Anvil Studio

Anvil Studio is a free Windows 7 / Vista / XP program for editing multi-track MIDI files. The free version can:

• Host a VST-Instrument using Core Audio, DirectX or WDM.
• Create songs with unlimited MIDI tracks and 2 audio tracks up to one minute long.

With the optional Anvil Studio Pro-Mix accessory, it can load any number of VST-Effects and VST-Instruments, and ReWire instruments under ASIO, Core Audio, DirectX, or WDM, and it can record, edit, and playback VST parameter automation.

With the optional Anvil Studio Multi-Audio accessory, it can record and mix up to 8 Audio tracks of unlimited length.

With the optional Anvil Studio Print-Sheet accessory, you can annotate and print sheet music for standard MIDI files with standard music notation including: slur, crescendo, decrescendo, fermata, trill, repeat, D.C., D.S., Segno, Coda, Prima Volta, Seconda Volta, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and more.

• Editors: Staff, Lyrics, Piano Roll, Percussions, Loops, Audio, Events.
• File formats: standard .MID and .WAV files.
• Includes extensive integrated help.
• Piano Roll / Rhythm editor with:
  • Multi-level loops.
  • Loops can refer to notes, other loops, samples, or Riffs.
  • Import, record and edit audio samples and play them like drums.
  • Any note duration down to 1/128th notes.
  • Dynamic editing while the song is playing, making it easier to experiment with rhythms.
  • Duplet, quintuplet, and septuplet notes.
• Enter notes from external MIDI device, on-screen guitar fret board, on-screen piano keyboard, or by dragging notes to the staff.
• Lyrics, track names, and comments can be in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other languages.
• Percussion editor employs standard percussion notation.
• Edit note properties individually or as a group: Pitch, duration, volume, stem direction, staccato, tie-to-next-note, and delete note.
• Copy and paste between 2 song files by starting two copies of Anvil Studio with different songs loaded.
• Align notes with beats and measures.
• Stretch / compress notes over time.
• Compensation for MIDI and Audio device latency and working with low-latency ASIO and Virtual Instruments.
• Per-track On/Mute/Solo, device, instrument, channel, fader, pan, and effects controls.
• Shows up to 25 tracks of information displayed at the same time.
• Zoomed-out view of notes and wave data for all tracks at the same time.
• Option to play notes as mouse moves over them, making it easier to quickly locate a spot in the song.
• Dynamically change track volumes, mutes, instruments, and effects properties while a song continues to play.
• Fast loading and scrolling of large MIDI files.
• Time and Duration fields display time in Minute:Second:Frame(SMPTE), or Measure:Beat:Ticks, or sample format.
• Metronome includes tempo, lead-in, and accent beat attributes.
• Add Cue points for quickly positioning to a desired spot in the song.
• Play list for playing hours of different song files.
• File/Truncate menu to shorten the duration of .MID files.
• File/Merge Song menu for copying tracks between .MID files.
• User-defined keyboard shortcuts.
• Control Record/Play/Stop functions remotely using any MIDI controllers such as a Foot Switch, Modulation wheel.
• Free version has built-in patch-library support for SoundFont -compatible sound cards.
• Supports the Tascam US-428 External Mixing console.

Audio

• Free version allows you to record and edit a single, stereo or mono, one minute audio track.
• Mix audio files with different formats (bits per sample, samples per second).
• Controls for sound-card configuration.
• Mix all tracks down to a single .WAV file.
• Set record and play start and end times to control which range get recorded for Punch-in to re-record over mistakes.
• Record audio tracks from any sound card's Mono, Left, Right or Stereo channels, from any soundcard source including Microphone, Line-In, CD-Audio, etc.
• Audio effects: native reverb, native EQ, third-party DirectX effects.
• Audio filters: zero-range, pitch change, volume change, pan, filtering, reverse, normalize (to maximize a track's head-room), low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-stop.
• VU meters.
• Zoom in to the sample level.
• Per-sample Volume, Pan and Reverb controls.
• Record an Audio device's Left or Right channel to a track by itself.
• Mix stereo and mono Audio tracks in the same song to a stereo or mono mix.
• Split a stereo audio track into two mono tracks.
• Change audio tracks between Mono and Stereo.
• Paste Stereo to Mono and Mono to Stereo.
• Import .WAV files to audio tracks or sampled rhythms.
• When moving the mouse over notes on the staff, the equivalent keys on the piano keyboard are highlighted.
• Record from an external MIDI keyboard.
• Enter notes from Computer keyboard while real-time recording or manually composing.
• Select, Copy, Edit, Paste notes.
• Right-mouse popup menu control of individual note properties including:
• Staff style control to display 1 or 2 treble, bass, or other clefs.
• Quantize.
• Transpose diatonic or chromatic.
• Auto-harmonize.
• Triplets, quintuplets.
• Automatic layout of bars and staves.
• MIDI Master and Slave Synchronization modes for synchronizing with MIDI drum machines and sequencers.
• Repair Song menu fixes problems in badly-formatted MIDI files.