The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #29573 Message #375587
Posted By: Joe Offer
16-Jan-01 - 04:15 PM
Thread Name: BS sort of: Sorcha Made a MIDI!
Subject: MIDITEXT Instructions
Gee, that's a great tune, Bernard. What's the name of it? Get Ready Sorcha, when you display lists of files by clicking on "my computer," do they show up with the full name of the file including the three-letter extension at the end, like sorcha.mid and wisemary.exe?? If not, go to View/Folder Options, and click on the "view" tab. Make sure that the check mark is removed from the box that says "hide file extensions from known file types." That way, it will be easier for you to identify the files and to figure out what to do with them.
Get Set
For starting to learn MIDITEXT, I suggest that you simplify things by putting all your MIDITEXT stuff together in the same directory (folder) - with no other stuff in there.
Now, I want you to find a MIDI file that you've created - make sure that the tune is a simple one, with just one melody staff (no bass or anything).
Right-click on that file name, and select "copy."
Then go to the folder where you have MIDITEXT, and put your cursor on a white space within the folder.
Right-click and select "paste." A copy of the MIDI file should be in your folder, ready for you to play with.
Now, right-click on a white space in that same folder, and select "new" and chose to create a text file. Notepad should open. Save the file as songtext.txt.
GO!
MID2TXT - Place your cursor on the MIDI file, click and hold the left mouse button, and DRAG the file onto MID2TXT.exe - a window should open that tells you that filename.txt has been successfully created (then close that window). If you then open that text file, it should be all set for you to paste into a Mudcat message (note that the text file created by MID2TXT will NOT convert back in TXT2MID. It's only good for pasting into Mudcat).
TXT2MID - Highlight and copy [CTRL-C] all the red stuff from the tune Bernard posted above. If your SONGTXT.TXT file isn't open, double-click on it and open it. Make sure there isn't any text in it. Move your cursor into the SONGTEXT window and paste [CTRL-V] all that red stuff into the window. Save the SONGTEXT file and close it. Now drag the SONGTEXT.TXT file onto TXT2MID - a window should open that says "alexhor1.mid" successfully created (then close that window). Double-click on old alexhor1.mid, and it should play.
If this doesn't work, go through the whole process again and write down everything you do, so we can figure out where you went astray.
By the way, everybody, please be careful with the tunes you submit to the Digital Tradition. I'm having an awful time with many of them. If a song is in 3/4 time, it really helps if there are three complete beats in each measure. It's also very hard to match lyrics to tunes in many songs, unless I know the song or have sheet music for it. Therefore, it's best if tunes are submitted in Noteworthy Composer format, with the lyrics of the first verse and chorus included so we know what words match what notes. I'm sometimes successful in matching the meter of the lyrics to the meter of the tune, but not always. Thanks.