Yamaha smf...getting computer to read

[jimtulloch]

can anyone put me on the right track please.
I have loaded songs from my Yamaha Clavinova CVP to a USB stick...what do I require to get my computer to read so as I can convert to MP3
Many thanks....Jim

 

[DickR]

If you want the same quality of sound as you keyboard, you make a connection between LINE OUT or even HEADPHONES OUT on the Yamaha to LINE IN on the computer and you record the songs in ie Audacity, a free to download and very good recording prog.
Midi is NOT music and sounds terrible on a PC. Direct conversion to MP3 is possible but doesn't give a good result as the computer soundcard is restricted to 'only' 127 voices.

 

[jimtulloch]

Thank you Dick for your reply. My Piano and PC are some 30 feet apart, just such a long cable. I think the thing which I was really trying to establish was why my PC showed nothing at all when I plug the USB stick in, obviously it cannot read it.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually most modern computers can do soft synths and wavetable sounds that sound as good as and even sometimes better than any keyboard.

All you need is a half decent SMF player on your computer and a good soundfont loaded into your soundcard and you can record the music output on your computer as an MP3 by setting up your mixer to capture your soundcard's output into a WAV recorder and then finally convert the WAV to MP3.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileformat/SMF-MIDI-audio-file

http://blag.koveras.org/2010/12/04/how-to-configure-a-soundfont-in-windows-7/

http://blog.markheadrick.com/2012/10/01/how-to-make-midi-files-sound-better-in-windows-7/

http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth?page=99999999

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2012/12/19/free-soundfont-player-for-mac-windows/

http://soundfont-midi-player.en.softonic.com/

I believe Windows Media Player will handle the playing of an SMF file directly and you can record the stereo WAV with Soundrec and for conversion to MP3 just use ffmpeg or any other conversion software you'd like.