Step 5. Creating MIDI files for the Nokia 3510
The 3510 is actually capable of playing two types of MIDI file: first are plain General MIDI files, as seen all over the internet, and second are a new type of midi file called "Scalable Polyphony" MIDI (or SP-MIDI for short). SP-MIDI files are designed such that when they are played on a device with a large number of MIDI channels, all of the channels can be used for playback. When a device with less channels is used, the instruments are removed in such a way as to keep the song sounding as good as possible.
Unfortunately I currently have very little information about and no software to generate SP-MIDI files, so the rest of this tutorial will be working with plain ol' General MIDI files. The one advantage to this is that there's plenty of software around to generate these (including some of free software -- see below).
Before you start writing songs for the 3510 you need to be aware of the hardware limitations of the device. The biggest, in my opinion, is that it has only four channels available for music playback. This means you cannot play more then four notes/instruments simultaneously. If you try to do so you'll find that notes just don't play, which usually sounds awful.
The second disadvantage is that the MIDI engine only supports a subset of the available list of General MIDI instruments and percussion sounds. If you use instruments that the 3510 doesn't know about, you'll get silence instead of your orchestra.
These two limitations combined mean that virtually all of the MIDI files on the internet are not going to play on the 3510 without being patched up quite significantly, which is a shame. Never mind, though, because as you will be aware just by listening to the tones that come built into the phone, you can still get some very impressive sounds with a bit of effort.
The sounds that are supported by the 3510 are as follows:
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An interesting selection, I'm sure you will agree. I must confess I haven't tried using any of the more unusual sounds towards the end of the instrument list (from Reverse Cymbal onwards) but the Nokia documentation assures me that they are there.
Apart from the shortcomings detailed above, the MIDI engine in the 3510 does seem fairly flexible. It's certainly capable of using many instruments throughout the course of a song, changing tempo, changing note volumn and many other effects.
A couple of quick tips for composing for the 3510:
- The MIDI player seems to require a brief amount of time to initialise itself, and this can often result in the first second or so of your song being skipped. The simple solution to this is to leave a one-to-two second pause at the start of your song. By the time the pause is complete the phone should be ready for the first notes.
- Playing various instruments together can cause some unfortunate distortion of the sound. The best way to limit this appears to be to play the notes at a quieter volume, but you may need to experiment with this on a song-by-song basis.
If anyone else has any tips for improving MIDI songs for the 3510 I'd be grateful to hear them!
So now it's time to fire up that MIDI sequencing package and get composing. If you don't have a MIDI sequencer then you may find the next and final section of this tutorial helpful, as it introduces a free "tracker"-style sequencer called ModPlug Tracker, and shows you how to use it to create MIDI files for the 3510.
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This article is copyright © Adam Dawes, 2002.
It may not be copied or redistributed without my express written permission.