On Mon, Apr 05, 2021 at 03:24:15PM +0200, David Kastrup wrote: > So I have two working theories: there is some other version of "(Don't > Fear) the Reaper". Possible, but seems unlikely BOC would have used a C instead of a B. > The other is that all MIDI files have a common ancestor that got it > wrong and never looked twice, in spite of very meticulously > transcribing all the solos. This seems likely. IIUC, several of music's major publishing rights holders (used to?) work with specific companies to monetise their works in different formats. For instance, some popular music publishing rights holders worked with Cherry Lane, or Hal Leonard or one of its imprints, to publish songs or albums as sheet music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Lane_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Leonard_LLC Similarly, I think several rights holders partnered with Gracenote to publish lyrics and metadata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote Finally, and to the point, I think several rights holders partnered with specific companies (but I don't know *which* companies, sorry!) to create MIDI transcriptions that could then in turn be sold/licensed for karaoke bars/disks/etc. For instance, Roland used to offer "MIDI File Disks" for their hardware MIDI file players (MT-80S, MT-90S, MT-120S, Sound Brush SB-55, etc), although I don't know if Roland created the transcriptions themselves or bought them in from a different provider.[1] If the MIDI files you found have a common ancestor, my guess is it came via the route described in the paragraph above. Sam [1]: A quick web search turned up this PicClick page, with details of a product called "Roland MIDI File Disk - Hits Of The 80s First Half": https://picclick.co.uk/Roland-MIDI-File-Disk-Hits-Of-The-233675999957.html If you scroll down the page, you will find many other Roland MIDI file disks: "Best of the 80s Vol 3", "Hits of 1986", "Bee Gees", "Eagles", "ABBA", "Carpenters", "Love Ballads of the 70s", etc. I didn't spot a Blue Oyster Cult disk, but I'd be very surprised if (Don't Fear) The Reaper managed to escape publication on a Roland MIDI file disk. I believe PicClick scrapes eBay listings. So, if you do some digging, maybe you will find out whether my hunch was right - and if so, you might even someone selling the relevant disk secondhand. The progenitor of the pedigree, perhaps! -- A: When it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: When is top-posting a bad thing? () ASCII ribbon campaign. Please avoid HTML emails & proprietary /\ file formats. (Why? See e.g. https://v.gd/jrmGbS ). Thank you. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
