This page is best viewed at 800x600x16bpp or better
This is a Crescendo enhanced "StreamSite" Music will play almost immediately.

(Coming soon...new Midi files !)

• MIDI Music Menu, take your pick!
• Just what is MIDI anyway ?
• Links to MIDI sites.
• Midi without the Card !
• Hear it before you buy it....Now!
• Hey, I don't hear any music !
• Back to the Main Page

 
 

Welcome to "~The Midi Page~ !" You should be able to find a midi file or two at this site, enjoy listening to it, and decide if it's worth the download !

It's amazing how many computer owners have no idea what MIDI is, even those who own a computer with Midi capability !
For a quick explanation read on. For a more detailed explanation Click here!

 A "MIDI" music card (or box, they come in various packages both internal and external) is an electronic device capable of taking a small prerecorded "sampling" of a real musical instrument and from that sample, reproduce (by synthesis) almost any sound the real instrument is capable of making. This gives the programmer the ability to record the sound and store it as a midi file. When played back, the recording will sound as if the real instrument was recorded in a full musical session instead of just a small sampling. In contrast, an "FM" type music card does not use instrument samples. The sound is generated completely artificially and the result sounds that way.

An example of a MIDI card is the Turtle Beach "Tropez" or Creative Lab's "Sound Blaster AWE64." Of course there are other manufacturers of MIDI cards. An example of an FM card is Creative Labs "Sound Blaster 16" (or the Basic or Pro). If you are in the market for a sound card, by all means get one with MIDI capability. Look for the term "Wave Table" or "Wave Effects" or, of course, "MIDI" on the box. Get one with the ability to accept add on memory, this will come in handy if you want to further improve the sound of a midi card.

 Now with "Positional Audio" or "3D Sound" and dynamic memory allocation for midi banks (such as the Sound Blaster "Live") you can have great music combined with great sound effects such as "environmental" sound generation. With "environmental" sound generation, the card will create the effects to go with the music to make it sound as if the music was coming from a concert hall or a church or a music studio by adding "echo" or "deadening" the sound. The results are outstanding. (check the tutorial to learn more about memory and midi.)

Hey ! Want to have MIDI capability without having to get a midi card ? There are several inexpensive (about $20-30 bucks) software solutions !

With high speed processors such as the Pentium, it's practical to have the CPU process the music rather than a MIDI card and use the computer's memory to hold the midi bank. Several companies have released software that handles this task very nicely.

Live Update has released   Crescendo MAX   This is a great way of "having your cake and eating it too!"  You get Crescendo and a software synthesizer program in one package !.

"MidPlug" is available from Yamaha at their "MidPlug" Site. I cannot attest to the quality of the sound. I have not heard it myself. Those who have it, say it is very good. (available for both the PC and the MAC.)

If you own a Sound Blaster 16 you too can now have MIDI capability without adding a midi card (at the same $20 bucks !) go to Creative Labs and look up the "WaveSynth/WG" program that just became available!! The WaveSynth/WG program is also for AWE32 and Sound Blaster 32 cards giving them 64 voices instead of the usual 32 and enhanced Midi sound via new "WG" technology. Check it out !!

Crescendo's StreamSites Page. Want your music without the wait? Here is the place to go. These sites have "streaming protocol" built in to them, You can get streaming midi without it costing you a cent. Just download Crescendo (free) and go to a "StreamSite" The site will trigger Crescendo to start to play with only a few bytes of the downloaded music while the remainder is still downloading!. This site is a "StreamSite"!

Don Carrol's Midi Riff Bulge Page... Don's sequences are some of the best you will hear. Much of his work is available on this page, I applaud his generosity for sharing his talent with all of us. Truly beautiful work.

Visit Live Update's "Cool Site of the Day" and find out who won the award for today and get an ear full of first rate music at the same time!

Try Kriz's Midi Page... an excellent site for original music compositions.

Midi.com... is a very good and very big site...good source to other links.

Midi World.Com... good site, interesting information about midi hardware.

Midi File Central... This site was one of the "top 5" requested searches according to alta-vista.

The MIDI Farm... Excellent... another "top 5" site.

"Favorite Midi Files"..., An interactive site! You can add or take your favorite song or site.

"The Sundowner"... has a great Midi site and a sense of humor to go with it! The "Old West" is back!.

Standard Midi Files on the Net... is a very large and comprehensive list of Midi files and Sites.

Hey, what's that neat looking control panel directly above with the numbers on it ? Crescendo of course ! Then again, if you don't have Crescendo you won't see it or benefit from it, will you !...It's free for the taking at Liveupdate's Crescendo Site ! The latest revision of Crescendo has been released. Check out the site to see what the new beta has to offer!

For those of you who do not have a Midi card, I cannot say enough to convince you to get one. Although this music will play with a standard FM sound card, the difference in sound quality is like night and day. If finances dictate otherwise or you just don't want to open the computer you may want to look into buying a software alternative such as "WaveSynth" from Creative Labs or Yamaha's "MidPlug" . These programs are only $20 bucks and well worth it.

 Special thanks to Don Carrol and the other great midi authors who sequenced this music and made it available for all to hear. Another thanks to Glen Davis for supplying some of the midi's.

"Hey, I dont get any music ! " Like all things in life, MIDI home pages don't always run smoothly. From time to time I get email complaining of no music with the page. If you don't get music with this page, you probably are missing out on music on all midi based pages. Follow the suggestions below and you will be hearing music in no time. Before looking here make sure your computer is playing midi files offline ! If it doesn't work offline it won't work online. The problems below are the most common reasons for no sound.

If after trying the suggestions below you still don't get sound, leave me a note and I will check it out.!

 If you are experiencing a problem running Crescendo after installing the "ToolVox" Voxkit Plugin Click here or if Crescendo ran fine until you upgraded to Netscape 3.0 Click Here Both are easy fixes and only take about 10 minutes to do...
 
 

Email me with any suggestions or comments...Thanks ! steve@stevebassett.com