SoundFont Midi Player is a Midi player plus router and a real time midi synth combo. SoundFont Midi Player is especially useful for Soundblaster (Live, Audigy, X-fi) users who can load sound fonts automatically and in real time, however, Bassmidi output mode enables this feature to anyone.
- If you do not want to download the APK file, you can install MIDI Voyager Karaoke Player PC by connecting your Google account with the emulator and downloading the app from the play store directly. If you follow the above steps correctly, you should have the MIDI Voyager Karaoke Player ready to run on your Windows PC or MAC.
- MIDI utility for live performances. Charlie roberts: App: 21763: CoreMIDImodule. REALbasic shareware module for the development of MIDI applications. Christophe Malhaire: App: 24967: Dent du Midi. Converts MIDI files into GarageBand files. Bery Rinaldo: App: 35538: EZplayer Free. MIDI bridge between different drum sampler formats.
Kanto Karaoke is one of the best Karaoke Player available also for computers with MAC operating system. The MAC version is almost identical to the Windows version with only minor differences that we want to illustrate here. Kanto Karaoke is fully compatible with all macOS versions, Mojave and Catalina 10.15 included!
First of all, download and install Kanto Player on your Mac. Here is the download link:
To install the app double click on the .dmg file and drop the Kanto Player icon in the Applications folder.
- Note 1: If you see this error “KantoPlayer.app can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” you have to Select the app and right or ctrl-click on it, click on Open and click on Open again to confirm you want to complete the action
- Note 2: If you see the error “KantoPlayer is damaged and can’t be opened.” it means the issue lies with “Gatekeeper“. The Gatekeeper settings can be found in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General. You have to select the option “All apps downloaded from: Anywhere”.
If the the “Anywhere” setting in is missing it can be restored with a Terminal command: sudo spctl –master-disable
After the installation, double click on the KantoPlayer.app icon to open it.
The main interface of the app looks like this:
Let’s start with the buttons at the bottom right of the program..
QUICK OPEN button allows you to browse and import a karaoke song from your MAC in KantoPlayer. If you play it you will see the lyrics in the main screen of the app.
DUAL DISPLAY button permits to display the lyrics screen in a new window, useful to display karaoke lyrics on external monitor or TV
SINGERS LIST button allows to create a list for the people who are going to sing for the karaoke
PLAYLISTS
In the same way as the Windows version, at the top right is the Playlists section. To create a new playlist click on the “Add” button and a window like this will open:
Type the name of the playlist in the “Playlist name” field and then click on “Create” button. Once done you will see the playlist created in the relevant section:
Now, in the bottom section “Playlist Files” you can import the desired songs by clicking on ADD button. Thanks to the UP and DOWN arrows you can always move and sort the tracks within the playlists.
Note: The “Free Trial” version of Kanto Player allows you to add max 5 files in each playlist.
LIVE PERFORMANCE
The Live Performance indicates (in real time) the song that is currently playing and those that will be played after. Thanks to the “Live Performance” you can schedule your performance and avoid interruption from one song to the next one..
The Live Performance works like a playlist and you can add songs at any time:
a) From a playlist selecting the song and clicking the Edit > Add to live performance
b) Dragging & Drop files from computer desktop to the Live Performance
c) By clicking to ADD SONG button
If you want to play a new track without abrupt interruptions you can click on the button “FADE OUT AND PLAY NEXT FILE...”
If you want to interrupt a song before the end of the song, avoiding a sudden and abrupt interruption, you can use the FADE OUT AND STOP function.
Note: Kanto Karaoke is the only tool with the crossfade function applied to all multimedia files: mp3, midi, kar and cdg files. To disable the automatic switching from one music to another by default, set the CROSSFADE = 0
AUDIO SETTINGS
At the top left of the program you can find the “Audio Settings” section where you can:
> Change the Key (Pitch) and the Tempo (Speed) of the song
For the songs in the playlist you can also save the desired pitch and speed: just click on the “Save Key and Tempo” button. Doing so, every time that file is played in the playlist, it will have the saved changes of pitch and tempo.
