Luke's MIDI Info

Luke's
MIDI
Info

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface; it is computer interpreted music. MIDI files are coded instructions that tell the soundcard which instrument sound to produce, at which note, and for how long. Most PC soundcards use a method known as FM Synthesis where different instrument sounds are created through algorithms. Another method of music generation is Wavetable. Wavetable plays recorded sounds of real instruments, making the music sounds more natural. If your soundcard doesn't support Wavetable, there are some programs that can fake it through software.

Wavetable on an FM card?
There are many programs that can convert a Sound Blaster 16 or compatible card into a wavetable card! One such program that does this is WinGroove. The biggest problem with this is that on a slower computer it takes up too much resources, and system slows down. Plus, you can't use wave sound while a MIDI is playing.

To listen to MIDI files, a PC compatible computer must have a soundcard and MIDI drivers. Macintosh users will probably need to acquire the latest version of Quicktime audio. As for something to play the MIDI song, your browser should have built-in MIDI audio support.

I created this page so that others can download and enjoy MIDI on their computers. Here is a link to my MIDI Resource with links to various MIDI files available for download. You should be able to click on a MIDI title to play the song. To directly SAVE files to your system, first hold down the SHIFT key (OPTION if Mac) while clicking on the MIDI title. Your browser will then prompt you for a destination on your computer. This is necessary if your MIDI plug-in does not have a built-in SAVE feature.

The best way to find MIDI files are through web pages like mine. You would be surprised how much you can get by doing a search on the key word "MIDI"... The next best place is the USENET newsgroup, alt.binaries.sounds.midi, where new files are posted and requested daily. Have fun hunting and I hope visiting my page will be a great discovery of a new interest.

You can also play MIDI in the background on your personal web pages. Each browser uses a different method of embedding MIDIs into an HTML document. Here is a script that is compatible with both browsers. Just copy and paste the code below onto your page and replace the filename.mid with the filename of the MIDI you want played.

<!-- Script courtesy of MIDI Heap -->
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript">if (navigator.appName == "Netscape")
        { 
document.writeln('<EMBED src="filename.mid" loop="true" length="1" width="1" hidden="true" autostart="true">')
        }
 
if (navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer")
        {
document.writeln('<BGSOUND src="filename.mid" loop="infinite">')
        }</SCRIPT>

The single code for each browser is below.


<EMBED Width="20" Height="20" Src="filename.mid" AutoStart="TRUE" Loop="TRUE" Controls="FALSE">

<BGSOUND Src="filename.mid" Loop="infinite">

This is what you write to support both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer without using JAVA:
   <embed src="filename.mid" width=200 height=55 autostart=true loop=true>
   <noembed>
   <bgsound src="filename.mid" loop=infinite>
   </noembed>

Some Audio <EMBED> Examples

Here are a few examples of how to EMBED a MIDI or another sound file
on your HTML pages. Note that these work with Netscape 3.0+ and
its built in LiveAudio feature. The results may be different if one uses
MS Internet Explorer or if one has a 3rd party MIDI plug-in.

Here's a brief overview of some of the OPTIONS:

Hidden="TRUE | FALSE": If set to TRUE, no control box will be visible or placed.
Height="XXX" Width="YYY": These allows you to control the dimensions of the control panels if visible.
Loop="TRUE | FALSE": This allows you to loop the song. Set it to FALSE if you only want it to play once.
Volume="XXX" Use the VOLUME option to set the initial playback level of the sound file. You can specify a range from 0 to 100.
AutoStart="TRUE | FALSE" Set AutoStart to TRUE if you want the song to automatically begin playing when it loads. If set to false, the visitor has to hit the playbutton to start a song.

here are some examples:

Standard Console
		<EMBED SRC="rebelyell.mid" Hidden="FALSE" AutoStart="FALSE" Volume="75" Loop="FALSE" Height="60" Border="0" Width="145" Controls="TRUE">
Small Console
		<EMBED SRC="rebelyell.mid" Hidden="FALSE" AutoStart="FALSE" Volume="75" Loop="FALSE" Height="15" Border="0" Width="145" Controls="SmallConsole">
Play Button Only
		<EMBED SRC="rebelyell.mid" Hidden="FALSE" AutoStart="FALSE" Volume="75" Loop="FALSE" Height="24" Border="0" Width="35" Controls="PlayButton">

How can I convert WAV into MIDI?
Those of you who have read any of the newsgroups in alt.binaries.sounds.midi or alt.music.midi, already know you can't, but there are 2 Windows programs that try at http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/FORMAT_CONVERTERS/
Another one called AmazingMIDI transcribes music automatically by converting WAV files into MIDI files. It can handle both monophonic and polyphonic music. It's a powerful tool, helps you to transcribe music, practice musical instruments, make MIDI files, and so on. The data size is limited to a maximum of 30 seconds on the unregistered version. Requires Windows 95/98 or Windows NT4.0 system.

What are some other resources on the net?
There are many great resources for MIDI utilities out there. Here are a few:

Hitsquad's Shareware Music Machine - Many great programs for DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95/NT, Macintosh, Atari, Linux, and OS/2.

The MIDI Farm - Whatever you need is probably there! The site has so much information its almost unbelievable!

Questions? Comments? Send Email! Click on Link or animations below
	darkelf@tds.net

View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook

Visit my related pages!
Home MP3 MIDI .WAV

Back to top of page

Visit my related pages!
Home	MP3	MIDI	.WAV

Page made by Luke VanSickle
http://www.angelfire.com/home/Luke1971/