Stop Saying "Sounds Like A MIDI"

[Mustin]

MIDI doesn't make sound.

Please stop saying that something "sounds like a MIDI." You should instead say, "Those samples are really lousy." Anyone can use MIDI and play a several GB piano sound that sounds like Jesus himself is playing. But the MIDI makes no sound.

Here is a decent video that explains what MIDI is and how it works.

Now you know,

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!

Thanks.

[Souliarc]

Hehehehehe. In this day and age? A futile effort!

[Gario]

I'm assuming that people mean 'GM' when they say 'MIDI'. It doesn't help when that abbreviation stands for 'General MIDI', does it?

Still, that doesn't give anyone the excuse to say 'MIDI' when they mean 'GM'.

[zircon]

But General MIDI itself isn't accurate either. GM is just a standard; a specification.

[SonicThHedgog]

MIDI doesn't make sound.

Please stop saying that something "sounds like a MIDI." You should instead say, "Those samples are really lousy." Anyone can use MIDI and play a several GB piano sound that sounds like Jesus himself is playing. But the MIDI makes no sound.

Here is a decent video that explains what MIDI is and how it works.

Now you know,

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!

Thanks.

I was going to make a thread about this....

i keep telling people midi is not sound lol, the sounds they hear are general sampled wavetable synths i think

[Souliarc]

i keep telling people midi is not sound lol, the sounds they hear are general sampled wavetable synths i think

Well... MIDI sends a "note on" message for whatever sound you want it to be A very loyal friend.

[Kidd Cabbage]

Yup, on this topic, I'd like the world to stop saying "volume" when referring to audio loudness.

We're obvs going to change the world. Watch everyone listen.

[Bahamut]

How about calling it a midirip

[Tensei]

How about calling it a midirip

That doesn't make any sense.

[Kidd Cabbage]

This thread sounds like MIDI.

[Souliarc]

Yup, on this topic, I'd like the world to stop saying "volume" when referring to audio loudness.

I don't know how the word "volume" came to terms with meaning audio loudness, but it's fairly accepted to be and is referred to in many dictionaries as "sound intensity". Another perversion of the language it seems, but not as bad as using "MIDI" to refer to sound.

[Gario]

But General MIDI itself isn't accurate either. GM is just a standard; a specification.

Well, shit howdy, you're right. Nevermind, then, that doesn't do anyone any good.

[Brandon Strader]

MIDI doesn't make sound.

Please stop saying that something "sounds like a MIDI." You should instead say, "Those samples are really lousy." Anyone can use MIDI and play a several GB piano sound that sounds like Jesus himself is playing. But the MIDI makes no sound.

Here is a decent video that explains what MIDI is and how it works.

Now you know,

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!

Thanks.

your whining sounds like a midi file

or dare i say

a karaoke file

(yes they exist)

much <3 bro

for people struggling with midi and karaoke files, http://www.vanbasco.com/ is the best option

[big giant circles]

MIDI is just a series of tubes.

[KyleJCrb]

But "this sounds like Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[RDX]

there are so many phrases we use that are technically wrong that there's no point in pointing them out. being correct is boring.

there is no such thing as heartbreak thats just your brain dying for that lovely love feeling and it not being able to get it because the lovely love and all the neuro chemicals associated with it aren't there anymore. therefore we should call it going cold turke- wait what does abstaining from drugs have anything to do with turkeys

[Dissidia]

My perception of what people mean when they write "midirip" "sounds like midi" is that the sounds are similar to those of playstation, n64 and other systems that uses midi to trigger sound, instead of let's say the audio in One Winged Angel or Liberi Fatali.

Just my take on it.

[Crowbar Man]

Neither PlayStation nor N64 "use midi to trigger sound". You can use anything, including MIDI, to make a library to play sound on their sound chips, but the concept of MIDI itself is not built into the sound chips for these consoles. or generally ANY video game console, for that matter.

Also, One Winged Angel is using the PSX's sound chip, like all of FF7's music, and not streaming audio.

"Sounds like midi" generally is people refering to poor samples, especially ones used in built in sound cards, or the MS general midi sound, but like the thread says, MIDI itself has no sound. It can be anything

Sometimes people even refer to ALL chiptune/synth/realtime music as "MIDI" vs prerecorded streaming audio, but again, not correct at all.

Its possible MIDI was used during their creation, but they could of easily used any custom tracker setup just as well

[Dissidia]

I didn't mean "midi to trigger" >.< but whatever, isn't the choir in OWA red book audio?

I have to say, being corrected seems to be faster than asking.

Edit: I meant "programmed to trigger", not "use midi to trigger".

[analoq]

I used to have this "sounds like MIDI" argument with people a lot ten years ago. I would tell them it is akin to looking at a webpage and exclaiming "This looks like TCP/IP!" There could be something correct in what they're saying, but it doesn't make syntactical sense.

The "sounds like MIDI" misnomer will go away. Not due to education but due to deprecation; people don't collect/listen to MIDI files anymore. You can't play them on iPods (easily) and some media players have dropped support for them.

The General MIDI file is dead. Long live the General MIDI file.

[SonicThHedgog]

i collect midi files

[Kidd Cabbage]

I don't know how the word "volume" came to terms with meaning audio loudness, but it's fairly accepted to be and is referred to in many dictionaries as "sound intensity". Another perversion of the language it seems, but not as bad as using "MIDI" to refer to sound.

It's the same concept. A technically inaccurate term that has become basically accepted into slang. The purpose of language is to convey thoughts, and language is very fluid - dictionaries don't make the language, the language makes the dictionary.

[Otakatt]

i collect midi files

Hahaha, I remember way back in the day before I found OCRemix and VGMix (yes, that long ago) and I only knew about VGMusic. I thought midi files were the best thing ever and collected them. That collection ended up being deleted after I found the aforementioned places, however... >>;

So what's the correct term for "midirip"?

[Crowbar Man]

Dissidia: Maybe you mean sequenced?

As stated, One Winged Angel used in FF7 is being generated in real time using the PlayStations 24 channel PCM sound chip. It is not prerecorded or streaming audio in XA or RedBook. You can remove the disk and it'll keep playing. Its also been dumped in PSF format

on the topic of collecting MIDI,

I used to listen to MIDI from my WebTV every day in my teens. VGMusic.com and RPGamer.com were fantastic sites to get "original" and "remixes" of game music back before the advent of the mp3 came around. I still sometimes go over to them and grab a couple of MIDIs i used to listen to

[Pongball]

Hi OCR.

I am just dropping by here from Twitter (Mustin tweeted this thread) to suggest that from now on, the term "MIDI" could be used as a unit for measuring the overall sample and production quality of a track. If a standard MIDI file played directly through a low-quality General MIDI synth can be measured as 1 MIDI, then perhaps the average track accepted on this site might be measured at 25 MIDIs. To keep things simple, a live recording with perfect production quality could be measured at a nice round number, like 100 MIDIs. But perhaps in the future, technology will exist that allows us to surpass the 100 MIDI mark.

Example of usage:

"This track only sounds like 7 MIDIs. You need at least 13 more MIDIs before it's acceptable."

or:

"Pongball, your SNES music sounds like half a MIDI."

Okay, back to being too shy to ever post here.