Midi to Audio

[Sam Spoons]

#2 son is trying to render midi tracks to audio in Reaper to make a backing track to play along with. Can anybody give a short and simple explanation how it's done? He's using win 10 and the onboard SoundBlaster GM module.

Otherwise downloads of free VSTi's (he's an impoverished musician) of standard piano, bass and drums?

[ef37a]

I've got one of those Sam! Mine is in France and just to add to his misery he had his phone stolen a couple of weeks ago and so has no email or Google.

Is your son stuck somewhere else in UK? I cannot help him very much except to suggest Modarrt's Pianoteq. Even the trial version is a useful MIDI device.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

I use a couple of Yamaha XG virtual synths - the S-YXG50 and the S-YXG2006LE which can both be found online although Yamaha ceased supporting them years ago. I find they work better with the 32 bit version of Reaper which I've installed as a standalone version alongside my main 64 bit version. I get quite a few stuck notes when using the 64 bit version. The sounds may not be state of the art but they match the ones in our lad's Yamaha keyboards which means that he can transfer music he's recorded on his keyboard to Reaper without the sounds changing much.

[Sam Spoons]

Thanks gents, Yes he lives and works in China but is home at present (a 10 day visit has turned into a much longer 'holiday', nearly 10 weeks now and counting).

I've just turned up the Komplete Start free package. Looks good but I can't seem to find if it's linked to NI hardware or completely stand alone. Any idea?

[Agharta]

I've just turned up the Komplete Start free package. Looks good but I can't seem to find if it's linked to NI hardware or completely stand alone. Any idea?

Their paid for Komplete packages are stand alone so I’m sure it’s the same with the freebies.

[Sam Spoons]

Sounds promising then, ta. Taking a while to download and, meanwhile we have found some free VSTi piano's basses and drums on the VST4FREE page, probably a bit marginal on quality but will do for starters. Will report back later.

We have got to grips with rendering midi to audio in Reaper so once we get some suitable VST instruments it will be fine.

Dan (and Emma) is living with the inlaws in Gloucestershire so we are working this out over the phone and internet rather than face to face which makes things a little more difficult.

[Drew Stephenson]

I'm not entirely sure I understand the problem you're trying to solve, but TeamViewer allows you to share desktops (which can help a lot), as does the now-ubiquitous Zoom.

[Sam Spoons]

Thanks Drew, hadn’t thought of that.will resort try it if we can’t sort by phone

[pa28]

I use Cubase 8.5 Pro, "rendering" midi-audio is as simple as it gets, using either midi or instrument tracks with chosen VSTi in my projects, just exporting audio mix even without audio tracks gives a stereo/mono mp3, or .wav file. with all the automation, inserts/sends needed.

[Sam Spoons]

Just like Reaper, I have worked out today

[shufflebeat]

That 4Front piano is about as simple and reliable as I've ever needed, which isn't much to be fair.