News :: 15MR: Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter v3.0.9.0

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter version 3.0.9.0 by Piston Software—An application to convert MIDI files to MP3s.

H2. Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Direct MIDI to WAV/MP3 Converter is a fast audio utility that allows you to convert MIDI to MP3, WAV, WMA and OGG formats. You can fast convert MIDI, MID, RMI, KAR files to MP3, WAV, WMA or OGG in the batch mode. Using Tempo change feature you can create an album of your favorite MIDI tracks performed in any tempo. Reverberation control available too. The resulting WAV or MP3 files can then be burned to an audio CD using any CD recording program.”

Quick Pros

• Very simple interface
• Batch support great
• Ability to adjust the tempo, reverb and volume of each file
• Instrument audio kit very high quality; Resulting files sound outstanding
• Fast conversions
• Handles adding ID3 tags

Quick Cons

• Would have been nice if it could have sorted into original folder structure in separate folder
• No MIDI filename interpretation to ID3

Expansion

Once upon a time, I had a sizable MIDI collection. However, I was always disappointed with Windows’ instrument kit, QuickTime’s kit was only marginally better and many other kits were expensive. While I did have .xm and .mod files back in the day, sometimes their quality ended up worse than MIDIs. I actually went out of my way to purchase an expensive keyboard with a good kit itself and used it as my playback source. I loved my MIDIs and was feeling nostalgic when I saw this application come along. While the collection is gone (As is one of the most popular places to get MIDIs on the ‘net) it still has potential for me with my personally-created MIDIs.

Now, as you may know, a MIDI’s quality can also be based on whomever originally created the MIDI file and their instrument selection, effects and naturally their interpretation of the original piece. For testing this application, I both used one of my own MIDIs as well as stomped around the internet for a good quality MIDI. Took a while, but I got one. I launched up the application and was delighted by the simplistic nature of the application. Batch support was nice; When converting, you could have all the MP3s tossed back in the same folder from where they came. It would have been nice if it would have rebuilt the directory stucture in a separate folder for those looking to get away from MIDIs all together.

I was delighted to see the ability to change the tempo to clean up the speed of a song if the MIDI was a little out of whack. The reverb setting is nice too; Just to add a very minimal amount to rid some of those MIDIs from the harshness of bad changeovers. The volume control was nice as well and the ability to go over 100%; Some MIDIs from my old collection were really quiet and this would have done the job. Now, I must say, it would be a great feature if this application featured instead of a volume slider; A normalization setting so all of the resulting MP3s would have the same level.

I converted both my MIDIs in a batch, tweaking the ID3 tag on each. There is no automated filename converter-to-ID3 tag support; It tosses the whole name into the Title field. At least you get the filename to rip apart in the title field. The conversion went really fast which had worried me quite a bit. However, I worried for no reason. The resulting MP3 was gorgeous. Outside ‘professional studio’ applications, I think this is the best MIDI reproduction I have heard, even compared to my keyboard. MIDIs tend to have a problem with the audio sounding ‘disjointed’, where you can distinguish the audio layers; They didn’t blend quite frequently. This was the issue with the MIDI from the internet I found. The resulting MP3 sounds like a band (albiet amateur) in-person, playing together. My MIDI turned out wonderful as well, sounding how I expected it to have sound if I could play it live (decently.) The built-in instrument kit is part of the key here, but clearly it is more than just playing the MIDI back into a recording stream; There is some effort to make the MIDI actually sound good coming out the other end.

Final Verdict

I was surprised by this application and its output. This application can serve a few different markets; Those who still have a hoard of MIDI files from pre-MP3 collection who wish to do a little upgrading and audio quality increase; Those who play MIDI instruments and would like to get a different conversion of their MIDI outside their professional studio; and those looking for ringtones for their cellphones and would like higher quality than the MIDI playing on their cellphone (most cell phoness MIDI reproduction is lousy at best.) While $29.95 may seem like a higher pricetag for something which may seem simple, for many this may make a good investment, especially for those with huge MIDI collections, play instruments or who love their ringtones a lot. For free, if you have any need for this application, I say get it free while you can. If you need it though even when you have to pay for it, I say go for it. It’s well worth it if you can make use of it.

Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, April 03, 2007