Wrong instruments

[page200]

When I tried midicube as well as https://github.com/gleitz/MIDI.js in December or earlier, they played wrong instruments for some (many?) MIDI files that have several instruments. Did recent commits fix this?

This problem isn't present in the abcjs branch of the original MIDI.js.

[page200]

This problem of all branches except abcjs as well as other problems of the abcjs branch are discussed here: mudcube#268

[mscuthbert]

Can you explain the problem w/ a bit more detail -- what are you doing and what instruments load instead? The branches work fine for me. Thanks!

[page200]

I modified MIDIPlayer.html such that it plays passport.mid (precisely the version available for example here, converted to base64 and put into the song variable) using SoundFonts from https://gleitz.github.io/midi-js-soundfonts/.

The instruments and tempo are wrong. For example, instead of Slap Bass 1, something like a vibraphone plays.

Have you tried passport.mid?

[mscuthbert]

I definitely know PASSPORT.MID (I'm old -- I remember when it was new) -- can you paste the midicube code you are using to load it and playback.

It is also possible that there is a 1-based GM instrument encoding going on and each of the instruments is off by one? This is a problem in a lot of very old MIDI files which used 1-127 instead of 0-127.

[mscuthbert]

None of the instrument numbering/playing code has changed since MIDI.js -- that was not the reason for the fork, only to maintain the system. Note that none of MIDI.js or midicube (here) were optimized for midi-file playing - so there are lots of MIDI features (modulations, sysex, etc.) that don't work on MIDI.js -- one of the key features was just receive-MIDI note -> play MIDI note.

[page200]

can you paste the midicube code you are using to load it and playback.

That version of MIDIPlayer.html is attached here. I modified this file in this 2019 version of midicube: a652051 (which was the latest version when I tried in 2022).

The modification is that it has passport.mid and SoundFonts from https://gleitz.github.io/midi-js-soundfonts/.

[mscuthbert]

Do the other examples that you did not convert to base64 yourself play properly? What about other MIDI files that are simpler and newer than Passport? You've made two adjustments to the demo and it would be good to see if any one of them works fine.

[page200]

As far as I recall, original example songs are simpler and newer and play properly. Note that some files might play properly even if others don't due to the bug. My hope was that midicube would reliably play most MIDI files just like standard non-browser media players do.

I tried to get things to work.

If all MIDI files play properly in the new version of the code, maybe you can add MIDI files such as passport.mid as examples.

Note that none of MIDI.js or midicube (here) were optimized for midi-file playing

Maybe you should make this clearer in the readme. Anyway, I'm not aware of any codebases that claim to play MIDI files in the browser and do it well. Some codebases claim to play MIDI files but don't play notes on time.

Those are reasons why people try to get codebases like midicube to play MIDI files.

so there are lots of MIDI features (modulations, sysex, etc.) that don't work on MIDI.js

By modulations, do you mean key-signature changes? How are they and sysex important for MIDI file playback?