Author: Rob Goodwin

Twitter: @mididrumfiles
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MIDI Drums for use on Web sites

MIDI Drums
MIDI Drums

By now you have probably had some fun creating music on your MIDI instruments and editing or recording with or from your PC. MIDI makes the mixing and editing of music very easy, the files are basically universal and do not require much space. These benefits lead us into another possibility for MIDI pieces that you have created, playing them on your web site.

Why MIDI is great for web use.

As mentioned, there are several reasons that MIDI files are very useful for the web. The first reason is its compatibility.

Regular sound files are made by sampling the music being recorded at a very high speed. This means that all the details of the recorded piece are stored within the sound file. The clearer the music the larger the file size is.

In contrast, MIDI files do not store any music. A MIDI file only contains the details for what note should be played how long it should be played and how loud it should be played, as well as a few other note characteristics. This means the MIDI file being played is actually playing sounds that the sound card itself produces. This makes MIDI files much smaller in size.

The other important thing to consider is web page file size. The speed at which a web page is loaded depends upon your connection speed and the size of the web page. The smaller the web page the faster it will load, meaning MIDI is a great choice for embedded music.

How do I use my MIDI file on my web page?

Using your MIDI files on the web takes a little work and a little understanding of HTML programming. I will assume that you have already created both a MIDI file and a web page and wish to bring them together.

First you need to find the page you want to play the MIDI file from and open it for editing ao that you can see the source code. The nice thing about HTML is that it is a high level language meaning that it is very simple and not all that powerful. This also means that it is very easy for anyone to understand it and edit it. If you do not have an HTML editing program you can use Word or Notepad which comes automatically with the Windows OS. You must ensure that you save the file with the same extension it originally had, usually html or htm.

 Now for the programming part. To have your page play a MIDI file you first need to add a MIDI file to the same directory as the page source file. For example, let’s say the MIDI file is named web_music.mid. To use it, you must now add the following command to the code in your page.

<EMBED SRC=”web_music.mid” AUTOSTART=FALSE LOOP=FALSE WIDTH=145 HEIGHT=55 ALIGN=”CENTER”>
</EMBED>

Upload the MIDI file and your edited page to the web and then visit the page location using your web browser. Your web browser will use its default plug-in to play the file and you should hear music right away

Here’s what’s Happening:

  • EMBED tells the browser an embed sound is here — go get the plug-in. Remember, embed commands are associated with plug-ins.
    Note: If no plug-in is available, the browser will do one of three things:

    • 1. Do nothing. This is true of very early level browsers or browsers other than Netscape.
    • 2. Put up a dialogue box asking you how you want to handle the file.
    • 3. Tell you a plug-in is needed and ask you if you’d like to go get it.
  • HEIGHT/WIDTH deals with the plug-ins control panel size on the page.  If you do not want a panel, add the command HIDDEN=”yes” or set the height and width to zero.
  • SRC stands for “source.” It tells the browser where to go to get the audio file.
  • AUTOSTART deals with whether you want the sound to play by itself or by the viewer starting the file after the plug-in box pops up. “True” starts the file straight away; “false” prompts the viewer. Note I used “false” above. “True” would have started the file straightaway upon load.
  • LOOP works the same way. “True” loops the sound so it plays forever. Make the loop “false” if you only want it played once.

Now that you have added the commands and uploaded the page, you’re ready to go. This really makes for a nice personal touch and a great way to show off your musical talents. Have fun.

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How to make a bass line using MIDI drum files

Bass Guitar
Bass Guitar

I received an email recently from Jembailey in the U.K. where he suggests using the following method to create a bass line by using multiple drum files together. This idea is great if you don’t play bass and are stuck for ideas.

—- —- —- —- —- —–

– Bass Lines

“What I do is take two drum beats from the same genre. I use one of the beats for the background drums and the other beat I route through a different midi channel set up with a good sounding bass instrument. The result will obviously be a cacophony. However you can usually pick out an interesting pattern, often it’s from what would have been the kick drum, snare and hi-hats.”

“If you begin to prune the pattern, starting with the events higher up the key edit screen (I use Cubase) you can quite easily find yourself with the beginnings of a serviceable bass line.

“Obviously it’s necessary to lengthen a lot of the events, and often vary the velocity a bit, but once you’ve got eight bars or so you can loop it and then introduce variations. A tom tom roll makes a good descending run, or you can reverse the order of the notes and have it ascend. If you already have other parts written some transposition may be in order, you don’t want everything in the same key that the kick drum is assigned to.

“Rob – Thanks for the files, I’ve got a studio project coming up and will be looking to your MIDI Drum Files for the specific files I need.”

—– —– —— ——

Thanks Jembailey for your excellent suggestions.

If you also have any suggestions that might be helpful for other MIDI file users, please let us know. If it’s helpful, we may use your suggestions in one of our posts.

