Notation Software Users Forum

Notation Software Users Forum (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/index.php)
-   Using Notation Software products with other (third party) products (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4)
-   -   Simple MIDI player (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=2098)

David Teall (medman) 11-28-2005 12:22 PM

I use Composer to produce and/
 
I use Composer to produce and/or edit MIDI sequences of Hymn Tunes to play in church. I save them to a floppy which slots into my Yamaha keyboard so all I have to do in the service is select the file, press go and stop and adjust the volume.

This all works very well indeed and has added a lot to our services as we previously had to sing un-accompanied. However, the keyboard is quite a large device to lug about every week so I am wondering if anyone knows of a device that just contains a floppy drive, LCD, control panel and, of course, a MIDI synthesiser. That ought to fit into something the size of a lunch box which could then be connected to our amplification system just as I now connect my Yamaha. Any ideas?

Sherry Crann (sherry) 11-28-2005 03:07 PM

Howdy David, First I have t
 
Howdy David,

First I have to say that I'm not answering your question directly - I don't use sound modules like you're describing above. The ones that I've seen still require some sort of controller (rather than just using the floppy), and are rather expensive (but sound excellent!). I'll be interested to hear what other folks use.

However, I do have a couple of methods that I use for similar functionality at church.

The first is to prepare and burn an audio copy to a CD-RW, and play that over our sound system. If you don't have a CD player already hooked up at church (or if the current CD player won't play CD-RWs), you can purchase a small one that will for about $30. I use Composer to create the song file, and soundfonts or Garritan Personal Orchestra to render the audio, so the results are quite nice. I use my Creative Wave Studio, or Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/) to record the WAV file. I have some effects (such as reverb) that I can add to give it a more live feel.

If your computer doesn't have soundfont or recording/editing capability, you can use SynthFont (www.synthfont.com) which has a "save to WAV, MP3 or OGG" option. You could actually even use soundfonts to render a file to MP3 or OGG, and then use a portable player (iPod, etc) to plug in. However, I've found that the WAV offers the best audio quality, and that's what I use. I might mention that with SynthFont, you can also use some really nice free VST effects (such as reverb) to add a nice sonic touch.

If you want to use the sounds from your keyboard, then you could (I think I remember someone else doing this) play the file from your keyboard, and record the audio output into your computer sound card's "line in" and use something like Audacity to record the file and add effects. Then burn to CD-RW per above. If you don't have a CD burner on your computer, you can also get one of these for about $35, and it comes with the software to burn CDs.

The other method you can use if you have a computer at church (we have one because we use PowerPoint in conjunction with a projector to show the words to songs overhead, or to do other audio/visual presentations) you can use either Composer or SynthFont to play the file in the background and just plug the sound card into your sound system. I've only done this a couple of times, before I had the capability of doing the first option above http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif I very much like the fact that I know exactly what the audio is going to sound like beforehand, and all I need to adjust is the volume.

ttfn,
Sherry

Susan Bagot (susanmusic) 06-16-2006 10:18 PM

David, I just joined this for
 
David, I just joined this forum. You probably have solved the issue of a small midi file player long ago. But you may want to look into the Roland MT90s, a stand-alone midi file player. They're not cheap (around $400). Sometimes you can find one on Ebay. Ebay is also a source for the (discontinued) predecessors such as MT80S or MT 120 or 120S. The "S" means built-in speakers.

Susan Bagot

David Teall (medman) 06-18-2006 06:54 PM

Thanks for that Susan. The MT
 
Thanks for that Susan. The MT90 does seem to be just the thing I am looking for. I have posted some Favorite Searches on ebay to see what comes up.


All times are GMT. The time now is 01:59 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Notation Software Germany GmbH www.notation.com/Imprint.php