Midi Music Maker April 1990 Contents: Page I. Introduction..................... 2 1.0 Description of files......... 2 1.1 Music played................. 2 1.2 Music created................ 2 1.3 Requirements................. 2 1.4 Setup........................ 2 1.5 Connections.................. 3 II. Playing a Song................... 3 2.0 Starting the Program......... 3 2.1 Displaying Names............. 3 2.2 Selecting Songs.............. 4 2.3 Starting Music............... 4 2.4 Continuous Play.............. 5 2.5 Use of Keyboard.............. 5 III. Controlling the Play............. 5 3.0 How It Sounds................ 5 3.1 Tempo........................ 5 3.2 Maintain Volume.............. 6 3.3 Presets...................... 6 3.4 Channel Mapping.............. 7 3.5 Note Control................. 8 3.6 Alternate Format............. 9 IV. Other Features................... 9 4.0 Analyze Song................. 9 4.1 Display Words................ 9 4.2 Internal Speaker............. 9 4.3 Save Select File............. 9 4.4 EZ-Track playing.............10 4.5 Create Standard Midi Files...10 4.6 Modify Intro Music.......... 11 4.7 Quit........................ 11 4.8 Help........................ 11 V. Additional Information.......... 11 5.0 Music voice table........... 11 5.1 Errors...................... 11 5.2 Problems.................... 11 VI. Sources of Music................ 12 6.0 General..................... 12 6.1 Availability................ 12 6.2 Midi Music System........... 13 6.3 Transfering other computers. 13 6.4 Major On-Line services...... 13 6.4.1 Delphi.................... 13 6.4.2 GEnie..................... 14 6.4.3 CompuServe................ 14 6.4.4 Q-Link.................... 15 6.5 Disk Ordering............... 15 VII. 7.0 Screen Identification........16 - 2 - Midi Music Maker I. Introduction 1.0 Do you have some old music files gathering dust that you have always wanted to play through your synthesizer? Here is the answer! Midi Music Maker is the world's most comprehensive music player program capable of playing many of the thousands of music files available through public domain for several types of computers. It will control the songs and regulate the instrument presets and channels and on which the music is sent to synthesizer. 1.1 The program is distributed in either arc file format or as several separate files. These files include: 1. MMM.PRG ... The Midi Music Maker program. 2. MMM.MID ... The music played with the title. 3. MMM.PIC ... The title screen for medium resolution. 4. MMM.TXT ... The instructions for the program. 5. A few songs in various formats. 1.2 The following seven basic file types can be played by Midi Music Maker: 1. Music Studio, Music Studio 88 Atari ST 2. Music Construction Set Atari ST 3. EZ-Track (single track) Atari ST 4. Standard Midi Files (format 0, format 1) all computers 5. Sid Player Music (except stereo) Commodore 64/128 6. Advanced Music System (I and II) 8 bit Atari 7. Midi Music System 8 bit Atari 8. Orchestra-85/90 Color Computer 1.3 Midi Music Maker can also create Standard Midi File format 0 files from any of file types listed in 1.2, even from the SMF files themselves. The files created will include the settings that you have control over with this program. 1.4 The basic requirements are an Atari ST, a midi synthesizer, and some music files. Midi Music Maker runs only in medium and high resolution. Unmodified 520STs will work for most music. One meg or larger STs are required for the larger EZ-Track files. The music will play through the ST speaker but a synthesizer with full midi capability is needed for best results. Some songs may use up to 16 channels simultaneously or may put up to 8 notes on a single channel. A synthesizer capable of handling the larger number of notes and channels is required for these songs. - 3 - 1.5 Before the program is started make certain that all drives, midi equipment, monitors, computer are turned on. Midi equipment should be set to use channels 1 through the highest number available. The midi out from the computer must be connected to the midi in on the synthesizer and for FB-01s the midi out on the synthesizer should be connected to the midi in on the computer II. Playing a song 2.0 From the desktop double click your mouse on MMM.PRG. The program will load and the title screen will be displayed. If a file called MMM.MID is present, music will play after the title screen appears. After the music finishes a menu bar will appear across the top of the screen. You can stop the music and display the menu bar faster by pressing the escape key while the music is playing. 2.1 Displaying names: Before you can play music a list of song file names must be read and displayed. These are accessed through the Select menu. First determine which disk drive contains your music files. Insert a disk with music files into a disk drive if necessary. There are three menu options that permit file name reading. 