# MUST thou screwist up midi files BEFORE putting them on the web? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2001, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214 "2001-08-07T01:42:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MAXIMUMSTRENT1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@MAXIMUMSTRENT1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MAXIMUMSTRENT1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/1 "2001-08-07T01:42:30Z")
Is there some unwritten rule somewhere which states that when copying midi files onto the web for others to grab, that **first, thou shalt fuck them up by recording them thy way**? What is this crap? Tunes are rearranged to hardly sound like the original or have instruments, unusually lengthy bits and previously absent pauses in them. Can’t songs be recorded via MIDI without them getting all screwed up? Can’t you just take a CD player, jack into a midi synthesizer and record away without reworking the whole thing first? Having just gotten a new computer with a 20GB instead of a 500MG hard drive, I’m naturally conservative about space, so I use MIDI. (Damn! I recall when a Commodor 64 with two floppy drives was enough! Even though I never did get both to work in order. ) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/2 "2001-08-07T02:02:42Z")
OyVey!!! You used to have a 500 MB drive and you were saving all your musics as MIDI??? MIDI is dead, an anachronism only good for video games! When I had a 500 MB HD, I despaired at my inability to save sounds as AIFFs because back then there was no MP3. Now I have an 18 GB HD and an MP3 compressor and a CDROM burner and I can’t imagine saving sounds as MIDI unless they originated as MIDI and have nothing else to offer. (I’ve composed a tiny handful myself in that format). It’s like finding someone who still saves all their graphic images as 8-bit GIF files or something! ::shakes head:: ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/3 "2001-08-07T03:20:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MAXIMUMSTRENT1 \* > \*\*Can’t you just take a CD player, jack into a midi synthesizer and record away without reworking the whole thing first? > \*\* Umm… no, you can’t, it doesn’t work that way. MIDI isn’t an actual recording of anything, it’s a file that basically contains the written score (which is why a MIDI can sound vastly different from one system to another - they’re all playing back a little differently). I like to say a MIDI is to a MP3 as a plain text file is to a MP3 of a narrator reading the text. Somebody has to actually sit down and compose all of those notes by hand somehow (usually playing the song on a keyboard synthesizer with MIDI output). If you’re playing the song by hand, it’s easy to take liberties with the arrangement. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/4 "2001-08-07T03:34:09Z")
> [@](#): > > MIDI is dead, an anachronism only good for video games! Not so, Philistine. All you need is a good enough synthesizer (and everyone these days who doesn’t have a SBLive!-level sound card is trapped in the past) and a MIDI can sound just as kickass as the best Mp3’s out there. Anyway… back to the OP… > [@](#): > > Tunes are rearranged to hardly sound like the original or have instruments… Wrong-O, bub. Tunes are RE-arranged… they’re arranged from scratch. Some fanboy out there sits down and synthesizes the MIDI on his own, trying to match the original music as closely as possible. That’s why you get discrepancies in the music. ---
**Author:** ![Ferggie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Ferggie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferggie)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/5 "2001-08-07T04:31:13Z")
I use AnvilStudio, myself, and until I can afford a MIDI keyboard (which will happen right after I can afford to get my car fixed…which will happen right after…you get the picture) I will continue to lovingly craft my MIDIs _note by painstaking note!_ The song I use on the opening page of [http://welcome.to/Amethyst-Isle](http://welcome.to/Amethyst-Isle) is just over two minutes long, yet took me something like two month’s worth of spare time to compose. And it’s harder (in my experience) to reproduce someone else’s work than the tune running 'round in my head. Yes, I have no life. I am a copy editor. We carpool with the vampires. ---
**Author:** ![MAXIMUMSTRENT1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@MAXIMUMSTRENT1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MAXIMUMSTRENT1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/6 "2001-08-07T13:54:02Z")
(Jaw drops and hits floor with audible klunk!) So, like you’re telling me that these thousands and thousands of free midi files were **hand** copied into the system? People sat down and did the equivalent of copying, letter by letter, a dictionary, just for fun? You’re telling me also that now I have to root around in this new HP pavilion mx50, which, by the way, and no kidding, took me two days to learn how to turn off and still has undiscovered programs lurking in its depths, to find an mp3 player? So, why are WAVE songs still hard to come by, since, through the built in recording system, they can just be recorded? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/7 "2001-08-07T14:33:14Z")
Exactly. MIDI files are copied by hand. I don’t play a keyboard so I use a mouse to create mine direct from the sheet music. You should already have an easy-to-find MP3 player, assuming you have a Windows OS. The Windows Media Player can do MP3. The problem with wave files is they’re friggin’ **huge** compared to other formats. A track in MP3 format averages about 2Meg. The same track in wave format would probably be around 6Meg! ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2001, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/8 "2001-08-08T02:15:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*A track in MP3 format averages about 2Meg. The same track in wave format would probably be around 6Meg! \*\* I’m afraid you are mistaken. A 2MB MP3 file, assuming it was encoded at 128 kbps, would take about 25-30MB as a Wave file. Note: an AIFF, for all intents and purposes, is the same as a Wave file. Besides, why would you waste the space anyway? Most people cannot distinguish a MP3 from a Wave. It’s one of the reasons MP3 is so popular. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2001, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/9 "2001-08-08T03:02:28Z")
I have a 20 GB HD and 800+ mp3s. You need not be so miserly about your space. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2001, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-thou-screwist-up-midi-files-before-putting-them-on-the-web/75214/10 "2001-08-08T12:28:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > \*\*I’m afraid you are mistaken. A 2MB MP3 file, assuming it was encoded at 128 kbps, would take about 25-30MB as a Wave file. Note: an AIFF, for all intents and purposes, is the same as a Wave file. > > Besides, why would you waste the space anyway? Most people cannot distinguish a MP3 from a Wave. It’s one of the reasons MP3 is so popular. \*\* Huge, as I said. I really had no idea how huge so I made up a number and 3x sounded good.