YM3 To MIDI File Convertion Utility - Version 1.1
By Andrew Gower

This program is designed to be used in conjugation with the ST emulator PaCifiST. The
emulator can save ST sound data as .ym files. You can then use this program to convert
them into PC Midi files!! The converter only works for chip-music (not MOD files etc...)

IMPORTANT!! - This program currently only supports YM3 files,
the only version of PaCifiST which saves these is version 0.45, do NOT use later versions
as these save YM5! files which are not yet supported by this program.

Having used PaCifiST 0.45 to create the .ym files you simply run Makemidi.exe, enter the
name of the .ym file you want to use, and .mid file you want to create.

Then you need enter which instrument you want to use for each of the ST's 3 channels.
This is the difficult bit. It is VITAL that you choose the right instruments for a song,
or it will sound absolutely terrible, there's no easy way of working out in advance what
instruments to use, trial and error is probably the best way. A lot of ST chip-music
created 'special effects' by very rapidly switching notes. For channels which do this you
will need to choose a beepy sounding instrument (such as 85 or 16). For other channels
which play more slowly you can just choose an instrument which goes well with the tune,
good ones to try are 4, 18, or 32. (in my opinion). Although there's loads more you should
try. (Any number from 0 - 127).

Finally select if you want the program to try to convert drums or not, this often doesn't
work very well, but with some tunes sounds quite good, so try it with drums first, and if
you don't like it turn them off.

It might take a lot of experimentation, but for most tunes you should be able to find
a combination that works! I've included an example MIDI file which was created from the
lotus 2 music to show you how its done! MIDI files created with this program tend to
sound better if you haven't got a wavetable sound card, because they then sound beepier
and hence work the way they were designed to.

Andrew Gower
Homepage: http://www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/~acg29
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