> Manage Midi Channels: by clicking “Midi Channels Config” it opens a window where you can view all midi channels and decide whether to activate / deactivate or simply change the volume.
> Vocal Remover for Midi Songs: by clicking on the MELODY (CH4) OFF button, you can quickly remove the melody (vocal track) from the song. In this way you can sing on a “clean” musical track.
RECORDING VOICE OVER SONG
To start recording your voice on a song, here are the 3 simple steps to follow:
NOTE. Connect the microphone to your MAC and restart the program and verify that your microphone is displayed in the Input devices.
1. Input Devices: At the bottom left of the program, from the drop down menu, select your microphone as Device. There may be more devices with the same name, in which case make sure to set the one that is actually installed and active on your computer.
It is recommended to use a dynamic external microphone (with USB input) which surely guarantees a better recording quality and a lower latency.
2. Start Recording: Play the song track and immediately click on the RED button (the circular button) in the player. Now you can start singing!
This feature requires the installation of the LAME app. It will open a window that will send you to the link to download Lame, it is a zip, inside which there is a .pkg file that you have to open and install on your Mac. After the installation the program will automatically recognize it.
NOTE: If you don’t see any window alert about Lame Encoder, please download and install LAME encoder from this link.
During the recording you will notice the following icon appear at the top left of the screen:
3. Stop Recording: At the end of the song click on the RED button again to stop the recording.
On the left of the program you will see an item appear in the “Recordings” section. Double click on this item to open the folder where you will find the MP3 file of your recording.
During recording you can also change the input volume (microphone) or the volume of the track (Music Volume), or add the Reverb effect.
Another important and exclusive setting of Kanto is the MIC DELAY which allows you to remove the delay that you will inevitably notice between the voice and the music. In fact you can decrease or increase this value until you get the perfect sync between voice and music in the output file.
To get the best quality, we recommend doing several tests until you get the optimal volume and delay values for your voice and recording!
The settings of Input and Music volumes only take effect if you change them during a recording.
While recording, you will not hear your voice from the speakers (it is not recommended to avoid the voice feedback issue).
NOTE: The Free Trial version of Kanto Karaoke allows recording of up to 1 minute (60 seconds).
EDIT MENU
From the program menu, clicking on the “EDIT” item will appear these options:
Crossfade:the default value is 3000 msec and is that effect of fading that allows you to move from one track to the next one gradually. You can change this value between 0 and 5000 msec.
AutoPlay: By setting the AutoPlay to the value “NO”, the song will arrive until the end and the next song will NOT start automatically. Also new songs added in the Live Performance will NON start playing automatically.
Soundfont: you can edit the “soundfont” file used (ie the sampled sounds used to improve the audio quality of midi and kar files!). The default soundfont file is located in the Program Files > KantoPlayer > Soundfont folder. To change the soundfont, you can download the soundfont file from the internet (there are many sites that offer free download of soundfont) and then place the file with the extension .sf2 inside the folder mentioned above. Then, from the program, “Edit” section you can set the new soudfont file.
Language: you can change the language of the program (es english, spanish, italian etc…)
Lyrics Settings: this is the section that allows you to customize the karaoke text that appears on the player screen. For example, you can decide the size, font and also the number of lines to display.
Auto Font Size: this will automatically adjusts the font size based on the number of words per line.
You can also choose the color of the karaoke text, both the color of the active text and the inactive text.
Besides under “Background” you can change the background of the karaoke screen, such as a picture of yourself or your image. This background change functionality can only be activated by purchasing the program license.
Delay: This parameter indicates the advance of karaoke text compared to music. Default is set to an advance of -500ms (half a second in advance), which is generally used by other karaoke players as well.
