Anyone who has ideas, feel free to send me e-mail to tgree@relay.phys.ualberta.ca. My address is also printed at the bottom of this file and in the title screen and About... box of QuickTime MIDI Player.
This shareware version of QuickTime MIDI Player is fully functional, but please send in your registration fee of $15.00 (or whatever you think is appropriate) so that I may continue to write new programs and provide updates for this one.
NOTE: QuickTime MIDI Player is not an application for stand-alone playback of MIDI files. If you want to play back a MIDI file, you will first need a sequencer program which is Apple MIDI Manager or OMS compatible. You must then set up that sequencer to send MIDI output to QuickTime MIDI Player!
QuickTime MIDI Player is an application which will allow you to play MIDI data through your Macintosh speakers using QuickTime 2.0 or greater and either the Apple MIDI Manager or the Open Music System (OMS, available from Opcode or online at Opcode's home page: "http://www.opcode.com/"). To use QuickTime MIDI Player, you will require both QuickTime 2.0 and either the Apple MIDI Manager or OMS. However, if you want to make any music with it, you will also require either a synthesizer hooked up to your Macintosh or a sequencer/notation program (such as "MusicShop", "Vision" or "Finale") which is Apple MIDI Manager or OMS compatible.
QuickTime MIDI Player allows you to set up the way that the instruments will sound on the Macintosh. Each different instrument is attached to a track. You can have up to 64 different tracks, the maximum supported by QuickTime. You can assign the same instrument to more than one track. Each track also is associated to a certain MIDI channel. This is set in the "MIDI Ch." column in the track setup window. It's default channel is 1. To change it, click on the number and a popup menu will appear listing all the different MIDI channels. You can also decide whether or not you want the track to play incoming MIDI information. Just select the appropriate check box under the "Play" column. Also, it is possible that you will want the track to change instruments when it recieves program change messages. There is a check box under the column "Pr. Chg." which will allow you to change this setting. Finally, if you added a track that you don't want anymore, just select it by clicking in it's track number column (under the "#" column) and choose "Delete Selected Track" from the "Tracks" menu.
Using QuickTime MIDI Player is simple:
1. Run QuickTime MIDI Player.
2. Select "New" from the File Menu to create a new track setup file, or "Open" to use one of the setups included with QuickTime MIDI Player.
3. Add tracks using the "Add Track" command from the Track menu.
4. To change the MIDI Channel number, click on the number under the "MIDI Ch." column. A popup menu will appear allowing you to change the MIDI Channel. This allows you to select which MIDI channel that track is receiving on. Note that MIDI channels are different from track number - MIDI channels are the channels on which the data is sent. Tracks in QuickTime MIDI Player are basically just an instrument assigned to a MIDI channel.
5. To select a different instrument, click on the instrument name. The standard QuickTime Instrument Picker dialog will appear, allowing you to change the selected instrument.
6. To make a channel play incoming notes, hilite the check box under the "Play" column. (This is hilited by default when you add a track.)
7. To make a channel change instruments with MIDI Program Change messages, hilite the check box under the "Pr. Chg." column.
8. Once you have set up your track file, you can save it from the "File" menu. You are now ready to use QuickTime MIDI Player to play music.
If you are using the Apple MIDI Manager:
9. Open an application that can play MIDI and is Apple MIDI Manager compatible, such as "Vision" or "Finale". There are also shareware and demo sequencers available which can play MIDI songs using the Apple MIDI Manager. These are all compatible with QuickTime MIDI Player since they use the Apple MIDI Manager. Try one and see if you like it! If you just want to play music from a synthesizer attached to your Macintosh, you won't need a sequencer application.
10. Using the PatchBay application, join the application's output ports with the newly created QuickTime MIDI Player "Input" port by drawing lines between the triangles. You can join as many "outputs" from your application to QuickTime as you want. (You can hook up more than one at the same time.) If you just want to play music from a synthesizer, hook up the "Input" Port to the Apple MIDI Driver icon at the top left of the PatchBay screen. (The Apple MIDI Driver icon will only appear if you have the "Apple MIDI Driver" file in your System folder. [Not in your extensions folder!!!] )
Note: This QuickTime MIDI Player "Input" port will only be shown in PatchBay if QuickTime MIDI Player is running! You must keep QuickTime MIDI Player running at all times that you want to hear music!!!!!
If you are using OMS:
9. You will need version 2.0 or greater of OMS. It is available on the Opcode Systems home page "http://www.opcode.com/". Open an application that can play MIDI through OMS. If you don't want to play music from a different program, but instead read data coming in from an external synthesizer, you don't have to run any other programs.
10. In QuickTime MIDI Player, go to the OMS menu and select "Choose Nodes to Receive From...". In the dialog box that appears, you can select different sources that QuickTime MIDI Player will play.
