Schewanick Computer Services

Making MIDI Files for your site

HTML Code
The best way to put auto playing sound on your web site is MIDI. If you'd
like the sound to load automatically and loop in the background this is the
best code to use in for both Netscape and Explorer.

<br /> <bgsound src="mysong.mid" loop=infinite><br />
If you'd like the MIDI file to play on request in the foreground, it's just
a matter of linking as
Click to hear
Sometimes your web server may not have the mime types configured properly
and this will prevent the MIDI files from playing. In which case you need
to contact your server.

Making Midi Files
Making your own MIDI files can be a difficult task. To make good sounding
midi files takes a background in arranging, music, MIDI sequencing and
computers. You can download MIDI files from various MIDI archives but the
quality can be poor and often not thematically correct for your site. MIDI
Design below at http//www.scugog-net.com/room108/midi/container.html offer
complete customized MIDI Loops for $35 per song.
One of the common MIDI sequencing software available with free demos are
Cakewalk. This demo works great but doesn't save or print music. I
personally like using Logic with its great quantizing features.
If you have some musical background, here are some hints to making good
midi files.

Hints for Making MIDI
The following hints are meant for beginners. An experienced MIDI arranger
will usually break these rules for effect. For example, often parts are not
quantized for realism and the parts are done in a very different order.
Nevertheless, here is a template that will work for beginners in MIDI
1) First, play just the melody of the song on a track. Be sure the volume
is high as you want your melody to sing out above the other parts. If you
can't get enough volume, make a copy of the melody on another track. Pan
each melody part left and right and volume will be increased.
Remember there is no way to add reverb to midi but you can give a reverb
effect by making copies of a track and duplicating each track with an
increasing delay.
2)Then add quantizing to the melody. Look at the music. If you see eighth
notes as the fastest note, then quantize the track to eight notes.
Quantizing is a method pulling the notes to the nearest beat. For example
if you quantized an eight note part of the melody to quarter notes, the
melody would be doubled up into quarter notes and wouldn't sound correct.
If your timing is poor, you may need to quantize an eight note melody with
a sixteenth note quantization.
3)Once you're sure your melody is rhythmically correct and in place. The
other music parts can fit into place. It's important though that your
initial melody be correct.
4) Next add a bass and drum part. Again it will be important to quantize
these parts. The volume should be a bit lower than the melody so the melody
can sing out.
5) Next add a background part such as voices or strings etc. A good idea is
to make a copy of this part on another track. Then pan each of tracks left
and right giving the background music some depth.
Some instruments don't sound as good as others on MIDI. Good instuments to
use are piano, nylon guitar, bass, drums,vibes, strings. Instuments that
don't sound as good are sax and brass.
There are many more ways to achieve great sounding effects in MIDI but it
would take a book to write them all down.
Remember to keep it simple. Don't crowd your arrangement!

About the Author
John Rickey is an experienced MIDI arranger. He graduated from University
of Toronto with a degree in music and has worked from studio recordings to
Movies with his arranging. You can contact him at kingskid@netrover.com or visit his MIDI Design
Site at http//www.scugog-net.com/room108/midi/container.html