How to work with anvil studio program. Creating a MIDI melody in Anvil Studio. Anvil Studio – music creation program

18.09.2024

The program is a MIDI synthesizer for creating melodies in MIDI format.

Attention! The following description of working with the program refers to an earlier version: Anvil Studio 2009.04.05.

The importance of music in human life is beyond doubt. Being one of the earliest types of creativity, accompanying people almost throughout their existence over many centuries, music successfully performs not only entertaining, but also, first of all, aesthetic, as well as educational and social functions.

It fascinates, calms, heals, by making music, we create a mood, and everything depends only on the colors of this drawing. Including our state of mind.

Just a few years ago, the market situation was such that everyone had to spend money, sometimes several hundred dollars, to purchase even the simplest music studio software.

But recently, a sufficient number of free sequencer programs have appeared - programs that allow you to write music in MIDI, perform processing, i.e. form the final product - a finished arrangement. Modern sequencers work not only with MIDI, but also with digital audio. Almost all support MIDI keyboards.

Anvil Studio Features

One of these programs will be discussed today. Meet Anvil Studio - a full-fledged MIDI synthesizer that is suitable for writing a melody from scratch, as well as for editing a finished electronic MIDI score. In terms of its capabilities, this utility is superior to many commercial analogues, but it is distributed completely free of charge (though without advanced features such as printing notes, etc.) and weighs only a little over three megabytes.

And most importantly, it has a simple and intuitive interface for any musician (there is support for entering notes both from the virtual piano keyboard and from the guitar fretboard).

What can this program do:

Anvil Studio allows you to create and edit MIDI files;
set the rhythm you need;
use WAV files as samples;
record a melody from a MIDI keyboard, if you have one;
recognize notes from a microphone;
automatically transfer the melody to a different time signature/key;
create and modify your WAV samples directly in the program.

In addition, the program has a built-in metronome and guitar tuner. You can also practice playing the piano :).

Installing the Anvil Studio MIDI editor

Well, I think I’ve convinced you of the benefits of this utility. First, download and install Anvil Studio.

A few simple steps and the program is loaded. Launch the installer and click the "Setup" button.

After the program is installed, click on the Anvil Studio shortcut on your desktop, and the following picture appears before our eyes:

For those who know English, the program has an excellent Help tab, which provides very detailed tips and assistance for working in Anvil Studio. But, since not all of us are strong in English :), now we will take a detailed look at how to work with this music editor.

Interface and working with the program

To get acquainted with the utility, let’s open some midi file. To do this, go to the “File” menu, select “Open songs” and select “Songs” in the file types.

Here is the main working window of Anvil Studio. It consists of the following components (bottom to top): hints and help panel, keyboard (or guitar fretboard of your choice), note settings panel, staff display panel, instrument table, control panel and menu bar.

A help panel is displayed at the very bottom. It describes in detail why this window is needed and what you can do in it. Directly above it is a virtual piano keyboard, with which you can enter all the notes in the program.

If desired, the keyboard can be replaced with a guitar neck, both a regular guitar and a bass (4, 5 or 6 string options are available). To do this, just right-click once on the keyboard field and select the desired tab in the menu that opens.

Above the keyboard is a note settings panel. Here you can adjust the overall key, size and style of display of the staff for a specific track. To the right is a panel for setting the duration of the entered note or pause (the "Insert Rest" button).

On the same panel there is a button, by activating which you can enter a note through the microphone (). The next panel is responsible for the option of playing notes and the breakdown of the staff.

Above we see the direct result of our efforts - the staff display panel. All the notes and accidentals that we enter are displayed here. The pitch of any note can be changed in two ways. The first is to simply drag it up or down on the staff, and the second is to go to the “Properties” tab in the context menu.

Here, in addition to the pitch, you can change the volume, duration and version of the already entered note.

Tool table

Well, now let's look at the table of tools, which is located in our upper left corner.

