Enabling Note Track playback on Mac
Contents
What is needed
Basically you need to install and run additional software on your Mac:
- a software MIDI synthesizer, a synthesizer is the thing that actually makes sound from the MIDI instructions
Software Synthesizer
As described above, a synthesizer is the thing that actually makes the sounds for you.
SimpleSynth
For Macs, typically the easiest solution is SimpleSynth. You can download and install this program and keep it running in the background at all times. This will give you a basic set of standard MIDI sounds for Audacity to work with.
You can download SimpleSynth for free from this external website.
sforzando
If you wish to use a 64-bit software synthesizer (and this is neccessary for macOS 10.15 Catalina and onwards as only 64-bit applications are supported). then you can use sforzando, which is also available as a free download. }}
You can download sforzando for free from this external website.
Keep it running
Once you have installed your chosen software synthesizer launch it and keep it running in the background.
Otherwise you will need to re-launch it each time before you launch Audacity.
Ready for use
This should leave you ready to relaunch Audacity, import a MIDI file and play it.