Why convert Midi to audio?

Seeing as the piano roll view is so easily edited including FX, and that the sound does not seem to improve, and we can export the song including the midi,why would we convert a midi track to audio? 

Another reason may be where you're using a soft synth patch that has an evolving timbre that may be different with every playback. It's best to freeze that so the frequencies don't change during mixing.

Scott

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Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
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I convert to audio for editing. Besides have you ever heard MIDI? Not the output from a synth but a MIDI stream? Its like a fax sort of and not very musical.

Sometimes it's just good to commit to audio, and place restrictions on yourself.
After all, with all the editing that's available with midi (and of course audio) it's a wonder we ever get anything finished

Lol all good ones, thanks. I'm convinced.
Now I'll go figure out how to actually do it. :)

Just freeze the synth (not the track)

Bristol_Jonesey

Because LFO's & other modifiers might be on some random re-generation and you won't get the same sound twice 

Yep, and the changing frequencies could make it more difficult to nail down your project mix.


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

You should be able to unfreeze and go back to MIDI.

Here's what I do btw:
- make a copy of the MIDI track
- freeze the copy to generate an audio track
- copy the frozen audio to a new track
- archive the original MIDI track and the frozen copy

I've been burnt too many times by going back to older projects only to find that one of the following has occurred:
- the MIDI synth no longer works, is not available, plays the sound differently, or 'what sound'
- the frozen track cannot be unfrozen

My approach works for me because at least I know I have a permanent copy of the audio the way I heard it when I was composing the MIDI track.  I also like to know I have that original MIDI track archived should I need to work on it further.  Keeping the frozen track might seem redundant, but I like to have it around just in case.

At the end of the day I trust no synth, no software, no bundle backup or older disks etc. to be able to recreate the audio sound from its components.  I always, always render that audio as my ultimate fallback situation.

Here is a good explanation http://www.cakewalk.com/D...=EN&Req=Mixing.23.html

I assumed the same thing. Just unfreeze it.
I hit freeze and it made the audio.
I then hit unfreeze and was given nothing.
Not just a blank clip, nothing.
Freezing again brought back the audio at least.
Perhaps going Edit- undo might have worked?

@scook
Very good reference by Cakewalk to freezing.  Thanks!

He means separate the MIDI track from the audio track. Simple Instruments tracks allow this.  

Yes, I was suggesting splitting the instrument track into separate audio and MIDI tracks. If it is the case that you have truly lost the MIDI track, you may need to open a backup copy of the project and retrieve it from there. I do not use Simple Instrument Tracks and have never experienced missing a MIDI track after freezing a synth, not that there is any relation between the two, I do not have any experience with that combination.

You are correct with regard to the autosave fature, I also use the SONAR versioning facility which I have used to recover data in the past.

Believe it or not, I'm still confused as to what went wrong or how to properly create a wave track without destroying the Midi info.
I see several options in the link but they seem to all assume I have an audio track to begin with.
To be Clear, all I had was a midi clip (track). You know? dots and dashes?
When I froze it, I simply clicked on * in the Inspector and it generated the wave clip (audio).
Unfreezing did NOT reinstate the dots and dashes but went blank.
re freezing reinstated the audio.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24683934/midi.jpg