The MIDI Player

SoundStation allows you to control your computer sound card MIDI synthesizer, enabling you to listen to your favorite music MIDI songs while you work.  To find out more about a particular part of the MIDI player component, click on the desired button or display on the picture above.

See Also:  General SoundStation Help


The Program Button

The Program button pulls up the MIDI programming dialog.  The MIDI programming dialog is shown below:

The MIDI Programming Dialog allows you to select a MIDI file, or several MIDI files, to play on the MIDI component.  You may select up to 50 files to play at one time.  Additionally, you may save your list of files by giving the list a unique name.  Then, you can recall your list at a later time by selecting the name of the list from those that you have saved.

Selecting and De-selecting files to play

When you bring up the MIDI Programming Dialog by pressing the Program button on the MIDI component of the rack system, or pressing the Prog button on the remote control while the MIDI device is selected, you will be presented with the dialog illustrated above.  On the right side of the dialog are two list boxes labeled Directories and Files.  Above both of the list boxes is the currently selected directory in which to look for MIDI files.

To move around your disk, choose the appropriate directory from the list in the Directories listbox.  Select the [..] symbol to move up a directory.  Double click the left mouse button on the desired directory path to change to that directory.  Your choice will be reflected by appearing above the list box.  While you move around, any MIDI files that are found in the currently selected directory path will appear in the Files listbox.  If you wish to change to a different disk drive, select the desired drive by dropping down the Drives combobox, and clicking once on the drive letter you need.

Once you have found the files that you want, select the files from the Files listbox and they will appear in the Selection List listbox on the left side of the dialog.  You can do this in several ways.  First, you can select files by double-clicking the left mouse button on the file in the Files listbox, and that file will be added to the Selection List.

If you want to grab several files at a time, you can select individual files one at a time by holding down the Ctrl key while single-clicking on each desired file with the left mouse button.  Once all of the desired files are marked in such a manner, press the button labeled "<<Add" underneath the Files listbox and the selections will be added to the Selection List listbox in the order that they appear in the Files listbox, but not necessarily in the order that you selected them yourself.  Also, you can mark a continuous block of files in the Files listbox by clicking on the first or last file that you want, then dragging the mouse cursor up or down as appropriate.  The marked list will scroll as you go, marking everything along the way.  Again, once you have selected files in this manner and want to add them to the Selection List, press the <<Add button.

The Selection List listbox operates in a similar manner as the Files listbox.  You can remove files from the Selection List one at a time by double clicking on the files.  You can select multiple files to remove from the Selection List by marking them in the manners described above, and then press the "Remove" button.  Or you can clear the whole Selection List by pressing the "Clear" button.  You can also select all files in the Selection List easily by pressing the "Select All" button.

Saving a Selection List

Once you have created a list of MIDI files to play, you can optionally save the list by giving the list a name.  To do this, press the "Save List" button.  An additional dialog will appear, prompting you for a name for the list.  Type in a name for the list and press the OK button.  Your list will now be saved under that name.  Note that the name you give your list is NOT a filename, so you may type in a complete sentence such as "Upbeat Jazz Tunes", if you wish.  Your selections and the name of your list will be added to the MIDI list database.

To recall your list at a later time, select the dropdown combobox labeled "Program" at the top left of the dialog box, and press the button to drop the list down.  Scroll through the entries until you find the one you want and single-click the left mouse button on that entry's name.  The list of files assigned to that name will appear in the Selection List.  If you want to remove files from the list, use the procedure described above for removing files from the Selection List.  If you want to add new files to the list, select them with the procedure described for adding files to the Selection List.  Once your new list is where you want it, press the "Save List" button to update the database.

If you have a list currently active, you may create a new list by pressing the "New List" button.  Note that if you select or de-select files while there is a name present in the Program combobox window, that you are modifying the indicated playlist.  You will always have a chance, however, to cancel changes to an existing playlist if you attempt to make a new list.

Playing your selections

Once you have performed whatever list maintenance that you desired, and you want to play the files selected in the Selection List, press the OK button on the dialog.  You will be returned to the rack (or remote).  The program will then compile some information on the files that you selected.  Once that is complete, you are ready to play your selections. Just press the Play button and playback will start.

