Help talk:Media (MIDI)

Memory stick

"Memory Stick" is Sony's brandname for a flash memory card. Is it wise to use it in this way?

I think it should just say portable media players and lose the apple and sony references. Giant89 20:55, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Help

This page is not very helpful. "The machine on which you play the file must have both the software and hardware enabled to play MIDI files." Alright, obviously I don't have the appropriate software; that's why I'm here. So what programs does one use? dbenbenn | talk 21:06, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. Hyacinth (talk) 10:21, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I have MacOS 10.13, and the only solution I found for playing MIDI files was FluidSynth, available via MacPorts. I mean other programs can understand MIDI language, but I couldn't find any really simple players besides FluidSynth. Timidity++ binary was too old, and most users shouldn't be expected to port and compile from source. Ryan 04:25, 22 November 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ryan.Hoopes (talk • contribs)

The problem may be with one's browser. Hyacinth (talk) 10:29, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg) seems to set a high bar, but much of it is about audio/video playback basics. This page could basically say: "first ensure that you can play Ogg Vorbis audio files." Maybe the "Audio and video" link at the top could be a bit more specific. --Jtir (talk) 17:35, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The sentence about playing Ogg Vorbis files isn't helpful, I removed it and the subsequent one about digital audio players (you're not browsing Wikipedia on a DAP!). If your computer can't play digital audio files then it's likely it won't be able to play MIDI either, but there are too many variables to make a definitive statement. The software you need is... a MIDI player (duh), one that either works in your browser (as a plug-in) or that you can launch from the browser. The MIDI player can either send the stream of MIDI note information to a sound card (hardware) that supports it, or these days computers are powerful enough that the software can create the audio waveform of the notes itself and send it to a dumb soundcard. I think you get the latter MIDI player for free with the Windows operating system and it comes with QuickTime 7 on Mac OS X. For all operating systems I recommend w:VLC as a player for all kinds of video and audio formats; http://wiki.videolan.org/Midi explains how to add the fluidsynth module and a set of MIDI instrument samples to VLC. -- Skierpage (talk) 03:14, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

There is no mention of Chrome browser on this page. After Chrome 43 is released, with Web MIDI support, may be a good time to update this page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joe Wiki (talk • contribs) 10:41, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't work here: Windows 7, Chrome 43.0.2357.124 m (64-bit). "chrome://flags/#enable-web-midi" does nothing. Maybe it works only with real external MIDI devices, not the MIDI synthesizer on the soundcard. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:25, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

I agree that Chrome should be covered, as well as Web MIDI, as described at Now Google Chrome Browser Does MIDI. My Chrome browser (Version 51.0.2704.36 beta (64-bit)) on Linux lets me play live music at Web Audio MIDI Synthesizer. But when I click on the "play midi example" link at the top of the page to play the 12-bar blues tune, it just tries to download it. ★NealMcB★ (talk) 20:41, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

I've learned that Web MIDI is unlikely to be generally helpful for most folks, since it is not about SMF files, but mostly about allowing real-time web apps to get input from local controllers, and connect to local synths. As Skierpage notes, the real thing you need is a General MIDI-compliant synthesizer somewhere, and the plumbing to get from your browser to that. ★NealMcB★ (talk) 16:09, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Test files

It might be useful to provide a short MIDI file and a short Ogg Vorbis file, so users can test their MIDI configuration from this page. Two longer ones might also be useful for readers to play while varying their mixer settings until they get settings they like.

The Brahms excerpt looks nice, but what does it do to help readers play MIDI files?

--Jtir (talk) 17:19, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Works fine in Linux and in Windows. Nice way to link to the article, too. --Jtir (talk) 20:35, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

What types of players does this page support?

This page appears to be written mainly for readers seeking to play MIDI files on a PC, although it does mention MP3 players and the like. What is the scope of this page? --Jtir (talk) 17:49, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

There should be a javascript-based player or a generated audio file, so that they can be played in most users' browsers.

Given the drop-off of MIDI support in browsers since the old days (installing a plugin is not an option in most mobile browsers, and fewer desktop users have such a plugin by default now-- e.g. Quicktime dropped support for MIDI wth version X), there should be an option to play it via a JS-based player (there are a few FOSS options out there) or have the file rendered to a wave clip upon submission, by something like Timidity, FluidSynth, or some other FOSS software, and allow users to play that generated audio (via an HTML5 audio tag). Undomelin (talk) 19:12, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

+1 -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 03:32, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

this. hardly anyone has software for this anymore. whose idea was this? 108.86.234.251 (talk) 23:50, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

This remains to be an issue on practically all modern computers + browsers. Bizarre that we haven't either moved away from MIDI files or implemented a solution Jokullmusic 04:55, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

This was tracked in bug T20852.   Bug fixed by 511015 which implements your second idea: the TimedMediaHandler extension transcodes ("renders") a MIDI file, using I think FluidSynth as you proposed, into a digital audio file ("wave clip") that can be played on the web page. You can see this with the "Twelve bar boogie-woogie blues in C" .MIDI file example currently on this help page displayed with the {{Listen}} template, which has a little audio player underneath it that under the covers plays a digital audio file rendered from the MIDI file. I think you can simply embed a [[File:some_file.mid]], let's try it: ... works! I'll try to update the documentation. I agree it would still be rilly kool to directly play a MIDI file in the browser using a JavaScript player. For educational purposes, the real Holy Grail would be to see the music score advance as the music plays, and be able to click in the music score and hear the music starting at that point. -- Skierpage (talk) 03:59, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

The [[File:… method is even more useful when the standard parameter |thumb= is used:

12 bar boogie

Further, a well-chosen size parameter will provide a progress slider:

12 bar boogie

-- Michael Bednarek (talk) 11:40, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Wikipedia talk:Media help which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 17:29, 10 January 2018 (UTC)