VOGONS


First post, by bristlehog

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Some MIDI files won't open with the following message:

The specified file cannot be played on the specified MCI device. The file may be corrupt, or not in the correct format.

This for example happens with products of XMI2MID and MIDIPLEX's conversions of XMI to MID. Ideas of what is going on, anybody?

Hardware comparisons and game system requirements: https://technical.city

Reply 1 of 3, by JayCeeBee64

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It's been years since I last saw that particular error message, so I used XMI2MID to convert one of my XMI tunes (HUMAN2 from Warcraft) to MID and remember how I solved it back then - load the converted MID file into a MIDI sequencer (I used Cakewalk Pro Audio 9) and save it. That will make it playable in Media Player.

As to why this happens, my best guess is that the conversion process creates an MID file that's not compatible with Media Player (it's not recognized as playable media); loading/saving in a MIDI sequencer slightly alters the MID file to make it fully compatible and playable.

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 3 of 3, by Falcosoft

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There is general difficulty in converting XMI to MID properly.
Namely multi track XMI files can only be converted properly to type 2 midi files.
Multi track XMI and type 2 midi files are very different from 'normal' type 1 multi track midi files
since the tracks have to be played consecutively not simultaneously (as in case of type 1 midi files).
Very few midi players support type 2 midi files properly. There are players that simply refuse to play type 2 files while others simply ignore the type. Ignoring the type can make a big noise because of simultaneous playback of tracks, but this problem is not so obvious since most XMI files are single track.
Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
In FSMP you can check if your converted midi file is actually type 1 or 2.

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