Turn a MIDI file into an audio file

A MIDI file holds the notes of a piece but no sound. PianoFlex can play those notes on any of its pianos and write the result as an audio file. You can then put it in a video or a music project, or simply listen to it anywhere.

1. Open the MIDI file

Click Open MIDI…, then Browse for MIDI…, and choose the file. It opens ready, and nothing sounds until you press Play.

2. Choose the piano

Pick a preset, or shape the sound with the Piano, Style and Space lists and the sliders. Click Play (or press Space) to listen first. You can change the sound while it plays.

The render uses the sound exactly as you've set it, layers included. In the demo, the keys that are silent while you play are silent in the file too.

3. Choose how loud the file is

The Files: button shows the level and ending, at first "Files: -18 LUFS, fade out…". Click it to change them.

• -18 LUFS (the start) leaves room for loud passages, so the limiter seldom has anything to do. It's a good choice for a file you'll mix or edit later.
• -14 LUFS is the loudness music streaming services play at.
• -16 LUFS is in between.
• peak -1 dB makes the file as loud as it can be without any limiting.
• engine level leaves the level as the piano makes it, quiet and untouched.

For the ending, fade out ends the file 8 seconds after the last note and fades over the last 4. ring out lets the piano ring until it's silent, for two minutes at most.

4. Render

Click Render to audio (or press W). It works in the background. Click it again to stop.

When the file is written, a box says Audio saved and shows where it is:

• Play opens it in your music player.
• Open in File Explorer shows it in its folder.
• Click the file's place, or press Ctrl+C, to copy it.
• Close, or Esc, closes the box.

The yellow line at the bottom says how loud the file came out.

Where the files go

In the recordings folder inside the PianoFlex folder in your Documents. Each file is named after the MIDI file and the preset.

The file is 24-bit stereo FLAC, at your sound device's rate (often 48 kHz). It's lossless: the same sound as a WAV, but smaller. Most music players and music programs open it. A minute of piano takes about 5 to 8 MB.

Tips

• The same piece on several pianos: render once, pick another preset, render again. The preset's name in each file name tells them apart.
• Recording what you play works the same way: click Record and play. You get an audio file and a MIDI file of your notes in the same folder. See Playing, rendering and recording.
• A video instead: Make video… (Shift+W) makes an MP4 of the same piece with falling notes (in the full version). See Song videos.

More: all the Learn guides and the PianoFlex user guide.