Midi Composer- Now You Have An Orchestra And More In Your Computer

Wow, You Can Actually Control 175 Instruments, Really!

Drew's Learn & Enjoy MIDI Tutorial
Your 175 Hidden Instrument Orchestra
The MIDI Composer Is An Added Option Of The Advanced Editor Version Only.

Click To See A List Of All 175 Instruments You Can Play

Did you know that you have a 175 instrument orchestra hidden right in your computer? It's true. You do.

Did you know you could play the trumpet, French horn, oboe, cello and more? Well you can. Would you be surprised to learn that some of the tracks in the music you hear on commercial CDs you buy in the store are actually generated by the same orchestra that's locked in your computer?

All 175 instruments are built right into the sound card in your computer. But most people just

You're going to have hours of fun creating your MIDI Masterpieces and years of enjoyment listening to the creations you've made.

don't know. Most people think you need to buy an expensive MIDI Keyboard to unlock the sounds. But with DAK's all new MIDI composer, all you need is my program and your mouse. If you've never tried playing with MIDI before, this is the program for you.

And even though you may have never known they were there, we really are going to unlock all 175 instruments with my new, easy to use, MIDI Composer. Now you can have the power that professional recording studios have to mix MIDI tracks right into live solo, duet and full orchestral performances. If you sing, now you can add a piano, string bass and more to accompany you

Here's A 4 second Example Of What You can do.

Now you can add a trumpet fanfare to a song you've just composed. You can add a cymbal crash. You can add a string ensemble and so much more.

Want a piano to accompany you? Want to add a beat? A Tambourine? A cowbell? How about an accordion or harmonica? Now it's easy and fast.

So What Is MIDI Anyway?
MIDI is short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It's a music industry standard protocol that lets MIDI instruments, sequencers and sequencer software (that's what the DAK MIDI composer is) play and record music composed of up to 175 instrument sounds.

You'd be amazed how much of the music you hear every day is written on and played by MIDI. What you hear on commercial CDs and live performances can be 100% MIDI or part live instruments and part MIDI.

You really do have a whole orchestra of sounds INDIVIDUALLY at your command. And just about every computer made can both create and play MIDI. You'll have hours of fun creating your MIDI masterpieces and years of enjoyment listening to the creations you've made.

MIDI is super easy to create. It's simple. It's intuitive. Think of it like a player piano roll that rather than playing just one instrument can reproduce the sounds of 175 orchestral instruments.

What I really like is that you have such easy and total control over each and every instrument you choose. You see each instrument separately. You control each separately so you're really not locked out of your music any more. Each instrument stays separate in the composer so you can adjust your creations instantly and easily.

It just takes a mouse click to actually change the instrument that's playing, the tempo of the music, the key of the music and so much more.

Oh, and one thing people like is that MIDI files are tiny. They are actually text files so an hour of MIDI music takes almost no room at all.

So, What Will You Do With MIDI?
Well, first, you're just going to have a blast playing with the easy to use interface. Punch out that song you have in your head. Change instruments. Change key. It's all just a click away. You'll be amazed when you hear a simple tune with harmony and so much more.

It's so easy and fast. And most of all it's fun.

But, most of all it's a serious musical composer that you can use in the studio, even if the studio is in your family room or bedroom. Now you can do what the pros do, easy and fast.

Do you have any sheet music? Just enter it in the composer and play it and hear it and enjoy it. You don't need a keyboard. It's all done with just your mouse and DAK's new MIDI composer.

You Star when you perform (and record). Be a duet, a trio or a whole choir. You can add and remove individual instruments at any time. So start out with a guitar and add a bass. Add some percussion. Change it fast and easy. Compose or play a concerto. You'll be amazed what you can do with this simple unlocked orchestra.

You can arrange your music easily and effortlessly. It's just a mouse click to change the tempo, transpose the key and do anything to the music you create.

But it's fast. There's nothing you need to do to get started. Just choose and instrument and click the interface to hear your notes.

OK, let's make some music.

