Midi Files

Status:   
    These are just samples to listen to and enjoy.

Song List: (click on links for samples)

Description: 
    Here's a few Midi files that I've been playing with over the years. I do have a whole lot more files, but have refrained from posting them for their severe lack of completion and quality.
    MIDI, as some of you may know, stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface". Now what that fancy acronym really means is basically that the computer stores information, not real sounds. Let's say you play a middle "C" on the keyboard. The computer doesn't record the sound, but the information. It records the fact that you played the "C", when you played it, how long and how hard you played it, and what particular sound was used. When played back, the computer doesn't play the actual sound, but again, just replays the information back to the keyboard. It's kind of like a fancy computerized player piano.
    So whole compositions can be played and recorded in this format, and it takes up very little space, whereas digital audio takes up much more. However, midi files are never consistent from one computer to another, or from one keyboard to another. So many computers have so many different sound cards, that a file on one computer may sound really impressive and realistic, while the same file, on another computer, may sound like a cheap toy organ. Most computers now have built in sound chips with digital samples in their processors, giving them the ability to recreate very realistic instruments and sounds. So a midi file can sound much better than they did some years ago. However, when compared to some of their counterparts on my other pages, you can see how much difference there is in some of these midi files, and how primitive your sound card quality might be on your computer.
    With the compression of digital audio these days, and the inconsistency of midi in sound cards, fewer people are using midi files. But they are still very useful for musicians. For one reason, it is nice to be able to record a track, and later come back and try the same recording with various different instruments or sounds. Then, it's also handy to actually be able to print out sheet music for that track for future reference. It definitely gives the artist a lot more flexibility in many ways.

    "Dremas" was actually originally recorded on a laptop, using the computer keys as musical keys. I later re-arranged the piece to suit my more advanced keyboard system, and recorded it digitally. By the way, the name, "Dremas" was originally a typo, and was suppose to be "Dreams", but after realizing, I just left it that way.
    "Excerpt" was a quick experiment from keyboard to computer, and later recorded through the keyboard for more natural and professional sounds. Although I still have not yet finished it in the studio.
    "Wavetable" is totally an experiment with midi. Curious about all the different sound cards and devices out there I sent this file out to a lot of people and asked their opinion about it and how it sounded on their system. I was amazed to see how many different responses I got, and the results. I was surprised that so many people still had very poor quality sound cards for the midi. The piece has a whole lot of mistakes. But like I said, it was all for an experiment and I never planned on using it for anything else. I then had several people record what they heard, and send it back to me. Wow, what a difference. These files can take on a whole different feel from one system to another.
    Taking several of my other compositions from my fancy keyboard, and pumping them through the sound card really made me glad I had another means of making sounds. These cards are sometimes quite awful.