MIDI Resources for Web Browsers
Plug-ins, Drivers, MIDI Players, and Other Miscellaneous Tools to make your websurfing more musically enjoyable.
MIDIs and the Internet
Once upon a time the Internet was lousy with MIDI files (and lousy MIDI files). A chummy bunch of amateur MIDI creators and collectors fell below the radar of the Music Industry. Alas, the sleeping giant rumbled to consciousness and sniffed the air. "I smell...licensing fees!" the giant bellowed. "Where's my money?" He sent his hairy fox out to cleanse the web of all unlicensed MIDIs.
But we had our revenge. We all discovered how to download MP3s on the internet.
Booyah!
MIDI file starting points
- Your best bet these days is just to do a Google search for "MIDI."
- I've got to mention Gerald Ross's MIDI Cha-Cha, Swing, Fingerstyle Guitar, Polka, Mambo and More! This guy may be one of the greatest guitarists you never heard of. Modestly billed as "My arrangements of Mankind's Greatest Hits." What can I say? I love this stuff! You can find his CDs on CD Baby.
- Though not so much a MIDI source, not to be missed is...The Exotica Mailing List - Lounge Music: Funky and too good to pass up!
Recommended MIDI Browser Plugins
The era of browser MIDI support appears to be largely over. Most of the plugins I once listed below are no longer available. The Quicktime plugin will work but not as smoothly as the Beatnik or Cresendo
- Beatnik (from Headspace) - Highly recommended!
- Crescendo (from Live Audio) - One of the first MIDI plug-ins, worthy of a look, though it offers no real advantages other than streaming to the default Netscape audio plug-in.
- Armadillo Web Design has a page on the old Crescendo plugin as well as a link to the free version.
- Quicktime - The latest version of QuickTime features MIDI playback with wave table synthesis (along with the ususual CPU load), along with the usual QuickTime movie playback. Great bonus-- it also lets you view the following file formats: (graphics) TIFF, Photoshop, BMP, PNG, Targa, (sound) MIDI, WAV, AU, AIFF, (video) QuickTime, AVI, FLI, and a couple of other misc formats. A great deal even if you don't need or want a MIDI plugin. Available for Windows 95/NT, Windows 3.1 and MacOS.
- MidiPlug by Yamaha - Another good product that can enhance low-end soundcards.
- UMP by Umpire. For Linux/UNIX users. If you're smarter than me (wouldn't be hard) you'll probably get this up and running on your Linux box in no time! And when you do, even a cheap FM synthesis sound card will sound great, since it outputs the files as wave samples.
When I originally posted this page I mentioned that I hadn't yet gotten UMP running on my Linux machine, and the author, Larry Hoff, e-mailed me within a day with an offer of help. When was the last time that happened to you? Available only for Linux, IRIX, SUN OS, and HP-UX
This link still works!.
Windows MIDI Drivers
Advancing technology has largely killed this off this once thriving Windows subculture. And I guess we can all be thankful.- Creative Labs WaveSynth - Creative Labs (maker of Sound Blaster soundcards) offers a product from their website that features wave synthesis playback for some of their products.
- WinGroove - Software generates WAV playback from MIDI files. A nice feature of this package is that you can fine-tune it to the speed of your CPU. This link still works! The page was last updated in 2001.
- Yamaha Soft Synthesizer - Great sound, especially percussion: very crisp and bright. You will need at least a Pentium 90 to use this product enjoyably.