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Friday 22 July 2011
Friday 8 July 2011
A brief description of how to make your own karaoke video
By utilising your previously downloaded or created instrumental audio file in a standard (freely available download of course) video creator or editor it is possible to make your own simple karaoke version of the tune.
To make karaoke however you should be sure to only use an instrumental version of the song. To get your instrumental song file you can either use one you already have on your hard-drive or an audio CD, download one from the internet, or use a midi file.
A good and safe way to get a good quality audio mp3 or wav file to use I suggest you take the audio from an online music video; download the selected music video using SpeedBit Video Downloader and then convert or extract the audio section of the video using a suitable converter such as Any Video Converter or Freez flv to mp3 converter, all available as totally free downloads – exactly what you expect from ‘Media Bandit’, free stuff! My 1st media ebook explains exactly how to do this.
Alternatively use a free midi file or one you’ve created yourself using perhaps the method explained briefly in a couple of earlier blog posts (see here and here).
To get free midi files my favourite method is to use VanBasco which gives you access to thousands of totally free midi downloads – they also have a very user-friendly kar player you can grab for free. Once at their site just type the name of the tune you want into the search bar and you will be confronted with a list of available versions of your desired tune, click on the one you want and once directed to the source just right click and select ‘save target as’ to download the midi song to your hard-drive, it only takes a second or so.
Alternatively search for the title of your desired midi tune followed by the suffix mid or midi using a good search engine. Once found right click and ‘save target as’ as mentioned before, or click the download button in some cases.
If your instrumental audio is not already in wav or mp3 format but is in midi format you will in most cases need to convert it to use it with a video creator or editor. To do this I recommend using ‘Switch Audio File converter’, go to http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html and click on ‘Download the free version’. This will easily convert your midi file to an mp3, wav or almost any format you like.
A good free video editor or creator can easily be found on all recent ‘Windows’ platforms – I think it’s available with ‘Windows XP’ and later versions and is simply called ‘Windows Movie Maker’.
If however you would rather try a different editor or creator or you don’t have ‘Windows Movie Maker’ on your PC then I suggest VideoPad Video Editor from ‘NCH software’, this is actually a free trial version that I have found to be the easiest to use in my opinion and I highly recommend it. The only drawback with this however is that after the trial period it locks you out if you don’t pay for the full version, but you can get around this but I don’t think it is wise to explain how here; please email me at prenterprises2010@gmail.com if you would like to know.
Once you have your video creator or editor and your instrumental audi file you can add background images or video clips, add sequenced lyrics so as the performer knows what to sing, then save it all as a video file on your PC. You can then convert it if you wish to an alternative format for use in your playback equipment, Any Video Converter as mentioned earlier will do this for you.
The basic step-by-step process involves:
Finding or creating your own background images or video clips
Inserting your clips or images into the video creator or editor in the right sequence
Removing or muting any audio in the video clips and then adding your own audio file
Changing the duration of the images or clips to appear in sequence at the right time with the music
Adding the lyrics into the visual part of your video; if you don’t know the lyrics then do a lyric search in Google
Previewing and saving your completed masterpiece karaoke video for later use
Of course you could also record your own singing voice into it if you think you are talented enough. One distinct advantage of a decent free video editor/creator is that if your singing is a bit rough you can always mute or remove it from the finished video.
To make karaoke however you should be sure to only use an instrumental version of the song. To get your instrumental song file you can either use one you already have on your hard-drive or an audio CD, download one from the internet, or use a midi file.
A good and safe way to get a good quality audio mp3 or wav file to use I suggest you take the audio from an online music video; download the selected music video using SpeedBit Video Downloader and then convert or extract the audio section of the video using a suitable converter such as Any Video Converter or Freez flv to mp3 converter, all available as totally free downloads – exactly what you expect from ‘Media Bandit’, free stuff! My 1st media ebook explains exactly how to do this.
Alternatively use a free midi file or one you’ve created yourself using perhaps the method explained briefly in a couple of earlier blog posts (see here and here).
To get free midi files my favourite method is to use VanBasco which gives you access to thousands of totally free midi downloads – they also have a very user-friendly kar player you can grab for free. Once at their site just type the name of the tune you want into the search bar and you will be confronted with a list of available versions of your desired tune, click on the one you want and once directed to the source just right click and select ‘save target as’ to download the midi song to your hard-drive, it only takes a second or so.
