EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 52, Issue 13 This issue's topics: Exchanging Files between Macs and IBM's (2 messages) Midifiles 2 Mac solved.. thanks (2 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 1993 09:13:07 -0400 From: idealord Subject: Exchanging Files between Macs and IBM's How do I transfer patches, data files, MFF files from a Mac to a PC and back? This works for any data file - of course it will not work for executables. IBM->Mac Process the file, (unzip, unlharc it), download it and then use Apple File Transfer in the binary mode (not text mode) to "translate" it to the Mac. Mac files have a processing fork which is added to the front end of any file; it tells the Mac what application the file was designed for. Apple File Transfer (it should be in your System or Utilities folder) adds this to the front of the file. Now - you have to use ResEdit to add the appropriate file header info. For MFF files you change the "File Type" to MIDI - make sure to use caps - some apps won't accept "midi." Now you should be able to load it into Performer, whatever, as a MIDI file. If it is a sysex dump or other kind of data file -> take a look at the file type of a previously saved data file created by the program with which you wish to use the IBM data file with ResEdit. The file type is always 4 letters, be sure you use the appropriate cap or small letter combination and change the type of the IBM data file from "text" (Apple File Transfer changes all of its files to the "text" file type) to the type expected by your application of choice. Mac->IBM Process the file (unsit, etc.) and use Apple File Transfer in the binary mode (not text mode) to translate it to IBM format. Apple File Transfer will allow you to format IBM disks, too. The process from Mac->IBM is basically stripping the Mac header off of the data file. There is no further processing. Of course, be sure you've de-archived the data file appropriately - although there are un-stuffit programs available for the IBM - they don't seem to be very reliable. I've used these processes to transfer MFF files, EPS files and other kinds of files successfully between Macs and IBM's. Jeff Harrington idealord@dorsai.dorsai.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 1993 16:12:31 CDT From: Joel Irwin Kramme Subject: Re: Exchanging Files between Macs and IBM's Jeff, thanks a bunch! When I finish my current project - copying and pasting m easures from a Finale document into a newly-created doc, editing and transformi ng it into EPS for musical example - I'll try what you have suggested and hope everything will work. I appreciate the info. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 May 1993 18:27:10 +0300 From: Jari Riitala Subject: Midifiles 2 Mac solved.. thanks Indeed, thanks to everyone who responded, either by personal mail or by the mailing list! Probably I didn't state my problem clearly enough since some people just told me how to open a midifile in Finale. The solution I was looking for was to make Finale recognize that my midifile is indeed a real midifile by doing the following: (as told by villa@sparrow.bio.unipr.it (Ferdinando Villa)): >Just change the filetype from ???? to Midi (as written) using an application >like FileTyper (from sumex-aim.stanford.edu). It is the first field - >creator does not matter. The file won't change icon but will be recognized >by all programs. (BTW, Ferdinando, I couldn't find FileTyper from sumex-aim, however.) Haven't yet tried this, got FileTyper only last Friday, but I'm sure it will work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Jari Riitala | Kuusiharjunkatu 34 | "My friends say she's | | | SF-20660 LITTOINEN | a dumb blonde | | riitala@hcc.utu.fi | FINLAND | but they don't know | | jriitala@utu.fi | home: +358 21 442 371 | she dyes her hair." | | JRIITALA@KONTU.UTU.FI | work: +358 21 696 289 | - Thomas Dolby | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 21:30:37 GMT From: Jari Riitala Subject: Re: Midifiles 2 Mac solved.. thanks Jari Riitala writes: >Haven't yet tried this, got FileTyper only last Friday, but I'm sure it will >work. Yessss!!!! IT WORKS! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Jari Riitala | Kuusiharjunkatu 34 | "My friends say she's | | | SF-20660 LITTOINEN | a dumb blonde | | riitala@hcc.utu.fi | FINLAND | but they don't know | | jriitala@utu.fi | home: +358 21 442 371 | she dyes her hair." | | JRIITALA@KONTU.UTU.FI | work: +358 21 696 289 | - Thomas Dolby | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 1993 18:06:08 GMT From: Jari Riitala Subject: Midifiles to Mac... HELP! Long time no see.. hello anyway. I have gained access to a Mac with Finale and I am trying - not very successfully yet - to make the program recognize a midifile that has been imported from the outside world (from an inferior platform, someone would obviously say...). A Mac sequencer-generated (Master tracks Pro) midifile if OK and so is a midifile that Finale puts out itself. But how can I tell the Mac that this file with a simple icon (data fork or whatever missing) is a valid midifile? I tried changing the filename so that it had an extension .Midi since I vaguely recalled having read something like that somewhere sometime (yeh, very vague..) but obviously had no success. Whaddaysay, Macmen? Rothwell? Others? Please gimme some pointers! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Jari Riitala | Kuusiharjunkatu 34 | "My friends say she's | | | SF-20660 LITTOINEN | a dumb blonde | | jriitala@utu.fi | FINLAND | but they don't know | | JRIITALA@KONTU.UTU.FI | home: +358 21 442 371 | she dyes her hair." | | riitala@hcc.utu.fi | work: +358 21 633 8772 | - Thomas Dolby | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 1993 07:33:26 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Midifiles to Mac... HELP! You need ResEdit, FileTyper, BunchTyper, or something. Change the file type to "Midi". Then you should be able to open it (assuming you've managed to transfer it in binary). Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************