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FAQ

MIDI F.A.Q.
All of our midi files follow this format:
sect. A – fill 1 – sect. A – fill 2 – sect. B – fill 3 – sect. B – fill 4
Edit and loop to your hearts content !

How do I access these files?

There are two ways.  

 

Play them from your browser

    If you simply click on any of the file names located on our download page your browser will automatically download the file and begin playing the MIDI file.  This action does not save the file to your hard drive.  Most web browsers now days are equipped with a MIDI “plug-in” which recognizes the file(s) as MIDI and automatically begins to play them through your computer’s sound card and speakers. 
    The problem with this is that, in most cases, people have the stock sound card (which sounds horrible) that came with the computer.  So unless you have purchased a great after market sound card for your PC, these files probably sound a little weak.

    There are a couple of ways around this though.  

   ***  One is to get a software based MIDI synth. there are a bunch of them that you can buy, but there are also some really good ones for free. These software synths convert the MIDI data into ‘high quality’ musical sound (unlike most sound cards) and then pushes the music out your sound card. These are a great alternative to buying expensive MIDI equipment.

Here’s a list of some good software MIDI players
       http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/midi-players.html

Loopy – Great software!  and it’s FREE.

    Here are some others you might want to try out. (I have little or no experience with these.)     

 

    **** Another way is to buy an external MIDI sound unit. This is the route I go because the units are so much more editable and don’t take up precious computer RAM and CPU speed. Plus you can use them for other things if the need arises. 
    The MIDI data goes to this unit instead of through your sound card. That means you have to hook it up to your computer and have an external speaker source. (minor problems)
    I use a Korg NX5R unit: (click here for more information)

  This unit costs around $400 – $500 and is well worth it. It’s like having a studio Keyboard in a little box. 

    There are many different kinds of these modules that can be used with your computer.  Virtually every major keyboard has a rack mount, and module version that you can buy. 
    You can also use any MIDI compatible keyboard as your sound source. You don’t have to use a “little box”.

Download the files

    The reason I have these MIDI files available to download is not so much so that you can play them from your browser, but rather to download them into your computer for editing. This way you can use them as backing tracks for your songs or piece them together just for fun, or do what ever you want with them.

    You can download the files by clicking the RIGHT mouse button on whichever file you want to download. When you do this, a drop-down menu will appear. Simply select “Save File As….” and tell the computer where, on your hard drive, to save it.  Once it is saved you can import the file into any MIDI editing device or software where you can then use the file(s) however you want to.

    If you don’t have a software MIDI sequencer, here are some I can suggest. (There are MANY others)

    Cakewalk  –  Emagic – Opcode

Q: Why do these MIDI files sound so bad?

A: The files don’t sound bad…..  Your sound card does!

And before you say “How Dare They….”, please read why we can say this with certainty. Click here! and read… “Play them from your browser”

 

     If you have other questions about downloading these files please let us know: Contact Us

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Using MIDI files with an external sound source

How to Connect MIDI Devices
Connect MIDI Devices

How to use these kinds of files in your keyboard and/or standalone midi sequencers.

What is a MIDI file?
MIDI is a means of communicating music information among synthesizers, keyboards, computers and other electronic sound equipment through digital messages. Unlike wave files, MIDI files do not contain any sound. Instead they contain commands that tell the receiving unit exactly what note to play, what sound it should be played with, how loud it is, and how long to hold the note on.

What this means is that when you get a MIDI file, you are getting a file that contains what the composer did on his keyboard. The file is fairly small because it contains no actual sounds or voice information. To play back this file you need either a keyboard with both a MIDI interface and a floppy drive or a computer with MIDI capable sound card.

Playing back a MIDI file.
Playing back a MIDI file is fairly simple to do. In most cases it is a matter of putting a disk that contains a MIDI file into the floppy drive of your keyboard, selecting the file to be played and playing it. Since MIDI is such a common standard, it truly is this easy.

Playing MIDI files is extremely simple, but getting the most out of the play back can take a little more work. Consider, for example, playing your MIDI file back on a PC with a standard sound card. You will quickly find that the sounds coming from your computer may be a little flat or lifeless compared when the same piece is played on a keyboard.

The reason for this is found in how sound cards work. Sound cards have a wave table IC that contains the sampled sound of many instruments. Due to the expense and work involved in sampling these sounds few standard sound cards contain sampled sounds that are even close to the quality found in most keyboards or sound modules.

A keyboard has been designed to reproduce high quality sounds. A sound card has been designed to produce sound, not necessarily “high quality”. So what can you do about this? The answer is simple, connect the MIDI output of your sound card, to the MIDI input on your keyboard, and set your computer to play the MIDI file out to the keyboard. Now when you play back the same musical piece, the keyboard will play it with its full sound compliment instead of using your low quality sound card sounds.

