Welcome to the MIDI Club--Read Before Entering

Share your original or public domain compositions here!
Request popular music with the suggestion form on the music store, not here!

All MIDI attachments must be one of the following:
  • Your own, original work submitted under some license that permits free private use (I recommend public domain or Creative Commons).
  • Adapted from works created prior to 1923. This goes for both the composition and arrangement. This means you cannot post MIDI versions of recent songs.
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Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

Alright, this is an experiment. Let's see how this works. Hopefully everyone can live with the instructions in the pink box.

This forum has MIDI attachments enabled. Enjoy! I'm excited to see the things people have to share.

At some point in the future when I get a free minute, I'll be able to make something better, but this might do for now.
User avatar
jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

Let me add my welcome to the new MIDI Club area as one of your moderators. As awesome as Synthesia is, great MIDI files to play and play along with in Synthesia are what really makes playing Synthesia an experience. While almost any MIDI file can be played in Synthesia, some are dramatically more fun to play than others. The MIDI Club (sounds like security for your keyboard...or maybe lunch for the band :) ) is a first step at creating a source for MIDI files that provide a great experience in Synthesia.

Now a few words about that pink box at the top. Copyright law is basically about protecting people's creative expressions so that they can reap the rewards of their creativity. It is something so fundamental to the American ideals of an individual's right to enjoy the fruits of their labor and ingenuity that it is set out in the Constitution. One can argue that big entertainment companies have warped the concept of copyright and have overreached using it as a club against individuals to shore up profits that don't flow to the real artists. I won't disagree. Nonetheless there are copyright laws and there are big companies willing to use those laws to prevent use of the material they have the rights to unless you pay them for that use. Most relevant for us is that the composer of a song has the right to control who makes available copies of their compositions regardless of the form it is in or embellishments that may be made. Likewise an arranger has the same rights with regard to their particular arrangement of a piece of music.

Recent court decisions in the US have made it clear that on-line sites have to make a diligent effort not to encourage or aid the infringement of copyrights. While there certainly are many sites that are distributing MIDI files that are clear copyright infringements, this site is not one of them. We are determined to play by the rules so that the Synthesia content library won't someday suddenly disappear because one or more copyright owners decided to enforce their rights. This means that if there is a concern that a posted MIDI file infringes a copyright, one of the moderators will remove that file pending a resolution of the issue. For now we are going to be relying on those who submit a MIDI file to observe these guidelines. Please help us make this a place where you can make contributions to the Synthesia community with a minimum of red tape by posting only MIDI files that are free of copyright issues. If you have questions about what can be posted or ideas about handling this in a more effective way, please feel free to post your ideas to this topic.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
MatSher
Posts: 27

Post by MatSher »

HI fellow Synthesia midi masters, casual enthusiasts, professional ivory hackers and resident pros...

A BIG WELCOME to the new Midi Club.

Firstly, a great big thank you to Nicolas for letting us go forward with this idea and for
the trust he is showing by letting us all upload midi files onto this forum.

I have a stack of tunes, intros, melodies, song ideas and would love to collaborate with others on
developing them, maybe to learn a thing or two from my musical betters or share a few tips, sounds
and tricks I've learned over the years with piano newbies.

I'm sure many of us are sitting on tunes we've made that we're not too sure where to go with them,
I'd love to hear others musical talent and maybe add to a melody, and I'd be interested
and grateful to have you guys improve on some of my mine...
This is the reason this little club has been formed.

Please note: This club is not for the sharing commercial song midi's... Yes it would be great to be able
to do it but it simply is not going to happen. JimHenry is knowledgable on this subject so for any N. American
copyright questions I am sure he will be happy to answer you. For everyone else around the world, just follow
the basic guideline laid out by JimHenry and you should be fine.

My 2-cents worth on the copyright subject is far simpler - any submissions by any members must be the posters
original composition or work to avoid any copyright issues... The laws vary from country to country, but if you
submit YOUR own work with a simple release statement like "I xxxx release this work under the creative commons act,
on this date xxxx, at this time xxxxx, in xxxxxxx country. You should be fine. If you submit work that resembles another
musical artists work, it is a safe bet we will have to remove it from the forum, so my advice is, don't do it. This is a brand
new endeavour and there will be gray areas. Just use your heads and be reasonable. If you want to discuss techniques from
different songs, don't upload the song midi direct us to a YouTube version and add a timing reference to your post (For Eg.
Can someone tell me how to play the bridge from xxxxx song (add url) from 1:15 - 1:22min etc etc)


So HAVE FUN and enjoy.
I look forward to listening and maybe learning to playing some of your midi's
(If of course they are not too difficult ; })

Mat
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