SINGER LIST
The Singer List feature allows the creation of a lineup of singers who have to perform during a show. To create or view a list of singers, click on the button in the main window at the bottom right
Just click on the ADD button to add the name of the singer and then associate the karaoke track by selecting it from your computer or by searching it in the playlists already loaded in the program. You can also set a different pitch/key for each song.
The trial version allows you to add only one singer in the singers list.
By clicking on “Display Singer Name” box, the name of the current singer and the next one can be displayed on the dual screen, and you can also set the display duration (seconds) and the font size (fontsize):
PC EXPLORER
In the program is integrated a browser to navigate through the folders of your MAC and then be able to find and select the desired songs and add them in the playlists or play directly. Just click on the button at the top right:
You have to select the folder of your songs clicking the button “Select Directory” and type the song name and click “Apply Filter” :
You can select the desidered files, and you will have three options: 1. double click on the song and play it immediately, 2.right mouse button to add the song to the currently open playlist, or 3.right mouse button to add the song in the live performance section . These options are enabled only after purchasing the program license.
WEB BROWSER
The program also includes a Web Browser, useful for example to quickly access to video sharing sites like Youtube where you can find and play karaoke video songs.
By clicking on the Web Browser button at the bottom, a window will open with the internet page on which the content will be displayed, and a “command” window where you can enter the desired URL or type search keywords. There is also a singer playlist section where you can annotate the names of the singers that have to perform with the relative URL of the video karaoke.
HOW TO REGISTER THE LICENSE OF KANTO KARAOKE
The benefits deriving from the purchase and registration of the Kanto Karaoke Player are:
- No limitation of songs that can be imported into the playlists
- No limitation in the recording time of your karaoke performances
- No limitation in converting from midi to mp3
- Possibility to change the background image of the karaoke text
- No limitations in creating Singer Lists
- And much more..
To register the program go in the menu Options –> Register
Click on the Buy button to request the registration data of the software. After purchase you will receive an email containing your “Licensed Email” and “Registration Code”. Copy and paste this data into the registration window (see fig. above) and then click on REGISTER.
NB: With the purchase of a license it is possible to install the software on a single computer!
Shortcut keys
Enter: Similar to double click to play a selected song
Cmd&P: Pause
Esc: Exit from full screen
Cmd&X: Fade out and next song
Cmd&Z: Fade out and stop
Cmd&S: Open search window
Cmd&M: CH4 midi On/Off
I received an email from a blog reader who had recently bought a MIDI keyboard so they could start practicing a bit of piano at home.
My previous blog posts on MIDI keyboards had all said something along the lines of “plug in your MIDI device and open up you DAW software to play”. But what if you don’t want to purchase any expensive software for writing and producing whole musical tracks? What if you just want some free software for practicing piano or messing around?
So following that I set out to find the best FREE MIDI keyboard software out there on each of the most common platforms Windows, Mac/ Apple and Android so you can plug in your MIDI keyboard and start playing straight away. This article summarises what I found.
But first, some context:
How does MIDI Work?
First things first, I always find it useful to briefly explain how MIDI works. If you, like me, came from playing a traditional acoustic instrument such as a piano or guitar, the world of MIDI and digital music production may be a little confusing. If you already know how it works feel free to skip this section!
MIDI is a digital signal, basically a series of 1s and 0s that allows different electronic devices to communicate with one another (I know, it sounds very dystopian!). This code communicates all manner of things from the note pressed, to how hard it is pressed and when it is released.
This is different to traditional instruments that produce an audio signal you can hear either straight away for acoustic instruments or through an amplifier for electric ones.
With a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI device not producing an audio signal, it needs to be plugged into another device which can convert the code into something we can hear. In the modern era this is usually a laptop or computer.
Modern MIDI devices pretty much always plug in and communicate via a USB connection. But simply connecting the device isn’t enough. The computer will receive the code but to produce a sound it will need software of some sort.
That is where I hope this article will help.
