Playing Midi Files

Midi Files are a set of instructions that tell a device - such as a computer's soundcard - that is Midi compatible (that knows about the Musical Instrument Digital Interface protocol) what to do to provide a representation of a piece of music.

Most Computer Operating System software, such as the various flavours of Windows, includes a Player that can accept Midi instructions; the Windows one is called "Media Player" (it will usually be found in Start|Programs|Accessories|Entertainment), and it can do all sorts of other exciting things as well as play Midi Files. In addition, there are many other dedicated Midi Players around, some free, some not, and most of these give much more flexibility and choice over what they can do than does Media Player. Several that can be downloaded are:-

• MidiSoft Recording Session
  MidiSoft seem to have gone through a number of incarnations in the last ten years; currently they are, I think, to be found at MidiSoft Music. Recording Session (Version 1.11) is the software I use to make my voice-emphasised Midi Files, and I recommend it. It allows adjustment of both the volume/emphasis and the tempo of the playback. This version of Recording Session is a very old one - it dates back to 1993 - and a "freebie" version can be downloaded from here. See, however, the Problems with Session comments, below.
  
  A slightly newer version of Session - Version 4, from 1995 - has recently come my way from a Contact in America. It deals with some of the noted problems - specifically it is a 32-bit program, originally for running under Windows 95 (so you can properly choose, and save, the Midi Drivers in SetUp) - but ... it still has problems with some time signatures/tempos. From here you can download the self-extracting SETUP.EXE File (which includes both 16- and 32-bit versions, so you can run it on Windows 3.1 if you really want!), plus a zipped set of HTML Files (which my US Contact prepared to show how to install Session 4 under Windows XP). I actually prefer the layout of Version 1.11, but maybe that's just because I'm used to it.
  
  
• Chris Hills' MidiPlay
  MidiPlay is a free Windows program for playing Midi files. It allows singers and instrumentalists to adjust both the volume/emphasis and the tempo of the playback, to help them to learn their parts. It seems to do most of what MidiSoft's Session does, though not in the same way, and without some of the latter's problems. It can be downloaded from here.
  
  
• MidiNote's Composer
  Composer is a commercial Windows program for composing and playing music. It also plays Midi files, and provides the same sort of flexibility as Session, though not in the same way. MidiNote also sell other music software, and trial versions of their stuff can be downloaded from their Website here.
  
  
• Winamp.com's Winamp
  This is a superb - and free - Media File Player that plays just about every type of Music File you can think of - including, and without fault, all those emphasised Session-derived Midi Files which Windows Media Player doesn't like (see below). And although you can't vary the relative volume of any chosen track, or change the tempo, nevertheless you can - unlike with the Noteworthy Player (see below) - start and stop the File anywhere you choose. If all you want, then, is a Player that you can "associate" with Midi Files so that it will automatically spring to life and play whatever Midi File you double-click on, I recommend Winamp. The basic, but-still-with-plenty-of-frills, version of Winamp can be downloaded free from the Winamp.com Website here.
  
  
• vanBasco's Karaoke Player
  This is an excellent, and free, Midi File Player - whether for Karaoke purposes or not! - and many people have recommended it. It seems to play the emphasised Session-derived Midi Files quite happily, and allows both tempo and starting point adjustment, plus for the individual channels some limited volume adjustment (which can itself be used to provide some, or more, emphasis to any chosen voice). It can be downloaded - for free - from the vanBasco Website.
  
  
• Noteworthy Composer's Noteworthy Player
  I use Noteworthy's Composer program to key in all the music that I then upload in Midi File form, and their free Player can quite happily play Midi Files of any sort. However, unlike Session and the others it does not permit any sort of adjustment,. nor does it allow you to start a File anywhere except the beginning. And it may look a bit odd (see Odd on-screen scores using Noteworthy Player below). It can be downloaded from the Noteworthy Website here.
  
  

  
  The Problem with Session
  As I intimated above, there is a problem with Midi Files produced by Session. Although the Midi Files output (exported) by Noteworthy Composer play perfectly properly with Windows [3.1, 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista ...] Media Player (and all other Players I have tried), once they been loaded into and then saved out from Session they may no longer play properly in other Players - they still play OK in Session itself - if they use more than Midi Channels 1-10 (in some other Players, such as Windows Media Player, they may not play all the channels, and there may from time to time be strange changes in tempo). That is to say, I can't work out why, or what to do to correct the situation. But worry not: maybe they'll work for whatever Player you use ... and if they don't then they DO play properly using Noteworthy's own Player (see above).

  Session has a number of other, possibly connected, irritating habits. One - though this mainly concerns me, using it to produce my emphasised Midi Files, rather than you using it to play them back - is that it is easily confused by any Time Signatures that are not measured in crotchet time (so 3/4 or 4/4 or 5/4 is fine, but 2/2 or 5/8 halves or doubles the assigned Tempo), and I have to fudge it - which can be done quite easily, but it's still irritating! Also - and this concerns you - Session is a Windows 3.1 16-bit piece of software, and so you have to use "compatibility" mode for XP and the like. Moreover, Session is expecting there to be a directory/folder called "Session" in your root directory/folder (on Drive C) otherwise you can't save any changes you make to Session itself (such as ensuring it always opens in 16-track General Midi mode). Although you can achieve this by actually installing Session in Drive C's root, it seems to be perfectly OK to have a "Session" Folder there but then instal Session elsewhere, wherever you want.

  Another slightly irritating feature is Session's ability to stick the wrong clef at the beginning of a track, so that the subsequent notes end up far up or down from where you expect them to be. A typical example of this is in the Brahms "German Requiem", where in the opening number the Alto line has been depicted as though written in the Bass clef, so that all the notes appear up in the air! There must be rules for the conversion (from mere note, which is what Midi is, to note-on-staff, which is how Session displays it.), and I suspect it depends on the range of the notes, top to bottom, in the staff. But, there is something you can do about it ... as follows:- Load in the music (for example, for the "German Requiem", the Alto version of the file A-BLESSED.MID; at the moment the clef assigned to the Alto track is the Bass clef). Then, go to the Session pull-down menus (up at the top of the window) and pull down "Music". Select "Clef ...", and a box opens. In the box, use the little down arrow to find all the tracks, and choose the correct one (in my example, it's No 2, Alto). Then choose the correct type of clef - i.e. Treble - and the bar/measure number where you want this to take effect - Measure No 1. Click "OK", and it will miraculously be done! THEN SAVE THE REVISED FILE SO THAT NEXT TIME YOU OPEN IT IT WILL STILL LOOK OK!!

  Problem-ridden though Session may be, even so I use it - and I recommend it. Once installed it is simple and easy to use, and will do all you need to make the Midi Files most useful.

  
  Odd on-screen scores using Noteworthy Player
  Warning: if you play these Midi Files back using software (such as the Noteworthy Player) that shows you the score on the screen, you may find that some of them play OK but look a bit odd. That's usually because I had to fudge the Session output to get the tempo right (typically when it measures time in quavers [as in 5/8 time], and switches back and forth between these and other units [such as 3/4 time]. Don't worry; just don't look at the screen - read your printed score!

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  Last updated by John on 16/Jul/07