MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
What is MIDI
There are many good explanations of MIDI on the net. See
Harmony Central's MIDI Documentation.
Why use a MIDI file?
- you can create a MIDI file composition without having the 'real' instruments on hand
- you can reorchestrate a MIDI file
- MIDI files can be very small. The 14 second MIDI file below is less that one-half a kbyte!
Creating a MIDI file
There are many software packages available to create MIDI files. Harmony Central has a
listing for many platforms. Generally the software falls into these categories:
To make a MIDI file to use on the web or in Director:
- save the file as Standard MIDI file type 0 (sometimes depends where you are using it)
- with Midigraphy you can save it directly as a Quicktime movie
To convert the MIDI file to a Quicktime MIDI file:
- change the file type to 'Midi' with a programme like MIDI File Converter (available on the Multimedia disk)
- open the file in Movie Player and save it
- change the voices using Get info...
Reorchestrating a Quicktime MIDI file
You can change the instruments that are played for each track in a sequence. go to Movie Player 2.5, open the MIDI file, go to the info window then choose: Music Track>>Instruments.
Playing a Quicktime MIDI file
A Quicktime MIDI file is treated just like any other Quicktime file. On the web you can
link to the file or just use the
embed tag:
Introduction