Best Free Midi Keyboard Options – Windows
1) Piano Time for Windows 10
Piano time is a nice option if you simply want to plug in and play the piano.
It is an “app” but that doesn’t mean you need a tablet or phone to use it. Windows is changing to become more similar to Apple in the way they present software creating less of a disconnect between computers, tablets and phones. This means if you have Windows 10, you can now head to the Microsoft store and download apps to your computer.
There are paid apps in the windows store but as with the Apple and Android “stores” that you may be more familiar with on your phones and tablets, many of the apps are free to download and use.
Ease of Use
Piano time is really easy to plug in and get going. I plugged in my Novation Impulse MIDI keyboard and it instantly recognized it without me having to go into the settings.
Features
Piano time is meant to be simple and for mimicking the sound of a piano. For this reason, you can’t really adjust the sound. You won’t find different instrument sounds, reverb or delay for example. But this might be a good thing if all you want to do is play the piano.
You can record and save clips of what you are playing which is a nice feature, and this allows you to record one part, play it back and then play something else over the top. Handy if you are doing a bit of songwriting. However, be warned, on the free version these clips will only remain in place whilst the program is open, to save or export the tracks you record as MP3 files you will have to pay a small fee to upgrade.
It comes pre-loaded with a few very basic tracks for you to play along with, think Amazing Grace or Mary Had a Little Lamb. The keys will light up and show you how to play along and you can slow it down or speed it up to suit. Perhaps this is most suitable for the absolute beginner or for a child learning the piano. Also useful for anyone using this to learn the piano are a few basic scale exercises you can play along with.
Other features include a metronome that can be adjusted. I did find the clicking a bit annoying but it does the job.
As with most pieces of MIDI software, you can use your computer keyboard to play if you don’t own a MIDI keyboard. I would not recommend this as it is very hard to do, but Piano Time does have a feature called “key mapping” which will show the corresponding keyboard letters above the relevant keys to help you play.
Sound and Performance
I found the sound to be ok. A nice bit of sustain and reverb make it sound quite realistic. However, the lower notes can sound a bit quiet compared to the higher notes and chords don’t sound that great. This is annoying if you are trying to play notes with the left and right hand, as the right hand notes tend to drown out those of the left.
This can be frustrating as a quick ‘stacatto’ press of a key isn’t any different from when you hold it down. This makes notes merge together when you don’t want them to or not ring out for as long as you might have hoped.
For me, the app had virtually no latency (time between pressing a key and hearing the sound). This is partly due to the app, but will also be due to your computer. If you are trying to use it with a computer or laptop that doesn’t have much RAM or has a slow processor then this may not be the case. If you are experiencing MIDI delay check out this article.
Other people have noted that when adverts load it can cause the app to crash. This did happen to me once which was a pain. You can get rid of the ads by paying just a small fee so this might be worth doing if you are having this issue.
2) Piano 10 for Windows 10
Piano 10 is very similar in many ways to Piano Time. It is available for download from the Windows app store on any windows device.
Ease of Use
I plugged my keyboard in and it didn’t work straight away this time. The menus in the app are also not the easiest to find with a series of symbol buttons to press, so I had to do a bit of random clicking to find out how to do it.
A button saying “general MIDI” brings up a menu when clicked where you should be able to turn MIDI support on and then select your MIDI keyboard from the list.
So once you figure out what each button symbol means it isn’t too hard to use.
Features
Different to Piano Time, Piano 10 has a few different effects and amazingly 126 different sounds for you to chose from. Including reverb, sustain and echo but unfortunately only one of these can be turned on at once.
An auto-chords function is pretty cool and is a great way to help learn different chords and chord types as the keys of the chords light up whilst you play.
As with piano time you can record short clips of yourself playing. You can save these clips but only as .xscore files to re-open in Piano 10 another time.
A metronome is also included with adjustable bpm.
Sound and performance
When testing the default piano sound it was ok, but pressing the keys too lightly meant no sound was played. So if you are trying to practice playing softly you may find this frustrating.
