This screen allows you to open and listen to standard Midi files (with file extension .MID), and to convert them to Musical Discovery format, for storage in the Musical Discovery database.
Start by clicking the green button at top left "Open a Midi File". A Windows Common Dialogue box will open up, enabling you to select a midi file from anywhere on your hard disk. Navigate to the directory containing your midi file, point to highlight it, then click Open. You should then see track information appear in a box at top right of the screen. You can click on any track to select it, and you should see all the detailed Midi data for this track appear in the main panel of the screen. This contains the Note On and Note Off data, and all Midi controller events. You can listen to this Midi file by clicking the pink button Play Selected Midi File Directly. Please note, occasionally an error message may appear here saying "Sorry, but I can't play your file". Don't panic, it will probably still be possible to import the file into Musical Discovery.
To start importing the Midi file, click the blue button Import as Musical Discovery Tune. You will see a progress bar, and it might take some time to load if the midi file is very large. When importing has completed, the Playbar at the foot of the screen will become enabled, and you may click the Play button to listen to the tune. From here on, the tune, with all its tracks, is in memory in Musical Discovery format. You can use all the other screens, such as Edit to change the tune or data about it, in memory, but it is NOT saved onto the Musical Discovery database yet.
To save the file into Musical Discovery database, click the yellow button Save as Musical Discovery File This will bring up a Melody data Summary Information screen, into which you can type as much useful cataloguing information as possible. The minimum essential as a short file name (at top right), and a meaningful title (at top left). When finished, click the Save to Disk (Database) button at the foot of the screen.
To place an icon for this tune onto the composing board, click the purple button Store as fragment for use in composing board