2.1.1 When you click on Read Directory the file names in the current active disk or folder will be read and displayed in a long vertical window along the left side of the screen. This includes all files, not necessarily only music files. This will be the same drive that you started the program from if you have not yet used Locate and Read. 2.1.2 When you click on Locate and Read with your mouse a file selector box will be displayed. This selector box is not used to choose a file, but instead to determine a new drive or folder that contains music files. To do this use your mouse in the standard way to display the contents of any drive or folder. When you are satisfied with the file names in the selector box click the mouse on OK (without a file name showing on the right) and the contents of the folder will be displayed in the window at the left side of the screen. 2.1.2.1 An example of how to change from drive A to a folder in drive B is as follows: Click on Locate and Read. A file selector box appears. In the file selector box click on the A: line. Type backspace until the line is erased and type B:. Click on the bar above the file names. The contents of the B drive are displayed. Click on the folder in the B drive. Click on OK. - 4 - 2.1.3 The third way to select music file names is by reading a file that contains a list of predetermined names. This option is shown as Read Select File in the Select menu. This file is created as will be explained below using Save Select File. To use this click on Read Select File. A file selector box will appear. Then choose the name of the Select file, it will normally end in .SET. Click on that name, then click on OK. This causes the list of names in the file to be displayed in the window at the left side of the screen. 2.2 Selecting songs to be played: Before music files can be played the songs must first be selected. File names are shown in the box on the left side of the screen. 2.2.1 Use the up and down arrow keys to move the selection cursor to a name. If there are more names than will fit on the screen, the window will scroll when you reach the bottom or top. You can select a song using the left arrow key. A number will appear to the left of the name. The number is an indicator for the sequence of play. You can deselect a song using the right arrow key. 2.2.2 The mouse can also be used to move and select or deselect a song. Just click the left mouse button over a file name to select it and move the cursor bar. You can also scroll the window with the mouse by clicking below the bottom of the window. 2.2.3 All songs may be selected in the order that they are shown on the screen by using your mouse to click on Select All in the Files menu. If they may be deselected by clicking on Select All a second time. 2.2.4 All songs may be selected in random order by clicking on Select Random in the Files menu. Use Select all to deselect all songs as in section 2.23 and set the sequence numbers back to zero again. 2.3 Starting the music: After songs have been selected they may be played by selecting Play with the mouse in the Select menu. You can also use the P key to start the music. 2.3.1 Each file selected is read. This happens even if it not a music file. If a file is not one of the recognized music files it is skipped over. If it is a recognized music type the song will begin playing. Information about the song title or song file name will show in the window at the top right side of the screen. The type of music file will show in a smaller window below it on the left. Because music type is detected automatically you can mix any type of music files together on your disk. - 5 - 2.3.2 EZ-Track files play differently. The program is set to play single track only EZ-Track music. For this reason when an EZ-Track file is read the music will not immediately start. Instead a list of the track titles is shown in the window on the left side of the screen. You then must select the track to be played and the order as in section 2.2 above. You then must select Play again to start playing the track music. 2.4 After songs begin playing they will be played in the indicated sequence, sequentially without stopping. 2.4.1 If an EZ-Track file is encountered it will stop this automatic play because the individual songs in the EZ-Track files must be chosen. To eliminate this interruption go to the Select menu and click on Skip EZ-Track. Then EZ-Track files will not be played. 2.4.2 Normally after a song has finished it's sequence number is reset to zero and it will not play again. You can modify this so that songs will be repeated over and over. Use your mouse to select Loop Play in the Options menu. Each numbered song will play in sequence, then after the highest number is reached the lowest one will begin again. 2.5 The following keyboard keys are active while the music is playing. The ESCAPE key stops playing and gives you access to the menu bar, mouse and keyboard. The DELETE key stops the song that is playing and skips to the next one in sequence. The SPACE BAR pauses the music. To resume it press the SPACE BAR a second time. III. Controling the play. 3.0 The way a song plays on your synthesizer is determined by the contents of the music file, other settings in Midi Music Maker, and the settings and capabilities of your synthesizer. 