Strings MIDI Playback

I was wondering what sorts of techniques or tricks everyone employs when using MIDI playback for a full strings section. I have a very basic sound card, and when I play back my music, the strings always sound terrible and completely unlike a real orchestra. Is there any way around buying more expense software, such as GPO?

What program are you using to generate midis now?

I’ve been using Melody Assistant from Myriad, it’s only a $20 program but it really packs a punch for the buck. I think the *.mid has Finale’s notepad beat, but it will also save your work as an mp3 which really sound good. Plus it recognizes and plays most articulations and give you full control over precisely how they will sound. You can even create your own instruments by recording their timbre in a microphone. You only need to play in a single C-note and it will generate a complete instrument timbre from that. I haven’t used that feature yet though, but it sounds pretty interesting.

On top of the articulations it also comes with a mixer complete with visual graphics of the sound levels of each midi channel (or track). The control over sound level is phenomenal for a $20(USA) program.

I can’t recommend it highly enough for the price. It also has some pretty nice editing tools and feature, including giving you the ability to assign whatever keyboard keys you like to all the tools. I just can’t say enough good things about the program.

The only down sides I can see, is that the print formatting isn’t the greatest, and takes a bit of time to learn how to format, but it can be formatted pretty well once you actually understand all of the formatting features. The other down side is that it saves files using *.mus but they aren’t compatible with Finale’s *.mus. So that can be a bit confusing.

Over all though, you can’t beat it for the price. I originally got it for the editing tools and features, and was very pleased with it’s far superior sound capabilities.

You can try the program for free, but unfortunately you can’t save to midi or mp3 until you buy the registration license.

You can find the program here:

Melody Assistant

They also offer a more advanced version called Harmony Assistant for $70 (USA), I’m not sure what more it will do, but so far I’m completely happy with Melody Assistant for the lesser price.

For 20 bucks you can't go wrong! :(