However, when the sustain effect is turned on I thought it sounded much more realistic and it felt nice to play.
Although it is cool having 126 different sounds to choose from, be warned, most of them sound pretty terrible. Fun to mess around with but you would never want to use them in a performance.
Probably the most annoying thing about Piano 10 is the fact you can’t change the key size or get more keys to show on the screen. The whole keyboard will still play but you won’t see all the keys light up on screen.
Being a free app it also has a banner with ads at the top but these are fairly standard and don’t really interfere with the usability.
3) MidiEditor
If you want something a bit more advanced which will allow you to edit and export your MIDI tracks then MIDI Editor is free software that is a great introduction to some more advanced techniques.
Ease of Use
In terms of downloading and installing things are fairly simple. However, unlike the previous two options, this is a more traditional piece of software that you download from a website rather than the Windows App Store.
Once downloaded the settings are easy to find and here you can select your MIDI device and connect.
You should then hear a basic piano sound.
So in terms of getting a sound, it is fairly simple. However, if you are not familiar with MIDI you may find the software slightly confusing due to the more advanced features it has….
Features
The screen shows what is known as a ‘piano roll’. This is something to get familiar with if you plan on using MIDI in production.
As you play on your MIDI keyboard and press record you will see lines appear on the screen. This is a visualization of the digital code for each note. You can see it shows which note was played, how long for and other parameters such as velocity (how hard you played that note).
This is what separates digital MIDI data from a traditional audio recording. It is stored as a series of numbers (note, note length, etc) and then a sound is ‘overlayed’ on top of that. So you could play the original notes with a piano sound but then change that to strings or a flute for example.
Features such as quantize, which automatically moves mistimed notes onto the correct beat are cool to mess around with.
Sound and performance
As a basic free introduction to MIDI editing software, MidiEditor does a pretty good job.
There are a couple of things that frustrated me though.
For example, when you record a track you can’t see the notes appearing on the screen, you have to wait till you have finished recording and then they will appear. This just felt weird compared to the MIDI input I’m used to in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
There are also no other built-in sounds to test apart from the piano and I couldn’t find a way to import my own sounds either. Perhaps I’m expecting too much from free software.
Best Free Midi Keyboard Software on Mac (and Apple devices)
1) Garageband
Garageband has to be my favorite of all the free music making software available. I’ve written entire songs on the bus using this software on my iPad and have been happier with the sound than some tracks I spent weeks on in the studio!
It comes pre-installed on most Apple products but if not it can be downloaded from the app store for free.
Ease of Use
Garageband is quite a bit more advanced than some of the simple piano apps already mentioned in this article.
It is the closest you are going to get to proper a DAW without having to pay. A DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation. It is where all song artists create songs by piecing together tracks. There are many different ones with different people having different preferences. But if you are new to the music recording world then Garageband is a great place to start.
For this reason, it has massive potential but it does make it a bit confusing for the beginner. For example, when I connected my keyboard, it didn’t work straight away. I had to navigate to preferences and select my device and I also had to change the output so I could hear the sound.
It is a similar process when connecting to an iPad, however, you will have to buy a USB to lightning adapter (such as this one).
All that said it is still very easy to get started in comparison to most DAWs which can be very overwhelming. There are plenty of great videos on Youtube to help you if you get lost.
Features
This is where Garageband excels over the other simpler apps. The possibilities are almost limitless.
You can choose from hundreds of pre-loaded MIDI sounds. There are pre-made drum loops to add in and play along to. Then when you want to add even more sounds or effects you can download free ‘plug-ins.
Because it is a DAW you can layer up multiple tracks, MIDI or Audio to create full songs and there are great built-in features such as EQ and compression so you can even try your hand at mixing!
Sound and Performance
The pre-loaded sounds do sound quite robotic and it is hard to compose a full song that will sound professional using just the MIDI samples. That does, of course, depend on your genre, for some electronic music you can do a pretty good job.
