THE MIDI FILES ON THIS DISK So you've found your way to the good parts, have you? On this disk you will find a number of MIDI files, ready to load into your favourite sequencer program and play back through your very own MIDI setup. Some of the files are stored as plain old ".MIDI" files, that means they should be able to load into just about any decent sequencer program available, not only on the Amiga, but also on other home computers, like IBM-clone PC's, Atari ST, Apple MacIntosh etc. Of course, in order to load the files on another computer, you will need to transfer the files to a disk format that these computers can read, for instance to load the .MIDI files on a PC, you will need to use Dos-2-Dos, CrossDos or another "disk-translator". Unfortunately, all these programs are copyrighted, so we can't put them on AM/FM. If we knew of one that was in the Public Domain, we would include it here, so if anyone have heard of any, please let us know. Anyway, back to the MIDI files. Some of the pieces are stored as Music-X Performance files, so you can just load them directly into Music-X. We are aware that there is a .MIDI to Music-X converter program that comes with Music-X, but when these performances go through the .MIDI conversion and back, they tend to lose bits here and there, especially when they're built up with a Control Sequence in Music-X. So we chose to bring you these songs in both .MIDI and Music-X formats. If you are using Music-X, and I believe the majority of Amiga/MIDI users are, you should load the Music-X performance and just forget about the .MIDI version. The Music-X version is the one that ends with ".MX". Now, let's get on with it *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  Sleeping Gods Lie - (Author unknown to us (sorry!)) Stored on the disk both as Music-X performance and .MIDI file. -------------------------------------------------------------- I believe the main theme of this song originates from an ancient game on the Commodore 64, titled "Sleeping Gods Lie". It has been rearranged pretty nicely by some unknown MIDI user somewhere. With the proper sound setup, the whole song should carry a "sleepy" feel, relaxing in all its repetition. One way to make this piece sound good is to choose very "airy" sounds, not too compact. Suggested MIDI setup for "Sleeping Gods Lie": Channel 1 : Bright airy string Channel 2 : Synth-bass Channel 3 : Synvox or easy, light choir Channel 4 : Synth-string \___The same sound for channels 4 and 5, Channel 5 : Synth-string / but "Pan"ed left and right. Channel 6 : Another string, preferably not a synthetic one, but a sampled one. Channel 7 : Soft Bell or Vib. Bend range: 2 half notes for all channels. Suggested effect: Medium/long reverb *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  Human Nature - by Miles Davis Stored on the disk both as Music-X performance and .MIDI file. -------------------------------------------------------------- "Human Nature" is a song that was included on the Miles Davis album "You're Under Arrest". It's composed by S.Porcaro and J.Bettis. The Music-X converting was done by Tor-Egil Braseth ((C) TEB productions). The MIDI Channels: Ch.1 - Should have a long decay, but you can also lengthen the events a bit to get the same effect. Must have a sharp attack. Should also be a little "round" if you see what I mean. Kind of El-piano-like. Ch.2 - A normal, fingered el-bass. Should be quite loud and have little reverb. Ch.3 - A normal trumpet sound. Should have full reverb. Ch.4 - A synthetic string sound. Should have full reverb. Remember that this sound must have a sharp attack! Ch.5 - Drums. This is made on the standard Roland drum setup. Might cause some trouble on another synth/drum machine. Can be used on D-10, D-20, D-110, U-110, U-220, U-20 and some of the drum machines from Roland (as far as I know). Ch.6 - A muted rythm-guitar-like sound. This sound is double on my setup. In other words, it has two sounds in it. It's muted when below 100 in velocity and from 100 to 127 it's sharp. Ch.10- A maracas sound. This is meant as an extra touch to the tune. Can be left out if you haven't got such a sound (should have low volume). Note: The velocity settings on the note-events in this song was adjusted to fit my mixer, so please listen to the song and adjust the volume on your mixer to a level you think is right. If you haven't got a Roland drum-setup, you probably won't hear the bassdrum. So what you've gotta do is transpose the bassdrum events to +1, or until you get the desired bassdrum sound. This conversion is meant to be a tribute to Miles Davis. If you haven't heard about him, you'd better look him up in a lexicon. If you're a Miles Davis-fan yourself, and you have the "You're Under Arrest" album, you might notice that some things are missing. Maybe one note here and one note there. The conversion isn't 100% true to the original. I have just included what I thought was possible and necesarry. And due to the big rush at the end I had to hurry, and I couldn't be picky about details Bjorn, the editor, was in lack of a MIDI-song and I had this one 40% finished. So I sat down and completed it in 10 hours or so. But before you start critizing my work, think about how difficult it is to convert a brilliant jazz tune like this. About the trumpet sound: ------------------------ I couldn't find any sounds being even close to Miles Davis' sound. It would take a hundred samples or so to even come close to it. He has such a tense sound, which is reflected through his horn, depending on what music he plays and what mood he's in. It's too lyrical to be played through a synth, it can only be played by him. So I hope I haven't ruined the tune by my pathetic conversion, but I felt there was a need for a Miles Davis-tune on chip (at least I had that need). And I also learned a great deal during this conversion (my first one). And remember: M I L E S D A V I S F O R E V E R ! ! Enjoy! And if this tune doesn't sound too good, the reason can be two things: Either you don't like Miles Davis, or you've got the wrong sounds. :-) It sounded good on my setup, and that's what counts. Tor-Egil Braseth, TEB Productions. Member of the AM / FM staff. *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  Adore - composed by Prince Stored on the disk both as Music-X performance and .MIDI file. -------------------------------------------------------------- This song, taken from Prince's "Sign of the Times" award-winning album, is a soft ballade with a little bit of blues feeling mixed into it. The vocal is replaced with strings and piano, including the "ad lib" parts, which were just improvised and real-time recorded from a synthesizer. (Don't you just hate it when you're reading score-books, and half the song is replaced with "ad lib vocal", "ad lib piano" etc.?). The dominating instrument in this song should be the piano, with some bright strings and a plain, deep acoustic bass pluddering on in the background. There is also a rythm part, but this is optional and can be turned off if it doesn't sound very good on your setup. It is quite important that you have a good piano or el-piano sound. Channel 1 : Synth-string \___The same sound for channels 1 and 2, Channel 2 : Synth-string / but "Pan"ed left and right. Channel 3 : Acoustic piano or El-piano Channel 5 : Deep acoustic bass Channel 10 : Rhythm / Drums Bend range: 2 half notes for all channels. Suggested effect: Short/Medium reverb.