MIDI player for the Palm?
Chris Taylor Jr
I have a Zodiac 2 and lots of nice midi's I would like to play in native
.mid from an SD card.
Suggestions ?
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Guido Ostkamp
Chris Taylor Jr <nos...@nerys.com> wrote:
> Looking for a midi player for the palm.
>
> I have a Zodiac 2 and lots of nice midi's I would like to play in
> native .mid from an SD card.
have a look at <http://www.ittymidi.com>.
I don't own this program, so cannot give details about it.
If you are looking for a freeway way, you may want to look at Midi to
Wave converter, for example Timidity with EAW patches. You can find
that at <http://www.stardate.bc.ca/eawpatches/html/default.htm>. The
resulting wave file can later be converted to mp3 format with many
tools; the mp3 can be played on the palm.
Regards,
Guido
Guido Ostkamp
> If you are looking for a freeway way [...]
I have to correct myself, I meant "freeware", not "freeway"; sorry.
Chris Taylor Jr
once you convert you defeat the point of midi IE super tiny file sizes :-) I
have a midi that is under 500k and its 45 minutes long (very nice midi too
do a search on "midi space"
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
"Guido Ostkamp" <gueltig-bis...@nurfuerspam.de> wrote in message
news:ap9uc1...@320076385420-0001.dialin.t-online.de...
Chris Taylor Jr
IE no conversion needed. I want to toss .mid's on a memory card and go.
downloading it now to give the demo a try. I am hoping it "sounds" good if
it works at all.
Thanks for the link !
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
"Guido Ostkamp" <gueltig-bis...@nurfuerspam.de> wrote in message
news:uvbuc1...@320076385420-0001.dialin.t-online.de...
Guido Ostkamp
Chris Taylor Jr <nos...@nerys.com> wrote:
[ittymidi Midi Player for Palm]
> downloading it now to give the demo a try. I am hoping it "sounds"
> good if it works at all.
Would you please let us know how the demo or full version performed on
your system?
As far as I remember, they said, the demo would only play limited time
(only a few seconds) of each song.
Regards,
Guido
Mike Thomas
> Would you please let us know how the demo or full version performed on
> your system?
I bought it and it's great. I use it with a Zire 71 and serial cable
into the PC port of a Yamaha MU-80.
Cheers
Mike Thomas.
Guido Ostkamp
Mike Thomas <mike....@brisbane.paradigmgeo.com> wrote:
>> Would you please let us know how the demo or full version performed
>> on your system?
>
> I bought it and it's great. I use it with a Zire 71 and serial
> cable into the PC port of a Yamaha MU-80.
Does this mean that you are playing back songs through the Yamaha? Is
this really needed?
I would be interested to hear how playback works with nothing but the
internal speakers or earphones.
Can any Midi-song be played or are there restrictions regarding the
supported music instruments?
I have to admit that I am a complete newbie regarding Midi, just
believe to know that you need some definition of an instrument's sound
before you can play songs using it.
Regards,
Guido
Mike Thomas
Guido Ostkamp wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Mike Thomas <mike....@brisbane.paradigmgeo.com> wrote:
>
>>>Would you please let us know how the demo or full version performed
>>>on your system?
>>
>>I bought it and it's great. I use it with a Zire 71 and serial
>>cable into the PC port of a Yamaha MU-80.
>
>
> Does this mean that you are playing back songs through the Yamaha?
Yes.
> Is
> this really needed?
Yes, if you want multitimbral sound (more than one sound at once).
No, if you just need to hear a melody played as a beep.
> I would be interested to hear how playback works with nothing but the
> internal speakers or earphones.
Lousy.
> Can any Midi-song be played or are there restrictions regarding the
> supported music instruments?
Pretty much anything within the MIDI standard I believe. I havn't had
any problems yet.
> I have to admit that I am a complete newbie regarding Midi, just
> believe to know that you need some definition of an instrument's sound
> before you can play songs using it.
Might be a good idea to check out:
http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/
as a starting point.
Basically MIDI lets you send music as a bunch of numbers which represent
notes and timing to a box which turns those numbers into sounds. The
quality of the box determines the quality of the sounds.
There are no sounds as such (eg trumpet drums, piano etc) built into a
Palm device so playing a MIDI file on a PALM's internal speaker just
gives you a bunch of squeaks and beeps! You can't hear drums,
saxaphones etc., but you get a rough idea of the melody.
Connecting your PALM with a cable and some MIDI playback software (eg
ittyMidi or NotePad) to a MIDI synthesiser (in my case, the MU80) gives
you a passable musical instrument which can play up to 16 instruments at
a time. So for example, I can hear the drums, piano bass etc all
playing at once and all sounding good enough to play and sing along with
my guitar.