1st column - allows you to go to editing this track and give it a specific name of your choice. The second column is responsible for the type of track: instrumental, rhythmic, audio or audio track with a frequency of 24 KB (available only when connecting a paid plugin). The next column allows you to enable, disable or solo this track.

And finally, the last column allows you to set the instrument on which the melody will be performed (piano by default). The only negative here is the use of only General Midi for subduing instruments, without the ability to connect your own sound banks.

To the right of the sign are the level and panorama sliders for a given track, and further down is a diagram of the entire song as a whole. This scheme is convenient to use for quickly moving to the desired section of the melody.

Above the instrument table are some auxiliary instruments needed to control the program, mainly using a MIDI keyboard. Here it is worth highlighting the rewind bar, the playback/recording panel and the “Tempo” window, which allows you to specify the tempo of the composition.

And now from theory to practice :).

Creating a MIDI melody in Anvil Studio

Let's create something of our own. To get started, click "New Song" in the "File" menu. An empty staff will appear with only one track. To add a new track, you need to select “Create” in the “Track” menu and select one of the items there. You can create the following track options: a regular instrumental track, a rhythm track (drums), a track with a metronome rhythm, an audio track (recorded in wav) and some of its variations.

Now that you have decided on the number and types of tracks, it is time to start creating and editing the notes themselves. I advise you to start writing music by recording the rhythm section. To do this, Anvil Studio has a very convenient ability to visually edit drums.

You just need to select the desired drums and cymbals from the list, and then simply draw the rhythm in the squared windows. By the way, the same opportunity exists for working with notes. If you are not very strong in musical notation, I advise you to select “Piano Roll” in the drop-down box above the staff or select the same option in the “View” menu.

We indicate the desired note opposite the desired piano key, and the duration will correspond to the length of the note.

Since we're talking about options for displaying notes, we can't help but remember two more options: tablature and a list of events.

Tablature and list of events

If you are a guitarist, then the concept of tablature should be familiar to you. This is a schematic representation of the neck of a guitar, on which the numbers indicate the fret numbers on which one or another string should be clamped. By selecting the “TAB” designation in the window (or in the “View” menu), you will receive a tablature of the selected track.

You cannot edit notes in this state, but guitarists can learn this or that composition very conveniently and quickly.

Unlike the previous option, everything in the list of events can be completely edited. The MIDI interface is designed in such a way that a certain sequence of commands is transmitted to the computer's sound card, which is responsible for playing each note. It is these commands that you can edit.

In this way you can fine-tune and achieve a fairly high-quality result.

Once you've done all the instrumental tracks, you may want to add something else. To do this, you can use the ability to insert an audio track.

Inserting an audio track into a melody

You can import a finished sample into wav, record a part of an instrument, or add a voice. Simply create an audio track and click the "Rec" button to start recording. We stop the recording, cut where necessary and get the finished track.

Saving results

Now all that's left to do is save our composition. We can save it as a midi file or rewrite it to wav. To do this, go to the "File" menu and select "Save Song (as)" or "Export Mixed Audio", respectively. Ready! You are now a composer;).

Conclusions

I don't want to seem unfounded, but, in my opinion, Anvil Studio is one of the best programs for creating MIDI compositions. If you have a desire or need to create music, start by mastering this program, and you will not regret it.

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Music is an integral part of the life of almost every person. For this reason, you can find a player on every PC. But not everyone exclusively listens to audio recordings. Many even try to create unique compositions.
Every user can implement this. You just need to use the appropriate software product. You also need to initially decide on the format in which the musical composition will ultimately be created.

Many different formats are available. One of the popular ones is MIDI. If the user selects it, the music will eventually be encoded using various special commands. You need to create such a melody plan using certain utilities.

Anvil Studio is an excellent assistant in this regard. This application is represented by a MIDI synthesizer, the capabilities of which are the development of melodies of various types. It is also possible to activate arrangement tools.