3.1 Tempo: The tempo is normally set according to the music file. The current tempo value is displayed in a small box at the right side of the screen below the large song title window. The tempo displayed in this box will change when a change occurs in the music. 3.1.1 It is possible for you to modify the tempo while the song is playing. To do this move the mouse cursor (normally not visible when a song,is playing) to the right side of the screen. This makes it visible. Move it to the tempo box and use the left mouse button to increase the tempo or the right button to decrease it. This feature has been disabled for SID music since it can put voices out of sync. Changes in tempo in the song will modify your setting. - 6 - 3.1.2 A more permanent way to change the tempo is to use the tempo multiplier. This is the number shown two spaces below the tempo. It is initially shown as 1.00. This number is multiplied by the song tempo and so will modify the tempo through out the song and for all songs until you change it. The tempo multiplier must be set before you start playing music. Use the mouse as with the tempo above to change the tempo multiplier digits. 3.2 Volume: The volume or velocity is usually set according to information in each music file. You can override the settings completely by selecting Maintain Volume in the Options menu. Upon selection the displayed setting is set to maximum which is 127 and is shown to the left of the tempo window. It is a master volume control and applies to all channels. Like the tempo, you can use your mouse to modify the volume as shown in box. This must be done when a song is not playing. When this box is blank it means that the volume is controlled by the music file. 3.3 Presets: The preset window is at the lower right hand corner of the screen. This window will appear blank when preset data is not sent by the MMM program to the synthesizer. When not blank there are 16 groups of three digit numbers. These groups correspond to the preset settings for each of the 16 midi channels. Channel numbers begin with 1 in the upper left corner of the window and increase horizontally across the first row. The preset for channel 9 begins at the lower left corner. 3.3.1 The numbers displayed for the presets depends on the type of synthesizer you use. If you have a Yamaha FB-01 the numbers will initially appear 301 301 301 301... etc. For this type of synthesizer this means voice bank 3, preset 1 for each of the channels. Voice banks may be set from 3 through 7 using the mouse. For other synthesizers numbers initially appear as 000 000 000 000... etc which means instrument preset 0 on each channel. You can force the synthesizer type (detected automatically with both midi cables connected) by selecting Synthesizer Type in the menu. If you use an FB-01 and force the type to non FB-01 then bank 1 (RAM bank) presets will be used (but you can't define other banks.) 3.3.2 You can control how the presets are used. Select Use Presets in the Options menu. You have three choices for setting instrument presets on your synthesizer. The choices include NONE (the presets currently set on the synthesizer will be maintained), MMM (the synthesizer will be set to the preset values shown in the preset window before the music starts), and FILE (the presets as specified in the file, if any, will be used and these values will be displayed in the preset window.) - 7 - 3.3.3 The values in the preset window can be modified when a song is not playing. To changes these values use the space bar to move the cursor to this window box, then use the left and right arrow keys to move to a preset number group. Use the up and down arrow keys to increase or decrease numbers in the settings. You can also use the mouse to increase or decrease the number in each preset. Move the mouse pointer to a preset digit and press the left button to increase it or the right button to decrease it. 3.3.4 Each song file can have individual preset values. If you want to use the same presets for all songs there are two ways to do it. The first way is to set them with one song and then to select NONE under Use Presets in the Options menu. The presets in the synthesizer will not be changed by any following songs. The second way is to set the presets for one music file. Then with these numbers showing in the preset window use Equalize Preset Maps in the Options menu. This will make the instrument preset values for all songs the same without having to retype them for each song. 3.4 Remapping voices: In the music files a voice or channel may range from 1 through 16 and may include multiple notes on one channel. Normally channel 1 or voice 1 in the music file is sent to channel 1 in the synthesizer, 2 to 2 etc. These values are displayed in the window above the preset window. The numbers that are shown in this box indicate the synthesizer channel that a music channel is mapped to. The 16 groups of numbers correspond to the 16 channels of the music and are numbered starting with 1 in the upper left hand corner with 9 below it. Music channel numbers increase horizontally. 