Cheers
Mike Thomas.
Chris Taylor Jr
play the sheet music. Very simple.
the solution is simple as well. most comptuers have FM synthesis. even WAVE
capable sound cards usually suck even an SB AUdigy 2 sucks at midi compared
to my long missed Ensonique Soundscape Elite. that $340 card could make midi
music taht was mind blowing.
so most of us who like midi today use SOFTWARE synthesis.
so are their any SOFTWARE sysnthesis Midi players for PALM os ? I would love
to play Midi files on my Zodiacs VERY nice high quality yamaha chip driven
stereo built in speakers.
does anything exist to do this ?
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Guido Ostkamp
Mike Thomas <mike....@brisbane.paradigmgeo.com> wrote:
> There are no sounds as such (eg trumpet drums, piano etc) built into
> a Palm device so playing a MIDI file on a PALM's internal speaker
> just gives you a bunch of squeaks and beeps! You can't hear drums,
> saxaphones etc., but you get a rough idea of the melody.
ok, so to summarize what you said: "ittyMidi" unfortunately isn't the
kind of standalone player (with internal synthesizer emulation) some
of us were looking for.
So it seems the only way to play Midi on PalmOS is what I mentioned in
my first response in this thread: Converting the Midi to WAV using
e.g. Timidity (which may create very huge WAV files up to more than
100 MB size depending on the length of the song), then shrink it to
MP3. The size isn't comparable to those of Midi Files at all, but at
least it can be played on the Palm.
Regards,
Guido
Arthur Hagen
>
> So it seems the only way to play Midi on PalmOS is what I mentioned in
> my first response in this thread: Converting the Midi to WAV using
> e.g. Timidity (which may create very huge WAV files up to more than
> 100 MB size depending on the length of the song), then shrink it to
> MP3. The size isn't comparable to those of Midi Files at all, but at
> least it can be played on the Palm.
That isn't MIDI playing -- that's playing a recording of a single rendition
of a score. You loose all the useful features of MIDI, including being able
to change timing, instruments and channel volume.
--
*Art
Chris Taylor Jr
the point of using midi is size. once you convert to wav you have eliminated
any point of the discussion.
you are NO LONGER playing a midi. your playing an MP3 :-)
No worries I know what you mean but what I really want is wave synthesis
midi on my palm. hopefully with more palms having better sound systems and
hopefully before midi is gone altogether someone will make this bridge to
allow us to play real midi on our higher end palms.
Gonna have to rattle a few cages and see what falls out :-)
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Chris Taylor Jr
be what gets us/me etc.. what we want)
I just want wave synthesis midi. I have 128meg internal storage not counting
SD cards so come on programmers size is not an issue. and if you like
instrumental music and havea good enough sampling pool midi can even surpass
"mp3" recordings.
I just want to play midi with decent sampling etc.. (IE not FM synthesis
YICK!)
How common is proffessional midi still. it is still in heavy use ?
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
> That isn't MIDI playing -- that's playing a recording of a single
macminer
>
> I just want wave synthesis midi. I have 128meg internal storage not counting
> SD cards so come on programmers size is not an issue. and if you like
> instrumental music and havea good enough sampling pool midi can even surpass
> "mp3" recordings.
Maybe this will ease your pain a bit:
http://www.swivelsystems.com/products/sg20.html
> I just want to play midi with decent sampling etc.. (IE not FM synthesis
> YICK!)
You can always try a setup like mine:
Palm (in my case Visor Edge) running IttyMidi
+ Yamaha MU15. This Yamaha is very portable - the size of a VHS cassette
and you can use it with a mains adapter or batteries.
>
> How common is proffessional midi still. it is still in heavy use ?
It is widely used to connect various synths, sound processors and sound
modules when they are used simultaneously (and they usually are). But it
doesn't usually mean the whole music you hear is generated via MIDI.
MIDI is certainly not directly comparable with mp3s or wavs. It comes
particularly useful when you really play music, not just listen. With
mp3s just have a recorded sound. With midi - a virtual band at your
disposal. You can tell it to play faster, change key, loop/repeat a
chorus, silence some instruments etc.
--
_____ @ +` {#
|. .| <|/ {# macminer
|_-_| | {## @polbox.com
|___==| / / {### aka Maciej Gornicki
Chris Taylor Jr
bulky. might to midi people but big when I know that my 200mhz processor has
more than enough punch to do this in software.
I wonder if they are working on an SDIO version.
Plus I really have no want or desire to "edit or make" midi. I just want to
listen to it.
that is a neat gadget though thanks for the link. I am going to contact them
about the possibility of software synth with the newer higher power gadgets.
