Awesome MIDI player for DOS

Have questions? Just saying hello? This is the place.
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aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Quick note
I do not maintain or follow this thread anymore. I have no idea anymore why I started this thread in first place, but if you find it interesting, carry on reading. My apologies for bad formatting as this was one of my first big posts on the forums.



THIS POST GOES ABOUT MEGAMIDI.EXE
YOU CAN FIND GSPLAY.EXE A FEW POSTS BELOW.
OPENCUBICPLAYER TOO.

I found a program called MEGAMIDI and it runs MIDI files in DOS (I'm not sure if it really does run in DOS, but it sure does in DOSBox) (But anyway, I recommend using this kind of files in DOSBox, because DOSBox fully supports old DOS games, commands, etc.) (And, DOSBox runs on Mac and Linux too)
Its kinda Synthesia-ish, but its really awesome as DOS-program. (Click on it to see all of it, or scroll)
MEGAMIDscrsht.png
MEGAMIDscrsht.png (79.88 KiB) Viewed 20543 times
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR PEOPLE WITH LESS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DOS, DOSBOX OR RUNNING THIS PROGRAM PROPERLY
If you have any problems, questions or suggestions, post (please PM, so there will be less confusion in this topic) me and I'll help you. I haven't made those programs. Since it looks like everyone is downloading (or not) proplerly, all the hyperlinks I posted in this topic I will not control for linkrot. PM me if you found one.

How to use (Only if you run DOSBox on Windows. For Mac and Linux, see somewhere near bottom my post) Part 1
Note: In my example I will run the file from Desktop\MEGAMIDI. If on your computer Windows is not installed in "C:\", f.e. in "D:\", replace "C" with the driveletter your Windows is installed on. My username is SLC. Yours, is most-likely different. So replace "SLC" with your computer-username. I hope that you are at least using Windows 2000 or higher. Remember, its a Win32 Installer.
First of all, download and install DOSBox and MEGAMIDI (see download links at bottom of my post by Resources)
Unzip megam166.zip to a logical place, like C:\ or Desktop. In my example, I will use Desktop\MEGAMIDI (So the folder is called MEGAMIDI and its placed on my Desktop) because it will get messy on my desktop.
Place the MIDI or MIDI files you want in the folder MEGAMIDI. Do this before you run DOSBox.
Tip: MEGAMIDI is created for DOS. So please keep the filename of the MIDI below 8 characters. So, f.e., "Bohemian Rhapsody.mid" gets "BohRhaps.mid" And dont use spaces.
Now, go open DOSBox. It should start with something like "Z:\" Type:

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mount C C:\
Hit [Enter] and now type:

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C:
Note: The command below is not tested on <Windows 2000. Now type:

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cd C:\Users\SLC\Desktop\MEGAMIDI
Hit [Enter].

Part 2:
Now comes the fun part. (Replace BohRhaps.mid with your MIDI file. After typing the filename, place ".mid" after it) Type (if you want to use normal background):

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MEGAMID.EXE BohRhaps.mid
If you want to use NO background, type:

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MEGAMID.EXE BohRhaps.mid /WC: BACK
Hit [Enter]. Enjoy! To go back, wait untill it finished the song, or hit [Enter]. You can change the instrument by using the [ArrowUp] and [ArrowDown] keys, then change with [ArrowRight] and [ArrowLeft].




How to use on Mac
Download and install DOSBox, download and zip it to a logical place.
Unzip megam166.zip to a logical place, like C:\ or Desktop. In my example, I will use Desktop\MEGAMIDI (So the folder is called MEGAMIDI and its placed on my Desktop)
Place the MIDI or MIDI files you want in the folder MEGAMIDI. Do this before you run DOSBox.
Tip: MEGAMIDI is created for DOS. So please keep the filename of the MIDI below 8 characters. So, f.e., "Bohemian Rhapsody.mid" gets "BohRhaps.mid" And dont use spaces.
Now, mount the drive you need to access your desktop. For Mac, create a folder in your Home folder called "C". mount ~ as C:\. So, type:

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mount C ~/C
[Enter] Now:

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cd MEGAMIDI
[Enter] Now, follow Part 2 of Windows Instructions.



How to use on Linux
For Ubuntu, you may want to refer to the DOSBox Wiki-page: MOUNT. See recources.