Finally:
11. In your MIDI application, or on some synthesizer attached to your Mac, play some music. You should now hear the sounds coming out of the Macintosh speaker! This is useful if you are entering music into programs, since it will give you auditory feedback to what you are doing while entering the music, and you can also listen to what it will sound like when you are done!
Options
There are a few settings that you can also set to customize. These are visible under the Preferences menu:
"Hides while in background." This means that you won't be able to see the QuickTime MIDI Player window when another application is in the foreground.
"Volume." (This is only usable if you have recent versions of the Sound Manager installed, i.e. post 3.0)
"Pitch Bend Range." This allows you to set how far a pitch bend can go. The default is a whole tone in either direction, however you may wish to set it to a semitone, depending on what type of synth you normally use.
"Program Change Numbering." This here is actually used to correct an error I had in the program. The General MIDI numbers and the program change numbers from a synth do not correspond to one another. General MIDI number range from 1 to 128, whereas program change numbers range from 0 to 127. In my ignorance of this fact, I was just sending the program change number instead of the General MIDI number to QuickTime. Program changes will work correctly now, however if you have MIDI files that use the old (incorrect) setup, then you can select the "Pre - 1.3.1" option to use those files correctly.
"Postpone Program Changes." Generally, when a MIDI file sends QuickTime MIDI Player a program change event, QuickTime needs to load the sounds off of your hard drive. While it is doing this, the playback of the MIDI file will be interrupted. This setting lets you play a MIDI file uninterrupted when a program change occurs, however, the instrument's sound may not change immediately. (i.e. that Electric Guitar solo may sound like an Acoustic Piano for the first few notes until the message is processed.)
Stuck Notes
There is a menu item under the "MIDI" menu which will turn off all the notes. This is useful if you get a note "stuck" on and can't get it off. However, sometime a note gets "stuck" inside QuickTime, and even though you tell it to stop playing, it doesn't. This generally happens only under very uncommon circumstances. The only way to turn off those notes is to quit QuickTime MIDI Player and re-load the program.
History:
Version 1.4
- Is now FAT.
- Now creates its own MIDI Manager port instead of using QuickTime's MIDI Manager port. This is nicer for other programs which rely on QuickTime's MIDI Manager port.
- Automatically re-connects to any MIDI Manager programs that it was connected to the last time you Quit. (Of course, it can only connect to a program which is already running!)
Version 1.3.1
- New user interface. (This happened because I ported it to C++.)
- Added lots of little options under the "Preferences" and "MIDI" menus.
- Fixed program change numbers
- Lowered memory partition to 350k. This leaves about 150k free still, so there's room if you need to lower it, however, 350k should be fine for most uses.
Version 1.3
- Compiled it for 68020 code.
- Fixed lots of little bugs. ("Save as..." saves in the right spot now... )
- "Delete Track" does what it's supposed to do (and a lot quicker too!).
- Added support for pitch bend and other controllers. If anyone has documentation which shows the format the QuickTime expects controller data to look like, please send it to me! Through trial and error I have gotten many of them right, however I can't figure them all out.
- Increased the memory partition to 400k because QuickTime doesn't deal with low memory situations very well.
Version 1.2
- Now is Open Music System compatible.
- Added "Volume" menu under the Preferences menu.
- Included a "Band In A Box Setup" Track File to get started with BIAB quickly.
- Rewrote the MIDI input function so that it should work with any format that the MIDI data is being sent in.
Version 1.1
- Now works with Band In a Box! (Yay!)
- Added "Preferences" menu so you can set it to hide while in the background.
- Added my e-mail address to the "About..." dialog.
- Included a "General MIDI Setup" 16 Track MIDI File to get started quickly.
Version 1.0
- First public release.
Shareware fees:
QuickTime MIDI Player is shareware and if you use it, please send in your registration fee of $15.00, so that you will recieve future upgrades and I will be able to continue supporting this program. I know that peaople cannot always afford the shareware fee (I'm a music student at the University of Alberta. We musicians don't exactly make a lot of money!), or you may not think that this program is worth $15.00. Please send in what you can. I cannot guarantee that this program will be updated if there is not enough response. Please send your registration fee to:
Terry Greeniaus
89 Lancaster Cres.
St. Albert, Alberta
Canada
T8N 2N9
Disclaimer:
QuickTime MIDI Player is distributed "as is." I make no guarantees or warranties on the quality of the product and I cannot be held liable for any problems that this software may create. I cannot be held responsible for any bad things that happen when running QuickTime MIDI Player on your computer.
QuickTime MIDI Player may be distributed freely, as long as this documentation is included with the file. It may not be sold individually, but may be placed on CD's, disks, BBS's, etc. where there is no extra charge required to aquire this file other than the normal connect charges or cost of printing CD's etc.
