HOW TO CONVERT MAC MIDI FILES FOR USE WITH THE APPLE II GS


In the software library of America Online's Apple II Music and Sound Area
(keyword AMS) you'll find an entire section of MIDI files for use with such
programs as Mastertracks Junior, Mastertracks Pro and Musicwriter, all of which
support the standard MIDI format (although if you have a version of Musicwriter
prior to the new 2.0, you'll need a companion program called Pyware Midi
Translator to convert MIDI files into a format Musicwriter will recognize).

But in the Mac world there are a great many more sequencing and other programs
that permit the creation of music in the MIDI format.  If you visit the Mac Music
and Sound Area of AOL (keyword MMS), you'll find another entire MIDI library with
a wide variety of songs and music available.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if you
could use some of those MIDI files with your GS MIDI program?  Well, now you can!

All you have to do is follow these steps:

1.  Go to the MMS area and see the MIDI files which have been uploaded there,
both in the MIDI section and in the New Files section.

2.  Select a file you like and download it in the usual way.

3.  You will notice that most files available in the Mac area have been
compressed with Stuffit, sort of the Mac equivalent of Shrinkit.  Files
compressed in that way usually bear the suffix ".sit" but don't worry because the
GS version of Shrinkit, as well as Nupak GS, another un-compressing utility (both
available on AOL!),can "unstuff" these files!  So, you should use one of these
programs to de-compress the downloaded MIDI file.

4.  Once it is decompressed, the file should appear on your disk as a binary file
- still not usable by your software.  But all you have to do is use a file-type
changing utility to change its type to MIDI.  Utilities that will do this include
The File Manager NDA (available on AOL, needless to say!), Disk Access from Seven
Hills Software, and others. These utilities require you to specify a file type
code and an aux type code.  To change the file type to MIDI, you enter file type
"D7", Aux type "0000" (the aux type for binary files is also 0000, so you won't
have to change that anyway).

5.  Voila!  You now have a MIDI file that your Mastertracks or Musicwriter will
recognize!  Run your program, import the MIDI file, and you're on your way.

Now we can enjoy all of the MIDI files in both the AMS and MMS areas!  Those Mac
guys have got nothing on us!

Any questions, comments, or suggestions, please send me some e-mail here on AOL.

Enjoy!   - AFC Eddie