How to convert music *.mid files to *.wav files

[PowerEngineer]

I need to compose some short (<5 second) sound files to use as alarm tones for a computer monitoring system. It'd like to be able to use one of the many music composition software packages that save their results as MIDI files, and then convert it to a Sun *.AU file.

I think I've found a program that can convert many file types, including WAV files (but not MIDIs), into AU files.

And I've found many programs that will convert WAV files into MIDI files, but it seems that going from MIDI to WAV is not easy (or at least not popular). I did find one, but it appeared to essentiallt rerecord the MIDI file through the sound card (rather than doing a file conversion).

Anything you can tell me that will help me understand these files better will be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[SteelyKen]

The reason you cannot directly convert midi to wav files is because midi files are not sound files. They are instructions, computer "sheet music" in a sense, that are read and then played through a midi player; which most basic media players have. I am not a computer audio expert, but I believe that the only way to do what you want is to record the sound from the midi file into a wav file. N-track demo may let you do this without registering the program, but if not it is very inexpensive. There are other alternatives, but this is one that pops to mind.

 

[xgsound]

Wingroove is a shareware Midi player with a built in software synth (makes sound from the "score")
It does use this synth to convert midi to .wav for your use without playing it. You may have to register ($ 20.00) to save the file. The demo will explain details and allow playback of the Midi files to see if you are satisfied with the quality before registering. The url is http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hiroki/english/wgdl.html if you care to try it. I think the sound quality better than every consumer sound card, and is only beaten by the Yamaha and Roland daughter cards.

sounder