Notes:
New: If you have trouble getting midi to play on a Mac please see these links:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6417367
http://www.macissues.com/2014/04/27/enable-midi-playback-in-web-browsers-for-mavericks-and-mountain-lion/
Check out the Doumbek Sound Font (by Donavon Lerman).
For you technical folks (or the curious) this page is based on a CGI
script that generates and writes very simple MIDI files directly to
your web browser. I wrote it in Perl
one afternoon a long time ago. Click here to download the script. You will need perl to run
it, so take a look here: CPAN, if you don't
already have it. (It's free). Take a look at the top of the script
for a note on how to run it.
- This will only work if you have a browser which will play standard midi files
- Fill in the rhythm section with the strikes. Use the key below. For instance for the rhythm "Beledi" fill in:
D-D-tkT-D-tkT---
- Be sure to pad the end of the rhythm out to the correct count -- Use spaces or dashes or underscores as padding characters.
- You can copy and paste the rhythms from the notation on my rhythms page.
- This uses standard MIDI instruments for the drum sounds -- so they aren't the greatest sounding (they don't sound like a dumbec), but you should at least be able to hear the rhythm. In particular the accent sounds (Slap, Pop) are really bad on most cards....
Rhythm Key:
D Dum (right hand clear low tone)
T - Tek (right hand high crisp tone)
G - Grab (or Stop -- deadened, usually right hand)
K - Ka (left hand, sounds like Tek)
P - Pop (Ka while deadening head w/ other hand)
S - Slap
m - Alternate "Dum" (left hand low tone often muffled)
Use capitals for accented strikes
Setup:
This form returns a standard MIDI file marked as various MIME types.
Your browser may already be able to play this type of file. Most
sound cards on PCs and Macintoshes can play standard MIDI files. Try
each of the MIME types ("audio/mid" is likely to work on a PC,
"audio/midi" on a Mac, also try "audio/midi" for netscape if you have the audio plugin). If you cannot get any of these to
automatically open a file or offer you the option to open the MIDI
file then add a helper application for one of these types.
On a Windows machine, MediaPlayer (MPLAYER) (which comes with Windows) can be used to play MIDI files if you sound card supports them. You may need to set your "MIDI Device Output" to go to the right place (check "MIDI Properties" or "Properties" in the "Device" menu in MPLAYER) -- .
Also make sure that you don't have the volume turned all the way down for the MIDI channel of your sound card.
If all else fails --
Email me
and I'll try to give you a hand...
Credits:
Thanks to Jean
Vaucher who improved my script and added some features.
Check out the Doumbek Sound Font by Donavon Lerman.
Jas's Drum Resources Page
Middle Eastern Rhythms Page
Khafif Troupe Page