Resources:
DOSBox: Homepage
DOSBox: Download Page
DOSBox Wiki: Mounting: Linux
Download MEGAMIDI (Direct Link, should work)
Download MEGAMIDI (Download page)
Last edited by aria1121 on 04-14-13 11:13 am, edited 11 times in total.
User avatar
DC64
Posts: 830

Post by DC64 »

From the pic, sortof missing the part where we play on. (THE PIANO!)
"And now for something completely different."
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

DC64 wrote:From the pic, sortof missing the part where we play on. (THE PIANO!)
No, actually not. If you look in that row of playing instruments, you see Bright Piano at the top. I think "Standard" means percussion
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

I found out that putting .mid after the filename is optional. And dont try to use only the executable, you need all files to run it correctly.
Oh, and by the way, here are the control keys during play, got it from the text document:

H or F1 Help
UP or DOWN ARROW Select channel
LEFT or RIGHT ARROW Change patch
CTRL-LEFT/RIGHT ARROW Change bank
- or + Change channel volume
, or . Change drum kit
[ or ] Change tempo
BACKSPACE Restore original patch settings, volume and tempo
M Mute/Unmute current channel
S Solo - turn current channel on and mute all other
channels
A Turn all channels on
v or b Increase/Decrease master volume
V or B Increase/Decrease master volume in fine steps
T or Y Transpose up/down
F Toggle play/fast forward
P Toggle pause/unpause
c Change background colors (doesn't work for CBM files)
C Change color scheme
r or R Change reverb setting (GS/XG)
u or U Change chorus setting (GS/XG)
n or N Change variation setting (XG)
K Toggle bar mode/keyboard mode
O Toggle scope off/x1/x2/x3/x4
PgUp or PgDn Scroll the text in the text window up/down
Home Scroll to top of the text list
End Scroll to the bottom of the text list
ENTER End current song and play next song if available
ESC Quit MegaMID completely
~ (!) Press the '~' key to freeze the screen; press
the '!' key to save this screen as a BMP file
(as SCRxxxxx.BMP in your MegaMID directory)
or any other key to continue
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

If youre too lazy to enter the beginning commands, open the Options file of DOSBox. (In Windows its normally located in Start > All Programs > DOSBox-0.74 > Options > DOSBox 0.74 Options.bat) Once opened the text file, scroll down to the end of the file, you see a few empty lines. On that place you can enter the commands DOSBox should run at starting up. If you are a bit more professional, and have a bit more experience about DOS, you create f.e. a folder on your Desktop called "DOSROOT", in there "DOSPROGS", in there you place MEGAMIDI. Mount DOSROOT as "C:\" with the following command (With quotes, replace XXX with the path to your desktop) :

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mount c "XXX\DOSROOT"
Edit: Sorry, it was a .BAT file!
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Yet another tip: If you got stuck in a directory (f.e. C:\WINDOWS\SYS32\CORR\SETT) and to go back one directory, use this command:

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cd..
(Now I got back by C:\SINDOWS\SYS32\CORR) If you want to go back two directory's, use this:

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cd...
You can also do

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C:
(or any other driveletter) and "cd" to your path.
If you want back to the root of your drive, do:

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cd\
or 'X:' where X stands for the driveletter you want.
Last edited by aria1121 on 01-21-11 7:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

GSPLAY for DOS

Hey everyone!
Here is an even better MIDI player for DOS: GSPLAY. It is sort-of 'Synthesia'-ish, but without the falling-note interface. This is much easier to use, and has a better interface. It supports KAR files. Download from the resources, at bottom of my post.
Screenshot:
GSPLAYprtscr.png
GSPLAYprtscr.png (25.07 KiB) Viewed 20507 times
How to use: (The first post in this topic describes how to use DOSBox)
Extract GSPLAY in a logical place.
Mount GSPLAY, or a directory that GSPLAY is within, or even C:\, it doesnt matter. Place MIDI/KAR file in GSMIDI before running DOSBox. Use following command, once GSMIDI has been opened (For MIDI file) :

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GSPLAY.EXE XXX.MIDI
Replace XXX with filename. - If opening a KAR file:

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GSPLAY.EXE XXX.KAR
Replace XXX with filename. It should open.

Some hotkey information:
Toggle to Keyboard View with [D] (this is awesome!). = Back 10 sec., [J] = forward 10 sec., [F] = Fast forward. Transpore with [PageUp] and [PageDown]. [Spacebar] for pausing/resuming. [Escape] to exit. [Home] to restart. [ArrowUp] and [ArrowDown] for velocity (or volume... something like that) [S] for solo instrument ( = channel solo) (you may need arrowkeys for this), [A] = Alphebetize, [P] for showing file path, [M] and [C] for Move/Copy file. [X] for settings. [ArrowLeft] and [ArrowLeft] Prev/Next file. [Delete] Delete song. Press [H] or [Shift]+[/] (that makes a "?") to show the hotkeys I told and few more.
Did the song finish? It'll return to DOS. Want to hear the song/playlist again? Press [ArrowUp] then [Enter] (while its in the commandline)

Keyboard-view screenshot:
GSPLAYkeyboardprtscrn.png
GSPLAYkeyboardprtscrn.png (18.91 KiB) Viewed 20493 times
Note: Please refer to GSPLAY.DOC, wich is in GSPLAY.ZIP, if you need more information about/how to use GSPLAY.EXE

Another note: If you are running it DOSBox (So DOSBox only!), you can replace the GSPLAY.CFG file with the one I modified. After replacing, all instruments should sound like how they should. If you want, modify it yourself to your own system requierments (especially when running under MSDOS!) This file can be modified easily with a standard text-editor, like Notepad, or whatever... IF THE MODIFIED FILE DOESNT WORK, USE THE ORIGINAL!

