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Welcome to the Sweet MIDI Player! Sweet MIDI Player is a MIDI player for
not only auditioning all types of MIDI files, but for modifying the
MIDI files themselves. Use its mixer-like interface to easily edit the
control messages, transpose the music, change the tempo, mute desired
MIDI channels, and save the end results to disk. The unregistered version of Sweet MIDI Player has some minor limitations i.e. you can't save any files. |
| General handling The main screen in Sweet MIDI Player is made up of two areas within the window. At the top is the Mixer, and below is the Control Box with the transport controls, the controls for the Jukebox function and some global settings. You can control Sweet MIDI Player entirely with the mouse, so here is an explanation of terms used for the mouse. You may also control Sweet MIDI Player using the computer keyboard. Keyboard commands. Mouse Click or Click Click the mouse button with the mouse cursor over the specified command. Double Click As for single clicks, but two clicks close together. You may double click a value and enter the desired value with the computer keyboard. Mouse-sliding Dragging the mouse up or down while holding the mouse button down will change a parameters value. The Main Screen The main screen is divided into two sections. At the top is the Mixer, and below is the Control Box with the transport controls, the controls for the Jukebox function and some global settings. The Mixer The Mixer allows you to generate, transmit, record or display certain kinds of MIDI events. Volume message (control change 7), Pan message (control change 10), Reverb message (control change 91), Chorus message (control change 93) and Program Change message. All have their own controls in the Mixer. The Mixer contains 16 channels, one for each MIDI channel. Each channel contains a number of controls. To transmit MIDI data, 'click' on a control (for the Volume control, move the mouse up or down, for the Pan control, move the mouse in a circle). Remember that the numbers 1-16 correspond to MIDI channels 1-16, not track numbers! Holding down the control key on the computer keyboard will set the control of the selected channel to it's default position (not Program). Holding down the alternate key on the computer keyboard while moving a Volume control will move all Volume controls at the same time, i.e. it will act as a Master Volume control. The "Solo" button is used to solo a desired MIDI channel. Clicking a button while holding down the Control key makes it possible to "solo" several MIDI channels at the same time. The "Mute" button which will mute one or more MIDI channels (not specific tracks). You can choose to see the "program settings" either as a number or as an instrument name. With Show Instrument Names in the MIDI Setup dialogue box you may select the MIDI channels where you want the instrument names to be shown. The Control box The lower section of Sweet MIDI Player is called the Control Box. To control the transportation, Sweet MIDI Player uses a number of buttons: Play, Stop, Pause/Continue, Fast Forward and Fast Rewind. These controls work in the same way as a normal tape recorder. The "Play" button This button activates playback of the Sweet MIDI Player from bar 1. In "Cycle Mode" the player starts from the left locator position. The "Stop" button This stops Sweet MIDI Player. If Sweet MIDI Player is already stopped, the "Main Bar Counter" will be reset to Bar 1. The "Pause/Continue" button If Sweet MIDI Player is stopped it will start playing from the current position of the "Main Bar Counter". If Sweet MIDI Player is playing it will stop. The "Fast Forward" and "Fast Rewind" buttons This as its name suggests, Fast Forwards and Rewinds the main bar counter. The Main Barcounter To the right in the "Control Box" you will see the main bar counter. It gives the current song position in bars, beats, and clock ticks (clock pulses). You can click and scroll the value with the mouse, during playback. You may also use [Left Arrow] and [Right Arrow] on the computer keypad. The Main Barcounter position is also the insertion point when using the Edit Menu - Paste command. In Sweet MIDI Player all time indications are displayed as follows: The first column Displays the bar number. The second column This displays the beats. The value shown depends on the meter. In 4/4 this column shows what crotchet or quarter note is currently playing, in 7/8 what quaver or eighth note is currently playing. The third column Displays the clock ticks (clock pulses), the smallest time unit in Sweet MIDI Player. You can think of it as a subdivision of the third column. There will be 192 clock ticks per semiquaver or sixteenth note. The number of clock ticks per semiquaver/quarternote (PPQ or PPQN) is usually used to indicate how precisely a player is able to reproduce a note (its resolution). The PPQ value of Sweet MIDI Player is 192 - very high value. Tempo Display Box To the right of the Main Barcounter you'll find the tempo display box. For MIDI files containing one tempo event, you may set a new tempo here. For MIDI files containing two or more tempo events, this box is for display purpose only and may not be changed. Key command [+] and [-]. Tempo Change Box To change the tempo for a MIDI file regardless if they contain one or more tempo events, you use the box labeled Tempo Change. Here you may make a change of the tempo expressed as a percentage. Key command [+] and [-]. Below the Main Bar Counter there are boxes for the Time Signature and for transposing the song. Time Signature Box This is for display purpose only and may not be changed. Transpose Song Box Here you may transpose the song, up or down in semitones or half steps. Note: The MIDI channels you use for drums must be disabled for transposition, see MIDI Setup/Drum Channels. Loop Mode "Loop Mode" is activated by 'clicking' on the Loop button. The music will, when it reaches the "Right