touhou-midi-collection/README.md

# touhou-midi-collection
A collection of MIDIs of the TouHou OSTs and some related arrangements.

Project was originally hosted on [Gamebanana](https://gamebanana.com/projects/35179), but I ~~stole~~ reuploaded the MIDIs on here for easier access.

## Repo Contents
In the root directory, every MIDI files are separated into sections to make it easier for a song to search.

There will be multiple MIDIs for the same track. It may vary in the sounds used or notations.

### What does each Folder Contain?
If you are having trouble with finding the game for which you want to download the MIDI, here is a quick guide that will tell what each era means:
  1. **1 - Shooter Games** - Official TouHou series
  2. **2 - Spin-Offs** - Minor releases of TouHou that does not include the main plot
  3. **3 - Fighting Games** - TouHou Fighting games
  4. **4 - Music CDs** - ZUN over time, has released some music discs,these CDs have arrangements as well as exclusive music
  5. **5 - Other- Misc** - Others MIDIs that doesn\'t really fit in the other categories
  6. **6 - Arranges** - Famous Arrangements of TouHou songs
  7. **7 - Fan and Related Games** - Games made by fans, many of them, without the participation of ZUN, the related games ZUN could be involved in some way

## How to download?
If you want to download your desired MIDI file,
  - Navigate to the folder of the track you want to download
  - Click on any one of the MIDI files
  - And then click on view raw.

In case it goes to a page of text instead of downloading the file,
  - Go back to the previous page
  - Right click on the 'view raw' link (Hold on it if you are using a phone)
  - Click on 'Download link'/'Save As'

If you want to download the entire repo, (Note: use desktop site mode on mobile browser as it doesn't work on the mobile version of the page.)
  - Go to the main page of this repo (if you aren't already here)
  - Click on the green box with the text "Code"
  - Click on download zip

If you want to download the repo using command line interface, enter the following command and run:
```
$ git clone https://github.com/AyHa1810/touhou-midi-collection.git
```

## So, what is MIDI?
MIDI means "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" and its an electronic musical instrument industry specification that enables a wide variety of digital musical instruments, computers and other related devices to connect and communicate with one another. It is a set of standard commands that allows electronic musical instruments, performance controllers, computers and related devices to communicate. You can say its like an electronic score.

Very difficult to understand? Imagine this, the roll of paper that gets into a pianola, but electronic, now instead of piano you can use several different instruments, And all that added to a low spec and easily modifiable. That would be a summary of MIDI.

## How to use it?
You can play them with any MIDI player/music player that supports playing MIDI files. You should use appropriate SoundFont pack for them to sound correctly.

Or, you can edit them or use them in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that supports MIDI import (well every DAW supports MIDI Imports, I suppose).

If you want to go deeper into stuff like this and want the MIDIs to sound close to the original, you need to know the following info:
  - For MIDIs in TouHou 1 till 5, ZUN used Roland Edirol SC-88 Pro (1996). But since SC-88 Pro is out of production, you might consider using [Edirol Sound Canvas VA](https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_sound_canvas_va/) VST. It includes soundbanks from SC-55, SC-88, SC-8820 and SC-88 Pro. \
  If available, you can buy it second-handed from sites like Ebay and other sites that sells stuff like these. \
  You can also use SoundFonts for SC-88 Pro.
  - For MIDIs in TouHou 6 till latest ones, ZUN used [Ronald Edirol SD-90](https://www.roland.com/global/products/sd-90/) (2001) among with several VSTs. SD-90 also have been discontinued since then. There is no VST for it, so you may need to rely on alternatives like THfont (this one is not generally recommended). If available, you can buy this one second-handed too. \
  Though you may find similar sounds from it in other SoundCanvas VSTs, for example, the Romantic TP preset from SD-90 (also popularly known as ZUNpet) is available on Roland SRX World VST as GypsyTrumpet in bank PR-A.


## Contribute
If you have any MIDI(s) that are not in this repo, or if there are any mistakes in the repo, you can fork this repo, upload your MIDI file(s) or fix any mistakes and then pull request your forked repo. You can also send MIDIs in the Issues tab and I'll add them to the repo.

