Anvil Studio Tutorial
Uploaded by
ScribdTranslationsAnvil Studio Tutorial
Uploaded by
ScribdTranslationsHOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO MIDI FILES WITH ANVIL STUDIO EDITOR.
By: arcamusical.com
Before we begin, let's clarify a couple of points:
Most motherboards or sound cards of modern computers
they have the ability to read MIDI files and play them just by opening them. If not for the
in your computer, it would be easy to download a small free application that you
allow it to be done.
However, if you want to make modifications to a MIDI file, such as for example
change the execution speed or transpose to another key, it is necessary to lower and
install a MIDI editing program like Anvil Studio, for example.
While it is true that MIDI files take up much less space than audio files
and allow many modifications that are not possible in the latter, the quality of
the sound of a MIDI file depends exclusively on the device that reads it, that is,
it depends on the sound synthesis capability of the card
computer the musical instrument that reads the file. When the sound given by the
the computer is not good enough, however there are software resources
free for the sound synthesis to be carried out by the software instead.
from the computer card.
ANVIL STUDIO SOFTWARE: A MIDI EDITOR.
Anvil Studio software is a free software that allows you to record, compose, and edit.
MIDI files. It has many good qualities, including the ability to compose.
music placing notes on the staff with the mouse or entering the notes from a
virtual keyboard. We invite you to explore and discover for yourself the power of this program.
We are going to limit ourselves to giving you the initial push: we will explain how to carry out three
basic operations that are:
1. Mute the intervention of an instrument (only temporarily, not
permanently). For example, you could mute the track that contains the melody,
so you can play it on your favorite instrument. You could also mute the
intervention of an instrument that you do not like.
2. Transport the piece to another key, to adapt it to the range of your voice or that of your
instrument, without altering the speed of execution (the tempo).
3. Change the tempo without altering its tone.
4. Change both things simultaneously, the speed and the pitch.
Clearly, the first thing to do is to download the program and install it on your
computer. If you have already done it and opened them, you will see the following screen:
To vary the tempo
Console
Zone of
tracks
Main screen of Anvil Studio
In the 'File' menu of the menu bar, select the 'Open' option to open the song or piece.
What do you want to modify?
How to change the tempo.
Click the mouse on the metronome button indicated by the arrow in the previous figure.
As shown in this figure, the tempo is set at 40 beats per minute.
Clicking will open the following dialog box:
The new value is entered in the field shown in blank. If the second one is selected.
button (radio button), next to the text 'Insert a tempo change in all tracks at the current'
location”, the effect obtained is the application of the change of time from the place of the
piece where the cursor is located.
Returning to the first figure (main screen of Anvil Studio), the upper arrow of the
left points in the direction of the console, which does not require too much explanation. It's about
from a set of buttons with the typical icons found on old players-recorders
of cassettes or the current DVD players. Its meaning is the usual: go to the beginning, stop,
play and record. Note that to record it would be necessary to feed the
computer with a MIDI signal coming from some instrument that is capable of sending it
MIDI messages. In this brief tutorial, we will not refer to this.
How to mute the track containing the melody (or any other track).
A musical piece encoded in MIDI is usually made up of several tracks. A track is a
space where something can be recorded. It is recommended to use different tracks for
different instruments. On the main screen of Anvil Studio, the lower left arrow
points to the section of the tracks. The pair of staves that are shown
In the figure correspond to the strings track (Strings), as it is the one that is selected with
the red 'checkmark' symbol. Each hint contains an instrument. The field that says 'on'
it tells us that the corresponding track is active. When a track is active, its
content will be heard when playing the piece. If you click on the word 'on', it will appear the
the word 'mute' (to mute or silence), which means that when you touch the piece, that track does not
It will sound. If you click again on the word 'mute' the word 'solo' will appear.
it will be the only track that can be heard.
How to transport a piece to another key.
In the menu bar (top of the Anvil Studio screen), select the 'Track' option.
This opens a dropdown menu. Select the option 'Transpose'. A second
the window asks us if we want to transpose only one track or all the tracks of the piece.
We would normally want to transport the whole piece. The dialog box will then open.
next:
which asks to enter the number of semitones we want to transpose the piece. The
Positive numbers indicate that it is being transported upwards and negative numbers downwards. In the
the figure shows the default value 0, which means that no transport applies. If by
For example, we want to raise the piece by two tones (the distance between C and E, for instance).
We will introduce a 4 because there are 4 semitones of distance between these two notes:
do do# --> re re# --> mi (each arrow indicates an increase of a semitone. You can
experiment without fear, because if you don't like the result, it is always possible to undo the change
transporting in the opposite direction. However, it is advisable to always make a
copy of the part and do the experiments with the copy. In this way, if something goes wrong, always
we can recover the original piece.
