Over the years I have amassed a huge collection of over 13,000 MIDI files I still enjoy hearing today, especially on my Android phone hooked up to my car stereo. Yes, those same menacing files that would play in the background as you browsed the web back during the days of Geocities and other free web hosting sites.
To play the MIDI files on my phone, I use the indispensable VLC Media Player for Android. For it to play those files though, it needs a sound font file and there are tons of them on the Web. I found one that emulates the Microsoft MIDI synthesizer which suited me fine but soon I got tired of the bland synthesizer sounds and decided to look for a sound font with some realistic tones. However, that search ended when I realized that such sound fonts are in files several gigabytes in size.
As I fined-tuned my search, I started coming across sound fonts that recreate the tones from classic video game consoles, such as the Sega Genesis, which in my opinion still has a very cool music synthesizer. It was here when I found The Ultimate Megadrive Soundfont, which definitely gives my MIDI files that unmistakable Genesis sound.
Then I became curious about making my MIDI files sound like the 8-bit music from some of the even older video game consoles. 8-bit music itself seems to be enjoying something of a revival these days as there are entire albums available on Jamendo featuring these vintage synthesizer sounds.
I didn’t have to look much further for the ideal sound font to give my MIDI files an 8-bit makeover. I found that in the Atari 2600 sound font that recreates the very basic tones of the famed home console. Afterwards I just configured VLC to use it and at once I was able to give my MIDI files the vintage touch.
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