One final note:  You do not have to name a playback Selection List before you can play it.  You can leave it unnamed if you wish.  Note that any unsaved changes made to an existing list or to an unnamed list will cause a "MIDI Program has Changed" message if SoundStation is turned off.  This gives you a final opportunity to save your changed list, and assigning a name to an unnamed list, if necessary.  If you want to discard any changes you made, just press the "Cancel" or "No" button when this reminder appears.


The Track Button

The Track Button switches the display between the current track playing and the total number of tracks in the current MIDI playlist.  Unless you have modified the operation of the Track button, the display will revert back to the current track number indication if you view the total number of tracks using the Track button.

To change the operation of the Track button, see the topic on The MIDI Player Setup Dialog.

Refer to the following illustrations on the different symbols for the Track display:

Total tracks

Track currently playing


The Time Button

The Time Button switches the display between counting up or down the time on the currently playing track, counting up or down the time remaining in the entire MIDI playlist, or to show the total time of the MIDI playlist.  Unless you have modified the operation of the Time button, the display will revert back to the counting up the time of the current track if you view any of the other modes.

To change the operation of the Time button, see the topic on The MIDI Player Setup Dialog.

Refer to the following illustrations on the different symbols for the Time display:

Total playing time

Track count down time

Track count up time

Total count down time

Total count up time


The Random Button

Setting this button ON will cause the MIDI player to randomly shuffle songs to play.  Each song in the MIDI playlist will be played only once, and all songs will be played, unless the MIDI player is stopped.

You can press the Random Button while the MIDI player is currently playing.  In this case, the random order will start with the next song to be played.  If left running, the song that was originally playing will eventually be played again.


The Repeat Button

This button has three states:

NOT ON - the MIDI playlist is played in sequential order.

REPEAT ALL - the MIDI playlist is played through from beginning to end.  When the last song in the playlist is finished playing, play resumes with the first song of the playlist, and continues on through the entire playlist until Repeat mode is reset.

REPEAT SINGLE - the currently playing song is repeated over and over again until the REPEAT button is reset or the player is stopped.


The Reverse Skip Button

The Reverse Skip Button allows you to choose the previous MIDI song to play.  The MIDI player can be playing, paused or stopped.  The previous track will be ready to play from the beginning.  If you skip while playing, the previous track will start immediately.


The Rewind Button

The Rewind Button allows you to skip back through the current selection.  To quickly skip back one second in the selection, press and release the rewind button once.  If you hold the rewind button, the time display will indicate that you are moving backwards through the selection, slowly at first, and then more rapidly.  Note that you cannot rewind the current selection past the beginning of the selection (it will not skip back to the end of the previous selection).


The Pause Button

This button allows you to pause MIDI playback.  To resume playback, press the pause button again (or press the Play button).  The device should be paused if the red LED on the button is on or flashing.  The device should be playing if the red LED is extinguished (and the play is on).


The Stop Button

The Stop Button causes playback to stop for the player.  If you stop in the middle of a track and then press play again, the current track will play from the beginning.


The Play Button

The Play button starts playback of the MIDI playlist from the current position of the currently selected track.  If a new MIDI playlist has been selected, the playback will start on Song 1 (unless Random is active).


The Fast Forward Button

The Fast Forward Button allows you to skip forward through the current selection.  To quickly skip forward one second in the selection, press and release the fast forward button once.  If you hold the fast forward button, the time display will indicate that you are moving forward through the selection, slowly at first, and then more rapidly.  Note that you cannot fast forward the current selection past the end of the selection (it will not skip forward to the beginning of the next selection).


The Forward Skip Button

The Forward Skip Button allows you to choose the next MIDI song to play.  The MIDI player can be playing, paused or stopped.  The next song will be ready to play from the beginning.  If you skip while playing, the next track will start immediately.


The MIDI Display

A closeup of the MIDI player display is shown above.  Click on an area of the display to find out more about that area.


The MIDI Track display shows either the total number of songs in the MIDI playlist or the current song number in the playlist.


The MIDI Time display shows either the total time of the MIDI playlist or the time of the current MIDI song.  The time display can either count up or count down the current song time or total MIDI playlist time.  The time format is in hours:minutes:seconds.


The MIDI Repeat indicator shows whether repeat mode is on or not and whether the current song or the whole MIDI playlist will be repeated.


The filename of the current MIDI song is displayed in this area.  You have the option of displaying only the filename, or the full path and filename of the song.  Also, you can display the song name in either lower- or uppercase characters.