TCG's MIDI Notes & Links
TCG's MIDI Notes & Links
A Musical Note: If you have a QT/MIDI plug-in installed, or if you've chosen a
helper application in your browser's preferences that can play audio/midi (.mid) files,
selecting a file link below should(!?) play the file, via the plug-in or application.
Or you can save the link instead as a raw ("source") data file: Macintosh/Netscape users, for example, need to option-click (I just click & HOLD) the desired file link. Now select "Save this Link as..." and save the file as a "source" file. (You'll still need some sort of MIDI player application to hear the file on your hard drive, however.)
UPDATED Note on Plug-ins: for the "GS" files to sound right, you'll also need to have
your player/plug-in "hooked up" to a Roland or other GS-compatible sound
card or module!
A Second Musical Note: Some of the tunes are pretty short, since I don't have
a real midi input device: I do it the poor & stupid way--draggin' those dang oblongs
across the plotter graph! Also, some of the files are rather sparsely voiced because
they were originally _solo_guitar_ compositions or arrangements....
[Later Note: this mea culpa applies, for the most part, only to the first 15 or 20 files.]
FILE UPDATE Note: --[Previous Update/Revision notes deleted]--
As I've indicated at the top of the page, all files have now been (or soon will be) replaced with
new versions as of 10/30/96. Subsequently posted files & updates/revisions will be
appropriately dated.
"Tom! Every time I turn around, you've posted a new version of ----!?" Well,
to paraphrase Paul Valéry, " A song is never finished, only
abandoned." (However, if you notice that I've modified a file some six months
later, it was probably just an obsessive-compulsive editing of a meta-text comment!)
An Explanatory Key:
....GM: file should sound okay through any MIDI player/device,
though you may have to adjust the volume levels. (However, the file may use some
controllers--sostenuto, soft pedal, reverb, chorus, and portamento--not acknowledged
by all GM sound modules.)
....GS: file (usually) has instrument bank or drum kit changes that require a GS-compatible device to be played back correctly. Some files may just have slight GS SysEx or NRPN tweeks and may not fare too badly on a GM device: but if yu' happen to hear a helicopter in the middle of a slow, lush ballad--aaaaaaah!
NEW, as of 2/97: I've updated the textual notes to the MIDI tunes by including more detailed info on each file's use of GS/SC-specific MIDI messages (bank select, sysex, etc.) and/or GM messages that aren't universal to all GM modules (portamento, etc.)....
....{karaoke}, KAR.mid: this suffix indicates a Karaoke MIDI file, with a lyrics track that many MIDI players can display (such as Arnold's Midi Player); or it can be imported into QuickTime 2.5 for an excellent karaoke show! Non-karaoke players can usually handle such a file, too, though you may have to change the file/creator types--and no karaoke display, of course. (These files were originally .kar files, but I renamed them so that my server would download them properly; you may have to rename them with the .kar suffix to see the lyrics display, depending upon your karaoke player....)
"WEIRD, fella--your karaoke files are originals, not tunes I know and can sing along with?!" Well, besides the copyright problems involved with the latter, I think .kar originals are a pretty concise & painless way to share original music-with-lyrics without the great many K's involved with a .wav or .aiff file, and/or without the time & expense of gettin' a real vocalist....
....RH.mid: this suffix indicates a "RHythm" midi file, an extended "jam" version without the higher voices, made so that a guitar buddy of mine and I could practice our chops. [Obsolete--I've subsequently added my own lead lines to all such files; if yu' really want to jam to, say, one of the blues tunes, just mute the lead channel(s).]
....{BIAB}: songs with this designation employ rhythm sections (usually
drums, bass, and piano or guitar) that were originally generated in Band-in-a-Box,
then tweeked and combined with original tracks....
== SOME MIDI LINKS ==
**TUNES**
=-=-= MIDI files _per_se_ =-=-=
Standard MIDI Files
on the Net
MIDI FILES! (The Ultimate Midi File Archive)
The Complete MIDI File Directory
Web Thumper - MIDI Files
on the Net
Midi Music Links
on the Net :-{ (closed!/censored!?)
The Downbeat Cafe Jazz and Midi
Freestyle 101: MIDI Drum Files
GaryW0001's Official MIDI Homepage
**POTPOURRI MIDI PAGES**
=-=-= Files, info, software, et al. =-=-=
Yahoo! - Entertainment:Music:Computer Generated:MIDI
Harmony Central: MIDI Tools and Resources
HARMONY CENTRAL USENET NEWS ARCHIVE
Charles Gleason's Band-in-a-Box Files
Guitare et MIDI --en français
Index of /~raybiss/rhythms/midi
Index of /~raybiss/rhythms/midi/songs
**MIDI INFO**
=-=-= the tEcHnIcAl side =-=-=
MIDI Technical Fanatic's Brainwashing Center
Brief Overview of Proposed General MIDI Level 1 Spec
**MAC/MIDI INFO**
=-=-= Apple to the core! =-=-=
The Macintosh MIDI User's Internet Guide
MMAP's Midi and the Mac
:-{ (defunct?)
QTMA QuickTime Music Architecture
d r e a m f l u i d: music via QTMI and MIDI
**ROLAND/SOUND CANVAS INFO**
=-=-= the HARDware =-=-=
Sound Canvas FAQs, HOW-TOs, and Other Readables
Harmony Central: The Synth Database: Roland
**MIDI SOFTWARE**
=-=-= commercial & shareware/freeware =-=-=
TONTATA's Home Page (English edition)
**RELATED MUSIC HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SUPPORT**
Gracenote (CDDB) {6/01}
Best of MP3 for Apple Macs {6/01}
SoundJam MP {6/01}
SoundJam message board (Cassady & Greene) {6/01}
Toast Support (Roxio) {6/01}
Roxio Listserv (Toast, etc.) {6/01}
Sound Edit 16 manuals {6/01}
== MIDI NEWSGROUPS ==