But First, Here's A List Of Your Unlocked Instruments. You Can Play Every Single Instrument In This List.
0 Piano Acoustic Grand 1 Bright Acoustic 2 Electric Grand 3 Honky-Tonk Piano 4 Electric Piano 1 5 Electric Piano 2 6 Harpsichord 7 Clav 8 Chromatic Celesta 9 Percussion Glockenspiel 10 Music Box 11 Vibraphone 12 Marimba 13 Xylophone 14 Tubular Bells 15 Dulcimer 16 Drawbar Organ 17 Percussive Organ 18 Rock Organ 19 Church Organ 20 Reed Organ 21 Accordian 22 Harmonica 23 Tango Accordian 24 Guitar Nylon String Guitar 25 Steel String Guitar 26 Electric Jazz Guitar 27 Electric Clean Guitar 28 Electric Muted Guitar 29 Overdriven Guitar 30 Distortion Guitar 31 Guitar Harmonics 32 Bass Acoustic Bass 33 Electric Bass (finger) 34 Electric Bass (pick) 35 Fretless Bass 36 Slap Bass 1 37 Slap Bass 2 38 Synth Bass 1 39 Synth Bass 2 40 Solo Violin 41 Strings Viola 42 Cello 43 Contrabass 44 Tremolo Strings 45 Pizzicato Strings 46 Orchestral Strings 47 Timpani 48 Ensemble String Ensemble 1 49 String Ensemble 2 50 Synth Strings 1 51 Synth Strings 2 52 Choir Aahs 53 Voice Oohs 54 Synth Voice 55 Orchestra Hit 56 Brass Trumpet 57 Trombone 58 Tuba 59 Muted Trumpet	60 French Horn 61 Brass Section 62 Synth Brass 1 63 Synth Brass 2 64 Reed Soprano Sax 65 Alto Sax 66 Tenor Sax 67 Baritone Sax 68 Oboe 69 English Horn 70 Bassoon 71 Clarinet 72 Pipe Piccolo 73 Flute 74 Recorder 75 Pan Flute 76 Blown Bottle 77 Shakuhachi 78 Whistle 79 Ocarina 80 Synth Lead 1 (square) 81 Lead Lead 2 (sawtooth) 82 Lead 3 (calliope) 83 Lead 4 (chiff) 84 Lead 5 (charang) 85 Lead 6 (voice) 86 Lead 7 (fifths) 87 Lead 8 (bass+lead) 88 Synth Pad 1 (new age) 89 Pad Pad 2 (warm) 90 Pad 3 (polysynth) 91 Pad 4 (choir) 92 Pad 5 (bowed) 93 Pad 6 (metallic) 94 Pad 7 (halo) 95 Pad 8 (sweep) 96 Synth FX 1 (rain) 97 Effects FX 2 (soundtrack) 98 FX 3 (crystal) 99 FX 4 (atmosphere) 100 FX 5 (brightness) 101 FX 6 (goblins) 102 FX 7 (echoes) 103 FX 8 (sci-fi) 104 Ethnic Sitar 105 Banjo 106 Shamisen 107 Koto 108 Kalimba 109 Bagpipe 110 Fiddle 111 Shanai 112 Percussive Tinkle Bell 113 Agogo 114 Steel Drums 115 Woodblock 116 Taiko Drum 117 Melodic Tom 118 Synth Drum 119 Reverse Cymbal	120 Sound Guitar Fret Noise 121 Effects Breath Noise 122 Seashore 123 Bird Tweet 124 Telephone Ring 125 Helicopter 126 Applause 127 Gunshot 128 Acoustic Bass Drum 129 Bass Drum 1 130 Side Stick 131 Acoustic Snare 132 Hand Clap 133 Electric Snare 134 Low Floor Tom 135 Closed Hi-Hat 136 High Floor Tom 137 Pedal Hi-Hat 138 Low Tom 139 Open Hi-Hat 140 Low-Mid Tom 141 Hi-Mid Tom 142 Crash Cymbal 1 143 High Tom 144 Ride Cymbal 1 145 Chinese Cymbal 146 Ride Bell 147 Tambourine 148 Splash Cymbal 149 Cowbell 150 Crash Cymbal 2 151 Vibraslap 152 Ride Cymbal 2 153 Hi Bongo 154 Low Bongo 155 Mute Hi Conga 156 Open Hi Conga 157 Low Conga 158 High Timbale 159 Low Timbale 160 High Agogo 161 Low Agogo 162 Cabasa 163 Maracas 164 Short Whistle 165 Long Whistle 166 Short Guiro 167 Long Guiro 168 Claves 169 Hi Wood Block 170 Low Wood Block 171 Mute Cuica 172 Open Cuica 173 Mute Triangle 174 Open Triangle

