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Topic: iMac and PC playback (Read 3974 times) previous topic - next topic

iMac and PC playback

When I go to a website and play a midifile, it sounds very different depending on the type of player being used. For instance, Crescendo seems to make the instruments seem the truest, while QuickTime makes a jumble of things. Also, compositions seem a lot different when accessed using an iMac than when using a PC.

Is there anyway to make sure that one's composition, once it's posted on the Internet, will sound the way one intended it to sound, no matter which playback program is being used and no matter which, Apple or PC, type of computer is being used?

Thanks for any help.

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #1 –
Not if you post it as a MIDI file. Then it's at the mercy of whatever MIDI playback equipment the individual listener has.

Your best bet is to capture the playback from your own preferred MIDI renderer and post that. You could, for example, record the music in a .WAV file and then convert that to MP3 (for size & speed). Most sound cards do a good job reproducing recorded sounds even if their own MIDI capabilities are minimal.

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #2 –
The problem is that the MP3 file is so much larger than the midi file and takes so much longer to load.

Or is it becoming more common on the Internet for MP3s to download faster, or for them to play while downloading (I guess that's called streaming). If so, is there a way to add streaming software to one's website so that visitors would be able to quickly hear the MP3's?

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #3 –
Faster download rates are getting more common, but are not a given; where I live, for instance, nothing faster than 57.6 is even available yet. This restricts streaming bitrates to 24kbits, mono... which leads to another problem; very "lo fi" reproduction.

In other areas, high-speed connections are available but are still very expensive; especially in Europe and Asia.

The best way, IMO, to provide mp3's is to simply post them; that way anyone can download them and listen offline.

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #4 –
Lot of compromises are needed.

I provide short mp3 soundclips (15 seconds) to let folks know what the music should sound like.

I also let folks know the card for which the midi's are optimized and that the midis may sound "different" (e.g. awful) on other sound cards, so there are fewer surprises.

Not sure if that helps, but . . .

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #5 –
Thanks, Steve, for the information and advice. It's something I've long been wondering about--that is, if people would hear my compositions as I heard them, should they be using a different soundcard.

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #6 –
It might help if you think of a MIDI file as an very precise (electronic) score, with instructions like:

Saxophone:

Play E-flat above middle C -- now!
stop -- now!
Play 3 decibels louder for awhile.
Play F ...

etc.

Every saxophonist playing this EXACTLY as you wrote it, will sound exactly the same? NOT! Tone quality can make a world of difference.

Your users don't have a saxophonist -- they have a sound card -- perhaps very cheap (the saxophone, clarinet, and trumpet sounds from the electronic equivalent of yellow kazoo, brown kazoo, and red kazoo respectively); perhaps very expensive (CD-quality samples crafted from recordings at the Boston Philharmonic).

And some instruments seem to be be done fairly well by many sound cards -- harpsichord, trumpet, hammand organ. Some instruments really seem to show the quality of the card -- choir "ah"s, for instance.

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #7 –
Indeed. The four Basses of our choir can execute complex polyphony -- all while singing the same notes *exactly as they were written.*!

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #8 –
It seems that « execute » is the good term...
 

Re: iMac and PC playback

Reply #9 –
I have been reprducing the hammond organ and piano sounds for the past few years on keyboards such as Korg-M1, Roland, Yamaha, and Kawai K1 and I have not been able to capture the majic sound of the Hammond organs.  Kawai K1 is the closest sound to Hammond but it is not the same.  "HAMMOND" is the best: why aren't there any hammand organs or keyboards/synthesizers in the U.S.?  I am only 31 years of age and cannot be happy with one of the newer keyboards if it can't have the same richness of crystal clear organ sounds, killer vibratos, and longlasting sustain.  Very sincerely from a "HAMMOND" organ fan.