3.4.1 Music for synthesizers that are restricted to fewer than 16 channels may be remapped so that the higher channel notes in the music file can be played on lower channels on the synthesizer. Use the space bar to move the cursor to the channel window. The left and right arrow keys will then move the cursor to the desired music channel. The up and down arrow keys will increase or decrease the value of the synthesizer channel. The mouse can also be used by positioning the mouse cursor over a digit in a channel number and pressing the left button to increase it or the right button to decrease it. 3.4.2 Each song file has an individual channel map. That means each must be changed from the default values when you want a change. You can save time and make all the remaps for all the songs the same without having to type in values for each one. To do this set the desired values in the channel window. Then select Equalize Channel Maps in the Options menu. 3.4.3 An example of using mapping would be to take a multiple voice monophonic song and convert it to a single channel polyphonic song. By setting all the numbers in the channel window to 1 you would cause all music notes in the song file to be played on synthesizer channel 1. - 8 - 3.4.4 To turn off a channel set the the synthesizer channel displayed in the box to 00. 3.4.5 Music Studio files include a built in file channel map. You can cause the music voices to be mapped by this instead of the numbers indicated in the channel window. To do this select Use File Channel Map in the Options menu. 3.4.5 Remapping is most often necessary for the following type of song files: Music Studio, Standard Midi Files, Midi Music System Files and possibly EZ-Track. Remapping will also affect the ST internal speaker. 3.5 Note control: The highest and lowest allowable notes sent to the synthesizer can be set. The reason for doing this is that some models, for instance certain Casios, have a note range limit of 36 to 96. Notes above or below this range produce incorrect tones causing the music to sound bad. 3.5.1 To set the lower note limit move the mouse cursor to the number below the LL in the note control window. Press the left button to increase the number or the right button to decrease it. When set notes below this value will be unheard. Similarly you can change the upper note limit by setting the number below the UL. 3.5.2 You can also translate the music up or down in steps of single notes or whole octaves. To do this, move the mouse cursor to the note control window. Point it at the numbers below Octave or Note and use the left mouse button to increase number or the right mouse button to decrease them. Values of 0 and 0 indicate normal song play. Certain combinations of Octave and Note translation give music in the same key. For instance octave -1 and note plus 6 is the same as octave 0 and note -6. The music translation affects all songs and cannot be set differently for different songs without stopping the music. 3.5.3 The music notes can be modified in another way. The modification is called note inversion. To select this click the mouse on the N or I below the word Inversion. The N indicates normal play, the I indicates inverted play. What inversion does is to take all the high notes above middle C and make them low while taking the notes below middle C and making them high. For instance a note 5 above middle C (F) in the same octave becomes 5 note below middle C (G) in the octave below. There is really no practical application for this, it is included for experimentation only. - 9 - 3.6 Alternate Format: Alternate Format in the Options menu currently applies only to Music Studio. To play Music Studio songs exactly the same way that the Music Studio program does do the following: Select use File Channel Map and Use Presets - FILE in the Options menu. If these are not selected you will get different effects. Further you can force higher channel song file voices to the lowest unused midi channels by selecting Alternate Format. But music channel voices will not necessarily remain on the same synthesizer channel thus possibly causing a change in instruments for a note series. This technique enables the maximum number of notes to be played on synthesizers with a smaller number of midi channels. You can also hear the music better on the Atari ST speaker. IV. Other Features. 4.0 Analyze song: In order to know how you want to remap the channels you must first know which voice numbers are being used in the music. Select Analyze Voices in the Options menu. Then play the song. Sixteen numbers are shown in the words/channel window below the song type box. These correspond to the 16 possible channels in the song file. 4.0.1 When the music plays the channels that are being used are shown and the number of notes on each channel is displayed as well. A blank shows no note has ever played on that channel. A 0 shows a note has played but is not currently playing. Any other number shows the number of notes currently playing on the channel. This information can be used to help you make the proper decision on how to remap the channels. 4.0.2 It is not advisable to use Analyze Song to listen to music since it could degrade the music for fast tempo, short duration note songs. 