The General MIDI Museum - A Youtube Archive

[I Drink Lava]

This is a new Youtube project I'm starting to try and archive old, obscure MIDI files from the 1990s and 2000s that would otherwise become lost media someday. Since I first heard a number of these in Doom PWADs, I figured I'd share this project here to see if anyone is interested.

 

 

The reason I started this project was because of a rather shocking discovery I made listening to the "Choro-Q Wonderful!" soundtrack. Two of the tracks were actually pre-existing MIDI files with seemingly no credit given: "Echoes" by Michael Walthius and "Mystic Travels" by Jeff Lawson. While the former had an official recording on Youtube, the latter Jeff Lawson track was completely unknown outside of an Internet Archive .zip and some now-dead websites. I rather liked this track when I heard it in Nathan Lineback's "Firefox Party", so I wanted the original composer to get the credit he deserved.

[msx2plus]

what a treat, cheers!

[JDoyle]

I love what you're trying to do here. I wonder if you'd be open to submissions? I have a few old MIDI files from the mid-90's that I feel should be documented somewhere on the internet, in some way.

[I Drink Lava]

@JDoyle Sure, any GM, GS, GM2, or XG composition is allowed. Just share the files and tell me what synth they were originally composed for and I'll upload them to the channel. I'd prefer it if there were download links available for viewers to listen to on their own preferred devices, but if you don't want the files publicly shared then I'll just record the videos.

[JDoyle]

Stalker - by Simon Juncal and Dave Smukal

Like a lot of people in the mid-90's my first foray onto the Internet was through America Online. In the Spring of 1995 I started visiting AOL's "Music and Sound" forum, where users could upload and download MIDI music from other members. It was there that I discovered a lot of really talented composers, one of whom was Simon Juncal. I seem to remember he and Dave Smukal uploading new MIDIs quite frequently and I really enjoyed their work. Unfortunately "Stalker" is the only one I kept a copy of, though I wish I'd kept them all! I corresponded briefly with Simon about possibly collaborating on a track, but it never happened. I do remember he mentioned he was using a Roland SCC-1 to compose. We also talked about writing music for video games, but he was focused on wanting to work on Quake and I don't believe he ever wrote MIDIs for Doom, though his MIDIs would have fit right in. He had a website for a while, but I can't find any info about him or his MIDIs anywhere on the Internet.

 

Trippin' in a Groove Hole - by Charles Li

Another MIDI found in the AOL "Music and Sound" forum, I don't remember if I'd heard any other MIDIs from Charles Li, but I really love this one. It's sort of funky prog-rock. I corresponded with Charles over email and we collaborated on a track together, which honestly didn't age very well. Around the same time, I had joined TeamTNT and started working on the music for Icarus: Alien Vanguard and I asked Charles if he wanted to contribute as well, which led to his two tracks being included. I lost contact with Charles after folks started moving away from AOL toward independent ISPs in the late 90's. 

[I Drink Lava]

 

 

[I Drink Lava]

Not sure if bumping is allowed, but I recently discovered the existence of 5 demo MIDIs that came with the Aureal Vortex2 that don't seem to have any information about them online. The Aureal Vortex2 actually has its own unique sample set that doesn't sound half bad. I found this post that mentions being able to convert the .ARL file into .SF2 format, but as usual the poster does not mention how to convert the file or even share the converted file for everyone else. I did find this post on VOGONS that has a converted file from the Turtle Beach Montego II, but some of the presets like the Orchestra Hit are noticeably lower quality than in that Youtube video. If anybody following this thread knows how to convert .ARL format to .SF2, please contact me so I can get these Aureal demo MIDIs archived with the intended sound by the composers.

 

BTW if anybody here has been wondering what happened to this project, it's still continuing over on Youtube. This Passport Designs Inc. MIDI called dreamy.mid has become somewhat popular:

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by I Drink Lava

[I Drink Lava]

The rare Aureal Vortex 2 demo MIDIs are up! The soundfont sounds accurate for the most part, although the synth sounds are a bit thin compared to the real thing. You can download the soundfont here.
 

 

I can't say it's the most exciting music in the world, but it's still well worth archiving.

[I Drink Lava]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:53 PM, I Drink Lava said:

The reason I started this project was because of a rather shocking discovery I made listening to the "Choro-Q Wonderful!" soundtrack. Two of the tracks were actually pre-existing MIDI files with seemingly no credit given: "Echoes" by Michael Walthius and "Mystic Travels" by Jeff Lawson. While the former had an official recording on Youtube, the latter Jeff Lawson track was completely unknown outside of an Internet Archive .zip and some now-dead websites. I rather liked this track when I heard it in Nathan Lineback's "Firefox Party", so I wanted the original composer to get the credit he deserved. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/10ih4yd/20_years_after_a_ps2_game_is_released_the_artist/