The demo files on this disk were supplied by Words & Music and come from our large collection of MIDI files - details are at the end of this file.
This document contains more information about the files and how to get the most out of them. You may like to print it out for easy reference.
Quick Start for Mac and All MIDI Users
All the files on this disk are in Standard MIDI File format and mapped to General MIDI. To convert a file into a QuickTime movie, simply drag it onto the All MIDI application. All MIDI will automatically create a QuickTime audio movie of the file and add Moov to the filename.
You can drag several files at once including complete folders. All MIDI checks the contents of each file and will not attempt to convert any which are not MIDI files.
That's all there is to it! Except for a few words about...
Program Numbers
Program Numbers are instructions which tell an instrument which program or sound to select. There are 128 sounds in General MIDI, technically numbered from 0 to 127. That's because computers count from 0, unlike humans who usually start counting from 1.
In an effort to make sequencing more 'human' some sequencers start counting from 1 so the Program Change numbers run from 1 to 128. All MIDI relies upon this numbering scheme and if you convert a MIDI file which uses the computer system you will find that All MIDI selects the wrong instruments.
For example, in the computer system, the Violin is number 40 but in the 'human' numbering system, number 40 is Syn Bass 2. If a MIDI file uses this numbering system, All MIDI will select Syn Bass 2 instead of a Violin.
But this is easy to put right. If you think something is wrong with a converted file, use QuickMovie to edit the sounds. Select each track in turn and change the sound to the next one up on the list. So, Syn Bass 2 will become Violin, Timpani will become String Ensemble 1 and so on.
If you find a lot of files numbered in this way, you might like to print out the following list of sounds and Program Numbers to help you with the conversions. The first number in the list is the 'computer' number, the second is the 'human' one which ALL MIDI uses.
Piano
0 1 Acoustic Grand Piano
1 2 Bright Acoustic Piano
2 3 Electric grand Piano
3 4 Honky Tonk Piano
4 5 Electric Piano 1
5 6 Electric Piano 2
6 7 Harpsichord
7 8 Clavi
Chromatic Percussion
8 9 Celesta
9 10 Glockenspiel
10 11Music Box
11 12 Vibraphone
12 13 marimba
13 14 Xylophone
14 15 Tubular Bells
15 16 Dulcimer
Organ
16 17 Drawbar Organ
17 18 Percussive Organ
18 19 Rock Organ
19 20 Church Organ
20 21 Reed Organ
21 22 Accordion
22 23 Harmonica
23 24 Tango Accordion
Guitar
24 25 Acoustic Nylon Guitar
25 26 Acoustic Steel Guitar
26 27 Electric Jazz Guitar
27 28 Electric Clean Guitar
28 29 Electric Muted Guitar
29 30 Overdriven Guitar
30 31 Distortion Guitar
31 32 Guitar Harmonics
Bass
32 33 Acoustic Bass
33 34 Electric Fingered Bass
34 35 Electric Picked Bass
35 36 Fretless Bass
36 37 Slap Bass 1
37 38 Slap Bass 2
38 39 Synth Bass 1
39 40 Synth Bass 2
Strings
40 41 Violin
41 42 Viola
42 43 Cello
43 44 Contrabass
44 45 Tremolo Strings
45 46 Pizzicato Strings
46 47 Orchestral harp
47 48 Timpani
Ensemble
48 49 String Ensemble
49 50 Slow Strings
50 51 Synth Strings 1
51 52 Synth Strings 2
52 53 Choir Aahs
53 54 Voice Oohs
54 55 Synth Voice
55 56 Orchestral Hit
Brass
56 57 Trumpet
57 58 Trombone
58 59 Tuba
59 60 Muted Trumpet
60 61 French Horn
61 62 Brass Section
62 63 Synth Brass 1
63 64 Synth Brass 2
Reed
64 65 Soprano Sax
65 66 Alto Sax
66 67 Tenor Sax
67 68 Baritone Sax
68 69 Oboe
69 70 English Horns
70 71 Bassoon
71 72 Clarinet
Pipe
72 73 Piccolo
73 74 Flute
74 75 Recorder
75 76 Pan Flute
76 77 Bottle Blow
77 78 Shakuhachi
78 79 Whistle
79 80 Ocarina
Synth Lead
80 81 Square Wave
81 82 Sawtooth Wave
82 83 Calliope
83 84 Chiff
84 85 Charang
85 86 Voice
86 87 Fifths
87 88 Bass & Lead
Synth Pad
88 89 New Age (Fantasia)
89 90 Warm pad
90 91 Polysynth
91 92 Choir (Space Voice)
92 93 Bowed (Bowed Glass)
93 94 Metallic pad
94 95 Halo pad
95 96 Sweep pad
Synth FX
96 97 Rain (Ice Rain)
97 98 Soundtrack
98 99 Crystal
99 100 Atmosphere
100 101 Brightness
101 102 Goblins
102 103 Echoes (Echo Drops)
103 104 Sci-fi (Star Theme)
Ethnic
104 105 Sitar
105 106 Banjo
106 107 Shamisen
107 108 Koto
108 109 Kalimba
109 110 Bagpipes
110 111 Fiddle
111 112 Shanai
Percussive
112 113 Tinkle Bell
113 114 Agogo
114 115 Steel Drums
115 116 Wood block
116 117 Taiko Drum
117 118 Melodic Drum (Melodic Tom)
118 119 Synth Drum
119 120 Reverse Cymbal
Sound FX
120 121 Guitar Fret Noise
121 122 Breath noise
122 123 Seashore
123 124 Bird Tweet
124 125 Telephone Ring
125 126 Helicopter
126 127 Applause
127 128 Gun Shot
If You Have Enjoyed These...
