A Simpler Way of Recording MIDI to WAV

You can use this method if you have a full duplex soundcard and Winamp 2.x installed in your system.

In Winamp, go to Options > Preferences and configure Winamp2 MIDI plug-in v2.63b as demonstrated at the screenshot. Make sure Use DirectSound, Send to DSP and Send to Output options are unchecked. I prefer 48 kHZ 16 bit Stereo as output format but you can manipulate it upon your hardware capabilities and/or preferences.

Restart Winamp after having completed the configuration. Your wave file will be saved to the folder specified during the configuration, as you play the midi file, with the same name.

After completing your recordings, redo the configuration and uncheck Write WAV files to: option leaving the others unchanged for future usage. Don't forget to restart Winamp for changes to take effect.

Since MIDI to WAV conversion is a frequently discussed topic on the Forum, I hope this won't be considered off-topic.

• PS: Tested and approved on my PIII-550/128MB/W98SE system with SB Live! Platinum + General User GS 1.35 SF Bank.
  
• PPS: Works also under WinXP
  

 

About WinAmp and NWC plug-in for it, go and see the WinAmp 2 plug in page!

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I have to update that this method is no more working under my system with Winamp 5.
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I'm using WavePad which is available in free or master edition. Possibly depending on your sound card, it is capable of recording from "mixed output" as well as all traditional inputs (line, mic etc). Thus, I can start this sound program, configure it to record and press Play in NWC, and the MIDI output from my sound card will be captured to a sound file. I can then process or save it any way I want. I believe many sound converters (MIDI to MP3, RealAudio to MP3 etc) you can download out there for $20-30 each more or less take this approach.

Update: Perhaps saving as MIDI and play back in a less advanced program than NWC is a good idea. I just tested this approach on a 26 system score I'm working on, and on my Athlon XP2000+, the hard disk recording ends up with small jitter, probably due to too intensive CPU use during playback/recording. For smaller/simpler music, I've used the direct approach without jitter.