<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Downloading MIDI, Karaoke, MusicXML, and Zip Files |
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You can use your favorite Internet browser and search engine to find MusicXML (.xml, .mxl, .musicxml), MIDI (.mid) or Karaoke (.kar) files on the internet that you can then open in Composer.
Once you arrive at Google, do a search for "midi", "MusicXML", or ".kar" and the name of the song or artist you are interested in. For example, do a search for "midi twinkle" to look for MIDI files for the children's song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
When you visit a web page that publishes MIDI files, you may find the files in a couple of different formats. Also, the links might be displayed in some different ways. MIDI files usually have a .mid filename extension. Karaoke files have a .kar filename extension. Zip files have a .zip filename extension. Sometimes just the name of the MIDI or Zip file is displayed. In other cases, the song title is displayed instead of the file name. In this case, you can confirm that the highlighted text corresponds to a MIDI or Zip file by moving the mouse cursor over the highlighted text and noting the location (URL) displayed at the bottom of the browser window.
Once you have found the file you want to download, the procedure is simple.
To download a MIDI, MusicXML, or Karaoke file:
You can typically right-click the name of the filename of the song file shown at the web page and select "Download" or "Save file". If you have your browser set to use Composer as the default program for these filetypes, then you can just click the file and have it open immediately in Composer.
NOTE:
If the MIDI file immediately plays audibly rather than starting to download, you probably have a MIDI player plug-in installed on your system. Some MIDI player plug-ins provide an option for saving the MIDI file to your hard drive. You should use this option, and specify your song directory as the download location. Upon completion of the download, Composer will automatically open the MIDI file if you have associated Composer with the .mid file name extension. If Composer does not automatically open the MIDI file, then you can open it using the Open command in the File menu.
If you are not able to keep the MIDI player plug-in from playing the MIDI file instead of letting you download the MIDI file, then the steps to correct this problem depend on which particular MIDI player is installed on your system. You can visit our User Forum for specific instructions for different player plug-ins.
Most MusicXML, .mid, and .kar files are no longer zipped. If you do encounter a .zip file, simply download it to your Songs folder as you normally would for a .mid or other song file. After downloading the file, you can double-click it to unzip the song and have the file ready to open in Composer.