July 26, 2005

Classical Midi Archives is a repository of 34,000+ free classical MIDI files. It rocks, so to speak.

This eclipses the 8,000 files listed at On Classical which erroneously claims to be The largest resource of Classical Music in MIDI/ZIP files ever created inside the web and previously discussed here though that remains a valuable resource. Also of worthy of note (ahem) is Classical Cat which has about 2500 free downloadable Classical MP3 files. (easy registrations required for all above). The neat thing about the MIDI files is that many notation programs can convert these right into printable music. I've done this a few times and I've been very grateful to the hard working souls that entered entire orchestral scores from which I've been able to conduct from without purchasing an otherwise expensive score. This is legal since the MIDI files are all of Composers in the public domain, so no guilt, no shame.

  • The other extraordinarily cool thing about this is that you can rip these MIDIs in Garageband 2.0 (or use Dent du Midi if you are a GarageBand 1.0 user - or want to split MIDI files into separate track files). Then in Garageband you can change those violins to electric guitar and lay down a drum track. (or not) More MIDI links for Garageband at the bottom of this page.
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