Internet Resources

Software, MIDI utilities, music databases and publications that you might find useful in conjunction with our products. We ommited the popular market leaders you know anyway and instead focussed on helpful things that are rather hard to find. Please regard our disclaimer concerning external links.

VSTHost - VST hosting application for Windows (free).

Rax - Rax is an inexpensive and robust AU host for the Mac. It arranges your virtual instruments and effects in an easy to use digital mixer layout.

Bidule - Great hosting environment for Windows and Mac. Allows for arbitrary routing and patching of virtual instruments and effects (VST/AU).

Tobybear Midihost - A freeware VST host that can load your plug-ins (Windows)

Apple AU Lab - This host was actually made for audio unit development. It comes with MacOSX as part of the developer tools (see CDROM). Anyway, it's a lean AU host and mixer application that you can use to host your VI (free).

Reaper - Reaper is a lean and versatile DAW for Windows and Mac at a very affordable price. It works nicely as a host for virtual instruments in conjunction with Synfire and Harmony Navigator.

ASIO4ALL - Low-latency ASIO Sound Driver for Windows (free)

XML Device Definitions for many Synthesizers (2) - Digital Fruitcake Studios aggregated a comprehensive collection of midnam XML files. The files were originally converted for ProTools, but may be used on the Mac and PC as well. Cognitone software is able to import these files.

XML Device Definitions for many Synthesizers (1) - Apple's Audio MIDI Setup (AMS) application is useful for configuring and naming the ports of your MIDI interfaces. Cognitone applications can import those files, saving you hours of tedious typing when you register your MIDI equipment for use with Harmony Navigator or Synfire. This page of Digidesign containes some useful explanations on how to manually edit these XML files.

CherryPicker (MacOS X) - CherryPicker is a powerful MIDI patchfile editor for OSX. You can use it to create, export, import and edit midnam XML files that can be imported into Synfire and HN as device descriptions.

Humatic ChainGang - MIDI Timecode Synchronous Video Player - ChainGang is a solution for synchronizing video playback to MIDI timecode (MTC) or MIDI Clock. Works nicely with Synfire Pro if you want to compose synchronized with video.

LoopBe1 und LoopBe30 - MIDI loopback driver (virtual MIDI cable) for routing MIDI to VI hosts and other software (Windows).

Maple Virtual MIDI Cable - MIDI loopback driver (virtual MIDI cable) for routing MIDI to VI hosts and other software (Windows).

MIDI Patchbay - MIDI loopback driver (virtual MIDI cable) for routing MIDI to VI hosts and other software (Mac OS X).

MIDI YOKE - MIDI loopback driver (virtual MIDI cable) for routing MIDI to VI hosts and other software (Windows).

Inter Application Driver (IAC) - This loopback driver is part of Mac OS X. You will find it in the Audio & MIDI Settings of Tiger and Leopard.

Symbolic Composer - Symbolic Composer 5.1 is a music composition development environment that requires programming experience (LISP). It can be useful for generating algorithmic data streams that can be used with Music Prototyping Studio.

Impro-Visor - Jazz Improvisation Advisor for the Improviser. Free Software from Harvey Mudd College Computer Science Department. A music notation program designed to help jazz musicians compose and hear solos similar to ones that might be improvised.

LilyPond - Musical typesetting program that creates beautiful and unparalleled notation prints. Music Prototyping Studio supports LilyPond export. LilyPond is open source and free.

Mutopia Project (Sheet Music Downloads + MIDI) - All music in the Mutopia Project is free to download, print out, perform and distribute. Audio previews of the music are available as MIDI (.mid) files; these are computer generated but give a rough idea of what the music sounds like.

Composers Offering MIDI Files on the Net - Links to Sites Maintained by Professional and Amateur Composers.

Wikipedia Article on Chord Progressions - Explore countless links and examples for popular chord progressions.

The Classical Midi Connection - Very comprehensive and carefully maintained collection of classical midi files.

Music Composition FAQ (by James Fry) - Very insightful Q&A concerning creativity, composing and writer's block as well as a lot of other important topics. If you're looking for inspiration - you should read this.

Algorithmic Composition - Article on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Essential Secrets of Songwriting - Great thoughts and tips from a veteran songwriting teacher.

Wikipedia Article on Chord Progressions - Check out this article and its many links to explore countless chord popular progressions and how they were and are used by musicians all over the world.

PRINCIPLES OF ORCHESTRATION (by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov) - A comprehensive and very popular interactive online course with examples, excercises and discussions, histen by Northern Sounds. Extremely helpful for everyone who wants to get into the art of orchestral composition and instrumentation.

Bob Keller's Jazz Page - A huge list of various online Jazz resources, among them a nice selection of music theory links.

Thomas Pankhurst's Tonality Guide - A very good introduction to basic musical conecpts like chords and scales.

Ralph Patt's Jazz Web Page: The Vanilla Book - The Vanilla Book:The Vanilla Book is a resource for the working jazz musician that contains basic chord changes to over 400 standard tunes. The Major Third Tuning: A new way to look at tuning the guitar for jazz guitarists. Tonal Centers: This is a resource of similar chord progressions. Most jazz standards move through different tonal centers (major and minor) before returning to the tonic key. Listening to many songs with the same or similar chord progressions, helps to recognize these tonal shifts. It is linked to the "Vanilla Book".

Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary - A very comprehensive music dictionary created by Richard Cole (Virginia Tech Department of Music) and Ed Schwartz (Virginia Tech New Media Center)

The Tonal Centre - The Tonal Centre is an interactive site for music composers and theorists which explains and demonstrates some of the key concepts of tonality; including chords, scales, cadences, and modulation. Most of the musical examples are illustrated with a midi file - just click on the relevant link to hear it.

Dolmetsch Online - Music Dictionary - Comprehensive Glossary

The Chord Wheel - Well, this one doesn't have a MIDI interface. It even isn't software at all - it's hardware. A nice tool for "browsing" chords in a completely different way, using wheels of printed charts.

Music Theory for Songwriters - Nice site by Steve Mugglin.

Music Theory & History Online - Comprehensive dictionary covering music theory and history.

Jazz Improvisation Primer - Here you can find information on almost every topic relating to jazz improvisation, from jazz history to music theory to practical advice on playing in a group.

JAZZ THEORY & IMPROVISATION - Pete Thomas is a leading UK music producer, saxophone recording musician and composer of film & television music. This site offers great lessons and tutorials.

International Computer Music Association - Homepage of the ICMA

IRCAM (French) - Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, a leading non-profit organization of musical creation, r&d and education in acoustics and music, located in the center of Paris (France), next to the Pompidou Center, of which it is an attached department. It hosts composers, researchers and students from many countries cooperating in contemporary music production, signal processing, acoustics and psychoacoustics, and their interrelations.

Young Composers - Listen to the original MIDI music compositions of young composers.