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Awesome MONDO MIDI logo!
Index last updated 1/7/2002
CAREFUL! THERE'S A "DOUBLECLICK" COOKIE ON THIS PAGE!

WHAT THIS SITE IS:

A place to find original MIDI files, links to other sites with MIDI files, software, and information for people who want to enjoy the works of others, create works of their own, or both!

The era of Napster and Gnutella hasn't got me down. MIDIs still download in about 1/1000th of the time of an mp3 of similar length. Plus, I can make music by clicking, dragging, and typing on the computer keyboard. I don't even need the "ebonies and ivories" (or 10 fingers, for that matter).
WHAT'S A MIDI?

MIDI, according to Random House Webster's College Dictionary, is an abbreviation for Musical Instrument Digital Interface which is "a standard means of sending digitally encoded information about music between electronic devices, as between synthesizers and computers" Sounds pretty simple to me, but if you're unfamiliar with MIDI, that might sound like gibberish to you.

Basically, a MIDI instrument can record a performance and play it back exactly by recording parameters such as pitch, velocity, duration, and pitch bend. As MIDI sounds are digitally created, playback is precisely the same as the original performance.
THE ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE OTHER "W" QUESTIONS:

I make music on my computer (formerly an Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC, and as of November 2002, a secondhand Mac G3) using a MIDI sequencer called MIDIGraphy. MIDI allows me to do things which are humanly impossible and allows me great creativity and flexibility. The first MIDI I did with MIDIGraphy was Postdiluvian Prelude. Originally, I wrote it as an instrumental for a typical rock ensemble, but MIDIGraphy gave me the opportunity to hear it played by an orchestra almost immediately! I was hooked! My first experiments were similar: I transcribed works I had written long ago (The Pyramids of Mars, Antediluvian Postlude, etc.) and updated them with new ideas. Soon I was creating entirely new music such as Broken Glass, Intelligent Artifice, and A Big Mess of Timelessness.

I can't say that learning MIDIGraphy from scratch was an easy task. I hope to soon add to this website a tutorial for getting started with MIDIGraphy. It's what I've used to create all the original MIDIs you will find on this site. I've been using it for over two and a half years, and I've forgotten a lot of the questions I had in the beginning, so any questions from newbies would be very useful towards the goal of designing this tutorial. If YOU have any questions about using MIDIGraphy, write to me (change "(at)" to "@"), and I'll be glad to help!

And now, for your enjoyment, MONDO MIDI !


NOW PLAYING:
<BGSOUND SRC="images/PeachesAndCream.mid">
"Peaches and Cream"
NOW PLAYING: Peaches and Cream. A tune about the little things in life that can make you really happy -- even if they're imaginary!

The above MIDI file is best experienced with the Yamaha MIDPlug. If you don't see a little player above that says "Yamaha MIDPlug for XG," you can get it at:
http://www.yamaha-xg.com/midplug/index.html
This plug-in, available for both Netscape and Internet Explorer contains a "SoftSynth" which expires 90 days after installation. However, it's pretty cheap if you like it enough to shell out the bucks (or Yen). If you can't afford it, be sure to save the installer file. Since it's a fairly large download, this'll save you the time and cost of downloading it once again. (...especially if you have a Mac -- I know how to work around the expiration!)

Another decent (and FREE) MIDI player from Thomas Dolby (?!) that works as a plug-in in Netscape (Mac and PC) and Explorer (PC only) is Beatnik. It's available at:

http://www.beatnik.com/software/player.html
System requirements: Mac (OS 8.6 - 9.1) and PC (Win95/98/NT/ME/2000), Netscape (4.5+) and Explorer (5.0+). if you need the earlier Mac version, you can download it by clicking here.
Caveat emptor! I say you can't hear the bass and tympanies so well in Beatnik. However, the King Crimson MIDIs on the Elephant Talk link (below) sound very different and actually quite good using the Beatnik player.

To be honest, a lot of the MIDI players I've heard on PCs suck (unless you've got an expensive soundcard). There are alternatives. The next best thing to the Yamaha plug-in above that I've heard is Apple's QuickTime, available for both Macs and PCs at:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime
Quickly!
QuickTime 6 is out, but you need a really new computer and system to use it!
If you're running at 200 MHz or less and aren't using OS 8.6 or higher,
stick with QT 4.1.2 for now!

To hear some of my other original MIDI files, click on the links below.


My Categorized Collections of
MIDI-Related Links are now here!
Follow the links below to see
the rest of the stuff that used to be on this page.
MIDI-Enhanced
Sites
MIDI
Software/Info
Collections of
MIDI Files
Music -
Electronic & Otherwise
A MIDIGraphy
Tutorial/FAQ
(Coming soon?)

A completely inaccurate count of the visitors to this page

Email: MondoMIDI(at)mailcity.com
(change "(at)" to "@" before mailing)