Most computers sold today include a sound card and speakers. This guide is for anyone who needs to upgrade an older computer to listen to MIDI files on an MS-DOS computer. This guide does not delve into the much more complicated area of creating your own MIDI files -- help in this area can be found in other locations on the net.
You will need a sound card, stereo speakers, and appropriate software. Once you have these items installed and working, you will be ready to play your MIDI files.
You need a sound card such as one of the Sound Blaster series of cards, or those by Media Vision, Turtle Beach, etc. The sound card contains the circuitry needed to turn the MIDI file instructions into sound.
A sound card often comes bundled with a CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM drive is not necessary to listen to MIDI files, but if you don't already have a CD-ROM drive you will want to go ahead a get one when you get the sound card, as CD-ROM drives are now standard equipment on microcomputers and most software, games, etc., are now being provided on CD-ROM's rather than on floppy disks. The sound card will provide the interface for attaching the CD-ROM drive, and as these interfaces are not standard, you should buy both the sound card and the CD-ROM at the same time to insure compatibility.
Get the best sound card that you can afford. There is a definite difference in the sounds produced by the various sound cards, and the wavetable cards sound VERY SIGNIFICANTLY better than the non-wavetable cards. At the very least, get a card which is upgradable to a wavetable card. Once you hear a wave table card, you will not be satisfied with anything else, as with a wave table card the better MIDI files can produce sounds very much like that from the actual instruments.
You can attach your sound card to a stereo system, purchase special stereo speakers designed to be used with a computer, or use earphones. An adequate pair of computer stereo speakers can be purchased for about $40. Higher priced speakers can provide significantly better sound. Also, using an external amplifier can significantly improve the quality of your sound.
Be careful if you decide to attach the sound card to your stereo system. With some cards you can get hum and feedback if you attach your card to an improperly grounded stereo system.
Finally, you will need computer software in order to play the MIDI file. In most cases, this will be bundled with the sound card and all you will have to do is install it using the setup program that came with the software.
If you are running Windows, you can run MIDI files with the Windows Media Player. Make sure that the [MCI] MIDI Sequencer and the MIDI Mapper drivers are installed in the Drivers portion of Control Panel.
The software bundled with the sound card will probably be for Windows, and there may also be some DOS sound files.
A number of freeware and shareware MIDI players are available for downloading from various sites. Remember that although you don't need the full range of functionality that you would need for creating MIDI files, it is very helpful to have software with the ability to modify principal file characteristics such as patches and channel volumes, and save the modified file.
MIDI files are available from a number of locations on the Internet, and on CD-ROM. A good place to start is the Gilbert & Sullivan MIDI Home Page This page contains links to all of the MIDI files in the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. There are also links from this page to several other principal Internet MIDI sites.
Not all MIDI files are created equal. They range from outstanding to pretty poor. Also, the standards for channel assignment, etc., are relatively new. Files created before these standards were adopted use a variety of channel assignments, as do a number of MIDI files created subsequently. See our help file on the Windows MIDI mapper for guidance on adjusting it to play the maximum number of MIDI files.
Don't be afraid to modify the downloaded files so that they sound best on your system. Most of the better MIDI playing software provides this capability.
Although there is some work involved in setting up your system for MIDI, and some things to learn, you will find it well worth it, and you will find a new source of musical enjoyment as your surf the web for new and better MIDI files.
Updated 1 Dec 1996