The MIDIs should have relevant file name, and they should be on their respective folders. You may credit the arranger in the filename.

Note that any black MIDIs or MIDIs that are unrelated to TouHou at all are NOT allowed.

## Issues
If you have any issues or questions related to this repo, you simply can oen a new issue in the "Issues" tab. \
You should search for the existing issue/question before opening any new one. Unrelated issues will be closed.

## Resources
Here's some of my personal pickups you can play, make or edit MIDIs with (but not limited to):

- DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation):
  - [FL Studio](https://www.image-line.com/) (Win, Mac)
  - [Reaper](https://www.reaper.fm/) (Win, Mac, Linux)
  - [Cubase](https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/) (Win, Mac)
  - [Ardour](https://ardour.org/) (Win, Mac, Linux) (Open Source)
  - [FL Studio Mobile](https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-mobile/) (Android, iOS, Win UWP)

- Sequencers
  - [MidiEditor](http://www.midieditor.org/) (Win, Linux) (Open Source)
  - [Rosegarden](http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/) (Linux) (Open Source)

- MIDI Players:
  - [TMIDI Player](https://blackmidi.fandom.com/wiki/Software:TMIDI_Player) (Win)
  - [Tom's MIDI Player](https://www.grandgent.com/tom/projects/tmidi/) (Win) (Note: both are knows as TMIDI but they are different)
  - [TiMidity++](http://timidity.sourceforge.net/) (Linux, Win)
  - [Droidsound-e](https://droidsound-e.web.app/) (Android)
  - [MIDI File Player](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.volcanomobile.midifileplayer) (Android) (Note: You can use [FluidSynth MIDI](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.volcanomobile.fluidsynthmidi) app in combination to play from SoundFonts)

- VSTs:
  - [Edirol Sound Canvas VA](https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_sound_canvas_va/) (includes soundbanks from SC-55, SC-88, SC-8820 and SC-88 Pro)
  - [Yamaha S-YXG50 Portable](https://archive.org/details/yamaha_syxg50_vsti) (A Yamaha XG compatible VSTi synth)
  - [Edirol Super Quartet](https://www.roland.com/global/products/hq_super_quartet/) (includes sounds like St. Concerto, Jazz Bass and Rock Bass that ZUN used. This VST is discountinued so you may need to search online for an activated copy :P)
  - [Steinberg LM-4 Mark II](https://www.kvraudio.com/product/lm_4_markii_by_steinberg) (includes Gator Kit and Loop kit that ZUN used for drums. Its discontinued so yeah)
  - [Steinberg Virtual Guitarist](https://www.kvraudio.com/product/virtual-guitarist-by-steinberg) (includes Heavy Chords used by ZUN, discontinued)
  - Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 2 (No official links unfortunately) (includes Ultra I used by ZUN, discontinued)
  - [HALion ONE](https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/) (not sure about the latest version but HALion ONE includes SR. Live Grand Piano that ZUN uses)
  - [Steinberg Groove Agent 3](https://www.kvraudio.com/product/groove-agent-3-by-steinberg) (includes Mini Works&Trance used by ZUN. This version is discontinued)

You can find more resources for Linux MIDI stuff [here](http://linux-sound.org/midi.html) (well Internet is flooded with software for windows so yeah)


## Links
Here are some related links you can visit:
  - https://gamebanana.com/projects/35179 (Original Project on Gamebanana)
  - https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18224247 (NicoNico video demonstrating various VSTs used by ZUN)
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDq5AAYPxW8 (YouTube video demonstrating a couple of Edirol SD-90 Sounds)
  - https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki (Official TouHou Wiki)
  - http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/top.html (Official former website of ZUN)

## Acknowledgement 
Thanks to The Tremolo Measure (admin of the [Gamebanana](https://gamebanana.com/projects/35179)) for maintaining the project, and all the contributors for contributing to the project.

If you want to know more about TouHou, you can visit the official [TouHou Wiki](https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki) maintained by TouHou community.