Resources:
GSPLAY.zip
(79.61 KiB) Downloaded 321 times
ModifiedGSPLAYconfigurationfile.zip
(5.61 KiB) Downloaded 319 times
Last edited by aria1121 on 01-25-11 4:14 pm, edited 13 times in total.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Tip: Filename more than 8 characters? (F.e. Instrumentals.MID) No problem!
Use: XXX~1.EXT
Replace XXX with THE FIRST SIX CHARACTERS of the filename, and replace .EXT with the file extension. (so it gets like Instru~1.MID) (This WORKS in DOSBox)
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Tip: Use [Alt]+[Enter] for Fullscreen. So you can take off your glasses. ;) Press again to return.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

OpenCubicPlayer for DOS

Intro
Yes, I finally found out how this works. And this program has LOTS of visualizations. Kinda dot-grid ish, but also 'aurora-fire' like ones. Plays MIDI files (I don't think it has .kar support)
Here one of the visualizations:
OCPlayerPRNTSCRN.png
OCPlayerPRNTSCRN.png (201.85 KiB) Viewed 20475 times
Ok, now lets move on.

Setup
It is much easier to run this in DOSBox. Download files are as always in my post near bottom, in the Resources section.
Like mentioned in how to setup DOSBox, see first post in this thread. Now create the folder "OPENCUBP". Download OCPlayer, DOS4GW and the patch files.
Note: The patch files are like SoundFonts. All patches are not included. Alternatively download the ones from the FreePats project (Also in my Resources downloadable). I have not tested these.
Now extract OCPlayer (ONLY THE FILES THAT ARE IN THE FOLDER "OCP"), DOS4GW and the patchfiles you downloaded to OPENCUBP with the unzipper 7-Zip (Google and download if you don't have it) or any unzipper. Place OPENCUBP in a logical place on your machine. For example your C:\ (I am using Windows XP as example, with C:\ as mainpartition) Now search in OPENCUBP for a file called ULTRASND.ini. Open it with Notepad (Or any other text editor). In this file you see 3 times the line "PatchDir=C:\OPENCP\PATCH". Replace these with "PatchDir=C:\OPENCUBP". Save and close.
Now the MIDI; Place it on a logical place, like C:\ or your desktop (that's C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\ >>where XXX stands for your username<< ) It doesn't matter if the filename is over 8 characters, but please, keep it below. If you are too lazy to search thru many folders, keep it in C:\.
CONCLUSION: Now you have in your C:\ drive a folder called OPENCUBP and in it is DOS4GW.EXE, GP.EXE (and all other included files) and the sound-patchfiles. THERE SHOULD BE NO FOLDER THAT'S CALLED "ocp"!
Note: You can use the alternative soundfiles for soft-synthesizers like Timidity. See it's included Readme for more info.
Now open DOSBox.
Mount the virtual real path C:\ to your real machine's C:\ with the following command

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MOUNT C C:\
And it will eventually say it's not recommended, but it doesn't matter much.
So now you've set up the player, set up the INI file and mounted C:\, so now you can run it! Use the following command after mounting the C:\ drive:

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cd OPENCUBP
then use this command:

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DOS4GW.EXE CP.EXE
Now it should open. Scroll down with arrow keys to the " \ " and hit enter. Search for your MIDI, by entering directories with [Enter] and go back one with the " .. ". Now Open Your MIDI! Found it; highlight it and press [Enter]. It should play! Yay! If not, you will get an error. This is because you are missing an error. Try finding the missing files on the internet or maybe it's in the alternative sounfiles; you may have to rename it.

IMPORTANT: Please, before you run it the the first time; there are two GIF files in OPENCUBP that you must replace with the ones I made. Don't rename them.

FURTHERMORE: At the play screen, you can change the visualizations with [ B ] and [N] (to go back press [M]). Get the cool vis with [G] (Change awesomeness with [Tab]). for help press [H]. Press 2 times [Escape] for quitting.
I also let you replace two GIF files. These are background images. Make your own backgrounds in a GIF format @ 640x384 pixels.
Using Open Cube Player may capture your mouse making it invisible in DOSBox. The mouse useless, it doesn't have mouse support.

Tip: Like said before, press [Alt]+[Enter] for FULLSCREEN! ;)

FOR DOWNLOADING, please be patient. It may take more than 5 seconds untill a download request will appear.

Resources:
Download OCPlayer for DOS
Download DOS4GW
Download Patch Files
Download Alternative Patch Files

Here are the GIF files you have to replace with the ones that already come with Open Cube Player:
REPLACE.zip
(3.7 KiB) Downloaded 287 times
Last edited by aria1121 on 01-21-11 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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