Your MIDI Composer Is In The Tools Menu.

Arrow 1.) To open the MIDI Composer, just click the Tools Menu.

Arrow 2.) Then Click MIDI Tools

You Get 4 MIDI Programs. The Composer, A Player, A Data Reader & A Recorder/Converter.
Click On Each To Go To Its Tutorial Section

Arrow 1.) MIDI Composer - This is the big deal. This is where you'll compose your MIDI Masterpieces. You'll also save them and export your MIDI Files.

Arrow 2.) MIDI Converter - This is where you can convert your MIDI files to WAV or MP3 files that you can mix into your other music or use on their own. You can of course record them to CDs or MP3s or do anything you can do with any WAV or MP3 file or track.

Arrow 3.) MIDI Data Reader - OK this lets you look at the detail of a MIDI File. Normally you won't use this. If you're a MIDI Pro you might want to look at this detail. But frankly, everything you need to see is in the MIDI Composer. I just included this for the super techies.

Arrow 4.) MIDI Player - You can play your MIDI Creations with this cute little player. You can also play them in Windows Media Player and many other players. But I like this one and you can set up a playlist and more.

First Look. What Do The Buttons And Sliders Do?

OK, Don't spend too much time here. In the next screen I show you how easy it is to get started with a simple animation. But it's not a bad idea to take a quick look at what everything is here. I've put names to the buttons and areas you'll use.

Arrow 1.) Open this box to choose any of the 175 instruments.

Arrow 2.) This is where you choose what you want to do. Below I detail it, but here you'll choose to write music, set a start point, select, copy, paste cut and add a space in the music.

Arrow 3.) You'll see 8 numbered buttons. Each button gives you a separate MIDI track where you can enter the notes for an instrument. You can use 2 tracks for the same instrument if you like for example if you want to play a chord. But for easy understanding, consider each track a separate instrument that will sync perfectly with all the others.

Arrow 4.) Since you can have 8 tracks and some will be playing the same notes, these 8 buttons let you hide tracks so you won't have to look at them when you are writing music in another track. So say you are using track 4. You can hide any or all the other tracks so you won't see them.

Tip. The program automatically lightens the tracks you aren't using so they won't bother you. But the hide makes them completely disappear.

Arrow 5.) Just look to this column to choose which note you want to play.

Arrow 6.) Here I'm showing you want a note looks like. You click or click and drag to make the music that will play back.

Arrow 7.) Here's another note being played. Note that the red is bright and this one is very light. That's because Button ONE which is red is selected. It doesn't matter which instrument you assign to a button, it's the button color that you'll see in the composer.

Arrow 8.) As you play your music, this green cursor will move from left to right showing you exactly what's playing.

Arrow 9.) You can set the tempo here. Setting tempo affects the speed or beat of the music. It has no effect on the key of the music.

Arrow 10.) You can effortlessly transpose the key. Just click the up or down buttons to move through all the possible keys. You can change the key any time you like so you can sing along or play along or set the key any way you like.

Here's How Easy It Is. Just Watch This Animation

So, just watch my animation. This is all you really need to do to create your professional MIDI Masterpieces. In short, you choose an instrument (then more instruments later) put the notes where you want them. And enjoy.

Watch the Animation. This is really all you'll need to learn to use the Composer.

Arrow 1.) Choose the pencil to write your music.