Alternatively search for the title of your desired midi tune followed by the suffix mid or midi using a good search engine. Once found right click and ‘save target as’ as mentioned before, or click the download button in some cases.
If your instrumental audio is not already in wav or mp3 format but is in midi format you will in most cases need to convert it to use it with a video creator or editor. To do this I recommend using ‘Switch Audio File converter’, go to http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html and click on ‘Download the free version’. This will easily convert your midi file to an mp3, wav or almost any format you like.
A good free video editor or creator can easily be found on all recent ‘Windows’ platforms – I think it’s available with ‘Windows XP’ and later versions and is simply called ‘Windows Movie Maker’.
 |
| VideoPad video editor |
Once you have your video creator or editor and your instrumental audi file you can add background images or video clips, add sequenced lyrics so as the performer knows what to sing, then save it all as a video file on your PC. You can then convert it if you wish to an alternative format for use in your playback equipment, Any Video Converter as mentioned earlier will do this for you.
The basic step-by-step process involves:
Inserting your clips or images into the video creator or editor in the right sequence
Removing or muting any audio in the video clips and then adding your own audio file
Changing the duration of the images or clips to appear in sequence at the right time with the music
Adding the lyrics into the visual part of your video; if you don’t know the lyrics then do a lyric search in Google
Previewing and saving your completed masterpiece karaoke video for later use
Of course you could also record your own singing voice into it if you think you are talented enough. One distinct advantage of a decent free video editor/creator is that if your singing is a bit rough you can always mute or remove it from the finished video.
Sunday 3 July 2011
Using free sheet music to create your own midi music
Sheet music for many popular and classic tunes can be downloaded free from the internet. You can then just copy the note durations and positions into a midi notation editor (also free) and you have your great sounding home-made version of the tune. It's not difficult, time-consuming yes, but quite easy if you pay a little attention to detail.
Even if you cannot get hold of any sheet music online many public libraries lend sheet music books and music scores using your normal membership (totally free of course). You can then scan into your PC and save a copy or just use the music score and copy it into a midi notation editor (I suggest the free 'NoteworthyComposer')
Another alternative is to look online for the tune you would like as a midi file and download it. If you then open the downloaded file in your midi notation editor it will show you its own version of the sheet music to play with at your leisure.
Please note however that you should save the original version of the midi file on your hard-drive so that if you mess it up when editing you can still go back to the original version and start again.
Once you are happy with your unique version of the tune or your own created tune you can save it to use as you like. Oh and by the way 'Windows Media Player' will happily play mid or midi files with no alteration, tweeks or codecs.
With the right software (which you can also get as a free download) you can if you want convert your finished midi music file to 'mp3' or 'wav' to make an audio CD or enable it to play on your playback equipment.
There are also a few other great pieces of free software available as downloads that will let you play your completed instrumental midi or other audio file whilst you sing into a microphone (if you think you are talented enough) and record it for playback later -a good way to realise how good or bad your singing really is. Don't worry though, if your singing is bad you can always remove it from the file afterwards. 'KaraFun' is a good free application that will do this.
Don't forget to first save the original midi or other audio file seperately first in case you mess things up!
Look out for my tutorial ebook coming soon that guides you step by step through the whole procedure.
Even if you cannot get hold of any sheet music online many public libraries lend sheet music books and music scores using your normal membership (totally free of course). You can then scan into your PC and save a copy or just use the music score and copy it into a midi notation editor (I suggest the free 'NoteworthyComposer')
Another alternative is to look online for the tune you would like as a midi file and download it. If you then open the downloaded file in your midi notation editor it will show you its own version of the sheet music to play with at your leisure.
Please note however that you should save the original version of the midi file on your hard-drive so that if you mess it up when editing you can still go back to the original version and start again.
Once you are happy with your unique version of the tune or your own created tune you can save it to use as you like. Oh and by the way 'Windows Media Player' will happily play mid or midi files with no alteration, tweeks or codecs.
With the right software (which you can also get as a free download) you can if you want convert your finished midi music file to 'mp3' or 'wav' to make an audio CD or enable it to play on your playback equipment.
 |
| 'KaraFun' in action |
Don't forget to first save the original midi or other audio file seperately first in case you mess things up!
Look out for my tutorial ebook coming soon that guides you step by step through the whole procedure.
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