I guess there are a lot of ways. The way I do it is through my tracking software (Fruity Loops 3). If you have something like it, you can import the midi, then export it as MP3. . If you don't have something like that...well, your in a pickly
Use Mod tracker. Open the midi and save it as an mp3. It's crappier that way.
But you can buy a audio cable, or whatever you call it, download a audio editing program, like golwave, Then put the cable from the speaker jack to the microphone jack. (Do you call it a jack?) And just record, you might get good quality.
There are quite many ways to convert a MIDI to MP3 form.
1. Get Audio Compositor. This program allows you to convert a MIDI to a WAV file using AWE32 soundfonts (if you have a Soundblaster Live! card, you know what they are, otherwise these are .sf2 files) and it's quite effective. Afterwards, you just need a program to convert your file in MP3, such as CDex. It also is an excellent audio CD ripper, in fact you aren't aware of it. Audio Compositor is not free, however. The trial version allows you to fully record a song using 22khz sound quality, 8 bits in mono format, otherwise recording time is limited to about a minute if you change any of the settings.
2. Get Timidity++. It's almost like Audio Compositor, except this program uses GUS patches in order to convert the MIDIs. However, it can export files straight to MP3 or even OGG format so that'll spare you some time. This program can be a pain to set up decently though, plus the GUS patch set included within Timidity's site is large. It's well worth it in the end, plus it's free of use.
3. Winamp also can be used to convert a MIDI to WAV format if you change the output plug-in setting to Disk Writer. You'll also need to tweak your MIDI player settings which can be found in the input plug-in section of Winamp's preferences and check the "Send to Winamp's output system" option which can be found under the sampling tab. Play your midi, and it'll be converted as a wave file as it plays using your default midi instruments. Convert it into MP3 afterwards by using CDex, like I mentionned above.
There's no simple way to convert an MP3 to MIDI. The only good way to convert an MP3 is to sequence the midi file all by yourself from scratch and that's not a simple task at all. There's some programs out there that claim to be able to convert MP3s to MIDIs, but it's theorically impossible, seeing that MIDI channels use a multitude of sound channels to play a song whilst an MP3 basically possess 2 channels; the left one and the right one. There's no program out there which can effectively pick the sound bytes contained in a MP3 and render them as MIDI notes in a correct fashion.
I'm just trying to work out the point in making a MIDI into a MP3. You could either have a low quality music track that is a few kilobytes small, or a low quality music track that is a couple of megabytes large. Yeah, there is so little point.
maybe because they sound different on different comps
"Say you're hanging from a huge cliff at the top of mt. everest and a guy comes along and says he'll save you, and proceeds to throw religious pamphlets at you while simultaniously giving a sermon." - Dustin G
'Hey hey shoe' is right. The process is quite simple...
I'm guessing the reason that they want to record a MIDI as an MP3 is because the MIDIs sound really good on their soundcard, compared to some of the older computers that a lot of you out there may be using.
If the MIDI sounds really good on your soundcard then all you need to download is any sort of program which can save files as MP3s.
Then you right-click the speaker icon in the right side of the taskbar,
then
'Open Volume Control'
'Options' -> 'Properties'
Check the 'Recording' radio button, and press OK (in the list below, check all of the boxes if they aren't already checked)
Under the column that says 'Stereo Mixer', click the 'Select' box.
Now hit record in your recording program, play the MIDI in WINAMP (or whatever), and bingo. Although, with this you may want to cease doing things on your computer besides this, because now, everything that comes out of your speakers is being recorded to the file...meaning the default Internet Explorer 'click's, MSN messages, error popups, et cetera. Easily and quickly avoided in Control Panel, however.
I hope I was of some help !
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - Fear of long words
They have released some copyrighted song files, that you must have a code or something to play, but its quiet a waste of time, since you can just recored it like peta mintioned.
We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams...
If you wanna convert a midi > mp3 because midi sounds different on some computers, and mp3 doesn't, MODs are the way to go (like some person said). MP3s are big useless chunky files, and MODs aren't, and if you convert a midi to a mod, the goal would be achieved as MODs sound the same on all computers, and they're usually much smaller in size (depends on the ratios... a mod with 6mb samples that's just ½ a minute long would obviously take up less size in the mp3 format).