How to Turn Kalimba MIDI Into a Falling-Note Tutorial Video

Prepare your .mid file, your instrument’s tuning chart, Synthesia, and OBS Studio. Keep an untouched copy of the MIDI so you can compare any arrangement changes with the original.

Synthesia accepts MIDI and MusicXML files, which describe notes, instruments, and timing. An MP3 or WAV contains rendered audio and cannot replace the MIDI in this workflow. See Synthesia’s official Adding songs guide.

The finished lesson will use Synthesia’s piano keyboard as a pitch reference. A kalimba arranges its notes differently: lower pitches sit near the center, with higher pitches extending toward both sides. Kalimba Magic explains this layout and the typical C4–E6 range of a 17-note C instrument in How does the Kalimba Relate to the Piano?.

Decide on the lesson’s target tuning before adjusting the animation. Write that tuning in the opening caption, along with the playback tempo. A useful caption would be: “17-note kalimba in C · Letter-note guide · Practice tempo: 72 BPM.” Use the tempo you actually record.

Compare every pitch in the arrangement with your instrument’s tuning chart. For the reference instrument here, check for natural notes within C4–E6. A file named “kalimba” still needs this check; its name does not establish which tuning or arrangement it uses.

Open the MIDI in your usual MIDI editor if it needs changes. Inspect the melody separately from accompaniment, then use this decision aid. These are arrangement recommendations derived from the instrument’s pitch limits, rather than automatic conversion rules.

What you find	What to do before recording
Every pitch exists on your instrument	Keep the pitches and review the rhythm.
A phrase extends below or above its range	Try moving the whole phrase by an octave, then listen for awkward jumps.
The arrangement uses unavailable sharps or flats	Consider transposing the whole arrangement; check every resulting pitch again.
Accompaniment makes the lesson too dense	Create a clearly identified melody-only arrangement.
Several simultaneous notes are difficult to reproduce	Test the chord on your instrument and simplify it deliberately if needed.

For example, moving C3 up an octave produces C4, but moving F-sharp up an octave still produces F-sharp. Range and pitch availability require separate checks. Avoid deleting every unavailable note: that can leave unexplained gaps in the melody.

Review timing as well. If the MIDI came from a live performance, small differences between chord-note start times may create a scattered visual pattern. Synthesia recommends quantization for cleaner events but cautions that excessive quantization can alter fast passages. Preserve intentional rhythmic detail when cleaning the file. See Creating Great Content for Synthesia.

If you edit a score in MuseScore Studio, use File → Export, choose MIDI, and select the intended parts. Enable Expand repeats when repeated sections should appear in full in the exported sequence. Reopen and listen to the resulting MIDI before continuing; MuseScore documents these options in File export.

On Windows, locate the MIDI, right-click it, and choose Play in Synthesia. Alternatively, add its folder through Settings → Songs → + so it appears in the song library. These are documented desktop import methods in Adding songs.

Open Song Settings → Hands, Colors, and Instruments. Identify the part containing the kalimba arrangement. Set it to Background for automatic playback, then choose a visible color: Synthesia normally hides Background parts until you change their color.

For a melody-only lesson, hide and mute unwanted parts. Check both settings because visibility and sound are independent: a hidden part can still contribute audio, and a muted part can remain visible. Synthesia explains these controls in First-time setup.

Play the entire arrangement once. Listen for missing phrases and watch for unexpected accompaniment. If you retain backing instruments, distinguish them clearly from the notes the viewer should play.

Start with letter names. Click the La toolbar icon, select Note Labels, and enable English Note Names. Configure Key Labels separately if you also want labels on the keyboard. Synthesia uses separate controls for these two locations, as described in Showing labels.

Avoid selecting Finger Hint Numbers as kalimba number notation. Those numbers describe piano fingering. Scale Number represents degrees of the song’s musical key, so its meaning can change with that key. Letter names are a practical starting point when the viewer needs to match displayed pitches to a fixed tuning chart.

Make octave differences explicit. Enable octave labels on the keyboard and include a short legend explaining the notation used in your lesson. If you add numbered captions, define your convention—for example, C4 = 1, C5 = 1′, and C6 = 1″—and keep it consistent.

Add an opening instruction such as: “Match the note name to your tine. Pluck when the block reaches the keyboard.” Synthesia’s documented timing cue is the moment a falling block touches the top of the displayed keyboard. See Playing your first song.