Arrow 2.) Choose any of the 175 Instruments

Arrow 3.) Click to make/play a note

Arrow 4.) Click to make /play another note

Arrow 5.) Click to make/play another note

Arrow 6.) Click to make/play another note.

Arrow 7.) Want a longer note? Click and drag to make a sustained note as long as you like.

Arrow 8.) Click a 2nd track button to start recording/making another instrument.

Arrow 9.) Choose which instrument you'd like to play.

Arrow 10.) Click & Drag to make/play the note of the 2nd Instrument.

Arrow 11.) Click & Drag to make/play another note of the 2nd Instrument.

Arrow 12.) Click Play to Play your masterpiece

Arrow 13.) Here I'm showing you the cursor as it plays your music.

Now you really know all you need to know so you can compose and play your music. Below I'll go into more detail, but most of us can probably learn what we need from this animation.

Changing Instruments - See It Here

I just wanted you to see how easy it is to both see and change the instruments. What you're looking at is my demo for you of When The Saints Go Marching In. Now let's see the instruments.

Note: As I click each track choosing button, you'll see its corresponding instrument will become the bright dominant notes in the work area.

Arrow 1.) Click Button 1, See the Trumpet in the pull down instrument box and see the notes the Trumpet is playing as the brightest notes in the work area.

Arrow 2.) Click Button 2, See the Trombone in the pull down instrument box and see the notes the Trombone is playing as the brightest notes in the work area.

Arrow 3.) Click Button 3, See the Tambourine in the pull down instrument box and see the notes the Tambourine is playing as the brightest notes in the work area.

Arrow 4.) Click Button 4, See the Tuba in the pull down instrument box and see the notes the tuba is playing as the brightest notes in the work area.

Now you really can see how easy it is to choose and see the instruments and see or even change the notes you are creating.

The Detail - Writing Notes.

OK, now let's look at one thing at a time. To write your notes, all you do is click the Pencil, choose your instrument from the pull down menu, finally click and drag the notes you want. That's all there is to it.

Arrow 1.) Click the Pencil Button to put the Composer into Write Notes Mode.

Arrow 2.) Open the pull down menu and choose one of the 175 instruments

Arrow 3.) Click on the line for the note you want. Click for a short note, click and drag for sustained notes.

That's really all there is to writing music.

The Detail - Setting Your Start Point. A Cool Extra.

So, why do you need a start point? Well, you really don't. But it sure it nice to have. When you first start writing your music, the start point by default will be at the far left, the beginning. It's the Red Bar you see there now. That's logical.

But there's more. :) Let's say you've written some notes and you are 20 bars in. Why go all the way to the beginning each time you want to hear the last few notes you've written. Ah, that's it. You just set the start point where you are currently working and each time you

Arrow 1.) Click the Check Mark Button to go into Start Point Mode.

Arrow 2.) This is your default Start Point which is the beginning of the file.

Arrow 3.) Click anywhere in the file to set a new start point. Then remember to click the pencil button to start writing again.

Now you'll start at the red start point whenever you click play. Change this any time. Use it to play just the area you're working on.

The Detail - Select An Area

You want to select an area if you want to change the instrument that you originally used or if you want to copy or cut an area. Here's how.

Arrow 1.) Click the Selection Button to go into Selection Mode.

Arrow 2.) Left click where you want your selection to begin.

Arrow 3.) Hold down your mouse button and drag as much as you want to select.

Arrow 4.) Chose a new instrument and it will become the instrument that plays. Or click the copy button to copy the selected area which you can then paste anywhere you like.

Arrow 5.) Need to select more? A bigger area? Just Left Click anywhere beyond the current selection.

Arrow 6.) When you release your mouse button, the selection will expand to cover the new area.

Arrow 7.) Need a smaller selection? A smaller area? Click within the selected area where you want your selection to end.

Arrow 8.) When you release your mouse button, the selection will retract to just the smaller area you wanted selected.

The Detail - More About A Selected Area

Just like using the editor, if you want to do something to some notes, all you do is select the area you want. Then you can copy, paste cut and more.

Arrow 1.) Copy the notes in a selected area.

Arrow 2.) Cut the notes in the selected area. This removes them permanently.

