TheSession sound files on smartphone

Anyone know how to get a Nokia 820 to play TheSession sound (midi) files please ? Nokia 820 is on Windows8.
Thanks

Alas, the midi files don’t even play on some desktop computers, much less mobiles. I’m not sure if the midi files work on anything mobile: iOS, Android, Windows…

What I’d like to know is whether it’s even possible to play midi files on these devices. Has anyone come across a site where it is possible to listen to midi files on a smartphone?

I have the 810. There is no way that it will play on them as you need to have a certain version of a media player which the Nokia store doesn’t have. Its a bit of a nuisance.

Nope, but you can open the files in GIF format and read them

I have a Samsung S3 smartphone - I can play the midi files but I have to download them to the phone first. They wont stream while i’m browsing the session. They play in the phones own music/sound player.

There is an app called Tunepal.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tunepal
It works basically like an ABC player. I have it on my Android, and I think there is an Iphone version. It searches ABC databases and gives you a huge list in return, and you can look through various versions of a tune. You can also record a tune live, and it will offer suggestions as to what tune it is. I rarely ever listen to the sound files though, because the tunes sound awful that way.

Similar to Tommy, I have a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone and have no difficulty listening to the midi files on this site.
They have to be downloaded first, but that’s no problem.

midi gets downloaded by default on my LG Optimus V, then if I click on the downloaded file it plays. I have no idea what exactly is playing the midi, but it works. My phone is rooted with a non stock ROM called Cyanogenmod.

ff

Thanks for all the info folks.
So far seems like some phones do .. but most don’t.
Jeremy’s question, followed by some of the other responses did make me wonder if there was any way of building a player into TheSession site that would stream the sound to any phone . Or, maybe better still, turn it into a form that most/all phones could download and play. As has been said, the sound is not necessarily “pleasant” for listening but an enormous advantage for those [like me :( ] who learn from sound ’cause they can’t read dots.
It might also solve the problem Jeremy mentioned about some computers not playing midi.

Learning from the sound of a midi file seems like a bad idea… Just sayin… 😉

But I’m sure Jeremy could probably install timidity, or something similar, to convert midi to audio on the fly, stream it out, and cache it for future listens. It would be some work, though…

Hi Pete (Reverend)
“But I’m sure Jeremy could probably install timidity, or something similar, to convert midi to audio on the fly, stream it out, and cache it for future listens. It would be some work, though…”
I’ve never heard of timidity. Sounds the sort of thing I was thinking but can’t expect Jeremy to trash himself if it’s a big job working it into the site. My ignorant and wistful hope was that there might be some convenient bolt-on goodie that would do the job for next to no work :D

“Learning from the sound of a midi file seems like a bad idea… Just sayin… 😉 ”
Midi file can convey more information than a score .. and musicians rarely bat a eyelid at the idea of learning a tune from a score … Just sayin… 😉

To be honest, I’d just as soon ditch the midi files altogether. But I when I suggested that, there was something of an outcry.

So I’m keeping the midi functionality (for now) but I have to admit, it’s not my highest priority.

Thanks for the feedback on which phones can play the midi files. It sounds like Android phones can download the files and then play them back using a different app.

@sessnioholic: “Midi file can convey more information than a score”

This is not exactly true. The additional information is just the lousy interpretation of the dots by your computer (which can be misleading -- listen to the “rolls”! Just saying…), while other information is getting lost. For example bar lines. Your computer doesn’t apply any phrasing or such; and if the dots are accidentally erroneous and one single dot is missing, the whole tune gets crooked and you have no idea what’s wrong.

On topic, if you can download the midi files on your phone, you could convert it to mp3… for example here: http://solmire.com/

@Reverend: Timidity is a very cool idea… I didn’t know that you can integrate it in online applications!

x-post

“…and musicians rarely bat a eyelid at the idea of learning a tune from a score”

Heh, the eyelid batting about this isn’t all that rare around here, if you haven’t noticed 😉

Without wanting this to blossom into another huge debate about dots vs. ear, I will say one thing. Yes, it’s true that midi files being played by a computer can essentially convey all the information contained in a score, the problem with them is that they end up conveying MORE information, like the rhythm, and timing of ornaments, etc. And their interpretation of that information is very bad! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an advocate of learning from sheet music. But at least when a player reads a score, (s)he’s the one who can fill in the bits that make it sound like an Irish tune (assuming they already have that basis ingrained).

To be perfectly honest, I *have* learned tunes from listening to computer generated audio before. Although, that was usually done once I was at least semi-familiar with a tune, and was also done with Barfly, which can play with a modicum of swing from its stress programming. Way too rigid, still, but at least passable.

But in this world of YouTube, comhaltas archives, slow downers, etc., I can’t remember the last time I learned a tune from a written/abc/midi source. And it’s usually directly from a person, from picking it up in a session, from a session recording, or occasionally from a commercial recording. I’ll still use written sources as an aid occasionally, but never as my main source.

And in the interest of full disclosure, there has been more than one time that a phone has gotten pulled out at my session and had TuneBook or TunePal or something used to play a snippet of a tune so people can remember how it starts. That doesn’t bother me at all (unlike our old friend mr. Gill, who would always chime in with something like “why would you want to play a tune at a session if you can’t remember how it goes…?”) 😉