The files on the cover disk come from our much larger collection of MIDI files. If you enjoyed them you may be interested in obtaining more files to play. Yes, here's the advert...
At the last count we had well over 500 files. Over half are classics but we also have a disk of Drum Patterns and a mammoth collection of festive Christmas tunes.
Our policy is to give value for money and each of the disks in our latest collection contains over 30 files. The Drummin' and Christmas disks contain 160 and 102 files.
The Classic Collection Volume 1
Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 (all four movements); extract from Beethoven's 5th Symphony; Shostakovich's 5th Symphony 2nd Movement (uses all 16 channels!); Mozart 40; Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca; Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu; Habanera; Anitra's Dance; Ave Maria and more...
The Classic Collection Volume 2
Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (all three movements); Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (full Piano/Clarinet arrangement); Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (all three movements); Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; Widor's famous Organ Toccata; Air on a G String; Fur Elise; Flight of the Bumble Bee and more...
The Classic Collection Volume 3
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (all 16 movements); Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (all three movements); Entry of the Gladiators; Hooked on Classics; extract from Beethoven's 3rd Symphony (Eroica); Chopin's Krakowiak Rondo (a 'live' virtuoso performance lasting over 13 minutes!); Blue Danube Waltz; Funeral March of a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock's theme tune); Debussy's Arabesque No.1; Trumpet Voluntary and more...
It's Ragtime!
A collection of over 20 Rags on one disk arranged mainly for piano, some with an orchestral accompaniment. It includes The Black & White Rag (Pot Black TV theme), The Entertainer, The Maple Leaf Rag, The Blue Goose Rag and many more.
This collection really makes your 'Piano' talk. We like playing them using a Honky Tonk piano sound - or try using two different pianos and detuning them!
Christmas MIDI Song Collection
The Christmas MIDI Song Collection contains over 100 tunes for the festive season on disk in MIDI file format. There are Christmas songs, Carols and medleys plus festive classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven and other great composers. It contains over 600K of data - hours of listening pleasure.
Keep on Drummin'
Keep on Drummin' is a collection of 160 drum patterns on disk in MIDI File Format. They are arranged into 16 Styles:- Afro, 12/8 Blues, 4/4 Blues, Disco Fills, Funky, Heavy, Hip Hop, House, Latin, Motown, Reggae, Rock, Rhythm 'n' Blues, Rock 'n' Roll, and Shuffle.
As well as containing a collection of 'Killer Grooves', there are also lots of good, useable, down-to-Earth patterns suitable for a wide range of songs and tunes. There are two and four-bar patterns plus many which are 12 or 16 bars long, making it very easy to select individual bars for assembling your own drum tracks.
All this and bass lines too! - Several patterns also have an accompanying bass line which suggests the sort of music lines which work well with them. Use them 'as is' or edit them to suit your own music.
The technical bits...
The drum pattern files are configured to the General MIDI (GM) standard which ensures compatibility with the greatest number of synths and expanders. These include Roland's Sound Canvas range (whose drums are based on Roland's MT-32), the Yamaha TG100, Korg's 03R/W and so on. But the patterns will work with any instrument which has built-in drum sounds.
The package contains full written documentation including an explanation of GM and drum maps. There's a GM drum map diagram for the drums used in the patterns along with a full explanation of how to use them with other, non-GM equipment - don't worry, it's easy!
The above files do not contain any Program Change information.