Arrow 3.) Paste Overwrite what you've copied. When you click copy, what you have selected will be copied and the selection will disappear. You'll find you are in the Set Start Point Mode. Click where you want to paste the selection and the red start position bar will move to that point and then click Paste Overwrite. This will replace whatever is in the location you've chosen with the notes you've copied. See 4 below if you want to insert what you paste and not overwrite what's already there. Of course if you're pasting at the end of the file, then it doesn't matter which you use.

Arrow 4.) Paste Insert what you've copied. When you click copy, what you have selected will be copied and the selection will disappear. You'll find you are in the Set Start Point mode. Click where you want to paste the selection and the red start position bar will move to that point and then click Paste Insert. This will Insert whatever you've copied at the start point, pushing any notes to the right that are after the start point. See 3 if you want to overwrite what you paste.

The Detail - Add A Space Or Rest In Your Music.

If you want a space in your music as you write, just leave the area blank. But if you've already written your music, here's how to quickly and easily add spaces.

Arrow 1.) To put in a space, use the start point button to set where you want the space to be.

Arrow 2.) It's always at the beginning of the file when you start.

Arrow 3.) Just Left Click to move it anywhere

Arrow 4.) Click The Add Space Button (as many times as you like)

Arrow 5.) Here's your added space

Arrow 6.) I moved the start point bar so you could see the space.

That's all it takes to add spaces.

The Detail - Hide Instruments You're Not Working On.

Remember that only the instrument you are currently writing notes for is going to be bright. All the other instruments are faded so it's easy for you to see what you're doing. But what if you want to play the same notes with a 2nd instrument. Well, the faded part will still let you do it, but sometimes it's easier to see if you simply hide the instrument you're not working on. Now it's easy.

Arrow 1.) See the Hide Tracks Buttons? Just click any of them to hide instruments you're not working on

Arrow 2.) See how it goes from faded to invisible.

That's all there is to hiding notes from instruments you're not working on.

The Detail - Set Your Tempo Or Beat

The Tempo or Beat slider gives you the power to completely change the speed of your music without changing the pitch or key at all. Just slide the control up or down to change your speed.

The Detail - Transpose To Change Key

Wow, this couldn't be easier. You can change the key/pitch of your entire composition with just these two arrows. Each time you click the arrow, you'll move the pitch up or down. You're never locked into the key you wrote in. This is super powerful. You'll never have to rewrite again to change the music so someone can sing in a different key.

Arrow 1.) Arrow Up moves the key up one note.

Arrow 2.) Arrow Down moves the key down one note.

The Detail - Save Your Creation As A Working File.

OK, usually you Save something to use after you save it. But with MIDI, you don't actually save it, you export it which I cover in the next section below.

The Save Function in the MIDI Composer saves the work file you use to create your MIDI music as a .mia file. So why save? You save so you can reopen the file and work on it again. There's no use for the saved files other than to reopen them in the Composer to work on them again. But for sure save your work. That's what's so great about MIDI, you can keep adding and changing effortlessly.

The Detail - Export To MIDI

When you write MIDI Music, you can export it as a MIDI file. What does that mean? Well exporting is the same as saving. It's just telling the program that you want it saved as a MIDI File.

Well, if you want to use a MIDI file just as it is to play, put in a phone or do anything you like with MIDI, then just use Export and you'll save your MIDI file just like any file on your computer. Give it a name and you're ready to go.

Saving Tip. But always remember to always save your file too. When you save the file, you're saving the working file as an .mia file that you can reopen in the composer so you can make changes or add on to it in the future.

More Fun With 8 Instruments

Hear The Finale

I just wanted you to see how wild you can get. And it just takes a few minutes to do. Here our resident musicologist created a really neat finale for me. He has 8 instruments playing and it sounds awesome. It just takes a little time (not long for him), but an hour or so for me. But the check my review page and you can hear it when you click one of my demo buttons.

Drew's Harmony Trick.

OK, I play the Cello. I'm not much of a composer. But I love to do it and I get a tune in my head that I just have to get out. So, here's my quick trick for instant harmony.