Also worth noting… there are available now, high quality sound cards with “synth” engines built into them. These cards are typically much more expensive than your average generic sound card though. Consult your local music store for more information about this.

How do I connect MIDI devices?
Connecting MIDI devices is a fairly simple task. The standard cable for MIDI is a 5-pin cable with a small round connector. This cable carries the digital commands from one unit to another.

To connect the MIDI devices start with the master unit. All MIDI units will have jacks labeled as IN, OUT and most have a THROUGH. Take a suitably sized MIDI cable and go from the OUT of the main unit to the IN on the slave unit. Then take a second MIDI cable and go from the IN of the first unit to the OUT on the slave unit. (Note: the Out from one unit cannot connect to the OUT of the other. This will not work. An OUT must always connect to an IN).

Now that the digital command links have been established you can begin to establish the audio connections. Start with the slave device and run a patch cable from the audio out to the audio input on your mixer or amp.

These simple connections are all that are required. Now you can use the main unit to cause any of the other unit(s) to play music as you see fit. Remember the shorter the cable run the better the signal quality will be. And it is not recommend to run more than 4 or 5 units in a MIDI chain as the signal can become weak and unstable.

Further details.
The exact details for playing back MIDI files on your keyboard, sequencer or drum machine will vary with different models. While the basic steps are usually the same, the best source of instruction is yours owners manual.

If your instrument has a disk drive, normally you would start by saving a MIDI file on a standard DOS formatted disk. After the file is saved, you insert the disk into the floppy drive on your digital instrument. Use the built in floppy drive controls to select the MIDI file on the disk and then select play.

Playing back a MIDI file on your PC may be slightly more complicated but still is very simple. The first step is to ensure that the MIDI drivers for your sound card or MIDI ports are installed and enabled. The information that came with your sound card will tell you how to this properly.

On a PC it is very common to use some sort of music editing software to play back or modify a MIDI file. Follow the manufacturer’s directions to install your music editing software and ensure that it works with your sound card.

Once the software and hardware are ready you can begin having fun. Insert the disk with the MIDI file into your PC’s floppy drive and open the file with your music editing software. The software will allow you to play or change the file as needed.

As you can see, thanks to industry standards, using MIDI files is fairly simple to do. You will be amazed with the possibilities that are opened up once you begin working with MIDI files.

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MIDI Drum Map

General Midi
Drum Map

Keyboard NoteMidi NoteInstrument
B235Acoustic Bass Drum
C336Bass Drum
C#337Side Stick
D338Acoustic Snare
D#339Hand Clap
E340Electric Snare
F341Low Floor Tom
F#342Closed Hi Hat
G343High Floor Tom
G#344Pedal Hi Hat
A345Low Tom
A#346Open hi Hat
B347Low Mid Tom
C448Hi Mid Tom
C#449Crash Cymbal 1
D450High Tom
D#451Ride Cymbal 1
E452Chinese Cymbal
F453Ride Bell
F#454Tambourine
G455Splash Cymbal
G#456Cowbell
A457Crash Cymbal 2
A#458Vibra slap
B459Ride Cymbal 2
C560Hi Bongo
C#561Low Bongo
D562Mute Hi Conga
D#563Open Hi Conga
E564Low Conga
F565High Timbale
F#566Low Timbale
G567High Agogo
G#568Low Agogo
A569Cabasa
A#570Maracas
B571Short Whistle
C672Long Whistle
C#673Short Guiro
D674Long Guiro
D#675Claves
E676Hi Wood Block
F677Low Wood Block
F#678Mute Cuica
G679Open Cuica
G#680Mute Triangle
A681Open Triangle

 

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Cool ways to use these MIDI drums for fun.

Music Fun
Music Fun

Forget work, huge recording studios, expensive gear, towering effects racks, and sequencing learning curves. Let’s talk about how to use these MIDI Drum Files just for fun.

Out of the 10,000 or so people that have accessed our drum files recently, a large percentage of them use the files to back up original music tracks. Another block of people download them specifically as cell phone ringtones (more about how to do that in a later email). But hidden in there somewhere is a group of people that come up with creative uses for these files just for fun. I thought you might like to hear some of the stories and get some creative ideas for yourself.

Take Mary (San Francisco, Ca), for example. After getting our complete set of MIDI Drum Files, she selected about 35 and proceeded to chain them all together using Cakewalk’s Sonar 3. She added some strings over the top of the beats and converted them into one long MP3. Now they can be heard almost every day in the lobby of her ‘modern dance’ studio in Southern San Francisco. Thanks Mary.

