How to Use a .MIDI File on an Electronic Keyboard
By Sue Stepp
In today's electronic world, music plays a big role in our lives. It's in everything that we do. For people who want to make their own music, an electronic keyboard is like having a band in a box. MIDI technology gives you electronic band sounds at your fingertips. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A MIDI file is stored information that tells your keyboard to play digitized instrument sounds on the keyboard that produces music using synthesize digital music sounds to mimic musical instruments. It's easy to use a MIDI file. There are thousands of MIDI files you can download for free from the Internet.
Connect one end of your MIDI cable to your keyboard and the other end to your computer. Newer keyboards hook up by USB cables. Older models have dual round serial connectors: one for input from the computer, and one for output to the keyboard. You may need a serial port adapter to a USB connector to hook up an older electronic keyboard to a newer computer. Make sure your computer and your electronic keyboard are on.
Visit www.musicrobot.com and search for a song you would like to have. You will have several sites come up where you can get a MIDI file. Some of these MIDI file sites are dead ends because site owners are constantly adding, pulling and closing their MIDI file pages. Click on the MIDI file that you want. It will pull up to another page. There you should see your file name again with a clickable link. Double-click on that file, and it should send the MIDI file data to your electronic keyboard. The file will start playing through your electronic keyboard. All MIDI files are not the same. Digital data might not play right on different computers or keyboards. If the MIDI doesn't play correctly, go to another site. Some MIDI files might only have one instrument sound, while another MIDI file might have a full orchestra accompanied with drums. It depends on how the person who created the MIDI files arranged the music.
Click your back Arrow to go back to your previous page on your Internet browser where that click-able link is. Next, right-click on the file name link, and a drop-down box will appear. Click "Save Link As" in Foxfire, or click "Save Target As" in Internet Explorer. Select the folder to save the MIDI file. Once the MIDI has been saved, you can play it on the keyboard. Go to the folder, double-click on the file name, and the file will start playing through the keyboard.
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Tips
- You can find thousands of MIDI files on the Internet. You can play a MIDI file through your keyboard and change the rhythm speed and instrument sounds on your computer. Most electronic keyboards will play MIDI files that are saved in general MIDI (GM) format. Some manufacturers of electronic keyboards will only play their own MIDI file style format. Some electronic keyboards have memory card slots you can save your MIDI files on and play your MIDI files through the keyboard without using your computer.