4.1 Words: Words can be displayed if included in Music Studio files or if a .WDS files exists for a SID file. In order to activate the word display use the mouse to select Display Words in The Options menu. Words will show as the music plays in the same box used for analyze voices. Don't try to show the words when you are analyzing a song. 4.2 ST speaker: The ST speaker can be turned on or off by selecting Internal Speaker with your mouse in the options menu. 4.3 Save Select File: After you have read a disk or folder directory and it is displayed in the left window you can choose songs, set presets for each, and remap channels then save these values as a file on the disk. This enables recall at a later time and saves retyping the values. - 10 - 4.3.1 To do this first select only the song file names that you want to be listed later with the arrow keys or mouse. They must not show a zero to the left of the name to be selected. They will be written in the order of selection. Also make any preset settings or remapping of channels that you want for each song. Next select a disk to write the select file to. It is a good idea too put it on the same one as the music it will play. Then go to the Select menu and select Save Select File. A file selector box will be displayed and you must choose a name for the file. It should normally end in .SET. After you save it you may then recall it using Read Select File. Upon reading it should restore the settings in the windows to the values before saving. 4.4 EZ-Track Files: This program plays only single track EZ-Track files. That is if a file has part of the music on different tracks it all cannot be played at one time. But fortunately there are many EZ- track files that contain all channels mixed into one track. Because these tracks can only be played singly, you have to use the mouse or arrow keys selecting process to specify which ones and the order of play. So this means a double selection. First you read the current directory. Second you select the file. If it is EZ-Track it is read from the disk and then the individual tracks in the EZ-Track file are shown in the left window. You then select songs, presets, etc. This works fine but if you have EZ-Track and other types of music on the same disk it will interrupt the normal sequence of play when an EZ- Track file appears. If you want to avoid this interruption and want continuous music select Skip EZ-Track in the Select menu before playing begins. 4.5 Creating standard midi files: You have the option of playing and listening to the different types of files Midi Music Maker plays or playing and writing the output to a format 0 standard midi file which is saved to the disk. This works for all file types including standard midi files in formats 0 and 1. The advantage of converting a standard midi file to itself is that initial, presets, channels, and tempo can be different in the output file. The standard midi files you make can also be used with other programs and with other types of computers. 4.5.1 The procedure requires selecting Convert to SMF Format 0 in the Options menu. Then make any settings such as presets, mapping channels, etc. the same way you would before you played the song for listening. The select Play or press the P key. The song will be played (but not heard) and the output written to a file. The name of this file is made automatically and will be the same as that of the original file with the extender changed to .MID. If a .MID file of that name already exists a different extender will be used. Extenders used are .MIE, .MIF, .MIG, etc through .MIZ. - 11 - 4.6 You can change or eliminate the music that Midi Music Maker plays when the title screen is displayed. If the file MMM.MID is present it is played. If it is not present no music is played. You can change this to any music file provided that it is in standard midi file format and that it is named MMM.MID. You can also abort the intro music type pressing the Escape key. 4.7 To terminate the program and return to the desk top do one of the following: Select Quit in the Options menu, press the Escape key when music is not playing, or press the Q key when the music is not playing. 4.8 Help: A brief description of the program functions are included in the Help and More Help menus. V. Additional Information. 5.0 The following table lists the maximum number of voices or single notes playable at a time and how Midi Music Maker allocates each voice number. The default channels are the ones indicated when you use Analyze Voices. Music Type Maximum Voices Default channels -------------------------------------------------------------- SID player music 3 1,2,3 Advanced Music System 4 1,2,3,4 Orchestra-85/90 5 1,2,3,4,5 Music Construction Set 3 1,2,3 Music Studio 15 Set by music file EZ-Track 16 Set by music file Standard Midi File 16 Set by music file Midi Music System 16 Set by music file 5.1 Errors: The program has been tested thoroughly. Error messages are very infrequent. Any error message that might occur would likely occur because of corrupted music files. Corrupted music files could also result in long pauses in the song and seemingly random notes. In most cases these files would also not play correctly for the program for which they were made. 5.2 Problems: There are certain limitations that may cause music to play incorrectly on your synthesizer. 