Noob with a hideous midi file seeks friends with gargantuan brains

[Josh Sommer]

Guys I am a total noob with cakewalk. Or at the very least I am relearning it after a very long break and everything is different. I have a midi file. piano. real mess, so beautiful. Anyway. When I've opened it in cakewalk, I can immediately hit play and hear the ugly thing... But I cannot figure out how to change the notes into  the VSTi harp plugin. I don't own a keyboard. Can't read music. Can play most chords on a guitar, but can't read tab, and cannot pluck, or play lead. Just basically strum. And I can't hear when I'm totally out of tune, someone always has to tell me. I can't tune my guitar without an app on my phone. I've been strumming chords on my guitar for around 25 years, really lazily, and yet I've never actually learned even one song ore created one song from the chords I do know. I played an alto sax as a freshman in high school. I think I must have learned how to read a few notes there, but seriously that was 40 years ago, so.... Yeah, gone. Anyway, for whatever reason, I keep coming back to crawl into my monitor, into audacity and cakewalk and peck out these super trashy tunes so that I can mess around with them. How is the midi file created? I'm glad you asked. I have software that will let me peck out little tunes that then save as a midi, but the controller is just my laptop keyboard. Also, hello. Nice place you have here. Everyone is impeccably dressed and gorgeous.

terriblemelodiesrme.midi

[User 905133]

Do you have a goal (or a set of interrelated goals)? Is it as simple as you state, to peck out tunes on your laptop's keyboard and mess around with them? If so, you already seem to know how to do that.  In any case, you might do well to look in the tutorials thread.  There are a number of tutorials in different styles on both generalized tasks and specific, targeted  tasks. Some of those might either assist with your goal as stated or help you decide more specifically what you want to do.

As for figuring out how to use a VSTi harp plug-in, I know I've seen some tutorials that show how to insert and use soft synths.  Do you have a specific plug-in you want to use?  If so, perhaps someone with that manufacturer's plug-in can help.

I listened to your file using Cakewalk TTS-1, a basic multi-timbral soft synth that comes with Cakewalk.  I changed the patch to Harp using the track control widgets, but it sounded like drumming like on the low strings on a piano.  So on the menu bar I went to Process > Transpose and pitched it up 3 octaves (+36 half steps). At least the sounds were more harp-like, but I couldn't tell if there was a recognizable tune you were aiming for.

If you were hitting notes on your laptop to try to simulate chords on a guitar, you might want to look into a basic strumming program.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by User 905133

[Josh Sommer]

Hi thank you so much @User 905133. Yeah, right now I am just trying to get that MIDI file loaded into cakewalk and then use this VSTi: Etherealwinds Harp II to actually be the effect on the note, once I have at least that, I can start messing around with the octaves and so forth. But I need to read some tutorials I guess (because the software isn't very intuitive) just to figure out how to change the instruments on one midi file. I feel like I am chasing my tail here, because I have actually wathed Youtube and read several tutorials... They just aren't working so I am wondering what step I keep missing since you too were able to assign an instrument to it...

[User 905133]

Thanks for the clarification.  I see that Etherealwinds Harp II is for Kontakt. I have seen listings for tutorials showing how to use Kontakt within Cakewalk. Maybe some of those videos will help if you haven't seen them already.  Also, I recall reading recently that the latest version of Cakewalk 2021.06 has some improvements that are designed to help people who use Kontakt (as well as other users).  (I don't use Kontakt.)

[Gswitz]

Insert the soft synth.

Output your midi track to that soft synth.

[Kenny Jonsson]

Hi Josh!

I used Cakewalk Pro Audio 7 some decades ago, so I too consider myself a Cakewalk noob. But I have made some progress while using it the past month (I've watched hours of YouTube since the documentation seems to be written for those who already know how Cakewalk works) and getting the midi -> synth -> audio is one.

So, did it work out for you? I'd be happy to help if it didn't.

[Starship Krupa]

1. Right click on the little icon in your MIDI track's header.
2. Select Replace Synth. From the list, choose Kontakt.
3. Left click on the same icon to open the Kontakt interface.
4. Load your harp from the list of instruments on the left.
5. Play.

[John Vere]

Here’s a good start.  I have lots of Midi tutorials.