Adding Midi Files to your Webpage

Large music files can cause a webpage to load slowly. Using midi files for background music on a webpage can solve this problem

How do I put midi files on my page? is a question I frequently receive. The code I use to embed midi files on some of my web pages is: EMBED src=”midifile.mid” width=145 height=30 autostart=true loop=true surrounded by brackets

In the same directory as the webpage, place your midi file Replace midifile.mid with the name of your midi file . Width and height display a console on the page. If you do not want a player to display on the web page Enter 1 or 2 for the width and height (0 width and height might cause problems with some players).

autostart=true means the file will play automatically when the page loads. autostart=false would not start the file automatically

To have the music playing in a loop use loop=true – loop=false will play a file once, then stop

Your WWW Browser can access MIDI files (or any files for that matter) and play them within Internet Explorer, or other browsers. In Internet Explorer, you can determine which program will play a midi file on the web Look in the “Programs” tab (under “Tools”, then “Internet Options…”). Select “Internet Programs/Set Programs/”Associate a File Type or protocol with a program”. You will see a list, look for “.mid or .midi” in the “Name” column. From those entries, you can see the program in the “Current Default” column. This determines what program will be used to play your midi when you click on a MIDI file on a www page.

Some midi files are “zipped” files to make then easy to download. If you are using “Winzip”, or another file zip utility program the zipped file can be played without alot of trouble. Make sure your unzip program is the default application to open .zip files. Then, you just click the mid file when your unzip program show the contents, and it plays!

Oh, and another tip: If you set up your Helper Apps to “play” the midi song when selected with a particular program, you can always save it (download it) instead of playing it by right clicking on a file and using the “Save Target as” to save the file to your hard drive. That way, you don’t have to delete your “Helper apps” entry for .mid files if you want to save it or have to hunt through your Temporary Internet Files directory, to find the file (which might have a temp name, like “V0ONCDV4″ or something).