1. AMS, Orchestra 90, and SID files have data in the files that controls the sound chip hardware. The internal sound chips can be made to simulate certain instruments or can produce sounds with specific tonal qualities. It is not possible to reproduce the same sounds through midi. Instead synthesizers have their own instrument presets which you may have to experiment with to find the most pleasing sound. - 12 - 2. Some synthesizers are not velocity sensitive. That is, the notes that are played play only at one volume level as controled by the computer. Some of the file types that can be played do use volume variations in the song and some channels may a different volume setting that others. For the best effect your synthesizer must be capable of playing each channel at a different level. 3. Your synthesizer must be set at the correct polyphonic or monophonic mode. Songs may have multiple notes on a single channel, single notes on multiple channels, or a mixture of multiple or single notes on multiple channels. Your synthesizer must be cabable of playing the maximum number of notes on the channels that have music. Use the feature "Analyze Voices" to help you determine the correct settings. You can, of course, remap the music channels to addapt to your synthesizer. 4. All music files are not perfect. I have noticed music that does not sound quite right, for instance has a flat that should have had a sharp. That is just the way the person who transcribed the music did it. In most cases it cannot be changed without the program that orginally created the music file. 5. It is possible for a music file to have corrupted data that will either cause the playing to hang, that will give an error message, sound weird, or combination of these. If so get rid of the file. 6. Finally, it is always possible that I over looked something in the programming. I would appreciate hearing from you if you have persistent problems with more than one file. 5.3 This program is copyright 1990 by David M. Henry and is distributed as shareware. $10 is considered an appropriate contribution if you use it. VI. Sources of Music. 6.0 There are thousands of music files that Midi Music Maker will play available in public domain. Sources of these include computer user groups; major telecommunication networks such as GEnie, Delphi and CompuServe; private BBS systems; and certain mail order distributors. 6.1 In general the greatest variety of music can be found with the most available music types. There is probably more SID music available in public domain than all the other types of music put together at this time. Orchestra 85/90, Music Studio and Advanced Music System files are also widely available and have the next best selection. EZ- Track is quite as easy to find. Some of the music has been converted from other file types such as Advanced Music System. The Standard Midi File format is relatively new and the number of available files in this format will probably increase as software for music programs on other computers is developed to handle it. - 13 - 6.2 Some of the best music comes from Midi Music System files. The music is often 8 to 16 note pieces and sounds great on a synthesizer that has the capability to handle the larger number of notes. Unfortunately this music is not as easy to obtain through public domain channels. It can be purchased for a reasonable charge from: M and D Enterprises 7700 N.E. 120th Avenue Vancouver, WA 98682-4129 6.3 Some of the music is available on other computers. The disks are not interchangeable with the ST. When this music is downloaded from a BBS there is usually no problem. When music is on different disks two methods of transfering song files between the ST and other computer include running communication programs on each and connecting together through two modems, or connecting the computers using a null modem cable and using appropriate software. 6.4 Here is information on music files available on the major on-line computer services. 6.4.1 Delphi. 6.4.1.1 The Orchestra 85/90 files selection on Delphi is good but they are mixed in with types of music files for the Color Computer so if you are interested in these you have to check each to find out if it is an Orchestra file. 6.4.1.2 There is a very good selection of SID files including some with words. They are found in two different directories. The main problem is that if you do not have a Commodore computer some of these are compacted in such a way that you need one. Those with extensions .SAL (words plus SID music), SDA (self dissovling archive), MSW (SID plus stereo channel), PIL (SID with picture), ARC (not compatible with ST ARC) require a Commodore computer to break down these files into those that you actually play. Look for the extenders .MUS and .WDS. 6.4.1.3 The AMS selection on Delphi is not as complete as GEnie or CompuServe. 6.4.1.4 The number of Music Studio songs is not as large as GEnie or CompuServe. Many of those I have checked on were the same as those available on the other on-line services. 