Music Sections:
Musical instrument Digital Interface
Included in this section is placing a midi on your web page and also how to make one yourself and what you will need, either with a shoe string or pro set up.
School projects are included along with name that tune recording a midi and the set up. The report card is your way of knowing that you have learned something and it has been retained by visiting this section of our web site.
A Midi On Your Web Page
When a web page creator first starts the exciting project of building his or her own first web page, the first thing they usually want to do is add a midi and graphics. This is the artist and musician in all of us. Perhaps even more important is layout and content. **Grins** Sounds like a term paper, right?
In our music section's main page, you saw a Crescendo (if you are using this midi player) pop up at the top of the page and then you had to select the play button on the console to hear the music. As you journey into the class room projects, the music will continue to play, unless of course there is another midi when another page loads. Magic? No just a wee bit of HTML coding, which is shown below.
<noembed><bgsound src="your midi name.mid" loop="infinite"></noembed>
<embed src="your midi name.mid" class="floatcenter" width="145" height="60" autostart=">false" volume=">50" loop=">true" detach=">true" hidden="">
Now a wee explanation. The first line is for Internet Explorer, the second and third line are for the Crescendo midi player. Autostart false, means that your visitor must select the play button to hear your midi. Volume is set low, rather than blaring out. But you may still wake up a baby or cause puppies to begin barking. **Grins** Loop set at true means that the midi will continue to play over and over. Detach is set at true so the console will pop up and controls can be selected. Hidden is also set at true so it is not displayed on your web page. A little magic for Faerie folk and you too.
If you take a peek at the HTML coding for our web pages, you will find a different code line for our midis because this one is HTML 4.1 compliant.
<a href="http://faeriekeeper.net/nuper.mid">
Making a MIDI - What You Will Need
All of us like "gadgets." So this list of items needed is a way to start on a shoe string and then as you become comfortable and really enjoy creating Midi's you can add to your "gadgets."
A real neat set up so save your money.
Shoe String Setup
1. Computer with SCSI or fast hard-drive
2. Sound card with wavetable synthesis.
4. Microphone and pre-amp
5. Amp with reverb (or a separate reverb unit)
6. Four track recorder (or a wave/midi sequencer)
7. Various cables including, RCA cable, 1/8 inch to female RCA, 1/5 to female RCA, 1/4 to 1/4 cables, 1/8 to 1/8 cables (usually stereo so consult your soundcard manual).
8. Wav recorder software
9. Standard cassette deck
10. Optional software like Jammer Songmaker or CakeWalk.
Recording a MIDI file to your four track recorder - setup
1. 1/8 inch to female RCA; connect the 1/8 inch plug to the "line out" or "speaker out" jack on your sound card.
2. Connect a standard RCA cable to the female jacks on the 1/8 inch plug.
3. 1/4 inch to female RCA, connect the standard RCA plugs to the female RCA to 1/4 inch plug.
4. Insert the 1/4 inch plug into the "line in" jack on your four track recorder.
5. Record your piece into the computer sequencer with a keyboard, guitar synth, or compositional software. You will need a midi connection from your keyboard to the midi jack on your sound card.
6. Now you can record the music from your sequencer (computer midi program) onto track one of your four track recorder.
7. Disconnect the cables from the computer to the four track recorder.
Pro Setup
At some point in your midi creations the shoe string configuration will not be enough, so an upgrade is in order. The next step is to upgrade your sound card with the goal of getting higher quality MIDI instrument sounds than what most factory installed sound cards typically offer. One way is to add a "daughter board" which plugs into your existing sound card. A daughter board contains sampled instrument sounds, similar to those found on professional MIDI keyboards. Check your sound card and documentation.
Another way is to add an external MIDI sound module. There are also commercial software products that can generate realistic jazz and other accompaniments based on representation of the underlying harmonic structure. Improvisation Builder (IB) distinguishes itself by being an equal partner in improvisation, soloing and accompanying, except that it does not choose tempos or alter harmonic structure and human performers may improvise freely, provided they adhere to the computer's tempo.
