The MMAS & QSA Message Board

Hi all (whoever is actually here occasionally),

I'm looking to edit some MIDI files. Last time I did that was over a decade ago, and I used good old CakeWalk 3.01, which suited my needs very well. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it to work with Windows 10, and I'm looking for an alternative.
I don't need anything too fancy, just something that'll allow me to add tracks, change instruments, and maybe edit some event data.

Any recommendations? Free options are, of course, preferred, but I'm willing to fork a few bucks if there's something that's good and simple to learn.

Thanks!

I use Voyetra Record Producer MIDI Edition, which is basically the same as MIDI Orchestrator and Digital Orchestrator, but works on 32-bit systems and has a very slight updated interface.

You can't find it for purchase (AFAIK), but it can be found otherwise, and works on Win 10. PM me if interested.

As for free programs, the only one off the top of my head is Rosegarden. Only ever used Voyetra programs myself though.

Thanks, Alistair, I'll be sure to check it out (if I can find it or... otherwise ).

You can actually try the latest version of Cakewalk. It's completely free now and runs on windows 10. https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

Interesting!!
No limitations whatsoever?

The catch appears to be "Cakewalk by BandLab and all its world-leading features are available free-to-download via the BandLab Assistant client for Windows - your central hub on your desktop for your musical creative process."

So if you don't want said Assistant, go another way. If you're comfortable with it, or want to see how it is, go for it.

Another free one I forgot about is Anvil Studio, no idea how good it is.

I also dislike that they seem to be making users give an email address to install it. Not that I've tried it, so I'm purely going from the screenshots I saw while downloading cakewalk.

Sadly, Rosegarden is only available for GNU/Linux, not that I like to use any other OS.

I wanted to answer your question earlier, but got sidetracked. Even now, I haven't had time to test any of them, but the two I'd planned on are MuseScore and Aria Maestosa. I found out about them from wikipedia's nice list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... sequencers

Musescore (portable) wouldn't fully download for me, while Aria Maestosa looks a bit underdeveloped, but its latest release may have made it useful to those of us with hardware modules.

I think Alistair's suggestion of Voyetra Record Producer MIDI Edition is probably the one I'd hope to find if I wanted a newer sequencer to use on windows. In fact, I bought an old-stock "Voyetra Digital Orchestrator" (I couldn't find the "Plus," or famed, "Pro" versions, though) the last time the topic of sequencers came up. I haven't tried it yet either.

Good luck with whatever you do end up using.

Yeah the band assistant client is a bit of downer, but the current version of Cakewalk still has that "classic" piano roll view and event editor from the older versions (with some UI enhancements of course). So if that is something you are used to, you can give this a shot

Great! I'll give it a try.
Thanks!

Jaffa, Digital Orchestrator Pro is what I used to use. It's 16-bit though I think. If it does work 32-bit, it is scaled for old resolution screens and shows up too small. Record Producer fixes this, it's 90% the same as DOP with a new skin and a few new useful features.