MIDI files of Yes songs - amazing!

[David Polich]

The internet never ceases to amaze me...or more to the point, people never
do.

I did a search for MIDI files for Yes songs, and I found this site - MIDI
files for almost every song on every Yes album ever. And most of them are really well done:

http://www.classicyes.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I personally never had the inclination to transcribe something like the
entire first track of "Close to The Edge", or all of the "Relayer" album,
but there are people who have, which kind of astounds me.

Most of the MIDI files on the internet for classic rock songs are awful,
it's difficult to find a site with quality MIDI files. This is one of them.
If anyone else has run across high-quality MIDI file sites, please post
a link.

[ritzybiz]

David, thanks for the link. I have been a huge fan of YES since I saw them live in Sydney Australia in the early 70s. Roundabout has always been my favourite track, and the midifile for this song is very good! I can't wait to put it into Sibelius and check out the notation.
Thanks again.

Charlie

[Guitar Gaz]

Of all the 70's prog bands I think their music has stood up best to passing time - I still like a bit of prog and listen to Yes fairly often - so this is an interesting set of files to plunder ! Thanks for alerting us.

[cuttime]

Some real dedication from Gentle Giant fans:

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Sheet_music" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/MIDI_file" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The thing about public MIDI files that drive me crazy are imbedded patch changes that are irrelevant on most systems and just get in the way. Does anyone know of a quick and efficient way of wiping them out in one fell swoop? A DP search of some kind?

[David Polich]

Some real dedication from Gentle Giant fans:

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Sheet_music" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/MIDI_file" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The thing about public MIDI files that drive me crazy are imbedded patch changes that are irrelevant on most systems and just get in the way. Does anyone know of a quick and efficient way of wiping them out in one fell swoop? A DP search of some kind?

Couldn't agree more.

You can set DP's view filter to just patch changes and then that's the only
MIDI track data that will be visible - you can then just erase it (Command+B, or if you're in the event window, highlight all the patch changes and press the "delete" key on your Mac keyboard). When done, re-set
DP's View Filter to "all" so you can once again view the rest of the MIDI data.

[mhschmieder]

I guess I should have posted that link earlier -- didn't know there would be interest. Yes, these are amazing transcriptions.

There's also two or three guys independently transcribing (and even re-creating) everything Genesis ever did, if anyone is interested.

I think I have a link for quality ELP sequences as well, but that is probably the extent of my bookkeeping on quality prog rock MIDI files.

[Dwetmaster]

The thing about public MIDI files that drive me crazy are imbedded patch changes that are irrelevant on most systems and just get in the way. Does anyone know of a quick and efficient way of wiping them out in one fell swoop? A DP search of some kind?

If you have a PC laying around, There's an AMAZING app called GNMIDI. It's a very effective MIDI Batch processor with which you can process thousands of files in one single pass. Filter MIDI commands is only one of the many operation it can do to files.

http://www.gnmidi.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[David Polich]

I guess I should have posted that link earlier -- didn't know there would be interest. Yes, these are amazing transcriptions.

There's also two or three guys independently transcribing (and even re-creating) everything Genesis ever did, if anyone is interested.

I think I have a link for quality ELP sequences as well, but that is probably the extent of my bookkeeping on quality prog rock MIDI files.

Mark, would you mind sharing that ELP link?

[Frodo]

Thanks for the link, David.

FYI-- have you ever seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKVYEShL2fs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rick Wakeman doing Close To The Edge as a solo piano piece!! The video is a little oddly edited at times, but the audio is wonderful. What an incredible pianist he is. It's less of a transcription than it is a reading of essentials, but it's a nice thing to have on record.

[mhschmieder]

Here's the site from which I grabbed the ELP MIDI files, but I don't think this guy made these as he has a lot of other MIDI files at his site:

http://www.davidyounker.com/MIDI/midi1.html

There are sixteen in total (including three versions of Hoedown). The Knife-Edge link doesn't work, but that would be the 17th. I downloaded all of them in 2006 and just updated the link now to verify it still works, but didn't retry all of the MIDI links on that page.

I have not listened to these for awhile, so maybe they aren't that good. Even so, it's a start.

At any rate, I found this site to have consistently higher quality MIDI for other songs than other places that I looked, where there was overlap.

[mhschmieder]

And here's the link for ONE of the three people who are obsessed with recreating all of Genesis' vintage albums in MIDI:

http://lldom.blogspot.com/

Our mutual friend Dave Bryce has also been revisiting some early Genesis, but with his own twist (albeit pretty close to the original in most cases). I can't remember if he is capturing MIDI or just audio though.

[Guitar Gaz]

Thanks for this - the ELP link does not work anymore (Knife Edge is the one I was interested in anyway) but the Genesis one certainly does. Its interesting looking at the music I grew up with and at the time had no idea how to play. Weird to see they use notes and chords like the rest of us !

[Tobor]

The internet never ceases to amaze me...or more to the point, people never
do.

I did a search for MIDI files for Yes songs, and I found this site - MIDI
files for almost every song on every Yes album ever. And most of them are really well done:

http://www.classicyes.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe I'm missing something on the site- when I click the MIDI files for The Yes Album, for example, a Quicktime mp3 plays. How do you get to the actual files?

Tobor

[dave pine]

i don't think that's a mp3, i think it's playing the internal quicktime MIDI in your computer, option click to download the file, then play it, it'll sound the same i bet.

[Tritonemusic]

i don't think that's a mp3, i think it's playing the internal MIDI in your computer, option click to download the file, then play it, it'll sound the same i bet.

You can also tell it's MIDI by stopping playback. You'll hear the reverb decay.