This may not bother you if you just want to practice the piano.
The performance is pretty good, I rarely ever experience any latency when playing. This is dependent on your laptop age and spec.
2) Pianu.com
This option technically applies to Windows too but I couldn’t find another free app on the Apple app store that wasn’t either terrible or tried to give me a virus.
So Pianu.com is actually a web-based MIDI keyboard and is a great option if you don’t want to mess around downloading software and just want to get playing right away.
Ease of Use
This software is so simple to use (at least it was for me anyway!) Just head to pianu.com/keyboard-page and there you will see a big yellow button that says “Detect My Keyboard”. Press this and you will see the following screen.
You are then ready to start playing
Features
Pianu is not very complex and won’t give you all the features of Garageband. But many people have written to me to say they don’t want something as complicated as that and just want to play some piano. For this it is perfect.
What Pianu is really meant for though is learning the piano. For this it has lots of built-in lessons, starting with the absolute basics and building you up from there. What I like most is you can play along with a lot of contemporary songs (Coldplay, Taylor Swift etc.) rather than the usual Ode to Joy or Amazing Grace which you get on most apps.
Sound and Performance
Sweet Midi Player Mac
You would never want to use this piano for recordings or live performances, but it sounds fine for learning. The one annoying thing is the notes don’t fully ring out and eventually just stop suddenly. But this is a minor issue when you are just practicing.
For a web-based application I expected performance to be dodgy, but it really wasn’t. In fact I would say I noticed less latency than many other apps and my laptop fan was whirring away.
Best Free Midi Keyboard Software on Android
Yes, that’s right, these days you don’t even need a computer to use a MIDI device. You can now plug your MIDI keyboard directly into your phone or tablet and use that to create music.
I bought this simple USB C to USB adapter for under $10 and it allows me to play my 49 key MIDI keyboard through my phone.
As with the other devices mentioned above, you will need to download some software (an app) to do this and there are plenty of great free options to choose from.
Best Windows 10 Midi Player
1) Perfect Piano
Ease of Use
You may already know how to connect your android device to a MIDI keyboard, but if you don’t it is very simple (you can find out in this step by step guide).
Once plugged in the Perfect Piano app should automatically detect that a MIDI keyboard is connected and it should work straight away without you having to mess around with any setup! A real bonus for those who just want to plug in and play.
Features
The app has a keyboard that is set as default to a piano sound. But additionally, you get the choice of many more from strings to synths and loads of additional free sounds to download.
There is a sustain button to create the effect of using a piano pedal and you can record your efforts either in MIDI format or in audio format.
The app has some nice additional features such as ‘learn to play’. Where you can play along as notes descend on the screen, very similar to guitar hero (if you remember that game) except you are actually learning a real instrument.
Sound and Performance
With my android phone (which is a few years old now) I had no noticeable lag which amazed me. I’ve experienced many issues with MIDI latency using computers and laptops over the years. I can’t guarantee you won’t have issues but if your phone is newer than mine I’m sure it will be fine!
The sounds are really quite impressive. The piano does have that programmed sound but no more so than most other MIDI pianos out there. The synths and strings are great fun to mess around too.
I like how you can adjust the number of keys on the screen. A feature often lacking from many mobile MIDI apps.
Concluding Remarks
Nowadays there are plenty of free MIDI apps and software programs to choose from. The key thing is to ask yourself, what do I need the software to do? If it is to simply practice piano or mess about then stick to something simple. But if you think you might want to create full tracks or use more advanced techniques there is probably something out there for you too.
Once you are ready to progress the best option is to move to a DAW of your choice. I personally use Ableton Live which is particularly good for MIDI. But there are loads of others to choose from. My suggestion would be to download a free trial, watch a few ‘how-to’ videos and see which one you find best.
The possibilities of music production using MIDI are pretty endless!