Convert MIDI to MP3, MIDI to WAV Converter

MIDI files are very small. Even complex and pretty long MIDI compositions are rarely over 200 Kbytes in size, and many of them are much smaller. In contrast, MP3 files of the same duration require usually several Mbytes for themselves.

So, why would anybody want to convert MIDI to MP3?

The answer is both simple and difficult. First of all, MIDI files aren't supported by most popular devices, like MP3 players, hi-fi systems, and even by many mobile phones. That's the simple part of it.

The difficult part is closely related to the simple one, and it comes from the simple question: "Why?" Why aren't MIDI files supported everywhere, if they are superior for storing music? We can store a hundred of MIDI files in the place of a single MP3 file.

MIDI files are special. Indeed, they can be used for creating music, but not in the same way as MP3 files. While MP3 files contain digitalized audio data, which allows to store any sound found in the real world (no matter how complex it is), MIDI employs a completely different solution.

You have surely seen keyboard synthesizers that can sound like piano, cello, accordion, and many other instruments. Some of them are so good that it's hard to tell the difference between them and original instruments.

MIDI files are designed... to play such synthesizers. No less, but also no more than that.

In some sense a diskette with a bunch of MIDI files can replace a professional musician behind the keyboard on a concert. Funny as it may seem, this reveals the true purpose of MIDI format. MIDI is the acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, it was developed to increase power of digital musical instruments by establishing reliable communication links between them.

Thus you can easily guess the limitations of the MIDI format. For example, it is impossible to save normal human voice in a MIDI file, or to encode other real sounds that are neither programmed into the synthesizer, nor supported by the format. It is also impossible to control quality of output sound. Your piano can sound like a real one, or like a cheap electronic gadget for children. It depends on capabilities of the synthesizer that is used.

Now, if you convert MIDI to MP3 using a quality device, the file will always sound the same. No huge differences will be possible anymore. MP3 is not like MIDI: you may email a MIDI with wonderful music to your friend and receive an answer: "This sounds really bad, I don't understand why you like it so much". Well, your friend surely won't write something like that, but he or she may think so, if capabilities of his or her soundcard are much less impressive than those of yours.

Implementing a quality professional synthesizer in all kinds of devices is quite expensive and would make those devices expensive too. Some mobile phones still support MIDI, but quality of their output is very far from being professional. In fact, it's more like a cheap solution to save precious memory by using extremely small MIDI files instead of large MP3.

In order to make sure that your music will always be played with the same perfect quality and on all kinds of devices, you may want to convert MIDI to MP3. Two different methods of converting can be used. First, you can record MIDI as it plays on your system, creating a WAV or MP3 file. This is real-time conversion, sometimes it is referred to as sound recording mode. The resulting file will sound exactly as it sounds on your system.

The second method is somewhat more exciting. Using it, you can convert MIDI to MP3 several times to create MP3 files that sound different. No, it's not about unpredictable changes. Here you can select how exactly the output melody should sound. You do that by choosing different SoundFonts.

MIDI Converter Studio allows you to use the both methods. By default it converts MIDI to MP3 using SoundFonts, which is much quicker than the other method. However, you can switch to the sound recording mode, if you want to record MIDI exactly how it sounds on your system.

Converting MIDI to MP3 with SoundFonts gives you more flexibility, as there are countless SoundFont banks on the Internet, many of them are available for free. Several websites that offer free SoundFonts are listed on this page. Before you start to convert your MIDI to MP3, your can preview how they will sound with the given SoundFont. The built-in player of MIDI Converter Studio is able to play MIDI files using SoundFont banks, giving you the immediate acoustic experience. Other output formats are also supported, it is possible to convert MIDI to WAV, MIDI to WMA, MIDI to OGG. However, taking into account the popularity of the MP3 format, the other formats will probably be used quite rarely.

So if you want your MIDI music sound good in any circumstances and on any devices, just convert it to MP3 using a quality SoundFont, or record your MIDI on a computer with a high-end sound card.