MIDI Dummy Needs Help!

[jgbass]

I have been avoiding MDI-related things in favor of playing bass but reality has sunk in and I am now faced with the dilemma of how to play MIDI files that do not play. They are a collection of files that end in .mid. I went to the MIDI shareware site www.Hitsquad.com and tried a few downloads but I didn't choose the right one.

I am trying to run this through Internet Explorer and using RealPlayer (what it is defaulting to). Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get the sound working, what I might need to download for this?

[Mottlefeeder]

If you cannot play MIDI files, it may be that your sound card/software is not set up to do so. I suggest:

1) Check within Windows for midi files - in win 3.1/95/98 there was one called canyon.mid - it's nothing special, but at least you are starting with something that you know should work.

2) In windows there is a mixer for all the sound sources - check that all the volume sliders are turned up, and all the mutes are off. You will probably find it if you right click on the speaker icon on the task bar, and select open volume control. It's not a good idea to leave them all turned up, but it is the best way to find out what works and what does not. When you have sorted that out, turn down/off the ones that you are not using.

3) If you right click on the speaker icon on the task bar, and select adjust audio properties, this will show you whether your PC is sending stuff to your sound card, or just losing it.

I'm sorry that I cannot be more specific, but I don't know your PC, and even if I did, I don't know what you will find when you go through these checks.