Problem: While Wikimedia has a pretty nice archive of MIDI files, they are not playable in modern browsers. Pages will have them available, but they need to be downloaded, and then played on a separate player. Said player is not even necessarily available in the user's operating system, and third party players tend to be a bit tricky to set up, requiring addtional files (soundfonts) and such.
Who would benefit: People who want to listen to our MIDI archive. People visiting several Music-related pages. People who wish to upload small files that illustrate a musical concept.
Proposed solution: Automatically convert the MIDI to Ogg Vorbis, like with other audio files. These are playable on modern browsers.
More comments: We already have most of the necessary software. There is a SCORE tag extension that allows for Lilypond markup, and takes the rendered MIDI and converts it to OGG. And we have the workflow already setup for other conversions. The only optional new item that might be useful is an additional soundfont: the one from MuseScore might fill in gaps in the existing FluidSynth ones and is hiqg quality.
@Trlkly: There is actually an English Wikipedia template, w:en:Template:Synthlisten, which allows MIDI files to be played through the Score extension. (My proposal is somewhat similar but proposes that MusicXML/MuseScore files be uploadable and rendered by Commons/Extension:Score, which would achieve roughly the same but also allow the files to be shown as sheet music.) Jc86035 (talk) 11:22, 11 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Trlkly, could you please clarify if you mean automatically adding a Synthlisten template to each MIDI file page, making a downloadable Ogg Vorbis version available for each MIDI file, or replacing the MIDI files with Ogg Vorbis files, thus removing access to the MIDI files as MIDIs?
Comment Added the phabricator task for moving the MIDI to OGG (sound) conversion to TimedMediaHandler, which is used for videos and audio on Wikimedia. This is important so that we aren't bound to using the Score workaround, and so is the cornerstone of this proposal. Another task could be created for it to be automatized for all MIDI files in presentation. Ebe123 (Communication | Activity report) 01:50, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Comment I believe this could easily be solved with the VLC API which is free to use, and open. Allowing for a forward facing player without loading extra modules!!!!Lostinlodos (talk) 19:38, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Partial support; I support automatically adding a Synthlisten template to each MIDI file page; I do not support removing access to the MIDI files as MIDIs. HLHJ (talk) 04:20, 18 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Support I do not think anyone is proposing to remove access to the raw MIDI files, @HJHJ:. This would be a big improvement in musical articles with the flexibility of MIDI files with the convenience of in-browser playability. (Maintainer of the Score extension) Ebe123 (Communication | Activity report) 01:50, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Added the phabricator task for moving the MIDI to OGG (sound) conversion to TimedMediaHandler, which is used for videos and audio on Wikimedia. This is important so that we aren't bound to using the Score workaround, and so is the cornerstone of this proposal. Another task could be created for it to be automatized for all MIDI files in presentation. Ebe123 (Communication | Activity report) 01:50, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
Support DonBarredora (talk) 23:59, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
Partial support; I support automatically adding a Synthlisten template to each MIDI file page; I do not support removing access to the MIDI files as MIDIs. HLHJ (talk) 04:20, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
