MIDI MIGHT in action

[Captain Cozmos]

I would not be the first to do this but I will be the most resent.
 

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[jblenkle]

12 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said:

I would not be the first to do this but I will be the most resent.
 

 

 

In case you are not aware, all the Multimedia disks I've been producing (except for ADAM's Jukebox) have the ability to play the music on them either through the ADAM or output to midi. Although I tried one via midi recently and it didn't sound all that great. I suppose it depends on the song and how I edited it. You can find them here: http://www.colecoadam.net/multimedia/index.html

 

[Captain Cozmos]

37 minutes ago, jblenkle said:

In case you are not aware, all the Multimedia disks I've been producing (except for ADAM's Jukebox) have the ability to play the music on them either through the ADAM or output to midi. Although I tried one via midi recently and it didn't sound all that great. I suppose it depends on the song and how I edited it. You can find them here: http://www.colecoadam.net/multimedia/index.html

 

I never knew that, I thought they were standalone disks or some deal.
You make so many of them it's hard to keep up.

[NIAD]

Two things:

 

That Expansion Interface card-edge connector has to be screaming with the Midi-Mite hanging off the side!!!

 

Thanks for playing the second song... now I feel like playing Gyruss.

 

[Captain Cozmos]

4 minutes ago, NIAD said:

Two things:

 

That Expansion Interface card-edge connector has to be screaming with the Midi-Mite hanging off the side!!!

 

Thanks for playing the second song... now I feel like playing Gyruss.

 

I have something awesome..stay tuned.

[Captain Cozmos]

How to transfer from the internet:  MIDI files to the ADAM.

Equipment must be owned.  In this case and ADAM, Duh...MIDI MITE....(title was wrong), an Internet connection (you sure?) and ADE which not everyone has.

You have to use the ADAM Image Manager by Eric Pearson.  In my case it was version 1.1.4.  Other ways may be possible.

 

Select your PC directory, create a blank DDP.  I tried this with a disk and it crashed every time when transferring the midi file.  Even if the size would fit on disk.
Download your midi file to the PC directory you chose when creating the DDP.
Rename to all upper case and don't use too many letters I stay under 8.  Remove the .mid extension.

Mount the DDP you created onto the left hand side.  Highlight the midi file then use the arrow keys to transfer it to your DDP image.
That's it.  Transfer it to your SD Card then mount in your ADE.  Play using Sequel.

Watch the video which was edited for time.
 

 

 

EDIT:
SEQUEL doesn't seem to use expanded memory so you are limited on how large the MIDI files can be.
Most seem fine but if one is a directly taken from a video game they seem to be too big.

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[Captain Cozmos]

I had to do one more.

 

 

It was between this or Super Mario and Mario has been done a million times so... Who doesn't love Monkey Island.

BTW, it seems even with my memory card SEQUEL gets a memory full error despite the original MI being 29k in size.
This version was a bit cut down so, when I add drivers for the MIDI-MITE in DOS, whomever writes the ADAM MIDI player can use all the extended memory that will be allowed.
Any takers?

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[Captain Cozmos]

Quick Update

This is Eric Pearson's Disk Manager v1.1.14.1

Apparently I was not using the latest.

This version did not crash when I copied the MIDI file to a DSK image.
So, the issue was fixed or I got lucky.

The version I am posting is 3 files with no installer.
Maybe it is just me but I have found that 99% of all these apps do not need installers but I recommend that you use the original distribution if this does not jib your jive.  Also give thanks to Eric for his awesome work.

ADAM Image Manager v1.1.14.1.zip

 

 

....EDIT:

 

Just discovered SEQUEL 2.0 in the Archive
Even though, it apparently does not use the 64k expanded that I am currently using.
However, you can keep the .mid extension but it still seems that all files are in upper case and use the H file type

Edited January 31, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[rietveld]

Hopefully this will prompt someone to build the Midi mite 2

[Captain Cozmos]

2 hours ago, rietveld said:

Hopefully this will prompt someone to build the Midi mite 2

I would use any future MIDI-MITE'S to add the ability to input music for games.

When I was scouring the internet for MIDI files I found thousands but the only thing was the limitations of the software and I believe the hardware as well.
The software is not using the full memory of the ADAM and the MIDI-MITE seems to be limited to 15 data lines which limits it to 15 tracks.
This does make sense being only 8 bit's but this could be a limit of my education as well.

 

[jblenkle]

13 hours ago, Captain Cozmos said:

I would use any future MIDI-MITE'S to add the ability to input music for games.

When I was scouring the internet for MIDI files I found thousands but the only thing was the limitations of the software and I believe the hardware as well.
The software is not using the full memory of the ADAM and the MIDI-MITE seems to be limited to 15 data lines which limits it to 15 tracks.
This does make sense being only 8 bit's but this could be a limit of my education as well.

 

I may be wrong as I haven't messed with straight midi on ADAM for years. I convert the midi to .ADM files for use on the multimedia disks. I have no idea what the difference between the two is, but that's the way the multimedia program was set up. But I think the largest midi file Sequel can handle is around 21k.

 

Also, on your above method for transferring midi files to ADAM. You can also use the WRDISK.EXE program. Can't remember exactly where that program is included. That is what I use to transfer midi files to ADAM disk images and then convert them to .ADM files using a program on the multimedia utilities disk. To correct command line is: WRDISK YOURDISK.DSK MIDISONG.MID,MIDISONG.MID -type 02

[Captain Cozmos]

24 minutes ago, jblenkle said:

I may be wrong as I haven't messed with straight midi on ADAM for years. I convert the midi to .ADM files for use on the multimedia disks. I have no idea what the difference between the two is, but that's the way the multimedia program was set up. But I think the largest midi file Sequel can handle is around 21k.

 

Also, on your above method for transferring midi files to ADAM. You can also use the WRDISK.EXE program. Can't remember exactly where that program is included. That is what I use to transfer midi files to ADAM disk images and then convert them to .ADM files using a program on the multimedia utilities disk. To correct command line is: WRDISK YOURDISK.DSK MIDISONG.MID,MIDISONG.MID -type 02

21k sounds about right.
I really wanted to use the original Monkey Island that was around 29k and it failed.
Then I started experimenting and the largest I tested that worked was 16k and then I went to bed.
So if your estimation is correct this should play up to 21k and max 15 tracks from my own discoveries.

I am wondering out loud if I can disassemble SEQUEL and reassemble it with the ability to use the memory card.
I know I can do it, it would take some effort but is it worth the time right now with so much else going on.

...EDIT:

Here is an interesting thought.
What is SEQUEL written in?

You have 64k on the ADAM which you could easily say 8K of that is EOS.
take 21 or even 22 to round off +8 = 30.
So I highly doubt that program makes up 34k that is left over.
Of course there are buffers and things no doubt but looking at how small that program is I would not estimate more than 8K of actual code if written in assembly.
Even if it were 16k that would leave at least another 16 for the buffer.  This thing if written right should have at least 38k for space on an unexpanded ADAM.

Again, me thinking out loud.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[jblenkle]

Another possibility is using a midi program to edit the songs down. I am limited to a 5k file size on the Multimedia Disks and a 21k file size on the ADAM's Jukebox disks. Some of these modern midi files are huge!!! I've edited down some 60k files to a much smaller size by cutting out a lot of the instruments. I basically just keep the melody and bass. I am happy when I'm done if the song still sounds like the song. I usually change all the instruments to piano, as well. Since ADAM can't directly play the midi files with different instruments, this gives me a much better idea what the edited song might sound like when transferred to the ADAM and converted to the multimedia .ADM format.