (or .kar for karaoke) — to MP3 and/or WAV.

The advantage of MIDI files is that they are very small — easily 1000 times as small as an MP3 of the same music — but the disadvantage is that they usually don’t sound very good. And you can’t put them on your iPod either.

So if you want to learn how to convert your MIDI files to MP3’s and how to make them sound good doing so, then read on.

NOTE: The article was written with Windows in mind. If you use another operating system such as Mac OS X, the directions are similar but the software will be different.

(For live playing with software instruments in real time, read how to use virtual instruments.)

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To be honest, I don’t know much about recording acoustic pianos other than that it is black magic.

You need at least one microphone — two is better because that gives you stereo sound — and a recording device. Of course, you can use your computer to record on, but that does mean you need to put it somewhere near the piano (or buy very long cables).

You will get the best recordings with a set of good condenser microphones, but they are expensive and you need other equipment as well to connect this all to your computer.

Not just the quality of the microphones matters: the acoustic quality of the room is at least as important.

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Red Dot Forever can only play what you just recorded, it cannot load existing MIDI files. To play MIDI files, use any of these programs:

• Windows Media Player (already on your computer)
• VanBasco’s Karaoke Player, a great program that also has an on-screen keyboard, can slow down or speed up the playback and transpose it. Click for detailed instructions
• MidiNotate Player, which shows the MIDI data as sheet music.

If you like to fiddle with sheet music notation, you’ll find that most notation programs can also import MIDI files and convert them to sheet music. However, unless you played perfectly in time, you’ll need to perform some manual cleanup to make your score look good.

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If everything is set up, you will need to get a program to record MIDI. There are many available, commercial and free, but I prefer to use Red Dot Forever.

This is my favorite program because:

1. it is very simple to use
2. it is free
3. and I wrote it myself

Click here to download the latest version of Red Dot Forever (1.04)

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You can expect to find these connectors on your digital piano or electronic keyboard:

• MIDI OUT. You will at least have a MIDI OUT port, for sending MIDI data to other devices.
• MIDI IN. Usually you will also find a MIDI IN port, for receiving MIDI data from other devices.
• MIDI THRU. Some instruments also have a MIDI THRU port, for passing MIDI data from one device to another. This port mainly exists to reduce the cable spaghetti that results from tying many different devices together.

To connect your instrument to your computer you either need:

• A direct cable connection
• A MIDI-to-USB interface
• A MIDI input on your soundcard (game port connector)

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This is the first article in a series on recording MIDI from a digital piano or electronic keyboard.

MIDI stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”. It is a standard communications protocol for electronic instruments.

The main difference between audio recording and MIDI recording is that MIDI does not store the sounds you make, only the names of the keys that you pressed. It is like sheet music or the old piano rolls — but in electronic form.

Most digital pianos and keyboards have MIDI capability: at the very least they can send MIDI messages to other equipment (”MIDI OUT”), but usually they also have the ability to receive MIDI messages (”MIDI IN”).

NOTE: You can also install MIDI into an acoustic piano, but we won’t consider that in this article. Google for “MIDI piano strip” if you are interested in this.

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There are many different ways in which you can make your recordings available for others to hear, but I will simply mention my favorite website:

Go to www.box.net and click Signup to create your account. The free (”Lite”) account will do fine: you get 1 gigabyte of storage space (which is plenty) and files are limited to 10 megabyte each (which is about 10 minutes of stereo music).

The advantage of box.net is that people don’t have to download your music first: they can simply listen online.

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