For listening with MIDI players, with possibly higher quality samples than in the 64k SPC file?
I've created some SPC-MIDI conversions, but it's mostly hand-labor because the samples-to-instrument mapping will have to be done manually.
http://bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/miscmusic/spc/
Each file is of different quality.
http://www.vgmusic.com/
Great source of midis for just about every console. These are all fan-composed, not extracted from video games directly, so they're not exact replicas from the games.
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
I don't like vgmusic. The songs I've looked at don't sound much like the real thing.
There are however a handfull of really good songs, I like the Mega Man 2 Genesis music sequenced by Tom Kim.
I want them to put them on my website. Midi are much smaller then mp3, and a website can't autoplay a spc.
vgmusic.com has many midi, but very few that sound exactly like the game. I want actual game music.
I'm not sure what kind of music you're thinking of, but I can name some musicians which usually produce excellent work; Tsu Ryu, Stacey Christianson, Dr. Fruitcake, BTHive, Heatman, Icy Guy, Jarel Jones, Jorge Fuentes, The Jade Emperor, and Cryogen Glacien.
Also, you could probably go to the VGMusic board and ask for a recommendation or for a compostition; if it's a polite and short request, they might make one for you.
Midi sound quality is as poor as your hardware/software used for playing them. I personally have quite nice gm compatible soundfont, and the quality is better than most of the psx games I have played. After that it's all about how accurately the midi is sequenced.
Vgmusics midi accuracy is less than perfect. There are some note to note accurate sequences, but some are just bad, containing kazillions of wrong notes.
Oh, and 12motion, if you are planning to use someone elses midi on your site, try asking permission from the sequncer first. Sure, one might think that if it's on internet, it's free for all to use, and most people probably won't have any issues with that. However, there are always some who have made the midis exclusive to some page.
And asking a permission is also polite :)
Joined: 3/11/2004
Posts: 1058
Location: Reykjavík, Ísland
Yeah, I usually leave a website immediately when I hear there's a midi tune on it. Ever tried listening to two songs at the same time?
Actually I'm not even sure if I'm allowing my browser to play midi tunes now since I haven't heard anything in a long, long time...
Midi sound quality is as poor as your hardware/software used for playing them. I personally have quite nice gm compatible soundfont, and the quality is better than most of the psx games I have played. After that it's all about how accurately the midi is sequenced.
I know what is MIDI. Synthesized intruments by far not as good as real instruments. To say the sound is better than MOST PSX games music, you are exagerating.
I agree with Bisqwit that putting music in background keep people away especially MIDI sound. I will rewrite my question. Since people don't have that hardware, why putting MIDI on a site?
Nope, I am not. How would you know, having never heard the sf pack I'm using? As I said, I have damn fine gm compatible soundfont pack.
How can you say I have never heard MIDI with this kind of interface!?
You are really wrong. It's true the sound is better but those pack are generally TOO expensive since we can buy an HDD and record real instruments in .wav-.mp3.
Gentlemen, I am no low life. The music on my website doesn't autoplay, there is a play bar and you may hit play if you wish. I know how annoying automusic is. Here is an example of what I am doing with it.
http://www.virtualalex.com/other/nintendo_age/super_mario_world.htm
and of course asking for premission is the right things to do. I just wish I had a good source of accurate VG midi... VGmusic, as has been said, is rarely accurate and frequently terrible.
How can you say I have never heard MIDI with this kind of interface!?
Well, I obviously can't know whether or not you have heard midis with same soundfonts that I have as I have no access to your hardware/software. But then again, you can't know whether or not the sound I have is better than psx as you have no access to my hardware/software :)
Phil wrote:
You are really wrong. It's true the sound is better but those pack are generally TOO expensive since we can buy an HDD and record real instruments in .wav-.mp3.
If I'm wrong, that would mean that the sound is worse. But in the very next sentence you contradict with that saying that "the sound is better". So which way is it?