Just write your notes. Heck it can be Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It doesn't have to be fancy. Anyway, all you do is copy the notes 1 or 2 octaves below and viola, instant harmony. Try it out. You'll be amazed at how rich your music can sound. Turn a tune into an orchestral chord.

That's it, that's the whole trick. It's just that simple. But it sure doesn't sound simple. Just wait till you hear the difference.

Arrow 1.) Just click in your notes.

Arrow 2.) Copy the notes one or two octaves lower and change your instrument. The 2C arrows are just to show you how to find the one octave lower note. It's not hard, just find the same letter with a lower number. Easy enough?

Arrow3.) Do the same thing again. Change your instrument and go down another octave. Play it back. It will blow you away.

Another Drew Trick. Hearing All Your Instruments.

OK this isn't a big deal, but the instruments really do sound good and you'll never know if you don't hear them. If you click in the Instruments box, you'll find that if you use your up/down arrow keys you can hear each instrument instantly as you go.

No need to open and choose. Just keep clicking your arrow key to listen to each instrument. Now, it plays them all in the same key, so you won't get the full impact of a tuba for example, but you will sure get a good idea of what each instrument will sound like on your computer and of course later when you record it and mix it into other MIDI tracks or into other music that you have.

It's A MIDI Player

It's just like an MP3 player. Just load your MIDI files and play. Nothing fancy. Nothing hard. Just load and play. You can also play MIDI files in Windows Media Player, but I like ours better.

MIDI Player Load Files

Arrow 1.) Click the Down Arrow Button to add files, remove files or add a whole folder of MIDI files at once.
Arrow 2.) You can also load a playlist, clear a playlist or save a playlist of loaded MIDI Files.

It's fast, easy and basic.

A MIDI Data Reader Too.

MIDI Data Reader - OK this lets you look at the detail of a MIDI File. Normally you won't use this. If you're a MIDI Pro you might want to look at this detail. But frankly, everything you need to see is in the MIDI Composer. I just included this for the super techies.

To load the MIDI info, just Click File/Load MIDI. You can also Play a MIDI file you have loaded.

MIDI Data If You Like.

Here's the actual MIDI data. I'm not going to detail it here because for most of us it's not needed. But if you know about MIDI and want to experiment, you can read the details here.

Recording Your MIDI File To Wav Or MP3 For Making Or Mixing Into Your Music.

Of course if you just want a MIDI file, you simple export from the Composer. But if you want to mix the MIDI compositions you make into your other music or to sing along with, then you want to convert them digitally into Wav or MP3 files. Here's how you do it.

Arrow 1.) On your sound card you want to choose Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix or What U Hear. For XP do it here. For Vista and Win 7, do it here and also go to the Windows Mixer and select your source there as well.

Arrow 2.) Set your recording volume so that you see plenty of movement in the graphic meter to the bottom right. You can choose any of the 4 meter graphics you like.

Important Recording Volume Tip. When you are recording from Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix or What U Hear, not only does the input volume you set here matter, but you also need to turn up the main output volume of your computer. You can turn down the volume on your speakers if you wish, but you must turn up the Play Volume for stereo mix to work

Arrow 3.) Choose to Record in WAV or MP3

Arrow 4.) Give your recording a name.

Arrow 5.) You want to choose where you want your file to be saved. You click this button and navigate to any folder on your computer to choose where to save the file.

Arrow 6.) Click the . . . Button to the right to navigate to and choose the MIDI file you want to convert. After you click the . . . Button, you'll be using a standard Windows browser to navigate to the MIDI file you want to convert.

Arrow 7.) You're ready. Just Click Record. Tip. Start recording then start the MIDI playing. You can edit out the blank at the beginning of your recording after you're finished.

Arrow 8.) Click Stop when your MIDI file is finished playing.

Now you know how to compose, play and record MIDI tracks. It's super easy. I've never found a MIDI composer this easy to use. It's a ton of fun. And best of all, you can mix your tracks into or sing along with the music you create. Enjoy. . .Drew

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