Assessing program capabilities

This is a full-fledged MIDI synthesizer. The uniqueness of the utility is that users can create completely unique melodies. Moreover, this can be done even “from scratch”. In addition to this, it is proposed to use tools designed for editing.

In terms of its capabilities, the software is capable of surpassing even many more professional utilities. Compared to paid applications, this service will not disappoint, although it is completely free.

This product is not equipped with an expanded arsenal of capabilities. However, the utility copes well with its basic responsibilities. It is also important that this program is compact. This makes it possible to download the service on a variety of devices.

Particularly noteworthy is the simple and intuitive interface, which any musician will certainly be able to understand. An option for entering notes in different variations is provided. The utility will delight you with the ability to create and subsequently make various changes to MIDI files.

The possibility of a certain rhythm option is also presented. It is also possible to accurately detect notes from the microphone. In addition to this, there is an option to automatically translate the melody into other key parameters, indicating other dimensions.

Let's start installing the software and studying the interface

Since this program has quite a lot of advantages compared to many other competitors, it’s time to proceed directly to the installation procedure. Download the file with the software. We launch the installer, and then click the “Setup” button. What follows are several completely simple manipulations.

The installation process will complete. After this, a shortcut will appear on the desktop. You need to click on it for the start window to load. As soon as it appears, the user will see the interface in English.

If necessary, you can use special tips. They are located in a special tab. So the user just needs to click on it to get answers to many questions related to management itself.

The most important working moments

It is necessary to consider in detail how to use the capabilities of the downloaded music editor. The first step is to open any midi file. Now you can experiment with it in order to evaluate in practice all the proposed functionality.

You need to enter the menu, in which you select the option to open a musical composition. Next, the user will have to deal with the working window. It is this space that will be used further. The work window consists of several important components.

The developers have built in a special panel with tips. So at any time you can use the help provided to facilitate the process of managing the utility. There is also a panel for setting notes and managing available options.

There is a special table filled with a variety of tools. Users can also go to the panel where the staff is displayed. The main menu is also indicated, where you can find all the necessary tools.

Above the hint panel you can see a virtual piano keyboard. So every user can enter any notes. If the user is not entirely comfortable working with the keyboard, then it can be replaced with a guitar neck. This nuance is important: you can choose a bass or a regular guitar.

You will need to click on the keyboard field with the mouse. Then a menu will appear in the working window in which you have to select the desired tab. Next, you have to configure the notes by activating the panel of the same name.

Adjustment involves changing the overall tonality, style and size of the staff. All settings can be made in relation to a specific track. You can then determine the duration of the input note. You can also set a pause. There is also an option to activate the button for entering notes via a microphone.

Next comes another panel. She is responsible for playing notes and breaking down the staff. Various variations can be specified. A window is also shown in which all entered accidentals and notes will be shown.

There are two options for adjusting the pitch of notes. The implementation of the first involves simple drag and drop. Using the context menu provides the second option. You will need to open the properties tab and perform all the necessary manipulations in it.

Tool set

Users should pay special attention to the table, which contains all the necessary tools. It is presented on the left side of the working window. Several columns can be seen. In the first, you can activate composition editing options, as well as specify the track name.

The second column indicates the specific type of object. You can choose audio, rhythm or instrumental. Other options are available only when connecting certain paid plugins.

You can perform many different manipulations with respect to the track loaded into the program. You can specify the leading composition or refuse this. It is also suggested to choose the instrument that will play the melody.

Users can see the entire track layout. Thanks to this, it is possible to understand how correctly the composition was made. It's very easy to choose different tempo options.

The procedure for creating a unique melody

Since the value of the application is in creating a completely new musical composition, and not in editing already known melodies, you should try creating your own track. Open the menu and click on the “New Song” button. Next, the staff of music will appear on the screen, and it will be empty.