* New Files * New Files * New Files * New Files * New Files *
The following disks are new additions to the catalogue. All the files are mapped to the GM/GS standard and will play 'instantly' on any GM/GS instrument. Each of these disks also comes with a four-page leaflet which gives more detailed information about each file.
The Classic Collection Volume 4
Extract from Mozart's Kyrie Eleison (popularised by many TV and films) arranged for five voices; Purcell's Trumpet Tune (no, not the one he didn't write - that's on Classics Disk 3); Mozart's Divertimento in F for String Quartet; Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (full, orchestrated arrangements) from The Nutcracker Suite; the theme from Swan Lake; the Rondo from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; Mendelssohn's Opus 25 (a gigantic piano piece lasting over 18 minutes) and more...
The Classic Collection Volume 5
Erik Satie's three Gymnopedies (Gynmopedie 1 became very popular when it was used on a TV advert); Debussy's Arabesque 2 and Danse; Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons; a collection of four virtuoso Hungarian Dances; an orchestral arrangement of Handel's Water Music; Beethoven Opus 6 for piano duet; Haydn's London Trios; 10 favourite pieces from Schumann's Opus 68 (which includes The Merry Peasant, A Soldiers' March, The Post Horn) and more...
The Classic Collection Volume 6
Mozart's Piano Sonata in C major No. 15 (one of the most famous of all Mozart's Piano Sonatas); Badinerie from Bach's Overture (Suite) Nr. 2 for flute and strings (a well known flute tune although not everyone knows where it comes from); Chopin's famous Polonaise in A; Spanish Guitar Collection (a superb and novel collection of 10 virtuoso pieces for Spanish Guitar - if your instrument has a guitar sound you must try these); Mozart's 1st Quartet; a collection of Mozart's early works and more...
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier is the title of two sets of Preludes and Fugues, each set consisting of 24 Preludes and 24 Fugues in all the major and minor keys. Together, the two sets are familiarly known as The Forty-Eight although Bach applied the title to the first book only and these are the 48 pieces on this disk.
He described it as; 'for the use and profit of young people who are desirous of learning, as well as for the amusement of those already skilled in this study'. It was also obviously designed as a practical demonstration of the advantage of Equal Temperament.
The Files and GM
Although GM is generally considered to be a 'good thing', not every musician has a GM instrument. Bearing this in mind, our files contain the minimum of control information so A) the tracks are easy to edit and, B) they won't drastically affect users without GM equipment. You can easily insert additional information in a MIDI sequencer if required.
Some Technical Info
For the technically-minded, most of the files are in MIDI File Format 1 which puts each MIDI channel on its own track. The Carols and Christmas tunes on the Christmas MIDI Song Collection are in MIDI File Format 0 which puts all MIDI channels on one single track. The Classical pieces are in Format 1.
Most of the Keep On Drummin' patterns have individual drum sounds on separate tracks for ease of editing although all drums are on MIDI channel 10. The Bass lines are on a separate track and MIDI channel.
All disks come with full printed instructions.
PLEASE NOTE: These files are copyright and are for personal use only. If you want to use them for any commercial purpose, please contact us for a licence.
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How To Order
Here is a list of available titles. Decide how many disks you want then check the price in the table below:
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 1
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 2
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 3
It's Ragtime!
Keep On Drummin'
Christmas MIDI Song Collection
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 4
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 5
The MIDI Classic Collection Volume 6
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
The disks are £10.95 each but Words & Music is offering a special discount to MacFormat readers so the more you buy the cheaper they are:-
No. of Price You Star
Disks Save Savers
1 £10.95
2 £20.90 £ 1
3 £30.85 £ 2
4 £38.80 £ 5 *
5 £48.75 £ 6
6 £58.70 £ 7
7 £68.65 £ 8
8 £77.60 £10 **
9 £86.55 £12 ***
10 £94.50 £15 ****
Please add £1.00 per order for p&p.
PLEASE NOTE: This offer applies only to UK readers. Overseas readers please add £6 to total order value and ensure cheques are drawn on a UK Bank.
Orders are normally despatched within 24 hours of receipt but please allow 14 days for delivery.
VERY IMPORTANT - We also supplies files for the Atari ST, PC and Acorn Archimedes so PLEASE STATE the computer format you require . If you got this file from MacFormat then you want Mac disks.
Please send your Cheque,
Bank Draft or Postal Order to:
Words & Music,
15 Falcon Hill,
Kirkhill,
Morpeth,
Northumberland,
NE61 2YG.
Unfortunately, we can't accept credit card orders but do phone if you have any queries.
