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Author Topic: How to get from ABC to MP3  (Read 5905 times)

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Andy Next Tune

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How to get from ABC to MP3
« on: March 25, 2008, 10:33:10 PM »

One of our morris musicians suffers from occasional memory lapses and wants to use his recently acquired MP3 player to remind him of tunes.

All the necessary ABC files are available from The Morris Ring site, but is there a simple way to play/record these as MP3 files? ABCNavigator will only produce a Midi file.

Unfortunately Lester's Grand Union repertoire of tunes does not match ours!

thanks

Andy
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Québécois

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2008, 11:38:00 PM »

If you do a search on the web for "MIDI to MP3" you will find several software packages that do that and they are not expensive. Many have a trial edition that works for a while before you decide if you want to buy or not.


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Pete Dunk

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2008, 04:55:19 PM »

If you happen to have a SoundBlaster sound card one of the input recording options is "What-U-Hear". Download Audacity (free) from the net; set it recording, playback the midi file with Media Player, edit to length and export as mp3.  :)
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Andy Next Tune

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2008, 07:17:41 PM »

Thanks, I had hoped that I might be able to avoid creating and then converting midi files.

Andy
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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2008, 08:45:26 PM »

There is nothing common between MIDI and MP3, as you may know. MIDI files contain "commands" that tell a MIDI chip or emulator what instrument, note, etc to play, whereas a MP3 file is a digitalized and compressed audio wave file... No shortcut possible.
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Pete Dunk

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2008, 05:03:31 PM »

Thanks, I had hoped that I might be able to avoid creating and then converting midi files.

Andy

Having re-read your original post I see that you are using ABC Navigator so you don't need to create a midi file at all, just use Navigator to play back the tunes. You then have a number of options to record the resulting playback either as a .wav for conversion to mp3, or with some software and hardware direct recording to mp3 is possible.

A quick and dirty way to record it is to plug the headphone socket on your PC speakers back into the line in socket on your sound card with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo jack lead. Record with Audacity and export it from there as an mp3. No need to get involved with midi files that way.
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Bill Young

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2008, 07:41:20 PM »

Having re-read your original post I see that you are using ABC Navigator so you don't need to create a midi file at all, just use Navigator to play back the tunes. You then have a number of options to record the resulting playback either as a .wav for conversion to mp3, or with some software and hardware direct recording to mp3 is possible.

A quick and dirty way to record it is to plug the headphone socket on your PC speakers back into the line in socket on your sound card with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo jack lead. Record with Audacity and export it from there as an mp3. No need to get involved with midi files that way.
No need even to make an external connection. Audacity will record any sound produced by the sound card. Set the Audacity input to "mono mix" and input level 0.5 or less. Start recording. Start the tune playing in ABC Navigator and Audacity will record it. Adjust the volume output from ABC Navigator so that it doesn't cause distortion on the Audacity recording. Then export the Audacity recording as .mp3.
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Andy Next Tune

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2008, 10:03:04 PM »

Thanks Bill (and Tallship) for that flash of insight - both bits of software were already sitting side by side on the PC, just not listening to each other (sounds familiar)!!!

I guess this also means I could use Audacity to 'MP3' anything which plays through the PC, such as 'Listen Again' radio!

Nice one!

Andy
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streb

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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2008, 03:08:07 PM »

I guess this also means I could use Audacity to 'MP3' anything which plays through the PC, such as 'Listen Again' radio!

Nice one!

Andy

Exactly. Using this method it is also very easy to make DRM-free backup copies of tracks bought through iTunes. For personal use only of course.
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Re: How to get from ABC to MP3
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2008, 04:12:54 PM »

Exactly. Using this method it is also very easy to make DRM-free backup copies of tracks bought through iTunes. For personal use only of course.
I find it faster to burn a CD of the tunes you want from iTunes, then re-import as MP3 to make DRM-free copies. You have a CD already made as a bonus!
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