What program should I use to export a MIDI/SF2 to a WAV?

Question

I'm trying to convert some music from a GBA ROM to WAV so I can use them. I've used this tool to rip the music. It's left me with some MIDI files and an SF2 file for the instruments. I'd like to export these MIDIs using the SF2 for the instrument. Here are all the programs I have tried and why they didn't work:

• Audacity - Couldn't use the SF2 and exporting MIDIs isn't possible anyway.
• FL Studio 20 - Way too complicated for what I needed and I was using a trial version which restricted stuff
• LMMS - Playback was broken, random noise.

If you guys know how to do what I want in FL Studio or know a simpler program that can read MIDI/SF2 files and export as WAV, I'd love to use them. Thanks!

Answer 1

FluidSynth does this fairly simply. The user manual describes the large list of options available to tailor operation, but to render a MIDI file to WAV the simplest command is:

fluidsynth <soundfont file> -F <output file> <MIDI file>

e.g.

fluidsynth  "GT Steel.sf2" -F "high-hopes.wav" high-hopes.mid

Some alternatives to using fluidsynth are described here: Convert MIDI file to WAV using fluidsynth on OS X

Answer 2

"Awave Studio" can do this, and you can also mass-create wav/mp3/whatever files if you have the MIDI and the corresponding SF2.

I would also recommend using "MIDI and Style File Checker" to scan your MIDIs beforehand, because if you extracted them with "VGMTrans", you probably got some false MIDIs or RWAVs.

Awave Studio (paid): https://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html
MIDI and Style File Checker: http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/midicheck/
VGMTrans
- Master: https://github.com/vgmtrans/vgmtrans
- Qt version: https://github.com/sykhro/vgmtrans-qt
- WTL version: https://github.com/magcius/vgmtrans/releases