Locator" position, jump to the "Left Locator" position and continue playing. When the Jukebox function is activated, Sweet MIDI Player will play the first song in the playlist when the last song has come to an end. Key command [C]. Locators The Left and Right locators are used for setting the loop points. You can use key command [Z] and [X] to set the Left and Right locators to the current playback position, add shift key to reset. The locators are also used when using the commands from the Edit Menu. Note: If you set the left and right locator positions to anything besides the far left and right positions and save the file, the locator positions will be saved in the MIDI file but will only be understood by Sweet MIDI Player (Sequencer Specific META Event). The Jukebox The controls for the Jukebox are found at the left side of the Control Box. To be able to use the Jukebox function, a Playlist must be created or loaded. The On/Off button activates/deactivates the Jukebox. Key command [J]. The Auto button activates/deactivates the Autoplay function. When activated, the next song automatically starts when the previous is finished. Key command [A]. The left and right arrow buttons advances to the next or previous song in the playlist. You may also set the song number by clicking the number display in between. If the Jukebox is activated when quitting the program, the last used playlist will be loaded the next time the program is started. The Karaoke display Many MIDI files also contains lyric and text events. To be able to view this text, click the "Kar" button to the right of the Cue slider to activate the Karaoke display. To get back to the Mixer screen, click the "Kar" button again. Key command [K]. The display will display eight lines at the time in different colours: Red text indicates that the word/line has been sung. Yellow text indicates that the word/line has yet not been sung. White text indicates that the word/line will be displayed at the top of the next page. Sweet MIDI Player is able to display chord symbols that are embedded into the MIDI file. Unfortunately there is no official standard for this but there are some different common formats:
If you add chord symbols to MIDI files, prefer option
1 or 2 and avoid option 4. Avoid mixing lyrics and chords within the
same Text or Lyrics meta event.
If the file doesn't contain any chord symbols, then you can let
Sweet MIDI Player figure out the chords. Select "Auto Detect Chords" in Sweet
MIDI Player Preferences. The Menus File Menu Open This command lets you open a Standard MIDI File. Key command [Command] + [O]. You may also open a file by double clicking on it in the Finder or drag it over the Sweet MIDI Player icon provided the file type and creator of the file are correct. Recent Files Open one the ten last used files. Save This command lets you save the current song as a Standard MIDI File (SMF). Key command [Command] + [S]. Save As This command lets you save the current song as a Standard MIDI File (SMF) to a new location. Save As AIFF File This command lets you save the current song as an AIFF file for later burning to an audio CD. Save As MP3 File If you download and install the free MP3 encoder, then you can also save the MIDI file as a MP3 file. It may be downloaded from various web sites, such as: http://ragedwolf.webs.com http://spaghetticode.org/lame/ Revert to Saved This command lets you revert to the last saved version of the current song. Key command [Command] + [R]. Open Playlist This command lets you open a playlist for the jukebox function. Key command [Command] + [P]. Quit Ends the program. Key command [Command] + [Q]. Edit Menu You may edit a MIDI file arrangement by using the commands below. This way you may delete or copy a selection of the file and insert it at another position. The selection is the range you have set with the Left and Right locator and the insertion point is the position you have set with the Main Barcounter. Undo Reverses the last modification - key command [Command] + [Z]. Redo Redoes the last modification - key command [Command] + [Shift] + [Z]. Cut Copies the selection into the clipboard and deletes it from the song - key command [Command] + [X]. Copy Copies the selection into the clipboard - key command [Command] + [C]. Paste Pastes the clipboard into the song - key command [Command] + [V]. Clear Deletes the selection - key command [Delete]. Note: If you delete the first few bars of a MIDI file, you'll probably also delete the information about volume, instruments etc. Select all This is used to select all files when creating playlists. Edit Sequence Name This allows you to edit the Sequence/Track name. Some MIDI playback machines show the midi sequence name (song title) in the song selection window. Use this item if your MIDI file doesn't have a sequence name properly embedded or if you would like to change the embedded song title. Preferences Note: This menu item is found in the Application menu. Chase Events With this item ticked Sweet MIDI Player will "look backwards" on every track to detect and transmit the nearest Program Change message, Volume message (control change 7), Pan message (control change 10), Reverb message (control change 91), Chorus message (control change 93) and Bank Select message (control change 0 and 32). This ensures that you will always have the right settings for each MIDI channel (instrument). Suppress missing MIDI event warnings Uncheck this item if you don't want to be warned if MIDI messages such as Volume etc. are missing when opening a file. Spacebar toggles Pause/Continue Check this item to use the spacebar for Pause/Continue. If unchecked the program will always start playback from the beginning or the loop start point. Automatically check for updates Check this item to automatically check for updates whenever the software is started. Save Format MIDI files comes in two main formats known as format 0 and 1. Format 0 contains one track with multiple MIDI channels, format 1 contains several