mid is short for midi, or musical instrument digital interface. It is a set of instructions to allow a computer to PLAY an instrument (real or digital). It does not actually contain sounds. So using something to convert it to an actual sound file will of course make it a lot bigger. I think I used to use Timidity to play those? Though often now the midi standard is just used for control interfaces. I have a midi keyboard that allows me to manipulate the BioTek synth module in Waveform (from Tracktion). Phil W On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 6:58 PM Joe Lowder via PLUG-discuss < plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: > Please help ... > > After searching the 'net for information about > which audio and video formats are best, and why, > I am more confused than ever. > > On my system, I came across some old audio files with > the file-name suffix .mid but I could not get those > files to play with vlc, smplayer, amarok, or audacity. > > So, I went to several online file conversion sites > trying to find one that would work best to do some > file conversions, and that confused the subject further. > > So, I'm hoping that the PLUG brain trust can provide > better information about this. > > The only file conversion site that I found that could > deal with the .mid files was: www.zamzar.com > > When I converted one of my files, music.mid to mp3, > the file played fine, but it increased the file size > from 6329 to 3163566, which seemed weird? Why so? > > ------6329 Apr 12 2003 music.mid > ---3163566 May 11 19:41 music.mp3 > ---3362836 May 12 00:28 music.ogg > --37962478 May 12 00:29 music.wav > > I also gried to convert the same file to .ogg and to .wav > with the size results seen above. This makes no sense. > > Why would such a small source file be blown up to such > huge sizes and all sound the same? > > Similar question about video files: > 46235648 Jul 18 2018 workshop2.VOB > 16811516 Jul 18 2018 workshop2.mkv > 51575152 May 12 00:14 workshop2.mp4 > > Which of these three is a preferable format? > The all seem to look identical (to me) when played. > Why would the conversion from the original VOB to > mkv become so much smaller a file size and why > would the conversion from VOB to mp4 increase the size? > > Hope so someone can help me make sense of this. > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss -- The Maricopa Community Colleges are now operating fully remotely. We hope you are safe and healthy during this time. My in person and hybrid classes are all meeting at the regular times via remote software. Lab and office hours as well. Please check Canvas for the details and links, or email me with further questions.