Add a new track. To do this, select the “Create” option. In this menu you need to click on one of the proposed items. There are several composition options available. The simplest one is a regular instrumental one. You can also specify the option of percussion instruments and much more.

Once a decision has been made on the types and number of tracks, you can proceed directly to setting up the notes. However, these notes must first be created. Future compositions should be recorded by determining the rhythm of a certain section.

Anvil Studio provides the ability to visually edit drums. We select suitable drums and cymbals from the proposed list. You can work with notes in the same way.

Users can independently customize exactly how notes will be placed. This is done to ensure maximum convenience during the work process. The selected note is distributed opposite a specific piano key. Thanks to the correct settings, the user can continue to work faster and more efficiently.

Turn on the guitar and insert an audio track

Everyone can use completely different types of musical instruments, with the help of which a completely unique composition will ultimately be created. The program provides tablature. It is represented by an image of a guitar neck. It contains frets with specific numbers. So you just need to pinch certain strings, just like in real life.

There are different options for how the utility functions. Selecting TAB limits the ability to edit notes. But for guitarists, this mode is very interesting, because it makes it easy to learn various compositions.

But the user can still start editing. To do this you will need to use a MIDI interface. All of these commands can be adjusted. So implementing fine tuning helps ultimately achieve a pretty good result.

As soon as the user approaches the final stage, it will be possible to supplement the track. It is possible to insert audio tracks into a ready-made melody. To do this, you will need to use either a ready-made recording or pre-record a part of a specific instrument. It's also very easy to add voice over.

You can make a recording yourself, and then listen to it and edit it a little. If necessary, trim the recording. As soon as the element is completely ready, then in this case you can already insert it into the track.

The last stage of work involves saving. It is necessary to save the composition. Several options are expected. The first assumes in the form of a midi file. There is also the possibility of dubbing to wav.

Anvil Studio – music creation program

Today's sequencers work with both digital audio and MIDI. Anvil Studio is the perfect MIDI synthesizer, thanks to which you can write a melody from its very beginning, from scratch. The program can also edit a finished electronic MIDI score. The program is distributed free of charge, but this does not mean that it is bad. In terms of its parameters, this utility is superior to its paid counterparts. The program has a convenient and understandable interface for every musician. The program supports music input, which can be entered both from the guitar fretboard and from the virtual piano keyboard.

Anvil Studio has many functions, thanks to which you can edit and create the desired MIDI files, allowing you to set the rhythm you need. With Anvil Studio, WAV files can be used as samples, and you can also record a melody from a MIDI keyboard, of course, if you have a MIDI keyboard. Anvil Studio is able to recognize notes from a microphone. Anvil Studio can also automatically convert a melody to a different key and time signature. This program creates and modifies Anvil Studio WAV samples right here in the program. Anvil Studio also has a guitar tuner and a built-in metronome. This program allows you to practice playing the piano. This program is one of the best utilities that help you create your own MIDI songs. For those who have a need or desire to create music, this program is necessary. She will help you do all this.

Analogs: MuseScore, LilyPond, Impro-Visor, Denemo, Sibelius, Finale, Aria Maestosa, NoteWorthy Composer, Band-in-a-Box, Open Source Window.
Platform: Windows.
Size: 2.9 Mb.
Language: Russian.
License: free.
Program website http://www.anvilstudio.com/

Anvil Studio is a unique free application for recording and editing MIDI songs. It is in great demand among fans of electronic music.

It is compact and does not require large system resources. The utility is multifunctional and has a wide range of tools for creating high-quality melodies. So far the program does not have a Russian language, but in general, if a musician understands such applications, there should be no problems.

The interface is quite simple, but it has a lot of functions. Download Anvil Studio for free in Russian and quickly create audio tracks with high quality.

When writing melodies, the user can use the musical notation. It is possible to enter data in virtual piano keyboard modes or using a guitar fretboard. This way you can choose the most convenient recording method and start creating unique tracks.