tracks with each track having its own MIDI Channel. When saving a file, you may here select to save the file in its original format or force it to be saved in format 0 or 1. Note: Many hardware MIDI players only reads format 0 files. Drum channels Here you can disable the transpose function on the MIDI channels you use for drum sounds. Show Instrument Names When using the Mixer you can choose to see the program settings either as a number or as an instrument name. Select the MIDI channels for each port, by using the drop-down lists, where you want the instrument names to be shown. Options Menu Playlist window In the Playlist window you create and edit playlists comprised of up to 500 songs. You can also control playback and certain settings in the main window from the Playlist window. A playlist is a list of pointers to the MIDI files that are stored in folders on your hard drive. The content of the currently selected playlist is displayed in the listbox at the right side of the window. You get to the Playlist window by pressing [L] on your computer's keyboard or by selecting the Options Menu -> Playlist... item. Creating and editing playlists The buttons to the left of the playlist are as follows: New Creates a new playlist. Add Adds one or more files to the current playlist. Delete Deletes the selected file from the playlist. This of course will not delete any files from your harddisk. Move Up / Move Down Changes the position of the selected song in the playlist by moving it up / down by one. Open List Opens another playlist. Save List Saves the current playlist. Reset between songs Some MIDI files do not reset the parameters they should. If you encounter problems with certain files, check this item. It applies for the current playlist. Controlling playlists You may control playback as well as certain settings from within the Playlist window. The intention is that it should be possible to control playback and selecting songs by using the keyboard only. Besides using the mouse for navigating, you can quickly navigate to a particular song in the current playlist by using the up/down arrows, page up/down and the home/end keys. The [Spacebar] toggles between Play and Stop. The [+] and [-] keys lets you modify the tempo of the current playing song. The [A] key lets you toggle Autoplay on and off. If you select a new song in the list during playback, this will be the next song to play after the current song has finished playing. This way you can easily change your mind about what tune should be playing during a gig. If the program is NOT playing, double clicking an item in the listbox or pressing the OK button, closes the window and automatically loads the selected song. If "Start playback on window exit" is selected, playback will start at once. If the program IS playing, the newly selected song will not start until the current one is finished playing. Zoom Program You may run Sweet MIDI Player in a number of different sizes. Select one of the predefined sizes that suits your screen/taste or select any size with the "Own size..." item. You may select the size of Sweet MIDI Player to be extremely small to make room on the screen for other programs you may want to run at the same time. You may still control Sweet MIDI Player with the mouse and keyboard commands in the usual way. MIDI Menu To get familiar with MIDI , please read more here: Sends out a full volume message (controller 7) on all MIDI channels. Reset Devices Resets Pitch Bend, Modulation and Aftertouch for all MIDI channels. It also sends out Sustain Off and All Notes Off messages. Enable/Disable MIDI Click If enabled, a metronome click will be played on MIDI channel 10 with note number 33 (rim shot). MIDI Setup Here you select what MIDI input and output Sweet MIDI Player will use. When you run Sweet MIDI Player for the first time, the program will set the MIDI output to the Core Audio DLS device. DLS Music Device This is built in to all Macintosh computers running OS X. You may use DLS (Downloadable Sounds) or SF2 (SoundFont 2) files as alternate sample data for the synth, which may make a huge improvement in sound quality. The files should be stored in /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks or /User/YourLogginName/Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks for Sweet MIDI Player to find them. CoreMIDI This is built in to all Macintosh computers running OS X and is selectable provided you have an external MIDI device connected. All the MIDI ports that are available on your system will appear in the menus. Sweet MIDI Player supports up to four MIDI output devices labeled Output A-D. If you have just one device connected, select that in the Output A drop-down list. If you want to use more than one, select the others in the pop-up menus labeled Output B etc. Since the MIDI file format works with MIDI channels only, you need to specify what port and MIDI channel each MIDI channel should be assigned to. Output Assignment (CoreMIDI only) If you use more than one CoreMIDI output device, you need to specify what port and MIDI channel each MIDI channel should be sent to. Say that you want MIDI channel 4 to be sent to output device B and MIDI channel 9, if so select "B9" in the pop-up menu labeled "Chan 4". MIDI Thru Channel Here you may change the master volume, reverb and tuning for the built in DLS Music Device. Help Menu Password After registering, enter your password here. When the password has been correctly entered you'll no longer see a registration notice when you use your program. Make sure you have downloaded the most recent update. Updates may be downloaded from: http://www.ronimusic.com/download.htm
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Legal Stuff No warrantee is expressed or implied. The author of this program is not responsible for any damage or loss of data due to the use of this program. This document and Sweet MIDI Player are Copyright © 2001-2016 Roni Music.
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