School Projects
Music projects for the classroom, home schooling, or just plain fun are contained in this portion of our music section.
Bizzikid's Music
Looking for answers to questions about musical instruments, a particular song, or just wishing to have some fun and learn in the process, then this is a wonderful web site for young and old alike.
Other Practical Projects
An excellent text to speech converter is Text Aloud, which can be purchased with AT and T True Voices.
http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/support.html
WAV files are typically large in file size due to the high quality the format and are used for CDs. An average pop music song is around 50MB in size. WAV files can be made smaller and converted to
MP3 format through a process called encoding.
WAV format is necessary for editing sound files. Technically, MP3 cannot be edited to remove defects or add effects, it must first be converted to WAV format. A WAV editor is needed to alter the WAV
file. Some programs like Rip Edit Burn include a WAV editor in the program.
The Windows Media Player 9 has a cool feature in it that can speed up or slow down the MP3 speaking speed without having to modify the MP3 file. I now use this feature all the time, but one small
detail has been left out and needs to be mentioned here. This speed adjustment feature of Windows Media Player 9 can only be found in, and works on Windows XP installations. Although this is a small
detail, it does make all the difference in the world for those still using Windows 2000, or older OS’s with MP9 installed and have become frustrated looking for this feature.
Or Use GoldWave http://www.goldwave.com/
Embed, stream or downloadable:
Streaming audio avoids many of the problems of large audio files. Instead of having to wait for the entire file to download, you can listen to the sound as the data arrives at your computer. For that
reason I purchased the streaming key from Crescendo when we first made a presence on the Internet in, well years ago.
Streaming audio players store several seconds worth of data in a buffer before beginning playback. The buffer absorbs the bursts of data as they are delivered by the Internet and releases it at a
constant rate for smooth playback.
Streaming refers to the ability to listen to audio content while it is being downloaded as opposed to having to wait until after the file has been completely downloaded. On the client side there are
actually two ways to realize the streaming benefits of Crescendo.
We have shared peer to peer reports using downloadable files for many years and this has been very effective. A few of our clients actually upload the files, send a voice message and the recipients
hear the messages while on their way to the office or visiting business clients.
On the business application side, there is no question that this methodology has come of age and on the fun side or our AP side, I think we all might benefit from at least trying something different
with our criteria's.
Tutorials like those Neo, Bernie and Carlos and others have created are an excellent application too.
Name That Tune
Have you ever been watching a movie, television or listening to your favorite vocal group and said to yourself that you have heard "that tune?" To some degree classical rhythm, melody or harmony and even earlier works are everywhere.
The nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus - Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, And Urania in Greek mythology resided over a different art or science. The Muse or spirit or power regarded as inspiring poets, musicians, and artists is perhaps even inspiring today, in our modern era.
The classical piece "Aries, Bringer of War" inspired Metallicas song "Am I Evil", which in its self is a very philosophical song asking the age old question is a person born to be evil or is evil something learned.
When Rossini wrote the "William Tell Overture" we doubt that he visualized a masked man riding into the sunset with his overture playing in the background. Nor would he have thought that a "cult" film like "Clockwork Orange" would also contain his overture.
The background will hopefully prepare you for a fun project. Identify a classical composition evident in an advertisement, a movie, television show, or any other media of your choice. Provide the details and forward your answer which we will publish. Please pick up your award
Links
Report Card
Our report card section is really about how others view this section of our web site. Our grading is based upon each award presenters criteria which they have established in their awards program.
We also have a section for "teachers comments." But in reality, these comments are from those who have visited our music section and have left some kinds words or symbols which show that they have taken away something of value, for that is our intention.
So from the bottom of our hearts, may we say thank you very much and please tell a friend about our music section. Also would you please let us know if there is something else you would like for us to include?
Kids Online Web Site Award
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Presented 200929
Music Learning Web Award
Presented 200804
There is a wee something for you too. Having satisfactorily completed one or more of the projects, please copy this award to display on your web site. If you would like to link to ours, the URL is shown below:
Award.
Thanks to Debbie Ingold for making the award. If you would like to link to us the URL is http://faeriekeeper.net.