Anvil Studio is a multifunctional free assistant for creating MIDI tracks. Working with the utility makes it possible to record high-quality sound without any developments.

Below is a list of the main features:

development and editing of tracks in MIDI format;
control of tempo and rhythm;
WAV samples are used as a program;
record music using a midi keyboard;
recognition of notes from a microphone;
self-regulating change in size and tonality in tracks;
creating and modifying your own samples.

A positive feature is the presence of both standard and special functions for more optimized work: there is a built-in metronome and guitar tuner. In addition, the software makes it possible to learn or remember the basics of playing the piano.

An important fact is that Anvil Studio can be downloaded completely free of charge. Does this mean any serious shortcomings of the software or its unreliability? Not at all. In terms of its parameters, the utility is superior to many paid analogues, so once you launch it, you can immediately start recording your own music without any special difficulties.

Anvil Studio is a unique synthesizer of audio files in MIDI format. Thanks to it, you can create compositions from scratch. Wide functionality and a convenient user interface will help generate a high-quality melody that is as close as possible to the user’s needs and desires.

For beginners, experienced amateurs and professional musicians - anyone who has a desire to create electronic music, Anvil Studio will be a great assistant in creating their music.

Dear users. Please note that the program is not officially distributed in Russian and it is impossible to find a Russified version on the Internet!

Anvil Studio is a program for creating music in MIDI format (Midi is musical instruments in digital format). In the modern rhythm of life, not a single person can do without music: during training, while jogging, at work, while cleaning, at events and many other moments, but it is not always possible to choose what is ideal for you. Thanks to this application, both amateurs and experienced users can create and record unique compositions from scratch, using a huge range of different equipment and bringing their ideas to life.

The program is equipped with a multifunctional synthesizer, which combines all the popular tools for creating melodies, as well as tools for editing and creating an arrangement. The program interface, unfortunately, is designed exclusively in English, but to make it easier to use, the utility includes a detailed help system with tips, which can be found in the “Help” tab. And despite the English-language interface, the program is simple and clear, all the necessary tools are organized in the upper area of the program, where you will also see a hint bar, control panel and menu bar. Pleasant, laconic and stylish design in light gray and blue shades helps you concentrate on realizing your ideas.

Anvil Studio also allows you to practice playing the piano or brush up on existing professional skills. If desired, the midi keyboard can be replaced with the neck of a guitar, and not only a regular one, but also a bass guitar with four, five and six strings. Also, on the panel for tuning notes and displaying the staff, you can adjust the duration of the note, its volume, version of performance, overall tonality and pitch as closely as possible to the desired one, and if necessary, you can use an excellent function of the program: precise determination of notes from the microphone. In addition, Anvil Studio has a dynamic file editing option - that is, you can make changes to your track directly while it is playing. After finishing work on a track, you can save it not only in midi file format, but also re-record it in wav format. You can add an audio track, a new instrumental part to your composition, or use the “Rec” button to record a voice track and your work is ready. The program contains a built-in metronome that will help you determine the tempo when playing a melody.

Thanks to such wide functionality, a flexible settings system and a large range of instruments, your personal computer can easily turn into a small music studio where you can realize your projects and ideas. The utility is suitable for almost all operating systems of the Windows family, such as: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP and its system requirements and memory footprint are so small that they allow you to run the program on any PC.

The program is completely free, including all standard functionality and subsequent updates, and allows you to create an unlimited number of tracks, but the developer company Willow Software offers the purchase of an additional paid package “Anvil Studio Works!”, which will expand the functionality of the program to a semi-professional level and allow you to use tools such as multi-tracking, multi-audio, promix and others. Anvil Studio is freely available without registration or SMS and is rapidly gaining popularity among both beginners and professionals.

Installation instructions:

Run the installation file;
In the window that opens, click the “Next” button;
We accept the terms of the license agreement;
Select the installation location for the program;
When the download is complete, click the "Close" button.