This was never about whether or not it would be cheap to listen midis with good quality sounds. And besides, my pack didn't cost a dime, and I'm not even sure that they sell gm compatible packs. As in, load it up and listen. As far as I know, all of the sold packs don't contain all the instruments, you'd need to buy several different packs to make a fully functional gm pack. And yes, that would cost quite a bit. Not to mention the huge ram usage, if those instruments would be used for casual listening.
To sum it all up, I'm just saying that midi is hardly poor quality, as it all depends on listeners hardware/software. And my current gm pack is better sounding than most of the psx games I have played. That's all there is to it.
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
I'm sure there's a first time for everything, but I can't imagine a MIDI file comparing to a CD-quality recording of actualy instruments. Is there something I can download to improve my MIDI performance?
I'm sure there's a first time for everything, but I can't imagine a MIDI file comparing to a CD-quality recording of actualy instruments. Is there something I can download to improve my MIDI performance?
It's true and anyway there's very few people that own one of these MIDI interfaces.
I have always found a lot of good re-creations on the VGM site, personally; I admit that there are a lot of pieces that aren't perfect or need serious work, but the majority, in my opinion, either stay very close to the original melody, or provide an original remix, depending on the tastes of the composer--could you give me some examples of the poor music you're referring to?
Tne bigger they are, the better quality they usually are.
Well put. Though there are always exceptions, even in the professional costly ones. But that's the general rule.
And how to improve midi performance, depends on your soundcard. To use sf2 files, you would need soundcard that supports them. I currently have sblive5.1, which works for me quite well at the moment. And then you would need to find some decent packs to download. As with everything on internet, some of the stuff is good and some really bad. Finding decent soundfonts can be a pain in the ass, so unless you actually listen midis frequently, it may not be worth all the trouble.
And about the vgmusic accuracy. I can't point you to any files that would be wrong, but I can quote Powerlord (VGMA Webmaster of vgmusic).
Powerlord wrote:
with songs on VGMusic, it's really hit or miss whether you get a good song or bad.
Even the close sounding songs are rarely note-perfect.
At some point, I hope to sweep the really bad songs out of VGMusic's archive...
This came about in vgmix a while back when someone new asked for assistance on mixing, and someone suggested that he should use vgmix midis as a base of the remix. And then everyone in the know came and said that "first of, you should use your ears to transcribe the notes, in the long run it's better, and secondly, vgmusic is not as accurate as it sometimes seem to be. The man who suggested using midis was crucified :)
Perhaps it's your amazing sound pack, Mr. 12, that is making the midis not sound accurate. Probably 95% of the non-remixed songs on VG music are 100% accurate. I have heard a few that manage to leave out an entire track or two (ie. Sonic 2 Final Boss, none of the four that are up there are 100% accurate).
Perhaps it's your amazing sound pack, Mr. 12, that is making the midis not sound accurate. Probably 95% of the non-remixed songs on VG music are 100% accurate. I have heard a few that manage to leave out an entire track or two (ie. Sonic 2 Final Boss, none of the four that are up there are 100% accurate).
First check your eyes, and try not to confuse me with 12 motion again. Second, as I said before... trained ears can pick quite a lot of mistakes in the midis of vgmusic. Your's obviously aren't trained. Third, who would I rather believe, my own ears, professional composers and VGMA Webmaster of vgmusic.... or you, some random guy I have never seen before.
Perhaps it's your amazing sound pack, Mr. 12, that is making the midis not sound accurate. Probably 95% of the non-remixed songs on VG music are 100% accurate. I have heard a few that manage to leave out an entire track or two (ie. Sonic 2 Final Boss, none of the four that are up there are 100% accurate).
I also have got the impression that a high percentage of separately created MIDI files (as opposed to machine-made conversions) mimicking the actual music from a game are significantly less than 100% accuracy. The most disturbing thing is that they often have wrong notes/chords.
Either the authors have been unable to identify the notes that the actual song contains, or the author has chosen different notes because their soundfont contains bad-sounding samples for the right notes.
