MIDIART FAQ
The following will be a growing
list of Frequently Asked Questions:
Does MIDIART Live and the MIDIWorks
Player run under Windows NT
/ XP / Vista?
Q:
Does MIDIART Live and the MIDIWorks Player run under Windows NT / XP / Vista?
A:
Yes, but there are two known problems.
One known problem is that the music
playback may slow down when the graphic images become
complex. This is due to the fact that the newer versions of
Windows perform
multi-tasking differently than Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.
The second known problem is that the
Image Generators that perform color cycling do not work
correctly under NT / XP / Vista. Currently, the author does not know
how to correct these problems. Most likely, a 32-bit
version will have to be developed before these problems
are corrected.
For Windows Vista there are also some software installation
issues. You will want to follow this link if you
want to run MIDIART on Windows Vista.
Q:
Will there ever be a version of MIDIART for the Macintosh?
A:
No. For the following reasons:
All of the MIDIART products were developed by one
person. This person has never used a Macintosh computer
and likewise never learned to program on a Macintosh
computer.
The author of MIDIART did not make much money on his
products, and thus does not have the funds available to
hire Macintosh programmers in order to create a Mac
version.
Q:
What is the largest size bitmap that can be loaded using the
"Bitmaps" Image Generator?
A:
The "Bitmaps" Image Generator is
limited to loading and displaying bitmap images that contain less
than 64000 pixcels. The number of pixcels in a bitmap is obtained
by multiplying the bitmap width times the bitmap height.
(Example: 320 x 200 = 64000) One can load wider bitmaps but the
height must be reduced. For example, if the width is 500 pixcels,
the height must be less than or equal to 128. (or 64000 / 500)
Currently there is no easy way to remove this
limitation in the software.
Q:
Will there ever be a 32-bit version of MIDIART Live?
A:
Currently, the author has no plans to develop
a 32-bit version of MIDIART Live. This is mostly due to the fact
that the author has not received appropriate funding for further
development. (One of the down sides of Freeware.)
Q:
And here's a good one: Can a .WAV file be converted
into a MIDI file?
A:
There are currently ways of converting a MIDI file into a
.WAV file, but no software yet exists which can convert .WAV files into MIDI
files, and here's why:
Performing such a conversion would require some very
intelligent software that would need to somehow recognize what individual
musical instruments are playing within an analog sound signal. (Yes wave
files are digital, but the signal started out as analog and was converted to
digital. MIDI files on the other hand already contain the list of
individual instruments and individual musical notes that are playing.)
Performing such a conversion is equivalent to developing
software that can recognize your individual voice (and the words that you are
saying) within a very crowded room where everyone is speaking at the same time.
Even without the crowded room concept, this is a very difficult thing to do.
Also, think about the sounds you here every day. How do
you recognize whether a specific sound you hear is a group of musical
instruments playing a Beethoven concerto, or a group of dogs barking in the
night? The answer is that your brain is doing the recognition based on its
vast experience. Getting a computer to do the same thing is extremely
difficult, and would probably require building a computer that is modeled after
our own brains.
Some day, in the distant future, some brilliant computer scientists
may be able to figure
out how to do this, but currently the technology does not exist.
Copyright © 1994-2007 AJF Consulting, Inc.
