Midi Files Options

[jrjnsn]

Hello, everybody, this group rocks!

Would someone please direct me to information about how to download midi files (.mid) and use them in a DAW (in my case DP) ?

Thanks!
---Rick

[gdoubleyou]

Google!!!

[jrjnsn]

Should have added that I have RTFM and STFW'd, Googled, Wiki'd, and searched this site, northern sounds, and Unicornation. I find a gazillion places to get midi files, but nothing to tell me how to get them to do anything more than play back in Quicktime in a piano sound.

From your answer I'm inferring that the information I want is easy to find. I'm not finding it, which is why I asked if someone would be so kind as to point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

Maybe this won't help -- I don't even know what a a DAW or DP are.

BUT, I was really happy soon after I got my Mac because I found that you could change a midi to something you could burn onto a regular CD (something I had been trying to do for years) if you ran it through Garageband. Boy was I happy when I found I could do that!!

So anyway, I wonder if running them through Garageband might be a first step in whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.

Good luck

Kate

[lepetitmartien]

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation (in clear; your computer running some audio software, usually a sequencer)
DP = short for MOTU Digital Performer

Don't take it harsh jrjnsn, but your question wasn't at first very clear for us. Now once you have a midifile you should be able to open it _from_ any sequencer. I think it plays in quicktime because you double click it? Try to use the Open menu item in your sequencer.

[rickenbacker]

Yeah, and you can usually then change the sound source triggering the MIDI file in your DAW so it sounds different. So you can have the same MIDI melody played through a bass guitar or a piano or a bassoon or a harmonica or whatever. Or use it to trigger one of your sequencer's soft synths (virtual synths). You can also probably edit the MIDI data in your sequencer if it doesn't sound quite right for you.

[kevinr]

If it's a standard midi file (NOT a Logic/Cubase etc file), you should IMPORT it rather than try to open it. You may have to go through each channel making sure it plays the correct sound.
BTW, the best way to find midi files is to use the specialist search engine, 'Searching the Internet for a Certain MIDI File'
http://www.manythings.org/midi/search.html
Hands on Midi is an excellent source of recent songs (although you have to pay!)

[jrjnsn]

Sorry for the lack of clarity. Maybe it will be useful to someone if I post what I found out.

My problem was at the "once you have a midifile" stage. Turns out, instead of just clicking on the link (which opens the file in quicktime), I have to control-click the link and choose "download to disk" on the resulting mini-menu. Then I have a .mid file on my desktop which opens in DP with no problem.

It is still strange to me that this info was so hard to find. (Aaron Dirk of BelaD Media finally clued me in.... BTW his Lyrical Distortion guitar VI is way cool.....)

Thanks everybody, I appreciate your suggestions.

[gdoubleyou]

Once you have the midi file, open Garage Band, drag and drop the file on Garage Band, assign GB instruments.