need midi software for editing and playback

[kmcdougall]

Hello everyone! I am new here, looks like a really cool place.

So currently we are using Cakewalk to do all our midi playback and editing but our music director is not pleased with the software. I do not work with MIDI at all but I do all the computer stuff for the church so I said I would do some research and see what all was out there for different programs. So I guess my questions are ...

What MIDI programs do you use for playback and editing? Why do you like / dislike what programs you use?

We are a smaller church and do not have many people who play instruments so we use the MIDI as background music for lots of our worship songs. Our music director playes the guitar on others.

We are looking for software for a Windows based PC but are not totally against looking into buying a Mac.

Thanks for all your help.

KM

[voyager529]

hey there, welcome to CMN!! I was gonna suggest cakewalk, but if you guys aren't happy with it, you may want to look into Sony ACID (largely for looping but also does MIDI), cubase, or ableton.

Joey

[Bryan Surrett]

What does your music director not like about Cakewalk? We have used it to create soundtracks for our Christmas drama presentations and found it to be fairly straightforward--so novices could figure it out. What version of Cakewalk have you tried? Obviously the home versions are more limited than the pro versions. We only have the home version of Sonar, but it works for us.

[pianomandan]

To have complete control over MIDI's you need to use a notation program, one that shows the actual music notes on the screen... and lets you change them as needed.

There is a free version of this: http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/

[tboyette]

Midi programs are great, but for small churches go with interactive worship live (do a google search, i'm too new to enter URL's). As far as midi programs, what exactly are you doing at your church with midi? If I could get some more info I think I could help you guys choose the right product. I use a TON of computers/midi onstage and have tried just about everything.

thanks,
Travis

[shayward]

I've used Cakewalk a lot over the years and like it.

For notators, Sibelius seems quite good if you don't need to control a bunch of midi parameters. If your music director just wants to do score and basic play back.

Or is he looking for something more sophistocated than Cakewalk?

[simeon]

Hello,
I use Cakewalk SONAR 8 to produce our tracks in our midi library.

I have discovered Midi Maestro which is a performance player that you can use to play back specific parts of a midi file. I am working on adapting our selections to using it.
You can find out more by going to Midi Maestro dot com.
(I do not work for the company just have been working with the product)

His Best,
Simeon Amburgey
***PS.89:15***