Years ago when portable music players were just starting to come into
existance at EXTREMELY high prices I always wondered why no one made a nice
"midi" player that could take floppy discs. (you know 3.5" floppies)
1.44mb may not be much but that huge for MIDI files :-) you could put hours
of midi in that amount of space.
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Arthur Hagen
>
> the point of using midi is size.
Unless you use MIDI for creating music, in which case the point of MIDI is
*control*.
> once you convert to wav you have
> eliminated any point of the discussion.
Oh yes.
> No worries I know what you mean but what I really want is wave
> synthesis midi on my palm. hopefully with more palms having better
> sound systems and hopefully before midi is gone altogether someone
> will make this bridge to allow us to play real midi on our higher end
> palms.
Unless you want samples delivered with each song, what you want is "General
MIDI" (often abbreviated "GM") support. A non-GM MIDI score can often run
much bigger than an MP3 file, due to all the samples.
Regards,
--
*Art
Guido Ostkamp
> That isn't MIDI playing -- that's playing a recording of a single
> rendition of a score. You loose all the useful features of MIDI,
> including being able to change timing, instruments and channel
> volume.
Agreed - though personally I don't need any modification on the fly
and you will surely be able to apply your personal settings by using
Timidity parameters when turning it into wave format.
Call it an ugly workaround, but IMHO that's better than going without
all the free Midi music.
Regards,
Guido
Christian Fauchier
> > There are no sounds as such (eg trumpet drums, piano etc) built into
> > a Palm device so playing a MIDI file on a PALM's internal speaker
> > just gives you a bunch of squeaks and beeps! You can't hear drums,
> > saxaphones etc., but you get a rough idea of the melody.
>
> ok, so to summarize what you said: "ittyMidi" unfortunately isn't the
> kind of standalone player (with internal synthesizer emulation) some
> of us were looking for.
Hi Guido, Mike and others,
I've been following this discussion for some time, being interested
myself in the possibility of using a Palm to play (polyphonic) midifiles
on the internal speaker as well as on an external MIDI device. At the
time being, it seems that the program you (we :-) are looking for does
not exist, but actually it could : MiniMusic NotePad is a little music
editor, using standard notation, among others, to enter music, that
includes a polyphonic synthetizer and can play polyphonic music scores
through Palm internal speaker or headphones. It is also able to export
standard midifiles, but unfortunately, it cannot currently import
midifile. However, this feature could be implemented in a future
release, according to the documentation included in the demo version.
For more informations :
<http://www.minimusic.com/notepad.html>
Regards,
--
Christian
macminer
>
> Years ago when portable music players were just starting to come into
> existance at EXTREMELY high prices I always wondered why no one made a nice
> "midi" player that could take floppy discs. (you know 3.5" floppies)
Both Roland and Yamaha make them. Roland in the form factor of a
mini-stereo system. Yamaha in a MU15 look-alike, but with a sequencer
built in (QY 10, QY100 and QY700). The newer Yamaha units take SM cards
instead of floppies.
>
> 1.44mb may not be much but that huge for MIDI files :-) you could put hours
> of midi in that amount of space.
A well-sequenced classical music MIDI is about 150KB per 10 minutes. Pop
MIDI about 70-80 KB. But coming back to the topic of Palms and MIDI the
major thing I regret is that there isn't a single MIDI editor for Palm
or at least a true MIDI sequencer with recording capabilities. IttyMidi
is a very useful player, MiniMusic BeatPad is a naive rhytm machine,
NotePad is good for capturing your music ideas on the go. But none of
them creates true multichannel MIDI files. Taking into account the fact
that Cubase 3 (a great sequencer!) worked great on an Atari ST with a
Motorola 68000 8Mhz processor it is certainly not the processing power
that's lacking. And the display size is much worse on Yamahas than on a
low-res Palm, so it's also not a matter of screen size. Maybe just lack
of interest on the potential users' side?
macminer
> not exist, but actually it could : MiniMusic NotePad is a little music
> editor, using standard notation, among others, to enter music, that
> includes a polyphonic synthetizer and can play polyphonic music scores
> through Palm internal speaker or headphones.
Yes, but because it won't work on standard MIDI files it is pretty
useless as a sequencer. It is what its name suggests: a musical notepad.
Imagine you have to start every MIDI file from scratch on your palm.
instead of using templates or rhytm patterns created beforehand. Quite
often a MIDI file is sequenced by several people - a drummer sequences
the drum part, a guitarist the guitar part etc. Not being able to glue
the sequences together makes this software also very limited in its usage.
It is also able to export
> standard midifiles, but unfortunately, it cannot currently import
> midifile. However, this feature could be implemented in a future
> release, according to the documentation included in the demo version.
I do hope so!