6.4.1.5 The Music Construction Set files are fairly limited. 6.4.1.6 If there is a library that specializes in midi with songs in standard midi file format, I haven't been able to find it. 6.4.1.7 As I recall the selection of EZ-Track files on Delphi is poor. - 14 - 6.4.2 GEnie. 6.4.2.1 Some of the Orchestra 85/90 files on GEnie are usable but there are problems with others. The ones in arced format did not dearc properly using Arc version 5.21B. Blocks of data were decoded properly but were arranged in reverse order. I had to make a program to correct the error and rewrite the files. Other files although they will play correctly with Midi Music Maker do not have the normal carriage return, line feed so although they are ascii data they will not list correctly on your screen. There is a good selection of these files but the list is not extensive. 6.4.2.2 The SID selection on GEnie is not quite as good as Delphi. But same problems exist about files requiring a Commodore computer to dearc. 6.4.2.3 There is a good selection of AMS music. There are not many new songs being done in AMS. 6.4.2.4 The Music Studio collection on GEnie is very good. Most of the songs are not arced. 6.4.2.5 Music Construction Set files are much fewer than Music Studio and the quality is not generally as good. But there are a few nice songs. 6.4.2.6 GEnie has a very good midi roundtable with an increasing number of files in standard midi format 0 and format 1. 6.4.2.7 GEnie also has the best selection of EZ-Track files. A large number of these were made from AMS and a few from MS songs. 6.4.3 CompuServe. 6.4.3.1 CompuServe has the largest number of Orchestra 85/90 files. These are all in ASCII format and should play without any problems using Midi Music Maker. - 15 - 6.4.3.2 The SID selection is fairly large. There are SIDS in five different libraries. The problem of the .SAL, .MSW, .ARC, .PIL, as on GEnie and Delphi is here also, but there is also another problem. The Commodore files on CompuServe generally end in .BIN or .IMG and this refers to the protocol used to upload them, not to the actual file extender. The .BIN files can be downloaded using Xmodem, Ymodem, or with just about another protocol including the VIDTEX mode of Flash. The .IMG files have a 6 byte header. If you download these with anything I know of on the Atari ST you will have 6 bytes at the first of the file that are not supposed to be there. If you try the VIDTEX mode of Flash to download you will get an error message from CompuServe. They are supposed to work file with VIDTEX on a Commodore. Anyway, what I did was to make a short program that removes the first 6 bytes of each file which I run after I have downloaded the .IMG files. The only other thing is to make sure you read the descriptions of the files before you download to make certain what the file type it is. 6.4.3.3 There is a good selection of AMS music. The newer Atari 8 bit music is in AMP format. Midi Music Maker cannot play it at this time. There are also a few MMS songs in the Atari 8 bit music forum. 6.4.3.4 The Music Studio selection is great. There are a lot of .ARC files with multiple songs. 6.4.3.5 There is an adequate number of Music Construction Set files in arced format. 6.4.3.6 There is a midi forum however the selection of music in SMF formats is not as good as on GEnie. 6.4.3.7 There are some EZ-Track files, but not many compared to GEnie. 6.4.4 Q-Link. 6.4.4.1 This is a Commodore only on-line service. It reportedly has the largest selection of SID music available. It should be accessible with your Atari ST, but I have not yet tried it. 6.5 I will make copies of any of the music disks I have. I charge $5 per disk to cover the time and trouble to do the coping and to cover the postage cost. I am not selling the music. All disks are double sided. The number of songs vary from about 50 to nearly 300 per disk depending on the file type. There are more than 100 disks available and more than 15000 songs with some duplication. Specify the file type, AMS, MS, MCS, EZ-Track, SID, Orch 90 or SMF. This music was collected from sources mentioned above and through trading with other collectors. I will also trade music disks, one on one, for anyone interested. - 16 - 7.0 Screen Identification: __________________ ___________________________________________ | P | | | | l File | | Song Title and Information Window | | a Name | | | | y Window | ------------------------------------------- | | ______________________ ______ ______ | o | | Music Type Window | |Vol | |Tempo| | r | ---------------------- ------ ------ | d | _______________________________________ | e | | Words and Analyze Window | | r | --------------------------------------- | | __________ _________ | c | |Note Rng| |Tempo x| | o | ---------- --------- | l | __________________________ | u | | Note Control Window | | m | -------------------------- | n | __________________________ | | | Channel Map Window | | | -------------------------- | | __________________________ | | | Preset Window | ------------------ -------------------------- Dave Henry 1720 Wickersham Drive Anchorage, AK 99507