Because the keyboard and kalimba use different layouts, avoid placing a static tine diagram beneath the animation in a way that suggests each falling column lands on its matching tine. A separate text legend can explain the mapping without creating a misleading visual alignment.

Use Synthesia’s + and − speed controls to choose the practice tempo. Then use the magnifying-glass menu’s Song Only setting to frame the pitches used in the arrangement. Page Up and Page Down adjust how much upcoming music is visible. These controls are covered in Playing your first song.

Try the opening phrase on your kalimba while watching the display. Increase the visible lead-in if notes arrive before you can read them, but keep labels large enough to distinguish. This is a practical readability test, not a fixed tempo rule.

For an illustrative calculation, at 72 quarter-note beats per minute, one beat lasts 60 ÷ 72, or approximately 0.833 seconds. Four beats last about 3.33 seconds. If you prepare a four-beat introduction, that gives you a concrete duration to check at this constant tempo. A song with tempo changes needs corresponding timing adjustments.

Choose an available instrument sound in Synthesia and preview it. MIDI playback depends on the instrument library used, so the same file can sound different between applications. MuseScore explains this distinction in its File export documentation.

On Windows, Synthesia also supports .SF2 SoundFonts through its built-in MIDI synthesizer. If you already have a suitable library, put it in a scanned song folder and select it under Settings → Music Output → Built-in MIDI Synthesizer → Sound set. Test it before recording; the procedure is documented in Changing instrument sounds.

Run Tools → Auto-Configuration Wizard in OBS and choose recording as your task. Create a scene, then add Window Capture from the Sources dock and select Synthesia. Fit the captured window into the canvas, preserving the falling-note area, labels, and keyboard. OBS documents the setup process in its Quick Start Guide.

For a starting layout, try 1920 × 1080 at 30 frames per second if your display supports that resolution. These are suggested production settings. In Settings → Video, check both the canvas and output resolutions; OBS treats them separately. Its Overview Guide also explains the frame-rate controls.

For audio on Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11, OBS Studio 28 and later provide Application Audio Capture. Add that source and select Synthesia. In OBS 30.1 and later, you can alternatively enable Capture Audio on a Window Capture source. Use one capture route, and disable global Desktop Audio when using application capture to avoid duplicate sound. See the official Application Audio Capture Guide.

Mute microphone capture unless you intend to narrate. Play a phrase and verify that the intended audio meter moves. Record a short sample, stop, and open the saved file to check both sound and picture before recording the whole lesson.

In Settings → Output, choose the recording folder and format. OBS recommends MKV for recording and provides File → Remux Recordings to produce an MP4 afterward. Follow the Standard Recording Output Guide for those controls.

Return Synthesia to the beginning, start OBS recording, and begin playback. Leave a brief introduction before the first playable note and let the final sound finish before stopping. Trim setup footage in your video editor while preserving that preparation time and the ending.

Review the actual recorded file using this diagnostic sequence:

• Notes disappear: Check whether the teaching part is Background with its color still set to Hidden.
• The lesson contains extra sound: Check the Sounded/Muted setting for every accompaniment part.
• Numbers do not match tine markings: Check whether you selected piano finger hints or scale degrees instead of the intended labels.
• Audio is silent or doubled: Check the selected capture source and whether Desktop Audio is also active.
• Picture and sound disagree: Inspect several note attacks near the beginning and end. Correct the capture or editing alignment before finishing.
• The player cannot follow: Recheck pitch availability, label size, preparation time, and the recorded tempo.

Finish with a video that states its tuning, shows readable pitches, and provides a consistent arrival cue for each pluck. Preserve the editable arrangement and recording alongside the final file so you can revise the lesson when a phrase needs clearer timing or simpler notes.

• Kalimba Magic — How does the Kalimba Relate to the Piano?
• Synthesia — Adding songs
• Synthesia — Creating Great Content for Synthesia
• Synthesia — First-time setup
• Synthesia — Showing labels
• Synthesia — Playing your first song
• Synthesia — Changing instrument sounds
• MuseScore Studio Handbook — File export
• OBS — Quick Start Guide
• OBS — OBS Studio Overview Guide
• OBS — Application Audio Capture Guide
• OBS — Standard Recording Output Guide