Then there’s Toby (Springfield Mo.)… Junior High camp director. He bought these files for a 2003 summer camp he was involved with in Missouri. Selecting out the Rap and Rave, beats he gave the students one week to come up with the best rap about their counselors. The kids were able to pick the beat they wanted and could perform it in front of everybody. The show was a screaming success and the performers had their friends rolling on the floor with laughter. Thanks Toby.

OK, its Halloween night, the lights are dark, the spider webs are hung above the entry way. Who better to greet unsuspecting trick-or-treeters than Snoop Doggy Dog Himself…. Or at least Mark H. of Houston TX. made up to look like ‘The Dog’. The drum files play all around his house to make it sound like one of his rap song drum beats. He greets the kids who stop by. Most of them ask if he really is Snoop. Thanks for the creativity Mark.

These are some stories that have come from creative people over the years who not only get good use out of our MIDI Drum Files, but also have fun with them in the process. If you have any stories like these of creative ways to use our drum files… Please let us know about it.

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MIDI Ringtones for Cell Phones

MIDI Ring Tones
MIDI Ring Tones

Are you tired of having the same ring on your phone as everyone else? Would you like a specific riff as a ring tone but can not find it or do not wish to pay high user fees to get it? Well the good news is now you can with the aid of your MIDI instruments.

Custom ring tones have been popular ever since cells phones allowed users to change the ring. A new industry has sprung up to meet the demand for custom ring tones. As part of this industry a new type of MIDI file has been introduced called SP-MIDI.

MIDI began as a way for electronic instruments to interact with each other, and any computer can play MIDI files. Recently a group of interested parties came together, including Beatnik, Nokia and the MIDI Manufacturers Association, to create an adaptation of MIDI to work in handheld devices such as cell phones and PDAs. SP-MIDI provides the flexibility to both the user and the mobile terminal manufacturer to address differing customer needs.

Generally speaking, these new phones come with 8 notes but higher priced models have up to 32 notes. As you would expect with MIDI, the same SP-MIDI file can be played on any phone that supports it regardless of the make or the number of tones available. This is a huge advantage for people who switch phones periodically as now they only have to get their custom tones once. From there they can transfer the files to their new device.

Here are steps in the process of making a MIDI file SP-MIDI compliant.

1. Create the MIDI file.

As I am sure you have surmised, the first step is to either select a MIDI file on your PC or to record a MIDI file on your PC.

There are many software packages available, some for free. Nokia Audio Suite allows you to use MIDI sequencer programs such as Cakewalk to create SP-MIDI files.

Anvil Studio is an excellent choice for general MIDI work if you do not already have software. Anvil Studio offers plug-ins that makes the creation of SP-MIDI files fast and easy.

2. Streamline the file.

Now comes the musical and picky part. After recording a piece or opening a MIDI file you need to ensure that there are no more than 4 voices and limit the sound volume. You will wish to limit the number of voices to 4 as that is the default setting for portable devices and limit the maximum volume of the piece so that it can be played even with a low battery or if there is high processor usage.

Limiting the number of voices means reducing the number of voices present. With pre-made MIDI files this can be a little difficult. Some MIDI files download from the web can contain as many as 23 voices, so it is a matter of deciding what voices are not important to the integrity of the piece. For example you may be able to eliminate the soft flute voice in the background of the piece.

With the MIDI file complete it is time to audition the MIDI file with limited voices. For this Beatnik is an excellent software package that can be tried for 14 days for free.

Nokia licenses beatnik so you will be able to hear the piece exactly as it will sound on your phone. While playing back the piece ensure there aren’t any extra voices, swells in volume and that it sounds good.

3. Convert the file to SP-MIDI

Now things get a little tricky, as we need to generate MIP data to make the MIDI file SP-MIDI compatible. MIP data insures that the device will know which tracks are the most important. According to the Beatnik SP-MIDI Best Practices Guide “Each channel used in a SP-MIDI file requires a MIP value.”

The MIP values, which are entered in hexadecimal and added to the start of the file, can be figured out manually according to the standards, but it is best if your software does this automatically. The process used to determine the values for the MIP table can be found in the links provided below.

Once you or your software package have added the MIP data to the MIDI file all that remains is to convert it to SP-MIDI by saving the file as SMF format 0. Depending upon the software you are using this can be done by selecting ‘save as’ from the file menu or changing the options for format. Exact details can be found in the instructions that came with the software.

4. Upload the file

Now that you have created your custom ring tones it is simply a matter of loading them into your phone. Each phone is a little different so you will have to refer to the manual that came with your phone for exact instructions. With some phones the rings can be loaded directly from your PC into the phone. For other phones you will need to use WAP. With WAP you dial a certain phone number to connect to the service provides or manufacturers network and select the file to load. Often you must pay for this service but there are a number of free options.

With all that work done you now have your own custom ring tones that you can change any time you like. Have a little fun and create your own theme music that changes depending upon your mood if you like. The possibilities are limitless.